October 6, 2011

Sarah Palin has ruled out running for US president in 2012.

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate made the announcement in a letter to supporters on Wednesday.

Palin said she based her decision on “a review of what common sense conservatives and independents have accomplished, especially over the last year”.

“I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office from the nations governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency,” Palin said in the letter, published on the American ABC News website.

Palin’s letter to supporters:

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

– Sarah Palin

BY Aliyah Shahid

Tuesday, September 27th 2011

Sarah Palin wants to see Joe McGinniss in court.

The former Alaska governor is threatening to sue the author who wrote an explosive tell-all, alleging the pol had a sexual tryst with hoops star Glen Rice and dabbled in marijuana and cocaine.

Palin family attorney John Tiemessan wrote a letter to Maya Mavjee, publisher of Crown Publishing Group, saying Palin may sue her, the company and McGinniss for “knowingly publishing false statements,” ABC News said.

The letter urges Crown and McGinniss to refrain from destroying any emails that could serve as evidence in court.

“This book contains a series of lies and rumors presented as fact and combined with ‘anonymous’ sources,” the letter, which ABC News obtained, says.

It also cites an email from McGinniss to an Alaskan political blogger in which the author writes, “Legal review of my manuscript is underway and here’s my problem: no one has ever offered documentation of any of the lurid stories about the Palins.”

Crown has previously defended the “The Rogue,” which hit book stores Sept. 20.

The company said in a statement to Slate that the book about the potential 2012 presidential candidate was based on “the author’s extensive on-the-ground reporting in Alaska, as well as in-depth interviews he conducted with approximately 200 people who have known Governor Palin at different stages of her life and career. After a thorough and careful examination of the book, including probing discussions with the author about his sources, we are confident that the reporting it contains is solid, reliable, and well-substantiated.”

By Paul Bentley

14th September 2011

Former vice presidential candidate alleged to have snorted cocaine off an oil drum Said to have had night of passion with basketball star
Husband Todd said to have dissolved snowmobile firm after discovering affair with business partner Ex-governor of Alaska has yet to announce whether she will run for president next year

Sarah Palin snorted cocaine off a 55 gallon oil drum while snowmobiling with friends and had illicit affairs with a top NBA star and one of her husband’s business partners, a new book sensationally claims.

In revelations which could strike a devastating blow to the controversial politician’s hopes of joining the 2012 presidential race, Mrs Palin is said to have taken the class A drug with her husband, while smoking marijuana at college in secret liaisons with one of her professors.

Joe McGinniss’s book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, which is due to be published on September 20, also alleges that the former governor of Alaska is far from the traditional family woman she claims to be.

Mrs Palin, 47, had a one-night stand with Miami Heat basketball star Glen Rice less than a year before she eloped with her husband, the book claims.

She is said to have met the 6ft 8ins player in 1987 when he was playing in a college basketball tournament in Alaska and she worked as a sports reporter for KTUU television.

It is also claimed that she had a six-month affair with Brad Hanson, who ran a snowmobile dealership with her husband Todd – a betrayal which led to Todd dissolving their business.

In a bid to expose Mrs Palin’s skeletons, Mr McGinness has studied the former vice presidential candidate for three years and last year even moved in to a home next door in Wasilla, Alaska, to dig some more.
The author writes that after college Mrs Palin developed a ‘fetish’ for black men.

She allegedly had a tryst with basketball star Glen Rice in her younger sister Molly’s University of Alaska dorm room, while she was dating Todd and just nine months before the couple were married.

Six months: Palin is said to have had an affair with Brad Hanson, one of her husband’s colleagues

Mrs Palin got pregnant with Todd and they eloped in August 1988.

Their son Track, the oldest of five, was born eight months later in April 1989.

A friend said Mrs Palin spent the night with the basketball star but could not confirm whether they had sex, according to the National Enquirer.

‘I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she’d been with a black basketball star,’ a source told the magazine.

The athlete is said to have confirmed the night of passion in Mr McGinniss’s book.

Mr Rice went on to have a huge career playing basketball in the NBA and was a three-timer All-Star.

The book goes on to claim that while married Mrs Palin also had an affair with one of her husband’s business partners.

Todd is alleged to have ended all dealings with Brad Hanson after he found out about the secret six-month relationship in 1996.

Both Mrs Palin and Mr Hanson have denied the allegations.

Perhaps most damaging of all could be the suggestion that the supposed traditional all American mother has taken drugs.

