WaPo: Sources Say CBS has more embarrassing Palin footage to air this week

[Lunar]

I know Palin threads get ugly, but one has to wonder...

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Any credit to this?  TPM and Kos are running with it a bit, but not a lot.  Greg Sargent says more embarrassing responses are to air this week.

Also:
The Wall St. Journal reports that Sarah Palin will be headed to John McCain's Sedona ranc  this week for a few days of intensive debate preparation, in the wake of her problematic interview with Katie Couric. In particular, a McCain adviser said the goal will be for her debate answers to be "her words," and not campaign talking points that she's had trouble reciting properly.
-Scroll down for the full article, interesting parts bolded.

Update from Ben Smith:
A source familiar with CBS News’ plans clarified that this is part of the "Vice Presidential Questions" series with Biden and Palin. The recorded segments are scheduled to air Wednesday and Thursday before the vice presidential debate. (The series is based on the Presidential Questions series, in which Couric asks the candidates the same set of questions on wide range of topics from policy to character to leadership.)

Another update from Amie Parnes:
“I’m gonna talk about those new ideas,” she said.

Once again, she tried to lower expectations and repeats, “I’ve been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was like in the second grade.”

And added that Biden is a “great debater and looks pretty doggone confident, like he’s gonna win.”

Palin spoke briefly about the McCain Obama debate on Friday saying McCain was “the only man on that stage that talked about the wars that America is fighting and wasn’t afraid to use the word victory.

“He’s the only man on that stage would solve our economic crisis and not exploit it,” she said.


An update from Ed Schultz:
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people
are more than concerned about Palin.

The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

[Lunar]

Here's the WSJ article in full:

The McCain campaign moved its top officials inside Gov. Sarah Palin's operation Sunday to prepare for what is certain to be the most important event of her vice-presidential campaign: her debate on Thursday with Democrat Joe Biden.

Additionally, at the urging of the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Palin will leave late Monday for his Arizona ranch to prepare for the high-stakes debate.

The moves follow several shaky performances by Gov. Palin last week and come amid concern and grumbling from Republicans, and even a few queries from her husband, Todd Palin, according to campaign operatives and Republican officials.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and senior adviser Steve Schmidt are planning to coach the candidate ahead of the debate, according to senior advisers. [Lunar's note: Damn!  They must be taking this very seriously if the #1, and #2 are both in McCain's ranch!] They traveled Sunday to meet the Republican vice-presidential nominee in Philadelphia. After her appearance with Sen. McCain at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, these top officials plan to fly with her on Monday to Sen. McCain's ranch in Sedona, Ariz., which they hope she will find a comforting place to prep, these people said.

More broadly, the McCain campaign aims to halt what it sees as a perceived decline in the crispness and precision of Gov. Palin's latest remarks as well as a fall in recent polls, according to several advisers and party officials.

McCain officials denied any problems inside the campaign. "The nature of political campaigns, with all their ups and downs, is for insiders and outsiders and no-siders to register complaints, often anonymously," said Tucker Eskew, a counselor for Gov. Palin. "We all in this campaign understand that, and we're not distracted by it, even as we welcome well-intentioned and good advice."

Some prominent Republicans and senior members of Congress have expressed worries about certain facets of the Palin campaign, particularly that Gov. Palin may be "overprepared" and not encouraged to be herself, an adviser said.

"She hasn't had the time or inclination to question the judgments of the people telling her to hit her marks," said one Republican strategist. "Gov. Palin is a team player, but the campaign needs to adjust to a game plan that works for her."

For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week. Also, a key Alaska staffer joined the Palin operation Sunday.

Meanwhile, the more experienced advisers assigned to her by the McCain campaign are accustomed to working with seasoned candidates, not someone "completely green on the national stage," one strategist said. Several Republican backers have griped that the campaign has put the candidate in difficult situations, from sitting for high-profile television interviews to popping into meetings with foreign leaders, some of whom made sexist remarks, said several officials.

"It's time to let Palin be Palin -- and let it all hang out," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist.

From her campaign's perspective, Gov. Palin isn't getting media attention for her contributions. For example, with foreign leaders last week, she had detailed conversations about the national-security and global implications of the energy crisis, one adviser said.

Since her selection nearly a month ago, the 44-year-old governor has excited the party's conservative base with huge crowds and newfound fund raising. She remains popular in many areas, and last week drew 60,000 people to an event near Orlando, Fla.

