Ambinder has some campaign emails that make it pretty clear that Palin was a complete and total PITA the entire campaign. Anything the woman is involved in leads to pure chaos.
And about her assertion in the book that she wanted to do more interviews but the McCain team wouldn’t let her, well, there is this email:
Nothing a little shopping at Saks couldn’t overcome, I’m sure.
Heckuva job, John McCain.
J. Michael Neal
There’s only one ‘d’ in barracuda. Otherwise, spot on.
Martin
I think only two ‘d’s in divacuda.
Elizabelle
I cannot wait to see a trove of those emails.
Eric U.
she is so lucky they haven’t really told everything they know …. yet.
semi-OT, but I’m not sure I can take much more of the crazy coming from the republican side, and being amplified by their enablers in the media. It works, because the weak minded among the dems have to be pushed around to keep them from folding, but it’s really disturbing on a fundamental level.
debit
I wonder who informed them. Did she send one of the kids, or was it Todd?
Laura W
This is not my fault.
It’s yours.
inkadu
I love how the last line, “I don’t know what else to tell you,” expresses deep exasperation.
Jay B.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
The McCain people are getting every little thing they deserve. I hope she was a total and complete diva — she’s fucking Buzz Wintrip without the Svengali who’ll bring the devious smarts. She’s a small town, small timer with enough savvy and cynicism to turn the right heads — and now she’s cashing out.
El Cid
@inkadu: I read that several times, and its pure dejected bleakness gave me joy at their suffering.
Quaker in a Basement
Then we were informed that she no longer wanted to be governor. Too conventional.
And we were informed that she no longer wants to be held responsible for recognizing reality on this particular plane of existence. Just too restrictive.
Andre
Fixed that for you.
El Cid
@Andre: ?
asiangrrlMN
@inkadu: Like the person cleaned it up from, “I don’t know what the fuck to tell you because the goddamn queen of Alaska has her head so far up her ass, she can’t see Russia any longer.”
inkadu
@El Cid: I like how the McCain campaign is playing this… speaking out against her, but only giving us teaser e-mails, short denials… little snippets to keep the game going.
They’re much more effective against Palin than they ever were against Obama. For the first time Republican nastiness has a deserving target.
dmsilev
I think “picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate” should be carved onto Johnny Mac’s tombstone. That single choice proved to be a perfect encapsulation of everything about McCain that made him the wrong person to be President.
-dms
Dan
@Andre:
Poor taste.
Lavocat
That last line is destined to be a classic, repeated ad nauseum. I like!
dmsilev
@Elizabelle:
This looks like the political equivalent of a brushback pitch; a message from what’s left of the GOP establishment that things could get very very ugly if the need arises.
-dms
inkadu
@asiangrrlMN: I also love all the “We were informed,”s as in “by her royal Highness” … “of her displeasure” that Burr “was allowed.” OMG. It’s just so damn rich.
bdc
Thank you “very serious John McCain” for both this woman AND Joe the Plumber. Making such a contribution to the American political landscape must make you very proud.
SpotWeld
*facepalm*
She’s the female W.
She really expected the world to conform to her “destiny”…
I can only assume that she takes Obama’s presidency as proof of this somehow.
beltane
George W. Bush was a monument to gravitas compared to Palin. It is impossible to overstate McCain’s irresponsibility in pushing this idiot so close to the Oval Office.
Andre
@Dan:
Then my work here is done.
Elizabelle
That is an awesome email. The frustration is palpable.
Reading the Ambinder link: another email referred to “cluster” and let the reader fill in the following syllable.
John McCain epitaph: We ALL dodged a bullet.
