It would be at least the fourth time in recent months that an anticipated Palin speech has fallen through after Palin and her camp disputed they had ever confirmed it. That includes the brouhaha over whether she'd speak at the annual congressional Republican fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C., this summer.An e-mail blast from Family Research Council president Tony Perkins was sent out across Alaska to promote the event, and former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman had recorded a message for automated telephone calls asking Alaskans "to meet with Gov. Sarah Palin and me this Thursday for an event to protect young girls facing abortion decisions."
This time it's an event promoting an Alaska ballot measure aimed at making it illegal for teens to get an abortion without telling their parents. The Alaska Family Council has been advertising that Palin would give a speech and become the first official signer of the ballot petition tonight at ChangePoint, the Anchorage megachurch
Te Family Council's website continues to promote the event and has been updated with the following statement:
Alaskans for Parental Rights is looking forward to having former Governor Sarah Palin join us this evening for the kick-off event for our initiative to protect the right of parents to be involved in the abortion decisions of their teenage daughters.According to the ADN story, Stapleton agrees that former governor Palin received an invitation to appear at the event:
Media reports in the last 24 hours have quoted the Governor’s spokeswoman as saying that Mrs. Palin never committed to attend the event, and that she will not be present this evening.
We have been in regular communications with the Governor’s staff over the last several weeks. We were assured that Governor Palin was personally aware of this evening’s event, and that she twice confirmed her intent to participate.
We look forward to Governor Palin honoring her commitment to attend, and we appreciate her public support of our effort to pass this important voter initiative to protect the rights of parents and the health of teenage girls.
"She had hoped to be able to attend but cannot return (to Alaska) in time for that private fundraiser," Stapleton said.What's our take on all this? This blog exists for reason only -- to support Sarah Palin. We don't criticize her or anyone in her organization lightly. We only do so rarely and in the hopes that such criticism will be constructive and accepted as such. In this case, we're not going to point the finger of fault at anyone. We won't accuse the promoter of such a worthy cause, nor will we accuse the good folks on the former governor's staff who are dedicated to her and work hard for her. We can only humbly offer our unsolicited advice, like everyone else does, from the political consultants who are quoted in Politico to Mom and Pop bloggers like us. Such advice is always worth its price, which in this case is free. In other words, the advice can be considered or ignored without voiding any warranty, express or implied; your mileage may vary.
She said Palin notified the group that she would be out of town; Minnery said he didn't know anything about Palin saying she wouldn't be in Anchorage.
[...]
Stapleton said Palin had previously agreed to be the first signer of the petition for the ballot measure pushed by the family council. But, "obviously since the signature-gathering process started a couple of weeks ago there was less pressure to get home to be the first to sign," she said Wednesday.
The first rule of communications for a political figure is to control your message. When you bypass the media and use social networking websites to get your message out, that's an innovative step to take, but it still doesn't give you control of your message. When your team is reacting to news stories about you, and only when contacted by the reporters who wrote the items, you are not controlling your message. We believe Sarah Palin needs to get control of her message. We think an experienced media consultant with a presidential primary campaign on her resume -- one such as Jeri Thompson, a Team Sarah member -- could help her with that. We are not suggesting that anyone is not doing their job or should lose it. Nor are we implying that anyone even needs to be reassigned. That's not necessary. But Jeri Thompson would be a valuable asset to bring into Sarah Palin's inner circle.
- JP
I am afraid that this has happened at least
ReplyDeleteonce too often to be labeled entirely an
"event mistake".
There is obviously some miscommunication coming from Palin's office/staff and
Palin needs to address and correct it.
It would be interesting for the groups involved
to name the person, along with date and time,
that confirmed the governor's presence.
Um, Josh, who is the Governor's staff?
ReplyDeleteThere is one (1) person in the direct employ of Sarah Palin, and she says there was no firm commitment to show up or speak.
Look at the parsing in the statement from the Family Council's website:
"...We were assured that Governor Palin was personally aware of this evening’s event..."
and
"...she twice confirmed her intent to participate."
Personally aware of the event?
Confirmed intent to attend?
It's a blur of words that means No Confirmation.
Ugh.
I'm not interested in whose "fault" this is. This is the fifth time this has happened with events, and if someone chooses to believe that the event promoters were lying in all five cases, I'm not going to argue to point, because I don't know. The only people who know are the promoters and whoever in the Palin camp they talked to.
ReplyDeleteMy interest is in seeing former Gov. Palin get control of her message, as my post made clear.
