Chapter Four – Going Rogue (Part 2 of 3)
21 11 2009Page 254 (Posted previously in sneak peek)
A TV station in Alaska was willing to spend any amount to get a local reporter on the scene of the nomination to ask “simple, softball scripted questions,” but the campaign wouldn’t allow it. She was hoping the national media would pick up on the simple softball scripted interview so they could see how well she could answer softball scripted questions, but (shaking fist at sky) Headquarters screwed up again!
A “Free Sarah” campaign had started. (I remember that well… Would that they had succeeded. Would have made the opposition research job a lot easier! Or at the very least, somebody should have started a Free Todd campaign.)
The scheming, evil Nicolle Wallace wanted her to talk to Katie Couric, but she wanted to talk to FOX News because she thought they’d be friendlier. (Ya think?)
Page 256 (Posted previously)
Disembowelling Nicolle Wallace. She’s the one who insisted on Couric. And on top of that she spoke badly of George W. Bush. Didn’t like her job in the White House either. (Can you imagine? Talking smack about people you used to work with? How low class.) They wouldn’t let Palin give a “shout out” to George W. Bush for keeping us safe after he didn’t on 9/11. Wallace said Couric needed a career boost, and suffered from low self-esteem. “She wants people to like her. She wants you to like her.” Palin began to feel sorry for poor Katie Couric and decided to do the interview.
Page 257 (Posted previously)
She was on a “media blackout” and not allowed to talk to anyone so she had a friend in Anchorage give her phone numbers and she snuck phone calls against the wishes of the campaign to (drumroll please) Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and someone she thought was Larry Kudlow but turned out to be Neal Cavuto’s producer. (She’s not really good with figuring out who’s on the other end of the phone. Just ask Nicholas Sarkozy.) Had friends trying to call Bill O’Reilly and Mark Levin.
Wanted to talk to reporters in the back of the plane, but Headquarters said “No! Absolutely not! Block her if she tries to go back!” (Gee, what could they have been worried about?)
Some campaign person named Tracey was an endearing multitasking dingbat who couldn’t keep her purse and her laptop straight. She made a giant screw up but Sarah wasn’t mad at her even though everyone else was. (How is it that even the people she likes get thrown under the bus)
Page 258
Tracey tried to do good, but her hands were tied by “headquarters.”
Even though the campaign was instructed to ankle tackle her if she tried to open her yap to the press on the plane, she sent the kids back to talk to the press. I guess that was so the press would stay away from her kids. Piper handed out heart-shaped stickers to reporters that said, “Vote for Piper’s Mom.”
*****SHATNER MOMENT!**********
In New England and other parts of America, fall foliage burns in the colors of fire, but autumn in Alaska shimmers in white and gold. By mid-September the birch leaves have turned from bright green to rich yellows and golds, and the mountaintops are powdered with “termination dust,” the first snows that signal summers end. The alpenglow is pinker on the mountains late in the evening, casting the prettiest light.”
*****END OF SHATNER MOMENT*******
Page 259
She wanted to be at Track’s deployment ceremony in Fairbanks, but the campaign was worried that she’d screw it up. Tucker Eskew “stuck to her like gum on a shoe,” and was always there right after she spoke out loud to tell her how she screwed up.
The campaign finally relented and let her go.
Page 260
She sat under an awning, but she longed for the sunshine. As usual, she heard a military band and choked up. A repeat of her saying “They sure do look alike!” and someone else saying “That’s the point!”
Track did not want attention and did not want to be singled out, and told her that whatever she did, she was not to yell “Hoo-ahh,” because he didn’t want to be embarrassed because she’d mispronounce it. (How do you mispronounce hoo-ahh? Perhaps she had only seen it in print and had never heard anyone actually sayt it.)
Page 261
“Headquarters” wanted to see her speech first so they could make sure she wouldn’t screw up. “Throughout the campaign the “Schmidt-Wallace tag team would continually invoke the all-powerful “headquarters,” a mysterious, faraway entity whose exacte identity and location were never fully explained.” (Hmm. The Scmidt-Wallace tag team didn’t want to have to argue with her about every stupid thing perhaps? And imagine, talking about the will of a mysterious all-knowing higher power to get your way so you don’t have to explain yourself…. Sarah Palin would never do that.)
