During all three Obama-McCain presidential debates, Senator John McCain repeatedly said “My friends….I know how to do (this or that). He said he knew how to “reach across the aisle” and work with Democrats. He said he knew how to fix the economy. He said he knew how to do a lot of things, but now that he’s back in the Senate and not in the White House, he is refusing to tell everyone else “how to do” all these things. Some consider this unpatriotic. Some say he was just lying to the American people during those debates.
Senator McCain has repeatedly refused to “reach across the aisle” and “work” with the Democrats in the Senate on the economic stimulus bill. Where is the bipartisan and “maverick” Senator you said you were? He said he knew how to fix our economy but has refused to tell everyone else how to do it. Is it unpatriotic for him to have all the answers to our a national problems but then refuse to share it with others?
Here are some quotes from the 2008 Presidential debates and decide for yourself. Was Senator McCain lying to the American people during the debates? Is he unpatriotic for having the solutions to our national problems but thus far, refusing to tell us? Is he really the “Maverick” bipartisan Senator he claimed to be?
Presidential debate #2 Senator McCain “I Know” quotes:
Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, my friends, until we stabilize home values in America, we’re never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy. And we’ve got to give some trust and confidence back to America.I know how the do that, my friends. And it’s my proposal, it’s not Sen. Obama’s proposal, it’s not President Bush’s proposal. But I know how to get America working again, restore our economy and take care of working Americans. Thank you. Why aren’t you telling us how Senator McCain?
You’re going to be examining our proposals tonight and in the future, and energy independence is a way to do that, is one of them. And drilling offshore and nuclear power are two vital elements of that. And I’ve been supporting those and I know how to fix this economy, and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, and stop sending $700 billion a year overseas. Why aren’t you telling us how Senator McCain?
I know how to do that. I have a clear record of reaching across the aisle, whether it be Joe Lieberman or Russ Feingold or Ted Kennedy or others. That’s my clear record. Why aren’t you reaching across the aisle Senator McCain?
But the point is that I know how to handle these crises. And Sen. Obama, by saying that he would attack Pakistan, look at the context of his words. I’ll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I’ll get him. I know how to get him. I’ll get him no matter what and I know how to do it. Why aren’t you telling us how to get him Senator McCain?
Presidential debate #3 Senator McCain “I Know” quotes:
I know how to save billions of dollars in defense spending. I know how to eliminate programs. Why aren’t you telling us how Senator McCain?
I know how to save billions. I saved the taxpayer $6.8 billion by fighting a deal for a couple of years, as you might recall, that was a sweetheart deal between an aircraft manufacturer, DOD, and people ended up in jail. Why aren’t you telling us how Senator McCain?
Presidential debates Senator McCain “reaching across the aisle”, “working” and “bipartisan” quotes:
And there were a series of recommendations, as I recall, more than 40. And I’m happy to say that we’ve gotten written into law most of those reforms recommended by that commission. I’m proud of that work, again, bipartisan, reaching across the aisle, working together, Democrat and Republican alike. Why aren’t you reaching accross the aisle on the economic stimulus bill Senator McCain?
I have advocated and taken on the special interests, whether they be the big money people by reaching across the aisle and working with Sen. [Russ] Feingold [D-Wisconsin] on campaign finance reform, whether it being a variety of other issues, working with Sen. Lieberman on trying to address climate change. Why aren’t you reaching across the aisle on the economic stimulus bill Senator McCain?
I have a clear record of bipartisanship. The situation today cries out for bipartisanship. Sen. Obama has never taken on his leaders of his party on a single issue. And we need to reform. Where is the bipartisanship on the economic stimulus bill Senator McCain?
And there were a series of recommendations, as I recall, more than 40. And I’m happy to say that we’ve gotten written into law most of those reforms recommended by that commission. I’m proud of that work, again, bipartisan, reaching across the aisle, working together, Democrat and Republican alike. Why aren’t you being “bipartisan”, “reaching across the aisle”, or “working together” on the economic stimulus bill Senator McCain?
We can, with the participation of all Americans, work together and solve these problems together. Can we Senator McCain? Really?
I’m going to tell you Americans we’ll get to work right away and we’ll get to work together, and we can get them all done, because that’s what America has been doing. When will you start “working together” Senator McCain?
We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We’ve got to sit down together across the table. It’s been done before. How about sitting across the table with the President and fixing the economy Senator McCain? It’s been done before, how about doing it now?
If you’re looking for a coupon code for Crutchfield, one of leading retailers for electronic products, use the coupon code below. You’ll save $20 on your first order. Just copy/paste the code into the applicable section of your shopping cart or give the code to the salesperson for an easy $20 savings.
Newsweek has released highlights of its Special Election Project, which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaigns with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day.
Below, some key excerpts — including news about a cyber attack from an “unknown entity” that hit the presidential campaigns’ computers in the summer, prompting an FBI investigation; McCain’s advisers fuming at Palin’s shopping spree, which was apparently far more extensive than originally reported; and Palin being blocked from speaking on election night by top McCain aide Steve Schmidt.