Mr McGinness writes that while Mrs Palin attended Mat-Su College she took marijuana with a professor who was also the father of one of her female friends.

Before she was elected governor she is also said to have snorted cocaine with her husband off an overturned oil drum while snowmobiling with friends.

Todd, who was arrested for driving drunk in 1986 used cocaine a lot and was ‘on the end of a straw plenty,’ according to a long-term associate quoted in the book.

Joe McGinness is a controversial author who has built a career on immersing himself in extreme subjects in order to, in his own words, ‘search for the truth, however elusive… Penetrating the façade of institutions and people in public life’.

The writer gained notoriety aged 26 when his first book about how Richard Nixon marketed himself, titled The Selling of the President 1968, became an overnight success – leading to him becoming the youngest living author with a book on the New York Times bestseller list.

He has since written a combination of true crime books and political exposés, as well as one non-fiction account of a year exploring Alaska.

In 1983, his take on the notorious Jeffrey MacDonald murder case led him being sued, with MacDonald alleging McGinniss made him believe he was on his side before slamming him in the book. The case settled out of court.

Even before moving in next door Sarah Palin, McGinness, 68, had tried to get close to her, offering more than $60,000 have dinner with the politician at a charity auction in 2009. He lost to a winning bid of 63,500.

When the Palins found out about their new neighbour, Sarah wrote on her Facebook page: ‘We’re sure to have a doozey to look forward to with this treasure he’s penning.

‘Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom?’

The explosive book goes on to quote those who knew the family growing up, claiming Mrs Palin was a ‘bad mum’ who would lock herself in her room for hours on end asking not to be disturbed while her children cooked themselves dinner.

Sarah Palin was plucked from obscurity to be the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008.

The ‘pitbull in lipstick’ sparked a media storm after accepting the nomination, despite questions over her experience.

But she wowed the U.S. after a barn-storming speech in September 2008 in which she attacked critics for calling her ‘small town’.

A former mayor of Wasilla before she became governor of Alaska, Palin stepped down after the Republican defeat in the presidential election.

The mother-of-five has remained tight-lipped on whether she would stand next year, but said she would likely make an announcement at the end of this month.

She has been overshadowed in recent months by Tea Party candidates including Michelle Bachmann.

The Republican, who has now associated herself with the Tea Party movement in the U.S., has been dogged by scandal since being selected as Senator John McCain’s running mate in 2007.

There have also been frequent rumours that she is set to divorce her husband Todd, which have always been denied.

And she has faced accusations by the father of her daughter’s child, Levi Johnston, that she wanted to keep Bristol’s pregnancy a secret and adopt the child herself.

Palin has yet to declare whether she intends to run for election in next year’s presidential race.

Joe McGinniss, 68, has written several political books including works on former president Richard Nixon and on Alaska.
But his work on the state sparked vitriol from Palin after he refuted her claims to have secured the construction of a $40billion natural gas pipeline.

The antagonism heightened after he took up the offer of renting a small house next door to Sarah Palin’s in Wasilla in summer 2010.

It saw Palin write several posts on her Facebook account and articles in the right-wing press scathing Mr McGinniss’s approach to writing the book.

Mr McGinniss has since moved away from Wasilla after completing his book.

by Jasmine Williams

August 21, 2011

Sarah Palin, former vice-presidential candidate and ex-governor of Alaska, has released a video hinting she might be a presidential candidate this year, officials said.

In the video released by Palin’s political action committee Friday, Palin highlighted her appearance at the Iowa State Fair last week and alludes to a scheduled visit to the state next month, The Washington Post reported.

Palin is scheduled to give a speech at the Tea Party-organized Restoring America Rally in Indianola, Iowa, on Sept. 3. She ended her brief video with: “Thank You Iowa! See you again September 3rd.”

Palin hasn’t formally announced she will seek the Republican nomination, but she is getting close to a self-imposed deadline in which she said she would announce her decision.

She has said she’s undecided, and wants a candidate with “executive experience.” Most suspect Palin will either endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry or run herself.

In one scene of the video, the former governor poses for a picture with girls in burnt orange “Americans for Rick Perry” t-shirts, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Her latest effort is an attempt to keep her name in the media, the Post said. Governor Perry and Rep. Michele Bachman, R-Minn., are competing for the same conservative voters Palin would woo if she decides to seek the nomination.

David Batty

Thursday 23 June 2011

The former governor of Alaska has returned home, sparking queries about her intentions to make a White House bid.

