Updated - Sunday - 9:15a.m, 9:50 a.m & 5:00p.m:The conservative, sensationalist New York Post came out Saturday with an article titled, 100 Days, 100 Mistakes. Prominent conservatives contributed here and there, mixed in with items the editors added in.
Here is what the Post published on Saturday as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's contribution:
17. SARAH PALIN ON: "I WON" AND THE DEATH OF BIPARTISANSHIP
"Obama soared to victory on the hopeful promise of a new era of bipartisanship. During his inaugural address he even promised an 'end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.'
"Too bad it took all of three days for the promise to ring hollow.
"Start with Obama's big meeting with top congressional leaders on his signature legislation -- the stimulus -- on the Friday after his inauguration. Listening to Republican concerns about overspending was a nice gesture -- until he shut down any hopes of real dialogue by crassly telling Republican leaders: 'I won.' Even the White House's leaking of the comment was a slap at the Republican leadership, who'd expected Obama to adhere to the custom of keeping private meetings with congressional leadership, well, private.
"It's only gone downhill from there. The stimulus included zero Republican recommendations, and failed to get a single House Republican vote.
"It's not just the tactic of using Republicans for bipartisan photo-ops, and then cutting them loose before partisan decisions, that irks Obama's opponents. The new president wasted no time rushing forward with policies and legislation guaranteed to drive Republicans nuts. The first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- a partisan hot-button that drew all of eight Republican supporters in the entire Congress. Then there was the swift reversal of Bush policies on abortion and embryonic-stem-cell research -- issues dear to the Republican base.
"And when Obama and the Democrats in Congress took up SCHIP -- the children's health-insurance bill that Republicans say vastly expands government's role in health care -- they had an easy chance for real bipartisanship. After all, the bill had been hashed out in the previous Congress, and a bipartisan accord was reached before President Bush responded with a veto. Did the Obama team push for the compromise version in the 111th Congress? Nope. They went back to the drawing board, ramming through the Democrats' dream version.
"Of course, the lack of bipartisanship isn't limited to Capitol Hill. Obama has taken gratuitous swipes at the Republicans who recently decamped Washington, blaming President Bush for everything from the economy and the war to the lack of sufficient puppies and rainbows. And who could forget the Rush Limbaugh flap -- in which Obama's top advisers, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, orchestrated a public relations campaign meant to undermine the Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, by framing talk-radio personality Limbaugh as the real head of the Republican Party.
"For now, Obama's back-pedal on the bipartisanship promise just makes him look insincere. But the real consequences of the mistake will be felt soon enough. As Presidents Bush and Clinton could tell him, congressional majorities do change -- and at some point, Obama will need Republicans on his side. He'd be smart to spend his second 100 days making up for the serious snubs of his first."
-- Sarah Palin is the governor of Alaska
Update continued: Early Sunday morning the NY Post changed this entry to the article. It is now attributed to Meghan Clyne. What Progressive Alaska posted above on Saturday was cut and pasted from the late Saturday NYP article cited at the top.
From the comments, it can be seen that most here didn't buy the article as having been penned by Palin. Neither did I. I thought it was ghost-written.
Here's Ben Smith's description of events:
The New York Post today published, and I linked, a slap at Obama's promises of bipartisanship attributed to Gov. Sarah Palin.
The only problem: Palin didn't write the article. Conservative writer Meghan Clyne did.
" The byline was a mistake. I mixed up an e-mail from Meghan Stapleton, who works for Palin, with Meghan Clyne. That's why it was corrected," emails Post Sunday editor Steve Lynch.
It's the sort of thing that happens, but seems to happen more to Palin
My question - what did Stapleton and Palin have to do with this particular article - Anything?
Update Two: My email exchange - so far - with New York Post editor Steve Lynch:
Mr. Munger,
I edit the Sunday opinion section of The New York Post and made a big mistake -- I mixed up e-mails and ended up posting something under Sarah Palin's byline that was not from her (I thought it was coming from a different address). We have corrected it on our Web site but I noticed you put it on your blog and if you could either remove or correct it too I would be obliged.
