How Democrats set Sarah Palin up to 'win' Thursday's VP debate

According to a news release from CBS News, Harry Smith will have an exclusive interview this morning with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, on "The Early Show."

It's not really exclusive, of course. CNN's Drew Griffin interviewed the proud father of the Republican Party's first female vice presidential candidate way back on Sept. 8 (see video by clicking on the "Read More" line below), when her father said, "She's still my little girl."

But, hey, this is TV and the CBS interview is exclusive for this morning.

It'll be the last peek into the family of Palin before her much-anticipated debate Thursday in St. Louis against longtime Sen. Joe Biden. But have Palin's Democratic opponents overplayed their hand in portraying the 44-year-old mother of five so derisively in recent days?

Was John McCain manager Steve Schmidt's puzzingly strong attack on the New York Times last week really a trap, an intentional bid to call even more attention to negative coverage of Palin to lower expectations? 

Harry Smith flew all the way up to Alaska last week and drove out to Wasilla with his crew to learn that Chuck Heath, who looks like the high school track coach he was when his daughter ran to a cross-country championship for him, thinks:

"She is ready to do anything she wants to. She perseveres. She works so hard. She learns so fast."

Knowing full well what he's going to get back from the worried....

. . .parent of anyone in American public life these days, but desperately hoping to generate at least some news for all those trans-continental expense dollars, the prominent member of the media himself puts words into the father's mouth.

Harry: "There’s a sense that she hasn’t been treated fairly by the media.”

Chuck Heath: “That’s what I feel. Someone said, ‘Well they have to get to know Sarah Palin.’ But Sarah Palin -- there is a good side of Sarah Palin and they’re digging and digging for the bad side and there is no real bad side. They’re fabricating a lot of things that I don’t want to go into.”

That much news is certainly worth getting up early for. But here's a really silly idea for this gotcha society:

If a candidate's family is not being arrested or not out on the campaign trail inviting news coverage as McCain's 96-year-old mother, Roberta, does, why don't we just leave them alone?

The way the U.S. media has so conscientiously managed to deny itself virtually any inquisitions of Barack Obama's poor half-brother in Africa and his half-sister in Hawaii and Joe Biden's mother and Michelle's family.

It's not new that American political campaigns, beneath a thinning veneer of public gentility, can be intrusive, brutal, even disgusting affairs, especially online.

McCain knows this too well from personal experience in 2000 when his adopted daughter from Bangladesh was portrayed in South Carolina as the illegitimate child of a biracial affair.

All big-time candidates develop very thick skin; some staffs even collect the worst insults in scrapbooks as badges of honor and humor. It's the candidates' defenseless families who really suffer.

And by keeping the governor herself largely away from the media, the McCain campaign is, in effect, playing a prevent defense, ceding the public relations playing field to others to describe, define and caricature Palin, strangely unanswered by her for a week now.

One recent Alaska poll showed Palin's approval rating there had tumbled to 68%, which is still about 20 points higher than either presidential candidate and seven times greater than Congress' approval.

The upcoming downside for the Obama-Biden campaign is that its supporters became so flustered over Palin's surprisingly explosive popularity coming out of the GOP convention. They have so successfully mocked, derided and lowered expectations for Palin in Thursday night's VP debate that if she doesn't drool or speak in tongues, many millions still open to persuasion will be impressed.

Al Gore's campaign made the exact same mistake going into the 2000 debates. So all Texas Gov. George W. Bush had to do was not lose.

In that sense, Democrats may have played right into a PR cul-de-sac. Biden, for instance, described Palin as merely better-looking than him. A far better communications strategy would have been to insincerely portray Palin with superlatives as a superwoman, making it harder, not easier, for her to impress. Too late now. 

It'll be difficult for Palin's parents because they so want to keep up and cheer their daughter on. But if they are wise, for their own mental health, they'll pretty much avoid the news for the next six weeks or so. What the threatened Alaskan Republican establishment tried to do to stop Palin, the political insurgent, back in 2005-06 is nothing.

And Chuck and Sally should never ever go online where they might stumble upon the sites portraying their "little girl" as, among other things, a naked porn star in action. Welcome to American politics 2008, Web-style.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Top photo: Sarah Palin's parents. Credit: Al Grillo / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / Associated Press

Comments

[ccmandchang]

If the instant poll of CNN can fake results while McCain and Obama were debating, they will certainly trying all dirty things to hurt Palin.

CNN delibrately use technology to lie to help Obama and hurt McCain. Let me tell you how.