Reports that Sarah Palin has quit her bus tour halfway through and returned to Alaska have renewed debate as to the likelihood that she will declare herself a candidate for the 2012 presidential election.

According to Real Clear Politics, the former Alaska governor has taken an extended hiatus from her One Nation bus tour – less than a month after its launch on Memorial Day – to spend time with her family.

Reporter Scott Conroy writes: “Though Palin and her staff never announced a timeline for the remaining legs of her trip, aides had drafted preliminary itineraries that would have taken her through the Midwest and Southeast at some point this month. But those travel blueprints are now in limbo, RCP has learned, as Palin and her family have reverted to the friendly confines of summertime Alaska, where the skies are currently alight for over 19 hours a day and the Bristol Bay salmon fishing season is nearing its peak.”

The tour was promoted on the SarahPAC website as “part of our new campaign to educate and energize Americans about our nation’s founding principles”. Palin had signalled that it would include stops in the key primary states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina – seen as a sign she was serious about a White House bid.

But her apparent change of plans promoted rather less than serious coverage from her detractors, with the Vanity Fair daily blog asking readers what should happen to her tour bus – and suggesting to “set it on fire and drown it in the Gulf of Alaska (Viking funeral)”.

Writers on other media blogs and social networking sites mockingly compared the situation to Palin’s decision to quit as governor before the end of her second term. Time reporter Claire Suddath tweeted: “Sarah Palin quit halfway through her bus tour? What does she think she’s doing, governing Alaska?”

Palin later took to Twitter to cast doubt on the report, although she failed to shed light on her intentions:

“I did [quit]? Hmm, glad I have media to let me know my plans. They never cease to amaze MT “@foxheadlines Palin Ends Bus Tour http://fxn.ws/ip0mgb”

An expanded response to the story was subsequently posted on her Facebook page, in which Palin somewhat ambiguously suggested she was taking a break as she might be called for jury service:

“Imagine our surprise when reading media reports today that the “One Nation Tour” has been cancelled. Why didn’t anyone tell me? Oh, wait, that’s because it hasn’t been cancelled. (Good ol’ media… you never cease to amaze!)

“As I said myself at the end of the east coast leg of the tour, the summer is long, and I’m looking forward to hitting the open road again. The coming weeks are tight because civic duty calls (like most everyone else, even former governors get called up for jury duty) and I look forward to doing my part just like every other Alaskan.”

On his Slate blog, David Weigel, summed up the potential futility of trying to apply logic to Palin’s actions: “Everything Palin does must be viewed with respect to Palin’s razor: The simplest explanation for what Sarah Palin does is most likely that she is Sarah Palin.”

By CHRISTINA CARON

June 14, 2011

Sarah Palin supporters have united in a collective grizzly roar, angered by the media’s decision to analyze more than 25,000 pages of emails from Palin’s term as the governor of Alaska. For the past several days hundreds, if not thousands, of commenters expressed their disappointment online, conservative writers and radio hosts lashed out — even Ashton Kutcher seemed dismayed.

And now, claiming Palin has been mistreated by the media once again, Conservatives4Palin, a non-profit website with more than 1 million visitors each month, is planning to analyze the emails themselves.

“Some of us were like, ‘Oh no, it’s just going to be a massive witch hunt. We were afraid of what the media would cook up or try to take out of context,” said Conservatives4Palin contributor Nicole Coulter, who lives in Hershey, Pa. “We feel like the media was hoping to find something to pin on her negatively but it’s kind of blown up in their faces, with all due respect.”

Coulter, who was a Democrat until deciding to become Republican in 2004, has spent the past year writing for the pro-Palin website, which was co-founded in 2009 by Rebecca Mansour, a current SarahPAC staffer. Mansour has some frankness issues of her own when it comes to the Palins.

Coulter says it’s impossible to read the emails and not come away with the impression that Palin is loyal and protective of her staff.

“We’re categorizing all those emails that suggest the record of a competent and ethical person,” she said. “Her record is being finally revealed. I hope everybody reads the emails.”

Coulter added, “I 100 percent support her, she’s my No. 1 candidate.”

Palin Supporters Reach Boiling Point

Although the email dump wasn’t damaging to Palin, many of her advocates remain frustrated that the emails were posted in the first place. Angry comments have dominated news websites since Friday, and over the weekend the Twitter account of Crivella West, the company that put Palin’s emails online for MSNBC, Mother Jones magazine and investigative news website ProPublica, was hacked.