Thanks, Steve
++++++++++++++++++
Dear Mr. Lynch,
Thank you for bringing attention to your error. I'm in the process of updating the post right now. The update includes your earlier email to politico.com's Ben Smith.
Your email to Smith raises a couple of questions:
1) How did it come about that Stapleton and Clyne were confused with each other?
2) Clyne's contribution to 100-100 was initially attributed to Gov. Sarah Palin. Now that the correction has been made, another obvious question to me is - was Palin supposed to contribute a piece to 100-100, and then did not? Was Stapleton involved in any content for 100-100, or for another piece you are now editing?
Warmest regards,
Philip Munger
Update 3: Another email from NYP editor Steve Lynch:
They were confused simply because I had written e-mails to a number of conservatives asking them to submit. Meghan Clyne wrote back to me, I thought it was Meghan Stapleton passing along a piece (it was a very dumb mistake). Palin never submitted a piece.
from an image by Zina Saunders
41 comments:
What lies are these????
This is what Megan Stapleton says on the same day Palin's columm was printed in the NY Post:
"Campaign Solutions is not based in Alaska," Stapleton said. "We appreciate Donatelli's good work for us, but as we have been saying all along, the governor is focused on Alaska and Alaskans."
Anch Daily News April 25th
Why is Megan Stapleton lying about Palin's only focus being Alaska and Alaskans?
This piece has Stapleton written all over it - the snarky tone, the complete sentences, the lack of 'you betchas.' This may be something Ms. Palin agrees with, but it sure isn't something she wrote!
Would any sane or professional politician put out a piece that has the word "nope" in it?
And the puppies & rainbow bit?
And if this bit: "...petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics..."
isn't the most egregious hypocrisy from a sitting politican, I don't know what is!!!
And don't get me started on the photo-op BS! Once her royal heinous had the democrats' support for the trainwreck that is AGIA she kicked them to the curb!
You have got to be kidding me!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I'd really get upset about this except for this: This is such utter crap, such drivel, so unprofessional, that there is NO WAY that it can be taken seriously. There are a million ways that it can be held up as a laughable bit of hypocrisy given her campaign rhetoric, her statements post-election, her public vitriol toward Obama one day, her sucking up to him the next. So, one has to wonder if the powers that be within the GOP gave her this opportunity to solidify her irrelevance to the party in any terms other than to incite the rabid base. This is pure hate-mongering. It is light-years from what is going to put out by legit Republicans. Did they give her a nail knowing that she'd use it for her own coffin?
Does she know that she's being manipulated, or is she so power-mad that she thinks she's calling at least some of the shots?
SMR
Someone should tell the NYP that Sarah Palin neither thinks, speaks nor writes in complete sentences.
The above post, by virtue of it's clear lack of "too also's" and "again there's", is an obvious a forgery.
I'm just saying...
Lymm in Australia
This is the same Governor who slapped Alaska Natives and women in the face with the WAR nomination that 9 republicans voted against; the same Governor who said no to $177 million in stimulus funding for education in Alaska; the same Governor who said no to $2.15 million in funding for hunger and nutrition stimulus funding; the same Governor who said no to the democrat nomination to replace Senator Kim Elton; and the same Governor who ignored Alaska Native Villages in deep distress over energy in the dead of winter in the most harsh weather in the United States. How many ethics complaints have been made against Preisdent Obama. Palin is at 10 and counting. The black kettle doesn't have a pot to refer to.
Wake up call to Palin: Obama-Biden DID win. Sorry if reality hurts. The GOP is out of power in D.C.
Of COURSE Obama is pushing Democratic legislation. That is what happens when the other party takes control. Has Palin never followed national politics before?
And does Palin not understand that Bush IS to blame, as he was the President for the past 8 years?
It is so very odd that Palin would dare to mention the concept of "decamping," considering how she "decamped" Alaska recently in order to serve folks in Indiana at the most crucial time of AK's Legislative session. Whoever wrote that sad little OpEd only served to subconsciously underscore Palin's own "decampment" flap. With a staff like that, she is playing into the hands of Romney, Huckabee, Jindal and Pawlenty--the people the RNC is truly promoting for 2012.
