What Sarah Palin didn't know, as reported by Fox's Carl Cameron

(UPDATE: See below.)

Now it can be revealed, Fox News Channel reporter Carl Cameron just told network anchor Shepard Smith.

There WAS tension between John McCain staff members and Sarah Palin (as other news outlets previously reported), and part of it stemmed from some rather glaring gaps in what the governor of Alaska knew about the rest of the world.

Cameron, the Fox beat reporter for the Republican presidential ticket, said he had been told by unnamed sources -- and on the condition he not report the details during the campaign -- that Palin could not name all of the countries that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He did not mention which one (or ones) she whiffed on, but there are only three: Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Nor, according to Cameron, was Palin aware that Africa is a continent. (Perhaps she was hamstrung by the fact that no part of that land mass can be viewed from her homestate.)

Asked if she damaged the Republican ticket, Palin today expressed doubt. (See video below.)

Cameron also related that the anonymous McCain aides were frustrated that Palin blew off their suggestions that she put in a little prep time before her interview with CBS journalist Katie Couric. That sit-down in late September, it will be recalled, did not go so well for Palin.

(UPDATE: CNN has more on the dysfunction that marred the GOP presidential campaign. It reports that Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to McCain who bonded with Palin while helping bring her up to speed for her debate with Joe Biden, was fired from the campaign last week for talking out of school with the media. It appears that tales of the conflict within the staff could well develop into a cottage industry.)

-- Don Frederick

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Photo credit: Getty Images

Comments

[mike]

not know anything about NAFTA? Not know Africa is a continent? Who cares, only the biased media and not pro-America parts of the country think she was unqualified.

[Justin Massey]

Is it a violation of journalistic ethics to withhold newsworthy information to protect the interests, as opposed to the identity, of a confidential source?

[Peter]

And yet she may be the next U.S. senator from Alaska! If Stevens wins, he will be expelled by the senate in January and Palin can resign and be appointed to fill his vacancy. She will then face the voters of Alaska in a special elelction 90 days later as the incumbent! Not that has to scare you.

[Michael]

I get it. I get it. The Republicans are really dumb and the Democrats are really smart. For some reason, dems feel a need to insult Gov. Palin to try and prove the point. President-Elect Obama will get the vetting he never got during the campaign. I honestly wish him nothing but success, but I am afraid that the media and his supporters will turn on him as he tries to govern in the middle. It will be sad to watch.

[Vermonter]

Bush will probably pardon Stevens, making him able to keep his Senate seat- that's my take.

'Not pro-America"? "Biased media"? Sounds like a huge amount of whine and cheese to me. Palin was highly inexperienced, bullheaded, and unpalatable to a lot of Americans. The true "not pro-America" people are the ones that attack others for exercising their freedoms as afforded by the Constitution!

[tdub]

Oh, more lies from the liberal media..........Oh, WHOOPS! That was from the right wing media.........

[Tom]

Carl Cameron should be fired for this. Awful, just awful. So he basically protected the McCain/Palin campaign from further questions and ridicule because a source asked him not to report these things? Why on earth would he agree to keep this confidential? Carl- as a young reporter in New Hampshire you may (or may not !) have learned that reporters are bound to protect their source's identities, not their political aspirations. Were you gunning to be the White House Communications Director?

You shill.

[QuoterGal]

This... this was who was contending to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? And sneered at educated folks for their elitism?

I knew it was bad - the Couric interview and the McCain campaign leaks made it clear that she was profligate, untutored and unpleasant - but I had no idea it was anywhere near this bad. So glad we escaped a fate that involves her as any kind of national leader. Hopefully she will disappear back into the wilds of Wasilla.

Bill O'Reilly's sad attempts (in the video of the Fox interview) to explain it all away were as inept as what we now hear about Ms. Palin. He is to "journalist" what Sarah is to "qualified to lead" - i.e., not at all.

[steve rodriguez]

Dear Bias Down stream press, leave Sarah Plain alone for awhile! You've done her enough damage!

[Save the Alaskan Parrot]

Ladies and Gentlemen, America has dodged the bullet. One question remains, why would the Republican Party have tried to perpetrate such a dangerous scheme?
O.K. two questions remain, How many Republicans would vote for a chimpanzee in a sequined costume if one ever makes it on to the Republican ticket?

[DCG]

Do you mean to tell me that two of the most inept campaign managers in recent history (Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis) decided to throw Sarah Palin under the bus for their absolute miserable campaign performance?