Page 262
A town hall meeting was held in which John McCain really connected with the common people. So did she. They both loved town hall meetings but “they” kept wanting larger campaign events….sigh. When will they learn to listen to her? Michigan is a state filled with hard-working, patriotic Americans.
Page 263
Steve “the evil” Schmidt looked grim. There was bad news. Had one of those creepy reporters near her house “crossed the line between reporting and invading privacy?”
Her Yahoo email account had been hacked. Her personal email was showing up on the internet. The hacker was posting photos of her family, but not apparently all the state business she’d been conducting on that personal account. It was a “fine-how-do-you-do” to the “blood sport of presidential politics.”
She panicked! Think of all those other things she said that could now be made public! Like, talking about Bristol’s pregnancy, or discussing the challenges of their special needs child, or that prayer she wrote before Track deployed, or how she told Willow that she wasn’t allowed to get a ride home from a high school boy! Think of all those private messages perfectly confirming all of her family values talking points! (Excuse me while I go brush my teeth.)
Page 264
What kind of creep would do this? Why the son of a DemocRAT state legislator in Tennessee. The McCain campaign was sure that whatever was in her emails would destroy the campaign. (Gee, wonder why?) She could no longer communicate with any of her children or her staff because of the incident. It was the most disruptive incident of the campaign.
Page 265
They went to The Villages, a retirement community in Florida. They didn’t use cars, but “toodled around” in golf carts that were “jacked up” to fit the owner’s personality.
Page 266
There were miles of people toodling in jacked up golf carts. The golf carts were triple parked. There were billions of golf carts. The carts were parked bumper to bumper. People were flagging in the toodlers to makeshift parking areas. (I’m asking myself how many Main St. everyday, hard-working Americans who know what it’s like to struggle have personalized golf carts?)
Page 267
Piper wanted to address the crowd of 50,000 people. She said thanks for letting them be there. Sarah’s “face was sliding off” because it was humid. She worked the rope line for an hour and a half. “They” thought it was too long, but she wanted to connect with the “every day Americans” who turned out. One kid skipped school and she pretended to scold him but then gave him a thumbs up.
Page 268
She “signed everything in sight.” The secret service was freaked out, but despite her paralyzing fear about the emails and the reporters camped out near her house and what they might do, she wasn’t worried about an assassination attempt on li’l old “Sarah Palin from Wasilla.”
When they left, they were followed by hundreds of golf carts meeping their horns, and people waving lipstick tubes.
She found out later that the campaign thought she was being uncooperative by spending too much time with the people. She had hoped they would understand that the voters were important but they just wanted to hustle her along to the next campaign stop because they didn’t care about the people. But, the people loved her. They followed her into Walmart and had a spontaneous rally. Love, love, love.
Page 269 (previously posted)
They chose “Country First” as a slogan to counteract the “Blame America First” attitude of Obama/Biden. Especially after Michelle Obama’s comment that she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult lifetime, which Palin thought was an “incomprehensible statement.”
The economy tanked and McCain suspended his campaign to fix it. She had no idea what was going on and heard about it on the news. Nobody ever told her anything.
Page 270 (previously posted)
The presidential debate went on as planned. McCain did great, but the media gave it to Obama, trying to convince everyone that McCain was irritable and condescending. “Granted, 90% of the newspeople covering the event were liberal.”
When the economy tanked so did their poll numbers. It happened at the same time as her “seemingly endless serial chat with the lowest-rated news anchor in network television CBS’s Katie Couric.” (Oh, the Junior High, I remember it well…) Charlie Gibson came north but wasn’t that interested in her day to day life as the governor of Alaska.
Page 271 (previously posted)
She and Charlie came upon a group of moose hunters who wanted a picture. Charlie thought they wanted one of him, but they wanted him to take one of them and her. They went to Wasilla High School and people wanted a picture. Charlie thought they wanted one of him, but they wanted him to take one of them and her. The people just love her, and have no time for the media elite. Did they even know who he was? He was grumpy during the interview later.
Katie Couric – “where does she begin?” She choked on some responses. She was harried. She allowed herself to show irritation and annoyance with “repetetive biased questions.” Thought it would be an easy interview about motherhood. It’s unfortunate it was mocked. She thought it would be the only one.
Page 272 (previously posted)
First interview. She was anxious to have it over. She let her annoyance show. Nicolle Wallace said the interview was great. She knew it wasn’t. But Wallace scheduled another one even though she must have known it made her look bad. Why would she schedule another one when the first one went so badly? (dramatic moment) As Palin walks away, she turns to see Wallace and Kouric HUGGING and posing for pictures.