It does seem that Palin's staff consistently undermines her. Why would they approve this drivel, which only serves to highlight Palin's lack of political savvy, and makes her look childish?
Palin, if she had any hope at all for a national post-'08 profile, needs to show some leadership BACKBONE, avoid fashion controversies, accept some responsibility for her own lack of bipartisan behavior in AK and with D.C. ("I want the stimulus! No, I don't. Yes, I do."), show up for work more, and stop the repeated whining, flip-flopping, shifting blame, etc.
Oh Please if Sarah Palin wrote that then fairies will fly before the sun rises!
I am suprised the presses that printed those lies and distortions did not catch on fire.
Like all the other posters...the lack of "there", "too", and "also"'s is a dead giveaway that Sarah Plain did not write this ridiculous commentary.
Guess what Sarah? Obama did win, by an overwhelming electoral/popular margin...and alot of his win can be attributed to you being McCain's running mate. You singlehandedly drove independents and moderate (sane, intelligent) Republicans to Obama in droves.
The remaining Republicans in Congress are from traditionally extreme right wing districts and states....the country is not miving in your direction, Sarah, Obama was just pointing that out... since you are too stupid to realize it.
Yup, you betcha! We are all in agreement that Palin did NOT write that piece and that is is a pile of crap. Did we expect any less of a smell from Staplemouth? Nope. Sic those puppies and rainbows on the Mouthpiece and her Queen.
Thanks for posting this, Phil. Since the NY Post isn't on my reading list, I might have missed it.
In this op/ed piece obviously written by someone for Sarah Palin, one thing is correct: "congressional majorities do change."
I predict that given their complete disconnect from reality, and inability to reconnect, there will be even fewer Repbulicans in congress after the 2010 elections... and perhaps one less in the Alaska Governor's mansion.
Wolfe Tone,
Thanks. I get a lot of links forwarded to my email. This one came in yesterday from three friends, while I was helping Judy make taco mixings for 75 school kids from Wasilla to eat down in Homer Monday evening.
...and Blue_in_AK refers to it in the comments of the YouTube of Palin's ComFish speech.
Hey Philip shouldn't there be a question mark at the the end of your sentence. Since it's pretty clear that GINO did not write this OP-Ed piece.
Palin seems to forget that Obama reached out to the republicans in congress BEFORE he reached out to his own party. He approached them, then they rebuffed him by opposing everything he and the dems proposed. Instead of working with dems to reach bipartisan solutions to our problems, they decided to act like children throwing tantrums and to oppose everything, ignoring the problems we face. They seem to care little about the suffering of Americans. Their goal is to undercut Obama's efforts at every turn in the hope of regaining control of the WH and congress in 2012. It would seem that they would realize that the way to do that is to work in a bipartisan manner. Their position on issues is causing them to be exposed to the world as anal retentive tots who come across as being incapable of governing. They should abandon this position and work really hard to develop viable alternatives to the dems' policy positions, but it seems they have little stomach for doing this. Opposing everything and coming up with no workable alternatives to dem policies is not a winning position. They must be enjoying their time in the political hinterland and making plans for a long stay. BTW, I don't believe a word that comes out of Palin's mouth. She is truly a classic example of one who suffers from foot in mouth disease, and just think, she could have been in the WH. I'd be having nightmares if she and McCain were holding the reins of power. Talk about dumb and dumber.
The article has been changed on the website. The author is now Meghan Clyne. Wonder what that is all about.
Phil,
Sandra is indeed correct.
The article is now attributed to Meghan Clyne, a DC based conservative columnist!
Makes me wonder if the NYP has their Meghans (Clyne & Stapleton) mixed up.
There is no point in rehashing all of what everyone has said.
NO way NO how did SP write any of this. She doesn't know half of these words to begin with. There is no "ya betcha" and "sure 'nuff" in it.
Dear Republics:
YOU LOST - Obama was elected by more than 7 POINTS which indicates that people were DONE with the Republics.
Get over yourselves. The whole concept that SP would ever be nominated for any national office again indicates that someone is smoking a lot of crack. Even the Republic party has basically shoved her under the door by saying "she is unelectable".
