Palin's former aides say under the lipstick is a real pit bull
Going into Thursday's vice presidential debate, Sarah Palin's former aides and Alaskan political rivals recall the candidate's jab-with-a-smile skillfulness and warn not to underestimate her.
By Stephen Braun and Tom Hamburger
Los Angeles Times, September 30, 2008

ANCHORAGE — When she appeared for a candidate's forum in front of a room filled with unionized Alaskan electrical workers during her run for governor in early October 2006, Sarah Palin arrived woefully unprepared. When the union members grilled her on labor policy, Palin faltered.

Afterward, a furious Palin cursed in anger and berated her staff, recalled two former senior campaign aides who blamed her unwillingness to bone up on workplace issues for the blunder.

But just a few weeks later, when Palin jousted with her two main rivals during critical pre-election debates, Palin distilled policy questions into simple answers and countered her opponents' attacks with verbal stiletto thrusts delivered with a sunny smile.

At times she has been handicapped by her lax approach to learning, but she has also projected a Reaganesque ability to offer up pithy answers and charm on camera.

"The political landscape here is littered with people who have underestimated Sarah Palin," said a former state representative who appeared with Palin during several early forums.

Biden could face trouble, Alaskan political observers said, if he takes Palin too lightly. But he also has to take care not to be overly aggressive against a candidate who radiates telegenic appeal.

"She has a Reagan-like ability to win over audiences. But for someone who cares about issues and facts, it was rather startling to see her gloss over important questions," said Andrew Halcro, an Alaska businessman who ran as an independent candidate for governor against Palin.

For its part, Sen. John McCain's campaign appears to be taking no chances that Palin will prepare properly. It flew her Monday to McCain's Arizona ranch to cram with a coterie of the presidential candidate's advisors.

Palin, the former aides said, had a sharply limited attention span for absorbing the facts and policy angles required for all-topics debate preparation. Staffers were rarely able to get her to sit for more than half an hour of background work at a time before her concentration waned, preoccupied by cellphone calls and family affairs. "We were always fighting for her attention," said one of the aides.

"If you can sit her down, she has a talent for listening to a policy presentation that is so boring it would bring tears to your eyes," the aide said. "Then -- boom -- she will nail it down to its essence."

Palin often toted index cards when she walked out in front of the cameras, cribbing from them as the cameras swiveled while her rivals took their turns. "She'd carry these cards with her like she was cramming for a test," Halcro said.

Her debate strategists also warned Palin not to stray onto such hot-button topics as creationism. On questionnaires sent to social conservative activists, Palin backed "intelligent design" alternatives to the theory of evolution. But she managed to avoid those subjects during most of the debates.

Palin remained so low-key that even her pollster, David Dittman, confessed that he was unaware of her strong Christian conservative tenets. "I didn't know what she believed in," he said. "We never had any discussions about it, and from our polls, Alaska voters had the same impression."

But by the final key televised debates in late October, she had grown breezily confident in her back-and-forth with Halcro and former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles.

Palin had ready answers on tough questions about social concerns such as native needs, abortion and assisted suicide. Sometimes her remarks seemed glib, but she was usually poised and sometimes kicked back at her opponents and her questioners when they took the offensive.

Larry Persily, a panelist questioner in the campaign's final televised debate, said Palin flummoxed her rivals "like Muhammad Ali dancing around the ring." She avoided statements and tough questions that could have impaled her and repeatedly stung at her opponents. And Palin, a former sportscaster, was easily the most comfortable in front of the camera.

"She knows television," said Persily, who participated in other debates and has watched Palin closely for years. "She knows how to look at her interviewer."

Two years on, Halcro and Knowles admit they are still baffled how their mastery of policy and state issues was trumped by Palin's breezy confidence and feel-good answers.

"When you try to prove she doesn't know anything, you lose, because audiences are enraptured by her," Halcro said. "And her biting comments give you a sense of how competitive she is. Anybody who doesn't take her seriously does so at their peril."
steve.braun@latimes.com
tom.hamburger@latimes.com

http://zfacts.com/p/1073.html | 01/18/12 07:23 GMT
Modified: Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:01:21 GMT