You're kidding me, right? If she was such a miserable drag on the ticket, why was she put on in the first place? I keep hearing that McCain didn't want her and Davis didn't want her and Schmidt didn't want her. Then why was she on the ticket? Did poor Sarah hold those guys at gunpoint? Because we all know that she's a savage barbarian gun owner.

If she is such an incompetent idiot and it's all her fault, then why was she even on the ticket? It's the bigger fool theory (kind of). Who's the bigger fool, the fool or the fool who hired the fool to be on the ticket?

Everyone is so bold to announce how stupid Sarah Palin is and what a moron she is when the man who is going to be President hasn't been nearly as well vetted. The media is going way over the top to make her look bad and of course, Schmidt and Davis just play along because they are basically the RNC counter to Bob Shrum. In other words, the best losers of the RNC.

[It's over, so you can stop dissing Sarah now]

Don Frederick writes "(Perhaps she was hamstrung by the fact that no part of that land mass can be viewed from her homestate.)"

Can Don Frederick name all the capitalcities in his homestate? Or bother to submit his bloviated blog to a copy editor? Perhaps all the copy editors at The Times have been fired.

[MagMan]

And Barack Obama thought there were 57 states, and Joe Biden believes "jobs" has 3 letters...

[Elisa]

Justin wrote: "Is it a violation of journalistic ethics to withhold newsworthy information to protect the interests, as opposed to the identity, of a confidential source?"

The LA Times would presumably answer "no", since they've refused to release the videotape of Obama attending a virulently anti-Israel, pro-violence meeting.

[Suz]

You have to be kidding me. My six year olds know that Africa is a continent. And if I told them what NAFTA stands for, they could GUESS the countries involved. Palin is a piece of work. Thank goodness for the outcome yesterday!

[Scott]

Take this stuff with a grain of salt. This is the unofficial start of the 2012 Republican primary. Staffers who would prefer other candidates such as Romney are trying to damage Palin's massive support from the Republican base and want to knock her off early. It's notable that they won't go on the record.

[steve rodriguez]

She wanted to go after Rev. Wright and Bill Ayres...both issues that should've been on the table all along...did Carl Cameron know that?

Sarah Palin 2012!

[Avi Logane]

So the great LA Times is still piling on Palin, who won't be VP, for not knowing about Nafta. But it refuses to write about Obama, who will be president, thinking Canada has a president and the US has 57 states. And withholds the incriminating Khalidi videotape with Obama paling around with Palestinian radicals. And thinks that good old Joe Biden, who will be VP, is obviously qualified when he doesn't even know who was president during the Great Depression? You're incredible, don.

[Richard Lyons]

It is shocking hearing these wild stories coming out about Palin. Quite simply she is an airhead. Doesn't know about NAFTA? Could not name a single newspaper that she read? Has no clue about world affairs? It shows a very serious flaw in McCain's thinking that she was even considered, let alone appointed, to be his VP. Opening the door to her hotel room wearing only a towel? Palin pulling her "nutties" and throwing papers around? All the Shopping trips stories have all yet to be told, but soon will be? Todd Palin having never worn a suit & tie in his life, let alone owned one till it was given to him by the GOP? A 17 year old daughter knocked up by an unemployed high school drop out and they are still not married? Baby is due at New Years? This sound more like a very bad TV show: The Alaska Hill-Billys. Trailer Trash. It is absolutely shocking what McCain tried to pull off just to court the Religious Right. He thought no one would notice? He needs to have his head examined. Thank God Obama won.

[doug kaiser]

If anyone bothered to read Sarah's bio by Kaylene Johnson, he or she would have found more to the person than the media cared to reveal. If McCain had selected anyone else, I would have stayed home. If our nation's news media had given BO the scrutiny Sarah and even Joe the Plumber experienced, we would have had a better informed electorate 4 Nov. The future will show what happens when the media abdicates its responsibility to inform.

[Derek]

McCain is little more than another older country club Republican that was losing big before Palin got there, picked her late in the process in desperation before she was ready even though he knew he had the nomination for quite some time, and now his insiders are throwing her under the bus because he voted with Bush 90% of the time, had no new ideas & got beat. Who's McCain's PR person? Probably the same back stabber that leaked the clothing costs. McCain lost to a man who showed up to work 140 days & voted "present" 124 times. That must be very hard for him to swallow, as it was no doubt for Hillary, but it shows NO class to throw Palin under the bus in this manner. As for Palin being an airhead, you don't speak at rallies the way she does & be an airhead. Biden asked a paralyzed man to stand up at a rally & then said FDR was president during the great depression & he's been there half his life. Let's stop the partisan nonsense already. All these attacks on Palin galvanize the right base against Barrack and this does him no good whatsoever.

