Palin Gives Major 'Interview' (To Hometown Paper): Asked About Book Banning and Rape Kits -- Still Claims She Cancelled Bridge

Sarah Palin has finally given a lengthy newspaper interview, but it was not with The New York Times, Washington Post or other large daily. Instead, it appears today in her hometown Wasilla, Alaska, weekly, The Frontiersman. And it was all via email.

The paper ran the interview on its front page today with the intro: "The responses here were not edited and are preceded by the verbatim questions posed to her."

Asked, for example, to name any mistakes she had made as mayor of the town she only came up with underestimating her opponents. She also deflected any blame in the "troopergate" controversy, the book-banning charges and the allegations that she had something to do with rape victims having to pay for their own medical tests.

"I'm not going to win over anyone in the media elite -- I'm going to do my best for the American people," she said.

She also continued to say of the Bridge to Nowhere, "I cancelled the project," even though this has been challenged by various fact-checking organizations.

Amazingly, she suggests that her kids are the first candidate's offspring to have their privacy probed -- after bringing her pregnant teen daughter up on stage at the GOP convention and having her new baby passed around from arm to arm.

Here are a few choice lines from her responses.

On the media:

"Nothing really prepares you for hatred and made-up stories. But it's nothing like the hard times of a family that's lost a job, lost health insurance, or lost a son or daughter in battle. I would hope that the privacy of my children would be respected, as has been the tradition for the children of previous candidates."

On that pipeline:

"As governor, I pushed for the largest infrastructure project in North America, the natural gas pipeline that will provide new supply and price relief from Alaska to Americans in the Lower 48."

On the Bridge to Nowhere:

"After taking office and examining the project closely, realizing the Feds were not going to fund it as Alaskans had assumed was the case, I cancelled the project."

On her town billing victims for rape kits:

"The entire notion of making a victim of a crime pay for anything is crazy. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. As governor, I worked in a variety of ways to tackle the problem of sexual assault and rape, including making domestic violence a priority of my administration."

On the book banning:

"As people there know, all questions posed to the library director were asked in a context of professionalism, regarding the library policy that was in place. Before I became mayor, there was conversation in our community about what sorts of books were appropriate for the public library. I asked the librarian about the process for answering that question as a way to familiarize myself with city staff and the issues being discussed in Wasilla at that time. I certainly never advocated banning books. This was a ridiculous, false claim....There were never any books banned and any reports claiming otherwise are grossly false."

On Alaska having the third worst children's health insurance program in the country:

"I know the challenges that families without health insurance face. I know about the tough decisions and I know about their worries. There were times that Todd and I didn't have health insurance. Believe me -- that is a very scary thing for a family. John McCain and I have a detailed plan that includes providing a $5,000 tax credit to families so they can buy health insurance."

On troopergate:

"I am an open book on this matter and am fully cooperating with the non-political, legally appropriate and independent investigation of the Personnel Board. I have agreed to produce all documents, and am scheduling meetings with its investigator, Mr. Petumenos....Walt Monegan has acknowledged I did not, nor did Todd, nor did any staff member, tell him to fire anyone. Walt was offered another position because he was not willing to implement the Palin-Parnell administration's agenda to find efficiencies in every state department so that the public could be better served, and to fill the vacant trooper positions that I fought hard to fund."

On the McCain team directing part of state government:

"The McCain-Palin campaign is not involved in operating state government.... The campaign is not involved in state government operations."

Click for the full article.
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Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher and author of the new book on Iraq and the media, "So Wrong for So Long."

Comments

[Ivee]

Palin's quote: I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test.

She didn't say that she believes, or has ever believed, that rape victims should not have to pay for an emergency contraceptive that might be part of an evidence-gathering kit.

I dearly wish Gwen Ifill would ask her about this at the debate tomorrow.

[whit4brains]

I noticed that too.

[newpotusplease]

can someone send this story to Gwen Ifill so that Ms. Ifill is aware of the simpleton responses this woman is parroting?!

[fignozzle]

sara who?????