Some of the tweets sent out over the weekend included: “Emails: Gov. Palin a Hard-Working Public Servant,” “Email Witch-hunt Backfires” and “Weiner’s America Or Palin’s America – That Is The 2012 Choice.”

Art Crivella, president and co-founder of Crivella West, told ABCNews.com the Twitter account was accessed from the company’s Facebook page. Other than that incident, he says, they haven’t encountered any backlash — in fact, they have seen a huge amount of interest from around the world.

Crivella said the emails –- which were posted in just 12 hours — have generated more than 10 million page views from as far away as Spain, Norway and “all over the English-speaking world.”

Anticipating the public’s fascination with all things Palin, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times both created their own searchable Palin email databases. And the Washington Post created a special webpage to house stories about the Palin emails — a quick search of the Post’s website puts the latest article count at more than 30.

The Media Are ‘Making Asses of Themselves’

The time and cost involved in such an extensive review of the former governor’s emails became perplexing to thousands of commenters online, especially because the emails — more than 13,000 messages — were so voluminous they had to be housed in six boxes that each weighed 55 pounds.

National Review contributor and radio host Mark Levin commented on the “massive media frenzy” last Friday, saying the media are “making asses of themselves.”

“We don’t even know if she’s running for office –- and look at this … We’re told she can’t win. We’re told to dismiss her, and yet they are all over these emails,” he said on “The Mark Levin Show.”

“In the spirit of transparency” Levin called on President Obama, Vice President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to release their emails. But, as he later noted, the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t apply to Congress (or the central offices of the White House).

Linda Perez, administrative director of the governor’s office in Alaska, told ABCNews.com she has so far received 17 FOIA requests for Palin’s emails from media organizations.

ABC News did not submit a separate FOIA request, instead partnering with the Anchorage Daily News and the Daily Beast to digitize and analyze the documents.

Citizen Journalism, Crowdsourcing Irks Palin SupportersMSNBC recruited about 25 volunteers in Juneau, Alaska, who helped read the emails, according to Crivella. He described it as “a constructive and meaningful examination” that benefited from the citizens of Alaska having the chance to weigh in.

Other media organizations also solicited citizen journalists, and in doing so, provoked some of their readers.

New York Times blog The Caucus put out a request to “Help Us Review the Sarah Palin E-mail Records” – a posting that generated more than 150 comments.

“Wow NYT, this seems beneath you,” wrote a commenter who went by the name ‘bk.’ “I’m really terribly surprised by this appeal to your reader base to act as journalists, on a topic that I hardly feel is news worthy and frankly positions the Times as a willing partner to something that smacks of a mix of Yellow Journalism and character assassination.”

The Post’s blog, The Fix, also drew scrutiny when reporter Ryan Kellett posted a call-out, asking 100 people to work in small teams to “analyze, contextualize, and research those e-mails right alongside Post reporters” to unearth important information.

More than 2,500 comments streamed in, the majority of them negative.

One comment in particular was “liked” by more than 240 readers: “Rake your own muck,” wrote kitchendragon50. “Disgusting that you call on readers to join in your festivities.”

Another commenter suggested Palin was facing discrimination: “It is pure sexism the way Palin is being attacked,” wrote tina5. “I remember how Hillary was attacked, too. The idea of calling on readers to dig through her emails is outrageous. Why don’t you do your own job?”

Even actor Ashton Kutcher criticized the email dump. On Saturday he tweeted, “As much as I’m not a fan of Sarah Palin I find sifting through her emails repulsive and over reaching media.”

His wife, actress Demi Moore, chimed in: “So agree!”

The Washington Post has since revised their earlier request, updating their blog with the following: “We have had a strong response to our crowdsourcing call-out on the Palin e-mails. We’ve reconsidered our approach and now would like to invite comments and annotations from any interested readers.”

A spokesperson for the Post told ABCNews.com in an email message, “We reconsidered and revised our approach after we took a second look at how the idea was presented. Inviting everyone to send us their comments was more in line with the innovative crowd-sourcing effort we were aiming for.”

The Palin Emails: Why Are They Being Examined?

‘

Several readers have wondered why the Palin emails were released in the first place.

Media organizations requested the nearly two year’s worth of emails in 2008 via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed after Palin became Sen. John McCain’s running mate. FOIA allows for public access to government records, including emails from public officials — unless they can be lawfully withheld.

Portions of some Palin messages were redacted and more than 2,000 pages were reportedly withheld for privacy reasons.

