Game Change: Election 2008 Behind The Scenes

[Vajra]

'She would shut down in a catatonic stupor ahead of interviews': New book exposes Sarah Palin's bizarre behavior during election campaign

By Anny Shaw
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...-campaign.html

Former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been savaged in a new book about the inside story behind the 2008 election campaign.

The book, Game Change, describes the former Governor of Alaska as having wild mood swings caused by her sudden rise to fame and describes her at one point as being in a 'catatonic stupor'.

Palin's behaviour was so erratic that at one point senior figures in the McCain campaign began to seriously discuss the possibility that she was mentally unstable.

The embarrassing claims come as it was revealed that Palin is set to take her conservative message to the right wing US cable news channel Fox.

The book recounts one episode on the night of August 31, 2008, when Ms Palin arrived in St Paul, Minnesota, for the Republican convention to a barrage of questions from the media.

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Palin and Joe Biden shake hands before their vice presidential debate in 2008. The new book Game Change reveals how Palin had trouble remembering her opponent's name, repeatedly calling him 'O'Biden' during rehearsals

According to the book, it was then that Steve Schmidt, Republican campaign chief, turned to the experts he had recruited and said: 'You guys have a lot of work to do. She doesn't know anything.'

Ms. Palin was sat down at a table with a map of the world before her and given a potted history of foreign policy.

Over the next few weeks she 'crammed furiously', using index cards for prompts.

However, according to the book, the vice presidential candidate's mental state began to falter.

'She wasn't eating (a few small bites of steak a day, no more). She wasn't drinking (maybe half a can of Diet Doctor Pepper, no water, ever). She wasn't sleeping (not much more than a couple of hours a night, max),' the authors write.

While being drilled for upcoming interviews, 'she would routinely shut down - chin on her chest, arms folded, eyes cast to the floor, speechless and motionless, lost in what those around her described as a kind of catatonic stupor'.

The morning of her ill-fated CBS interview with Katie Couric, Ms. Palin - 'her eyes glassy and dead' - was unresponsive to attempts to prep her as she was being made up.

'As they were about to set off to meet Couric, Palin announced "I hate this makeup" -smearing it off her face, messing up her hair, complaining she looked fat,' the book says.

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The new book, Game Change, gives a searing account of the 2008 US presidential campaign

According to the book, Mr. Schmidt and Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, arrived at Ms. Palin's hotel room in Philadelphia and 'were appalled by the scene they found'.

'The room was hot and claustrophobic; the shades were drawn. The place was full of half-eaten hotel food and stank of moldering french fries.

'Palin, looking dazed, was surrounded, as usual, by stacks and stacks of index cards.'

According to the book, the camp was ready to 'downgrade' vice presidential candidate Ms. Palin's responsibilities in the event of a victory, reducing her role 'to the largely ceremonial role that pre-modern vice presidents inhabited.'

Ms. Palin's spokeswoman Meg Stapleton has dismissed the book's allegations as inaccurate gossip.

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate will offer political commentary and analysis for Fox in a multi-year deal, it was revealed last night

'I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News,' Ms. Palin said. 'It's wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.'

She also will host occasional episodes of Fox News' 'Real American Stories,' a series featuring 'true inspirational stories' about Americans who have overcome adversity.

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Sarah Palin signs her new book, Going Rogue for a customer at a book shop in Michigan before Christmas

'Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum and we are excited to add her dynamic voice to the FOX News lineup,' said Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming.

The network, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, declined to say when Palin will start or how much she is being paid.

Also unclear is how the arrangement will work, whether Palin will move to New York or commute from Alaska.

Palin, 45, is hugely popular with conservatives and has more than 1.1 million Facebook followers.

She stepped down as Alaska governor in July, 17 months before the end of her first term in office and less than a year after she vaulted to overnight fame as John McCain's running mate.

The bombshell resignation stunned supporters and fueled widespread speculation on her next career step - with predictions ranging from seeking the presidency in 2012 to hosting a conservative talk show.

In November she insisted that a 2012 presidential bid was not on her radar but added that she wouldn't rule out playing some kind of role in the election.

Since resigning, Palin has had colossal success with her best-selling memoir 'Going Rogue,' released four months after she left office.

She finished a nationwide tour in December after hitting some of the political battleground states from the 2008 election and drawing thousands of fans.

If she were to seek the presidency, her new job would provide yet another stage from which to advance her conservative platform.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who sought the presidency in 2008, also hosts a talk show on Fox News and hasn't ruled out another run for president.

Palin majored in journalism with an emphasis on broadcasting at the University of Idaho and worked part-time as a weekend sportscaster in 1988 for KTUU-TV in Anchorage. She wasn't married at the time and used her maiden name Heath.

