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Perhaps the best piece of campaign trail gossip to leak since Election Day is the report—by Fox News, of all places—that Sarah Palin couldn't name the countries involved in the North American Free Trade Agreement. But if the question is which countries constitute North America, the answer isn't so simple.
Like the definition of the Bush Doctrine, it depends whom you ask. Most people think North America is just the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But the United Nations defines the continent of North America as including three different regions: Northern America (Canada, the United States, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Greenland, and Bermuda), Central America (Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama), and the Caribbean (26 countries and territories). The CIA World Factbook takes a similar stance. "North America is commonly understood to include the island of Greenland, the isles of the Caribbean, and to extend south all the way to the Isthmus of Panama," it says. At the same time, people in some parts of the world don't distinguish between North America and South America. The five-continent model—which combines Europe and Asia into Eurasia and merges North and South America as the Americas—is taught in Latin America, Iran, and some parts of Europe.
Palin should be off the hook for not being able to name the countries of North America. Not being able to name the signatories of NAFTA? Well, that's a more serious blunder.
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See all Swift Boat Watch entries here.
Who They Are: MoveOn.org Political Action
Purpose: To elect progressive candidates. In this election, they support Barack Obama.
Founders: Joan Blades and Wes Boyd
Funding: Federal PACs cannot accept donations greater than $5,000, so MoveOn.org relies mostly on small donations. The group has deep pockets, though. According to FEC reports, it spent $1,152,073 to oppose John McCain and another $4,008,667 to support Obama as of Oct. 19, 2008.
Cost of the Ad: The ad is part of a $7 million fall campaign.
Where It Ran: Las Vegas on Oct. 20, plus other cities the day before Sarah Palin visits them until Election Day. A $25,000 ad buy was purchased for Cleveland, Toledo, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 21 and 22.
Claims: Sarah Palin doesn't have any national-security experience. Even though she supports the war, she can't explain Bush's war policies. Palin has claimed to be an expert on Russia because she can see it. Because McCain is 72, Palin could end up in charge.
Accuracy: Palin regularly dodges questions related to her foreign-policy or national-security experience. The campaign has pushed her position as commander of the Alaskan National Guard as important foreign-policy experience, but a closer look reveals that any decision to deploy the Guard would not fall under her jurisdiction. In an interview with Charles Gibson, Palin was unable to say whether she supported the Bush Doctrine. (That said, Gibson's definition of the Bush Doctrine was challenged.) Palin has voiced support for the Iraq war and even said it was a "task from God." When asked by Gibson to talk about her experience with Russia, she said that she can see Russia from Alaska. At 72, McCain would be the oldest president elected to a first term, and his health has been a topic of concern in the campaign.
Background: MoveOn.org is no newcomer—it spent $30 million in the 2004 election, the fourth largest amount spent by a PAC. So far in this election, it has spent just more than half of its 2004 total. The FEC fined the group in 2004 for not properly reporting donations and expenditures to the FEC even though it was acting as a political action committee. Jonathan Cranin, responsible for the E*Trade "Baby" and MasterCard "Priceless" commercials, produced the ad.
Swift Boat Rating: 
The McCain campaign has tried to equate Palin's energy and Alaska National Guard experience with foreign-policy experience. The truth is, they have a hard time nailing down anything she has actually done.
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See all Swift Boat Watch entries here.
Who They Are: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
Purpose: Protecting endangered species by promoting the election of pro-environment lawmakers
Senior Director: William Lutz
Funding: According to the WSJ, the group is funded mostly by small donors.
Cost: The group says it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for airtime but would not specify an exact amount.
Where It Ran: The ad has run in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan and will expand into Colorado and Northern Virginia.
Claims: The spot crosscuts between images of Sarah Palin and footage of aerial hunting, stating that Palin supported aerial hunting and also proposed a $150 bounty fee for the foreleg of any killed wolves in order to encourage the practice.