(And LOL at Quaker’s comment # 10.)
gizmo
I continue to marvel at the fact that our corporate media remains fixated on Palin in spite of her continued incompetence and irrelevance. Maybe our journalists have concluded that by keeping our political discourse down to the level of ‘People’ magazine, they won’t have to do get their hands dirty with the hard work of real reporting.
inkadu
@SpotWeld: I’ve got to agree with all the people defending W here. W may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he worked hard at politics and knew how to get along with his team. Sarah is no W.
freelancer
Wow. She’s done. Like Maddow said, she’s taken 3 big gambles in the past year and she’s failed on every single score. The book isn’t advancing anything even vaguely reminiscent of policy or how freedom-y America’d be if we gave her a chance, it seems to be revisionist history with her and her facebook page vs. the Republican Political Machine of 2008. There’s no way she wins, and yeah they look like shit too, but she still loses.
What. The. Fuck.
Pick a feud with a 19-year old kid while you’re at it. Take the high road.
Eric U.
I know there is no reason to be fair to Palin, but Burr may have been an ass during the ride. God knows they wet themselves over her, I imagine some of the self-important jerks on the republican side can be intolerable for her to be locked up in a small space with.
inkadu
@gizmo: Are you kidding me? If the media is not talking about Sarah, they’ll be talking about the backlash against Obama for ceremonially tossing the Emperor’s salad. Let’s take what we can get.
Dreggas
I know it’s O/T but for UFC fans: Lesnar may never fight again
kommrade reproductive vigor
Here’s hoping this will prompt a second book from Failin’ Palin.
Oh all right. I’ll settle for massive amounts of whinging from the Palindrones because the mean nasty sexists of Camp McPOW keep spreading nasty rumors about Shebilly Who Must Be Obeyed.
@dmsilev: Heh. And “Didn’t run screaming when Palin got the nom,” should go on the GOP’s tombstone.
One heartbeat away, beotches.
asiangrrlMN
@inkadu: Yup. She’s supposed to be just plain home folks or something like that. Yeah, right! And, how stupid do you have to be to diss people who can tell the truth about you? Seriously. She’s not even ready for AAA.
demkat620
@dmsilev: Oh yes! Tht is a shut the fuck up leak if I ever saw one.
MikeJ
Hehehe. Rusty Schweickart is on a BBC documentary right now. An Obama sticker prominent over his shoulder on his bookcase.
freelancer
@MikeJ:
Is he talking about his work for the UN about Near Earth Object detection?
Astronauts rule.
gf120581
I don’t care what else John McCain has done in his life; the mere fact that he was willing to risk placing this woman a heartbeat away from the Presidency is enough to destroy his reputation for all time. I will never forgive him for it. Never. If he had any decency, he would resign in shame, make a public apology to the nation and go live on a rock somewhere and pray for forgiveness for what he almost inflicted on the nation.
Lavocat
The best part is that Palin is blowing her wad now, despite the fact that even her operative, Recher, states (in the link) that Team McCain was “squirreling away” emails.
Squirreling away emails? That alone sounds pretty ominous. Pray tell, for what purpose?
I think Team McCain had a pretty good idea what was on the horizon and they wanted a very long paper trial to cover their collective asses.
I really can’t wait for the rest of these emails to come out.
MikeJ
@freelancer: Show about how Neil Armstrong doesn’t like being famous. Which I would agree would get old after a while.
The sticker actually says, “Obamanaut”.
joes527
@demkat620: I’m not disagreeing, but it seems kind of late to be telling her to STFU.
I mean, she has written the alternate history down and it is available at a bookstore near you. Even if she wanted too, she couldn’t stop the crazy train at this point. (and historically, pushing Sarah Palin around has led to her intensifying the public stupid, so I don’t think it is a good strategy even if she could.)
Jay B.
@Lavocat:
They’ll sell them to the highest bidder (Huckabee 2012, cough) when the time comes.
Cat Lady
@gf120581:
Somewhere, Mark Halperin is writing a column on how this is all great news for…. John McCain.
calipygian
It wont matter. Sarah’s Kidz believe what they want to believe. It wont be interpreted as the McCain campaign defending themselves (although, to be fair, they ARE defending the indefensible in that THEY FUCKING PICKED HER IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE! GAH!).
