A lone Republican leader defends Sarah Palin while McCain is mum

Yes, it's shocking, we know here at the Ticket. But there is at least one prominent Republican sticking up for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Go figure. Her presidential running mate sure isn't.

The 44-year-old working mom singlehandedly energized the party's base with an electrifying speech and refreshing personality at the Republican National Convention and after.

Between her selection Aug. 29 and the Nov. 4 election, Palin did 132 political events in 105 cities in 25 states. That's not exactly dogging it.

And who's heard any leaks from Palin's camp about the awful mishandling of her media rollout in September?

But in the, what-is-it-now, four days since American voters decisively opted for the younger guy from Illinois, one or two of John McCain's brave aides have been anonymously leaking uncorroborated charges about Palin's personality, knowledge, spending habits, etc., which the media gobbles up, in an apparent attempt to pin the defeat on the female half of the GOP ticket.

Good luck with that. Anyone who saw McCain and Palin work together, saw as the partisan crowds chanted her name during his speech.

Back home in her Anchorage governor's office, Palin defends herself, as The Times' Seema Mehta and Maeve Reston describe in an article this morning.

This issue isn't going away immediately. Love her or leave....

...her, win or lose, the media knows there's a voracious public hunger for almost anything about the Alaska hockey mom still. Especially in the complete absence of any other viable Republican Party leaders.

Palin will spend a chunk of this weekend talking to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren for a long broadcast interview Monday evening. And Tuesday night, Veterans Day, McCain will chat with Jay Leno on NBC.

Now, amid the deafening silence of other prominent GOP leaders, including Mike Duncan, the party's alleged national chair, at least the state chair of the South Carolina Republican Party is speaking out. Katon Dawson issued a statement Friday bemoaning the anonymous attacks:

"The disappointment felt by many Republicans following Tuesday’s election is certainly understandable. However, the attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin made by a disgruntled handful of political insiders are unacceptable. Their claims, made under the veil of anonymity, can never be verified and only serve as fodder for our opposition.

"The media has already demonstrated its propensity to discredit Gov. Palin, and the Democrats are undoubtedly rejoicing at the sight of this Republican cannibalism. 

"Now is the time for our Party to unite –- not behind any one individual, but behind our time-tested principles of limited government, opportunity for working Americans, traditional values, and individual responsibility.

"I respectfully ask my fellow Republicans to join me in condemning these divisive attacks so that we can focus on the task at hand -– moving forward as a Party and moving forward as a nation.”

While most attention is naturally focused on the presidential winner, let's see if any other Republican leaders speak out from one of their vacation homes.

Leno is no Tom Brokaw, but he might ask the Arizona senator, about the intramural post-game defamation of the running mate he himself so enthusiastically chose out of the blue.

Why can't McCain even seem to control a couple members of his own Apple Dumpling Gang?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Associated Press

Comments

[Bob Pulgino]

Blaming McCain for this is pretty lame ... let the man rest, he fought the good fight and now he has to fade into history. If Palin wants to be the leader of the party, she needs to learn how to handle this kind of stuff herself. This isn't the first time we've had to deal with pettiness and infighting as Republicans, so she'd better learn how to deal with it.

[Stan Risdon]

Palin did exactly what she was suppose to do-throw red meat to the wing nuts. Palin's hubris in accepting the nomination is now coming home in many unfortunate ways. No one on the McCain staff wants to admit that they were willing to, in effect, throw away the Vice Presidency to keep the "base" happy. (The base doesn't believe that anything other than ideology is an important qualification.) On the other hand, maybe no one else wanted the job.

[V. Kite]

I am a democrat, but having been vigilant in my fact checking all along, I was shocked by the mountain of untruths and distortion about Sarah Palin in the press. I'm also turned off by the accepted and even expected hatred and vilification of Sarah Palin among my fellow democrats--it's not enough to express happiness at the outcome of the election without going on to say something nasty about Sarah Palin. I find it depressing, especially when the reasons given are so often issues that have been already proven false, and people are believing them yet. My politics and views are different from Sarah Palin's, but that is irrelevant. I have come to respect her very much, and I don't believe the latest stories any more than I ever believed that she would actually try to ban the dictionary, for heaven's sake! She is a very intelligent person, it's plain to see, and I agree that when the smears start coming from the Republicans, you can bet that it will be seen by the democrats as proof positive that they've been correct in every ridiculous charge leveled against her. She's stood up to all of this with remarkable composure and grace. I certainly wouldn't be able to do that. I'd be pleased to count her as a friend. I have a feeling I could speak to her with absolute candor without being unfairly judged by her, differences and all. So if nothing else, you have one lone liberal democrat standing up for her as well.

