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...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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."

[ucscgaldamez]

even worse?

[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.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

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

[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.

[Brittain33]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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...

[Lunar]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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?

[Brittain33]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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?

This is the kind of comment that buffeted the Al Gore campaign like an IED.

[Sam Spade]

I'm amused.

[Torie]

Depressing.

[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

[Aizen]

Should have taken Romney.

[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."

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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

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

Have her do a lot of rallies in Colorado Springs and keep her away from TV.

[Boris]

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."

How do we know that these aren't controlled leaks to lower expectations as opposed to legitimate concerns?

[Vsanto5]

Should have taken Romney.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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."

How do we know that these aren't controlled leaks to lower expectations as opposed to legitimate concerns?

No level of lowered expectations could make up for another Couric interview.

[Likely Voter]

could her expectations go lower? Remember before he GOP Con speech she was under a lot of scruitiny and people were dismissing her, then after he speech she was suddenly 'the future of the GOP'.

She will do better than expected. The debate format works for her as it will just be a soundbite fest and not a real debate. Plus Biden is in an impossible situation of not really being able to attack her.

I think Biden needs to not talk about Palin at all and focus ENTIRELY on McCain and Obama.

[© tweed]

Should have taken Romney.

I was just thinking about that Saturday night while I was doing my laundry.  McCain would have been much better off swallowing his pride and taking his arch-enemy.  of course hindsight is 20/20 and the 'financial crisis' wasn't on the front burner then, but Romney has that aura of intelligence and competency that attracts people in situations like this.  instead it's just grumpy old man and hot dumbass, neither of which is attractive right about now.  Palin would only work in times of prosperity...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

At the very least McCain needs someone who seems capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

[minionofmidas]

Does anyone still care? Who is this Palin piglet anyways?

[cinyc]

Who are these sources?  Republican or Democrat?  How do we know that the Republicans aren't trying to pull a trick like Clinton administration did on his Lewinsky testimony?

[JSojourner]

At the very least McCain needs someone who seems capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

It was just a bridge too far for him.  He could have easily comforted the Talibagelicals by choosing Huckabee, Pence, Thune or another arch social conservative.  But Palin met that requirement and had perky tits.  That, I suspect McCain's advisors thought, would -- err -- excite -- younger, male voters.  I still find it impossible to believe anyone seriously thought pro-choice feminists who supported Clinton would ever find Palin an attractive alternative.  Maybe a tiny handful, out of spite.  But I emphasize "tiny"....

I really thought Pawlenty was looking good, just because we heard so much build up over the months about how McCain cherishes those who show him loyalty.  And like Pawlenty or not, you gotta hand it to the man.  He remained loyal to McCain...even when the chips were down.

[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.