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Palin Courts Cameras, But Dodges Questions
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (left) talks with Republican vice-presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on September 23, in New York City. Note Randy Scheunemann - neo-con war hawk, McCain advisor, and heir apparent to Kissinger - hovering in the background. (AFP/Getty Images/Chris Hondros) NEW YORK - For
better or for worse, each of the four candidates comprising the
Democratic and Republican tickets made headlines Tuesday. But one of
them, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, did so without
uttering a word to the voters or the press.
While presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama each held press conferences where they addressed the Treasury Department's $700 billion rescue plan for the financial markets, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden continued to make news with his awkward remarks, Palin continued to sidestep the media to an almost unprecedented degree for a national campaign.
Perhaps as a result, Palin's meetings with foreign leaders Tuesday were nearly marred by stories chronicling her campaign's brief standoff with reporters over access to her pre-meeting photo ops.
Palin, who has not held a single press conference since McCain announced her as the Republican vice presidential candidate, in the past week has held only one rally on her own, and has ditched her print press contingent to make an ice cream run with her family andto pose for staged photos with foreign leaders.
The shielding-Sarah-Palin strategy - which otherwise allows for lots of photographs and information about her attractive, young family, combined with occasional rallies - has worked well so far for the Alaska governor. She continues to energize the Republican base and draw considerable press attention despite never actually taking reporters'nettlesome questions. But there are increasing signs that the effectiveness of the unusual gambit may be waning. After dominating the political headlines each week since McCain added her to the GOP ticket, Palin fell behind http://www.journalism.org/node/12900 both McCain and Obama in the percentage of campaign news stories between September 15 and 21 in which she was a significant or the dominant factor, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The economic meltdown likely had something to do with that. But the policy of keeping Palin under wraps may have also played a role. If nothing else, it has fed an unflattering, emerging positing that her unwillingness to face tough questions is because she is not quite ready for prime-time.
In the latest example of the extreme efforts to keep the press at bay, the campaign Tuesday sought to bar a Wall Street Journal reporter and a CNN producer from the small "pool" of journalists allowed to cover the grip-and-grin photo ops before Palin went into closed-door meetings with foreign dignitaries and international policy experts and advocates.
The reporter and producer were to have represented all the print reporters and television producers, respectively, that followed Palin's campaign. Their written summaries of the so-called "pool sprays" - events where journalists can snap photos and film footage and possibly shout a question or two - would be fed to other journalists following Palin.
The campaign's original reasoning in barring the journalists had been that Palin wasn't going to take questions or make any statements at the sprays, so the sprays were only appropriate for photographers and cameramen.
The campaign eventually reversed its decision to limit the pool, but only after CNN threatened to withhold its camera crew from filming the pool sprays.
Later, the campaign only slightly offset negative coverage of the imbroglio by sending reporters an email promising "a little color for background use from today." The details - that Palin's husband Todd took their three youngest children to snap pictures of the Statue of Liberty, to Ground Zero and to F.A.O. Schwartz, where their 7-year old daughter Piper "enjoyed trying on some princess dresses" - were featured far less prominently in most news reports story than the standoff with reporters and descriptions of her thin foreign policy credentials.
The McCain campaign believes Palin has been treated unfairly by the press, but it denies it's shielding her. Aides assert that her popularity on the campaign trail makes that a better forum for her.
Rick Davis, a top campaign aide, in a Monday conference call, pointed to a Sunday afternoon Palin rally in central Florida that drew the largest crowd showall of any single Republican event this cycle. Crowd size was estimated from 23,000 to a harder-to-believe 60,000.
"If anybody ever asks us to make a choice between seeing 60,000 people at a rally on the I-4 corridor in Florida or spending an hour with a reporter," Davis said, "I don't imagine we'd have many questions about what we'd rather do."
After the Florida event, Palin left behind the print reporter "pooler" designated to follow her - but not the pool camera crew - as she, Todd and their three youngest children sped off in their motorcade to a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream parlor.
Footage captured the Palins being greeted by cheering supporters and mingling with customers without the uncomfortable presence of reporters shouting questions at Palin. The campaign later sent them an email detailing the flavors of ice cream each ordered.
"Piper had Oreo Overload. Willow (14) had Birthday Cake Mix (sic). Todd had chocolate with peanut butter. Gov. Palin also had Birthday Cake Mix (sic)."
The flavors did not appear in many accounts of the Palins trip to Florida.
Amie Parnes and Victoria McGrane contributed to this report.
19 Comments so far
Show AllI can't wait until we hear the type of music that Sarah Palin and her family have on their I-Pod's!!
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Why should she talk to the press? After all, the press is just a bunch of liberal media types. Anything important, she'll let you know. Your questions are meaningless. Now shut up and get back to work so you can fund the Wall Street bailout.
i just knew that McLame selected Palin for her intellectual prowess and public speaking abilities!!!! NOT!
One would think that in a democracy it would be obvious that the stupidest thing you could do is to vote for a candidate that refuses to talk to you and refuses to answer questions. In a real democracy, this should be political suicide.