[NLH]

McCain silence speaks volumes. I emailed him asking him to go on Fox News - Hannity and demand that the smearing towards Gov. Palin stop. He, and really only he, can stop this. I would not have voted for him if it had not been for Palin. Really disappointed "again" in McCain AND the Republican Party.

[Brent]

Isn't this obvious? McCain is disgusted by Palin's action and, therefore, tolerates if not encourages his aids to tell the truth to the media. The GOP leadership also knows that the allegation is true, so they are not going to defend Palin at the risk of damaging their own reputation.

[Robert Morgan]

Republican Party insiders must savage Palin now or be eaten by her later. They are trying to derail a possible presidential run in four years.

The jerks running McCain's campaign are responsible for the debacle. McCain was toast without Palin. She saved his ass, and dragged the campaign out of the pit. They were stupid enough to fall back in.

[Lloyd Revalee]

It's hard to understand the citizens of the United States! They watch the our elected officials, mostly crooks, tear down our economy and government, and then when a down to earth person comes along hey do their utmost to ruin her. We need someone like Governor Palin, someone who understand the working class, to straighten out the mess our "professions" have made. With the whole hearted support of the socialist leaning media, I might add. One of oour most dangerous enemies iis the MSNBC TV STATION. Congress should not allow such a bunch to have a Federal license to broadcast on what is actually the publics airwaves.

[Richard Prince]

Are we really suppose to feel sorry for Sarah Palin now? Is that the order of the day? Back when McCain selected her, friends said they felt sorry for her because McCain threw her in the deep end over her head and competencies. There is no question this is true.

But she had a choice. If someone called me and asked if I would be the Vice President on their ticket, I'd say, no because I'm not ready or prepared. She failed the self-awareness test so terribly and she is the only one responsible for that.

McCain, thank goodness, is not going to be our next President because he failed a huge question of judgment in selecting Palin. And the American people saw it easily.

[Richard]

Whether it was appropriate to leak the news or not to the press about Palin's behavior is NOT the issue. Assuming what has been leaked is true, it places additional serious doubts on the competence of Sarah Palin for any office including the one she now holds. Thank God. we rejected her and the McCain candidacy and voted for real change. Sarah Palin is an average person, very average indeed and all those who saw her as a beacon in the Republican Party just confirm the notion that the GOP is now officially the party of the Stupid.

[bobby]

McCain was and is weak...deserved to lose, he lost his own campaign. The rest of his peckergead team are now trying to cover their asses......the people see right through this.

[Independent]

I'm an independent voter who voted for McCain in 2000 and Obama in '08. That said, I still have enormous respect for him.

Palin, however, is another story. Like the rest of the country, I was curious about Palin. There was a mountain of extremely disconcerting facts about her, independent from anything aides said. The clothes scandal was revealed not by aides but reporting requirements (something McCain supports). The problems with the Couric Interview and the Canadian prank were not 'prepping' or aides' mistakes, but the very real fact that she knows so little. Why would the Republican party want to scam us about something so important as that??? That's unconscionable.

The icing on the funeral cake for me, one of those coveted Indy's, was Palin's NASTINESS on the campaign trail. That wasn't the style of the McCain I knew and loved. Moreover, many people--esp. Republicans-- told me the casts votes for Dems in local and state elections as protest to the Rep. party nastiness.

All of which means Republicans who distance themselves from Ignorance (Palin) and Nastiness (Palin and others) are the SMART Republicans who will survive for another election year.

[bobby]

McCain was and is weak...deserved to lose, he lost his own campaign. The rest of his peckergead team are now trying to cover their asses......the people see right through this.

[Kristin]

Great post, I completely agree. Perhaps this is the renewel the Republican party needs. I was going to vote third party before McCain put Palin on the ticket.

[lj9283]

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission on October 23rd:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s traveling makeup artist made $22,800 for the first two weeks of October.
Ms. Palin’s traveling hair stylist, got $10,000 for the first two weeks of October.

That's in the Public record, and that's a whole lotta money for hair and makeup for a "Hockey Mom".

John Edwards caught it for a $400 haircut, but Ms. Palin pays over $700 a day for hair and over $1500 a day for makeup and we let it slide.

[George Not Bush]

Another mediagenic affable puppet.

The GOP seems especially good at this lately: cf. Reagan, GW Bush and now Palin.

The GOP has trouble running with real people like McCain.

If Palin has some smarts, she'll let somebody else take the lumps in 2012 and build a record for 2016.

Oh yes, put the outfits up for charity auctions.

