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New Book: Sarah Palin Couldn’t Remember Joe Biden’s Name

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» 35 comments

Past is prologue? Just in time for the 2010 mid-term election bonanza comes the much-anticipated Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. So anticipated in fact that what is billed as a “sweeping, novelistic portrait of this historic and unusual race” is under embargo until Monday. Ahead of the release the two are being interviewed on 60 Minutes this Sunday along with John McCain’s former top campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. Additionally, Drudge has devoted a entire box to it, including what yesterday looked like an excerpt, but which appears to have since been removed.

This from CBS (video below):

Asked by Barack Obama if she would be his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton – after initially turning him down – was concerned that her husband’s penchant for causing controversy would interfere with her new role. Sarah Palin was so overwhelmed by the amount of information she needed to learn to debate Joe Biden that campaign staffers thought the debate might be a “debacle of historic and epic proportions”…Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as “O’Biden,” says Schmidt, something that had to be fixed before the debate. He says others in the campaign came up with a solution. “It was multiple people – and I wasn’t one of them – who all said at the same time, ‘Just say, Can I call you Joe,’ which she did.”

Schmidt says he took over the prepping, simplified it, and says she “more than held her own” in the debate. But not without one “O’Biden” slip on national television.

It will likely be a must-read in media circles as well. Mark Halperin, currently a journalist for Time, and formerly for ABC News (he was the original The Note) was once dubbed by the New Yorker as “leading purveyor of inside dope.” Heilemann is the much-read political columnist for New York. The book, which initially sold to Harper for six figures has already been optioned by HBO.


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  • Puter Boi

    Glynnis?

    New book maybe…..huge Palin headline for you…predictable….but, sadly old news..

    Palin detailed all of this months ago on page 289 of her book:

    During rehearsals, I accidently called Randy “Senator O’Biden” — a slip of the tongue combination of Obama and Biden. The blunder struck too often, even tripping up campaign staffers. (Jay Leno later made the same slip on his new talk show, so we were in good company.) We laughed about it but knew that if I said it even once during the debate, it would be disastrous. Then somebody said, “You ought to just call him Joe.” . . . So that’s what we decided I would do. We had no idea my mic would already be hot when I walked onstage, crossed over to his turf, and said, “Can I call you Joe?” The “expert” post-debate analysis was that my question was a cleverly devised strategy to disarm my opponent. Yeah, right.

    Hat tip to Robert Costa

  • roxsteady

    Good so, we can admit that she can’t even remember something as simple as someone’s name. Of course none of the foreign policy or domestic issues were going to be retained my this lightweight. Which is why, after the disasterous Gibson and Couric interviews, they kept her away from anyone but fox. Because they knew that she’d get soft ball questions. It’s also why she refuses to communicate with anyone but fox from facebook and twitter. What sad is that it’s clear that even this junk isn’t written by her. You need only listen to her speak to recognize this. No, her writing skills were on full display in her rambling resignation speech. It’s what we liberals call “word salad” Such as, and also!

  • roxsteady

    Oh, and don’t bother correcting my typos. At least I could recognize them! (by and what’s) You Betcha!

  • TfT

    The headline makes me laugh out loud.

    Come on Glynnis — even MSNBC, YES MSNBC this morning scoffed at this story — OLD NEWS. Palin herself wrote about it in her book.

    The joke’s on mediaite and Glynnis in this instance — in your behest to post an anti-Palin headline you have embarrassed yourself.

  • roxsteady

    Awe! Not happy with Glynnis’ take? Perhaps you should go over the the GOP bulletin board that is the politico and read their account of why she has turned down the invitation to speak at CPAC and instead, will appear at a teabagger conference. Here’s a hint, you won’t find out the real reason until you get much further down in the article. Here’s a hint, as usual it’s a personal vendetta disguised as a political issue. After all, CPAC was good enough for her buddy and fan, Rush!

  • roxsteady

    I warned you folks that she was obsessed with Obama. There’s no letter O in Biden’s last name yet, she was fixated on Obama even then. Can’t say I blame her.

  • http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

    The only OBSESSION going on is the left’s OBSESSION with the beautiful, smart, hot, intelligent, pretty Ms. SARAH PALIN!!1 She is easily the most POPULAR politician on the PLANET, and the dems CAN’T STAND IT!!1 It’s like DARTH VADER said, “if you try to hit me with your LIGHT SABER it is only going to make me STRONGER so WATCH OUT!!1″ Except instead of a scary guy in a BLACK SUIT it is really a beautiful woman with glasses who is going to help us Take Back Our Once Proud Republic from the SOCIOFASCISTS!!1 GO SARAH GO IN 2012!!!11

  • puck30

    Wait! Glynnis wrote something and it has nothing to do with Glenn Beck? Well, we still have the rest of the day.

    I read an article once where this person said that even after all his years in show buisness he would still get nervous right before he went on stage. That man was Frank Sinatra.