Accuracy: The ad describes the basics of Palin’s record correctly but fails to mention the rationale for aerial hunting, which supporters refer to as “predator control.” These proponents argue that killing gray wolves, which are abundant in Alaska though they have been on and off the endangered species list in the continental United States, is necessary to maintain sufficient levels of moose and caribou for subsistence hunters that rely on those animals for their food. Whether the policy really helps these hunters is another question. Various groups of scientists have also questioned the logic of the policy, saying it didn’t consider the imperative of maintaining predator populations. Critics have also said that predator-control operations should be limited to fish and game agents.
Swift Boat Rating: 
The ad gets the essentials of Palin’s record right. While some may disagree with its characterization of aerial hunting, the characterization is not blatantly unfair.
Background: After Palin proposed the bounty on wolves’ forelegs, Defenders of Wildlife themselves filed a lawsuit that forced her to back off the policy.
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Sarah Palin got a tough rap this week for flubbing questions in media interviews. Her solution tonight: not answering them at all.
Gwen Ifill nobly tried to keep both candidates on task. But Palin demonstrated a knack for answering the question she wanted to answer—not the one that was asked. At one point, Ifill asked Palin to respond to a comment by Sen. Biden on health care. “I would like to respond about the tax increases,” Palin pivoted and proceeded to accuse Obama of raising taxes 94 times. A minute later, Ifill prompted Palin to respond about McCain’s record of deregulation. Again, Palin resisted: “I'm still on the tax thing because I want to correct you on that again.” Biden looked exasperated, prompting Palin to say, “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.” In other words, screw your questions, I’ve memorized a message and gosh darn it, I’m going to get it across. She even managed to steer Ifill at one point: “Can we talk about Afghanistan real quick?” “Certainly,” said Ifill.
It wasn’t just Ifill she ignored—Biden got the cold shoulder, too. When Palin said Obama voted to cut off troop funding, Biden pointed out that McCain has voted against troop funding as well, because the legislation contained a timeline for withdrawal. She did not respond. Same when he pointed out that Obama’s tax plan raises taxes only on those who make more than $250,000, not families who make as little as $42,000, as Palin and McCain claimed. She had talking points but few responses to Biden’s rebuttals. One notable exception was the time she corrected Biden on “McClellan’s” argument that counterinsurgency could work in Afghanistan as it has worked in Iraq. Biden conceded the point but didn’t mention that his name is actually Gen. McKiernan.
The strategy worked. Palin kept the conversation on her turf, avoided follow-ups, and came across both forceful and charming. She addressed the camera directly—part of the “straight to the American people” message—instead of addressing Biden (although she did turn his way to inform him, “Your plan is a white flag of surrender in Iraq”). She’s also a master of the tonal pivot, going from beaming smile to sly grin to dead serious all within the same answer. The format helped, too. The two-minute rebuttal periods didn’t produce much cross-chatter, and Ifill didn’t ask many follow-up questions.
In her closing statement, Palin said she liked the debate because “I like to answer these questions without the filter of the mainstream media.” If by “filter” she means Couric-style follow-ups, requests for clarification, and other obstacles to the subjects she came to talk about, she’s right. This debate was a great medium for her.
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All four candidates have conjured Main Street in the two debates this fall, usually juxtaposed against the evils of Wall Street. Barack Obama got to it in the fifth sentence of his opening remarks in last week's debate, and McCain was quick to follow. Biden and Palin have both already invoked the proverbial boulevard of the middle class.
"I think we need a little bit of reality from Wasilla Main Street there, brought to Washington, D.C.," Palin said tonight.
So, what's Main Street like in Palin's hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, where she was mayor for six years? Google Maps reveals a diminutive road of a few blocks connecting Wasilla Fishhook Road and Knik Goose Bay Road. To verify this, your intrepid correspondent called the Wasilla Public Library, located at 391 N. Main Street. (The time difference really benefits the Washington media elite.) The woman who answered the phone, who asked to be identified as Kathy, told me, after some consultation with a colleague, that it was four blocks long.