But in recent days, Gov. Palin flubbed quasi-mock debates in New York City and Philadelphia, some operatives said. Finger-pointing began, and then intensified after her faltering interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric. However, she performed better when she took questions from the press after touring Ground Zero and remarked about her parents' visit there after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Her performance also sparked negative responses from some conservative pundits, and she has slipped in some polls. Last week, nearly half the respondents in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll said she is unqualified to be president, while one in three said they were "not at all" comfortable with the idea of Gov. Palin as vice president, up five points from a poll in early September.

Until the weekend, the highest levels of the McCain campaign were focused on Sen. McCain's response to the financial crisis and his own debate against Sen. Barack Obama.

The McCain campaign has put in place several other well-regarded advisers to Gov. Palin, including head of vice-presidential operations Michael Glassner, who has worked for former Sen. Bob Dole, and Mr. Eskew, who worked for President George W. Bush's campaign and administration.

Amid the heavy scrutiny in a close campaign, Gov. Palin is under considerable pressure to make Thursday's debate a "game changer," advisers said. The campaign is sending in Sen. McCain's debate coach, Brett O'Donnell, to help with her preparation, advisers said. Though he always was expected to help out after Sen. McCain's debate Friday in Oxford, Miss., Mr. O'Donnell now needs to "undo" much of her previous debate prep, which has resulted in occasional "rote" responses, one adviser said.

"We've got four days," another adviser said Sunday. "People love Sarah Palin and she's got a unique personality and presence we need to bring out -- not shut down." Aides will work with her this week to be certain her responses use "her words," this adviser said.

[Lunar]

McCain's campaign has misused her, that's apparent.

How would you have done things differently, besides not putting her in a cocoon?

[Lunar]

Updated first post with an update of Palin talking about her debate with  Biden.

Here's Marc Ambinder, seconds ago, a solid reporter:
Gov. Sarah Palin has lost control of her public image, several top-level McCain advisers said this weekend, and even a baseline performance in Thursday's debate with Joe Biden may be too late to recover it.

The decision to sequester Palin from the national political press corps was made with the assumption that the afterglow from her convention speech would last; a month later, even some Republicans are beginning to have a less favorable opinion of her.

Her knowledge of policy has seemed at times no more than inch deep, and even admirers have complained that her penchant for returning to talking points sounds artificial. Several times the campaign has had to clean up her remarks for her, such as on Saturday, when she hinted at a view of U.S.-Pakistani relations that was closer to Barack Obama's.

Aides questioned why CBS's Katie Couric was given a second interview with Palin after Palin's responses were ridiculed.

One McCain aide complained that too few surrogates are making the affirmative case for her -- she has defenders, to be sure, but they're sparse and they're generally defending her from specific charges. Aside from a single interview with Sean Hannity, she hasn't appeared on a single talk radio show, hasn't held a single conference call with conservative activists, nor she has participated in a telephone call with conservative bloggers.  In turn, these conservatives have largely stopped rallying to her defense.

Internally and to surrogates, senior campaign aides have counseled a "criticize the media" approach, but it has fallen on deaf ears.

A major worry is that if Palin fails to meet expectations Thursday, she'll have no trampoline to fall back on.

[Lunar]

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Ok, everyone who thinks Sarah Heath was an early observer of Joe Biden's senate career in elementary school and this wasn't a zinger the campaign made up to make Biden look old, raise your hand...

You don't think she's been following his career since she was 7 years old?

[Lunar]

There is some buzz stirring among the politically obsessed that CBS News is sitting on embarrassing segments from its interview with Gov. Sarah Palin and that the station would trot out those segments sometime this week.

The Washington Post's media reporter Howard Kurtz stoked the flames this morning when the reported in his Media Notes column:

    "And the worst may be yet to come for Palin; sources say CBS has two more responses on tape that will likely prove embarrassing."

In the end, it seems, there are no saved tapes, but that doesn't mean Kurtz is wrong. Leigh Farris, a spokesperson for CBS, says that the station has released all of the footage from last week's interview -- in which Palin provided increasingly unsteady answers to a series of foreign policy and economic questions.

"Everything from last week either aired or is on the website," she said.

But a source familiar with CBS News' plans clarified the station has, in the works, it's Vice Presidential Questions series with Palin and Joseph Biden, which was always scheduled to air in the days before the vice presidential debate.

