Palin started intense tutorials last week in a suite of the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Stephen Biegun, a longtime foreign-policy hand who last worked on George W. Bush’s National Security Council, ran what one participant called a “boot camp on McCain world.” Biegun and others briefed her on international issues. McCain’s top domestic-policy adviser, economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, led other sessions. Before Holtz-Eakin even got started, Palin let him know that she likes to get her study points on large index cards. “What we have to do is take all our accumulated policy and John McCain’s entire Senate history and get her comfortable with the campaign,” Holtz-Eakin told NEWSWEEK.
Others involved in the process say Palin has a long way to go, and they are watching closely to make sure she doesn’t get overwhelmed. Over the weekend before the convention, campaign aides made the uncomfortable decision to urge her to go public with her unmarried 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy in order to rebut salacious Internet rumors that the teen was actually the mother of Palin’s own newborn child. An aide, speaking anonymously because the matter is sensitive, says that Palin and her husband grew angry about the allegations. “Do I have to show them my stretch marks?” she asked one campaign official. In the midst of the drama, Palin had little time to interact with her family because she was shuffling from one briefing or prep session to another. (In St. Louis, a campaign aide took Todd shopping at a Saks Fifth Avenue, where he bought a new suit to wear to the convention.) At one point McCain, himself tied up in campaign duties, asked an adviser, “Can you make sure she’s OK?”
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Hahahahaha!
baldilocks on September 6, 2008 at 10:33 PM
Priceless.
fossten on September 6, 2008 at 10:36 PM
Liberals won’t be satisfied until Palin releases a crotch-angle video of Trig coming out, and even then they’ll say it’s as fake as the Moon Landing.
Enoxo on September 6, 2008 at 10:38 PM
The guys are nervous about commenting on this one.
baldilocks on September 6, 2008 at 10:38 PM
I’d love for her to hold a press conference and tell them once and for all. “To all you bottom feeding trolls in the media and blogosphere, i’m going to say this once and once only so listen up, Trig is mine. I gave birth to him, not my daughter. Now crawl back in the gutter from where you came, i’ve got an election to win.”
roninacreage on September 6, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Pretty good article, considering its newsweek. Explores the pros and cons.
lorien1973 on September 6, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Sarah Palin = making stretch marks teh hawtness
/take that, baldilocks!
Karl on September 6, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Priceless quote.
Illinidiva on September 6, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Yes we are. As with any other ‘girl stuff’ matters like this.
wise_man on September 6, 2008 at 10:46 PM
YES.
Wait, uh, forget I said that.
Slublog on September 6, 2008 at 10:47 PM
HA HA HA! Oh Lord, she does represent normal American women.
Now it is crunch time for Palin. I am sure she will absorb everything well. When you are a conservative, you have common sense.
jencab on September 6, 2008 at 10:48 PM
I don’t get it. I thought the liberals passed a Constitutional Amendment that said all Republican candidates have to release their medical records.
logis on September 6, 2008 at 10:49 PM
And she might just do that.
And after she said as much, I would really like to see her take out a 3 by 5 card with the names of everyone who has begun this smear, or have participated with them in keeping this out here, and naming them all. Personally telling them what she thinks of them and that they should be ashamed of themselves. Insulting the manhood of the male names (I don’t know, I can just see that these are all spineless male democrats doing this) on that list would be an added bonus.
wise_man on September 6, 2008 at 10:51 PM
Uh… right after John Kerry releases his, I think.
But it’s okay, didn’t you hear? Dick Durbin of Illinois – the man who said of the people who were asking questions of Michelle Obama “the hottest ring of hell is reserved for the people who attack family members of the candidate” …… was quick to condemn this action towards Palin and her family.
Oh, wait.
No he didn’t.
wise_man on September 6, 2008 at 10:54 PM
Still waiting for more than a note from Obama’s doctor, btw.
Karl on September 6, 2008 at 10:55 PM
If she did show them her stretch marks, the media would demand verification that they were not caused by one of the previous pregnancies.
Now this I appreciate:
INC on September 6, 2008 at 10:57 PM
I’m telling you, this woman is a female Fred Thompson. That is what people need to see. People are do fed up with PC crap and PC answers to stupid questions.