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After Sarah Palin's interviews with Katie Couric, expectations could not be lower. Even showing up would be a victory.*
But as usual, both campaigns are engaging in the usual
counterintuitive praise for their opponents. The best quote comes from Obama
campaign manager David Plouffe as he tried to ratchet up expectations—reportedly
provoking guffaws from the press scrum.
"Governor Palin is one of the best debaters in American
politics,” Plouffe said. “If you look at her - no she is. Her 2006 debate, she knew
where she wanted to take every question, and so I think she'll be relentlessly
on message tonight, and again I'm sure she'll have any number of biting and
witty one-liners. But our focus is on the person sitting at home in Canton, Ohio, tonight, Akron, Ohio,
tonight, who's struggling economically."
*Update: The debate has begun. She is here.
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It’s almost as if the McCain campaign circulated a memo on how not to respond to the Wall Street collapse, but everyone misinterpreted it as what they should do.
First, McCain asserted that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong” before describing them as “at great risk.” Then his top economic adviser suggested—the campaign says jokingly—that McCain helped invent the BlackBerry. Now Carly Fiorina, another top adviser, said in separate instances that neither Sarah Palin nor John McCain could run a major corporation.
Now, before you pounce on Fiorina, consider the full context:
MITCHELL: You were asked whether Sarah Palin has the experience to run a major company ... and you said, "No, I don't, but you know what? That's not what she's running for."
FIORINA: “Well, I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation. I don't think Barack Obama could run a major corporation. I don't think Joe Biden could run a major corporation. But on the other hand, running a major corporation is not the same as being President or Vice President of the United States. It is a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company. So, of course, to run a business you have to have a lifetime of experience in business. But that's not what John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin or Joe Biden are doing.”
Her answer is completely natural and nondamning if you look at the entire paragraph. (Although you could take issue with the "fallacy" line, since George W. Bush did suggest that business experience matters.) The “gaffe”—that McCain couldn’t run a major corporation—is manufactured by the setup.
It’s not unlike Wesley Clark's comment in June about how John McCain's getting shot down doesn't prepare him for the presidency. He, too, was responding in the context of the question. Bob Schieffer pointed out that Barack Obama had not “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down,” to which Clark replied: “Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
Of course, the “context” defense is useless now. If John McCain can excerpt Katie Couric’s observation that the primary campaign was sexist and make it sound like she was talking about Obama … if Obama can rip McCain’s “100 years” quote to make it sound like he’s for a century-long occupation of Iraq … if McCain can juxtapose Sarah Palin’s “lipstick” line from the RNC with Obama’s “lipstick” quote to make it sound like he’s talking about her … then Carly Fiorina, whatever her intention, is out of luck.
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Sarah Palin’s interview last night with Charlie Gibson on ABC (video here) has prompted a furious debate about the definition of the “Bush Doctrine.” (See, for example, here. Or here. Or here.) Some of the most ferocious back-and-forth, as usual, could be found on Wikipedia, which is written and edited (and abused) by its users. After the interview aired, an edit war broke out over the online encyclopedia’s entry on the “Bush Doctrine.” Since her interview aired, the entry has been changed hundreds of times. Here are a few highlights:
- Editors bicker over the difference between “preventive” and “preemptive” war in the Bush Doctrine. They agree that “preventive” is more accurate. Typical liberal wiki-media.
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The first Palin addition: “As of 10 September 2008, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska had no idea that such a doctrine was ever articulated by the Bush Administration.” Nine minutes later, another user deletes the sentence, citing “
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A user tries again: “In an interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson, GOP Vice-Presidential pick Sarah Palin (Governor of Alaska) was unable to define the Bush Doctrine for the nation, despite the fact that her son shipped out to Iraq on the same day of the interview.” Four minutes later, another user adds that her son is “ostensibly one more serviceman deploying because of our government's adherence to the Bush Doctrine. Irony, thy name is Palin.”
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A user deletes a line that cites the Huffington Post. Among his reasons: “
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A fight breaks out between “Jere7my” and “EHSFFL2010.” The latter objects to any Palin references. “
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User “Sun Dang” calls the Bush Doctrine “a misnomer. It does not exist. There is no such doctrine if we stick to the real definition of ‘doctrine’ like the Christian Doctrines that are on paper not imagined.” He argues that Gibson got it wrong and “should have read wikipedia first.”
