Going Rogue: An American Life (81 page)

Going Rogue

Meanwhile, the B team heard that Schmidt and others at headquarters were outraged about the choice of Gwen Ifill as debate moderator. Ifill, a former
New York Times
correspondent, was in the process of writing what was assumed to be a pro-Obama book. I wasn’t worried about it; I was debating Biden, not the moderator. In any case, if Gwen showed any bias, viewers would pick up on it in a heartbeat. It made no sense that the campaign spent so much time firing off talking points and quasi-coordinated for surrogates to make a big deal over

we couldn’t control.

During debate prep, I had been given stacks of five-by-eight index cards, bound in rubber bands, and we lugged them around everywhere. Someone had gone to a lor of trouble to type them up, which I appreciated, but it was funny because on one side of each card, there was a question and on the other side there were a whole bunch of what most people would consider nonanswers: FRONT OF CARD: What is America’s role in the world when it comes to global secutiry?

BACK OF CARD:.
“Senator McCain and
1
are optimists. We
our country, andJohn has proven that more than any other

in

Or …

see the United States as a

for good in the world. As has

already been so beautifully said, we’re a shining city on a hill.”
Or …

don’t apologize for who.

are or what we stand

even if

we’re not perfect. We learn from our mistakes, but
don’t doubt

our goodness.”

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SARAH

PALIN

Right. But
what is our role in the world and how does that relate to
national security?

Another card asked:

What will it take to win the war in Afghanistan?

BACK OF CARD:
“The world is better off for the fact that the
Taliban no longer rules Afghanistan,”

I said to the prep people, “Okay, but what they’re asking is, what will it take to win the war?”

“Right,” somebody said, “But you don’t have to answer the question,”

“Why wouldn’t I want to answer the question?” I said, The bottom line was that these were political answers-and I couldn’t force myself to play it safe and sound like a politician, On top of that, there were probably ten cards for a single topic with a different set of nonanswers on everyone, So in the end
I’m
thinking,
Okay, which nonanswer do you want me to give?

Or here’s an idea-I could give a
real
answer: “Yes! America should lead the world in global security, We should be developing our own resources and leveraging our power for good, not apologizing for being the strongest nation in the world, , , ,” I kept a stack of the cards as a souvenir. I wish I had kept them all I scribbled a lot of notes in the margins, probably some not fit for public consumption, such as ‘Just let me answer the question, dang it.”

It was as though they were saying “We love you just the way you ate-now change.”

After a while, this caused me to question my answer-from-theheart style, the way of dealing with the public and the press that had helped me to serve my constituents. I liked my simpler style because it meant I never had to spin, I never had to B.S., and,

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Going Rogue

good or bad, I never had to srruggle ro remember whar I had said rhe lasr rime. Local reporrers liked it, too, because I didn’t tiptoe around the issues.

Here, though, it sounded as if the strategy was to listen to a question and then try to pull out a scripted nonanswer. Only to a couple of the guys, it was never the
right
nonanswer. At one point during prep in Philly, I gave one of the scripted nonanswers and Mark shouted out, “Wrong, Governor! Wrong, wrong, wrong!”

“What do you mean ‘wrong’? What do you want me to say?

Everybody has different input in this room. Here, read the card yourself. You guys
wrote
it.”

What I should’ve said was, “Look, I get it. Our numbers aren’t good, this debate is a big deal, but this stuffy, dark hotel room with a bunch of crabby guys isn’t working. So get some fresh air and let’s come back and tackle this with clear minds.” But I didn’t say that, and there was disagreement on how to proceed with all the different input the staff was throwing around. I remember it well because I was wearing a Rangers hockey jersey that morning and as the process of sifting through hundreds of note cards grew more frustrating for the team leader, I couldn’t help but think of my petulant son the year he had spent so much time in the penalty box. Game after game, it seemed Track couldn’t figure out how to react productively to irritations on the ice. I used to knock on the Plexiglas behind the box and ask him, “What good does it do the team to have a scorer stuck in the box? Get back out and skate hard-and clean-do ‘what you’re put there to do!”

I didn’t need a mulriple-choice selection of nonanswers. All I needed to hear was what John’s position was on any particular issue. Then I could either furmulate a response that would support it wholeheartedly or carefully articulate my own slightly different perspective.

•

•

SARAH PALIN

At some point, someone must have told Schmidt that debate prep wasn’t going well. He and McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, came in and cleared the

They Sat down at a round

conference table and motioned me over to join them. Suddenly, I felt like I was on thin ice.

Schmidt leveled his eyes at me. “We don’t have the money Obama does and the numbers don’t look good. We’ve got to change things up,”

I

I was eager to hear a new strategy.

“So,” he continued, “headquarters i.s flying in a nutritionist,” There it was again, the mysterious “headquarters,” On the B

Team, folks had taken to making quote marks with their fingers every time they said the word. I had visited the physical headquarters once in Washington, D.C., and met amazing volunteers working round the clock for the GOP ticket. But somehow I must never have met the tight inner circle of shot callers. We joked that perhaps they didn’t even exist. Still, they were flying
in a nutritionist.