CBS took hours of footage on the campaign trail and only used the bad stuff, and left all her brilliance on the cutting room floor.
Page 273 (previously posted)
They cut out the part where she said she was all about alternative energy AND drill baby drill. They cut out the part where she said that “anti-development radicals” Photoshopped pictures of ANWR to look like it was a lush rainforest with “Bambi prancing to and fro”, when really it’s just a lot of flat ugly empty space. It’s yucky and if we knew how yucky it was, we’d just want to drill the hell out of it.
Page 274 (previously posted)
More about barren desolate permanently frozen ANWR. Couric edited out all the good stuff, but left in all the bad stuff. The whole “you can see Russia” moment was simply an attempt at putting the question in a “geographical context.” She was cut off before she could really answer the question. She wishes she had done that. Oh, there are so many things she wishes she would have said to prove how competent she was. But Katie interrupted her before she could talk about it all. And she talked to Canada on a weekly basis. Also.
Page 275 (previously posted)
The melting polar sea ice has opened up fabulous new trade routes, but alas it has also increased security threats. (No mention though of global warming or polar bears or melting permafrost) Restates that yes, you can see Russia from Alaska. Just in case anyone was still unclear about that.
Couric wasn’t interested in talking about Alaska’s economy or Alaska’s wildlife management issues, can you believe it? She had her own agenda. When she talked about them anyway, it was cut. Putin in our air space was only a metaphor. She just wanted the gotcha moments. That was her goal. And it worked.
Page 276 (posted previously)
She finished shaking hands on the rope line. She was pumped and sweaty and wanted a Diet Dr. Pepper, (is she getting free Diet Dr. Pepper for product placement or something?) but there she was again with a microphone. When Couric asked what she reads, she tried not to react to the “condescension” but was unsucessful. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to – or as some have ludicrously suggested, couldn’t answer her question; it was that her condescension irritated me.” (Yeah, she could’ve answered if she WANTed to. But she didn’t WANT to. So there.)
Page 277 (previously posted)
(yes, there’s more…)
Had Katie Couric even read her op-ed in the New York Times about the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act?? The next interview was on the campaign bus, and asked about “praying the gay away.” She wouldn’t let her answer and badgered and badgered about abortion. She asked the proverbial “if a 15-year old is raped by her father” question. Palin said she is unapologetically pro-life and that she would counsel her or anyone of any age or any health or any circumstance to choose life.
Page 278 (and more…)
More badgering. Would she really counsel an incest victim to have the baby? Yes, she would counsel such a girl to choose life. Couric left out the part where we should “support these women.” The real extremism came from those who support partial birth abortions and “those, like Barack Obama who opposed laws that would protect babies born alive after botched abortions.” If you have no idea what the hell she’s talking about, click HERE.
More badgering. More badgering. Badger badger. Couric was nice to Joe Biden, but not nice to her. Joe Biden mistakenly attributed something to FDR and never got called on it.
Page 279 (previously posted)
The worst part wasn’t the badgering and badgering…it was the wasted time. There were so many more important things she could be doing (I know how she feels) .”
She later heard a quote from Katie Couric that told her “everything [she] needed to know.” She said that the whole flag pin/USA/shock and awe stuff was “just too jubilant and a little uncomfortable.”
“Unbelievable.” says the real American.
In Philadelphia there were people with a sign that said “Sarah Palin is a c—”
Page 280 (previously posted)
Prep session with curtains drawn. The campaign was on the ropes. People were stressed out. She wanted fresh air. They wanted to sit in a dark room and yell. She wanted to go running in the sunshine but they wouldn’t let her. When they did schedule time for her to run, she’d be on the bus.
Page 281 (previously posted)
Outrage that Gwen Ifill was the debate moderator. The campaign was freaked out. But she wasn’t worried. She was confident. There were stacks of index cards with questions on one side and non-answers on the other side. Why wouldn’t they just let her say whatever came into her head?
Page 282
The campaign didn’t want her to answer questions. She wanted to, but they wouldn’t let her. They wanted to change her. (Into what they actually thought she was in the first place because they didn’t vet her.) They caused her to question her “style.”