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The quest to prove that Sarah Palin is underqualified to be vice president has met with an equal and opposite campaign to prove that she’s the smartest, kindest, shrewdest, ballsiest, most caring, experienced, saintly woman in the history of the Western world. (And anyone who says otherwise hates women.)
So we’ve decided to inaugurate the “Sarah Palin Hyperbole Watch,” a running log of the most exaggerated praise for John McCain’s running mate. Don’t get us wrong: Sarah Palin is an impressive woman. But is she really the world’s leading expert in carbon sequestration?
Our first installment comes from John McCain himself, in an interview with a local TV station in Portland, Maine (video here):
“She knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.”
T. Boone Pickens, Al Gore, ExxonMobil Chairman Rex Tillerson, and the entire leadership of the Department of Energy could not be reached for comment.
That was the day after Fred Thompson, speaking at a McCain-Palin rally in Fairfax, Va., said she was “the most remarkable success story in American politics.” If success is defined as “getting picked against all odds to run on John McCain’s ticket,” then, yes, Fred Thompson is correct.
But neither of those exaggerations beats columnist Larry Kudlow’s claim today that Palin is responsible for moving the commodities markets:
Even the financial pages are looking better. Oil is about to drop under $100 a barrel. Gold is plunging. And the greenback continues to rally in true King Dollar fashion. Is there a Sarah Palin effect here, too?
There is, but it’s not what Kudlow thinks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted the day after Palin’s speech in St. Paul, Minn. The Dow is still down about 300 points since McCain announced his pick.
Readers, feel free to submit other examples of Sarah Palin’s stratospheric qualifications. No claim too exaggerated!
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In every election, recycling is inevitable. But rarely does a candidate (or his supporters) use the exact same attacks that were once leveled against him.
So it has been with Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. If some of the charges against Palin sound familiar, maybe it’s because they were the same arguments used against Obama by his primary opponents and by McCain himself before he picked Palin. Here’s a quick rundown of the accusations, and why they might ring a few bells:
She’s inexperienced. You’d think the Obama campaign would avoid this line of attack, given Obama’s own résumé. Apparently not. “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton the day McCain picked her. In response, McCain/Palin tried to shift the conversation to “executive experience.”
She’s just a pretty face. Joe Biden’s comment that Palin is “good-looking” got twisted from a self-deprecating joke into a slur. But others have tried to use Palin’s looks against her. Critics on the left commonly refer to her as a “former beauty queen” or, my favorite, “the woman who failed to become Miss Alaska,” as if that presages future failures.
She only gave a good speech. “Sarah Palin delivered a great speech, but we haven’t heard anything else about what she’s going to do,” said Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln. Compare that to Hillary Clinton’s line that John McCain has “a lifetime of experience,” while Obama “has a speech he gave in 2002.”
She’s not right for Jews. Obama allies are capitalizing on Jewish discomfort with Palin, just as his opponents once suggested that Obama doesn’t suit Jewish interests. Rep. Robert Wexler has attacked Palin for appearing at a 1999 event with Pat Buchanan. Critics also point to a recent speaker at Palin’s church, David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, as reason for mistrust. Nor does it help that McCain passed over Joe Lieberman for the veep spot.
She’s a “gimmick.” In a now-famous hot-mic moment, former top McCain adviser Mike Murphy called the Palin choice “gimmicky.” Critics have long Obama of being an unserious candidate as well—a “lightweight,” a product of “hype” over substance. He has also been criticized for using campaign “gimmicks” like texting supporters his VP announcement.
Soon we will hear that Palin’s promises are “just words,” that’s she’s unprepared for 3 a.m. phone calls, and that she wanted to be vice president since kindergarten.