If you pay attention, (You can see that when a line, blue or red, is flat for awhile at the highest rating point for each candidates.) CNN faked the instant poll by restrict the highest rating of red lines at 1.5 and the highest for the blue line at about 2 so that it always looks like Obama was doing better. And on the opposite, the lowest rating of the blue line is at 1.5 while lowest red rating is at 1 to show McCain is always worse. Blue line had a bigger range so TV audience will be forced to think Obama is always doing better than McCain.

These CNN cheaters and liars deservered a sharp rating drop. Anyone who has a heart, stop watching CNN.

[Maria Houser Conzemius]

It doesn't matter what the media do to Sarah Palin, because most people know that Big Media are in the tank for Obama. What matters is that the media continue to discredit themselves as they have been so that no one believes anything that they say any more, especially when their target is a woman.

PUMAs will vote for McCain/Palin anyway, not just as a protest vote, but because McCain has more integrity and experience than Obama.

[mariah m]

Why is everyone so quick to say we should expect little from her?

She has a DEGREE in COMMUNICATIONS!
Shouldn't she be better trained than others to handle the news media?

Give me a break- she better be very good.

[ainnj]

With the exception of the left on the east and west coasts, I believe many Americans, democrats, independents and republicans alike, have been absolutely horrified by the treatment given to Sarah Palin by the MSM and the Obama campaign and its surrogates. Perhaps the democrats should buy a clue from Bill Clinton and try and show a little respect for a sitting Governor, a working mother of 5 and the first female vice presidential candidate to be on the republican ticket. The country is watching and when push comes to shove most undecided Americans will cast their vote based on their perceptions of the candidate's character and integrity, and not on their ever flipping and flopping platform stances. Snarkiness may be an attractive quality for a comedian like BIll Mahr, but it's a sure vote repellent when used as a campaign strategy.

[Steve]

It's great to watch apologists for McCain choosing an unqualified person - male or female - in action.

You have bought into the celebrity of her 15 minutes of fame, and by extension, her "real people" parents and family (of course you have ignored Obama's "real people" roots), rather than her utter lack of any qualification for the position of the Presidency.

If you can't answer a journalist's relativlely softball question, given several attempts, how would one expect that person to act if called to be President?

I am not qualified to be President, and, truth be told, I don't personally know anyone who is. I may like the idea of a "real person" becoming President, but in my hearty of hearts, I know my next door neighboor just isn't up to it.

I hope these Palin stalwarts look at their next door neighbors and ask themselves the same question.

[Dalene]

I don't care if she's a man or a woman, a republican or a democrat. She has a special needs infant who needs to be her first priority. It's going to be difficult to give the child the focus he needs when McCain dies. Daddy'll be raising him alone.

[Brian]

Everything being equal, the straight talker just portrayed himself as a very self centered man from his choice of Sarah palin, all that slogan country first is all bullshit, this guys just want to cling to power and run down the US economy African style. take back your country American, else start searching for visas to come look for greener pastures here in Africa, because soon and very soon, ours will be better. Obama-Biden 2008. Hurray.

[Someone smart]

I wish some of you who wrote these blogs would listen to yourselves. Your making the Republican point of view for why Barack Hussein Obama was chosen. There is no accurate account of who he is because of the biased media and yet he's been to his job less in the last 3 years than I have and the Democrats are trying to make him president. Both his VP and Hillary both said he was unqualified and yet they still pushed him into the position. He's been to his job less days than it takes to get a High School diploma and with some of your remarks you act as if he has done so much. Go back and look at how many times Barack has voted "present" and tell me how distinguished of a career he has had. At least Palin has some experience being a chief executive of some kind, instead of being a community organizer. I'm not making fun of that because we need them, but it sounds a little like being a little league baseball coach and not a president.

[Tammy]

After seeing some of the idiots that the democrats have running things like Barney Frank and Pelosi I think this makes Palin look like a Einstein. I don't know where these democrats were found but I would send them back. My 13 year old knows more then these goobers put together. I think it is time that everyone in the congress and senate were threw out on the rears and get normal hard working people in office. These people have had the silver spoon for way too many years. I think we should put Obama, Frank, Dodds and some of these other people who were over Fannie and Freddie
in jail. They are Crooks. If I took money from my company like these people did I would be sitting in jail.
Throw them out.

[Mary]

McCain has hired one the thugs, Tucker Eskew, who smeared him in 2000 to deal with...Palin. Her harhest critics are Republican intellectuals.

Primarily, it is McCain's lack of confidence in Palin, as demostrated by hiring Eskew and the tight control over where and when she is allowed to speak, that has underminded Palin's image the most.

McCain clearly does not have confidence in his running mate. Why should we?

[Jacob]

You people are a pack of loons. One comment I read actually said that the LA Times was a republican mouthpiece. This paper is the most liberal rag out there. Some of it's insinuations seem to be straight out of the National Enquierer... This story doesn't tilt in favor of the right, it is a weak attempt to cover the shortcomings of the left. If the libs lose the debate, you can always look back four days to when the LA Times called the loss, and if you win, the liberal media will forget this story was ever run.

