I followed Palin's governorship as a journalist for the Anchorage Daily News, and I've read many of the e-mails. What I see in them, however, is not a governor deeply engaged in governing Alaska, but a governor deeply engaged in sending a constant stream of e-mails.
Palin's BlackBerry addiction was well-known among Alaska journalists. She was famous for always having two of them on hand. Her revenue commissioner, Pat Galvin, told me she would kick off cabinet meetings with a brief introduction and then turn them over to others while she worked away at her BlackBerries.
A key aide on oil and gas issues, Marty Rutherford, told me she was surprised by Palin's ability to multitask. But at times Palin had to be told to put down the BlackBerry and focus on the complex issues at hand.
In following Palin and researching a forthcoming book about her, I found a common theme: She is not a detail person. In the words of Larry Persily, who worked on federal issues for her, "she does not stay up late at night reading briefing books."
Palin's excellent staff on oil and gas issues helped her win big victories in that arena. But Persily told me that "people couldn't get her attention on things beyond oil and gas," which "required more knowledge and more depth than she was willing to put into it. ... She just wanted things simplified so much."
The e-mails do show Palin busily networking with national Republicans and responding to opponents. In fact, she was more engaged in the details of rebutting critics than in the details of some issues. She closely followed critical comments on the Anchorage Daily News' politics blog, ghostwrote letters to the editor, and exhorted her charges to respond to online polls in her favor. She even complained that she didn't have enough time to monitor her portrayal in the media.
It probably will not hurt the future sales of the book Matthew Zencey is writing about Palin's tenure as governor that he is not afraid to tell the truth about the self centered half term Governor.
I am still amazed how easily people are fooled into believing this woman was anything except an uncultured, overly ambitious opportunist who used everybody who came into contact with her and then threw them away like a used Kleenex.
The Palin mythology, it appears, is so bright, shiny, and palatable, that people are drawn to it instead of the truth, which is quite dark and difficult to digest.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Absolutely no question. (As a daughter of a mother with NPD I know whereof I speak. Sadly).
ReplyDeleteI still don't see how the truth is darkness. She's naturally a very cheery person who will do anything to help a friend. What president is it that's obsessed with his blackberry?
ReplyDeleteOpportunist is correct. When there was real work to be done, it bored her, so she passed it on to someone else. Frankly, my original curiosity about her centered on her being a brand new older mom of a special kid, WITH a pregnant teen and three other children. Plus she was a Governor? Where did the woman get 40 hour days to deal with all of that? It soon became obvious that she could not deal with all of that, and run for VP, which in her mind meant attack the opposition while not articulating much else. She has not changed. She thinks she can control her message, such as it is, through the media, and sometimes it works. What doesn't work is her family, which she SAYS is her first priority, but which hasn't been that, maybe ever. If this is the GOP's idea of a woman worthy of and able to understand the complexities of this nation, and intelligent enough to choose wise people to help her, they are more out of touch than she is.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to read this! I've wondered, ever since I heard how many emails there were. Of course I have no idea how many is normal, but it just seemed like that was an awful lot for a half-term quitter!
ReplyDeleteOne reason Sarah still has some approval in Alaska is because she's an "Alaskan Product" that Alaskans invested lots of time and energy in. Half-Term Sarah didn't know much, didn't want to work, and obsessed over her image. She never had the talent to succeed on her own so typically helpful Alaskans jumped in to keep her moving along. There were many willing Alaskans who passed off their own knowledge as hers, did her work, sang her praises, and destroyed her enemies.
ReplyDeleteAlaskans unintentionally created a monster. We're still in the process of coming to grips with our mistake.
Sarah-The-Image, was originally created by good-hearted but misguided Alaskans who thought they were helping a woman in need. Thankfully, Sarah-The-Image is now being pretty thoroughly dismantled by Sarah, the real woman.
Happy Father's Day to all and all the other readers of this blog.
ReplyDeleteThe same thoughts struck me as the journalist, when the hell did she do any real work?
I wonder what other Gov's thought, when they read the emails about getting back at enemies, calling legislator's derogatory names and fixing polls.
I worked in a school. We were always told, do not email, write or say anything that you do not wish to be repeated in a court.
It's to bad palin's wonderful staff did not tell her the same things. Especially since those were open to the public. They were too busy telling her who said what about her.
The state's emails sounded like a middle school nest of mean girls!
I read that palin had 6 email accounts, 3 on each Blackberry?
Will Alaskan's ever really know what she did as Governor?
Another book to look forward to! I'm glad to see someone in the media willing to share another perspective, different from that pushed by the GOP & Tea Party.
ReplyDeleteThe comments that went along with that article were stomach-churning though.
So basically what you do is hire experts or experienced people who can do all your work and sit back and act like you did everything...
ReplyDeleteBristol is as evil and vindictive as her mother as we have all seen the last several days with her negative comments about her baby's daddy just a day before Father's day. How sad!
ReplyDeleteOne difference between the two whores is Sarah's two Blackberries which she refers to in her emails as BB.
Bristol can't handle a BB. With the name Blackberry, Bristol thinks that is something you eat.