It will be interpreted as McCain settling scores.
rob!
Why oh why isn’t there an audio version?!? Her fans can’t read, by golly! WHY DOES SARAH PALIN HATE REAL AMERICA?
here4tehbeer
That email’s date stamp — it’s one day after the “Joe The Plumber”
HoekstraHofstra debate, isn’t it?I can’t believe this was a terribly happy day *before* Ms. Meat took to (cough) “informing them” about these sundry items of personal irritation and/or dislikenment.
demkat620
@joes527: I think they are trying to protect McCain. Don’t forget he wants to run for re-election in 2010 and he’s got a pretty good Sunday gig they don’t want to ruin.
Plus they also want future jobs. They don’t want her shit flying back on them.
valdivia
This one has the work ethic of a trust fund baby. How does she think people get elected nationally? Hard hard methodical work–she just wants to wing it and charm her way into office. She is running on pageant rules. Fraking idiot John McCain I hate you for imposing this vapid being into our politics.
Midnight Marauder
@joes527:
I disagree. Sure, the McCain campaign was a case study in epic failure, but that has absolutely nothing on the Lord of the Flies battle the GOP is about to be viciously locked into for the next year. Think of all the nasty, terrible, WTF moments from the campaign last year. And then think of all the internal e-mails and memos about those moments. If anything, this is the perfect for a brushback, STFU pitch. But again, it would take someone with a modicum of sense to get the message, and if there’s one thing we know, that ain’t Sarah Palin.
demkat620
God help us if she wins the GOP nod in 2012. I think we all might die from the toxic bullshit and starbursts overdoses.
Brian J
I wonder if, once she’s completely done with politics and her kingmaker-like power is gone, we’ll hear what McCain staffers really think of her. I mean, we’ve heard little bits here and there, but since these people would like to have a future in professional politics, they aren’t going to mess with her given the chance she or someone close to her could have an influential role in the next few years. If I had to guess, some variation of crazy-stupid-nasty-arrogant-little-bitch would come up fairly often.
calipygian
How is this indicative of someone with the discipline for office or who takes governing seriously, if she wants to play hooky from the campaign to cook with Rachel Ray?
“President Palin, Russian President Medvedev on the phone, line one.”
“Not now, I’m chatting with Judge Judy, getting tips on how to set up a Department of Law.”
Warren Terra
What I don’t get is the weird crap she pulled – like a long, involved debate over whether to be seen shaking the hand of former Republican Massachusetts Governor Paul Celucci. Now, it’s remotely possible that she was expressing her disapproval of Celucci’s record as the worst American ambassador to Canada in some time – but it’s more likely she thought he was Mitt Romney, or something.
But better yet:
For heaven’s sake, the enthusiastic support of Kurt Schilling was just about all the McCain-Palin campaign had going for them in New England, by which I mean New Hampshire. And they couldn’t find his wife a freaking bus seat?
SiubhanDuinne
For the past half hour, Keith has ripped Sarah new one after new one after new one after new one . . . .
Also, too, if no one has mentioned it yet, Joe Biden is supposed to be on The Daily Show tonight. It’s 2-1/2 hours away but I can tell already it will be filled with win.
Okay, now I’m pouring myself a big glass o’ wine and settling in to read the last six BJ threads. See y’all on the other side (or if I have the same insomnia I’ve had recently, I’ll be back around 3:00 am).
calipygian
@Warren Terra: Schonda – isn’t that Hebrew for “shame”?
Lavocat
I’ve got a different take on this. This has NOTHING to do with McCain, who has a date with Viagra, not destiny.
This has everything to do with the long-term employability of McCain’s campaign operatives. They can only retain their gravitas to future masters if they can show they were team players DESPITE their guy choosing a lunatic running mate.
This is all about CYA to the utmost. This isn’t so much about revenge as it is self-preservation for the key players of Team McCain.
I agree that the best emails are yet to come and will only see the light of day out of necessity. After all, any litigator knows that you save the sharpest knives for the darkest days.
