Blue Spot

Obama’s Plane Palin Problem « Major Garrett’s Bourbon Room « FOXNews.com

So we dialed up the Obama press shop and found ourselves in the middle of a ripe field of dismissive comments about Palin’s lack of experience, her tenure as mayor of a small town, a row that’s now the subject of state investigation into pressure to fire an ex-brother-in-law, and other choice morsels that sought to portray Palin as something of a political midget.

These various split-second digs took full form in an official campaign statement moments later from spokesman Bill Burton:

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain’s commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush’s failed economic policies — that’s not the change we need, it’s just more of the same.”

That statement arrived just before takeoff (about 9:30 a.m. MDT). Not 30 minutes later, senior adviser Linda Douglass, reading from her Blackberry, gave the traveling press a very different statement, this one from Sens. Obama and Biden:
“We send our congratulations to Governor Palin and her family on her designation as the Republican nominee for vice president. Her selection is yet another encouraging sign that all barriers are falling in our politics and while we obviously have differences over how to best lead this country forward Governor Palin is an admirable person and will add a compelling new voice to this campaign.”

What happened?

Did the campaign suddenly regret failing to take note of Palin’s unique place in American history as the first woman tabbed by the Republican Party as a vice presidential nominee? Did it regret missing an opportunity to tell women (especially Hillary Clinton loyalists) across the country that Palin deserved at least a cursory compliment before being subjected to the natural rough-and-tumble or presidential politics? Did it regret a swift descent into the negative, back-and-forth politics that Obama has so earnestly railed against?

It would appear so.

Upon arriving in Pennsylvania, Obama went out of his way –in word and deed — to praise Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee and welcome her to the political big leagues.

Labels: Gov. Sarah Palin, Obama supporters