[Charlie Rodgers]

GOv. Palin's handlers must have been the most incompetent buch of dim wits ever to work in a national campaign. McCain knew he was the the Republican nominee seven months before the Convention . So either his staff was so lazy, incompetent and stupid that they recommended a idiot of this magnitude without vetting her. Or they are lieing now to cover thier behinds which means they the most dishonest, vindictive, bunch of imbeciles to work ina Presidential campaign. Either way come as dumber than than tey are portraying Sarah Palin.

[Demand sources]

CALL/WRITE FOX NEWS AND COMPLAIN !

Ontherecord@foxnews.com

Reporting on mud slinging RUMORS from UNKNOWN sources? Shame on gleeming Carl Cameron!

I urge everyone to call, write FOX NEWS ASAP and let them know we demanded the names of the annonymous source or a public apology to Gov. Palin.

Funny the McCain staff is trying to blame someone for their loss. Pathetic!

Want change-then make it know to the media this RUMOR SPREADING will not be toleratedl

[Howard Gaber]

Clearly the Palin episode shows that Mccain was never presidential material. Like Bush, his decision making was not about making our country and the world a better place, but was more about him. Why else would he pick someone he knew little about nor was qualified to aid in important decisions or take over the position as president. Like Bush, Mccain let many others make decisions for him. To blame his campaign management, is the same as blaming Cheney or Rumsfeld for our present problems. The buck stops at the presidents desk. Mccain, as with Bush, cannot blame anyone else but themselves. To lead is to be the leader.

[Tim Fort]

Thank God Obama won......say Richard Lyon above. Give me a break.

Even if Obama is sincere, had good intentions for the USA, his development from childhood onward was formed by mentors and colleagues with world views that are hostile to America.

Case in point:
RELATIONSHIPS and ASSOCIATIONS
1. Franklin Marshall Davis (boyhood mentor, alleged communist and early influence on Barack Obama). He had been active in Chicago’s post War Communist Party. Frank Marshall Davis had lived in Chicago for many years until moving to Hawaii in 1948. In his memoir “Dreams from My Father”, Obama recounts how he visited Mr Davis on several occasions, apparently at junctures when he was grappling with racial issues, to seek his counsel. At one point in 1979 Mr. Davis described the university system as “an advanced degree in compromise” that was designed to keep blacks in their place: “they’ll tank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid n?#@*#, but you’re a n?#@*# just the same.”
2. Reverend Wright (spiritual advisor for 20 years: married him, baptized his kids and admits to attending his church 2 times monthly for 20 years: 2 times 12 months times 20 years = 480 times minimum attendance). Look up Black Liberation Theology at Trinity Church.
3. Father Pfleger
4. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrne (a leader in the radical terrorist group the Weatherman Underground. The group bombed several government buildings, including the Pentagon, killing civilians and police officers and does not regret it, as a matter of fact, feels they didn’t do enough. Got Obama’s Political Career kicked off with fundraiser in their living room.
5. Raila Odinga
6. Acorn
7. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (direct link to economical collapse). It made sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs made sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment. Some had no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets).
8. Community Reinvestment Act
9. Louis Farrakhan
10. Tony Rezko
11. Franklin Raines
12. Dr. Khlalid al Mansour
13. Saul Alinski
14. Rashid Khalidi

We are not saying Barack is a terrorist. We are saying he got his current ideas from people who, like Bill Ayers are proud to be photographed stepping on the American flag, who in a house of God take God's name in vain to "damn America".

Obama can't see himself how radical his ideas are because he has surrounded himself with radicals. Though Americans can grant he is sincere, they can't be expected to ignore not one, but at least 12 questionnable relationships, including one person whose real estate abuses MADE HIM A convicted felon (Tony Rezko). Americans can't afford to elect somebody so vulnerable to radicals.

Finally, as Gov. Palin has said: the question is not so much why Obama was attracted to these radicals, but why they were attracted to him.

Shame on the MEDIA for not vetting Obama on all these associations and relationships so that to Americans can make an informed decision: WE DO NOT KNOW who Obama really is and what he stands for.