Vanity Fair attacks Sarah Palin

Some Republicans have rushed to support McCain’s former running-mate after an in-depth article portrays her as vain and ignorant

FIRST POSTED JULY 2, 2009

Last year's Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin (right) has been savaged in a mammoth article in Vanity Fair by national editor Todd S Purdum (left) which paints her as ignorant, vindictive and narcissistic.

Entitled 'It Came From Wasilla', the 10,000-word piece includes interviews with officials from the doomed John McCain campaign, who launch anonymous attacks on the Governor of Alaska and reveal the depths of the divisions in the camp during the race for the presidency. Figures from Palin's past also stick their heads above the parapet to question her methods as Governor.

However, the article has prompted some Republicans - perhaps anxious to avoid being fingered as the negative sources in the article - to come out in support of Palin.

Mark Salter, a McCain adviser who was involved in the selection of Palin, said: "She's a fine person, with unique and unteachable political skills." Jason Recher, an election adviser to Palin and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele have also leapt to her defence.

In his hatchet-job Purdum wonders: "What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded?"

He adds that many of those in her campaign team worked for her even though they had "privately realised she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency". McCain, he writes, picked for his running-mate "a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his".

The article also claims that aides were worried about Palin's "mental state" during the campaign.

Reaction to the Vanity Fair article has overshadowed another magazine piece in which Palin hints that she is considering going for the presidency in 2012. In Runners World she boasts that she once ran a marathon in under four hours and suggests that she could overcome Barack Obama in a long-distance race. "I betcha I'd have more endurance," she says.

FIRST POSTED JULY 2, 2009

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I think Vanity fair is simply a democratic rich man's toy. The editor a sycophant. No doubt he is the type of creep who applauds sexual innuendos and dirty old men jokes about Palin's children.

Posted by Philip Gosling at 10:33am on July 3, 2009

Palin is dense and doesn't know a joke when she hears it. A lot of Americans ARE proud of their ignorance and isn't that just pitiful. Mrs. Palin has reached her level of incompetency and needs to quietly go away. She's grasping at straws.

Posted by Midyola at 2:45pm on July 3, 2009

In reading Jonathan Harwood's so-called review of Mr Purdum's article On Mrs Palin, he claims that Mr Purdum did"a hatchet job" on her. Everything he wrote came from operatives within the McCain"s camp during the campaign. What was the hatchet job, reporting the facts as given to him by people in a position to know? He made nothing up. Would Mr Harwood have preferred a "fantasy article" full of lies, made up quotes, and unearned praise?I guess so as some people get a headache from the truth.

Posted by angel at 3:09pm on July 3, 2009

@Angel: Why do you think a hatchet job can't be full of truth? Purdum chose what quotes he used selectively, like any journalist. 90 per cent of them were negative. I would say that qualifies as a hatchet job.

Posted by Holly Cox at 3:46pm on July 3, 2009

@Holly Cox: By definition a hatchet job is designed to hurt a person using innuendos, rumors, and/or rumors from unknown people. It would not be innocuous and use truthful statements from known people(who can be re- interviewed) unless ,of course, if the truth should be negated with reference to certain people. Because of space limitations, every reporter has to choose what quotes should go into an article;this does not qualify the article as a hatchet job especially since he used the quotes given to him by people within the inner circle. Your issue should be with the people who gave him the "negative quotes" you are now complaining about .Do not shoot the messenger.

Posted by angel at 10:55pm on July 3, 2009

@Angel. What are you talking about? I'm not complaining about this article or the Vanity Fair one. I'm complaining about you and your inability to frame a coherent argument. Why are you using repeating my argument about journalists using quotes selectively? You are simply reinforcing my argument. This is bizarre.

Posted by Holly Cox at 10:37am on July 6, 2009

@Holly Cox:For once you make a statement I agree with :it is bizzare.Your argument was that Mr Purdum's article was a hatchet job because he used quotes selectively(unless there was another article,you referenced ). I responded that this was the norm as all reporters choose what quotes to use due to space limitations. Do you disagree with that? You now resort to the tried and true m/o of people who have no argument to make ---attack. What was it about my piece that you felt was incoherent or not backed up. I will suggest you go back and read my original piece and my response to your comments before you make any future comments.Everything I said was based on the Vanity fair article(which you did not even bother to read). And I repeat: how can it be a hatchet job if it is based on the truth? I wish you well.

Posted by angel at 5:32pm on July 6, 2009

A hatchet job is a piece designed to give a negative impression of the subject - to cut them down to size as it were - as you would a tree with an axe. This piece does just that. The AUTHOR (not an interviewee) describes Palin as "a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know". He also says McCain picked: "a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?" This is Purdum's opinion - many would disagree with him. And that makes it a hatchet job. I happen to agree with the piece - but to say it is an objective scientific appraisal of Sarah Palin is baloney. It is a hatchet job. A very thorough one in which each of her critics is given a fair crack of the whip...

Posted by J Hardcastle at 12:32pm on July 7, 2009