Palin: Couric was "Badgering" and Biased

Sarah Palin Writes in Book That There Were Tensions With McCain Aides; Criticizes "Evening News" Anchor Over Interview

(AP)  The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family.

In Palin's new memoir, "Going Rogue," she confirms reports of tension between her aides and those of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain. The vice presidential candidate confirms that she had wanted to speak on election night, but was denied the chance and says she was kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign.

Palin also writes harshly of CBS anchor Katie Couric, whom she describes as "badgering" and biased. Palin's series of interviews with Couric were widely regarded as disastrous, leaving the impression of an ill-informed candidate who was unsuited for the job.

The 413-page book with 16 pages of color photos but no index comes out Tuesday, Nov. 17. The Associated Press purchased a copy Thursday. "Going Rogue," with a first printing of 1.5 million copies, has been at or near the top of Amazon.com and other best-seller lists for weeks, ever since publisher HarperCollins announced that the book had been completed quickly and the release date was being moved up from next spring.

The book follows Palin from childhood to her departure last summer as Alaska governor. It includes much of what her admirers, and detractors, expected: tributes to family and faith and patriotism, and attacks against the media and other perceived opponents.

She writes about the "jaded aura" of professional campaign aides and how McCain's entourage limited her access to the media, leading to allegations - unfounded, she says - that she was avoiding reporters.

And she says that most of her legal bills were generated defending what she called frivolous ethics complaints, but she reveals that about one-tenth of the $500,000 was a bill she received to pay for the McCain campaign vetting her for the VP nod.

She said when she asked the McCain campaign if it would help her financially, she was told McCain's camp would have paid all the bills if he'd won; since he lost, the vetting legal bills were her responsibility.

Written with Lynn Vincent, "Going Rogue" is folksy in tone and homespun. For example, Palin says her efforts to award a license for a massive natural gas transmission line through Alaska was turning a pipe dream into a pipeline. She writes in awe about how the McCain campaign had hired a New York stylist who had also worked on Couric.

Taken aback by all the fussing, she wondered who was paying for the $150,000 worth of fancy clothes given to her and her family members by the campaign. Family members were told it was being taken care of or was "part of the convention." The designer clothing, hairstyling and accessories later grew into a controversy.

Palin shares behind-the-scene moments when the nation learned her teen daughter Bristol was pregnant, how she rewrote the statement prepared for her by the McCain campaign - only to watch in horror as a TV news anchor read the original McCain camp statement, which, in Palin's view, glarmorized and endorsed her daughter's situation.

Palin laments that she wasn't allowed to bring up loads of family members to the stage while McCain gave his election night concession speech, the vice presidential candidate having found out minutes earlier that she wouldn't be permitted to give her own speech.

She writes that ABC newsman Charles Gibson, who had an early interview with her, seemed bored by "substantive issues" stemming from her time as governor and that while speaking with her he "peered skeptically" at her over his glasses like a disapproving principal.

She writes at length about Couric. She says that the idea to meet with Couric came from McCain campaign aide Nicolle Wallace, who told Palin that Couric - also a working mother - liked and admired her. It would be a favor to Couric, too, whom Palin notes had the lowest ratings of the network anchors. Wallace said Couric suffered from low self-esteem. And Palin replied that she almost began to "feel sorry" for Couric.

She alleges that Couric and CBS left out her more "substantive" remarks and settled for "gotcha" moments. She writes that Couric had a "partisan agenda" and a condescending manner. Couric was "badgering," biased and far easier on Couric's Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden (watch the full Couric/Palin interview).

She writes warmly of her childhood and her mother's "nurturing, hospitable" personality. Her priorities were set early - faith (she would read Scripture each night before bed), hunting, current events and sports (she even dreamed of being a broadcaster alongside Howard Cosell). She remembers being a voracious reader, favorites including John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" and George Orwell's "Animal Farm." Long before Tina Fey parodied her on "Saturday Night Live," Palin enjoyed watching the show as a girl.

She met her future husband, Todd Palin, in 1982. He was good-looking and mature, like no one she had ever known. He was quiet, gruff, strong, spiritual.

[independentreformer]

CBS News, I used to respect the TV Anchors, but no longer. Walter Cronkite was the last of the unbiased bigger than life media people. Even though he was a democrat, he did not use his power to push an agenda--unlike Gibson and Couric. I believe every entertainer and news agency violated the campaign laws base on maximum dollars allowed to contribute by an individual or business through their power base and money invested in the media. The election committees and IRS should be after all of you and I believe it would hold up through the Supreme Court even if you hide behind the freedom of speach, because you have more money and free TV time that violates the law.