From Newsweek’s press release:
New York–The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a sophisticated cyber attack by an unknown “foreign entity,” prompting a federal investigation, Newsweek reports in its exclusive special election issue, “President Obama” on newsstands Thursday, Nov. 6.
At the Obama headquarters in midsummer, technology experts detected what they initially thought was a computer virus, a case of “phishing”–a form of hacking often employed to steal passwords or credit card numbers. But by the next day, both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: “You have a problem way bigger than what you understand,” an agent told them. “You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system.” The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: “You have a real problem… and you have to deal with it.” The Feds told the Obama campaign in late August that the McCain campaign’s computer system had been similarly compromised (a top McCain official confirmed to Newsweek that the campaign’s computer system had been hacked and the FBI was had become involved).
As Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas writes, FBI and White House officials told the Obama campaign that they believed that a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps’ policy issues–information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political opponents (Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese). A security firm retained by the Obama campaign took steps to secure its computer system and end the intrusion. White House and FBI officials had no comment earlier this week.
Newsweek’s 2008 Special Election Issue marks the magazine’s seventh consecutive installment of providing a behind-the-scenes account of the entire presidential campaign. It will be on newsstands Nov. 6-16. The exclusive narrative of the campaign is reported by a separate Newsweek Special Project team that worked for more than a year on this historic campaign. The text of the nearly 50,000-word project will be posted in chapters on Newsweek.com Nov. 5-Nov. 7.
Other highlights from the report:
McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.
The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the 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 Obama said to 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 or not 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.”
The Obama campaign’s “New Media” experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”–the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day–to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.
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 Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue. He 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).
Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary’s name came up in veep discussions, and Obama’s advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, “Are we sure?” He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.
McCain was dumbfounded when Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights hero, issued a press release comparing McCain with former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist infamous for stirring racial fears. McCain had devoted a chapter to Lewis in one of his books, “Why Courage Matters” and had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.
The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for the Democratic primary debates, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that’s green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”
The computer systems of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were victims of a sophisticated cyberattack by an unknown “foreign entity,” prompting a federal investigation, NEWSWEEK reports today.
At the Obama headquarters in midsummer, technology experts detected what they initially thought was a computer virus—a case of “phishing,” a form of hacking often employed to steal passwords or credit-card numbers. But by the next day, both the FBI and the Secret Service came to the campaign with an ominous warning: “You have a problem way bigger than what you understand,” an agent told Obama’s team. “You have been compromised, and a serious amount of files have been loaded off your system.” The following day, Obama campaign chief David Plouffe heard from White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, to the same effect: “You have a real problem … and you have to deal with it.” The Feds told Obama’s aides in late August that the McCain campaign’s computer system had been similarly compromised. A top McCain official confirmed to NEWSWEEK that the campaign’s computer system had been hacked and that the FBI had become involved.
Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps’ policy positions—information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political opponents. (Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese.) A security firm retained by the Obama campaign took steps to secure its computer system and end the intrusion. White House and FBI officials had no comment earlier this week.
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign 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.
A Palin aide said: “Governor Palin was not directing staffers to put anything on their personal credit cards, and anything that staffers put on their credit cards has been reimbursed, like an expense. Nasty and false accusations following a defeat say more about the person who made them than they do about Governor Palin.”
McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.
The disclosures are among many revealed in “How He Did It, 2008,” the latest installment in NEWSWEEK’s Special Election Project, which was first published in 1984. As in the previous editions, “How He Did It, 2008” is an inside, behind-the-scenes account of the presidential election produced by a special team of reporters working for more than a year on an embargoed basis and detached from the weekly magazine and Newsweek.com. Everything the project team learns is kept confidential until the day after the polls close.
Among the other revelations from the special project:
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.”
The Obama campaign’s New Media experts created a computer program that would allow a “flusher”—the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day—to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.
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 thatObama 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).
Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary’s name came up in veep discussions, and Obama’s advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, “Are we sure?” He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Sen. Joe Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.
McCain was dumbfounded when Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights hero, issued a press release comparing the GOP nominee with former Alabama governor George Wallace, a segregationist infamous for stirring racial fears. McCain had devoted a chapter to Lewis in one of his books, “Why Courage Matters,” and had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.
On the night she officially lost the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a long and friendly phone conversation with McCain. Clinton was actually on better terms with McCain than she was with Obama. Clinton and McCain had downed shots together on Senate junkets; they regarded each other as grizzled veterans of the political wars and shared a certain disdain for Obama as flashy and callow.
At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys’ club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.
The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that’s green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”
From the Newsweek.com Special Election Project comes news of the real Sarah Palin.
She met staff members in a towel:
At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys’ club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. “I’ll be just a minute,” she said.
She raised William Ayers before the campaign signed off on it:
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.
She spent far more on clothes than was reported:
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family–clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign 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.
Steve Schmidt (who reportedly picked Palin as VP) would not let her speak on election night.
McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.
4. Without the national security card McCain couldn’t win.
5. Hillary Clinton made Barack Obama a better candidate than he ever would have been on his own.
6. McCain picked Sarah Palin without vetting her, and believed she was interchangeable with Hillary Clinton.
7. McCain and his team bought the notion of the mythical anti Obama Hillary block and doubted that Hillary Clinton, along with Bill Clinton, would bring her supporters home (in droves).
