Palin: "Those accounts not true" - denounces as cowardly

[calfoxwc]

Palin denounces anonymous critics as 'cowardly'

 

Nov 8, 7:07 AM (ET)

 

By DAN JOLING

 

(AP) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, talks to media after she arrived at her office in Anchorage, Alaska on...

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Gov. Sarah Palin denounced anonymous criticisms leveled at her by former John McCain aides as lies, including allegations that Republican lawyers were traveling to Alaska to reclaim her high-priced wardrobe and that she didn't know Africa was a continent.

 

"Those accounts are not true," the former Republican vice presidential candidate said in her first public comments on the matter since the election Tuesday.

 

Palin returned Friday to her Anchorage governor's office and said she had no immediate plans to build on her newfound national name-recognition and popularity with the Republican base for a possible 2012 presidential run.

 

Instead, Palin said, she wanted only to get back to the governor's desk to advance a proposed pipeline tapping Alaska's vast North Slope natural gas reserves and to prepare Alaska's proposed 2010 budget.

 

 

(AP) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin greets her staff after she arrived at her office in Anchorage, Alaska on...

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As for the vice presidential campaign, Palin denounced criticism from unidentified McCain campaign aides as "cowardly." She said she found it frustrating trying to respond to false allegations when she didn't know who was making them.

 

"It's ridiculous," she told reporters. "You guys report based on anonymous sources, so it's hard to have a defense."

 

One report said she and her family went on a shopping spree, spending more than the $150,000 in clothing that the Republican National Committee had earlier reported.

 

"The RNC purchased clothes," Palin said.

 

"Those are the RNC's clothes. They're not my clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything. I never asked for anything more than maybe a Diet Dr Pepper once in a while."

 

 

(AP) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, followed by media, gives Lt. Gov. Sean Parnel a hug after she arrived at...

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The RNC will inventory clothing it purchased for her to account for dollars spent, she said. She scoffed at reports that the RNC was sending lawyers to take back clothes from her home.

 

"It's not happening. Nobody's told me that they're coming to my house to look through closets, to look through anything. The belly of the plane that had clothes in it, and those clothes being packed up and sent back by staffers, perhaps that's what they're talking about, but these aren't attorneys."

 

She said she wasn't angry at the continued coverage of her clothing, but mostly disappointed.

 

"This is Barack Obama's time right now, and this is an historic moment in our nation and this can be a shining moment for America and our history, and look what we're talking about. Again, we're talking about my shoes and belts and skirts. It's ridiculous."

 

She also denied a report that she didn't know Africa was a continent, not a country, and that she didn't know the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement - the United States, Canada and Mexico. She remembered discussing both Africa and Obama's stance on NAFTA with people preparing her for her debate, she said. Anything reported as a gaffe was taken out of context, she said.

 

 

(AP) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin looks around her office filled with balloons and welcome home banners after...

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"That's cruel. It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context, and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair and it's not right."

 

Asked if she felt muzzled by her limited time with reporters during the campaign, Palin said the media is a cornerstone of democracy and an important part of the checks and balances on government.

 

"Heaven forbid that a candidate or an elected official shy way from speaking to the media," she said. "So it was a little bit of a frustration that I didn't get to call more of those shots, and I guess that was sort of the 'rogue' criticism was, 'She wants to talk to more of the media' than perhaps some in the campaign wanted me to."

 

Palin backed off from calling for the resignation of fellow Alaskan Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history. Stevens leads Democrat Mark Begich by about 3,500 votes with more than 50,000 to be counted.

 

A Washington jury convicted Stevens on Oct. 27 of seven felony counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts, mostly renovations on his home. Stevens is appealing the verdict.

 

"The Alaska voters have spoken and me not being a dictator won't be telling anyone what to do," she said.

 

Fellow senators have indicated they could boot Stevens.

 

"That's their baby," Palin said. "They'll have to figure out what to do there."

 

Palin said she was not interested in running for the job if it comes open.

 

"Not planning on that. Nope," she said.

[Guest Aloysius]

In a way, I find this part of the Newsweek story most revealing:

Steve Schmidt spoke briefly with the reporters. "Are you happy with the campaign?" he was asked. He answered: "I think we did our absolute best in really difficult circumstances … It is highly doubtful that anyone will have to run in a worse political climate than the one John McCain had to run in this year." Another reporter asked if he was happy with "the pick of Palin." He ducked the question.