"The series is based on the Presidential Questions series," the source says, "in which Couric asks the candidates the same set of questions on wide range of topics from policy to character to leadership."

Indeed, this may be the portion that could prove embarrassing to Palin. And, as Kurtz noted, it was taped last week.

In addition, CBS has some new footage of the Alaska Governor coming this evening, with its cameras following around her and John McCain while on the campaign trail in Ohio today.

"It is happening this morning," said Farris, "and we are hoping to get something good."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/29/cbs-theres-no-more-palin_n_130231.html

[Lunar]

http://www.wegoted.com/
An update from Ed Schultz:
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people
are more than concerned about Palin.

The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as "disastrous." One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, "What are we going to do?" The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is "clueless."

[Lunar]

I didn’t editorialize, obviously these sorts of things are intentionally leaked 50% of the time.  The exact nature of the leaks (anonymous), and Palin’s context, make me more than a little suspicious that they were all intentional by Davis and Schmidt.

[Lunar]

Jonathon Martin:

Tacitly acknowledging criticism that she's been diminished in part by an overly protective media shield, Sarah Palin will take a more forward-leaning approach and do additional interviews in the weeks ahead, a top aide said today.

"She's seen the reviews and heard the criticism, but she's a fighter," said this aide. "And now she's in a fighting mood."

Palin heads to McCain's cabin in Arizona today to prepare for her Thursday debate, and while she's there she'll do a round of conservative talk radio interviews.

"Talk radio is a convenient, powerful and effective outlet," said the aide.

Rush Limbaugh, who hosts the most popular radio show in the country, noted in an e-mail that he doesn't invite guests on and alluded to his rocky relationship with the top of the GOP ticket.

"The McCain camp doesn't trust me," Limbaugh said.

But asked if he'd welcome a call from Palin, the conservative talker said: "Of course."

The move to reintroduce Palin comes after much criticism for a stumbling interview she gave to CBS’ Katie Couric last week; increased conservative grousing about the campaign's decision to roll out the GOP vice presidential nominee through high-stakes and high-profile mainstream media interviews; and the suggestion by some observers that she even drop off the ticket.

Quite the contrary, Palin, her family and aides are determined to remind voters what they so liked about the governor in the first place.

After the debate and talk radio hits, the plan is to find a way to let Palin be Palin, moving her away from the pre-fab talking points and letting the down-home daughter of Wasilla be herself.

"She wants to tell her story more, and people around her do, too," added the source. "This is a governor very much on her toes, very much fed up with inaccuracies and fictions about her own life and career."

To this end, Palin was far more aggressive in another interview with Couric today, this aide said

Sitting with McCain for their first joint interview a week after the widely panned sit-down with Couric, Palin interjected when the CBS anchor brought up a report about the Wasilla Assembly of God, the governor's childhood church and one she still attends at times, seeking to pray gays away from homosexuality.

"Sarah Barracuda showed up today," the aide said, reprising the feisty former point guard's high school basketball nickname and one that has been largely forgotten since her post-convention cosseting.

"We're encouraging CBS to run entire thing," the aide said of today's session. "Run it end to end online."

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

[Lunar]

He only said that his "Capitol Hill sources" knew what was going on with McCain people.

I just made it red because it is the most damning.  Feel free to be a skeptic.

[Lunar]

McCain really should have picked Pawlenty.  He pretty much has all of Palin's positives (minus the perky tits, of course).. without the negatives.

He is miles ahead of her in foreign policy... as he does spend a lot of time in foreign country 'selling Minnesota' to them.. and like Sarah Palin, we have to have a relationship with Manitoba, Ontario, and the Canadian government in general since we border them.

Pawlenty also has strong fiscal conservatism credentials having held taxes down with overwhelming DFL majorities....

He would have been a million times better than Sarah Palin.

I do actually feel bad for Pawlenty, though... I think he felt pretty burned... having been so loyal and such a hard worker for his campaign.  His absence from the McCain campaign and "return to business as normal as governor of Minnesota" since the VP pick kind of shows that.

The day before Palin was picked, Pawlenty was told to prepare acceptance remarks in case he got selected....

[Lunar]

Isn't this the same "news" network that committed fraud against Bush in 2004? The Obama Mania Media never stops.