Rosanne Cash tells what a caring, truly pregnant mother would have done in Texas
ReplyDelete...In October, 2008, she wrote a brilliant commentary in The Nation, called “Why I’d Be a Better VP than Sarah Palin.
Contained therein is her straight from the shoulder shot about Sarah being pregnant with Trig in Dallas and taking the wild ride to Wasilla:
Finally, there is one subject in which I find I am even more conservative than the Governor, and that is in the area of neo-natal responsibility. The Governor was eight months pregnant and in Texas to give a speech, when her water broke. She reportedly made her speech and then traveled eleven hours, dripping amniotic fluid, bypassing Seattle and Anchorage (major cities with world-class hospitals) to travel to a small hospital in Wasilla that had no neo-natal intensive care unit, and gave birth there. Call me a wimp, call me insecure, but you had better also call me a maverick, because I would have said “Damn the schedule! Damn the speech and the airline ticket!” If this had been me, as soon as my water broke, I’d be at the closest hospital and that baby would have been born in Texas!
This is from a mother of five whose career has taken her to far more places around the world than Sarah’s has.
It’s a question of priorities.
What matters more: the life and well-being of your Down Syndrome baby, about to be born prematurely, or your image?
The estimable Ms. Cash makes clear the choice she would have made.
Which is the choice any sane and caring woman in that circumstance would have made. And the choice her husband–if he were caring–would have insisted on!
This leaves us with only two options:
a) Sarah is/was either not sane, or was so uncaring that she was more concerned about her image than about the life she was carrying inside her.
or
b) She wasn’t pregnant.
I just don’t see a third alternative.
http://www.joemcginniss.net/
rosanne-cash-tells-what-a-
caring-truly-pregnant-mother-
would-have-done-in-texas/Joe%20McGinniss
The only reason Sarah is still in the FOX stables is because they are waiting to see if she is going to run for POTUS and when she announces she is not, they will eventually cut her off their payroll
ReplyDeleteAs we have all noticed, Sarah is being interviewed by no names and is getting less air time.
As far as the two devices, who knows, maybe Sarah is running the family prostitution ring on the two Blackberries?
Ottoline:
ReplyDeleteJune 19, 2011 at 2:28 am
Hey, JR — Me too: I’ll take the combo.
For me, one of (Palindeception) Audrey’s most eye-opening posts was one in which she described what would happen if an 8-mo pregnant woman were to give birth on a plane (or 7.5-mo, as Palin claimed later; or a 35-week pregnant woman, per the suspicious CBJ election-eve medical letter).
I’ve had babies but I’ve never witnessed a birth, as midwife Audrey had. We all know that until the birth happens, no one really knows how it will go. So if a pregnant, leaking Palin got on that plane, she would know that MAYBE some or all of the following might happen: as she felt the birth approaching, she might go to the bathroom to try to labor in private and sop up fluids — even in first class, this is a cramped and dirty place. She might be in great pain (no meds). Later, she might be splayed out in the aisle or in a bank of first-class seats, not a lot of pads and blankets that can be instantly whisked away as amniotic fluid, pee, poop, and blood leaks out of her, and she might vomit more than once. She might be moaning involuntarily, by now she might be naked or partly naked, and she would be touching nonsterile surfaces all around her — even downright dirty surfaces. Breech birth, anyone? As the baby is born there is meconium and afterbirth and blood. Non-medical folks might be the only ones to assist her. Other passengers might take photos or video or sound recordings that could include all of it, to appear on YouTube the next day. No meds if Palin’s blood pressure were to soar. With any complication, there would really be no options until the plane did an emergency landing and she met an ambulance (and this could take time). Obviously, Palin could be in agony or die if complications happened, and ditto her premature fetus with a hole in his heart. There would be no oxygen or help for a baby with respiratory problems. Jackie Kennedy’s baby Patrick died right after birth due to respiratory problems because he was a month early.
So Audrey asked: Why was Palin not afraid to get on either of the two planes she took, fearing such a humiliating, life-threatening, and painful possible scenario? And Audrey answered: “For the same reason **I** am not afraid to board a plane: because I know I am not pregnant.”
How can anyone believe Palin took a risk like this? As I said, JP and I will take the combo.
http://www.joemcginniss.net/
rosanne-cash-tells-what-a-caring-truly-pregnant-mother-would-have-done-in-texas/Joe%20McGinniss
This is good. Now we're getting somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI knew we just had to give it some time.
That's a lotta emails!
Btw, what would be the purpose of two BB's? So she wouldn't have to go back and forth to various windows or accounts? Would she surf the web on one while answering email on the other? It's funny no on has pointed this out in the MSM. Is it typical? I have never seen it, myself, except with her.
I know it is considered a real addiction. So she's an addictive personality, which we've always speculated.
CW:
ReplyDeleteJune 19, 2011 at 4:33 am
It is intensely telling that there are no photos of Trig on the day of his purported birth except for those purportedly taken that day of him tightly swaddled in the arms of Sarah’s parents, in a hospital corridor.
This despite the reality that no one has a baby anymore without taking photos of the post-partum mother holding the baby, and of other family members with the baby, in the mother’s hospital room! Palin supposedly had her entire family visit her and Trig there, yet no one took a snapshot or a photo with a phone.
