Robocalls From Palin In Virginia; Update: Correction to Call Transcription
According to CNN, Governor Palin is making robocalls for the governor's race in Viriginia. From CNN's 'Political Ticker' blog:
Less than 48 hours before voters head to the polls to elect a new governor, several Virginians reported receiving robocalls on Sunday from the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, urging them to “vote for Sarah’s principles” on Tuesday.
[...]
“Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote for Sarah’s principles,” the former Alaska governor says in the call, which was provided to CNN by one Democrat who recorded it. “The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don’t take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too.”
Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for Palin, confirmed the authenticity of the calls.
A recording of one of the calls from NBC12, the local NBC affiliate in Richmond, Viriginia:
CNN says that the calls are independent of Bob McDonnell's campaign.
CNN also emphasizes in their story that a few weeks ago McDonnell decided not to ask Palin to campaign for him in person. At the time, there were claims that the campaign feared Democrats would paint Palin, and by extension McDonnell, as polarizing or extremist and use support from the governor against him. But Don Surber says that the Democrat strategy to use Palin as a wedge, in races such as the one in Virginia, won't work:
Palin is not the candidate. John Kerry was in 2004 when Karl Rove turned the phrase around. Democrats are not going to rally to vote against her in Virginia; she is not on the ballot. But conservatives will rally behind her because they love her.
Surber also says:
The more they beat up on her, the more they make her the opposite of President Obama, the stronger she becomes in the eyes of the growing number of people who are disenchanted with our president. They contrast the media’s adulation of Barack Obama with the media’s scorn toward Sarah Palin and guess what? The media get discounted here.
As long as Sarah Palin hangs in there, the better she looks — and the worse our dear, thin-skinned, juvenile president looks.
Update: Here's a better quality recording of the call. In this clearer version, it's clear that Palin says "vote to share our principles" rather than "vote for Sarah's principles" as CNN had transcribed in their original story (that story has since been corrected by CNN):
A transcription of the full call:
Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles. The eyes of America will be on Virigina and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don't take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too. Thank you.
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28 comments:
ok so I am confused - what is wrong with this ad? And why would CNN be making a fuss about it? She didn't name a particular candidate that I heard? She is a "citizen" and can do what ever she wants. Unless they made up the tape in some way?
Who is Don Surber????
He's a editorialist out of W. Virginia, who has been strongly supportive of Sarah, he still has some doubts about her resignation, but he's coming around.
Nothing is wrong with this ad. Apparently CNN is talking to their audience. There aren't many of them these days. I got this call last night and was thrilled.
Apparently the polls taken in VA about Sarah don't show that she has the support that she does in other states. Ed Gillespie was brought in by McDonnell to work with his campaign. Ed is an unabashed RINO. He advised and McDonnell listened. However, the McDonnell campaign was very well done and managed. McDonnell has Sarah's brain. He and Sarah are on the same page. It was quite obvious from last year's campaign that VA loves Sarah. Her turn outs in NOVA were more than spectacular. There was never a venue big enough to hold all the people that wanted to see her. Even if they came to just "see" her out of curiosity she probably got some of them thinking about her message. Last year she almost dragged an old RINO over the finish line, but the fuss after that and her inability to do what she does best on her own is just beginning to be dispelled. After this is over I am hoping that she and McDonnell will be best buds.
Our Conservative friends have some doubts and the RINO's are quite doubtful. But they do not "know" her like we do. I don't want to say they are slow thinkers, but they are. They don't study her like we do and I have a feeling that is the case with most people that are doubtful of Sarah. This is all being changed. This election cycle is just the beginning. The 'Cuda is just getting started.
Now I'm jealous 'cuz I've never got a robo-call from Sarah.
I loved hearing her voice. It's crazy, but I totally miss her!!
Should Sarah be approving robocalls without McDonnell's go ahead.
Should Sarah be approving or doing robocalls without McDonnell's go ahead?
I know they used her name for a fundraiser.
Mel,
Thanks for this post. It was awesome to hear her voice. I like that "Sarah's Principles". She sticks to being positive, and voting the individual's values. Way to go, Governor Palin!
Have you seen this one?
