She has “restless ambition.” (GASP!)
Her way of governance “raises questions.” (GASP!)
She gets things done often without the usual bureaucratic channels [probably because those channels were corrupt, after all she was in battle with BOTH party machines, but why would the NYT want to point that out?]. (GASP!)
The smear machine at work – I guess that 80+% approval rating she has really irritates the far left:
She appoints people she trusts (GASP!) to government positions that sometimes paid more than what thier former private sector job paid (GASP! … so we should lower the salary of certain government positions because the appointee was a NORMAL WORKING PERSON who had a job that paid less before??)
Her politics are “personal” (GASP!)
And so the New York Times did what it usually does when it comes to Republicans, they took every statement from every political enemy and everyone who had a toe stepped on and reported it as if it is fact.
Her approval rating in Alaska has been 80+%.
Get used to this kind of coverage folks. If McCain/Palin start cleaning house in Washington and start WW3 in the beltway to try and clean up as McCain has always wanted to do and Palin did do as Governor, a great deal of people will get fired, toes will get stepped on, and they will certainly be ticked off big-time…. and the NYT will be there to report every allegation from these people as if it is a fact.
McCain/Palin will have to have an effective, aggressive and relentless ongoing communications machine and strategy with the press and directly with the American People.
Here is the NYT hit piece.
By the way – want to see what the LOCAL newspaper in Alaska has to say about Palin? The Frontiersman Editors:
We Know Sarah Palin (excerpts)
We know her as a former Wasilla city councilwoman and mayor. And, of course, for the past 20 months, we’ve known her as a governor tough enough to successfully take on the Last Frontier’s good old boy network.
It’s not hyperbole to say the naming of Governor Palin to the vice presidential slot on the 2008 GOP ticket was an epic event for the Mat-Su Valley.
Friday morning’s announcement stunned everyone, but here in Alaska, and particularly in the Valley, the stunned silence was quickly followed by, as Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell put it, a whoop of excitement.
Truth and transparency have been bywords for Palin. As she enters the national arena where she’ll be tugged and tormented, vilified and denigrated, we hope she sticks to her guns — metaphorically and literally.
Because no matter the politics, for Wasilla, Alaska, to send its commercial-fishing, gun-toting, hockey-mom former mayor toward the White House, that’s history. And we’re proud of it.
Richard Best, a Palmer City Councilman, had this to say in the Frontiersman about the New York Times when they contacted him…and he gave them an earful:
Reporters digging for wrong dirt
Published on Thursday, September 4, 2008 9:13 PM AKDT
Sunday, Aug. 31 at my home my wife received a phone call from a David L. Kirby indicating he was working for the New York Times. He inquired about a car accident between Bristol Palin and myself.
This coming from the news media that can’t find or refuses to find information as to then state Senator Obama’s political documents during his state service. If you recall as to Hillary it was Obama who “criticized her directly for not releasing her correspondence as first lady, describing her tendency toward secrecy as simply ‘a problem’.”
If “journalists” really want answers, then ask the right question. If Obama really wants to be the “leader of change,” then ask him “why he does not demand and then produce all his papers that are being held out of the public’s eye.” [ Evidence and details HERE & HERE- Editor IUSB Vision]This information includes his involvement with a Bill Ayers, an admitted terrorist against the United States of America, and his Tony Rezko issues.
I challenge everybody including “journalists” to dig deep into Obama’s past with the same fervor that they have with the past of a 17-year-old daughter of the Republican VP pick.
It was explained to this reporter that he indeed had his facts wrong.
I believe she IS the working-class lunch-pail folk that cling to our guns and our religion and it IS here across the Heart Lands of American that Obama will find his defeat that he has been so eagerly seeking!
NOTE: Alaska resident’s have been calling radio shows saying that out of state press is crawling all over and they only wnat to talk with you if you have something bad to say about Sarah.
UPDATE: Looks like the NYT didn’t fact check again and just printed rumors without bothering to check…again.
Ed Morrissey at Hotair.com weighs in with a brilliant analysis debunking this nonsense from the NYT:
The New York Times offers a more hyperbolic look at Palin’s penchant for hiring people she knows for political appointments:
The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.
Does it now? Did Wasilla High have only three students? The Times mentions three former classmates appointed by Palin to government positions when she took office as Governor. The article was written by that many reporters, who combined to offer this ridiculous piece of commentary in a news article.
The third, Franci Havemeister, gets ridiculed for her “love of cows” as a qualification for her position at the Director of Agriculture. What the Times fails to mention is that the “love of cows” was also accompanied by years in the 4-H program and work done in several sectors of agriculture, as a quick Google search finds:
Franci and her husband, Bob, have four children and are lifetime Alaskans. She has spent her life actively involved in agriculture from the 4-H program to varied agriculture sectors including dairy, potato, vegetable and greenhouse production.
And how has Havemeister performed as Director? The Times doesn’t report any complaints. If she’s that bad of a choice, how can Havemeister have succeeded?
Reformers usually clean house, and that’s what Palin did. Rather than worry about resumes, why not focus on the successes and failures of her appointments? Neither paper does that, which tends to indicate that they couldn’t find any of the latter.
For that matter, neither the Post and the Times ever attempt to reconcile their portrait of a “trail of bad blood” with the inescapable fact that she has astronomical, bipartisan favorability ratings. Alaskans have a ringside seat to the Palin administration, and they overwhelmingly approve of her. She has an 85% favorability rating, and even 75% of Democrats view her favorably. Reformers tend to get rid of entrenched bureaucrats and replace them with fresh faces, and it appears that while the people who got replaced didn’t like it, Alaskans feel very differently.
Both articles fail to deliver anything but slanted gossip and old grudges. After two weeks of digging, if this is all they can find, the papers will need to write off the travel investment as a total loss. If the only point takenfrom both articles is that Palin made entrenched bureaucrats angry, that sounds like a win for Team McCain.