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The McCain/Palin campaign is blasting Barack Obama for using the phrase "lipstick on a pig" when talking about the Republicans' message of change. Sarah Palin's supporters say the remark was clearly an insult aimed at her. But Slate found footage of John McCain from earlier this year in which he uses the very same phrase to put down Hillary Clinton's health care plan. "I don't like to use this term," McCain told the audience at a May town hall event in Denver, "but the latest proposal I see is putting lipstick on a pig."
Watch the clip below:
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Tonight, Sarah Palin crystallized the McCain campaign’s main strategy against Barack Obama: withering sarcasm.
You could almost hear the words drip. “My fellow citizens,” she said, “the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of ‘personal discovery.’ ” Ouch! “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” Yikes, cut it out already! “Listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform.” For the love of ... “This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word victory except when he's talking about his own campaign.” OK, OK, tap out!
Palin will likely get accolades for her oratory, her mom-next-door likability, and her willingness to hit Obama. But hats off for being not just on-message, but on-tone.
McCain’s campaign has lately felt like a laugh track. Obama travels to Europe. McCain mocks him as an elitist celebrity airhead. Obama fills a stadium. He’s like Britney. Obama works out. He’s conceited. Obama suggests inflating your tires to save gas. Call it “Obama’s energy plan.” Anything the Obama camp does, McCain has a pat response: derision. The message boils down to, Can you believe this guy is running for president?
So far, it’s been working. McCain’s “Celebrity” ads apparently cut into Obama’s lead in national polls. And until his acceptance speech in Denver, Obama seemed reluctant to hit back.
Palin seems well-suited to join in the fun. She’s smart, she can clearly land a zinger, and, unlike McCain, she actually looks like she’s having fun up there. There’s another aspect, too, and here we’ve all been instructed to tread lightly: Palin’s gender could well strengthen her attacks. Sure, the text is that she’s simply highlighting Obama’s weaknesses. But the subtext is that she’s emasculating him. Or at least that’s the way McCain’s people should hope it looks. This general election has already had its share of measuring contests. Team McCain has done its best to paint Obama as a fey elitist—not unsuccessfully, either. In that respect, Palin could be their best weapon yet.
“Now you know why we picked Gov. Palin,” McCain said when he came onstage after her speech. It’s true. Tonally, she’s a perfect fit.
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The Alaska delegation reportedly underwent media training Sunday night. It shows. The group entered the convention floor Tuesday afternoon wearing neon-orange reflective vests and white hard hats with “Drill Here” painted on the sides. But they might as well have read, “Don’t Ask Us About Bristol.”
Ever since John McCain picked Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, the Alaska delegation has been getting Alaskan-sized levels of attention. Every other person in their convention floor section is carrying either a camera or a notepad. Reporters kneel next to every aisle seat, collecting quotes. These folks aren’t used to being fawned over by Judy Woodruff.
The delegates were full of praise for the vice presidential nominee, of course. They all know her. In fact, everybody knows everybody. “It’s a small state,” says delegate Mead Treadwell of Anchorage.
I asked about Palin’s reversal on the infamous $400 million “Bridge to Nowhere.” June Burkhart, a delegate from Willow, says it’s overblown. “We all supported it initially,” Burkhart explains. That is, until they realized it was going to jeopardize the tourist industry.
But, anyway: Drilling. Pete Higgins, a big fellow with a goatee, has pasted a photo of the Alaskan tundra across the back of his vest. It shows caribou grazing in front of an oil refinery. The message: Drilling for oil doesn’t hurt wildlife. “There were 2,600 caribou back in 1972,” Higgins explains. “Today there’s over 30,000.” If anything, he says, pipelines protect caribou. The 12-foot-high pipelines provide heat for the caribou to huddle under, and shade. Some caribou even birth calves under the pipeline. Plus, predators don’t like to come near the refinery. So, really, it’s a safe haven.
I ask him why the caribou in the photo look all skinny and mangy. “They’re shedding,” he says.
Higgins actually worked on oil pipelines in the late '70s. Now he’s a dentist. I ask him whether that was a big career change. “Not really,” he says, “I’m still drilling.” (He admits he’s used that one before.)