You Republics LOST. He tried bipartisanship and you blew his efforts off. The Party of No is now getting what it deserves.
The American people spoke loud and clear in November - the Republic Party has shrunk down to Palin, Limpballs and Drudge. That makes 2012 OURS again.
And congrats on slamming SCHIP - and just proving that the Republics care about killing Iraqis and not keeping children healthy.
Hypocrits.
This article is NOT written by Palin. If you go to the original post you can seen that this piece has been attributed to someone else. Anyone reading this can tell that it was written by a writer--or someone with an ability to write coherently--an ab ility Palin does not possess.
Okay...looks like this OP-Ed piece was written by Meghan Clyne and now the C4P's are saying that GINO was setup!!!
Adequately addressed here is the observation that these were not the direct words of Palin. They do, however, reflect her delusions and commitment to victimization as a detraction from responsibility. Equally disturbing is the entire list from the Post article.
Commenters supporting the list repeated “conservative” talking points and name calling. Gone from the list was much room for meaningful dialogue.
Palin’s letter was number 17 in the list. Most of the list is made up of one-liners or short, out-of-context observations. I have the impression that Palin got a “guest piece” as a way to get people to read it. Maybe that worked because I read through most of it. Made me sad, though. I live in an area surrounded by these people. My dad is one. Deep down they are good people, but they are afraid. It was exhausting to defend Bush and Company. Conspiracy theories take constant revisions to account for dreaded truth. “My country, love it or leave it” doesn’t have the same ring today. To them, if you support the government now, you “drank the kool-aid.”
Please read “What’s the Matter with Kansas” by Thomas Frank. He chronicles the rise of the “new” conservative movement. Although the book was written in 2004, he explains the rise of what will result in Palin and her people. More importantly, though, I better understood what made my dad the way he is now. Too late maybe to repair much with him, but a co-worker and I had our first meaningful discussion on gov’t policy. We disagreed on a lot, but I better knew how to phrase comments to avoid arguments and instead find areas of common concern.
As for Palin, though, there may not be much hope. She is now everything that a TRUE conservative should be calling out.
Sunday Apr 26
Sarah Palin's name has been scrubbed from the WaPo article and it is credited to conservative writer Meghan Clyne.
Much more believable to me.
I saw the whole piece last night on C4Pee last night (still washing up from that) and the commenters all thought she is absolutely BRILLIANT, praised her eloquence, and talked about sending it to all media sources & blogs so the nation can bow down and recognize her wonderfulness & "balls."
Kat
I was going to point out that one of the "all of eight" Republican congressmen who voted for the Lily Ledbetter Act was our own Don Young, who did something right for a change. Would Sarah have taken such a shot at the "Congressman for All Alaska"? Maybe, but it seems to confirm that she didn't write this piece. It's interesting that it was first attributed to her and then to this other Meghan. I wonder what the story is there.
I can't find the Post's comments on this article now either. There were a lot of pro-Palin "you tell 'em Sarah" types of comments, as well as a few anti-Palin ones.
Strange, and a bit deceitful, that the article doesn't state there has been an error or an update.
Funny how mistakes can just "disappear" as if they never were made.
So how could NYP editor Steve Lynch have confused Meg Stapletongue and Meg Clyne in the context of the 100 - 100 article? Did they ask for a piece from Palin that was supposed to go somewhere in the article? There was something there attributed to Palin. Now there isn't, and the comments have been scrubbed.
If not for blogs, who would be asking questions on this right now?
Way to go, Phil and other commenters on this blog! Way to hold them all accountable and find the error! Woo-hoo!!!!!! That is fantastic. Job well done!
By the way, Sarah Palin owes YOU one big thank you--because if not for you, when (if ever) would the NY Post or WaPo have fixed their error and named the correct author for this drivel?
Pipsqueak,
We might have sped up the process of finding the error by a few moments, but probably not much more than that. Thanks for the thought, anyway.
I read through at least 1/2 of the original comments regarding this article at c4p. Since the heart of that article is what most of them believe, positive comments were not surprising. What saddens me though is the number of people who politically love or hate something based on who the person is or the letter behind their name. That goes for all political parties. If they loved what the author wrote, will they also support her for president? Or, was it only good because they though Sarah wrote it?