So we are to believe that she chose not to record or publicize any evidence of the happy event, despite her penchant for self-advertisement. No photo of Palin smiling with her DS newborn in her arms. And the hospital was not permitted (or wisely chose not to lend itself to the fraud) to list the birth on its web site as it did with all other births from that day.
There really is a strange air of secrecy and huggermuggery about what happened that day in that little hospital.
Palin had made a huge thing of going through with the pregnancy. An at-risk older mother pregnant with a Down syndrome child who was about to be born prematurely, she supposedly had just made an epic day-long journey leaking amniotic fluid, experiencing contractions, risking giving birth very dangerously and messily in flight. She was so determined that the child had to be born not just in Alaska, but in Wasilla, that she even passed up an Anchorage hospital equipped with a NICU. She supposedly gave birth in the care of a doctor who was far from a specialist and who had delivered only a few other babies in the last year.
Yet Palin chose not to capitalize on this triumph with even one snapshot of her and the baby.
I’d say the only post-partum mothers these days who aren’t photographed with their babies within a few hours of delivery are those who have kept the pregnancies a secret — and who hope to do so after delivery, too. Certainly not women who’ve trumpeted their heroism in continuing a pregnancy with a DS baby.
http://www.joemcginniss.net/
rosanne-cash-tells-what-a-caring-truly-pregnant-mother-would-have-done-in-texas/Joe%20McGinniss
Sally:
ReplyDeleteJune 19, 2011 at 11:53 am
And a woman who awoke in the middle of the night leaking fluid, stayed awake to give a noon speech, hopped on a plane, where she was reportedly Blakberrying, reads between flights in Seattle, back on another plane, then in a car for the ride to whatever hospital she ended up in, is induced, has the baby, has the whole family visit, THEN, when any normal woman who had been awake for thirty hours would want only six hours of sleep, SHE is back on he Blackberry within an hour of the birth. Right.
http://www.joemcginniss.net/
rosanne-cash-tells-what-a-caring-truly-pregnant-mother-would-have-done-in-texas/Joe%20McGinniss
carollt:
ReplyDeleteJune 19, 2011 at 9:53 am
I remember reading Rosanne’s excellent commentary. The media did not pay attention then and they still are not paying attention to the fact that Sarah Palin was not pregnant and is not the mother of Trig.
Remember, this 40 something year old woman was up at 4 am Texas time (is that 1 am Alaska time?) on Friday. She stayed up all day and all night and gave “birth” around 6 am and was happily emailing staff at 8 am on Saturday, but not about the birth. She also claims to have signed bills and attended to State business on Saturday. She then went back to work on Monday, taking a “premature” infant, supposedly an infant who by her own admission had a hole in his heart, with her.
I can tell you that when an infant is born with a hole in his or her heart, the hospital does not discharge said infant until corrective surgery has been performed. Ask any baby doctor out there.
Pioneer woman my ass. Sarah has never lived in a house without running water and electricity. Sarah has never even lived a minute of life where she was not covered by health insurance. She’s a liar; she’s a con artist; she’s a grifter, and with Franklin Graham’s help, she is now a Charlatan.
And speaking of health insurance, if the hospital billed the insurance company and the insurance company paid the bill, that is fraud, pure and simple.
http://www.joemcginniss.net/
rosanne-cash-tells-what-a-caring-truly-pregnant-mother-would-have-done-in-texas/Joe%20McGinniss
Sarah Palin has a peculiar habit
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/user/
palingates1#p/a/u/0/nUG-g0UuClo
In 2008 those Wasilla hill billies went to the lower 48 and looted the GOP of everything they could get their grubby little hands on and took it back to Wasilla.
ReplyDeleteWe know by the released emails that then Gov Sarah tried to hide the Alaskan state purchase of the tanning bed from the media and public. That tanning bed belongs to the Alaskan taxpayers! Where is the tanning bed now? Did Sarah steal the bed when she quit?
Now to the two Blackberries, who purchased them for Sarah's use? Did the Alaskan state or Wasilla taxpayers pay for them as well and Sarah stole them when she quit on Alaska? We want our BBs back!
Gov. Palin's focus was mainly on the mirror
ReplyDeleteNewly released e-mails show her image obsession.
...There are also signs of trouble to come. She quibbles about whether her staff's well-documented inquiries about her ex-brother-in-law's employment as a state trooper are improper. She complains about the time she has to spend in Juneau, the state capital, instead of at home in Wasilla. She tries to find ways to bring her children on trips at state expense. She's appalled at the gossip about her son Trig's birth and her children's loss of privacy.
Palin had amazing success early in her term. She had the good fortune to follow a deeply unpopular governor just as a corruption scandal weakened the state's oil industry. She had great timing, and she took advantage of it. But her success didn't last.