I have like six different sources, some of the most damning of which come from the Wall Street Journal - the same newspaper that endorsed both McCain and Bush....  Schultz is a self-proclaimed liberal democrat but Politico is about as reputable as one can get in the political-reporting biz.  Marc Ambinder I think is universally respected by left and right.

Buy yeah, this isn't all about the WaPo, and I've posted numerous updates on this thread with further sourced explanations about where the WaPo was wrong and where they are right.  Did you read the thread?

[Lunar]

Found underneath "logical fallacies"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument to the man", "argument against the man") consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject.

[Lunar]

I know on the first (the source is the WaPo, not me), and I can't argue on the latter since I agree with you.  Yet, attacking the WaPo over 2004 does not discredit every story it has since then.

But, if you read the thread, you'll see that the WaPo is actually a bit off in its reporting.  There will be more footage aired by CBS with additional interviews with both Palin and Biden this week, but then there are news outlets outside the WaPo that are suggesting Palin could not name a Supreme Court case outside of Roe.... again, all is in this thread.

I mean, attacking the WaPo is all good, they probably deserve it, but it's not, by itself, an answer to every story they publish.  Like I said just one post ago, some of the most aggressive anti-Palin reporting in this thread comes from the WSJ that has endorsed McCain, and I have six different sources for different points in this thread, on all ends of the political spectrum.

The media has some left-wing bias, but that's 100% irrelevant to this thread.

[Lunar]

One of six sources being the WaPo doesn't discredit the entire story, doesi t?

[Lunar]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/bidens-debate-prep/

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, spent most of the day Monday in a hotel suite in Wilmington preparing for Thursday night’s debate.

As practice sessions unfolded behind closed doors, top aides tried, not terribly convincingly, to suggest that Mr. Biden - a two-time presidential candidate, 35-year veteran of the Senate and chairman of its foreign affairs committee - is the debate underdog to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“He’s going in here to debate a leviathan of forensics,” Mr. Biden’s spokesman, David Wade, said with an almost straight face, “who has debated five times and she’s undefeated.”

David Axelrod, Senator Barack Obama’s top political strategist, also tried to play down expectations for Mr. Biden and to highlight Ms. Palin’s skills as a debater.

“I think that if you go back and look at the debates that Governor Palin’s had as a candidate, she’s very skilled and she’ll be well-prepared,” Mr. Axelrod said on Mr. Biden’s plane Sunday night. “As you saw at the convention she can be very good. So, I think it would be foolish to assume that this isn’t going to be a really challenging debate. We’re preparing for that, on that assumption.”

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Democrat of Michigan, joined the debate preparation team in the role of Ms. Palin. Ms. Granholm flew to Wilmington with Mr. Biden on Sunday night after the Democratic candidates made an appearance in Detroit earlier in the day and was expected to stay for a day or two of mock combat.

Also on the Biden debate team were Ron Klain, a former top aide to Biden in the Senate who has been helping Mr. Obama prepare for debates; Ricki Seidman, a senior campaign adviser; Anthony Blinken, Mr. Biden’s chief foreign policy aide; and Valerie Biden Owens, Mr. Biden’s sister, political adviser and close confidante.

Mr. Axelrod said that preparation for a vice-presidential debate is more complex than for a top-of-the-ticket contest because the nominees have to defend their own records while touting the qualifications of their presidential candidates and questioning the positions of their opponents.

“This is primarily going to be a debate about where the principals, the presidential candidates, want to take the country,” Mr. Axelrod said.

[Lunar]

Katie Couric, in a segment to air tonight, asks Palin about her joke that she's been listening to Joe Biden's speeches since second grade, and whether that isn't an odd thing to say given her own running mate's age:

    Oh no, it's nothing negative at all. He's got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we've been hearing his speeches for all these years. So he's got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I'm the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he's got the experience based on many many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years.

[Lunar]

Already covered in page 4

[Lunar]

Here's an interesting one, from Jonathon Martin on Politico:

Sarah Palin and John McCain routinely offer a nod on the stump to Todd Palin's membership in the United Steel Workers as a way of underscoring the potential second family's blue-collar bona fides.

In an interview today, Sarah Palin went further, specifically crediting her and her husband's union membership for their health care.

