Going Rogue: An American Life (83 page)

Going

“I’m not on the Atkins Diet, Steve.”

“Don’t you know what a high-pcotein diet does?” he asked, ignoting what I had just said, He then launched into a discussion of nutrition physiology, holding forth on the impottance of carbohydrates to cognitive connections and blah_blah-blah, As he lectured, I took in his cotund physique and noted that he used nicotine to keep his own cognitive connections humming along, I interrupted his lecrure, “Steve, you know what I really need?

Half an hour to go for a run in these beautiful cities we’re visiting. Also, seeing my kids does wonders for my soul.” He barreled on as ifI hadn’t spoken. “Headquarters is flying in a nutritionist, and for three days you’re going to be on a diet balanced in carbohydrates and nitrates and-”
I’m a forty-four-year-old, healthy, athletic woman raising five kids and

a

state,
I thought as his words faded into a background buzz.
Sir, I

don’t

yet.

told me

to

what to say, who to talk to, a lot ofpeople
not
to talk to,
who my

supposed to he, and

still
losing.

going

to tell me what to eat?

I suppose if headquarters had flown in a nutritionist, I would’ve listened to what he or she had to say. But

with much of what

headquarters said, it never happened.

There was a bright spot in Philly and his name was Joe Lieberman. Usually, the tense, dark hotel room was a revolving door for tired operatives and well-meaning experts. At one point, Senator Lieberman stopped by the coom, and I think he could sense that the prep was overly scripted, with no room for productive giveand-take. A moment came when the only people in the room were me, Senator Lieberman, and Kris Perry.

• 285

•

SARAH

PALIN

Senator Lieberman sar down in fronr of me and regarded me kindly. “Be yourself;’ he said. “Don’t let these people tty to change you. Don’t let them tell you what to say and how to think.” Kris and I both nodded and laughed; she was thinking same thing I was-Well,
we’re glad not just our imagination.

“God is going to see you thtough rhis;’ Senator Lieberman said. ‘Just put your faith in Him and let Him take care of it.” Then he repeated our mutual friend John’s wotds of wisdom:

‘Just have fun!”

It was so heartfelt, so genuine, so sincere. In a campaign swirling with professional handlers and operarives, Joe Lieberman, the Democrat-rurned-Independenr senator from Connecticut, reminded me exactly how to do this. Meanwhile, Cindy McCain broached rhe good idea of moving debate prep to their ranch in Arizona. Todd wenr on ahead with the kids, and I planned to meer them rhere. I looked forward to seeing the comfortable home again where McCain family artwork adorned the walls. And especially getting to visit the creek; John once told a reporter he liked to pursue his favorite of exercise there: wading. The whole aura of the ranch was so refreshing that I asked if we could move the debate podiums outdoors.

We made sure that ace debate prepper Randy Scheunemann, the foreign policy adviser who’d briefed me at the convenrion, took the leadership role in this new locale. Randy had also been on hand for meetings at the United Nations when I had been privileged to meet people like Henry Kissinger and the leaders of Pakisran, Afghanisran, and India, plus several congressmen and former Presidenr Clinron. It was inreresting ro meet President Clinton, with whom I spoke a couple of rimes. In him, I sensed whar I believed was an unspoken mutual disappoinrmenr with the media’s serial unfairness to some presidenrial candidares in .

286

•

Going

the 2008 race. I don’t think anyone can argue that Obama didn’t get a free pass compared to the treatment of Bill’s wife, Hillary Clinton.

In February 2008, Hillary publicly pointed out some of this media favoritism. Weeks later, I responded to her comments during a
NewJweek
Women and Leadership Event in Los Angeles:

“I say this with all due respect to Hillary Clinton … but when I hear a statement like that coming ftoni a woman candidate, with any kind of perceived whine about that excess criticism … I think, man, that doesn’t do us any good.”

I wasn’t really accusing her of whining. Still, before criticizing her on this point, I should have walked a mile in her shoes. I can see now that she had every right to call the media on biased treatment that ended up affecting her candidacy. In fact, I should have applauded her because she was right-Democrats deserved to see a fairet picture of what they were getting into before they cast their primary votes.

Should Secretary Clinton and I ever sit down over a cup of coffee, I know that we will fundamentally disagree on many issues, but my hat is off to her hard work on the 2008 campaign trail. Compared to the guys she squared off against, a lot of her supporters think she proved whar Margaret Thatcher proclaimed: “If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.”

12

During debate practice under the Arizona sun, we worked our way through questions for a couple of hours and then took a brief break with the kids down by the creek. Randy had watched all of Biden’s debates during the primary, read his autobiography, and studied him; he had the senator’s voice down pat, including some •

2 87

•

SARAH

PALIN

of his semifolksy sayings (“As my mom used to say, ‘God love ya,
Joe,
but you are
wrong!’
“).

“Remember,” Randy told me, “Biden is a truly experienced debater. He’s been thtough thirtyfive years of legislative debates, foreign policy debates, and Supreme Coutt nominees. He has spent literally decades on the att of political talking:’ He characterized Biden as someone who definitely liked to hear himself talk, but also made clear that he respected the senator on a number of foreign policy positions. (Not including, of course, Biden’s harebrained idea to divide the nation of Iraq.) I too respected Biden’s decades of experience, but I also knew him as one of just a handful of members of the U.S. Senate who way back in the 1970s had actually voted
against
the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, an economic lifeline that would ultimately result in thousands of American jobs, 15 billion barrels of oil pumped into the economy to date, and a huge chunk of domestic energy production. The day befote the debate, Ann Coulter was spot on, calling Biden’s vote against domestic energy production “the equivalent of voting against the invention of the wheel:’

“The only argument against the pipeline was that it would harm the caribou, an atgument that was both trivial and wrong,” Ann wrote. “The caribou population near the pipeline increased from 5,000 in the 1970s to 32,000 by 2002. Ir would have been bad enough to vote against the pipeline bill even if it had hurt the caribou. A sane person would still say:
Our enemies have us in a vise grip. Sorry, caribou, you’ve got to take one for the team.”
Over the years, I had occasionally listened to Biden’s discussions of energy and tealized he had not changed. He still seemed opposed to sensible innovations, from clean coal to nuclear energy to responsible new directional drilling techniques in places like ANWR. On one issue after anorher, Obama’s VP choice was loaded with government experience but still seemed to have .

288

.