The e-mails don't cover the period after she threw away her bipartisan-reformer persona to become John McCain's partisan pit bull. They don't show how, after her return to Alaska, she became the victim of her own scattershot management, superficial engagement, petty conflicts, and ethical controversies. But they do give us early clues about why she would abandon the hard work of governing for the fame and riches of the entertainment world.
http://www.philly.com/philly/
opinion/inquirer/20110614_Gov__Palin_s_focus_was_mainly
_on_the_mirror.html
LOLOL! Isn't just so cute how these gullible, right wing lemmings come slithering about to defend the dolt that is Ms. Palin. She is the single most riskiest factor for the GOP - her candidacy would relegate the GOP to non-national power for at least a decade, yet the dumbest of the dumb blindly defend her, even after all the documented evidence of her corruption, low intellect, vicious and vengeful mindset, and inability to ever tell the truth. The e-mail release was LEGALLY REQUIRED as part of her self-abdicated (quit) half-term as Governor. Nothing in this article doesn't reflect the very own words of Ms. Palin herself. You morons keep screeching that the left "fears" Ms. Palin - we do not. We may fear the prospect of a Palin Presidency (which is most certainly never going to happen), but we relish her candidacy, and after last night's freak show - we welcome any of those GOP "contenders". The GOP has NOTHING to offer Americans except empty, divisive words that have no substance outside of their - and the voters are not going to give them back power, now that they can see just how much their failed policies have contributed to the mess Obama is trying to clean up now. — BeautifulStranger
ReplyDeletehttp://www.philly.com/philly/
opinion/inquirer/20110614_Gov__Palin_s_focus_was_mainly
_on_the_mirror.html
Now that is a good report. Someone who knew what was going on inside her cabinet.
ReplyDeleteToo bad a little of that reporting didn't make it into the Daily News at the time.
I can hear Dougherty worrying about sourcing, but there are ways to report and present this type of information ethically.
That's what struck me, too, Gryph...this whole MSM notion that she was busy governing. Says WHO?
ReplyDeleteWhat I gained in reading them was that her minions were doing all the work FOR her. She had no idea what her response as governor was supposed to be to ANYTHING, and was MUCH more into preserving her image (barf) and cutting detractors off at the knees.
To quote Charlotte's Web, "SOME PIG." With due apologies to Wilbur.
I think the blackberries are her security blanket and a way for her to fake doing work.
ReplyDeleteMost of us have had a job where we have worked with someone who had the boss convinced they did EVERYTHING, but in fact did nothing--Sarah is one of those.
Gryphen, I am honestly doubtful that it's really a matter of "so many people being fooled" by Palin. I really think there is a concerted effort to prop this woman up and to make her credible as a political figure. There was clearly a carbon copy take on the Palin emails throughout what we think of as the mainstream media. Note how so many of them characterized the emails as showing an "engaged" governor. I really, really believe there are rightwing plants dispersed throughout the media today. This is one reason why what you do is so important.
ReplyDeleteYikes!
ReplyDeletehttp://cache.gawker.com/assets/
images/comment/7/2011/06/71eaa336030ef7396299fb14e8ca0ae1/original.jpg
That's what amazes me about the emails--the SHEER VOLUME of them. Remember, this isn't even all of them. Bailey has 60K alone from an account we can't access, and that's just the ones that were sent to HIM. There were over 3000 sent to just TODD---that we've seen.
ReplyDeleteShe was governor for what--2 years? Were these people never in meetings together? Ivy Fry's offering coffee to Sarah *via email*. Is that the only way Sarah could be contacted?
Gryphen, on another note, I'm still stunned at how there's no discussion of Emmonak, either in these emails or Frank's book. Considering the heat she took, considering the public tiff between her and Ramras (aka Vajajay) over it, it seems unbelievable that nothing was discussed on it.
In following Palin and researching a forthcoming book about her, I found a common theme: She is not a detail person. In the words of Larry Persily, who worked on federal issues for her, "she does not stay up late at night reading briefing books."
ReplyDeleteNo, she was busy reading Christian Prayer Warrior emails and fighting haters to govern.
Why was this woman giving a pass for not turning over the governing of the State while she engaged in a grueling 20/7 national campaign? Because she was putting as much effort into governing as before, which required about 30% of her time. The other was handled by Todd Todd Todd and her sycophant personal assistants.
Don't forget, the woman called it quits by 3 in the afternoon, put on a pair of Walmart pajama's and gazed adoringly on reality teevee stars, wishing that one day, she could rule the airwaves as a celebrity without having the talent you can't act your way in the way you do as a conservative leader.
Anon @ 3:23 a.m. - brilliant observation. If we were to believe that her family was first, she would have dropped out of the Lt. Governor's race way back. Not further run for Governor and as a VP running-mate.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 3:43 a.m. - another brilliant contruct.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad state of affairs when a know-nothing phenomenon like Sarah Palin is the subject of so many books.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the other book IM posted about yesterday, this author shows incite and the intent to be honest. I'll buy his book.
ReplyDeleteThat other diatribe isn't getting my hard-earned money. I will sit in Barnes and Nobles and read it for free. Which keeps it off the shelf for a while, also, too.
It would be great if IM readers as a group boycotted this book and used free (library and Barnes and Nobel) options. After all, we do want to read it so we can be informed crutucs.
Anon at 2:22
ReplyDeleteYou Sarah trolls should give it up. At least on blogs like this. If you seek to irritate us, too bad, we laugh at your ignorance. If you seek to change our minds about your stupid queen, we laugh again. If it is you, RAM, or Sarwa, or any of her other minions, we are ROFL. So go somewhere else where your stupidity is appreciated. We are laughing at you. Seriously. And we will NEVER. STOP. UNTiL. YOUR. QUEEN. IS. EXPOSED.