Page 283 (previously posted)
She liked her simple style where she just told the truth and didn’t have to struggle to remember how she had answered things. They wouldn’t let her be that way. They yelled at her all the time, and told her she was wrong. She wanted fresh air, not a dark room. But they kept her inside in the dark with the yelling. If she could only run in the sunshine, they would have won. Metaphor about the penalty box. Bla bla bla.
Page 284
Nutrition intervention! Steve Schmidt said he was flying in a nutritionist because of her over consumption of Atkins diet bars that were “all over the place.” She didn’t know where they came from and tried to tell Schmidt that she wasn’t on the Atkins diet, but he wouldn’t believe her.
Page 285
He lectured her anyway on the hazards of a high protein diet. She notes that he is fat and he smokes. She didn’t need a nutritionist. (Apparently diet bars and soda work just fine) She needed to go outside and be in the sun with the wind in her hair. He didn’t listen and there was no nutritionist.
But “there was a bright spot in Philly and his name was Joe Lieberman.” (I pull my head out of the bucket and ask “Can we PLEASE just call him a Republican now??”)
Page 286
Joe “the wonderful” Lieberman just told her to be herself, and to not let anyone tell her what to say. She’d get through it if she put her faith in God.
Cindy McCain suggested relocating to the ranch. John’s favorite exercise is wading in the creek. She wanted the podiums to be outdoors.
It was interesting to meet Bill Clinton.
Page 287
The press was unfair to Hillary Clinton and Obama got a “free pass.”
Back in February of 2008 she was caught on tape telling Hillary Clinton to stop whining. She didn’t really tell her to stop whining. But she shouldn’t have told her to stop whining until she had “walked a mile in her shoes.” Now, she understands that Hillary had every right to whine. She was right and “Democrats deserved to see a fairer picture of what they were getting into” before they voted for Barack Obama.
“If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.” (Wondering what people would be saying if Michelle Obama had said that. Cries of sexism?)
Page 288
Joe Biden had lots of experience, but he voted against the Alaska pipeline. Quotes Ann Coulter who said, “Our enemies have us in a vise grip. Sorry caribou, you’re going to have to take one for the team.” Biden is not a driller.
Page 289
The idea to call Joe Biden “Joe” was so she wouldn’t slip up and call him O’Biden by mistake. (McPalin. I do it all the time.) She was all flustered and thought she couldn’t possibly just call him “Joe” but Randy Scheunemann said that if she asked him first he’d have to say yes. They had no idea that the mic would be hot and that people would actually hear her asking him if she could call him Joe. (Hot mics? Nah…never happens.)
(This is the best!) And I quote, “The ‘expert’ post-debate analysis was that my question was a cleverly disguised strategy to disarm my opponent. Yeah, right.” (She spent an entire page to try to convince us that “Say it ain’t so, Joe was NOT a pre-planned sound bite! Wow.)
Page 290
In the practice debate Randy Scheunemann played Biden so convincingly that she wanted to reach over and clobber him. (Imagining if Joe Biden said that about her…)
She had been continually asking to run and nobody would let her so she decided to just do it. She “couldn’t wait to slip into her ASICS.” (Product placement alert!) She ran and the secret service came along. She ran past exotic plants like “cactus” and exotic animals like “lizards.” She wiped out.
Page 291
Secret Service helped her up. She had road rash on her thigh. Her hands and knees were “a bloody mess.” She swore the Secret Service to secrecy about this embarrassing incident that she never ever wanted anyone to know. (Yes, there were news reports about it after everyone saw her with a giant bandaid on her hand. And if she was so embarrassed and wanted it to remain secret forever, why is she writing it in a book?)
She needed stitches but didn’t “go to a doctor” because it would be national news. (No doctor available to make a house call for a VP candidate?) “Headquarters” would yell at her if she got proper medical care. She tried to lie to Piper and said that she tackled a rattle snake. Piper didn’t believe her and gave her a Hannah Montana bandaid.
Page 292
She is reflective. Why, that fall she took is just like a lesson she once learned… If you stumble in life, you just get back up again.
Track called just at the right time when she had a few minutes to talk. It was a miracle. He asked her if she had been studying for the debate, and told her he would pray for her. She said, “I love you so much, son.” Peace settled on her heart and she knew that even if she lost the debate, her boy was safe and life was good.
(We are played out with swelling orchestra music, and I…once again… head for the wine.)
November 21st, 2009 at 10:40 PM
AKM — getting concerned for your health… too much wine and you won’t be much good to us…
Thanks for all you do!
