Now it can be told! Behind-the-scenes election gossip, courtesy of Newsweek
11/6/08
I tried to talk myself out of writing this post, but I was too weak to resist. Campaigns are all about appearances and brand management, and usually we have no way to know what's really happening off screen.
And it's not like I read this in the National Inquirer: The disclosures are from Newsweek's "How He Did It, 2008," an insider's account of the presidential election put together by a special team of reporters who worked for more than a year "on an embargoed basis, detached from the weekly magazine and Newsweek.com. Everything the project team learns is kept confidential until the day after the polls close."
Here are few excerpts from the current Newsweek.com article:
- The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.
- On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers—Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons-met to decide whether to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."
- Palin used low-level staffers to buy clothes on their credit cards. The McCain ca
mpaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
(Make an unemployed writer feel wanted. Subscribe to LilaTovCocktail via email or RSS. It's painless, I swear.)
- Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.
- McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as a campaign issue. The Republican had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military.
- McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism. Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons). And before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a "celebrity" ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).
According to its website, Newsweek will be publishing more revelations over the next few days on Newsweek.com.
Technorati tags:
3 comments:
I think McCain is an exceedingly decent man.
Do you really, David? I hadn't gotten that sense at all during the campaign and to tell the truth I don't know much about his political life before the campaign, other than the Keating fiasco and McCain Feingold (or McCain Fine Gold, as they pitched it on Saturday Night Live).
He certainly sounded decent in his concession speech and in these behind-the-scenes revelations, but I'd like to hear more about why you think he's exceedingly decent.
Actually, now that I think about it, he also sounded exceedingly decent when he unequivocally condemned the audience's hateful/racist remarks during his late-campaign rallies -- if I recall correctly, at one event he snatched the microphone out of someone's hand to put an end to her insults about Obama.
The concession speech certainly was honorable, although his presidential campaign was not. McCain-Feingold was an imperfect attempt to rein in campaign spending. As for his day-to-day decentness, I can't really be specific. I don't follow politics closely enough to have more than a general idea. It seems, though, for a Republican, he has generally been a moderate. How's that for tap dancing around the issue?
Post a Comment