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/11/01/sarah-palin-is-now-the-gop-establishment/
Title's in the address. Far left extremist says Palin's still unelectable herself but she's got power. It's good for the far left in 2012 but the same wingnuts who forced Hoffman on NY 23 control the Repub primaries, so they'll pick Palin, but she can't lead Independents.
How can one person be so right and so wrong at the same time? ;)
McDonnell says he doesn't know anything about the calls:
Republican Bob McDonnell kept his distance from Sarah Palin on Monday even as the former Alaska governor had begun making automated phone calls to more than 300,000 Virginia households on behalf of a conservative group, urging them to vote their values in Tuesday's election.
"I don't know anything about them," McDonnell told ABC News on Monday when asked about the Palin robocalls which are paid for by the Virginia chapter of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a socially conservative group headed at the national level by Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition.
McDonnell, who answered a question from ABC News following a 7:45 am ET campaign stop in Alexandria, Va., has been carefully calibrating his relationship with Palin.
After telling ABC's "Top Line" on July 7 that he thought Palin would be "a good spokesman" for his campaign based on what she had done on taxes, regulations, and ethics in Alaska, McDonnell has more recently kept his distance.
On Oct. 9, Politico's Jonathan Martin reported that Palin was ready to stump for McDonnell and Chris Christie, the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey. But neither Republican seemed interested in taking up her offer to help.
"The governor offered her assistance with both races," Palin adviser Meg Stapleton told Politico. "The ball is in their court."
The McDonnell campaign eschewed Palin's help on the stump even though it welcomed other potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Even though Palin's robocall is paid for by the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition rather than by McDonnell or the Republican Party, Democrats seized on her entrance into the race in the hopes of painting McDonnell, who enjoys an 11-point lead in a recent Washington Post poll, as immoderate.
She's a big lefty Hillary supporter, it's probably painful for her to admit this much
A key theme in the Democratic campaign has been that McDonnell, who has emphasized jobs, economic development, and bipartisanship in his campaign, is really a hard right social conservative because his 1989 graduate school thesis describes working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family.
"We're a bit surprised that Sarah Palin would back the so-called principles of a candidate who believes that working women – like herself – are a detriment to the family," DNC spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine told ABC News. "However, Palin's endorsement of Bob McDonnell's beliefs should give Virginia voters, who may have been fooled by a smoke and mirrors campaign into believing that McDonnell would govern their state as a moderate, serious pause as they prepare to head to the polls tomorrow."
"The candidate in this race with the principles most closely aligned with those of Virginians has always been and continues to be Creigh Deeds," she added, referring to the Democratic candidate.
Virginia state Sen. Steve Martin (R), the chairman of the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition, told ABC News that the Palin call, which began on Sunday, is intended to reach somewhere between 346,000 and 396,000 Virginia households. The Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition put together the call list by matching up church lists with records of who had voted in recent elections. The targets included both high propensity and lower propensity voters.
In addition to Palin, the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition has used Huckabee as well as local pastors to make robocalls to Virginia voters in advance of Tuesday's vote.
The calls do not include an explicit appeal to vote for McDonnell, according to Sen. Martin, because his organization is prohibited as a 501(c)(4) organization from making a direct appeal for the election of a particular candidate.
Asked to characterize the shared principles that Palin is hoping to promote, Sen. Martin said: "Those shared principles would certainly involve things all the way from how money is collected to how it is spent to the value of human life."
"Economic liberty and religious liberty go hand in hand," he added.
During his prepared remarks at Monday's rally, McDonnell emphasized local economic initiatives that he wants to pursue while also continuing to portray a handful of Democratic proposals in Washington as being harmful to Virginia's economy.
"I hope the reason you are here is that you understand that we have some hard times that we're facing in Virginia," said McDonnell. "A 6.7 percent unemployment rate, a $6 billion budget deficit, rising energy prices, college tuition doubling, and other challenges that the next leadership team has got to address."
Referring to himself as well as the Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and Attorney General, McDonnell said: "This team . . . understand(s) that it is not through more federal government solutions like card check and cap-and-trade and unfunded mandates and nationalized health care and major new deficit spending, that is not what's going to be the key to turning this economy around."