[bann65]

'Catie" is a SNOB, like all the democrat upper elite. Sarah should never have gone on this show with this biased snot. She didn't need that. she's too good of a person. Can anyone here really relate to "catie couric"?!

[PVperson2]

You don't have to "relate" to Couric to realize that Palin is a whining, pathetic loser that sank her own boat by giving dumb, boneheaded answers to simple questions.

[element51]

I hear over and over about how "pretty" Sarah is. The problem is that looks are only skin deep. It is what is inside that really matters. And although she may have a pleasing outside she is as corrupt inside as she can be. The very first time she was trotted out as the VP choice, she lied only minutes into her speech. She said that she had flatly turned down the funding offered for the "bridge to nowhere" when in reality she had welcomed it with open arms. And the lies kept coming. Her appeal to the uneducated evangelical right wing southern trailer trash morons is not going to go away but that is not enough to get her the support she would need to be elected or even nominated. She knows this and what she is doing is cashing in while she can. She's smart enough to do that. She will walk away from all this hoopla a very wealthy woman and the joke will be on those republicans who support her. And just saying that you are "deeply religious" does not make it so. I could say that I am very handsome but I guarantee you that doesn't make it so. Take your money and go home, Sarah.

[Omni-Present101]

Gibson's Interview to me, was the Begining of her End...

Couric Simply Compounded the End and she was Not Badgering the Witch at all.

Simple Questions like what Books or Magazines do you Read ?

Is Tough Questioning ?

Crossing over to Pakistan to find Terrorist, which was President Obama's position. was Badgering Questioning.

Sarah Palin is a Hollow, Floating Bubble.

Palin is not even a Full 1 Term Governor of a State.

Mitt Romney Fulfilled his One and Only Term as Governor.

Romney gave that State State Run Health Care and He Banned All Assault Weapons, in his Words "Assault Guns are made to Kill People, Not for Hunting"

Had this been President Obama, he's be Called a [Marxist,Socialist,Leninst, Stalinist & Nazi]...

Wait a minute, that's what they call President Obama that Now and he had Nothing to do with the [Patriot Act] which took away Americans Right to Privacy and that's All Americans.

____________

You have Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Clinton, Lisa Murkowski and Elizabeth Warren, yet Talk about this Hollow, Floating Bubble, called Sarah Palin.

Jeesh

[P0STING_AWAY]

by mooksie1 November 14, 2009 12:23 PM EST
Is this news now? Katie Couric is a biased, left-wing loon, who will "badger" anyone who does not agree with her twisted, liberal ideology. So sorry the nation has these liberal loons reading the news. CBS is off my list for fair reporting.
============================================================================
Wow! You are right! Katie asking those doggone liberal media
questions like "What magazines / newspapers do you read" ....
"CBS is off your list for fair reporting????"
Could you also exclude them from your list of internet sites to peruse ????

BTW ... any member of Sarah's fan club has NO PLACE calling anybody a "loon".

[P0STING_AWAY]

by sarrab-2009 November 14, 2009 1:34 AM EST
Sara Palin is the new 'Joan of Ark', God has sent us a Saint to save our country.
===========================================================================
I am guessing you meant "Joan of ARC". A Saint indeed .... the first
saint (that I am aware of, anyway) who lies like a drunken sailor .....

[mooksie1]

Is this news now? Katie Couric is a biased, left-wing loon, who will "badger" anyone who does not agree with her twisted, liberal ideology. So sorry the nation has these liberal loons reading the news. CBS is off my list for fair reporting.

[filmguy107]

Really? Was it ever ON your list?

[sarrab-2009]

Sara Palin is the new 'Joan of Ark', God has sent us a Saint to save our country.

[Stop_the_crying]

Send her BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pluckerup]

COURIC WASN'T BADGERING! SARAH'S JUST STUPID!

[watervliet]

PALIN!!!!PALIN!!!! PALIN!!!! YAK! YAK! YAK!

[CKouric]

The times has come for CBS to stand up. Release the unedited videos of Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin.
Let the public decide if there was badgering or mistreatment. Then it will be who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes.

[RandomUser1886]

Sarah Palin's daughter's ex-boyfriend's mother was vetted more than Obama was.
But no, there's no liberal bias in the Media.
I mean, if Dan Quayle had said he had been to 57 states with one to go, the Media would still be bringing it up today.
But their messiah Obama said it, and it's ignored.

[lmartink]

Palin just loves that "persecution complex". "Oh, poor, poor, pitiful me."

Do you think that would work if she were President, and that phone call came at 3 AM?

[Pfeffie]

No different than Obama always whining about "what he inherited."

