Mr. Schmidt, puts his spin on the Alaska Independence Party situation that was addressed earlier.
Palin blasted out an e-mail with the subject line "Todd" to Schmidt, campaign manager Rick Davis and senior advisor Nicolle Wallace, copying her husband on the message (all of the e-mails are reprinted below as written).
"Pls get in front of that ridiculous issue that's cropped up all day today - two reporters, a protestor's sign, and many shout-outs all claiming Todd's involvement in an anti-American political party," Palin wrote. "It's bull, and I don't want to have to keep reacting to it ... Pls have statement given on this so it's put to bed."
Her reference to a single protestor's sign and "many shout-outs" was indicative of Palin's occasional tendency to take anecdotal evidence of a minor problem and extrapolate it into something far more menacing. The final of the three presidential debates was just hours away, which would mark the unveiling of the soon-to-be canonized Joe The Plumber.
As an aside to this, CBS puts their own spin on the story when they characterize Palin's concern to a "single protestor's sign and many shout-outs was indicative of Palin's occasional tendency to take anecdotal evidence of a minor problem and extrapolate it into something far menacing" is laughable when you can do a google search on Todd Palin and the AIP and come up with this.
Results 1 - 10 of about 220,000 for todd palin aip. (0.27 seconds)
But back to the rest of Schmidt's story.
Schmidt hit "reply to all" less than five minutes after Palin's e-mail was sent. "Ignore it," he wrote. "He was a member of the aip? My understanding is yes. That is part of their platform. Do not engage the protestors. If a reporter asks say it is ridiculous. Todd loves america."
This clear cut response from the campaign's top dog carried an air of finality, but it did not satisfy Palin. She responded with another e-mail, adding five more names to the "cc" box, all of whom traveled on her campaign plane. They included her senior political adviser Tucker Eskew, senior aide Jason Recher, the lone traveling aide from her Alaska office Kris Perry, press secretary Tracey Schmitt and personal assistant Bexie Nobles.
(...)
Palin's insertion of the five additional staffers in the e-mail chain was an apparent attempt to rally her own troops in the face of a decision from the commanding general with which she disagreed. Her inclusion of her personal assistant was particularly telling about her quest for affirmation and support in numbers, since the young staffer was not in a position to have any input on campaign strategy.
"That's not part of their platform and he was only a 'member' bc independent alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan," Palin wrote. "He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed."
(emphasis added)
As you can see in the emphasized portion, Palin acknowledged he was a member.
The question: is what Palin said about Todd making a mistake about signing the wrong box true? Who knows...
And most definitely, from what is available from the released e-mails, Palin never said he was not a member like Schmidt tries to lead the T.V. audience to believe.
But on the flip-side, if what Schmidt told Palin to say is true, then it was appropriate. Palin should have followed his advice and left it.
Palin's actions made it seem that there was something wrong with the AIP and risked putting many fine members of the AIP in a bad light.
Moreover, when it comes to Schmidt, you have to question Schmidt's handling of the controversy over Trigg.
Lumped into this description of smearing are any questions about her experience, her time as mayor or governor in Alaska, her relationship to the Alaskan Independence Party -- which her husband Todd was a member of, and any other issues in which you might be interested.
Obviously, they want to rally voters behind her. But are they doing Palin a service?
"Members of this campaign went to off-the-record lunches with reporters today," Schmidt told Katie Couric, Tuesday, according to Politico, "and they were asked if she would do paternity tests to prove paternity for her last child. Smear after smear after smear, and it's disgraceful and it's wrong. And the American people are going to reject it overwhelmingly when they see her."
First, that's an intriguing definition of off-the-record, but second, what a reporter asks is not the same thing as what a reporter reports. It could be argued that Schmidt, raising the notion of paternity on national TV, did far more to spread that unpleasantness to millions of voters than anything anyone in the mainstream media did.
Some of the tactics the McCain campaign is using could certainly be seen as spreading rumors in the name of fighting them.
When it comes to so called experienced staffers, Steve Schmidt was not too bright on handling a simple matter.
Instead, he let it get out of control.....
Because like Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace told a big lie when it came to the issue of Katie Couric.
Palin needs to dump her endorsement of McCain.... He hasn't endorsed her and she doesn't owe McCain anything...
Moreover, her latest gaffe with CPAC, shows she still has advisers who don't have the smarts....
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