ABCNews.com reported the emails covered a wide range of Palin’s state business, surprise at her sudden ascension to the national stage, and worries about media backlash.

So far, however, there haven’t been any bombshell revelations.

“The thing I’ve noticed most about the emails is that Sarah Palin is a really good person. She’s very gracious and thoughtful to her staff,” said Stacy Drake, an editor and contributor at Conservatives4Palin, in an email to ABCNews.com. “She’s has stayed steady on policy issues like energy development, government ethics, she’s always been against cronyism, the way she views union members differently than union leaders. She’s never been a typical politician.”

So atypical, in fact, that even though Palin isn’t in office (or currently running for office) she somehow remains the topic of conversation.

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VickGower

1:13 PM EDT
Jun 14, 2011

No scruitny on the other hand by the man who made and broke ALL his top promises:- No abiding by public financing.- No closure of Guantanamo Bay.- No stopping of military tribunals.- No averting of Patriot Law.- No ending of wars.- No cap and trade.- No public option in healthcare law.- No tax hikes for the rich.- No closure of tax loopholes for corporations.- No removal of oil subsidies.- No cutting of deficit by half- No immigration reform No president of ANY country has lied as profusely as our POTUS and yet media is only interested in the character assassination of Sarah Palin.

mountainwomanofNH

1:12 PM EDT
Jun 14, 2011

NoFly: Sure – Palin just wants to be on camera. If that were true – then she would have posed nude for that media guy who camped out next door to her and her family. Perhaps that’s what he was waiting for……don’t cha think – I suppose that if he had taken a nude picture of her unaware in her own home – that would be her fault too. Sickening how we justify bad behavior because of agendas or politics.

mountainwomanofNH

1:09 PM EDT
Jun 14, 2011

Searambler: Is this the best you can come up with for all the crap she’s taken and been dragged through. Her kids hung out to dry – even her downs baby was disgustingly dragged through the media like a dishrag. Again, I wouldn’t vote for the woman based on her experience and ability just like I didn’t vote for Obama based on those facts though I admire both of them.

BECKY BOHRER

Saturday, Jun. 11, 2011

Much of the country was taken by surprise when Sarah Palin became the Republican vice presidential candidate in August 2008, but newly released emails make it clear that the little-known Alaska governor was angling for the slot months before Sen. John McCain asked her to join him on the GOP ticket.

Earlier that summer, Ms. Palin and her staff began pushing to find a larger audience for the governor, wedging her into national conversations and nudging the McCain campaign to notice her.

Ms. Palin and her staff talked excitedly on June 19 about plans to repeal Alaska’s fuel tax. Ivy Frye, a longtime Palin aide and friend, said she would send details to McCain staffers when they became available.

“They’re going to love it!” Ms. Frye wrote. “More vp talk is never a bad thing, whether you’re considering vp or not. I still say President Palin sounds better tho…”

The glimpse into Ms. Palin came in more than 24,000 pages of emails released Friday from her first 21 months as governor. They showed a Ms. Palin involved closely in the day-to-day business of the state while trying to cope with the increasing pressures that came with her rise from small-town mayor to governor to national prominence.

They also revealed that Ms. Palin, as the newly minted Republican vice presidential nominee, was dismayed by the sudden onslaught of questions from reporters, especially one about whether she believed dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time. She also dealt with death threats, and at least once, she prayed for strength.

The emails cover the period from the time she took office in December 2006 to her ascension to GOP vice presidential candidate in August and September 2008. They were first requested during the 2008 White House race by citizens and news organizations, including The Associated Press, as they vetted a nominee whose political experience included less than one term as governor and a term as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

The emails provided details about how Ms. Palin was involved in various gubernatorial duties, including priorities like a natural gas pipeline from far northern Alaska to ship natural gas to the Lower 48. They also show that she was incredibly sensitive about her portrayal in the local media, with Ms. Palin often taking issue with blog posts or articles that she found unfavourable.

Some of the more intriguing details centred on her rise to the national stage.

Random supporters around the country began suggesting Ms. Palin as a potential vice presidential candidate as early as April. Then, after she appeared on Glenn Beck’s program in early June, she received a string of flattering emails from conservatives looking for a fresh face to run alongside Mr. McCain.

“You would make an excellent president (forget being VP!!!),” a Virginia woman wrote that same day. “It is so refreshing to hear someone speak in a common sense manner.”

Letters congratulating her on the birth of her son Trig poured in at that time from across the nation, bolstering her image and getting her name out in the Lower 48. One writer even foreshadowed what would come.