 

Schmidt was trying, not very hard, to hide his true feelings. He had been compelled to personally take over Palin's debate prep when she seemed unwilling to engage in the drudge work of learning the issues. McCain's advisers had been frustrated when Palin refused to talk to donors because she found it corrupting, and they were furious when they heard rumors that Todd Palin was calling around to Alaska bigwigs telling them to hold their powder until 2012.

 

The day of the third debate, Palin refused to go onstage with New Hampshire GOP Sen. John Sununu and Jeb Bradley, a New Hampshire congressman running for the Senate, because they were pro-choice and because Bradley opposed drilling in Alaska. The McCain campaign ordered her onstage at the next campaign stop, but she refused to acknowledge the two Republican candidates standing behind her. McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin (perhaps once a week when they were not traveling together, estimated one adviser). Aides kept him in the dark about Palin's spending on clothes because they were sure he'd be offended. In his concession speech, McCain praised Palin, but the body language between them onstage was not particularly friendly. (Palin had asked to speak; Schmidt vetoed the request.)

[calfoxwc]

Well, seems that McCain's campaign staff ran a bad campaign. I admired Palin tremendously.

I didn't CARE that she didn't know this or didn't know that. She's a gov, not a senator.

 

McCain finally got tired of their nonsense, I think, with his waytoolate "Mac is back" the last week of the whole deal.

 

Palin is very popular BECAUSE she isn't part of the whole deal. People never quizzed Obama on details that

would trip him up. He was silver spoon fed very successful interview he had. Oh well.

 

It's intellectually dishonest for anybody to excuse every gaffe Obama or Biden make with "tired"

and take anything Palin may have mispoken literally as partisan as they can make it.

 

I have wondered about McCain's mishandled campaign people for two major reasons:

 

A. They and McCain never talked about Wright. That concerns me, and they wouldn't go there. What?

B. Putting Palin on with those two lib attack dogs for debates was a disaster, while they wouldn't let her go

on some conservative shows. What the hell is that, if not a setup? Sounds terribly arrogant to me.

Somebody stupidly picked the wrong people to handle the Rep presidential race, seems to me.

[calfoxwc]

Shep, Gov Palin had an 80 percent approval rating.

 

For all the todo about Pres Bush's low rating, (congress's is lower yet),

 

that means she is a real deal, and people buy it. Real people

don't know stuff, etc. It's okay. She wasn't on the national scene.

 

I trust her judgement over Bidens, that's all that matters to me.

 

I admire her. And she doesn't think of parsing out of things she doesn't like about our Constitution. I love that.

 

What bothers me, is, what we don't know what Obama doesn't know. He was never asked. ever.

 

And he is going to be our next president. Hope he does a great job, knocks off the talk that

gets a LOT of people upset.

[Mr. T]

they showed a picture od obama after he got his first intel report, he looked so overwhelmed i thought maybe someone just stole his boom box.

[Westside Steve]

I think her pick was a wash voter wise.

VP usually is.

No other pick would have changed the outcome for either guy.

Hell Minnesotans thought Al Franken or Jesse Ventura were real candidates and for all it matters they probably are.

WSS

[titleist585]

I think her pick was a wash voter wise.

 

WSS

 

 

 

I've heard the same on both MSNBC and Fox News. She was picked to get the Hillary voters and as the polls show, it blew up in her(their) face(s). With the Market Crash and McCain being the same as the party in power, nothing could have helped him. Her interviews with Couric et. all certainly didn't help.

[calfoxwc]

Well, when I saw McCain/Palin in person, I thought they were great.

 

But in the debates, McCain wasn't himself.

 

And I admire Palin. She's just down home America, not internationally involved

so I don't care about quibbling that she doesn't know stuff.

 

She flat out has values, like abortion and our RIGHT to bear arms. And she doesn't play

games.

She has her weaknesses about national politics. That doesn't bother me.

 

Palin has never once said anything that makes me worry about our rights.

 

Obama does it a lot of the time.

 

Dennis Kuchinich could have won this pres election. All Obama does is speak in

platitudes. I think I'll go read Saul Alinski's stuff to see a pattern.

 

I believe Obama will govern more centrist, all said and done. That is wishful thinkin..

 

The fact that he has already hedged on going after the rich with huge tax increases... is a sign

practicality sets in quickly. Platitudes got him votes. but....

[titleist585]

She flat out has values, like abortion and our RIGHT to bear arms.

 

 

2 big issues for many Americans. What else do you like about her Cal?

[Chicopee John]

The differences between Obama and Palin are night and day.