- JP
Typo - should read "argue the point" -- not "argue to point"
ReplyDelete- JP
I think your suggestion of Jeri Thompson is a good one. Nothing against Meg. But I think Jeri would put an abrupt hault to these "mis-comunnications". You're right, it is about control.
ReplyDeleteJosh, your "five times logic" echoes the "nineteen times logic" of those who argue that the volume of ethics complaints confirms that there must be "something" wrong with Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteNope. No Confirmation is No Confirmation. And "I'd like to be there, I'll try to be there" is NOT confirmation.
But yeah, unfortunately, Sarah Palin's need for message control requires more than just straight talk. These Internet/Media rumors of Palin appearances need to be checked out and either confirmed or squashed. Maybe that is a job for us.
Like I said, if you want to believe all of these people are liars, go right ahead. that wasn't the point of my post. the point of my post was about control of Sarah palin's message. And no, that's not a job for us. That's the job of the media director or the media communications consultant.
ReplyDelete- JP
Meg is Sarah Palin' spokesperson, and she does that job well. But a media communications pro with a GOP presidential primary under her belt would serve Palin well as communications director.
ReplyDelete- JP
I truely suspect the info came from other than Meg Stapleton, Josh. Meg has always been so very careful about everything she does.
ReplyDeleteThere are all the folks out there who claim to 'know' someone who can yada yada yada... when in fact they don't.
It would be nice to know who the contact was, but it really is none of my business. It is only the business of Sarah Palin.
Like I said in the post, I'm not interested in blaming anyone. I just want to see Sarah get control of her message.
ReplyDeleteThese scheduling situations are only giving her political enemies ammo to be used to try to shoot her down. Here's just one example:
"Either Sarah Palin does not know how to read a calendar, or there is some truth to The Globe Magazine’s allegation that she has suffered a nervous breakdown as the result of marital problems"
Why give those who are trying to destroy you anything at all? It just makes it more difficult for those pro-Sarah bloggers who fight this kind of crap.
Sarah's staff does not exist in a vacuum. When some event's organizer starts promoting an event by saying that Sarah will be there, a rebuttal needs to go up on Facebook and on the SarahPAC site immediately. It should not wait until a reporter calls for confirmation the day before the event is scheduled to happen.
And speaking of the SarahPAC site, what a soory excuse for a webpage! And there hasn't been anything new posted on the News section there since July 5. WTF?
- JP
- JP
Typo: soory --> sorry
ReplyDelete- JP
In my view, this is Sarah demonstrating that she will not be bullied or coerced into any thing by any special interest. Sarah has made clear her position on the life issue and has no need to go pandering.
ReplyDeleteIf this group insists that Palin agreed, let them produce the signed document. And why, if they're so fond of Sarah, is this group trying to embarrass her over this little flap? Why not just drop it? Something simply doesn't smell right here. Darvin Dowdy
DanO, how can you equate not showing for events with bogus ethics complaints? They are apples and oranges. To do so, yo would have to assume that the event promoters are as rabidly anti-Palin as are the moonbats in Alaska who have filed ethics complaints against Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteGranted, the NRSC and the NRCC aren't among Sarah's strongest supporters and CPAC's head is a big Romney backer who also supported Arlen Specter. But the good ladies of the Simi Valley Republican Women's group and the RNC's Michael Steele are very pro-Palin.
The comparison just doesn't hold water.
- JP
I think that we all love Sarah Palin for what
ReplyDeletewe think she can do for this country; save it for one thing! We have utmost respect for this
woman's accomplishments, integrity and the way
she "gives it to us straight"!
That said, let's be watchful, analyze, research
and set about being involved in what is going on in this country. We have the politicians on the right and left that we deserve because we the
people did not pay attention for a very long time. If we had paid attention, Obama would never have even been nominated regardless of his state controlled media.
There is nothing wrong with a little constructive criticism of a situation that if
it gets further out of control will damage
Palin. Frivolous ethic charges are one thing;
this back and forth about attending events is
not good for her credibility. That doesn't mean she or the event planners are right or wrong;
it only means that whatever is happening Sarah
Palin herself needs to correct it by any means
necessary.
We have to be careful that we don't just sit
back and "worship" anyone, including Palin.
She makes mistakes because she is a human being just like the rest of us.
It's a little more complicated that, Josh, we've seen almost all the entire Romney braintrust are
ReplyDeleteworking for the NRSC (Feehery, Harris, Madden, Forte, et al) And the Alaska organization has been critical of her on at least two occasions.