"It's going to be more private sector solutions, more innovation, more entrepreneurship, more small business, more freedom for more people to use their God given talents to pursue the American dream," he added.
While McDonnell avoided reading national meaning into Tuesday's election, his daughter cast it as an opportunity for voters in the Old Dominion to send a "message" about the Obama administration.
"Well, as you all know, this is [...]
Is it Sarah's Principles? (which sounds corny and self agrandizing)
or Our principle's?
I can't hear the sound from here (work) but at least in one blog providing a transcriopt they crossed out 'Sarah's principles' and corrected it with 'our principles'
Can the few of you that have actually heard it resolve this?
toughluck,
I'm almost positive it is "Sarah principles". The "s" is definately there.
I think she should. There are lots of people that support her and will be thrilled to get a robo call. Anything to get the vote out and the more the better. There are still lots of candidates to be elected in 2010.
No, it's "our principles".
Here I thought McDonnell had actually grown a pair between his legs and had decided to ignore Gillespie. What a putz.
It's going to be tough defeating the Bushtard Republicans. These are people who are afraid of winning.
Nope. CNN has corrected it. In the original version you can clearly hear her say "Shared principles."
Got confirmation, They say it says 'our principles'.. I'm glad, I would not wish Sarah to start talking about herself in third person.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/02/palin-robocalls-urge-virginians-to-vote-for-sarahs-values/
Otherwise Nancy would start piping up on the point
Actually, It's Share our principles.
My two cents regarding the VA Robocalls:
1) The VA Robocalls are very significant. She has officially began her re-introduction into the political arena. Last year she was John McCain's choice for VP and the "Maverick". This year, she is a private citizen Reagan Conservative, yet if choosing between the RINOS and Dems, she is positioning herself as still the "Maverick". Brilliant defining moment #1.
2) She specifically states "Sarah's Principles" in the Robocall. In essence, these are MY principles - are your principles the same, or close to mine? Brilliant defining moment #2.
3) Re-introduction continues this Friday night at Wisconsin's Right to Life event. By making the committment (closed to the media and press), she is letting the voters know that she is also a social conservative and believes in Life. Defining Moment #3.
4) Oprah on 11/16: National Rollout of Sarah Palin/Conservative/Maverick to the GOP establishment versus RINO's and Dems with her principles and vision for the country. Defining Moment #4.
5) The calls have absolutely nothing to do with McDonnell and his campaign and everything to do with Governor Palin wanting the American public to know where she stands.
We here on this site follow her movements and she definitely has been leaving footprints. She has begun the transformation and now will need to go sell herself to the American public as the alternative choice of a RINO or Dem.
Her timing still is impeccable. The title of her book is perfect.
I also read that the Sarah robo calls are being made to a list of church goers in the area, and that Huckabee and local pastors have also taped calls.
Since it is a church organization it cannot legally endorse any candidate, and that is why the call (at least to the general public) sounds a little vague.
But it makes total sense for a narrow church going target audience to 'vote to share our principles' and 'vote your values'. They know full well what principles she is talking about.
Too bad mcDonnel continues to distance himself by saying 'I dont know anything about these calls'.
Geez, the comments on the article linked above are really anti-palin for doing this. I guess no good deed goes unpunished.
I really hope that Sarah can continue to keep up her optimistic and upbeat qualites (like Rush mentioned). The democrats are trying to paint the Republicans as the party of No, and Palina as a head purger. She can defeat them by being cheerful and optimistic. by painting a bright future of the resurgence of America. That's what will attract people and certainly attract me.
I dont know how she does it in light of all this spewed venom I see in the comments. GO Sarah!
wtf with all of this ?
who's a big lefty supporter ?
Okay, my 9 year old daughter and my 6 year old son have listened to it several times, with me, and we think it is something like "for shared principles" or "for our shared principles". My 6 year old thinks it's "sheriff principles".:)
It would be out of character for her to say: "Sarah principles", although that is what I thought the first time I heard it. It seems like two syllables before the word principles.
As you can see we are getting alot done in homeschooling today.
I hear it as "shared principles" not Sarah's principles.
Honestly, is trying to paint Sarah as "scary" going to be an effective tactic for the DNC going forward?
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