Of course, we don't have a real democracy with a real debate on the issues facing the country. We have a media dog-and-pony show, where the candidates all take basically the same stands on the key issues, and the whole debate is over which candidate looks the best when projecting a phony media image of what they want voters to think.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
"Of course, we don't have a real democracy with a real debate on the issues facing the country"
Or maybe not even a fake debate. Senator McCain is suspending his campaign to face the "Wall Street" crisis and wants to suspend the first debate on Friday. When a hurricane was happening at the same time as the Rep. convention, they suspended the convention to deal with that crisis. It's seems as if the word "suspend" is becoming part of the Rep. talking points. I always disagreed with those predicting that Pres. Bush would suspend the elections for some national crisis, however, we do hear that word a lot more, and always associated with what's "good for the country". What's that other Rep. talking point? ... oh yeh, "country first"! It's starting to hit closer to home. If a crisis arises just before the election, we'll see.
I read this back, and it still sounds a little far-fetched, But recent events concern our country seem to be accelerating toward chaos. Palin is going to be presented by Katie Couric tomorrow much like her old job of shucking products in the morning. What are trying to teach her, "Vice President 101" in a crash course? How long has it been since her nominated and still not even one unscripted press conference. Her lack of comment speaks volume.
The good news is that Sarah earns respect by refusing to waste time on slimy, foolish, jabbermouth, ratings-hungry "reporters". Let them pout and snivel, who cares? The bad news is that it's hard to defend Sarah when she smiles and poses with Henry (Alberich the Nibelung) Kissinger.
How debasing for Karzi, Kissinger, et al...being corraled into posing with this empty headed bimbo.
And with no other basis provided to judge her on, I DO have to conclude that she is a empty headed bimbo....or else why not have her talk to the public?
Hell, they let Bush talk all the time, and he is the definition of empty headed himbo
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
She was in Philly this week, and the guys in orange McCain shirts were going gaga over her on the evening news. It was embarrasing to watch. They were buying into everything she had to say. I guess you have to match the empty headed candidate with the right empty headed audience.
OOOPS! Even FOX NEWS is taking issue with her refusal to talk. If you have something to say and nothing to hide you talk. She was not properly vetted by McCain so the American people have a right to vet her.
The McCain people are likely afraid that she will be revealed as someone who has little to say and great difficulty with non-scripted exchanges. Even on the campaign trail she repeats her RNC speech complete with its lies.She lacks the humility to see herself as the lightweight that she is.
But maybe she has just enough sense to know that her best option is to keep her mouth shut. Be grateful.
When the media bombarded us with coverage of Palin's well choreographed return to Anchorage (after the convention) on the very same day they purposely ignored the Anchorage anti-Palin rally (the biggest rally in the history of Alaska), Palin knew that the Republican noise machine had succeeded in emasulating the media for being too tough on her.
Palin will continue to make well choreographed appearances with the appropriate celebrities until Nov. 4. During her debate with Biden she will respond to each question, not with an answer, but with one of the soundbites that have endeared her to the right wing and the brain-dead wing of the US electorate. From Nov. 5 until January 20 she will take a break. On January 21 she will move her office into Dick Cheney's office trailer that is inside a military transport jet and spend at least four years evading the media and accountability while directing holy wars in various venues.
Normally a debate would not be hard for her, since she says anything that comes to mind with great authority, whether it is true or not. If it weren't for Stewart, Colbert, Olberman and Goodman, her vapid remarks would float off and be forgotten by the public within 5 minutes. With these guys there is a good chance they will be re-played and held up against reality or previous remarks by her slate.
She is probably a loose cannon when it comes to talking points and is therefore being silenced. Or else it is simply because she is a woman, all looks, an arm accessory, in the view of her handlers, a bunch of wealthy Neanderthal males.
Joe
In the bits of video that I saw with President Uribe of Colombia, I have never seen anyone with body language that said more clearly, "What am I doing here with this woman? And, why should I put up with this indignity?" You have to wonder what was used as "inducements" for heads of foreign states to submit to something as demeaning as a photo op with a mere candidate for public office.
When she IS forced to debate, she will sound like the uneducated bimbo she is, thus aligning herself with millions of American bimbos from all 50 states.
Brilliant!
Sarah'a hiding in Palin sight.
It's pretty pathetic when Cruella refuses to answer soft-ball questions from the corporate-owned, right-wing reporters just as chicken-hearted McCain refuses to debate with Obama on Friday. They're afraid and are trying to hide their ignorance and incompetence, the losers.
Doesn't Bush have the record for the president with the least amount of press conferences in history? These imbeciles and puppets are know-nothings.
Where's that picture from ?
They hold some sort of convention for religious hatemongers recently, other than the Republican National Convention ?
Or was that from a Past & Future War Criminals Seminar
All this shit going on in Washington today, begins with Henry "this will be your ass" Kissinger.
The video shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from "every form of witchcraft."
"Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan," Muthee said as two attendants placed their hands on Palin's shoulders. "Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus. ... Use her to turn this nation the other way around."
And all this time I thought that it was the possessed who's head turned the other way around...