The Palin Emails: Nine of the Best
After the highly anticipated release of Sarah Palin’s emails by the Alaskan government on Friday, news outlets scrambled over the weekend to find juicy stories and shocking revelations. As it turned out, the emails were far from explosive; mostly, they detail the day-to-day life of the Palin clan and Palin’s growing political ambitions. Still, there are lots of interesting (and sometimes funny) details. Below, nine of our favorite tidbits.
1. After receiving the GOP VP nomination, Palin got a lot of emails congratulating her. Palin responded to one quite enthusiastically: “Can you flippinbelieveit?!” [Huffington Post]
2. In a July 2008 email, Palin told her staff that she was upset about a letter to the editor in the Anchorage Daily News, which questioned her absence at the Miss Alaska beauty pageant. “I’m looking for someone to correct the letter writer’s goofy comments,” she wrote, but don’t want the letter to [Anchorage Daily News] in response to come from me.” Well, that isn’t exactly true: she just didn’t want the letter to bear her signature. Palin attached a 200-word letter to the editor to the email, and it was ultimately published in the paper under the name Roseanne Hughes (then Palin’s director of external communications). [The Wall Street Journal]
3. On February 19, 2007 – nine days after Barack Obama announced his run for president – deputy legislative director Chris Clark asked Palin if she’d like to meet Pete Rouse, “who’s now chief of staff for some guy named Barack Obama.” It seems as if the name didn’t ring a bell to her, as she simply answered, “I’m game to meet him.” [Huffington Post]
4. The manager of the Alaskan governor’s house, Erika Fagerstrom, sent an email to Sarah Palin in early 2008 responding to an apparent request that a tanning bed be installed in the home. Fagerstrom provided two options – installing the bed in the basement or in the third floor’s Cedar Room, at a cost of $3,252.35. [New York Times]
5. Palin’s contempt for the “lame-stream media” inevitably found expression her emails. Responding to attacks on her family from Alaskan journalists in summer 2008, Palin wrote, “Guys, I may be pretty wimpy about this family stuff, but I feel like I’m at the breaking point with the hurtful gossip about my family that [Alaskan reporter] Sherry and others get away with.” Roseanne Hughes, Palin’s then-director of external communications, responded immediately and effusively: “Governor, do you know how loved you are? These four or five bitter people are so NOT representative. You are so, so loved. The enemy is trying to discourage you. Hang in there! You are doing such an awesome job. You are an amazing lady and the Lord is your defender. He knows the truth and He is going to vindicate you. It hurts my heart to hear these horrible people are bringing you down. We forgive them, Lord. Help theses [sic] people come to know You.” [New York Times]
6. While Palin has become a vocal opponent of Obama and his energy policies, she actually praised him as “right on” in an August 2008 email. She wrote, “He gave a great speech this morn in Michigan – mentioned Alaska. Stole out [sic] Energy Rebate $1000 check idea, stole oru TC-Alaska gasline talking points, etc.” She then asked a staffer, Joseph Balash, to “crank out [a] quick statement” reacting to Obama’s points. [New York Times]
7. In May 2007, Palin asked Erika Fagerstrom, manager of the governor’s residence, to box up and store liquor stored in a kitchen cabinet. “With so many kids and teens coming and going in that house,” she wrote, “esp during this season of celebrationstt [sic] for young people – proms, graduations, etc, I want to send the msg that we can be – and ‘the People’s House’ needs to be – alcohol-free.” Spokeswoman Meg Stapleton saw an easy opportunity: “We tape you [boxing the bottles] while also speaking to the message.” [Washington Post]
8. As a national figure, Palin isn’t big on bipartisanship, but during her term as governor she actually applauded Democrats for calling on oil companies to disclose their Alaskan-based profits. She wrote to her staff, “I know some hate to hear me say it, but … the dems are right on this one. And more power to ’em for asking for more info from the Big Three. Too bad the R’s couldn’t join in this request also.” [Washington Post]
9. After receiving a number of questions from reporters – ranging from what her favorite poem is to whether she believed that dinosaurs and humans ever coexisted – Palin’s frustration boiled over. Communications director Bill McAllister had passed along the questions on September 15, 2008, and Palin responded, “Arghhhh! I am so sorry that the office is swamped like this! Dinosaurs even?!” McAllister wrote back, “I said, ‘I have never spoken to you about this,'” but added that “there is an interesting reference to ’Behemoth’ in the Old Testament.” [The Telegraph]