'Pals around with terrorists' was not Palin's idea

A vindication of Gov. Palin and a scoop for Marc Ambinder:

Whose idea was it for Gov. Sarah Palin to attack Barack Obama as a guy who "pals around with terrorists?" Palin's camp has always insisted that the McCain high command endorsed the stratagem, while folks close to McCain have accused Palin of going "rogue" and pointed to the "pals around" attack as an example of how Palin simply could not be controlled. The idea that Palin was hard to manage as a candidate and ignored the advice and wishes of McCain's senior advisers is explicated in some detail by Todd Purdum.

But on the subject of linking Obama to ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers, it turns out that Palin hadn't gone rogue. Balz and Johnson answer this question pretty definitively. They've obtained an e-mail from campaign adviser Nicolle Wallace sent to Palin on the morning of October 4rd, with an attached New York Times article about Obama's relationship with Ayers.

Wallace's e-mail reads:

"Governor and Team:

rick, Steve and I suggest the following attack from the new york times. If you are comfortable, please deliver the attack as written. Please do not make any changes to the below without approval from steve or myself because precision is crucial in our ability to introduce this."

"rick" is Rick Davis, CEO of McCain's '08 campaign. "Steve" is Steve Schmidt, the campaign's senior strategist and advisor to McCain. Here's the line suggested by the McCain campaign for Gov. Palin to use:

"This is not a man who sees American as you and I do -- as the greatest force for good in the world. This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country."

Sarah Palin did what they suggested she do. At the next event, she added the following to her stump speech:

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

Ambinder says that Schmidt never denied ordering the line of attack, but that others in McCain's campaign told him at the time that "Palin had instigated it." In other words, they lied.

The "palling around with terrorists" attack never stuck to Obama, thanks largely to the legacy media which never pursued it, accepting Obama's denials at face value. But Gov. Palin was blamed for making it, and she became a target of intense hatred from the left for doing so. Now we learn that McCain staffers let her take all the heat for their idea and even lied about it to cover their backsides.

Any candidate who hires these people is certifiably insane or stuck on stupid. And as Texas stand up comic Ron White is fond of saying, "You can't fix stupid."

- JP