November 21st, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Soooo, there are crazy people in Israel too. Who’d have thunk it? It knows no bounds.
I must admit, not being very bible literate, when I first read the comment that SP made my first response was: huh? Is she planning on driving all the Jews out of America? Or perhaps they will all run screaming when they try to read her book.
Israel and Palestine is a subject that is soooooo far beyond SP’s comprehension that I just let it go. Then I read from many here that it had to do with “the rapture”. My previous exposure to that particular subject had been one woman who told me that she was arrested in Wyoming for standing naked, on a streetcorner, in the rain, with her arms upraised, waiting for the rapture. After I finished laughing I had to ask her “what’s the rapture?” This woman is now into New Age spiritualism (which is fine with me). Whatever.
Now my rant for the day. I saw a clip of the OR interview and read the transcript on Andrew Sullivan. I must say, as an Ivy League graduate, I am sick and tired of being s**t on by these people. It doesn’t make me any better or any smarter than anyone else. It doesn’t make me a snob. My parents worked their tails off to give me the opportunity. My father didn’t go to college. Many of my fellow students didn’t have elite backgrounds. We all just had a desire for a really good education. One where critical thinking is put at a premium. I don’t live in a big house, wear fancy clothes or make a lot of money. I work hard and so does my husband. we devote much of our spare time to trying to help other people who need it. SP’s plot of land is worth more than our house and my small business and our vehicles all put together. We don’t see a day when we can retire. So who’s the elitist? Who is the snob? Who is the idiot that spouts this crap? Just because you believe in having a bunch of kids and you live in Wasilla Alassssska and you have managed to hoodwink god knows how many poor slobs, who have now been thrown under the bus of blame, into supporting your aborted efforts at power and fame it does NOT give you, SP, the right to s**t on my education or my ability to think.
I’m getting worked up now. I have to get a drink and go back to my Failin Palin magnetic word salad plans. Sorry.
November 21st, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Can’t stand hearing over-and-over about her stupid tour on the news. They keep repeating the same old crap about how she’s capturing Real America. Blah.
But I’m scared $hi++less at what’s going on.
“Will Palin’s book tour jump-start a political movement?” – MiamiHerald.com”
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1345803.html
“Palin appears to have tapped into a powerful strain of populism fueled by dissatisfaction with the economy and by fear that the Democratic Party that’s running the country is made up of elites who aren’t listening, said Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics at Drake University in Iowa.
“A populist is against big, period,” Goldford said. “The populist basically says, ‘Look, big labor, big business, big government, they’re all trying to screw me, the little guy.’ That populism that she’s tapped into, it’s partly a politics of resentment. She’s very much somebody who bristles with all sorts of resentments.”
(Erika Bolstad also wrote a separate, somewhat pro-Palin piece today for the Miami Herald about the book-signing tour ..)
————-
I just think — if those old folks in Miami (or Iowa) buy this sh|+, we could be in for a long, long couple of years …..
We have to TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK !!!
How can you ignore someone like her who just won’t go away and basks in the limelight of adoring fans?
OF COURSE SHE GOING TO START A THIRD PARTY. And if things don’t change, she’s going to keep on ticking!
We’ve gotta speed up OUR OWN TICKING!!!!!!
============================
@45 arusha:
Does Palin even KNOW what she is saying when she speaks about Israel? She scares me. How long would it be, under her administration, before we’d be in a nuclear (’cuse me, nukular!) war?
November 21st, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Couldn’ta said it better, lovemydogs!!!!
November 21st, 2009 at 11:00 PM
(((Yukon Bush Grandma))))
You’re back!!!
I missed you. How are things going in Eagle? Are you staying warm? I e-mailed you and no response. Thought maybe you were mad at me.
Sorry everybody-off topic. I just missed YBG.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:06 PM
{{{lovemydogs!!!}}}
MAD??????? at YOU?????????? are you KIDDING????????
Our whole computer/phone/electric/email thing has been so messed up …. finally I think we might be getting back to normal. Although my BEST computer has just been sent in to Fairbanks for repair.
Still have my email address? Write!
November 21st, 2009 at 11:08 PM
YBG-you betcha. Sending now.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:20 PM
Let’s keep things in perspective because entertainment news won’t. They and the talking heads are the last to get anything correct.
Obama did two stomp speeches, in a few hours, for the unpopular ex-Governor Corzine of NJ. 14,000 showed up for those two speeches.
