Palin - CNN's Campbell Brown Says Sexism Must Come To An End!

I agree, iriscot, but unfortunately, the McCain camp won't let us take a closer look. I agree that McCain only picked her because he thought all the Clinton voters would run to his side. NOT. Not this one, anyway. I think she is the feminine match for McCain. I think they both are loose cannons. I doubt he would be in office for a year before we are in another war. Neither of them have enough control of themselves to know what foreign diplomacy is.

Exactly! Surely they know that hiding her only makes the media dig deeper? I've really never seen anything like it, and hope to never see it again.

I can't understand why Palin is not doing interviews. She is a governor of a State so surely she is used to doing interviews, I mean you don't get to be a governor of a State by being a shy shrinking violet! I think she and the McCain campaign are in danger of making a big mistake here, the longer she puts off doing interviews, the more people are going to start asking questions re her fitness for the job. You can't aspire to be VP of the US and go through an election campaign without proper interviews. And should she get elected, what will she do, continue to refuse interviews? How can this be?

lol evan I was wondering if she is elected will she just run home after Putin asks hard questions.

First, thanks for the BR! Next, I'd brought up the same thing about her charging the state for nights she lived in her own home and all those other expenses and all I got from the right was that she wasn't breaking the law and some kept on insisting she'd closed the governor's mansion, which she did not, she even had a tanning bed installed there. (At her own expense, by the way, so you know I'm not accusing her of otherwise.) To those who like her there's nothing you can say or do to change their minds or even to admit she can do nothing wrong - PERIOD! Annie