Warren Terra
@ calipygian
Yes (well, Yiddish for “shame”, at least) – although I’m not sure that’s the normal transliteration.
ellaesther
Hold on. She was a… Middle Eastern bread? Honestly, I haz a confuzed.
Though I am always glad to see self-serving lies punctured, and Sarah Palin brought low.
(I am so sick of hearing about her, and yet I keep reading about her, so apparently I’m part of the problem. I just keep telling myself: “She will implode… she will implode…”. And she will! And I believe we are at the very start of the cave-in. But it can’t happen soon enough).
eemom
I think the amount of attention being paid to this creature on a day when the actual, you know, NEWS, is that:
people here in this “greatest country in the world” of ours are going hungry;
health care reform has knives to its throat seven ways to Sunday;
the Fed chairman says unemployment is only gonna get worse;
and more veterans are going to commit suicide this year;
is just, well, obscene.
ellaesther
@ellaesther: Oh, OH! Pain In The Ass, right? I haz much less of a confuzed.
chopper
@valdivia:
george bush showed that not to be true. the dude ‘winged it’ and got elected twice (or once, depending on who you ask).
of course, we’d all call him an anomaly, depending on exactly how cynical you are with regards to the intelligence of the american electorate. but palin looks at bush and sees the framework for a successful future presidency. she sees that you can, in fact, be a complete moron and buffoon and by winging it and laying on the charm and having the right crew of assholes at your back still manage to take the most important job in the land.
this is one of the things i hate the most about W. he cleared the way for people like her.
New Yorker
Sarah Palin really has broken the satire machine. I mean, the guys at South Park could never have invented someone as absurd as Lady Starbursts.
The good thing is that this book tour and the accompanying train wreck should distill her support down to about the 27% that voted for Alan Keyes for IL Senator in 2004 (or as I prefer, the 1/4 of Americans that are retards according to South Park).
SiubhanDuinne
@ellaesther 8:47 pm
You haz an epiphiphaneez!
Calouste
@chopper:
Dubya winged it, but at least he didn’t get in the way of the people who were actually running the campaign (and the presidency) like Palin is. He’s lazy, but at least he understood that it was good for him to follow the orders he was given. Palin, not so much.
valdivia
@chopper:
sorry chopper W did not wing it. He had a very methodical structure of very knowledgeable politicians who orchestrated a good campaign for him. Palin wings it in the sense that she thinks her charm will win her elections, that alone, she does not want to be packaged, thinks she knows better etc.
You cannot say W did not work to get elected. He may not be curious about the world but he knew how to run. And knew politics, it was in his blood.
Mark S.
Oh God, she was fucking over local politicians? She really has no prayer of winning the nomination.
OT, but talked to my dad today. He’s sure that KSM and the boys will get off and the Ft. Hood guy will be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Three guesses which network my dad gets all of his news from.
WereBear
Well, one thing Palin has done, inadvertently and with foot-thick falsehoods, is getting the right wing to get on the record as supporting the goals of feminism.
It’s perfectly all right for a married mother of five to be the President of the United States, Commander in Chief, and all that.
Never thought I’d see it. And I didn’t even have any mushrooms in the ’70’s.
Warren Terra
@ Valdivia, #63
Yup. It’s possible that the only thing that Dubya ever honestly worked hard at – or was competent at – was getting himself (and, before that, his father) elected. He may be a lazy undereducated incurious ignorant presumptious SOB, but there’s not much evidence he’s actually lacking in intelligence, and he followed his 2000 game plan with a robotic perfection that made the media’s swipes at Gore’s stiffness all the more absurd.
Arlene
I’m looking forward to more e-mails from McCain campaign staff. Death by a thousand paper cuts. This reminds me of the Giuliani campaign where stuff just kept coming out about Rudy and his buddies, in particular Bernie Kerik. I’m hoping Rudy does run for senator in NY just to see all the knives come out again.
