Game Change: Sarah goes Rogue, fixates on Alaska media (blogs), and asks the McCain campaign to lie for Todd.

I almost forgot that I promised to finish writing a post on what "Game Change" had to say about Palin's final days on the campaign. Here you go:

With the debate-related tumult behind them and any possibility gone that Palin would be a game changer, McCain's strategists hoped she would continue to be useful in firing up the base and not create too many disruptions or distractions. But it wasn't long before he signs appeared that Palin was going rogue.

(Wow! You know THAT might make a good book title. I am just saying.)

The most widely publicized example was an interview she gave to the Times in-house conservative columnist, William Kristol, on October 5,the same day she thrashed Obama for "palling around with terrorists." When Kristol asked why, if Ayers was on the table, Reverend Wright was not, Palin said that Obama's pastor should be fair game and implicitly criticized McCain for not leading the charge. McCain was rarely bothered when Palin scampered off message, mainly because he did the same so often himself. But this was an exception. He'd drawn a hard line around Wright and couldn't understand why his running mate would have crossed it. (P 408)


She was emerging as a big time control freak. With her family now accompanying her most everywhere, making air-travel logistics a pain, she directed the campaign to "schedule bus transportation instead of flights whenever possible, even if that means late night drives in the bus." She became maniacal about monitoring her media coverage; she was constantly channel-surfing and blogoshere mining, and when she came across any mention that was less than flattering, she insisted that her staff try to have it corrected. (Here is where I need to note that I have received MULTIPLE confirmations that Palin was in fact OBSESSED with the Alaska blogs. This book only barely skims the surface of that obsession, but I know that a few of the books coming out later will go into much deeper detail concerning Palin and her frustration with some of our favorite bloggers.) Palin also showed an unusual wariness about politicians and donors brought aboard her campaign plane and bus. "I want to google them myself so I can know my comfort level," she e-mailed her team in October 9. "Photos, etc with them may come back to haunt me if I can't vet these folks myself."

Palin's concern with such appearances was seen by some as an indication that she already had her fights set on 2012. But in truth, she and Todd continued to be far more preoccupied by her status in Alaska than just about anything else. Any issue related to the state put them on high alert, and incited some of their worst propensities toward parsimoniousness with the truth. On October 10, when the Alaska legislature issued a report on Troopergate (That was the Branchflower report that the Alaska bloggers were instrumental in getting released.) stating that Palin had abused her powers but not broken the law, Palin proclaimed to reporters that she had been cleared of all wrongdoing. When her staff told her she would have to walk back her statement because it wasn't true, she said, "Well, why was I told otherwise?"--neglecting the fact that her talking points had made the results of the report quite plain. (P 409)

A few days later, Palin got into a big fight with Schmidt when she insisted that the campaign put out a statement denying Todd's involvement in the Alaska Independence Party. Palin contended that Todd had mistakenly registered with the party and rectified the error; she also claimed the party had nothing to do with secession. Schmidt curtly informed her that secession was the party's reason for existence and that, according to the campaign's records, Todd had been a member for seven years. (P 410)

Just in case you are inclined to side with Palin on the AIP argument, you can click the link I provided and read the following:

Q: What is the Alaskan Independence Party?

A: An Alaskan political party whose members advocate a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority; from advocacy for state's rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.

In other words, Schmidt was dead right. And if you STILL want to give Sarah herself a pass on this one, then perhaps you should watch the following YouTube video.



THAT is the woman who was almost one 72 year old heartbeat away from being the President of the United States. Pretty damn scary huh?

As the election barreled toward its conclusion, something dark and frightening was unleashed, freed in part by the words of the McCains and Palin. At rallies across the country, there were jagged outbursts of rage and accusations of sedition hurled at Obama. In Pennsylvania and New Mexico, McCain audience members were captured on video calling the Democrat a "terrorist." In Wisconsin, Obama was reviled as a "hooligan" and a "socialist."

With the brutish dynamic apparently on the verge of hurtling out of control, a chagrined Mccain attempted to rein it in. In Minnesota, when a man in the crowd said he would be afraid to raise a child in America if Obama were elected, McCain responded, "He is a decent person and not a person you have to be scared of as president." A few minutes later, he refuted a woman who called Obama "an Arab."

McCain's efforts to tamp down the furies were valorous, though they did nothing to erase his role in triggering the reaction in the first place. The civil rights hero John Lewis, whom McCain admired enormously, compared the Republican nominee and his running mate to George Wallace and said they were "playing with fire." (P 421)

You know personally I don't believe that McCain had ANY idea what he was getting himself, and his campaign, into when he allowed Palin to be placed on his ticket. Perhaps if he had really vetted her he could have seen her connection to the AIP and known that she would incite the most racist and militant Americans in our country. Of course as I have said all along, I don't think that McCain was left with any choice. If he had not put her on the ticket, which convinced the Evangelicals to support him, he would have lost by even bigger margins than he did.

Of course he might have come away with his soul still intact. NOW the monster he helped to unleash on the country has forced him to embrace ideals he once found repugnant and fight tooth and nail for the Senate seat that he has comfortably held for 28 years.

What is it the bible says? "They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind." Hosea 8:7

Perhaps John McCain should have taken THAT particular biblical passage to heart.

By the way I need to tell you that what I have written here is only a portion of the book Game Change, and I encourage EVERYBODY to pick up their own copy. It is a MUST read for the political junkie. And if you are a conservative, have no fear, there is also plenty of behind the scenes dirt on Democrats as well.