So use your efforts elsewhere.
3:22 AM...
ReplyDeleteThere you again in your efforts to deflect guilt onto others. Which aide/enabler are you?
In Frank Bailey's book, he admits that the bunch of you cowardly hide behind a cloak of fictitious email addresses and fake blog names.
Focus.. and by all means, grow the f*** up. This piece is about $arah Paylin, not about THE PRESIDENT of The UNITED STATES (something she'll NEVER achieve) Barack Obama. Stop dragging that man's name into that bitch's mess.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI still don't see how the truth is darkness. She's naturally a very cheery person who will do anything to help a friend. What president is it that's obsessed with his blackberry?
3:22 AM
With friends like Sarah who needs enemies?
I rather stick a needle in my than call Palin a friend!
Sarah Palin does not need friends, she needs "Yes people" and kiss asses!
If you read Sarah's emails, she surrounded herself with people who for some reason has to constantly tell her that she is doing a good job.
carbon copy reporting
ReplyDeleteIt's everywhere, even among competitors. A simple example is to read a summary of a sporting event on the two major sport networks, and the local paper for each city. All the stories are almost identical. We have lost the perspective of several reporters doing their job, so they send one out to get a sanitized version that can be used by as many outlets as possible. No controversy, just pass it around. If some local reporter adds in a local flavor then great! In essence the blogs have become the investigative journalists that the MSM has exited
3:22 am - Sarah Palin is obscessed with 2 blackberries, is one the one used for the prostitution business she and Todd are running?
ReplyDelete3:22 President Obama at least works and participates in his meetings! Thank God, he is our President and McCain and Palin were not elected.
ReplyDeletePalin is not qualified to hold a city, state or national seat and Alaskans can verify it.
Don't forget that she's going down as "Alaska's Worst Governor EVER"!
Just imagine how much her kids hated those fucking blackberrys. They're in the middle of telling her something important and needing her advice, and she turns to those devices instead. What a world-class lousy mother.
ReplyDeleteThere will always be Eddie Haskells in this world. Charming at the right times so they can misbehave when they want to. Some of us see it and it gets to us, others are fooled, some turn a blind eye, some are part of the act. I think most people see Sarah as a fool but not as the trickster that she is. Her set of values seems to go against most of mine and people may have suffered unfairly as a consequence of her climb to higher positions. Hopefully she will pay for it, one way or another, but justice is not always achieved so you have to be satisfied that you have done what you could and not let it get to you too much. It's just a part of the balance of life and on a day like today, Father's Day, it is a big help to remember and appreciate the good things in our lives and focus on them.
ReplyDeleteHappy Father's Day to all the dads out there.
2:22
ReplyDeleteI'm for Borderline Personality Disorder, has more sexual overtones and the "under the bus" solution is classic for dealing with people they can't manipulate.
From a guy you can call me Tread Marks
Instead of writing books about Palin, perhaps someone should author a tome on the American public, and its fascination with people like Palin. What has happened over the years, that the voting public has become so dumbed down?
ReplyDeleteMy head spins in disbelief, every time this foolish and verbally awkward woman speaks. That journalists and politicos entertain her on any level, is more than a little disconcerting.
Our Canadian politics are quite boring actually, but going through what the american electorate is having to face would be untenable to most of us.
Her mode of operation was to hire close friends and people who she knew she could manipulate, like yes men. If she had hired qualified people, they would have noticed her mental disturbances immediately and would have quit.
ReplyDeleteShe basically kept the SOA from getting the best it deserved. She was the Queen who had grabbed the crown and scepter and would not let go. It's a miracle that she didn't do more damage.
The e-mails also showed she's a group entity. She's not one but many. She can't function without kids around her, babies, or husband. Her needs were almost infantile, where she would have to cc e-mails to her parents. This alone should make everyone's radar go on and ask if this kind of indidual should be allowed to take on a mantle responsible for a whole state, nation.
Anonymous at 3:22 -
ReplyDelete"She's naturally a very cheery person who will do anything to help a friend."
Ridiculous. Ram? Willow?
You must mean the way she helped close family friend Jeremy Morlock...right!
3:22
ReplyDeleteShe'll do anything for a friend? The bodies she's left behind to rot make the killing fields in Cambodia looks downright pleasant. And how bout that young man she told was like a second son to her? Something about snapping and murder? Never mind, closed minds can't process truth. Go stare at her tongue flicks and fall all over yourself again, mail the check Monday though, she may be getting short on cash
My favorite "oh, get real" pic of Sarah is at a reception at I think the Gov's Mansion, lots of people around. She is holding Trig, a baby bottle, and her two Blackberries. "See? I can also too do it all."
ReplyDeleteSo Mr. Zency has some observations about Sarah. It might be an interesting book. He did have a ringside seat to the Palin phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteBut wait; what did Mr. Zency know and when did he know it? Did the Anchorage Daily News coverage of Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin accurately reflect what Mr. Zency now knows?
Perhaps Mr. Zency has a different understanding of things now as opposed to when he was the editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News.