For all those who say Sarah Palin is unqualified... Do you realize that Barack Obama has 140 days of experiance as a legislator (and not a very good one), to Sarah Palin's two years of executive experiance? I didn't realize that this was a what if game? "What If", McCain should die? Well, Barack could also be assassinated because we all know there are a ton of hill billies who don't want to see a black man in office... Then where would we be? Sen. Biden is just as old as Sen. McCain and much more feeble.

Most of the comments here seem to be based in intelligent and logical thought. Please don't show your stupidity by saying "Sarah Palin has less experiance than Barack.", because we are voting for McCain or Obama.

[Eric Bousquet]

This is horrible theater. Palin is grossly underqualified for a position of this magnitude and John McCain is showing he is completely out of touch and desperate to make an impact. His silly "Maverick" schtick is growing thinner and thinner as he erraticly shifts gears and positions especially where the economy is concerned. The man has sided with the Bush administration 90% of the time. An administration who had been so ineptly run that it allowed the country to be attacked by terrorists, thousands to die 5 DAYS after a hurricane, invade a country on false information, the DOJ debacle and now let the economy sink to levels not seen since the "great depression". Then to top it off his record in the senate is that of DEregulation, and that is exactly what got us into this problem we have right now on WALL ST!
We need to learn from out mistakes not repeat them. look how much worse the country has gotten since Bush was reelected in 2004. Do we want to continue on this downward slide? The majority of our problems have come from the Bush administration putting unqualified people in positions of power: Dan Brown w/ FEMA & Alberto Gonzalez are just 2 of the more recent examples. There are many MANY more! Sarah Palin is the first glimpse we get to see about John McCain's ability to chose who will run the country along side him and this is the one that's spposed to help clinch his election. If Sarah Palin and her couple of years experience as a Gov is supposed to instill ANY faith that this man will make smart & thorough judgements as to who will handle this country through his predidency than he is already a complete failure. What does it tell you when Republican leaders in ALASKA are questionig if she's qualified?

[Josephine Gutierrez]

I am amazed so much emphasis is being focused on Palin - the number 2 person on the ticket, saying she is not qualified when number 1 on the ticket is just as unqualified. Also why is anyone not interested in Obama's half-brother, grandmother, etc.?

[Bfowler]

Sarah makes Obaba and Biden look stupid. If all I had to vote for was Obabma sorry,I don''t vote for stupid.

[cj]

I cannot think of why I would ever support Sarah Palin oveer the much more knowledgeable, more presidential worthy, more informed, more of everything other candidates that McCain had to pick from.
McCain kept saying that the job was not one that should
have to have "on the job training". Yet, his VP pick has to have "on the interview training" just to spit out his campaign sound bits..... saying NOTHING about understanding what to do if she had to come up with her own answers.... she does not have it. Replace her.

[Lublub]

You've made a compelling case. If I went off the rants of my hippy friends and the couric clips, I'd think it that Palin was some sort of crazed Shaman who'd removed most of her frontal lobes in some sort spiritual ritual in an effort to get Molech to cosume all the gays with liquid fire from heaven.
I've watched Palin's Alaskan debating clips and she's really quite good. Bden is scary, because he's so incredibly arrogant. It'll be easier to heal the oceans than it will be to keep him from acting like a twunt and having 20 little im-better-than-you snatch fits, and then there's his gaffe-blabbing mouth, and his propensity to make stuff up.
The real question is, if Palin kills him or ties him in the debate, is it a game changer? Maybe, and I think this comes down to the media war. Obama falls with the media. If independents conclude that Obama is much more frightening a la CAC, Gamaliel Foundation, ACORN, and the rest of his Chicago Machine life, but the media is covering for him, then he loses.
Palin has the opportunity to make the media eat crow. If she is as good at the debates as she was at he acceptance speech. She will have slain the media dragon, and as people recall how Dan Rather tried to rig an election last cycle, Obama will lose all his credibility by proxy.

[crusher]

I WILL NEVER VOTE DEMOCRAT, THEY ARE SOCIALISTS. ANY ONE THAT CAN PICK UP A HISTORY BOOK, CAN SEE THAT THEY WILL BRING AND END TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY. EVEN IF THEY DONT REALIZE IT ! THAT MAKES THEM STUPID, AND DANGEROUS

[Billy]

she is an idiot.... thats all there is to it.... she's a mayor of a town with 2000 people (if that many) and thats all she will ever be.

[Debra D]

I just wanted to say Palin rocks! It is true ... with regard to experience, Obama has no more experience than she does. She is governor of the only solvent state in the Union!