“We have heard your name, along with our own Governor, mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate,” wrote a person who identified himself as Ron Peters of Shreveport, La. “I think you could do a lot for the Republican Party and would be an outstanding choice. Is this within the realm of possibility?”

In June, Ms. Palin and her team were making final preparations on a letter about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She told one aide to make sure the letter was sent to newspapers across the country. Then she added in a follow-up email: “Pls also send to McCain and Obama’s camps. Thanks.”

Also in June, spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton sent Ms. Palin a draft of an op-ed piece carrying the governor’s name that would be pitched to national publications “beginning with the New York Times.” Ms. Palin responded the following day, writing: “Pls print.”

But many reporters were already paying attention. A deputy press secretary told Ms. Palin in early June that she was fielding interview requests “on everything from polar bears to the VP buzz” from national media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal.

Three years later, Ms. Palin is among the top tier of potential 2012 presidential candidates in polls of Republican voters. Her recent bus tour of the Northeast fuelled speculation about her national ambitions. She has said she has not yet decided whether she will run.

Within minutes of the emails’ release on Friday, Ms. Palin tweeted a link to the website for “The Undefeated,” a documentary about her time as governor and her arrival on the national political stage.

Her supporters, meanwhile, encouraged everyone to read the messages. “The emails detail a Governor hard at work,” said Tim Crawford, the treasurer of her political action committee, Sarah PAC, in a prepared statement.

The nearly three-year delay in releasing the material has been attributed largely to the sheer volume. The emails were packed into six boxes, weighing 250 pounds in all, stacked in a small office in a complex of buildings near the state capitol in Juneau.

Lawyers went through every page to redact sensitive government information. Emails that remained portrayed her as most fierce when the subject was defending her record or her family.

“Will ktuu (an Anchorage TV station) and adn (Anchorage Daily News) be corrected re: the “internal investigation”? I did not request it, as they are both reporting,” she wrote to an aide in Aug. 13, 2008.

As news organizations began vetting her record, Ms. Palin was accused of essentially turning over questions about her gubernatorial record to Mr. McCain’s campaign managers, part of an ambitious GOP strategy to limit any embarrassing disclosures and carefully shape her image for voters in the rest of the country.

On Sept. 13, 2008, her then-spokesman, Bill McAllister, wrote to Ms. Palin at her government account: “Governor, Got your message just now; didn’t quite understand. Mike said yesterday to refer most things to the campaign. That pretty much has been the practice lately.”

On Sept. 15, 2008, Ms. Palin responded to a host of news media questions presented to her by Mr. McAllister. Among them was one about a tanning bed at the governor’s mansion and whether it was her “belief that dinosaurs and humans co-existed at one time?”

“I am so sorry that the office is swamped like this! Dinosaurs even?! I’ll try to run through some of these in my head before responding,” Ms. Palin wrote. “And the old, used tanning bed that my girls have used handful of times in Juneau? Yes, we paid for it ourselves. I, too, will continue to be dismayed at the media.”

On Sept. 17, 2008, Ms. Palin forwarded a profanity-laced, threatening email from a man claiming to be a Juneau resident from her government account to two aides.

The emails also showed the support that national political figures gave Ms. Palin on a variety of issues.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich offered advice to a McCain-Palin campaign manager on how to blunt the impact of a September 2008 Washington Post report that she accepted $17,000 in per diem payments for time she”Palin is one of many officeholders whose public record and leadership the AP has sought to illuminate by obtaining emails, memos and other documents,” he said. “She’s maintained a sizable profile in the current political scene and may run for president. We are pressing to obtain the records of other presidential contenders in the months ahead.”

The emails were sent and received by Ms. Palin’s personal and state email accounts, and the ones being released were deemed state business-related. Ms. Palin and top aides were known to communicate using private email accounts.

Once the state reviewed the records, it gave Ms. Palin’s attorneys an opportunity to see if they had any privacy concerns with what was being released. No emails were withheld or redacted as a result of that, said Linda Perez, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell’s administrative director in charge of co-ordinating the release.

Another 2,275 pages are being withheld for reasons including attorney-client, work product or executive privilege; an additional 140 pages were deemed to be “non-records,” or unrelated to state business.

The release of the emails generated widespread interest online. Many news organizations, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and msnbc.com, began scanning and posting the emails on their websites throughout the day. The New York Times asked readers to join reporters in reviewing the documents.

spent at her Wasilla home.