 

You just notice that, Shep?

[dencyguy]

 

She flat out has values, like abortion and our RIGHT to bear arms.

 

 

2 big issues for many Americans. What else do you like about her Cal?

 

She's also apparently witch-proof.

[titleist585]

 

She flat out has values, like abortion and our RIGHT to bear arms.

 

 

2 big issues for many Americans. What else do you like about her Cal?

 

She's also apparently witch-proof.

 

 

I really just do not see what all the Cal's in the world like about her.

[calfoxwc]

Well, Mr. Titleist,

 

She's genuine. Gore and Kerry were phoneys.

 

Obama is phoney, until he actually is what he says or what he doesn't say.

 

Biden and McCain have always been there in the good old boy network,

McCain is hardly a phoney. Biden, I figure -now-, is.

 

Palin is real. Meaning, you can pinpoint her weaknesses, everybody has them.

 

Bush was real his first four years, and because phoney in his second term, the last three years.

 

I like genuine. That's why I have OsuSev on ignore.

[Pumpkin Eater]

 

She flat out has values, like abortion and our RIGHT to bear arms.

 

 

2 big issues for many Americans. What else do you like about her Cal?

 

 

2 big issues that no single politician will ever be able to affect.

[We need Tom Tupa]

SO true, Pumpkin.

 

Abortion is never going to be banned and nobody's gonna take our guns. Ever. End of debate.

 

In the last sixteen years of Clinton and Bush, did anyone ban abortions or take our guns?

 

These are not political issues. They are campaign issues.

Someone should tell the dozen states that have voted on abortion issues in the past 4 years that they're wasting their time. Forward the memo also to the 100 Senators that consider abortion to be one of the most important issues to weigh when vetting a SCOTUS candidate.

 

And let Texas know they can get their assault rifles back; Clinton's gun control bill was just campaign BS. Also, the lawyers that defended the DC gun ban shouldve realized they were wasting their time. They need to realize that gun control will never happen. While we're at it, they should pretend it never did.

[osusev]

Cal has me on Ban lmao... genuine lol

 

I feel like I just won a oscar or a nobel.

[osusev]

Palin is done on the National scene. IT is highly unlikely that she will ever change the perception of independent moderates. She is too polarizing and has proven to be quite intellectually challenged.

 

I dont think she was a wash in how it affected to election, Mccains age ranked up there in importance among voters which means they were looking hard at his VP pick. When all of those moderate and even conservative republicans started to bash her in the media that was big.

 

I am glad that she appeals to the every person desire of having someone like them in the administration. Forgive me if I dont want a slow PTA mom making decisons on nuclear proliferation or macro/micro economics. She can wink and you betcha herself to the low population of Alaska when Chicago alone has 4 times the population of the entire state.

 

Secessionist..... thats ok with the right wing really? Her husband was a member...

You guys REALLY wanted to open Pandora's box with attacking jeremiah Wright? WITCHDOCTOR PENTECOSTAL BLESSING?.... You really wanted the Palin beliefs and her church's beliefs out there equally? There is a reason the SMART people running the Mccain campaign did not want to open that firefight.

 

Cal I know science/logic/ intellectual achievements/understanding international politics/domestic economic policies/ are all things that are not important to you in judging qualifications for a job applicant for the POTUS.

 

In another thread I gave you a question of who you would hire for a job that meant life of death, a software programmer who graduated top of their class from Carnegie Mellon or from idaho community college (after they tried at 4-5 other small time universities)

 

A better question is if you had cancer what doctor would you want? the one who barely understands medicine and graduated at community college out of a magazine or someone who graduated number one from Harvard medicine....

[Westside Steve]

SO true, Pumpkin.

 

Abortion is never going to be banned and nobody's gonna take our guns. Ever. End of debate.

 

In the last sixteen years of Clinton and Bush, did anyone ban abortions or take our guns?

 

These are not political issues. They are campaign issues.

Someone should tell the dozen states that have voted on abortion issues in the past 4 years that they're wasting their time. Forward the memo also to the 100 Senators that consider abortion to be one of the most important issues to weigh when vetting a SCOTUS candidate.

 

And let Texas know they can get their assault rifles back; Clinton's gun control bill was just campaign BS. Also, the lawyers that defended the DC gun ban shouldve realized they were wasting their time. They need to realize that gun control will never happen. While we're at it, they should pretend it never did.