Matt Zencey joined the Daily News as an editorial writer in 1985 and was named editorial page editor in May 2007. He has won several. "Best editorial writing" awards from the Alaska Press Club and was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University.
http://community.adn.com/blog/53716
An interview of Mr Zency with Campbell Brown aired on CNN August 29, 2008. What did Mr. Zency have to say about the Vice Presdidential nominee back then?
BROWN: And with me now on the telephone is somebody who knows more about Sarah Palin's politics than probably 99.9 percent of the country right now. Matthew Zencey is editorial page editor of the "Anchorage Daily News", Alaska's largest newspaper. Welcome Matthew.
You know most Americans don't know much, if anything, about Governor Sarah Palin and certainly not before today. I mean you give us your sense as a local, what sort of her biggest accomplishment is or what she's really known for there.
MATTHEW ZENCEY, "ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS" (via phone): Well I'd say five things, really, stand out in my mind about her tenure in office here. You have got some of her personal story there in the introductory segment.
Number one, she was ele...
And then later on in the interview
BROWN: So basically she's a maverick, I guess you could say and...
ZENCEY: Yes. Yes, she is. She does have a little bit of an ethical blemish on her record here. She's in the midst of a controversy about some members of her staff and family trying to get her public safety department to fire her ex-brother-in-law, who's a state trooper. And that is being investigated by the state legislature here as we speak.
BROWN: OK, I was going to ask you about that. And this is, as I understand it, you just said a state trooper, her former brother-in- law who is going through a messy divorce with her sister, as I understand it, and she's accused of trying to get him fired, is that accurate?
ZENCEY: The divorce is over and the child custody issues are over. The trooper in question was suspended for 10 days, but not fired. The family and the governor's supporters felt he should be fired, tried to get the case reopened. Her public safety commissioner declined to do that and then her public safety commissioner resigned and the question is what sort of pressure might have been brought to bear on him to do that.
BROWN: So, Matthew, Matthew, just bottom line it for me. In your view, what do you think of this pick? Is she ready? Is she qualified?
ZENCEY: It's a brilliant political stroke, I think, because she complements McCain in so many ways, the maverick image...
BROWN: Right.
ZENCEY: ... social conservative, working class roots and so forth. She is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. And in my humble opinion, she is less qualified than Dan Quayle (ph), but he got elected vice president, so you never know.
BROWN: All right, on that note, Matthew Zencey, I appreciate your time tonight. Thanks very much.
The entire interview transcript is available at
http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0808/29/ec.01.html
"It's a brilliant political stroke I think"
"And in my humble opinion, she is less qualified than Dan Quayle (ph), but he got elected vice president, so you never know."
I prefer more real journalism so that the possibility of someone less qualified than Dan Quayle serving as Vice President is not left to "you never know".
THIS was exactly what I saw with these emails. When the MSM came up with their quick "hard-at-work" take I couldn't believe it. Obviously their idea of hard-at-work was different than mine. (Unfortunately many people rise through the ranks creating the impression of hard-work by delegating and taking the credit of people who do the real work while they are busy planning their next step or something recreational.)
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that after the Paul Revere fiasco the MSM had already decided to go easy on Sarah and the emails seemed like an opportunity to do that without appearing to be looking the other way on something. In an effort to make it look like they aren't out to get Sarah when they report on her never-ending flubs they go out of their way to find things they can gloss over.
An interesting Progressive Alaska post turned up when researching Mr. Zencey.
ReplyDeletehttp://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/07/disturbing-trend-at-adn.html
The post concerns several issues, including comment moderation policies at the ADN.
That post begins
I've written here about Don Young Bipolar Disorder at the Anchorage Daily News. And I've been critical in the past of some of the fuzzy softballs they love to throw Ted's way in the next few days after they've had to print an article critical of one or another of St. Ted's increasingly serious lapses.
But I had an experience late this morning with Editorial Page Editor Matt Zencey, that has left a foul taste in my mouth.
The subject of comment moderation at the ADN was the subject of some discussion over the years.
Recently released emails draw attention to this part of the Progressive Alaska post
Nor did I tell him about the information I got from Washington, D.C. yesterday, indicating the ADN had been under pressure from Ted Stevens' office on Linda's article before it was published, indicating the ADN may have sent a copy of the article there before publication.
Matt Zencey might have some good information for his book, should he choose to use it this time.
She's intellectually lazy, but not dumb. If a topic is of interest to her (like herself) she devotes boundless energy to it. If not (like the pesky details required to actually govern), she can't be bothered and thinks she is so cute and fast on her feet she can cover her ignorance--a false sense of her own significance that leads to disasters like the Paul Revere situation and her ridiculous contention that 'what did you do today?' is a 'gotcha' question.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see someone do a video mashup of her actually being asked incredibly simple questions that she later characterizes as 'gotcha's.' I think that would ultimately disgust all but her most devoted fans. How can 24% of the country still think she's presidential material?
When my doctor discovered I was leaking amniotic fluid at my 37 1/2 weeks, he told me I had to go directly to the hospital, which was in the next building. He told me there was a risk of infection.
ReplyDeleteMy husband was out of town and I was all alone, no bag, nothing. I desperately wanted to drive home and get my bag. It would have taken an hour tops. But I did what he told me.