With Sarah’s book tour, over two weeks, she will sign about 20,000 books. From what I’ve seen of those waiting line, likely only about a half are registered to vote.
The publisher after cost, likely makes nothing.
The book itself, reveals how unqualified $arah is for any public office.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Yes, Sarah is trying to bring on the rapture with the return of the Jews thing. It certainly isn’t supportive of Israel, so this writer has no clue about Sarah or her outlandish “christian” beliefs.
It’s also pretty much what Hitler said. “Just give me Sudetenland. Lots of Germans there, we need room to expand.” Yeah, right. In other words, Facist.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:30 PM
Wolf Pack: And I wonder how many of those people are trying to sell those signed books on e-bay? That’s just bizarre.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:42 PM
I will never forgive Barbara Walters for NOT following up on that ridiculous statement that Israel should be allowed to expand the settlements because more and more Jews will be going there every day, every week and every month!
………….. oh ……….. and another thing, I can’t for the life of me, figure out what the ‘lipstick’ tubes thing could be?? Like, lipstick tubes? Really? Of is that a metaphor for ‘Signal Emitters to the Mother Ship’ ??? It’s just too Palinesque for me.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Who won’t vote for Sarah:
1) African-Americans
Wall Street, Bankers, and Big Business (not going to risk everything on an idiot).
2) Majority of woman (don’t want to lose their hard fought for rights)
3) Muslims (don’t want to be profiled)
4) Minorities (don’t ant to risk getting profiled)
5) Gays
6) The educated (labeled as elitist”
7) The majority who live in un-America
Some will say, what about Bush? Bush/Cheney are not idiots, they just had an agenda, that was tailored for special interests, such as energy and military sector. They also had all the political,and business connections and unlimited funds from father Bush and Reagan.
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 AM
@#62 Wolf Pack:
“…agenda, that was tailored for special interests, such as energy and military sector. They also had all the political,and business connections and unlimited funds”
————-
Well, umm ….. $P has an agenda, that’s for sure, certainly tailored to special interests. We know of the Fred Malek support, and Murdoch, and she’s certainly going after more. Plus, who KNOWS how much she’s amassed so far? I’ll bet it’s much more than any of us would ever guess.
She still scares the bejeebus out of me.
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:43 AM
you can’t spell “complain” without p-a-l-i-n
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:55 AM
Palin has such a simple mind that all she does is throw out ridiculous statements like “more & more Jews will be moving to the settlements” as if she is making a valid point about anything. When she doesn’t have an easy bumper sticker slogan to throw down she relies on meaningless filler statements. I did not see the BW interview but I am astounded that Palin was not called out to explain herself.
What really bothers me however is the following email I received from Obama’s Organizing for America because I really did not want the Obama administration to acknowledge Palin. But it seems that she is being credited with the ability to single handedly stir up the masses against health care reform. Of course this is an effective fund raising approach but it also proves that they consider her to be a real threat.
November 21, 2009 6:18am
Mitch Stewart, BarackObama.com [info@barackobama.com]
Mary –
Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn.
It’s dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term “Death Panels” — and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists.
Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform.
As we approach the final sprint on health reform, we can’t afford more deception and delay. We need to be ready for anything — and have the resources to respond with ads, events, and calls to Congress when the attacks come.
So we’re setting a big goal: $500,000 in the next week to help push back against Sarah Palin and her allies.
Earlier this month, Palin publicly said that she hopes health reform will be “dead on arrival.” And since then, she’s been working fiercely toward that goal.
On Tuesday, Palin went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show where she outrageously — and falsely — suggested that Americans could “face jail time as punishment” if they don’t buy insurance.
Palin has many more interviews scheduled on Hannity and other conservative shows in the next few weeks, with more platforms to go after the President. As soon as she does, the rest of our opponents will likely parrot those attacks.
Thanks,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:29 AM
The Pit Bull in the China Shop
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/opinion/22rich.html?_r=1
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:22 AM
BIG WAVE TO yukonbushgrma!!!
I can’t believe the news article from the Rochester paper. I bet those reporters felt silly when they saw footage of the booing that went on outside the bus!
We owe you one, AKM – a big one! (Maybe even two or more!)
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:03 AM
Hate to show my ignorance, but really didn’t know what “scree” was. Here is what Wikipedia says:
“Scree, also called talus, is a term given to an accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders. Landforms associated with these materials are sometimes called scree slopes or talus piles. These deposits typically have a concave upwards form, while the maximum inclination of such deposits corresponds to the angle of repose of the mean debris size.
