Pass the popcorn, this is going to be good.
The Palin-McCain campaign feud is starting to spill out into the mainstream media now. Recently there was the Vanity Fair article about Palin, which featured criticism from her critics in Alaska as well as critics from the McCain campaign. Now, the feud is escalating. Someone has leaked emails to CBS detailing some internal campaign squabbles about Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party.
The sequence of events is that Salon published an article about Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party from 1995-2002. Palin was asked questions by Salon as well as a few protestors. She wanted to respond but McCain’s campaign thought it was a minor issue that would go away, but Palin was unhappy so she crafted her own talking points.
“That’s not part of their platform and he was only a ‘member’ bc independent alaskans too often check that ‘Alaska Independent’ box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan,” Palin wrote. “He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed.”
Palin was attempting to bend the facts ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events. In truth, the box that Alaskans have the option of checking when registering to vote states the full name of the party, “Alaskan Independence Party,” not “Alaska Independent,” which would make an error by uncommitted voters more plausible.
Oh, snap! I do believe she’s being called a liar. So, Schmidt responded to her email:
Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin’s attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.
“Secession,” he wrote. “It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate [sic]. The innaccuracy [sic] would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country
We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this.”
Ooooo, burn! I do believe he just called her a liar.
I think we know now about how Sarah Palin is thin-skinned and doesn’t ignore or laugh off criticism. How many feuds has she engaged in since the election? Levi Johnson, David Letterman…