John McCain took a risk in picking little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, but now the campaign's playing it safer. She's sticking to a greatest hits version of her convention speech on the campaign trail and steering clear of questions until she's comfortable enough for a hand-picked interviewer later this week.
More than 40 million people tuned in last week to listen to the speech from Palin, the 44-year-old first-term governor whom McCain announced as his surprise vice presidential pick just days before. Since then, that basic script is all anyone has heard from her publicly, and her only interaction with the media was a brief conversation with a small group of reporters on her plane Monday — off the record at her handlers' insistence....Her public remarks essentially have been excerpts of her convention speech, delivered while introducing McCain at rallies.
And one of the complaints of the press is that Barack Obama rarely talks to reporters on his campaign plane whether on the record or off the record. Kugler then compares Palin unfavorably to Biden:
By comparison, her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, has been campaigning on his own, at times taking questions from audiences. In fact he split off to campaign separately from Barack Obama the day after Obama announced his selection. They rejoined at their party's convention and spent the following weekend campaigning together.Biden's appearances have touched on a range of issues — in Florida he talked about U.S. support for Israel, in Pennsylvania it was economics and tax policy. He was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday.
Where Biden was not questioned about how he claimed the Bush administration would be investigated by an Obama administration only to completely deny he ever said such a thing later on Fox & Friends. And now the money quote from Kugler ...the stunning admission, which contradicts what she just wrote, that all candidates use a stock stump speech:
To be sure, all candidates running for office give the same remarks over and over — Barack Obama's stump speech has hardly changed throughout the campaign, and McCain has been telling familiar stories and jokes for months.
Um, so why when Palin uses a basic speech she somehow "sticks to a script" when everybody else campaigning is doing the same thing? After shooting down her own premise, Kugler then shifts gear to claim that Palin is shielded from the press:
But none of the candidates in this race has been so shielded from the media, so protected from any spontaneous situation, and Palin's unvarying remarks give the impression that she and her message are being tightly controlled. As before her convention speech, McCain's campaign is briefing Palin for her first TV interview.
Does Kugler even pay attention to the news? Sarah Palin has been subjected to an avalanche of criticism from the press over the tiniest of details. No wonder she would prefer to shield herself from unwarranted attacks such as this snarky sign-off by Kugler:
Another crowd favorite in her speech is that story about how she got rid of luxuries in the state Capitol, like a personal driver, chef and luxury jet."I put it on eBay," she says.Audiences love this part, but what Palin never adds is that the jet didn't sell on eBay despite numerous attempts. The state eventually hired an aircraft broker to unload it.
Palin never claimed the jet sold on eBay. However she did list it on the auction site just as she stated. With articles like this, it is no wonder that Palin would prefer to separate herself from the biased press.