[nlc123]

"Voracious public hunger for almost anything" about Palin, huh? Not here. I'm looking forward to the day when I can look at Google News and not see a single Palin-related headline. All day.

(And yet you still do look and still click and here you are reading this, along with thousands of others and hundreds of commenters. Hmmm.)

[WEJ]

Whatever happened, the loss is firmly John McCain's to own. The selection of a VP Nominee is the responsibility of the Presidential Nominee. If she was not right for the job McCain did not property screen her and/or ignored warnings about her from his people. If she was right for the job, McCain needs to step forward and say that. Either way, blaming Palin for the defeat shows what a gang of misfits the McCain campaign was. Blaming the VP candidate for the defeat is the equivalent of a grown man hiding behind his wife when someone is threatening his family.

[William Rodgers]

I feel sorry for Sarah Palin. She was so naive, ignorant and just plain dumb, that she didn't think about the ramifications involved when she accepted the offer to be McCain's V.P. running mate. First impressions stick and thank GOD we found her out before it was too late. There's a place in the country for Elly May Clampets just like her, but thankfully it's not National Politics!

[Joanne600]

The DNC wants Palin destroyed because they know a star when they see one. Fortunately they have a compliant press and plenty of cross the aisle Republicans to help them out. Sarah and the Conservative movement will regroup and come back stronger, much to the chagrin of the left.

[Alex Zachariah]

The truth is not that Sarah Palin had energised the Republican Party's base but that Sarah Palin's BASE (aka butt) has energised the Republican Party.

[Julie]

Thank you for this thoughtful post. I didn't vote republican this time but Sarah Palin was surely not the cause of that. She's smart and honorable and is strong enough to be fed to the dogs and not whimper.
The republican party is a mess right now and this in-fighting is a symptom of bigger problems. The party lets itself be seduced by the cult of personality (tell me this does not explain the success of George W. !!), but doesn't have the flexibility to move with the overall electorate. Barak Obama was actually the true 'conservative' vote this season and until the RNC understands that, they will continue to lose.

[Brad]

I feel so sorry for this woman who was asked to step up for her country, did the best she could with the limited experience she had, and is then pilloried by the campaign because they lost. McCain is showing his true colors now, sending anonymous aides to the press to dump his poop all over her. He's pathetic....and I voted for him. Now I'm glad he lost if this is the way he treats people.

Palin has shown nothing but class and grace through this whole ordeal. She was clearly the better person between these two candidates. This whole campaign was badly mismanaged. And McCain has shown that if he can't handle his own people, how in God's name was he going to go into Washington to "clean up the mess"? He can't even do it on his own turf.

What a loser this guy turned out to be.

[Michelle]

Are you really expecting John McCain to jump on his white horse and chivalrously defend Sarah Palin? Especially when he knew his own base liked her a whole better than they did him? The same man who dumped his first wife Carol for the much younger and richer Cindy when he came back to find her crippled and disfigured? The same man who then went on to call Cindy the c-word? That John McCain? Please!

There are REASONS why the Republicans at large despise and distrust John McCain and this only demonstrates one of them. I knew the Republicans had lost the White House in 2008 the moment you news media jockeys had orchestrated his primary nomination victory.

Let's hope this maverick "Republican" is so enthusiastic about meeting President Obama (gag me) half-way that he jumps across the aisle completely and finally becomes the Democrat that he is in his heart. Then he can finally spare us Republicans that creepy, toad-eating grin of his that makes my skin crawl every time he does it. I never want to hear him say "my friends" again.

McCain was, is, and always will be a jerk.

You cowardly curs who are out there smearing and trying to "Dan Quayle" Sarah Palin, keep it up. The more you do it, the more we will love, defend, and support her whatever she decides to do in 2012. Americans may have fallen for the Obama Okie-Dokie NOW, but just wait until they find out what Change is all about. The media isn't going to like the backlash. In the meantime, I'm going to kick back and enjoy the spectacle as American journalism's Communist Chickens come home to roost.

[Jan Hoyt]

I just wanted to invite anybody who holds conservative to moderate political values to check out AmericaC2C.Org. We are a free online group of people from across the U.S., who are working together toward things like Honesty in Journalism, promoting traditional American and Constitutional values, and ensuring a continued conservative/moderate voice in America.

We could use additional like-minded people to work alongside of us. Thank you very much.

www.AmericaC2C.Org

[Eric Maundry]

If, as one of the previous posters so boldly asserts, Sarah Palin was one of the bright spots of the McCain campaign, one shudders to think what the shady spots were. The Jaws of Hell, perhaps?