I had a Cesarian. There were no pictures in the hospital.
@4:59 a.m. Hmmm the insurance would be one of two - either state of Alaska or the IHS, both government funded.
ReplyDeleteWould that make either of them FOIA eligible or would HIPPA still block?
7:38, your comment reminded me of Sarah's phony reason for keeping the Trig "pregnancy" secret: she claimed she was afraid of the good ol boys backlash. Although, having had 4 kids, I think that ship would alway have sailed. Yet, after the "birth," there she is, parading around the"reminder"that might label her an "incompetent new mother."
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason why those Blackberries are AKA Crackberries.
ReplyDeleteMy mother also had narcissistic personality disorder. Very difficult to deal with. I've also been around borderline personliaty disorder people and to me she has both. I have a BA in Psychology, totally useless, but have a little knowledge. I don't see any reason why the woman could not have both disorders.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteShe's naturally a very cheery person who will do anything to help a friend.
3:22 AM
At least two of her children,as teens, have been in trouble with the law, one got knocked up, one flips the bird in public and attacks press persons, and one is a Down Syndrome Child.
Maybe she should give up cheeriness and realize that the people who desperately need her serious parental attention are her own children.
Taking care of troubled and disabled children isn't cherry work it is damned hard heartbreaking work that takes parents' full and very Serious attention.
Lots of adults have given up jobs and professional opportunities to take care of family members who needed extra care, whether children, siblings, spouses or parents.
Its the right thing to do, it is the Christian thing to do, it is the loving thing to do, it is the Adult thing to do, and it is the responsible thing to do.
So when does Sarah start? When does she run for the office of loving, caring, supportive, parent?
Shortly before McCain chose her, I asked Larry if Palin was as stupid as people were saying. (The notion was floating around a long time ago.) He said that if she had things written on a half-piece of paper, she could handle it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the emails that showed me how out of touch she was concerned a favorable comment that Bush had made about opening ANWR. Her staff had to "investigate" what Bush had said because they had a request from Channel 11 for a comment. Then they sent Palin a talking point. What kind of "energy expert" doesn't keep tabs on daily national news like that, and needs help with some bland platitude in response?
The kind who lies about being an "energy expert."
I'll say this for the bot's. They are organized and attack en-mass. Check out the comments. Made me want to rip my hair out. When I tried to register, the site wouldn't let me. I wonder why??
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/conservative_womens_problem_with_palin.html
Applecheeks1969 @ 8:48am said...
ReplyDelete"When my doctor discovered I was leaking amniotic fluid at my 37 1/2 weeks, he told me I had to go directly to the hospital, which was in the next building. He told me there was a risk of infection.
My husband was out of town and I was all alone, no bag, nothing. I desperately wanted to drive home and get my bag. It would have taken an hour tops. But I did what he told me.
I had a Cesarian. There were no pictures in the hospital."
That is YOUR reason for no pictures of the birth of your child, when you were all alone.
What is Palin's excuse for no birth pictures - with her MULTIPLE family memebers there at the hospital? She was not all alone.
marlys sez...
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:43am is spot on!
*~~~
I always knew about the e-mail thing being ridiculous, but somehow today this article got me into a bit of reverse engineering to a question.
ReplyDeleteShe introduces the meetings, then turns it over to a subordinate and runs off with her blackbery. One assumes that she would conduct her Presidential business in the same way, should she ever (HAH!) win the WH.
What were Snooki's duties as Miss Wasilla? Look pretty and make an introduction for the "rill dill" for being wherever she was that day? Did she fulfill her duties as Miss Wasilla.
Also too, having done a quick google search on the Miss Alaska 1984 pageant, this morning is the first time I realized that she lost to Alaska's first African American Miss Alaska. I bet that chafed her hide. It's a little telling, no?
Anon @ 3:22 AM - So sad that you sit waiting and clicking away for a new thread on IM so that you can put a nonsense comment at the top where everyone will see it. I hope she pays you well. RAM got $90k a year.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you gather up all of those photos of Snooki without a Blackberry in her hand and then we can talk about how many there are of our President (it's a title and therefore capitalized) holding a Blackberry in comparison, m'kay?
LisaB2595 @5:42 AM "...no discussion of Emmonak, either in these emails or Frank's book"
ReplyDeleteLisa, the Emmonak (and other villages) crisis happened several months after the last #PalinEmail just released -- although you're right, the events leading up to the fishing/fuel crisis happened before the date of those last emails.
Perhaps some of the redacted "Subj: Monegan" emails dealt with the crisis, since he DID try to alert the Palin administration about the problem in summer/fall 2008.
OK, the email dump covers 665 days if you're generous and you give her all of September 2008. She was governor 365 days a year so I'm not giving her weekends in this calculation - every day is a "working day". If you include the 2,000 they didn't release, that's at minimum 40 emails a day.
ReplyDeleteWe all know how long it takes to type out and send an email. Let's just say 5 minutes each. Some will be longer, some will be shorter. That would at minimum be 3.33 hours a day composing emails.