Max
So, I’m watching the Oprah interview with Jenna Jameson and it is a million times better than her interview with Palin.
It’s so obvious that Oprah wasn’t allowed to be Oprah with Mrs. Todd Palin. I’m embarrassed for Oprah, I wish she hadn’t agreed to do such a lame interview.
valdivia
@Warren Terra:
this exactly. I hate him and think he was the worst president evah! but he knew that political pros know how get you elected mostly because he grew up around national campaigns. While he pretended to be fringy he was core elite political dynasty, this is what got him elected. Palin has no clue how to play the bigger game.
valdivia
@Max:
I cant wait to hear the ‘inside’ Oprah scoop about Palin. Hope someone lets that cat out of the bag soon. :-)
Max
@valdivia: Me too.
BTW – Oprah and Jenna are talking about men climaxing right now.
Classic.
kay
Palin uses the word “dithering” re: Obama in the Barbara Walter’s interview.
“On some of our national security issues”.
They’re really like lock-step drones. Just replace one with any other.
valdivia
@Max:
LOL.
@kay:
this is how they get the memes into the bloodstream of the media. The dems never do it because they think for themselves. And the media are too stupid to counter it.
How was that interview btw?
gwangung
@kay:
That ticking clock sure gets around, doesn’t it?
Morons.
inkadu
@Mark S.: Does your dad get his news from the network that has the “Sam the Eagle Show“?
gwangung
@valdivia:
Obama would have the presence of mind to gut the meme: “Well, I don’t think there’s a ticking time bomb in Afghanistan. Time may be short, but there’s enough to do things the right way.”
Other dems are not so possessive of their wits.
Brick Oven Bill
Sarah is a credit to her gender. You guys should leave her alone.
Go Sarah.
valdivia
btw what is a PITA?
arguingwithsignposts
KO did a masterful job of destroying that lying word-salad woman. Sad, really, that this woman is so prominent in American politics. (not that it’s because she’s a woman, but because she’s such an idiot)
kay
@valdivia:
I just watched part of a clip, so I don’t know. Palin speaking bores the hell out of me. I used the think the loopy departures and weird phrasing were slightly interesting, but the fact of the matter is the woman has nothing to say, and the quirks are the only interesting part. It gets old quick. I can’t do 8 minutes.
“National security” doesn’t mean anything, without more. She uses a series of phrases like that, with no specificity or context they’re so familiar and rote as to be almost devoid of meaning.
Mark S.
@inkadu:
No, two more guesses.
arguingwithsignposts
@Brick Oven Bill:
Fixed.
Now back to the pie filter you go.
Mark S.
@valdivia:
Pain in the ass.
inkadu
@asiangrrlMN: She’s not ready for AAA? The auto club?
Palin is not folksy. She’s Christianist. The interview with Oprah was creepy, but full of biblical vocabulary. She’s playing a dog orchestra.
valdivia
@kay:
yes he is a bumper sticker, logo queen with zero understanding and depth. I cant even do 1 minute of her speaking so I take my hat off to you.
@ arguing–I am going to check that out cant wait to see him skewering her.
Anne Laurie
@Jay B.:
And Rahm Emmanuel will run the bidding up. Deliberately.
But the “winner” will be Willard M. Romney, ‘cuz that’s how his temple garments ride (up).
batgirl
@inkadu: Yes, Sarah is no W. She can’t be controlled.
Anne Laurie
@Warren Terra:
To be fair to Sarah, Argeo Paul Celluci (his real name) only got to be governor because he was born to the Masshole version of Donald Trump and then had the smarts to become the second most assiduous professional Coat-Holder in the state Republican party. (Behind Andy Card, whose coat-holding talents will never be equaled in a world where pr0n is available over the internet.) It’s possible Palin’s handlers resented the implication that Ms. Sarah had anything in common with a guy whose success rested entirely on his superiors’ short attention span and unwillingness to do the jobs to which they had been elected. Ha ha very ha!
