An inside look at Sarah Palin's debate prep

Maybe Sedona does have mystically restorative powers.

After a difficult couple of weeks, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin looked relaxed and comfortable this morning when she left Sedona and flew with her family and advisors to St. Louis for her hotly anticipated debate tonight with Sen. Joe Biden.

Palin, along with her husband, Todd, daughters Willow and Piper and baby son Trig, had spent 2 1/2 days at the peaceful Sedona compound of John McCain and Cindy McCain, set in the scrubby hills and red rocks of Arizona’s famously spiritual destination.

During that time, Palin kept a low profile.

She gave a confidence-boosting interview to talk show host Hugh Hewitt, whose sympathetic queries may have helped her gain equilibrium after damaging interviews with network anchors Charles Gibson and Katie Couric. (How could she have gone wrong with Hewitt, who lobbed softballs such as “Do you think the mainstream media and the left understands your religious faith, Governor Palin?”)

She spent much of her time in Sedona rehearsing for tonight’s big moment onstage. Her sparring partner was McCain senior foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann. The campaign released a photograph that showed Scheunemann and Palin, in a baseball cap, behind wooden lecterns, set up on what appeared to be the banks of a stream on the property under some leafy trees.

On Wednesday, reported a campaign spokeswoman, Palin began her debate prep in the morning, and at 7:30 p.m. took a break for a family barbecue featuring grilled steaks and twice-baked potatoes. She resumed work after dinner.

Part of the mission, as McCain campaign advisors have described it this week, was to put her in an environment with her family and few distractions to help her reclaim the straight-talking hockey mom persona that Republicans fell in love with at their nominating convention in St. Paul last month. That Sarah Palin seemed to get lost down some sort of verbal rabbit hole when she sat down with network anchors Gibson and Couric. Polls have shown support for her, particularly among women, beginning to wane.

Excerpts of the interview with Couric, which CBS played Monday and Tuesday, were particularly damaging. They showed a flustered and inarticulate Palin trying to respond to questions about how Alaska’s proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, what Supreme Court decisions she has disagreed with and even what newspapers and magazines she reads. (“Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years,” she replied.)

Tracey Schmitt, her spokeswoman, said that Palin was excited and looking forward to tonight’s debate. "She is eager to lay out the contrast of her record of executive leadership and Joe Biden's 35 years in the halls of Congress,” said Schmitt.

During the 2 1/2-hour flight to St. Louis, Willow and Piper Palin visited the press area of the plane. Piper, 7, handed out black licorice sticks to reporters and Secret Service agents, while her big sister, who is in eighth grade, handed out round stickers that said "Vote for Piper's Mom!" The girls were sweet but shy and seemed to be having a good time.

After landing, there was a small glitch with the main door of Palin's plane. The flight attendant kept trying to open the door and it seemed to be bumping up against the mobile staircase. The problem was resolved a few minutes later, and Piper Palin was first off the plane, followed by Todd, Willow and Sarah (who carried Trig).

When the governor stopped to shake hands with a quartet of greeters at the base of the staircase, she handed the baby to Piper, who seemed to have a slightly tenuous hold on him. Then Willow took Trig and bystanders breathed sighs of relief.

Palin’s motorcade made the short trip to Washington University’s Field House, for her pre-debate walk-through. So many satellite trucks crowded the field in front of the site it was clear that St. Louis is not just another Midwestern American city with a nice riverfront and famous landmark. It’s clearly the center of the political universe, at least for tonight.

To paraphrase another young woman who regained her confidence after a trying week: Sarah, I have a feeling we’re not in Sedona anymore.

-- Robin Abcarian

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Photo credit: The McCain-Palin campaign

Comments

[frieda]

how can this be a fair play. we have an OBAMA WORSHIPER as the "moderator"!!

JUST GIVE ME A BREAK..THE MEDIA THINKS WE ARE JUST SO STUPID AND WE DON'T GET WHAT THEY ARE UP TO.

media will babysit Obama until he gets elected and then they can not longer babysit and we will see the true Obama shine!

I wonder if the "moderator" will mention any of the Biden's gaffes ( and he is the one with 36 year exeperiance!) in the blog:

http://www.obamasgaffes.blogspot.com

[Marcpatriot]

For all the media-buy in of the artificial spin induced “expectations game,” the bar to clear for Palin will be is she of Presidential stature. The questions to be answered in the public mind relate to her knowledge and capacity to govern.

[Chris]

I heard that Palin's debate prep consisted mainly of watching Tina Fey performances, and an E-Meter.

[beingajoe]

Cramming never works especially after a lifetime of not seeming to care about the larger issues. She reminds me all to much of George W. Bush.

http://www.palinspin.com Sarah Palin Joe Biden CNN Vice President Debate Coverage
http://www.obamamate.com crowd powered news for the Barack Obama nation

[carol stanley]

All you criticizing people out there..How would you do under the lairs of Katie Couric..who as a democrat was out to get you...Sarah palin is a star and did fabulous in her debate ...So lets give her some credit.

[mary]

Why was Bristol, the (supposedly pregnant) eldest daughter, not with the family at the debate and for the two days of preparations. Is she the only Palin child who has to go to school? My favorite new read, palindeception dot com, by a childbirth consultant and physician (the latter a lifelong Republican) lays out a very strong case for suspecting that Gov. Palin faked her pregnancy.

I wish the major media would do their jobs and ask the obvious questions about all these anomalies --- for example, the lack of a birth announcement on the hospital web site, or Gov. Palin's remarkably flat stomach when she was supposedly seven months along; her 24 hour delay in returning home after her water supposedly broke, her 12 hour flight and journey by car bypassing numerous hospitals with neonatal units, in order to give birth at age 43 to a Downs syndrome baby in a small town hospital without any neonatal unit; the lack of any hospital room pictures of the governor and her family with her newborn; contrasted with the hospital room pictures on Levi's sister's myspace page captioned "mommy in law" (referring to the governor).that show Levi's sister holding the newborn Trig next to the governor, and "Family Love," with Bristol standing next to Levi's sister holding the newborn Trig.
Whatever happened to checking the facts out in journalism, anyway, instead of just taking the word of a powerful person?

[mary]

p.s. to my comment above: the site is www.palindeception.com The blog link on the site makes the case.