Alaska Politics Blog : Getting to know Palin

Getting to know Palin

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Anchorage Daily News

Posted: September 2, 2008 - 6:44 am

Observations and commentary from Michael Carey at the Republican National Convention --

As I lay awake Tuesday morning listening to the humm of the air conditioner in my hotel room, I wondered "What is the single most important thing I can tell ADN readers about the Republican convention through Monday?"

It's this.

Thousands upon thousands of Americans have formed definite opinions of Gov. Sarah Palin without meeting her, without seeing her, without talking to her - without
anything except glancing at her photograph, reading a news story or seeing her briefly on television. I have met some of them; they can tell me all about Sarah Palin.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the land of celebrity - major celebrity - where facts compete with image and rumour. Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, their daughter Bristol, trooper Wooten and the whole Palin clan can expect to see themselves on the cover of the National Enquirer, News of the World and all the other tabloids, not just Newsweek - where I found Sarah Palin grinning at me yesterday. The experience was jolting, and I am still enough of a kid from Fairbanks to have blurted out "I know her."

Bristol Palin's pregnancy was a bomb. As news, it rivaled Hurricane Gustav. I overheard several delegates discussing how to spin Gustav. And around mid-day, I turned a corner in the convention hall and there was Steve Schmidt, one of the ranking figures in the McCain campaign, spinning Bristol to a pack of hungry reporters. How? By saying he would not talk about her. Family matter - end of story. Except that's not the end of the story. Reporters kept asking "What did John McCain know and when did he know it?"

This provoked one wag to refer to the Palin's family situation as "Babygate."

"Babygate" had a second incarnation - the media's interest in the rumor/story that Sarah Palin faked her pregnancy and that Bristol really had baby Trig. The Los Angeles Times, National Review, the Canadian Brodcasting System, ABC and the News Hour all asked me about the "fake pregnancy." I have to admit: They asked sheepishly, but they asked. I told them competent, veteran reporters in Anchorage had examined this story, and there is no truth to it. They believed me. Apparently there are other "reporters" in the blog world who don't.

Why ask me? Obviously, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I am from Alaska, have met Sarah Palin, have written about her, have conducted debates
in which she participated.

I have tried to be balanced in my assessment of Gov. Palin. Some people think I have been; others not. In politics, winning is everything, and that's how many people respond. If commentary helps them win, it's good. If not, it's bad.

One of the things that has been a problem for Palin is separating her personal life from her public life. The trooper Wooten story is the most glaring example. But the
pregnancy stories fall into that category too. Palin can't be blamed for the fake pregancy rumour - I'm told the story line originally appeared on "Desperate Housewives" - but Wooten is another matter.

In 1860, the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for president. His views were well known to many Americans, especially his views on slavery, through the
newspapers. But beyond Illinois, few Americans knew what he looked like. They had never seen a photograph of him, let alone the man himself. It came as a shock to discover he was six-foot three inches tall or more.

Here in 2008, everybody knows what Sarah Palin looks like. And too often, that's all they know.

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