Mr. Gingrich said the campaign should elaborate on its initial defense that Ms. Palin didn’t charge the state for money she could have collected to spend on her kids.

Charles Krupa

Jun 10, 2011

Alaska will release on Friday more than 24,000 pages of Sarah Palin’s emails from her first two years as governor, providing a fresh glimpse into how she led the state as she rose to become a player on the national political stage.

The emails were first requested during the 2008 White House race by citizens and news organizations as they vetted a vice-presidential nominee whose political experience included less than one term as governor of Alaska and a term as mayor of the small town of Wasilla.

The nearly three-year delay has been attributed largely to the sheer volume of the release and the flood of requests.

Alaska is releasing the thousands of emails in paper form only and asking news organizations to pick up several boxes worth of documents in Alaska’s capital city, accessible by only air or water.

Reporters from several news organizations have already begun arriving in Juneau and are making various plans to disseminate the emails to the public.

Palin worries emails will be taken ‘out of context’

Palin told Fox News on Sunday that she was unfazed by the release of the emails, saying there are no more rocks that could be turned over about her life or time as governor. But she also said “a lot of those emails obviously weren’t meant for public consumption” and that she expected people might seek to take some of the messages “out of context.”

There may not be any surprises to Palin in the emails, however.

Once the state reviewed the records, it gave Palin’s attorneys an opportunity to see if they had any privacy concerns with what was being released. No emails were withheld or redacted as a result of that, said Linda Perez, the administrative director for Gov. Sean Parnell, who has been co-ordinating the release.

The voluminous nature of the release, the isolation of Juneau and the limited bandwidth in the city of 30,000 people has forced media outlets to come up with creative ways to transmit the information. The Washington Post is looking for “100 organized and diligent readers” to work with reporters to “analyze, contextualize, and research the emails.”

The New York Times is employing a similar system.

Mother Jones, ProPublica and msnbc.com are working with Crivella West Inc., to create a searchable database of the emails. The Associated Press also plans to scan the paper copies to make searchable files available to its members and clients.

The state said it was not practical to provide electronic versions of the emails.

It’s not clear yet whether the 24,199 pages being released will contain any major revelations. They will cover the period from the time she took office in December 2006 to her ascension to vice-presidential nominee in September 2008.

Requests have been made for emails from her final 10 months in office. The state hasn’t begun the process of reviewing those yet. Palin resigned partway through her term, in July 2009.

Prior records requests have shed light on the Palin administration’s efforts to advance a natural gas pipeline project and the role played by Palin’s husband in state business.

The email release adds another dimension to the vetting of Palin that began in 2008 and comes as she has become a prominent national political figure, attracting large crowds during a recent bus tour across the Northeast.

Palin’s attorney referred questions about the emails to the treasurer of her political action committee, who did not immediately respond Thursday.

The emails were sent and received by Palin’s personal and state email accounts, and the ones being released were deemed to be related to state business.

She and top aides were known to communicate using private email accounts.

2,275 pages of emails withheld

Perez said Palin gave the state a CD with emails from her Yahoo account, and other employees were asked to review their private accounts for emails related to state business and to send those to their state accounts.

Another 2,275 pages are being withheld for reasons including attorney-client, work product or executive privilege; an additional 140 pages were deemed to be “non-records,” or unrelated to state business.

Some emails may have been previously reviewed in other, earlier public records requests, such as in the Troopergate investigation, in which Palin was accused of putting pressure on public safety officials to fire her brother-in-law, an Alaska State trooper who was going through a bitter divorce from Palin’s sister.

Clive Thomas, a longtime Palin observer who’s writing a book on Alaska politics, said he’s not sure what the emails will contain, or whether their contents will affect people’s perceptions of Palin.

“I guess most people, I think, who don’t like Sarah Palin are hoping there’s something in there that will deliver the final sort of blow to her [politically],” he said. As for Palin’s supporters, he said he doesn’t think their opinion of her will be changed regardless of what comes out.

By Helen Kennedy

Sunday, June 5th 2011,

After days of being lampooned for her muddled version of Paul Revere‘s Midnight Ride – which included bells and warning shots – Sarah Palin insisted Sunday she got it right.

“I didn’t mess up about Paul Revere,” Palin told “Fox News Sunday.”

“Part of his ride was to warn the British,” she said. “I know my American history.”

