Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for October 1, 2008 FREE SARAH PALIN!

Let Sarah be Sarah!!!

She's ready...

I could see them hiding her until last Friday...but Friday is past! She has now SEEN/HEARD a presidential debate!! I mean, it only took one glance (just one look...that's all it took)...one glance out of her kitchen window (at Russia) to acquire foreign policy expertise! So...90 minutes of Barack Obama and (awesome) John McCain on high definition, big screen TV makes Thursday night's VP debate with Joe a "slam dunk"!!! Sarah's just "Biden" her time! Bring him on...

PS: Has anybody heard...have they changed the debate rules so that John can stand next to Sarah during the debate (like he did during the second Katie Couric interview???) Just wondering...

Borger: McCain's bold Palin move becomes a crisis of caution

By Gloria Borger
CNN Senior Political Analyst

(CNN) -- We first met Sarah Palin as the exuberant governor of Alaska, who captivated previously unenthusiastic Republicans with her brash convention speech.

Unafraid to take on anyone -- Barack Obama, Democrats, special interests, the "good ol' boy" network -- she had political appeal, particularly with those conservatives who were lukewarm about John McCain.

Even some Hillary Clinton supporters, angry that Clinton was not Obama's running mate, were willing to give her a shot. She was, after all, a woman, and she seemed to be an interesting, if not unorthodox, choice.

In one bold stroke, John McCain threw away his "experience" argument in favor of reclaiming the "reform" mantle. To call it a gamble is an understatement; it was a crapshoot, with all the chips on one roll of the dice.

Then they decided to get really careful. And now Sarah Palin has become the first sequestered vice presidential candidate in American history.

And when she isn't being hidden as she crams for her vice presidential debate, she has been let into public view for selective interviews and photo-ops that have been alternately silly, painful to watch and sometimes even alarming.

Republicans are watching what once may have seemed like a brilliant idea turn into a riskier proposition each day.

The original McCain campaign reaction to questions about Palin's qualifications was to complain the "media elite" were treating this nominee badly, with different standards, because a) she's a woman and b) she's an outsider. They then raised the point that she's got more managerial experience than Obama. All were plausible arguments (at least in the heat of a campaign).

But their case for Palin has been evaporating with remarkable speed. The more they hide her, each venture out into the open becomes magnified -- and her last attempts at tête-à-tête interviews have been disasters.

And that's the word Republicans use.

It wasn't just her interview with Katie Couric in which she tried to explain how Russia's being Alaska's "next door neighbor" adds to her foreign policy cred. (In a "Saturday Night Live" skit, Tina Fey used Palin's exact words to mock her. Yikes.)

And how about, after the first presidential debate, when she told reporters that "McCain did awesome." Cringe.

So now the McCain campaign has a real problem. They've managed to turn a self-confident and appealing candidate into one who is afraid of veering off her talking points. She's clearly studying and cramming, but it's like trying to cram for an exam when you haven't really taken the class.

And the more mistakes she makes on her scarce public outings, the more self-assurance she loses. Each mistake becomes magnified, so one mistake could be deadly.

Sure, what this all means is that the threshold for her performance in the upcoming debate is low. And Joe Biden has proved he can match her gaffes. But he's an experienced senator, with huge foreign policy credentials.

Without her self-confidence, and with her limited experience, Palin is now looking like a risk that may not pay off.

Conservatives to McCain camp: Let Palin be Palin

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Conservatives are calling on the McCain campaign to stop keeping Gov. Sarah Palin under wraps as the Republican vice presidential nominee continues intense preparations for her debate with Democratic rival Sen. Joe Biden.

Some conservatives were bombarding the campaign with complaints that it is not allowing Palin to be herself on the campaign trail and in the debate, sources within the McCain camp told CNN.

The New York Times conservative columnist Bill Kristol argued in his column on Monday that McCain must "liberate his running mate from the former Bush aides brought in to handle her -- aides who seem to have succeeded in importing to the Palin campaign the trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House.

"McCain picked Sarah Palin in part because she's a talented politician and communicator. He needs to free her to use her political talents and to communicate in her own voice," Kristol wrote.

One McCain source said Palin's husband, Todd Palin, was frustrated with how the campaign was preparing his wife for the debate, but did not elaborate. Another McCain aide, however, dismissed those reports.

But a McCain adviser said the conservatives worried that the campaign was squeezing the charm out of Palin were missing the point.

The adviser said preparing her for the debate was "really hard" because the Alaska governor was learning about issues she had never dealt with before -- including those regarding North Korea and other hot spots around the globe.

After campaigning with her running mate, Sen. John McCain, in Ohio, she will travel Monday to McCain's Arizona cabin to cram for the debate in St. Louis, Missouri. Palin was originally scheduled to prepare for the debate with Biden in St. Louis.

The intensity of the debate preparations picked up after Palin's panned interview with Katie Couric of CBS News last week. In particular, her answer when asked to describe her foreign policy experience was widely ridiculed.

"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where -- where do they go? It's Alaska," Palin said.

The answer became instant fodder for "Saturday Night Live," as comedian Tina Fey lampooned the remark in her impersonation of the Republican vice presidential pick.

The CBS interview, described as confused and rambling by critics, also led a well-known conservative columnist to call on Palin to remove herself from the ticket.

"Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons ... Do it for your country," conservative columnist and former Palin fan Kathleen Parker of Nationalreview.com pleaded on Friday.

In defense, Republicans say the complaints are coming from "intellectual" conservatives -- not Main Street Republicans, who they insist love the "hockey mom," from Alaska, as Palin describes herself.

"These are the folks that really have responded to the candidacy of a McCain-Palin ticket. These are the folks that are showing up in huge numbers, tens of thousands, to the rallies," Leslie Sanchez, a CNN political contributor, said.

Still, some wonder, if all of this negative talk will hurt Palin.

Despite some ominous signs, some analysts say the negative comments may actually help her.

"The expectations for Sarah Palin, I think, are pretty low. So I think she can exceed expectations. I'm not sure she can disappoint them," Alex Burns, a reporter for Politico, said.