"We’ve gone through periods of our life here with paying out of pocket for health coverage until Todd and I both landed a couple of good union jobs," Palin explained to conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt.  "Early on in our marriage, we didn’t have health insurance, and we had to either make the choice of paying out of pocket for catastrophic coverage or just crossing our fingers, hoping that nobody would get hurt, nobody would get sick."

In saying this, Palin was seeking to underline how her life has been no different than many Americans.  (Earlier in the interview, she said: "It’s time that normal Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.")

But Democrats and union officials are sure to jump on Palin's language, which is taken directly out of their talking points. 

The centerpiece of McCain's health care plan -- and GOP orthodoxy on the issue -- is to empower people to pick their own health plans by lessening tax breaks for employer-based coverage and transferring them to invididual taxpayers.

Just today, the AFL-CIO dropped a mail piece focused on health care to a million of their members, hammering McCain for wanting "people to buy health insurance on their own instead of getting it through their jobs."

This is somewhat misleading because McCain would offer a tax credit to help people get coverage.

But nonetheless, McCain and most Republicans are pushing for a market-oriented health care system where individuals would be weaned off the very employer-based set-up that Palin praised. 

It's unclear what union job Palin had.  I've asked the campaign.   

[Lunar]

I was about to post that!

omg

[Lunar]

Couric: If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, do you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion, and why?

Palin: I am pro-life. And I'm unapologetic in my position that I am pro-life. And I understand there are good people on both sides of the abortion debate. In fact, good people in my own family have differing views on abortion, and when it should be allowed. Do I respect people's opinions on this. Now, I would counsel to choose life. I would also like to see a culture of life in this country. But I would also like to take it one step further. Not just saying I am pro-life and I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country, but I want them, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported, and adoptions made easier.

Couric: But ideally, you think it should be illegal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?

Palin: I'm saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in. And, um, if you're asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not. That's nothing I would ever support.

Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning-after pill?

Palin: Well, I am all for contraception. And I am all for preventative measures that are legal and save, and should be taken, but Katie, again, I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see …

Couric: And so you don't believe in the morning-after pill?

Palin: ... I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And again, I haven't spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.

Couric: I'm sorry, I just want to ask you again. Do you not support or do you condone or condemn the morning-after pill.

Palin: Personally, and this isn't McCain-Palin policy …

Couric: No, that's OK, I'm just asking you.

Palin: But personally, I would not choose to participate in that kind of contraception.

Couric: Do you believe evolution should be taught as an accepted scientific principle or as one of several theories?

Palin: Oh, I think it should be taught as an accepted principle. And, as you know, I say that also as the daughter of a school teacher, a science teacher, who has really instilled in me a respect for science. It should be taught in our schools. And I won't deny that I see the hand of God in this beautiful creation that is Earth. But that is not part of the state policy or a local curriculum in a school district. Science should be taught it science class.

Couric: The governor told CBS News though she's not a member of any church, she visits a couple of them regularly when she's home. She took issue with news reports that one of them, The Wasilla Bible Church, sponsored a conference where gays could be made straight through prayer.

Palin: Well, it matters though, Katie, when the media gets it wrong., it frustrates Americans who are just trying to get the facts and … be able to make up their mind on, about a person's values. So it does matter.

But what you're talking about, I think, value here, what my position is on homosexuality and you can pray it away, because I think that was the title that was listed on that bulletin. And you know, I don't know what prayers are worthy of being prayed. I don't know what's prayers are going to be asked and answered. But as for homosexuality, I am not going to judge Americans and the decisions that they make in their adult personal relationships. I have one of my absolute best friends for the last 30 years happens to be gay, and I love her dearly. And she is not my "gay friend," she is one of my best friends, who happens to have made a choice that isn't a choice I would have made. But I am not going to judge people.

[Lunar]

http://interviewpalin.com/

[Lunar]

Her answers were non-responsive, which is why I'm making fun of them.  I don't care about her position on abortion, it's her stalling and rhetoric that's hilarious.

[Lunar]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Non-responsive? You can't determine her positions on those issues from her responses? You can't be serious.
   

I am serious.  I don't know what her position is on the 15-year-old question that Couric asked.  A good chunk of her responses are not about the question at hand, and some of them, like the last question, are muddled beyond understanding and only rarely use complete sentences. 

[Lunar]

Chris and Ghostmonkey are a good match for one another.

Your numbers prove Chris right though, if she thinks abortion should be illegal for the girl in the question.