Revere, a Boston silversmith, is famous for his 1775 horseback ride from Boston to Lexington to warn the Minutemen that the British Army was on the move. The next day, the battles of Lexington and Concord kicked off the Revolutionary War.

Palin called herself a victim of a “gotcha-type of question.”

But video of Palin’s comments in Parziale’s Bakery in Boston Thursday shows she is the one who brought up Revere as she casually recounted her trip for Beantown reporters:

“We saw where Paul Revere hung out as a teenager, which was something new to learn. And, you know, he who warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free.”

Revere’s ride was actually a stealthy mission to warn the patriots, not the British, to prepare for battle. He rang no bells and fired no shots.

Palin’s version was mocked far and wide. Jokesters made #AccordingToPalin a popular Twitter hashtag.

Defending herself Sunday on Fox, which pays her as a contributor, Palin said her version was correct and alluded to a lesser known part of the story, when Revere was captured by three British soldiers late that night and told them 500 militiamen were ready for battle.

“Part of his ride was to warn the British that ‘We’re already there.’ That, ‘Hey, you’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms. You are not going to beat our own well-armed persons, individual, private militia that we have,’ ” Palin said. “He did warn the British.”

In her “Fox News Sunday” appearance, she also apologized to Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP front runner, for upstaging his campaign announcement Thursday.

Palin managed to steal Romney’s thunder just by attending a clambake in New Hampshire on the day of his long-announced campaign kickoff. The state’s biggest paper put her on the front page and relegated Romney to page 3.

“I apologize if I stepped on any of that PR that Mitt Romney needed or wanted that day,” Palin said. “I do sincerely apologize. I didn’t mean to step on anybody’s toes.”

In the wide-ranging Fox interview, Palin slammed President Obama‘s economic policies, said she would vote against raising the debt limit and backed Rep. Paul Ryan‘s unpopular plan to replace Medicare with vouchers.

Obama had called last week’s disappointing jobs report a “bump in the road.”

“The people will tell you it’s not a bump in the road,” she said. “We’ve hit a brick wall.”

Switching metaphors, she said, “It’s very noble of President Obama to want to stay at the helm and go down with the sinking ship.”

She advised “getting rid of this unsustainable debt that keeps sinking our ship. We don’t have to go the way of the Titanic.”

Palin accused Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner of “crying wolf” for warning that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would have dire consequences.

If America curbs borrowing, it must either default on its debts – which would destroy the bond markets and send interest rates soaring – or cut $125 billion a month from all government spending, including Social Security and Medicare.

“Other things are going to have to wait, we have no choice,” Palin said.

By Paul West.

June 5, 2011

.Sarah Palin offers a mea culpa for rolling into a nearby New Hampshire town on her bus tour at the same time Romney, the Republican front-runner for the 2012 election, was making his candidacy official: ‘I apologize if I stepped on any of that PR that Mitt Romney needed.’　

Reporting from Washington— Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin apologized Sunday for upstaging Republican front-runner Mitt Romney‘s formal campaign announcement last week.

The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee said it wasn’t her intention to step on Romney’s toes when her bus rolled into a nearby town just as Romney was making his candidacy official at a New Hampshire .

“I apologize if I stepped on any of that PR that Mitt Romney needed or wanted that day,” Palin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

She also said her highly publicized bus cavalcade had not moved her any closer to a 2012 run. She said she was “still right there in the middle, just trying to figure out what the lay of the land will be as these weeks and months go by.”

For the last year, Palin has sent mixed signals about a presidential try. Over that period, her poll numbers have deteriorated and other candidates have won commitments from activists and Republican voters.

In an interview on Fox News Channel last month, she said she had “fire in the belly” for a 2012 candidacy. More recently, she said a decision was “still weeks away.”

Despite her latest attention-grabbing effort, she has not taken the usual steps to build a national campaign organization. Another sign that a presidential run is not imminent: Palin continues as a paid commentator for Fox, which has featured her on three separate interview programs over the last week.

The network suspended two other Republicans politicians, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, when they explored presidential candidacies, on grounds that it would be a conflict of interest for them to be on the air as paid contributors at the same time. The network never suspended Mike Huckabee, however, as he spent months saying he wasn’t sure whether he’d run in 2012; the former Arkansas governor eventually announced he would not be a candidate.

During her “One Nation” bus tour, Palin met with Fox News executives in New York, including Roger Ailes, the former Republican campaign strategist who heads the network. Officials did not provide details of the meeting. A Fox executive did say afterward that as of that time there had been no change in Palin’s status with the network.