Schonda Schilling is “the cute blond cheerleader” type, according to every puff piece ever run on the local news about her. During her younger days, Sarah Palin only ever managed “the brunette beauty-pageant competitor” (she was on the basketball team, not the cheerleading team, at a time & place where cheerleader absolutely ranked higher on the high-school social scale). The only question in my mind is whether Palin herself threw a tantrum and insisted that Mrs. Schilling be banned, or whether her team decided not to risk a public confrontation that would have been decidedly Not On Message.
batgirl
@valdivia: W. did what he was told. He was a figure head for those who really ran the country and he knew it. I think there were those in power in the GOP who thought that Palin would be similar — that they could use her as a front — but they sorely misjudged her.
Calouste
@batgirl:
In summary, Palin is too stupid to even do what she is told to do.
D-Chance.
Q: What’s more dangerous than being a hunting with Cheney?
A: Being anywhere within a half-state of Joe Biden’s motorcade.
That’s three “events” (and one death) in the last week alone.
D-Chance.
@D-Chance.: Damn lack of preview or editing… grrrr…
Steeplejack
@Laura W:
I was impressed when Fergie did a one-handed cartwheel–twice.
But, sadly, no, this was your fault.
kay
@D-Chance.:
That’s hysterical. Bravo.
What was funny about Cheney’s inability to hunt was that his lawyer wasn’t killed. That’s why this isn’t funny.
Do you consider a fatal car accident a “gaffe”? Have you lost your mind?
mai naem
Criticize Johnny Mac all you want but look at it this way – Sarah Plain probably would have served out her term as Alaska governor and may even have run and won a senate seat. She would have surely done better as a candidate then. The scandal over Bristol would have been over with. Track would have been an Iraq War vet. Sully more than likely wouldn’t have made a fuss over Tripp’s birth and she would have looked even better having a special needs kid. Obama was pretty much guaranteed to win the election so if you were going to put Sarah out there it’s best that she’s put out there in a year where she’s pretty much guaranteed to be on the losing ticket.
Comrade Kevin
BoB sounds like the white guy in the Lenny Bruce bit “How to relax your colored friends at parties”.
Midnight Marauder
@mai naem:
Methinks you paint to rosy a picture of her life in Alaska, circa early 2008. She barely makes it to the finish line, with or without the election.
D-Chance.
@kay: ?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
I’ll take a different tack on this and say that St McCain’s pick of Sorry Sarah was *the* best thing he could have done…for us.
Sure, she’s always gonna appeal to that 25% of the country that’s part of the far out right. Those people have been with us since the Pilgrims and will always be with us. They. Are. Unreachable.
But, as long as Governor Gidget is out there as the face of the far out right, she serves up that many more indies, conservadems and even moderate repups to us come voting time. So let the traditional media drones fixate on her because in this case, there is such a thing as bad publicity.
She’s the gift that keeps on giving. I always say this but she’s Katherine Harris without The Twins.
Anne L: I agree with you, Mittens will get the nomination in 12. That’s the way the GOP typically works. The 2/3s of the party (corporate and defense) that’s not the totalfuckingnutjobs (the other 1/3) simply won’t let either a Sarah or Huckster to be the standard bearer.
Paul in KY
Re: Schilling’s wife & Nicole Wallace. Just saw picture of Mrs. Wallace & she’s quite an attactive lady, in a upper-crust WASPish way (might be Jewish, but she looks like an offspring of a Boston Brahmin).
As another poster up above mentioned, Mrs. Schilling is quite attractive. I think Sara! didn’t do well around women who were either more attractive and/or held some kind of power over her: Ms. Couric is prettier & was the interviewer, Wallace had to mind her, Schilling reminds her of HS & how she wasn’t number 1 in pecking order.
This woman would have nuked a country if the leader was hotter than her & had pissed her off in some way. Jeezus!
Persia
@Comrade Kevin: I thought it was a “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” reference.