To be proud of Palin for "showing that Obama", then to find out she didn't... Does it hurt worse because so many others had said "she couldn't"?
Several newer comments call it a plot, but one perpetrated by both the left and the right.
Anger and fear. It is strongest when the enemy is both everywhere and nowhere.
I chalk this up to the New York Post intentionally making the blunder in order to use Palin's name to get better hit rates on Google searches.
Anonymous at 10:34:
I think you may have something there.
HistoryGoddess:
Anger and fear. It is strongest when the enemy is both everywhere and nowhere.
Beautifully said, but isn't that the real definition of Paranoia?
I think SP is as stupid as dirt, there's ample evidence of that. However, her written stupidity does not contain the "betchas" "alsos" "toos" and all of the lowest-common-denominator stuff that she peppers her speeches with. Check out the letter to Obama for a refresher. She gets the word spell/grammar check to get rid of the superfluous words, but sadly for her it doesn't get rid of the snark/bi$%hy stuff -- everything she puts out, whether it's an official letter or a press release, has a hint of bi%$h to it. I actually think that this piece sounded exactly like something that she'd have written. That being the case, I find this author confusion on the part of the NYPost pretty suspicious. However, if Megan whatsherface wants to take credit for it, well, more power to her. Whoever wrote this is a sore loser and delusional, said description fitting SP to a T. Wonder if they offered her the chance to write a piece for this but hers didn't come up to snuff? I wish it WERE our gov who had written this bit of hypocrisy & sour grapes. I embrace every opportunity that she takes to wear her hypocrisy and hate on her sleeve, as the more she speaks/writes/etc the more people get to see what she is really made of: frogs & snails and puppy dog tails.
Something very strange is afoot at the Circle K.
SMR
Does it bother anyone over at Camp Palin that people know immediately that she didn't write something because it sounds too intelligent?
Wouldn't they be double checking something attributed to THE GOVERNOR of a state, especially one that has been so prominent in the news?
Frankly, I didn't think Sarah Palin had written the piece, but not because of the lack of folksy "you betchas."
The sentences were complete and coherent (even if filled with bullsh*t).
I was crediting Meghan Stapleton with authorship.
Now I see it was just a Meghan Mix Up™ at the NYP.
Makes sense to me.
Has Palin ever written anything that has been published????
Emma-
Don't know if my post went through. Here is a site with some of her 2004ish articles.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060506014240/www.palinforgovernor.com/Articles.htm
Kinda bummed that since that ridiculous piece sounds just like something that her royal heinous would put together it cannot be attributed to her... I was looking forward to the sh$tstorm of pieces dedicated to pointing out the hypocrisies...
Oh well. I somehow think there will be other opportunities to do so.
SMR
Somehow, I didn't buy it in the first place; I didn't even read it.
'Her Royal Heinous' wouldn't know about anything that's going on in DC - much less write about it. She likes the spotlight firmly on her.
I am not sure we are being told the truth, but I doubt we'll ever know.
It is worth it, thought, to read through the initial comments at the politico.com Ben Smith piece. Dozens of people chimed in, commenting on how the essay proved that the media and the McCain campaign had kept the true genius of the inner Sarah from springing forth.
Here's the url:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0409/Palins_swipe.html#comments
I'm looking at the post right now and it has the governor's photo and the tag line '-Sarah Palin is governor of Alaska' with her assessment of an Obama mistake.
If she didn't write it, that's a huge mistake for a paper to go to press with, right?
Unless like other Rupert Murdoch owned properties, the Post doesn't care about truth when it comes to presenting some false rivalry between the intelligent person with impressive critical thinking skills and a person who doesn't seem to know what she's doing at any point in the day.
NYPost just reeks of integrity - not.
Ben Smith should've stayed far, far away if he didn't want to get anything on him. Too late now. "Errors" in attributing content will generally get any college freshman suspended or expelled from University. Perhaps Mr. Smith won't associate himself and his publication with questionable outlets in the future.
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