This is Higgins’ first convention, and so far he has few complaints. Well, maybe one. Their governor is the vice presidential nominee, he points out. “Shouldn’t we be up front?” Instead, they’re situated in the back right corner. (Next to Oklahoma. Shudder.)
But the “Alaska doesn’t get enough respect” argument doesn’t quite work. They’re the belles of the ball. Other delegates are passing by, shaking hands. “You must be thrilled!” exclaims one. Others ask to exchange state pins. Treadwell offers an Oklahoma delegate a pin of Alaska’s state flower, the forget-me-not. Alaskans sent packages of forget-me-nots to members of Congress in 1959, he explains, to remind them to vote for the state’s accession to the union. Maybe that was Palin’s secret, too.
I ask Treadwell what he makes of claims that Palin isn’t a serious choice. “Ask Exxon if she’s serious,” he says. “Ask ConocoPhillips if she’s serious,” he says, referring to her battles with the oil companies over drilling leases. He reminds me that Alaska is a border state. It trades with Russia and Canada. It’s the site of a major U.S. missile defense system. People forget this stuff, he says.
The delegates dismiss concerns that Palin is inexperienced. “I say, who’s ready?” Higgins says. “No one’s ever ready. Half the senators in the Senate aren’t ready. It’s about how fast can you learn.” Treadwell emphasizes Palin’s executive experience—all 19 months of it—compared with Barack Obama’s.
Speaking of executive experience, Higgins tells me he’s president of the Alaskan Dental Society, which boasts 256 members. He points to the stage. “I’ll be up there in four years.”
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Hillary Clinton is back. And this time, it’s personal.
At least that’s the subtext of a statement just released by the Clinton press office:
We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.
If there were any lingering doubts as to the enthusiasm with which Hillary and Bill Clinton would campaign for Barack Obama—even after "That makes two of us"—let this put them to rest. Clinton is right, Sarah Palin’s nomination is historic. But what would be even more historic is if she won. And that just can’t be allowed.
Hillary has only started publicly describing her candidacy in historic terms since it ended. Fans were overjoyed to hear her speak about the legacy of women’s rights—and her role in it—in her concession speech in June. But even then, many of them weren’t comfortable with the idea of just any woman shattering the glass ceiling in which she had put "18 million cracks." It had to be Hillary.
Sarah Palin’s nomination therefore isn’t a threat to Barack Obama—Hillary voters won’t flock to her for the same reasons they showed discomfort with Kathleen Sebelius. (Not to mention Palin’s pro-life beliefs and the rest of her conservative record.) Rather, she poses a threat to Hillary’s legacy. Palin has a good story but a thin résumé. She considers herself a feminist but hasn’t become a national symbol of feminism like Clinton. After Hillary’s loss and Obama’s decision not to consider her for veep, Palin in the White House would be the final insult. And, for Clinton, unacceptable.
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In the '80s, a basketball standout nicknamed "Sarah Barracuda" gamely stepped onto the court despite a stress fracture, determined to lead Wasilla High School to a state championship. That Barracuda was Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president (according to her Wikipedia page).
McCain's pick of Palin means a fifth presidential/vice presidential debate should be added to the calendar. A cross-ticket game of horse between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Obama has the upper hand because he plays regularly, but Palin has played ball on a bigger stage than Obama ever has. It would rival the Michael Jordan vs. Larry Bird showdown.
Joe Biden and John McCain, meanwhile, can duke it out in the boxing ring. We hear Biden has been known to bloody a few noses in his day.
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In one of her earliest appearances in the Alaskan press, Sarah Palin described her glee at the chance to see the former Mrs. Donald Trump, who was visiting Alaska for the day to peddle purfume.
From the Anchorage Daily News:
"We want to see Ivana," said Palin, who admittedly smells like salmon for a large part of the summer, "because we are so desperate in Alaska for any semblance of glamour and culture."
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Most amazing of many amazing things about McCain running mate Sarah Palin: Her kids are named Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. She out Romneyed the Romneys!