I know Couric was tough on Biden during an interview when he said that people found out about the depression by turning on their TVs and watching Roosevelt. It was a twofer and she jumped all over that by....not saying a word. Would she have done the same for Palin?

[toldyouso21]

If she had a follow up she probably would have. Remember when Sarah said really STUPId things about nation building and direct diplomacy which showed she did not know what they meant? Couric turned around in the same interview and asked her if she had ever traveled internationally and Palin replied no (which one sort of needs in order to have grounds or a basis to establish and express an international perspective--you can't have an international perspective by staying in just the US--it is too insular)

Anyway, Katie then turned to Sarah and asked her that since she had never set foot out of the US where did her opinions and ideas about the rest of the world come from--Palin replied "from books, and from reading the news". After that interview about 2 interviews later, Katie asked Sarah just what books, mags and newspapers she read. This was necessary because by then, Palin looked like an uninformed rube or airhead and many wanted to know where her version of the world was coming from. When asked what she read--Palin knew it must be a trap so she said "all of them, whatever was put in front of her" Put in front of her by whom? ALL of them? There are literally thousands of choices. It is not a surprise that Palin did not name any books or newspapers--had she done so, she would have been confronted and most likely quizzed on various articles that contradicted the international information or government information she butchered and would have shown that if she read--it was not those articles or she lacked reading comprehension. It was obvious she was trying to avoid a trap.

It was also obvious, that by the way the McCain camp shielded her from the media that Palin was NOT ready for prime time and what they delayed by hiding her would be revealed--that pretty or not, likeable or not--Palin was not suited for either President, Vice President , Governor or any leadership role in government that required actual thinking. Repulbicans like her due to her folksy attitude and her looks, unfortunately the world does not run on folksiness and is not folksy and pretty is not enough when a country is at stake.

Palin was also great at zingers--and might have fared better if she knew what she was talking about as well as delivering one liners or just making fun or her opponents. What was apparent to all of us--Independents as well as party adherents--was that this woman was not picked for either brains, knowledge or will and that if chosen, at best she could only be a puppet for other agendas--maybe Todds. He seems to gravitate toward treason and secessionist type of politics, and they say as governor, SArah practically lived each meeting getting her instructions from him on her Blackberry ...while she would relay what was going on in meetings and then he would tell her what position to take.

I question the sagacity of Obama's positions and the Dem approach to government--but in the case of McCain and Palin--"possible disaster at the hands of the Dems would have been a sure bet under senior doofus 1 and his not ready for prime time side kick."

[45ford]

Poor Sarah. If she thinks Katie Couric's questions were tough, then just imagine how Palin would handle much more difficult questions, awkward circumstances, and pressing issues as vice president.

Increasingly Sarah is demonstrating to the American people that she barely has the capacity to not put her clothes on backwards. I?m beginning to wonder if she can even walk and chew gum at the same time. Every passing month, she makes herself look and sound like an incredibly bigger fool -- more than what we already knew her to be.

Drive it in the ground Sarah. Keep showing America and the rest of the world what an utter fool you truly are. Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee is regularly chuckling under his breath about her mindless and endless antics.

[skyk-2009]

I have pulled up BOTH interviews of this Woman and interviews of Obama and Biden by the Press. There is NO doubt that she didn't get, even close, to the hard probing questions that either Biden/Obama did. The difference? THEY had the intelligence to answer the questions and address the issues. Did EITHER of them NOT KNOW what the Bush Doctrine was, of course they knew, as you would expect ANY intelligent person running for those high offices. Playing the victim isn't going to do the Leader of the Worlds Only Superpower any good... at all. The real question is how can anyone trust someone with this kind of intelligence and need to blame others for their mistakes with the lives of our young? I can't see how anyone could.

[bill0bob]

Palin "writes that ABC newsman Charles Gibson 'peered skeptically' at her over his glasses like a disapproving principal."

This statement is tremendously revealing. Charles Gibson wears reading glasses that magnify things up close, so he can read. Reading glasses blur everything beyond a couple of feet, so he has to look over the glasses to see her face when speaking to or listening to her. Palin, the poor little girl who PRETENDS to be "in charge" of her own fate, but really wants nothing more than to have a powerful man take charge, interprets this as "peering skeptically like a disapproving principle". How pathetic!

Palin's got "daddy issues", just like GWB-- and we all know how that turned out!

BTW, Palin's book is a "best seller" ONLY because wealthy fascists bought millions of copies to give out as incentives at tea-baggings and other repuke festivals of hate.

[skyk-2009]

You have to wonder how this INCREDIBILITY Ignorant human would withstand the likes of Beck and Limbaugh if she thinks Couric was bad. Someone who wilts like she does under pressure has NO business even THINKING about Public Office outside the Stupid South or her state.