The term scree comes from the Old Norse term for landslide, skriða”
Wow – Sarah, supposedly an experienced runner, took off down broken rocks? It must have been fun for those Secret Service guys – no wonder they kept her secret!
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:08 AM
scree, talus, what the hey, at least she didn’t blame it on the “exotic” cactus. She probably picked up “scree” about the same place she picked up “gutteral instincts”.
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 AM
@52 love my dogs
Woo Hoo! Good on you – well said and well said again. That is the most EXCELLENT rebuttal I have ever read against the constant put-down of being and “Ivy League” intellectual.
I think your response should be given word for word every time someone brings up their elitisn bullcr*p! I think it should go viral.
AND, (while I’m on a roll here) it should be clearly iterated and reiterated that when dictators and fascists come into power the FIRST thing they do is get rid of the intellectuals because it is so much easier to control people who don’t think. History has shown us first hand how people “just like us” have treated their societies, to wit: Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Lon Nol, Pol Pot, Castro, Hitler just to name a few. These are the kinds of governments that $arah Palin’$ sheeple wish to embrace. Gods help us.
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 AM
Sorry – elitist
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 AM
As far as her big populist movement…..really? Hate to tell these folks that 1,500 pp is not that many for a “celebrity” book signing.
Regarding Palin’s news coverage, remember–more people die every year from lung cancer than car accidents, but what do you hear about on the news? Accidents.
You would think that the opposite were true if you went by the news coverage. Blood, guts, and “trainwrecks” (hint,hint) sell. You don’t see news crews with camera rolling every time someone dies in the hospital, but we sure hear about it when someone dies in an accident.
just saying.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:10 AM
So, instead of Palin working harder and staying longer to finish signing all the books, their solution is to cut the number of book signings in half?
Most authors stay until the job is done and all the books are signed.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 AM
Trisha: “Stay until the job is done”??? What’s that word when 2 concepts are mutually exclusive……palin……and………”stay until the job is done”. Didn’t she also quit the oil and gas gig? Anyway it was fun to see her fans shout “quitter”
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:42 AM
10 the problem child Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 5:29 PM
I’m trying really hard to keep up, but have not be commenting for a few days. I think I have H1N1. Or maybe just the flu, but I do have a fever & sweats. Thank you for all your work, AKM and pups.
_________________________
hope you feel better soon !!
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 AM
Hey, tigerwine, “Wow – Sarah, supposedly an experienced runner, took off down broken rocks? It must have been fun for those Secret Service guys – no wonder they kept her secret!”
They take an oath to protect America- maybe one of them pushed her!
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 AM
BTW where is the Todd while Her Paliness is loose?
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:02 AM
Check out this gem of an article. Paints buttercup beautifully
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/sarah-palin-cannot-be-serious/story-e6frfhqf-1225801811495
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:12 AM
Try this on for comparison and I’ll be woefully dating myself but bear with me.
There was an episode of The Partridge Family (yeah, I know…sigh) where an executive of a record company wanted his daughter to become a famous singer. I can’t recall the exact details but the girl was very pretty, blonde hair, blue eyes, slim and trim. In other words, what amounts to All American beauty for a lot of people.
In this episode, when she first performs for the Partridges, all of them can see , or hear as the case may be, she doesn’t possess the talent needed to launch a singing career except for one of them. Can you guess who it was, for those of you who remember the show. Yep, yep, Keith aka David Cassidy.
The family finally resorted to taping the girl’s voice and letting Keith hear it and *that is when the lightbulb went off for Keith Partridge.
The ending of the show has the girl performing in front of an all male military audience who cared less what she *sounded like.
So, see, all of SP’s followers are Keith Partridge, too bad we can’t write a script for them.
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:53 AM
Well, I have been over to Ebay to look at how the Palincrap is selling, and if that is any kind of indication of the popularity of Palin, you all can stop drinking the hard stuff.
Most of the stuff has no bids at all, and there are many more books than people interested in bidding.
And how stupid are people buying Palin’s book on Ebay? In a few cases they’re willing to pay a couple dollars more than the $100 offer in the “official” Palin ad at the bottom of the results page.
No one at Palin HQ has a single clue about anything. By signing two books per person, she is ensuring that they will have at least one to try to sell, thereby undercutting her own fundraising effort. Hahahahahaha.