Now, let's assume that she gets replies to at least half of those emails and she reads them. that's 1.6 hours a day reading emails, for a grand total of 4.63 hours a day with emails
If you want to figure weekends into the equation, (I'm not figuring holidays here) she was "on the job" 495 days during that time period. After all, these are her public emails written on her publicly issued computer, not her private ones written in her off time.
If you figure just working days, that's 53 emails a day. That's 4.4 hours a day to write them, and 2.2 hours a day to read responses, for a total of 6.6 hours a day sending and reading emails.
None of these calculations include surfing the web time, which her emails show that she also did. When in the world did this woman do a single lick of work?
bwilliamsi said...
ReplyDeleteOK, the email dump covers 665 days if you're generous and you give her all of September 2008. She was governor 365 days a year so I'm not giving her weekends in this calculation - every day is a "working day". If you include the 2,000 they didn't release, that's at minimum 40 emails a day.
We all know how long it takes to type out and send an email. Let's just say 5 minutes each. Some will be longer, some will be shorter. That would at minimum be 3.33 hours a da
y composing emails.
Now, let's assume that she gets replies to at least half of those emails and she reads them. that's 1.6 hours a day reading emails, for a grand total of 4.63 hours a day with emails
If you want to figure weekends into the equation, (I'm not figuring holidays here) she was "on the job" 495 days during that time period. After all, these are her public emails written on her publicly issued computer, not her private ones written in her off time.
If you figure just working days, that's 53 emails a day. That's 4.4 hours a day to write them, and 2.2 hours a day to read responses, for a total of 6.6 hours a day sending and reading emails.
None of these calculations include surfing the web time, which her emails show that she also did. When in the world did this woman do a single lick of work?
11:54 AM
bwilliamsi, I don't know if you considered that Palin probably wrote some emails on her Blackberries which adds considerable more time to write them.
I cannot see why Sarah still carries around 2 blackberries all the time. She has no job, no business to check with and only does paid speeches at various times. What is so important that she keeps them out front all the time? She couldn't be getting that many emails from her kids that she would need 2 blackberries.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if one of them is solely for a special guy, say like Franklin Graham. She seems besotted with him.
Anon @ 1:06 - Good point. Although I bet she is quicker with her Blackberry than I am with mine...
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose Sarah is one of those who sleeps her way to the top? Sleep with big oil guys, maybe Hannity, maybe McCain, anyone who will get her where she wants to go.
ReplyDeleteThis may sound horrible, but woman in the work force do it all the time.
"for a total of 6.6 hours a day sending and reading emails."
ReplyDeleteI suspected as much. Thanks for making those calculations.
Then there was coffee to be had, her office copy of People to be read, and special events to attend. That would conveniently leave no time for the nitty gritty, briefings or research.
This "multitasking" with blackberry devices is truly laughable.
ReplyDeleteThe email's that have been released so far show the lengths she'll go to bitch slap anyone who dares get in her way, her contempt for the office she held, and her obsession with taking credit for anything that went right, while ignoring all that went wrong.
This attention from ADN is pretty damming. If a paper from your own state exposes your true charachter, the writing's on the wall.
There was a fascinating YouTube video of Palin meeting with the commissioners in the spring of 2009. She introduced topics and then went on to mess with her Blackberry while doing her nails and practically spinning in her seat. She struck me as a person who suffers form some sort of attention deficit disorder. I was very happy when she decided to not be our governor anymore as she looked like she was not engaged in her job or could process in a meeting any appreciable length of time. It is my impression that her staff covered up some very serious challenges the governor was unwilling to address.
ReplyDeleteIf it makes anyone feel better, we aren't the only ones who think the Wicked Bitch from Wasilla is not playing with a full deck.
ReplyDeleteI happen to work at a VERY famous restaurant, owned by a VERY famous chef, on a VERY famous street, that had a VERY famous guest this past weekend.
Lets just say that its amazing what people will say when they consider you invisible... And someone with a LOT of clout in the RNC had a rather interesting opinion about a certain quitter...
But since I don't want to end up like WendyWaitress, I hesitate to share details. Those flying monkeys are vicious and I wouldn't put it past them to try to cost me my job.
Um, Griff?
Wanna chat?
Sarah Palin reminds me so much of someone I used to work with. Her name was Shari and she was the manager of a gift shop where I was the asst. manager. To this day I have no idea how Shari got the manager position, especially compared to vastly more qualified employees.
ReplyDeleteLike Sarah, Shari was a total showboater, but completely without substance. Shari made a big deal of looking like she was doing work, but didn't actually do any work. She would hold up a list, and in a flurry would say things like, "This is my list. I have so much work to do." Meanwhile everyone else was keeping their noses to the grindstone and getting work done.
Shari didn't last long. I think she worked at the store for about a year. In that year, staff morale was down and our profits were in the toilet.
I was begrudgingly promoted to her spot (Shari had vindicatively talked smack about me). Morale was boosted (one of my keyolders told me she prefered me as manager because I actually did the work), I mentored several employees, and our profits went up. However, the owner of the company didn't see fit to give me a raise. Somehow Shari's bs lies about me were taken seriously, but my actual work wasn't. I'm still pissed.
@1:31 - she has one blackberry to manage the state brothel.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the article, and the very cool blog
ReplyDelete