[45ford]

Palin is burning bridges. This morning in a report from the Associated Press, who obtained an advance copy of Palin's book, Sarah claims the McCain campaign personally billed her for $50,000 as part of the vice presidential vetting process. McCain advisers immediately jumped on it by saying Palin's claims are 100% untrue. Besides it's illegal to do it. It would be foolish for any presidential candidate to even think of doing it. Again Sarah reminds people of her propensity to embellish info and fabricate situations. In her attempts to discredit others, she ends up discrediting herself even further and ultimately she ends up raising more disturbing questions about her own character, mental fitness and subpar leadership.

[skyk-2009]

45ford, Truth to someone like this is what is convenient and helps your position at the time. She is no different than Bush, just as cold, heartless and entrenched in a time long gone by.

[toldyouso21]

The McCain camp saying it is untrue does not mean they are telling the truth--it is not beyond them to deny something that they tried to do. I don't know how much of what Sarah says is true or lies or imaginings or how deep the rifts with the McCain camp were--but they made a HUGE mistake in not vetting the beauty contestant and then an even larger mistake in not letting her be herself and not immediately run the media gauntlet that all other candidates had to run. It looked like they were hiding something and when she came out unprepared, it looked like they KNEW Palin was stupid and tried to run a campaign where they hoped the public would never catch on. This was a dumb thing to do. It made every single thing after that, be scrutinized for the spare crumbs that they were and in the end, it confirmed to most that McCain had her as salve to ex-Hilary voters and as eye candy for Republican men. The latter works for the GOP to this day, but since HRC may be many things but "stupid, blithering idiot" is not one of them--to replace a thinking woman with an idiot is only a mistake that a chauvenist would make--when it became obvious how clueless Palin was not only did McCain lose the Hilary defectors, he lost many more Republican voters who could never respect such an irresponsible choice--then the attacks on people like Buckley began--and the GOP began to eat their own--that sealed their loss. Like it or not--Palin was the cause, not just due to her disasterous interviews --she and the party's continual support of her--underline the inability of the GOP to adapt, retract, regroup and choose a different course when the one they are on is headed over a cliff. Bush did it with our economy and the wars--the RNC and McCain did it with the Palin train wreck. Next time, VET the candidates, if they are clueless, get someone else--running the country is too important to try to run a game on the voters. Not that Obama and Co did not run a game--but at least they were proficient at it and the man can think (as can Biden). McCain was shown to be clueless on many issues and his sidekick was shown to be much, much worse than he was.

[Ronjon7]

Nothing scares the dems more than a real person. Be afraid all - be very afraid.

[skyk-2009]

Ronjon7, ROFLMAO You ARE joking right? This Air Head up against the President? ROFLMAO Now THAT is funny, if you meant it or not!

[bill0bob]

"Nothing scares the dems more than a real person. Be afraid all - be very afraid." -- by Ronjon7 November 13, 2009 9:05 AM EST

We may be a bit freightened by the revelation that there are, even now, US citizens who believe Palin is a suitable candidate for the highest office in the land, but we are absolutely NOT afraid of her running again. All over the internet you will find democrats literally BEGGING the repukes to run this air-head in the next election. Nothing could possibly be better for the democrats because Palin is just too stupid, too self-centered, too sleazy, and way too damm ignorant to be taken seriously for ANY elected office except, possibly, animal control (given that she's such a big fan of "huntin' critters").

[Stop_the_crying]

Real Person??????????? Who are you talking about???????
This person needs to stay in moose jaw. Anyone that thinks that she can hold any office outside of her home state needs to seek mental haelth assistance.

[bciss]

This woman is a complete waste of space. "The big bad mean reporter kept asking me completely valid and fair questions!! She simply refused to softball every single thing and stick to things she knew I had at least some minor clue about!" Even though her questions were for the most part very general and should have been easy for an intelligent teen to answer. Let alone someone running for Vice President.

Let's not get side tracked by common sense or basic intelligence. Though there is a large segment of the population which wallows in it's willful ignorance and serves as her base. She has no legs to stand on here. She is by all evidence coming out of her own mouth, an idiot.

As for you frothing at the mouth repubs,, don't bother to defend her. The simple fact you do, speaks volumes. And for dems who think Palin being and idiot, by default elevates Obama etc. It does not. He may be well spoken, but is just as corrupt and beholden to big business as Bush, Clinton,,etc.

We do not have a representative government of the people. Each side gets some sort of pacifier wank to keep people distracted and in a stupor. But the policies and actual actions change very little. Regardless of who is supposed to be in control. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Please continue to defend and or condemn your puppet of choice.