8. McCain and his team botched the roll out of Sarah Palin, throwing her into the deep end of the media pool, instead of letting her wade with the wingnuts and radio barkers who would have protected her.
9. McCain turned into a candidate no one recognized, sacrificing his core “maverick” message.
10. McCain and his team misjudged, underestimated and disrespected the formidable talent of Barack Obama and the team he put together.
In the final weeks and days of the Presidential election, McCain-Palin and some of their supporters showed a keen talent for lies, deception, ignorance, bigotry, racism, and general disrespectfulness toward Barak Obama. We all remember the “kill him” comment yelled during a Palin speech and the “terrorist” shout out at another campaign rally which went unchallenged and completely ignored. Then we had the ignorant blond lady with the messy hairdo who was handed the microphone at a McCain rally and proceeded to spread the lie that Obama was a Muslim (which McCain half-heartedly disputed and insinuated Obama was a “good man” and not a Muslim). As if being a Muslim was a bad thing. I’m glad Colin Powell called McCain out on that about a week ago. That did not stop Tuesday night when McCain made his concession speech after it was clear he had lost his bid to continue 4 more years of Republican failed policies.
After McCain stated he called Barak Obama to congratulate him, the crowd booed loudly. I will give McCain partial credit for his half-hearted attempt to quiet the disrespectful boos but just like the insightful shout-outs during the speeches and the dumb blond “Muslim” comment, he did not call out his supporters for their actions or simply say they were wrong for behaving that way. That seemingly insignificant lack of action demonstrates why the McCain-Palin campaign was a failure.
Contrast the McCain-Palin supporter’s disrespectfulness with Obama’s supporters cheering louding as Obama stated he received a gracious call from Senator McCain who fought long and hard in the campaign. He congratulated McCain-Palin for all they have achieved. He went on to call McCain a brave and selfless leader and commended him for his service to the country.
McCain-Palin and Republican supporters in general could learn a few things by listening to any one of Obama’s speeches. They might learn that liberal is not a bad word and the left won because the right is wrong.
Here are the speeches if you didn’t hear/see them last night. Feel free to leave your comments.
The McCain-Palin campaign has had it’s embarasing moments in the last two months but the latest incident demonstrates exactly why they will lose the election. Quite simply, it’s gross incompetence.
The incident happened Saturday when well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel made a prank call to McCain’s running mate, Gov Sarah Palin on her personal cell phone. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state. The pranksters posed as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and for 6 minutes they kept Palin on the phone until they told her it was a joke.
All I can say is yeah…she’s ready to be Vice President…NOT!!!
Below is the AP news article. The best sentence is the last one from Obama’s campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs. “I’m glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama.”
Palin takes prank call from fake French president
By CHARMAINE NORONHA, Associated Press Writer
TORONTO – Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call Saturday from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and telling her she would make a good president someday.
“Maybe in eight years,” replies a laughing Palin.
The Republican vice presidential nominee discusses politics, the perils of hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy’s “beautiful wife,” in a recording of the six-minute call released Saturday and set to air Monday on a Quebec radio station.
Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt confirmed she had received the prank call.
“Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C’est la vie,” she said.
The call was made by a well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state.
Audette, posing as Sarkozy, speaks in an exaggerated French accent and drops ample hints that the conversation is a joke. But Palin seemingly does not pick up on them.
He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor.
“I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun,” the fake Sarkozy says.
He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he says he has never done.
“Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we’re getting work done,” Palin counters. “We can kill two birds with one stone that way.”
The comedian jokes that they shouldn’t bring Cheney along on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.
“I’ll be a careful shot,” responds Palin.
Playing off the governor’s much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because “you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska,” the caller tells her: “You know we have a lot in common also, because … from my house I can see Belgium.”
She replies: “Well, see, we’re right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes.”
When Audette refers to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada’s prime minister, Palin replies: “Well, he’s doing fine and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder.” Canada’s prime minister is Stephen Harper.
Palin praises Sarkozy throughout the call and also mentions his wife Carla Bruni, a model-turned-songwriter.
“You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife,” Palin says. “Oh my goodness, you’ve added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours.”
The Sarkozy impersonator tells Palin his wife is “so hot in bed” and then informs her that Bruni has written a song for her about Joe the Plumber entitled “Du rouge a levres sur une cochonne” — which translates as “Lipstick on a Pig.”
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama derided his Republican challenger John McCain’s call for change in Washington as “lipstick on a pig,” days after Palin made a lipstick joke at the Republican convention. The McCain-Palin campaign then released an ad implying Obama was calling Palin a pig with that remark.
The caller asks Palin if Joe the Plumber is her husband and adds: “We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It’s called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit.”
He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the “documentary” made about her and referred to a pornographic film with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt.
She answers tentatively, “Ohh, good, thank you, yes.”
The callers then reveal the prank and identify themselves and their radio station.
“Ohhh, have we been pranked?” Palin asks before handing the phone to an aide who ends the call.
Obama’s campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs, commenting on the prank, said: “I’m glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama.”
Media Matters for America – Latest Items
Independent Democracy 