    Roger Crozier, a goaltender in the NHL for 14 seasons would get sick and throw up before he went into the nets.

    Maybe it’s just me Glynnis, but if your going after Palin because she was nevous in preping for the debate, I think your grasping at straws here.

  • Ted

    Hard to argue with Karl, particularly the part about the light saber.

    Sarah O’Palin is the Paris Hilton of politics. She’s famous for being famous and owes everything she is to John McCain. Having said that I hope she sticks around for a very long time.

  • ImNotBlue

    puck30 says:
    January 8, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    Puck… Glynnis writes about two things on this site… Beck and Palin. That’s really it.

    And the loony left guys here love it. Although, their posts almost never reflect the actual content of the piece, logic, or anything other than name calling. It’s all very predictable now. This post is no different than yesterday’s Palin post (which said another book wasn’t being published, but the comments are all essentially the same)… and Glynnis keeps it up because she’s obsessed and fact challenged.

    I’m starting to feel a little sorry for her.

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @puck30: It’s a post about a book which was co-written by a guy from Time, who used to work for ABC (and who is well-known in political analysis circles). It will be promoted next Sunday on 60 Minutes and Glynnis used the lede paragraph from an article promoting the appearance from cbs.com

    I realize you may think there’s something personal, but re-read the post – How is it “going after” anyone.

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    Yeah, folks. Reinforce your misinformation, cement it in your own minds so no facts can shake it loose.

    Palin’s sooooo dumb, she couldn’t even remember Joe Biden’s name. So, she’s clearly not equipped to be Vice President.

    Right?

    I mean, Joe Biden’s got the whole thing down pat. He’s spent most of his adult life in the Senate (almost ALL of Palin’s life). There’s nothing he doesn’t know about Washington or the Constitution.

    Like, for example, the role of the Vice President. Remember in the 2008 Vice Presidential debate when Biden said that Palin had the VP job all wrong about being in charge of the Senate and all that stuff? He gave us all a civics lesson for the ages. Click and watch him school Palin. Some of his words:


    “Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea (that) he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States – that’s the executive branch, he works in the executive branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and, as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit….He has no authority relative to the Congress…”

    That’s right, Joe! You tell ‘em! THE VICE PRESIDENT PRESIDES OVER THE SENATE ONLY WHEN THERE’S A TIE VOTE!

    …except for those times when there isn’t a tie vote.

    Like when the ObamaCare bill passed along party lines in the Senate on December 24, 2009. Presiding over the Senate when that historic moment occurred was … Vice President Joe Biden, in his Constitutional role as President of the Senate — just like Sarah Palin said a VP could.

    Oh, you don’t believe me, Glynnis? Roxsteady? Ted? m? tjl?

    Fine, don’t believe me. Believe the video. Believe the Associated Press. Read the graphic, people. What was the final tally on the vote? YES 60, NO 39.

    Now, I’m no math whiz, but I do know 60-39 ain’t a tie.

    You know what this means, true BHO-lievers. Joe Biden was wrong. And … Sarah Palin was right.

    Say it with me: SARAH…PALIN…WAS…RIGHT.

    There. That wasn’t hard, was it?

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    Link correction (AAARRRGH!)

    Click and watch him school Palin.

  • symbolman

    Just in time for the 2010 elections is also the parody “Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book” by Micheal Stinson and Julie Sigwart, long time activists.

    Check out http://www.goingrouge.net for signed copies.

    Love to see Mediaite give ‘em a nod, and interview.

    WaPost & New York Times was just all over this parody, AP, the whole gang. Hilarious!

    Look at the samples on that site, “Sarah Palin: 2012BC” graphic is a scream, an homage to Raquel Welch in 10,000 BC.

    But THIS Book, I Must have. O’Palin?

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    BTW (everyone): I followed the Amazon link. It sounds like an interesting and I can’t wait for the reviews.

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    Ted wrote:

    Sarah O’Palin is the Paris Hilton of politics. She’s famous for being famous and owes everything she is to John McCain.

    Yeah, especially that getting elected Governor of Alaska part. Paris Hilton could have done that. : |

  • Ted

    LN – Yeah, if Palin can I think Hilton has a shot…of course she would have to dumb herself down.

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    There’s a possibility Paris Hilton knows that a VP could preside over the Senate when there isn’t a tie vote. Palin knew that. Biden didn’t. How do you explain that, Ted?

  • Ted

    Maybe O’Biden could become the Governor of Alaska as well.

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    Y’all do realize that the book’s not about Palin, but both sides of the whole campaign?

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    Magister wrote:

    Y’all do realize that the book’s not about Palin, but both sides of the whole campaign?

    To Editor Glynnis, everything’s about Palin. Unless it’s in her favor.

  • Ted

    LN – Time to come clean. You and I’mNotBlue are simply obsessed with Glynnis.

    PS – The only thing in O’Palin’s favor is book sales.

  • http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

    @LNSmithee: Other than the traffic-capturing headline and the clip from the CBS.com story, the name “Palin” doesn’t appear in the post.