A little off subject but very interesting: washington.post Palin Billed State for Nights Spent at Home Taxpayers Also Funded Family's Travel By James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, September 9, 2008; A01 ANCHORAGE,Sept. 8 -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months if office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife. Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, whick officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by The Washington Post. The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show. Gubernatorial spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said Monday that Palin's expenses are not unusual and that, under state policy, the first lady could have claimed per diem expenses for each child taken on official business but has not done so. Before she became the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee, Palin was little known outside Alaska. Now, with the campaign emphasizing her executive experience, her record as mayor of Wasilla, as a state oil-and-gas commissioner and as governor is receiving intense scrutiny. During her speech at the Republican National Convention last week, Palin cast herself as a crusader for fiscal rectitude as Alaska's governor. She noted that she sold a state-owned plane used by the former governor. "While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for," she said to loud applause. Speaking from Palin's Anchorage office, Leighow said Palin dealt with the plane and also trimmed other expenses, including forgoing a chef in the governor's mansion because she preferred to cook for ther family. The first family's travel is an expected part of the job, she said. "As a matter of protocol, the governor and the first family are expected to attend community events across the state," she said. "It's absolutely reasonable that the first family participates in community event." The state finance director, Kim Garnero, said Alaska law exempts the governor's office from elaborate travel regulations. Said Leighow: "The governor is entitled to a per diem, and she claims it." The popular governor collected the per diem allowance from April 22, four days after the birth of her fifth child, until June 3, when she flew to Juneau for two days. Palin moved her family to the capital during the legislative session last year, but prefers to stay in Wasilla and drive 45 miles to Anchorage to a state office building where she conducts most of her business, aides have said. Palin rarely sought reimbursement for meals while staying in Anchorage or Wasilla, the reports show. She wrote some form of "Lodging -- own residence" or "Lodging -- Wasilla residence" more that 30 times at the same time she took a per diem, according to the reports. In two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem. Palin charged the state a per diem for working on Nov. 22, 2007 -- Thanksgiving Day. The reason given, according to the expense report, was the Great Alaska Shootout, an annual NCAA college basketball tournament held in Anchorage. In separate filings, the state was billed about $25,000 for Palin's daughter's expenses and $19,000 for her husband's. Flights topped the list for the most expensive items, and the daughter whose bill was the highest was Piper, 7, whose flights cost nearly $11,000, while Willow, 14, claimed about $6,000 and Bristol, 17, accounted for about $3,400. One event was in New York City in October 2007, when Bristol accompanied the governor to Newsweek's third annual Women and Leadership Conference, toured the New York Stock Exchange and met local officials and business executives. The state paid for three nights in a $707-a-day hotel room. Garnero said the governor's office has the authority to approve hotel stays above $300. Asked Monday about the official policy on charging for children's travel expenses, Garnero said: "We cover the expenses of anyone who's conducting state business. I can't imagine kids could be doing that." But Leighow said many of the hundreds of invitations Palin receives include requests for her to bring her family, placing the definition of "state business" with the party extending the invitation. One such invitation came in October 2007, when Willow flew to Juneau to join the Palin family on a tour of the Hub Juneau Christian Teen Center, where Palin and her family worship when they are in Juneau. The state gave the center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo. Leighow noted that under state policy, all of the governor's children are entitled to per diem expenses, even her infant son. "The first family declined the per diem [for] the children," Leighow said. "The amount that they had declined was $4,461, as of August 5." The family also charged for flights around the state, including trips to Alaska events such as the start of the Iditarod dog-sled race and the Iron Dog snowmobile race, a contest that Todd Palin won. Meanwhile, Todd Palin spent $725 to fly to Edmonton, Alberta, for "information gathering and planning meeting with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology," according to an expense report. During the three-day trip, he charged the state $291 for his per diem. A notation said "costs paid by Dept. of Labor." He also billed the state $1,371 for a flight to Washington to attend a National Governors Association meeting with his wife. In the past, per diem claims by Alaska state officials have carried political risks. In 1988, the head of the state Commerce Department was pilloried for collecting a per diem charge of $50 while staying in his Anchorage home, according to local news accounts. The commissioner, the late Tony Smith, resigned amid a series of controversies. "It was quite the little scandal," said Tony Knowles, the Democratic governor from 1994 to 2000. "I gave a direction to all my commissioners if they were ever in their house, whether it was Juneau or elsewhere, they were not to get a per diem because, clearly, it is and it looks like a scam -- you pay yourself to live at home," he said. Knowles, whose children were school-age at the start of his first term, said that his wife sometimes accompanied him to conferences overseas but that he could "count on one hand" the number of time his children accompanied him. "And the policy was not to reimburse for family travel on commercial airlines, because there is no direct public benefit to schlepping kids around the state," he said. The rules were articulated by Mike Nizich, then director of administrative services in the governor's office, said Knowles and an aide to another former governor, Walter Hickel. Nizich is now Palin's chief of staff. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. The rules governing family travel on state-owned aircraft appear less clear. Knowles said he operated under the understanding that immediate family could accompany the governor without charge. But during the Murkowski years, that practice was questioned, and the state attorney general's office produced an opinion saying laws then in effect required reimbursement for spousal travel. Tesearch editor Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report.

Iriscot, How are you able to copy and paste? I've been waiting for so long!!!

Great. Evidently her own "handlers" and McCain disagree with you.

The VP has always, and I mean always, had an active roll in the campaign. Geraldine Ferraro was not hidden and "protected" by Walter Mondale! She was right out there, campaigning and giving interviews. She was met with plenty of controversial issues, as well, but she d*mned well didn't hide. Oh, wait, she was a Democrat. What was I thinking?

Kennyrose, Did you read the article that this was linked to? I know it was an opinion piece, but even then the only specific "media ban" that was mentioned was the UN meetings. I don't think it had anything to do with personal attacks.

You may be right that they would be smart to allow her more press exposure at this point, I don't really hold any strong opinions on that front. I just don't think they are shielding her because of sexism or chauvanism, I think there are other factors at play. As a woman, I have come to despise women crying wolf about sexism that isn't there, it feels to me like an excuse to ignore real issues and play the victim. I don't think there are any victims here. Palin, despite whatever ideological differences we have, strikes me as a strong vocal woman who wouldn't be silenced by chauvanistic men. Painting her differently is doing her an injustice.