 

Of course placing new restrictions on what you call an "assault" weapon, ie a clip that holds 11 rounds or a hunting rifle with an aluminum stock or (soon) any semi automatic etc, OR requiring all guns in the home be locked away from ammunition so as to render them useless in case of need is a de facto gun ban.

 

Usually packaged with the bromide "well what would anyone NEED with a......."

 

WSS

[calfoxwc]

Did Osusev ask something dumb of me?

 

Nevermind. It was dumb, whatever it is.

 

These smilies have little character of expression.

[Legacy Fan]

re: Palin's $150K shopping spree's-

 

I read that she would be auctioning/donating the proceeds to charity.

 

And since the RNC appoved it, and it is technically legal, it's really just a "campaign issue, not a political one," right?

 

I also happen to despise just about everything she believes in, but that's a different matter. And clearly, she has no patience or tolerance for people who disagree with her on any one issue, refusing to even take the stage with them.

I hate to ball-bust shep, but this is definitely one of the funniest lines on the board right now...

[Westside Steve]

I also happen to despise just about everything she believes in' date=' but that's a different matter. And clearly, she has no patience or tolerance for people who disagree with her on any one issue, refusing to even take the stage with them.[/quote']

 

I hate to ball-bust shep, but this is definitely one of the funniest lines on the board right now...

 

 

He's usually good for that kind of complete lack of self awareness.

(probably so far up the intelligence scale he doesn't relate on a common level; like Einstein)

 

FWIW Bill Krystol is one of the McCain campign boss' (I forget the guy's name) closest friends who says the "rumors" are bullshit.

 

So now I'll ape Shep:

"This is an OUTRAGE!!!! Squeeeeek squeeeek Please put all Palin is a bany eating Muslim communist posts from the enquirer on a seperate board for the criminally insane!!!!!! I demand it!!!

WSS

[calfoxwc]

There goes intellectual honesy out the window, Shepblooey !

[Guest mz.]

Monkey dance, everybody laugh!!!

 

PS - this art board I go to (on this same platform) has a [yt][/yt] function for embedded youtube videos...can we get this????? Anyone????????

[calfoxwc]

you libs don't like falsehoods posted. Or, it's okay as long you you LIKe the falsehoods?

 

McCain advisers defend Palin

Postelection rumors denied

Ralph Z. Hallow (Contact)

Monday, November 10, 2008

 

Top advisers and aides to John McCain's presidential campaign are going on the record to defend Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from the barrage of anonymous accusations - some smacking of sexism - that have slammed into the Republican vice-presidential nominee, particularly since the election.

 

"I can say on the record that all this is way overblown and some of the stuff I've read in recent days, whether it's about Governor Palin or our Mr. McCain campaign staff, is fictional," Mark Salter said in an e-mail response to questions posed by The Washington Times.

 

But Mr. Salter, who was Mr. McCain's closest aide, speechwriter and biographer, did not respond to specific questions about accusations made in several press venues by unnamed campaign staffers attacking Mrs. Palin's character and intelligence.

 

Several Republicans said the intent appeared to try to shift blame for the ticket's performance from aides and advisers to Mrs. Palin and put into question her future on the national political stage.

 

Steve Schmidt, the campaign's chief strategist, defended Mrs. Palin in an e-mail exchange with The Times concerning, among other articles, a Newsweek report that at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Mrs. Palin had greeted Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Salter in her hotel room while "wearing nothing but a towel, with another [towel] on her wet hair."

 

"The towel story categorically is not true," Mr. Schmidt told The Times in the course of telephone and e-mail exchanges over the weekend.

 

 

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's character and intelligence have been under attack by unnamed campaign staffers, and some Republicans see intent to shift blame of the failed campaign from aides to Mrs. Palin. (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

 

Charles L. Black, a close friend and senior adviser to Mr. McCain, said "no" to four of the following five questions posed to him by The Times:

 

• Did she go "rogue" by refusing to tell anyone in the campaign she intended to talk up Barack Obama's ties with Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers?

 

• Did she direct staffers to buy on their credit cards clothes for her and/or her husband and/children? If so, did the McCain campaign find out only after aides asked for reimbursement?

 

• Did she chat on the phone with a Canadian radio-show host who claimed to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy?

 

 

• Did she have a concession speech ready to read on election night?

 

• Did she not know that NAFTA was an agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada?

 

"Answer to all of this is no, except she was victim of hoax perpetrated by Canadian talk radio re Sarkozy," Mr. Black said. "Even then, she said nothing wrong in the call. We think she did an excellent job and added a lot to the ticket. 'We' includes John McCain."