What a bunch of dopes.
Unfortunately, the dopes, urged on by Palin, Rush and Beck, will not be satisfied until there is blood running in the streets. We should indeed all be very afraid.
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:09 AM
Johnny@73 “What’s that word when 2 concepts are mutually exclusive…”
Oxymoron
Fitting, eh?
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Let’s see… her knees and hands were a ‘bloody mess’, she needed stitches and all she used was a bandaid? Her supporters are like her, airheads if they can’t see the physical evidence showing the truth.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 AM
And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”
And this is yet another example of this woman’s stupidity and unfittness to hold Executive office.
The Obama administration isn’t “telling Israel” anything, the administration is brokering a negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians, and if the end result is that Jewish settlements can’t expand, it would be because Israel AGREED to it, and the international community identified this as a desirable outcome. This is how diplomacy works.
And to say the Administration doesn’t have “any right” to broker a negotiation is ludicrous.
If she sees diplomatic maneuvers to broker an agreement between two opponents as telling a country what they can do, AND if she sees it as something the US president has NO RIGHT to do, then she isn’t fit to be president.
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:47 AM
$P still doesn’t get in it!! In the bigger scheme of being qualified as “Leader of the Free World”, no one really cares about the parochial issues she had such extensive “executive” experience about in Wasilla and AK (apologies to Alaskans). If her entire scope of experience and discussions with Charlie and Katie (as on O’Reilly and Hannity) were on parochial political issues, no wonder they were left on the cutting room floor.
She was now in a bigger arena, and she didn’t know squat!!! No ideas on economic matters… her stumbling answer about the bailout said it had to deal with health reform and job creation under the umbrella of a non-scary trade! The POTUS deals with national and international issues, not building permits in Wasilla, and roads in Juneau. She never did get it! She still doesn’t get it!! How can any “educated” – not meaning only college-education, her, but keeping oneself informed – person in 2009 still confuse Iran and Iraq??
Who cares if she decided to have a Downs’ Syndrome baby, after deciding against an abortion? How does that affect the world price of commodities and affect world trade? International relations??
She is just plain, downright stupid, and quite happy to wallow in her low-level world and stupidity!
Sorry… I have had enough.
Thanks AKM for “wading through the mire” of this super-idiot’s “book”!
I don’t know how you do it!! You have intestinal fortitude.
Sarah also gives Christians a bad name!! CS Elliot (one of her alleged favorite writers) said the problem with christianity is that so few actually understand and follow the teachings of Jesus. Sarah follows her pharisee-like view,.. and from the Biblical text we know those were the persons with whom Jesus had His biggest issues… not the l”liberal sinners”
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:51 AM
Someone on HuffPost wrote this gem:
You can’t spell “complain” without P __ A __ L __ I __ N.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:32 AM
My dear, I can not thank you enough for reading this book through for me. Apparently only you, Frank Rich and some copy editor has been able to do so. This book must be the Aunty Susie’s holiday fruitcake of books. Purchased and then given away or stacked up to use as a door stop.
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:46 PM
It is important to people like Sarah Palin that the world remains hostile, confusing and dangerous enough that she’s proud to put her son in the line. That’s how she measures her contribution to this exceptional, flawless, perfect, god-fearing country?
Only privileged, lame, pathetic, egg-head Americans (in-name-only) seek knowlege, strive for peace and understanding. And I’m not saying this in a beatnik way – I’m saying it in a way an instructor taught me, as he lectured on his titanium leg, since he left his other in Vietnam.
We need gutteral, winkless leadership. Sarah Palin’s commonsense, fresh, Reaganesque bumper sticker conservatism – when you have absolute power under the executive and cut all Agencies away, we have only ourselves to rely on – good folks who use a homemade flamethrower to teach a 5 year old a lesson, where a pharma exec can troll social networks for fathers sympathetic to a child molestation exchange with their children, when the mist hard working multiple job juggling Americans go without health insurance – then you’ve achieved her ideal government.
How messed up is all this?
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 PM
AKM – great writing … I don’t know if you need a sympathy card or a get-well card. Maybe you need LOTS of alcohol, bottles and bottles, or a two by four to smack yourself in the forehead a few times, probably hurts less than reading her book.
Take care, may the Force, any Force dark, white, blue, black be with you – you need all the support you can get!
Cheers