I would just love to hear her say something to the effect of “Dont get stck on stupid.” to some reporter.
RobertInAustin on September 6, 2008 at 10:57 PM
Yeah, INC, I liked that part too.
wise_man on September 6, 2008 at 10:58 PM
Pretty fair article. She isn’t a saint or a Hollywood “Mrs. Smith goes to Juneau” figure. Her selection was still a hell of a gamble. I would have preferred seeing her in another 4 years. But we are where we are, and she probably has won the election for John McCain. I’m not sure this campaign would have done it without her. So I have to be grateful that she is here.
I am disappointed that the article left out her most significant achievement – getting the gas pipeline contract done. That took some serious stones and it is the largest infrastructure project in American history (almost 3 times the size of the Big Dig.)
rockmom on September 6, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Fragile.
Jim Treacher on September 6, 2008 at 11:01 PM
Ouch! Ouch!
baldilocks on September 6, 2008 at 11:03 PM
The article was a hit piece. granted a milder and warmer hit piece than the early ones but still a hit piece. It was not balanced and it was not fiar. It once again tried to make her seem dumb, unable to handle the affiars of the campaign and her state as small, backwards and not up to snuff in national elections.
unseen on September 6, 2008 at 11:04 PM
How’d she do in her media availability appearances that Ed posted on earlier? Has anyone seen anything about them?
Dudley Smith on September 6, 2008 at 11:05 PM
and THIS is the WORST they can come up with?
Let me get this straight….her political opponents don’t like her?
She’s going through an intense briefing on policy?
Her schedule is now hectic?
OMG! This is UNHEARD OF!
Wait….no…no it’s not….
FiveWays on September 6, 2008 at 11:12 PM
BREAKING NEWS ALERT!!!!!!
The New York Times is reporting:
Sarah Palin eats something call Kraft Macaroni and Cheese……..whatever the hell THAT is……….
FiveWays on September 6, 2008 at 11:15 PM
I really do believe that the MSM is stretching things too far!
OldEnglish on September 6, 2008 at 11:17 PM
I volunteer to look at her stretch marks.
Jim-Rose on September 6, 2008 at 11:42 PM
I haven’t noticed any “Leave Sarah Alone!” vlogs on YouTube.
Guess she can stand on her own two feet just fine.
Tony Soprano on September 6, 2008 at 11:44 PM
Heck, I know guys with stretch marks!
Tony Soprano on September 6, 2008 at 11:46 PM
Is that anything like arugula?
fossten on September 6, 2008 at 11:50 PM
I’d like to have seen that line delivered in an interview or press conference….preferably with a camera on the reporters for their reaction.
TBinSTL on September 6, 2008 at 11:58 PM
The first name on that list ought to be Alan Colmes. I see this POS still has a job on Fox. His career should be over after the slurs he bandied about on his blog.
jaleach on September 7, 2008 at 12:00 AM
I was lost in thought, wondering whether stretch marks are evidence of flawed design or a natural consequence of the evolution of upright posture and a large, heavy brain.
Kralizec on September 7, 2008 at 12:16 AM
Explain please. I’m sorry but I don’t understand what you mean.
maxine on September 7, 2008 at 12:35 AM
Wow. That’s a nice quote from an otherwise mean-spirited piece.
It's Vintage, Duh on September 7, 2008 at 12:42 AM
He’s being sarcastic.
It's Vintage, Duh on September 7, 2008 at 12:54 AM
I’m with “unseen” – this article does a lot of interpreting, and everything not stated as a bare fact was interpreted in a way that (attempts) to make Palin look less impressive.
Yeah, it’s more subtly than Sully, but it’s still there.
Merovign on September 7, 2008 at 1:14 AM
My god, what a disgusting hit piece! In the guise of giving us a hint of what the journey’s been like for Sarah over the weekend, it almost made me feel like she was a hillibilly with no education. If I felt it, I wonder what our liberal friends mut have felt!