 

The press made much of the towel story as if it were a shockingly risque incident.

 

But Jane Abraham, co-founder of Team Sarah and general chairman of the Susan B. Anthony List - a nonprofit group that supports pro-life female candidates - told The Times that candidates and their campaign staffers, traveling together constantly and always pressed for time, tend to regard one another as family.

 

If a male candidate had answered the door in similar attire, it almost surely would have been regarded as unremarkable and gone unreported, said Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer and legal adviser to Republican Senate and House members.

 

"Sarah Palin did exactly what she was supposed to do: She energized the conservative base for McCain, she brought excitement to the GOP convention and the campaign, and she absolutely jump-started the RNC's and state parties' fundraising in September," Mrs. Mitchell said.

 

"The fact is that McCain's 'handlers' - the same people who are now trashing Sarah Palin - made McCain look and seem erratic during the September economic events," Mrs. Mitchell said. "That was the end of the McCain campaign and that is hardly Sarah Palin's fault. These white boys need to go look in a mirror when they're looking for someone to blame for the loss."

 

Mrs. Abraham noted that the McCain campaign "had never attracted the large crowds it until Sarah came along. There was an immediate surge in the polls because of her."

 

"The anonymous accusations against Governor Palin reflect badly on the campaign, and John McCain deserved better treatment from his aides," Mrs. Abraham added.

 

Rarely has so much anonymous backbiting among the staff of a presidential campaign made it into the press as happened with the McCain campaign.

 

Fox News contributor Fred Barnes publicly blamed McCain aide Nicole Wallace for the rash of stories just before Election Day that Mrs. Palin had spent $150,000 of campaign money at expensive stores to outfit herself and her family for their campaign appearances.

 

Accused by some McCain senior staff members of being one of the leakers, Mrs. Wallace told Ana Marie Cox at the Daily Beast that there was "an organized campaign to lay blame for things at my feet" on the clothes story, but that she was "not going to engage before the campaign ends."

 

Some Palin defenders have wondered why Mr. McCain did not dispute the accusations against her more aggressively.

 

But Mr. Black told The Times, "McCain and his senior staff were happy with her performance and deny rumors to the contrary. McCain and we have great affection for her."

 

It was not the McCain campaign but "the Republican National Committee that went out and bought her clothes and some of those are going to be returned," Mr. Black said.

 

Mr. Schmidt gasped and uttered an expletive when told that some of the anonymous accusations against Mrs. Palin in the press were being attributed to him.

 

Mr. Black and Mr. Schmidt both insisted they didn't know who in the McCain campaign team was spreading false stories about Mrs. Palin, though Mr. Black said the stories were being spread by liberals in the press eager to discredit the Republican candidate.

[calfoxwc]

You don't like Fox News. Everything on Fox News is bogus.

 

Therefore.... be consistent.

[Guest Aloysius]

Monkey dance, everybody laugh!!!

 

PS - this art board I go to (on this same platform) has a [yt][/yt] function for embedded youtube videos...can we get this????? Anyone????????

The mods would have to add it, but it's very simple to set up.

 

It'd be nice to have it here, especially when we're all talking about draft prospects in a few months.

[Guest mz.]

especially when we're all talking about draft prospects in a few months.

 

That would be pretty awesome.

 

PS I'm officially on the Rey Maualuga Bandwagon

[Westside Steve]

especially when we're all talking about draft prospects in a few months.

 

That would be pretty awesome.

 

PS I'm officially on the Rey Maualuga Bandwagon

 

Screw the draft.

I wanna be in position to not even watch 'em.

"Who cares guys?? We really don't need an upgrade at any position.

We're set.

Let's draft a barista to make us cappucino at the Superbowl."

WSS

[Legacy Fan]

Monkey dance, everybody laugh!!!

 

PS - this art board I go to (on this same platform) has a [yt][/yt] function for embedded youtube videos...can we get this????? Anyone????????

The mods would have to add it, but it's very simple to set up.

 

It'd be nice to have it here, especially when we're all talking about draft prospects in a few months.

 

That would be pretty awesome. I also miss the function. Of course, most of the get-along-gang that I would use it for I already have on ignore, so I guess it's unnecessary. A YT embed function would be way bonzer.

[calfoxwc]

You're being a hypocrite, Legacy. What would you say if we used

that dancing monkey to belittle all of YOUR side's posts?

 

You know you'd raise hell about spamming your "serious" threads.

 

As usual, you haven't added any kind of intelligent discussion to the thread subject.