<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Georgia;
panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:black;}
span.PlainTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Plain Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Plain Text";
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoPlainText>The Atlantic<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>The Daily Dish<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>Andrew Sullivan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>19 Oct 2008 10:29 am<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText>The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin XI: Asking The Girls?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>This is indeed odd. Here is
Palin <a
href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/blinking-or-not.html#more">answering</a>
Hannity's question about her decision to accept the vice-presidency:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"It
was a time of asking the girls to vote on it, anyway. And they voted
unanimously, yes. Didn't bother asking my son because, you know, he's
going to be off doing his thing anyway, so he wouldn't be so impacted by, at
least, the campaign period here. So ask the girls what they thought and
they're like, absolutely. Let's do this, mom." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>But here's the <a
href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/08/29/1307122.aspx">official
tick-tock</a> of the announcement from McCain communications director Jill
Hazelbaker on August 29:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>"Later
that morning, John McCain departed for Phoenix and Governor Palin departed with
staff to Flagstaff, Arizona. Governor Palin, Kris Perry, Steve Schmidt
and Mark Salter proceeded to the Manchester Inn and Conference Center in
Middleton, Ohio. They were checked into the hotel as the Upton Family. While
there, Governor Palin’s children, <em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>who
had been told they were going to Ohio to celebrate their parents’ wedding
anniversary, were told for the first time</span></em> that their mother would
be a nominee for Vice President of the United States of America." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Here's the ADN story that
claims that the pick was a <a
href="http://www.adn.com/politics/story/510777.html">total surprise</a> to her
family and children in Ohio. Here is more Palin from the <a
href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/sarah_palins_interview_with_se.html"
target="_blank">Hannity interview</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>PALIN:
Well, I found out about the actual selection just a couple days before you guys
all did. Getting that nod was quite an experience, of course, because I knew
that Senator McCain and his team had been doing a heck of a lot of research and
vetting of many names.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>But according to the McCain
campaign, it was <em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>not</span></em>
"a couple days" between her being asked and our finding out. It was <em><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>one</span></em> day. She was asked 11 am
on Thursday and the pick became public Friday morning: one day. Moreover, Todd
Palin <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,423843,00.html"
target="_blank">insisted</a> in an earlier interview that during that one day
between the nod and the announcement, the girls were kept totally in the dark:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>So this
was Thursday morning. I wake them up at 5:00 o'clock in the morning, and I
said, OK, hey, we're going on a surprise trip to celebrate your mom and I's
anniversary, 20th anniversary. So give me your cell phones. Well, why do you
want my cell phone? Because I know you're going to call people, and you might
call mom and ask what's going on. So I said, Give me your cell phones. If there's
any questions -- whoever wants to ask questions is going to stay at Grandma's
house, so who's going?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;line-height:150%;background:#E9E9E9'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>So they
gave me all their cell phones. And so later that day, Sarah called me -- or
that morning, Sarah called me and then we were on a plane south.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>Look: Palin can't have taken
the "two days" between McCain's offer and the announcement to get the
girls to vote on the question because a) it was one day, not two and b) because
her husband and the McCain campaogn have already told us they were kept totally
in the dark in the period <em><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>after</span></em>
their mother had accepted McCain's offer. There was no time for them to vote
and no vote could have been offered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>I know this is trivial, but the
point is that there is a very powerful pattern here of Sarah Palin's difficulty
with telling the truth. Here we have some clear facts and chronology about
events in the public record that happened only a couple of weeks ago and Sarah
Palin's stories are hopelessly contradictory. <em><span style='font-family:
"Georgia","serif"'>This is a pattern. She seems to have imagined a conversation
that could not have taken place.</span></em><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"'>And the other weird detail, of
course, is her dismissal of Track's views because he would be in Iraq
"doing his thing." In fact, an active duty soldier would have plenty
of reason to be consulted about the possibility of his mother becoming
vice-president. It could compromise his ability to blend in, require possible
extra security protection, and perhaps jeopardize his chance to be in combat.
Think Prince Harry or McCain's sons whom he wisely keeps very much in the
background.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><a
href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-18.html">http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/the-odd-lies-18.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>