BTW, the local newspaper here(I’m abroad) prints nothing but latest smear floating around as “news”. One day, she is a member of a secessionist party, the other day she has an affair with her huband’s business partner, today it’s how she changed six colleges. But the first intro they gave her, someone rote in a curious line saying,” she feels like on who is every male’s fantasy” or some thing like that in news!
promachus on September 7, 2008 at 1:22 AM
I mean Andrew Sullivan is an idiot.
Jim Treacher on September 7, 2008 at 1:29 AM
From Obama they don’t request a birth certificate; from Palin they will soon ask for DNA.
JT, you are a treasure.
Entelechy on September 7, 2008 at 1:35 AM
Oh. I thought you were saying Andrew Sullivan was an idiot, in Italian.
inviolet on September 7, 2008 at 1:37 AM
Obama can’t even fill up a large index card.
SouthernGent on September 7, 2008 at 1:40 AM
Or his index fingernail.
Jim Treacher on September 7, 2008 at 1:55 AM
Crazy b______s.
Vanity Fair now. At least they refer to the bloggers as “wingnuts”, but they just have to keep this bullspit out there.
capitalist piglet on September 7, 2008 at 2:01 AM
Are you listening Andrew Sullivan, Alan Colmes, Bill Maher?? Better check that lunchbox, just sayin’….
Fortunata on September 7, 2008 at 2:12 AM
Palin needs to show the libtards nothing more than the heel of her boot. Squashing Barry like a bug… now that’s HOT.
T J Green on September 7, 2008 at 2:17 AM
Yeah, it was a hit piece — rather a nasty one, at that. What reporting there was, was selective. There were a lot of unfavorable quotes, insinuation, and judgments. She came off as a lightweight, likely corrupt, a “typical politician” who rewarded friends and was spiteful to enemies, who the McCain campaign will try to pass off an energy expert, not at all like Obama, who is more of a “deep thinker.”
Yeesh, but it is Newsweek during an election cycle.
Aardvark on September 7, 2008 at 2:27 AM
Stretch marks? Those can be faked!
Medical records, that’s what we need!
/andy
Spirit of 1776 on September 7, 2008 at 2:43 AM
Yes!!! I am well-known in my circles for using a lot of note cards. People always think I’m making up hit-lists or something.
Great minds think alike, I suppose.
Tommygun on September 7, 2008 at 2:51 AM
This article has the sneering tone that a report on Barack Obama written by Ann Coulter would have.
I fear the media is only going to get worse. I hope it backfires on them spectacularly, but it’s going to be awfully tough to read garbage like this for 60 days.
zmrzlina on September 7, 2008 at 4:25 AM
Its Newsweek… so every sentence drips with elitism, eastern condescension, and a sense that Sarah is unworthy when put next to the infallible Messiah that is Barry Hussein.
Always Right on September 7, 2008 at 5:30 AM
Oh, and there is the MSM’s OBLIGATORY “she believes in GOD so she must be a kook..” meme
Always Right on September 7, 2008 at 5:30 AM
Stretch marks? HAHAHAHA!! Every woman who has ever given birth will empathize with that. I hope she does get testy with the press and does it with a smile and twinkle in her eye. I think people are beginning to see the press for what it is (thank you Us Magazine).
Ellen on September 7, 2008 at 5:56 AM
Libs will think that means she’s dumb, conservatives will remember Ronald Reagan.
Quisp on September 7, 2008 at 7:41 AM
Fragile – think Yes (and Sully)
.
Not Fragile – think Bachman Turner Overdrive (and Sarah)
rhodeymark on September 7, 2008 at 7:52 AM
PS – I still consider that pretty much a hit piece, even if it was from the Obama puffers at Newsweek.
Why couldn’t some of the Kim Strassel/WSJ facts have been incorporated, hmmm?
.
If anyone here hasn’t read Strassel’s Palin v Oil Corruption piece in the Wall Street Journal Online… go there next.
rhodeymark on September 7, 2008 at 7:56 AM
LOL!
FYI,
New stretch marks are red, puffy, purple. After a while, when the baby weight is gone, they turn into a thin skin tone stripe. The ones I had pretty much disappeared.