The station's sports director, John Carpenter, said the young broadcaster left after a few months because of the low pay.

Palin's Fox career had her Facebook fans giddy with excitement Monday.

'Tell 'em like it is girl!!!!!!,' one person wrote on a post.

I look forward to seeing you on Fox....but I hope it doesn't prevent you from running in '12!,' another wrote.

John Edwards' terminally-ill wife 'tore off her blouse to expose herself in airport car park after learning of husband's affair'.

By David Gardner
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...ashington.html

The terminally ill wife of former US presidential hopeful John Edwards tore off her blouse and exposed herself in an airport car park after she learned of his affair, according to a new book.

Breast cancer victim Elizabeth Edwards staggered in shock and almost fell to the ground as she wailed at her husband: 'Look at me!'

The dramatic episode - part of an insider's account of the sex scandal that wrecked Mr. Edwards' White House dream - is alleged in Game Change, a new tell-all book on the 2008 presidential race that is published today.

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Senator John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth: An insider's account of the sex scandal that wrecked Mr. Edwards' White House dream is detailed in a new book

The book boasts a series of sensational allegations that were sending shock waves through Washington last night.

They include suggestions that former President Bill Clinton - whose presidency was tainted by his Oval Office dalliances with intern Monica Lewinsky - was having an affair with another woman while his wife was campaigning for the Democrat nomination.

Rielle Hunter
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Mr. Edwards admitted having an affair with Rielle Hunter last year. The senator is reportedly the father of her child

But it was the brutal depiction of the unraveling of Mr. Edwards’ once hotly-tipped campaign that caused the most shock in political circles across the country.

Mr. Edwards bowed out of the Democrat primaries over claims that he had a love child with a video camerawoman who was filming a fly-on-the-wall documentary of his campaign.

He had pressed on with his White House ambitions even after his wife, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer and his popular wife was considered as one of his biggest assets.

But authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann claim campaign insiders considered Mrs. Edwards as an ‘abusive, paranoid, condescending crazy woman.

‘The nearly universal assessment among them was that there was no one on the national stage for whom the disparity between public image and private reality was vaster or more disturbing.

‘With her husband, she could be intensely affectionate or brutally dismissive,’ they added.

And they said her husband’s colleagues didn’t rate him highly, either.

‘There existed a deep wariness about the North Carolinian among his fellow Democrats. In the Senate, in particular, Edwards was regarded almost universally by his former colleagues as a callow, shallow phony,’ they wrote.

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The book, Game Change, claims Bill Clinton was having an affair with another woman while his wife Hillary campaigned for the Democrat nomination

The book exposes continual verbal sparring between the dysfunctional couple on the campaign trail.

‘She was forever letting John know that she regarded him as her intellectual inferior,’ said the authors.

‘One time, when a friend asked if John had read a certain book, Elizabeth burst out laughing. "Oh, he doesn't read books," she said. "I'm the one who reads books."'

The cracks in the relationship boiled over after US magazine National Enquirer claimed Mr. Edwards was having an affair with Rielle Hunter.

‘After the story broke, things went from bad to worse. John and Elizabeth were fighting all the time, sometimes all night long,’ says the book.

‘On more than one occasion, she announced to the staff that she could no longer speak in public on her husband’s behalf or stay in the same hotel with him.

'Once, in the middle of the night, she woke up a trip director and commanded, "Get me out of here! I’m not campaigning for this a***** another day!"’

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The book also alleges that Mr. Clinton 'deeply offended' Edward Kennedy by saying of Barack Obama: 'A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee'

The arguments came to a head at Raleigh Airport near the couple’s family home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

‘At the terminal, the couple fought in the passenger waiting area,’ says the book. ‘They fought outside in the parking lot. Elizabeth was sobbing, out of control, incoherent.

'As their aides tried to avert their eyes, she tore off her blouse, exposing herself. "Look at me!" she wailed at John and then staggered, nearly falling to the ground.’

According to the authors, Ms. Hunter was invited to the candidate’s mansion while his wife was away and had dinner with Mr. Edwards and the children’s nanny.

After weathering the initial rumpus over the affair with a chorus of denials, it looked like Mr. Edwards would be able to put the allegations behind him and continue his uphill nomination battle against rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But his campaign was sunk when the Enquirer claimed he was the father of Ms. Hunter’s baby. Although he continued to dismiss the paternity claims, he was forced to admit the affair.

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Damaging claims: Game Change has rocked Washington

At the time, Mrs. Edwards said she accepted her husband’s story. ‘I have to believe it. Because if I don’t, it means I am married to a monster,’ she is quoted as saying.

Eighteen months later - and still married - she is now reportedly urging her husband to admit he is the father.



Game Change doesn’t identify the mystery woman allegedly having a relationship with Bill Clinton.

