NEWSWEEK
Palin Is Ready? Please.
McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, that is simply not true.
Published Sep 27, 2008
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palin Stretches The Truth
Oct. 7, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin tells audiences the election is about the “truthfulness and judgment” needed to be president. But the Alaska governor often stretches the truth herself.
Washington Post
Election 2008: Conservative Concerns About Palin
Kathleen Parker
Monday, October 6, 2008; 10:00 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/10/03/DI2008100302812_pf.html
She may not know which Supreme Court cases she disagrees with, but she knows what “Ordinary Americans” want to hear—and she delivers. “They” are elite terrorist pals and “we” are patriotic Americans who want to win. She’s now laughing off that silly interview with Katie Couric and making a joke that she was just working for Tina Fey’s job security. Defuse, baby, defuse.
Judging from my mailbag, McCain has lost a lot of support among moderate voters. Hundreds have written to say that they were on the fence until the Palin pick. They will vote for Obama. Whether these self-selecting e-mailers represent a statistically significant voting bloc I can’t say, but generally it seems that Palin has strengthened the base and weakened the middle that McCain needed to grab. Also, all those women voters who initially left Obama for McCain in the immediate aftermath of the GOP convention have returned to Obama in even greater numbers.
The winking was beyond annoying. I haven’t talked to any women who weren’t deeply offended by her flirting for votes. But she clearly was told to do it. Her coaches said “go for it, honey—flyover America will love it.“ We’ll see if they were right.
No, it was girly, silly, unserious and obnoxious. One of the great lessons of the Bible, with which surely Gov. Palin is familiar, is that there is a time and place for all things. For serious people, winking gotchas during a vice presidential debate is absurd and insulting.
TIME
What the Troopergate Report Really Says
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008
Did Governor Sarah Palin abuse the power of her office in trying to get her former brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten, fired? Yes.
Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so.
But even though she won’t likely face any legal repercussions, the amateurism and cronyism of her brief administration hardly leaves Palin sitting pretty. Troopergate’s final verdict may be even more damaging than a rebuke: her administration was, at least this regard, just as self-motivated as the Washington fat cats and lobbyists she hopes to unseat.