I find them to be a badge of motherhood. Nothing to be ashamed of.
pullingmyhairout on September 7, 2008 at 8:30 AM
It certainly is a study in contrasts this election season. A rising star, Sarah Palin, vs. the MSM going into the toilet both financially and ethically.
JimK on September 7, 2008 at 8:36 AM
It wouldn’t matter if she did show the stretch marks.. they would say.. Those are SCARS! She’s a CUTTER!
I’d personally love to see a reporter get too nasty to her and see her lay him out with an uppercut. McCain would win for sure.
GoodBoy on September 7, 2008 at 9:02 AM
I only made it this far into the article when I came across this tidbit. Right here shows the condescension the writer feels for anything West of the Alleghenies. Those stories are not MYTH! He has no idea the courage and fortitude it took to pack up one’s family and belongings into a covered wagon and venture out into nowhere – literally not knowing what dangers would meet you along the way to place you did not know if you would survive. They did not sit around on the east coast and complain about lack of opportunity, they MADE opportunity. These are MY ancestors and they are not MYTH – they are LEGEND! This is why middle America is so different than the east coasters.
I know this is so off topic, but I was speaking to a vendor of ours, who works in the accounts receivable department located in NYC. We got on the subject of fax machines being outdated which moved to offices of the 50s – he then made a statement that floored me: he said back in the days when there was opportunity! Of course I argued that one makes opportunities, and perhaps if he feels that way NYC is not the place for him to be. The next day, An ex-employee came with his partner (business) to do business with my boss and as I was walking him out we got to talking about genealogy, and I asked the partner how long he had been in the country. He replied “since the 70s” He came from Eastern Europe and his parents spoke no English upon arrival. And here he is, the next generation making a good living in a highly technical field. I told him about my conversation the day before and he scoffed – The problem with Americans is that they don’t travel outside of the country to see how everyone else lives. They have no idea the opportunities they have right in front of that they simply to not avail themselves to. He agrees with McCain’s economic advisor – we ARE a nation on whiners.
My overall point is: the elite media are so out of touch with middle America, we might as well be a different species.
Queen0fCups on September 7, 2008 at 10:02 AM
She should ignore them. Don’t even say “No comment”
And if any of them have the nerve to ask her in an interview, she should treat them to a Dick Cheney style smackdown ala Wolf Blitzer. Remember that one?
Queen0fCups on September 7, 2008 at 10:10 AM
Ok, I finished the article – what are Newsweek and Time playing Good Cop/Bad Cop?
But, by all means, I think they should continue to be write these kinds of articles.
I think that writing that Todd had to be taken to Saks to buy a new suit to wear to the convention reeks of snobbery, but let’s face it – how many people in middle America have a suit from Saks?
More kamikaze reporting.
Queen0fCups on September 7, 2008 at 10:20 AM
Does anyone eveer remember seeing this concern about Obama and his young family?
They are such blithering idiot partisans it’s ridiculous.
drjohn on September 7, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Somehow, the fact that she does have stretch marks makes me feel better. I’m incredibly jealous of women who go through full pregnancies and never get a single line.
- Says the woman that has a road atlas from bosom to thigh from her two pregnancies. : )
The more smears, the more normal she seems.
Anna on September 7, 2008 at 10:33 AM
And.. and… her husband is a hick too!
That was a totally unnecessary statement and was even put into parentheses because it was not germaine to the article.
Keep it up!
Texas Gal on September 7, 2008 at 10:35 AM
No, not the stretch marks, dear.
The four episiotomy scars. That ought to satisfy them.
Not.
Mommynator on September 7, 2008 at 10:41 AM
Wow, I thought the part about buying todd a suit was great. How many fishermen/snowmachine racers/oil field workers own a suit? My older brother is a fisherman and he doesn’t own a suit either.
These are the most normal Americans to ever enter the national political scene. I am becoming more enamored of them every day. Perhaps if McCain/Palin are elected, the bggest impact might be for more such normal people to get involved and run for office. We’ve been governed for too long by lawyers and professional politicians like Joe Biden and Barack Obama who began their careers running for office.
rockmom on September 7, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Taint funny.
baldilocks on September 7, 2008 at 6:57 PM