It alleges that Mrs. Clinton set up a ‘war room within a war room’ to deal with questions about her husband’s ‘libido'.

‘The stories about one woman were more concrete, and after some discreet fact-finding, the group concluded that they were true: that Bill was indeed having an affair - and not a frivolous one-night stand but a sustained romantic relationship,’ says the book.

In another potentially damaging claim, the book also alleges that Mr. Clinton ‘deeply offended’ Senate scion Edward Kennedy by saying of Barack Obama: ‘A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee.’

Mr. Clinton wasn’t available for comment on either claim last night.



However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was fighting for his political life over claims in the book that he, too, used racially offensive terms to describe Mr. Obama.

He apologized again on Sunday for comments attributed to him in the book as describing Mr. Obama as ‘light-skinned’ and ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one'.

All I got to say is...DAYUM

[Norellicus]

Isn't dailymail like 3 degrees off The Sun in terms of credible reporting

[Mizango]

Well it seems to be a legit source seeing as how here in North Carolina everyone is talking about the John Edwards scandal in this new book. From whats on the news, radio and newspaper here this morning it is indeed a credible source.

The book is being cited everywhere here. Case in point: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/pol...y/1175151.html

Seeing as this is John Edwards home state im sure they checked their sources well. They even have his ex-aides commenting on the news here.

[Vajra]

Isn't dailymail like 3 degrees off The Sun in terms of credible reporting

K here's some more sources:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/1...ange%E2%80%99/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010...gn-juicy-bits/

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/game-...ory?id=9525711

http://nymag.com/news/politics/63045/

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31302.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/books/11book.html

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/0...nclude-racism/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_418305.html

http://www.adn.com/national-election/story/1089287.html

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/po...-81182232.html

http://www.time.com/time/politics/ar...rss-topstories

[Norellicus]

It was mostly an idle question stemming from bemusement, I don't really care about the subject either way or how credible its sources are.

We already knew Palin was a nut.

[Ragnus]

Accurate or not, this book sounds awesome. Probably grabbing it today.

[Aerides]

Anyone that expects better behavior of any politician needs to wake up. I'm only disappointed by the lack of revelations or dirt on the Obama side - but it probably just means the winning team has less leaks. Also most on that side are in the administration and can't rat for a few more years.

I was considering getting this book but all the juicy bits can be culled off most political sites, including BG!

[Khamsin]

Isn't dailymail like 3 degrees off The Sun in terms of credible reporting

While it's entirely possible the report is off-base, and there really is no book called "Game Change", I'm giving it the benefit of a doubt. We'll see if such a book really hits the shelves in local bookstores like it says, and whether or not it really says the things about Palin that it claims.

[Egon]

I have an idea! Let's compare the book sales between this crap and Palin's book!

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I have an idea! Let's compare the book sales between this crap and Palin's book!

Let's compare sales of donuts to carrots while we're at it.

[Plow]

Accurate or not, this book sounds awesome. Probably grabbing it today.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have both cause and effect in 1 nice little package.

[dejet]

I trust the news, I really do. Not a lie one bit.

Everything is fact, no truths stretched.

[Vajra]

All the information isn't confirmed by the people it's written about just yet. Only Harry Reid confessed immediately that it's true. Eventually the others will have to come out and say something too though, or else it'll just follow them forever . Today's earthquake in Haiti pretty much stopped news from talking too much about the new juicy stuff like Clinton's new affair and Palin's nuttyness.

[Cyn]

Having personally witnessed Elizabeth Edwards chew my boss out in their gymnasium for absolutely no reason whatsoever, I can attest to the fact that she really is a raging bitch.

[Leif]

Who's willing to wager that this book will be revealed as a complete hoax in a few years?

[Cleverness]

The book also alleges that Mr. Clinton 'deeply offended' Edward Kennedy by saying of Barack Obama: 'A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee'

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[Skjie]

Pretty sure it's not really news that Clinton can't keep his dick out of things. Let's be honest, this man is an international man of mystery.

[Demosthenes11]

Let's compare sales of donuts to carrots while we're at it.

lmfao, well done

[greenhills]

I have an idea! Let's compare the book sales between this crap and Palin's book!

i'm confused, you say that as if palin's book isn't also crap.

Let's compare sales of donuts to carrots while we're at it.

lol

[ZarakiKujata]

Who's willing to wager that this book will be revealed as a complete hoax in a few years?

For once I agree with Lief, take books like these with a grain of salt, their 'sources' have an axe to grind and hide behind their anonymity to say this kind of shit.

Also, the Harry Reid interview with the negro quote was taken from was apparently off-the-record with the authors which raises a whole slew of questions about both the authors journalistic integrity as well as whether certain things are important to warrant breaking off-the-record promises and if said quote is one of them.