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    Magister wrote:


    @LNSmithee: Other than the traffic-capturing headline and the clip from the CBS.com story, the name “Palin” doesn’t appear in the post.

    What did I just tell you? “To Glynnis, everything’s about Palin unless it’s in her favor.” All it took was one mention of Palin in a diminishing sense, and that became the whole story.

    Did you actually think you were mitigating my assertion, Magister?

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee


    LN – Time to come clean. You and I’mNotBlue are simply obsessed with Glynnis.

    I’ll just speak for myself: I’m obsessed with spitting liberal media bias back in the faces of the “news” people trying to shove it down my throat. And since the main practitioner of that is our Ms. Informant Glynnis, she gets the bulk of my attention.

  • puck30

    ImNotBlue says:
    January 8, 2010 at 12:51 pm

    Magister says:
    January 8, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    Well I’m just confused! But I thank both of you for your concern and opinion.

    Like I said it’s just me, but Glynnis posted the title of this piece “New Book: Sarah Palin Couldn’t Remember Joe Biden’s Name”. I do think it was a swipe and I think Glynnis should cut her a little slack on this.

    Now I could be wrong and Glynnis is a fair and balanced journalist and someone can give me the link to piece she wrote. “57 States: Obama couldn’t remember we only have 50″.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

    Let’s all just wait for Sunday Night and see if that one comes up, shall we? Or if it’s in the book.

  • Ted

    LN – You are indeed a hoot. DAMN LIBERAL MEDIA…LN WILL SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT…DAMMIT!!

    Thank you LN for delivering us from the liberal media bias or the state run media or the drive byes or whatever the hell you loons call it. We would be lost without you.

  • http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com LNSmithee

    @puck30: For Obamanoids and Dem partisans, when a Republican makes a mistake, it’s evidence s/he’s a moron. When Obama makes a mistake, it’s evidence he’s human after all.

    James Fallows of The Atlantic (home of Andrew Sullivan) provides a perfect example. Here’s how he reacted to an Obama gaffe in Strasbourg, France last April (scroll to the bottom, bold mine, link mine):


    He also appeared to refer to the language of Austria as “Austrian,” thus: “I don’t know how you say it in Austrian, but we call it wheeling-dealing.” If this had been GW Bush, it would have been taken as an obvious gaffe, as in his calling the residents of Greece “Grecians.” Here [with Obama] you can’t be sure whether it’s a plain error or a knowing casualism, as in saying that Australians speak “Australian” — eg, in the ad that says, “Foster’s: Australian for ‘beer.’ ”

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    Now Roxsteady, I do not expect you to follow this because, as someone who loves to ridicule the intelligence of others with grammatical errors, you have shown the details are not near as important as you puffing up your own ego. But for posterity –

    You make the claim that Palin did not write her own book, based on nothing apart from your blind rage at the woman. Yet her counterpart in the debate, the esteemed mental giant Joe Biden, had been run off a presidential campaign for . . . that’s correct . . . plagarism.

    Then there was Biden calling Justice Stevens “Stewart” (on the subject of screwing up names); his comment that Russia was crumbling, as Obama was trying to build relations; in an interview he could not remember a web address he was promoting, after telling people they shoud call the number of the site; and this list goes on…

  • sarainitaly

    Obama forgot his own daughters name.

    Obama forgot the name of his secretary of defense.

    Obama forgot the name of the soldier engraved on his bracelet: I’ll Never Forget…Uh…What’s-His-Name.

    In Russia Barack Obama forgot where he met his wife Michelle.

    Obama forgot he awarded the Medal of Freedom to Crow, not the Medal of Honor.

    …but I can see why Palin with a bad habit of adding O’ to Biden’s name is newsworthy…especially after she already addressed it in her own book.

    At least she didn’t call him Joe O’biden bin laden.

  • http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

    What you fail to grasp Sara is that Obama had jet-lag when he misspoke on meeting his wife, and he was given conflicting names on his cabinet, and his own daughter forgave him for the other error, and his handlers had called the medal by the wrong name ahead of him throwing him off.

    But Sarah Palin is just stupid, unlike the President of our 58 United States.

  • TfT

    Of all the stuff that is being revealed from this book, we get a headline with OLD news. Interesting that this little tidbit isn’t highlighted or headlined on this board:

    Reid Said Obama Could Win Because He’s “Light-skinned” With “No Negro Dialect”

    Apparently Reid has apologized, but this is NEW information. The information on the Edwards is new too. You can find it on other sites, why not here? Why the selective headlining?

  • sarainitaly

    MartiniShark says:
    January 9, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    LOL!

    TfT says:
    January 9, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    What is that about Reid and negro?? I haven’t heard anything about that. And did something new come out about Edwards? I was travelling recently and not keeping up on what is happening.

  • sarainitaly

    TfT says:
    January 9, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    I just read about Reid…. dude. Can you imagine if a Republican would have said that?!

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