[EvasDaddy]

An email exchange is not an interview, particularly when the woman is surrounded by Republican/Bush honchos.

It may have been a tad more convincing if the answers had been written with atrocious grammar, replete with circuitous logic and loooooong run on sentences. (and with a few "ya knows" thrown in)

She is an embarrassment.

[henrythefifth]

The responses were likely in writing.

[henrythefifth]

There are her debate responses!

[Elagins]

gee, don't ask me what i said, because all that stuff you're reading was written by that group of guys in the next room who are also writing my debate sound-bites

[nanners0808]

i bet she is wishing that she could do the VP debate "by email"

[mjdl613]

Sarah has mentioned in this article and also with Charlie Gibson that her agenda in her current administration is, and her role as VP will be, to "find efficiencies in departments so that the public can be better served". Does this bother anyone else? Doesn't she mean "inefficiencies"?

[gaja]

when has she said ANYTHING that made any sense?

[mijumom]

That is one of a long list of things that bother me about her.

[SurrealPumpkin]

Maybe she's going for the positive slant? Find the good stuff and emphasize it?

[JustLynn]

DEficiencies....

[zippywpinhead]

that's the problem with using a random word generator to answer reporters' questions...

[rockyersocksoff]

I got a health insurance plan for ya, yup.

It's called gettin' right with the Big Guy hey.

We Christians won't need no fancy doctors come Rapture-time, and John McCain and I have a plan to speed 'er right on up dere.

(Psst, Mr Akmed-in-da-job, we're nukin', I mean Talkin' to YOU hardee har.)

Course you folks who aren't in my Church will be in a diff'rent plan, but you won't need no doctorin'
where you are goin' either tee hee.

Just some Asbestos underpants!

[nowalnuts]

She's right about one thing. Nothing could have prepared me for all the hatred and made-up stories that the McCain campaign have plastered all over all media. Oh wait...that's what the last 8 years of Bush/Cheney did.

[planetjeffy]

Prefacing the article "Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee, agreed to a request by her hometown newspaper, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, for an interview by providing written responses via e-mail to the following questions." Too bad, she email her debate responses.

[Ridgemore]

On the Leave No Child Behind Act:
"I know the challenges that families running for VP face. So I am opposed to this unfunded mandate. Consequently, I have decided to leave all the children behind with my husband Todd as I get to know Americans in the Lower 48."

[dcprokat]

These are in NO WAY her responses. Maybe the McCain's staff but definitely not hers.

[JulieSA]

And you know this how? What is your proof?

[mhaven]

Take a look at the transcripts of her Couric interview...compare to the responses here. They are vastly different in syntax, structure, grammar and content.

These are not Palin's responses. I'm surprised this paper would agree to an e-mail interview. Why not a phone interview?

Does the McCain campaign really believe people are that stupid??

[Gidster]

Based on her impromptu answers to Gibson's and Couric's questions these answers were nothing but scripted talking points.

[mijumom]

Oh come on now. They are controlling her every move!

[EvasDaddy]

Um, maybe because they were all grammatically correct sentences? Have you heard the woman talk?

[JodyMcg]

The proof that these responses are not hers: None of the sentences end in a preposition.

[nutty4tahoe]

I read an article the other day that stated that Sarah Palin's approval ratings in Alaska have tumbled. Because she is being vetted in the light of day, Alaskans are not liking the things they're finding out. Most didn't know about the aerial hunting, Troopergate, the "Shadow Governor", her witch hunting preacher, the list goes on and on...

Poor Sarah, if she doesn't bag the "big one", she'll have to go back to Alaska and face a possibly tough crowd there. I've heard there's even a recall petition being circulated as we speak....

[tm68]

I can definitely tell you we did not know how much Todd influenced her governorship. The AK public had NO CLUE that he was sitting in on meetings, being cc'd on emails pertaining to policy and who knows what. If I had known that, I would have been writing editorials and doing what I could to find out what was going on.

When they lose in November, keep your eye on AK- expect a recall.