I live in a state run by a bunch of liberal Democrats who do nothing but tax me to death to support their programs for illegals and welfare recipients! How is that even right or moral? I just found out my Dem Govenor allowed Indian tribes a complete reprieve from taxes on their casino earnings in exchange for their monetary support of her campaign. LOSER!

Personally, screw the bail out of Wall Street! I think every congressperson in their right mind should bail out every American in the country, 18+. If I have to pay for it, then put the money to better use than giving the money to the "geniuses" on Wall Street ... just so it can happen again. I know this last comment has nothing to do with Palin ... but I am TIRED of all of the politics and politicians who do nothing but showboat ... Kind of reminds me of Obama! And he reminds me of my "Cover Up Queen" Governor. NO ... I didn't vote for the woman!

This country needs someone who is not tainted by the BS of Washington DC with their lobbyists and special interest groups and the after hour dinner meetings deciding how best to stick it to the country that pays for their butts to be in office.

That person would be Sarah Palin ....

[Kathleen]

Just by way of clarification...a lot of the conservatives on this board seem confused as to why Obama voters are concerned about Palin's experience level.

First, McCain is the one who hammered at Obama's lack of experience and then picked Palin. Karl Rove mocked the Gov. of Virginia's experience level, which far exceeds Palins, and then turned around and defended Palin.

We do not agree with you that being mayor of a town smaller than some of America's high schools is proper training for being POTUS. We do not think that her time as gov. qualifies her as having foreign policy experience. You can believe that her experience is superior. We don't agree.

Obama has never claimed that Ill. proximity to Canada is what makes him capable of handling foreign policy. He's been in the spotlight for years, with endless reporting on his public and private life. He's been interviewed dozens of times and speaks with the press corps.

Obama is an expert on the constitution. Granted, he has probably never killed a moose but, and this is just me, I'm confortable predicting that the constitution is going to be more central to the next presidency than dressing out big game.

[Aaron from Ohio]

The bar is now so low for Sarah that if she "Doesn't drool or speak in tongues" that millions will be impressed? I fear that is an accurate point. Most people view her as a slightly smarter Forrest Gump. Maybe not as eloquent, but you get get the feeling that she is sincere in what she says. Figuring out what she says is the problem. It looks like English isn't her native tongue. Her journalism degree is an indictment against the college that gave it to her. Granted, being the Governor of Alaska carries some weight, but being the governor of a sparsley populated state for less than two years is hardly the kind of resume necessary to run the most powerful nation on the planet. Sure, Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, but is that really any more impressive than getting a 4 year journalism degree in only 6 years? Only an elitist would see the difference. Obama didn't even have the foresight to have a witch doctor conduct a ceremony to protect himself from witches and demons! Is that the kind of man you want in the White House?

[David H]

When did a VP's family and personal life matter so much in an election? I couldn't care less about how many children she has or how cute her husband is. If that is your reason to vote for her then American's are truly narrow minded. Her views on issues do not reflect my opinions. If they did I would gladly vote for her and McCain. I would feel so embarrassed if she was ever to become VP. How come the media doesn't show Alaskans who favor Obama. Do any exist? Choosing a running mate based on sex would be considered sexism in my book. Hence McCain is the sexist. Perhaps he should have had more then one conversation with her before selecting her as his running mate.

[Ahmad]

I had been a McCain supporter since 2000. I thought McCain should have been our president instead of W. Things would have been a lot different for the country and the world.
This year, they almsot wrote him off, his campaign was in shambles. Yet, the old soldier came back fighting and rose to get the nomination. I was elated, I thought this would be 'our' year - our last chance. Obama raised the roof after the convention, I was still not worried. I knew that McCain knew what he was doing, it was going to be OK. Then came the shock..the Palin effect. They say there is a fine line between being foolish and clever.
I was shocked, and still have not recovered.
We as a country can not risk this 'heart beat away' mess.
I cant see myselft voting for Obama - on principle. I guess I'll stay home.

[DirkDiggler949]

Too funny...Pretty hard to defend a snowbilly like Palin. She's just deeply embarrassing in every way. As an ex-Republican, this is just further indication to myself and others of how low the party has sunken. Nothing left now but free-trade crazies, religious pundits, corrupt career politicians, and out-of-touch uber-social conservatives. Guess the last 8 years of hell wasn't enough, so they're hoping for 4 more...nauseating. They got us into the current financial mess with their coddling of big corporations and their insatiable greed, and now refuse to vote to change it (for fear of damaging their very broken and oh-so-holy "free market economy"). As with most other moderates and independents, I'll be voting for Obama-Biden in 2008.

[Laughing]

Why are the R's attacking the D's when conservatives are the ones questioning her fitness for the job?