Palin Not So 'Rogue' After All

Politics | Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 1:10:13 pm PDT

A new book on the 2008 presidential campaign reveals that Sarah Palin’s (in)famous line about Barack Obama “palling around with terrorists” apparently came straight from the McCain camp: ’Pals Around With Terrorists’: Palin Wasn’t That Rogue, After All.

On the subject of linking Obama to ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers, it turns out that Palin hadn’t gone rogue.  Balz and Johnson answer this question pretty definitively. They’ve obtained an e-mail from campaign adviser Nicolle Wallace sent to Palin on the morning of October 4rd, with an attached New York Times article about Obama’s relationship with Ayers.

Turns out that the McCain campaign was a week away from running an ad linking Obama to Ayers. The e-mail from Wallace, according to Balz and Johnson, reads as follows: “Governor and Team: rick [Davis], Steve [Schmidt] and I suggest the following attack from the new york times. If you are comfortable, please deliver the attack as written. Please do not make any changes to the below without approval from steve or myself because precision is crucial in our ability to introduce this.” 

McCain HQ had suggested the following line: “This is not a man who sees American as you and I do — as the greatest force for good in the world. This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.”

At the event, Palin said this:

“Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America.”

Nice. So McCain set Palin up as the attack dog, then let her take the fall when the attack backfired. Ain’t politics grand?