Going Rogue: An American Life (85 page)

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Going Rogue

cal walk-through,” and a series of people were inrroduced ro me: srage manager, lighting manager, production manager. Mic guy, podium-height guy, get-the-shine-off-your-nose guy. I was standing onstage when a campaign consultanr whispered some last-minute advice on voice inflection. I hated ro drop a bomb on her, but I’d been talking the same way for forty-four years and doubted our few momenrs alone would miraculously reform my style. Besides, I thought of all the money Tina Fey was making imitating me; I didn’t want ro screw up her
SNL
thing by changing up on her midstream. I’m all about job security for the American worker.

Then began a kind of odd, orchestrated phoro op that I learned is cusromary before a big campaign event. Photographers come in and snap pictures as you pretend to be doing something important. In the middle of that, Bexie and Chris Edwards appeared onstage. Chris was holding two differenr suits, skirts with blazers, and he held them up in the lights. Cameras continued to flash.

“What do you think?” Chris asked.

“What do I think? I’m wearing the blue one, that’s what I think. Remember-the one we ironed?”

Flashbulbs popped. Chris smiled and said through his teeth,

‘Just play along. They’re recording this Historic Moment,”

“Of me picking a suit?” I whispered.

“Exactly,”

I tried to put a comparing-suit-colors look on my

But finally, when Chris and I made eye contact, I broke inro a big grin. I loved this guy, another B Teamer who deserved ro be on varsity. We called Chris “the Candy Man” because his owns

Edward Marc, a gourmet chocolatier founded in Pittsburgh with headquarters in D.C. What a great way ro top off an energizing day on the trail, with a milk chocolate truffle or peanut butter meltaway; Chris kept the bus stocked, and we loved him for it.

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SARAH

PALIN

Later on, I was sitting in the greenroom surrounded by a buzzing crowd of people doing their best: Amy and Angela doing their miracle work, keeping the hair plopped up and the makeup troughed on; communications people answering press phone calls; and lots of people with last-minute tips on what ro say and what not to say. Piper sat in the corner, quietly sipping on my Diet Dr Pepper. Andrew Smirh, bless his heart, was doing his best to keep more people from crowding in.

I looked up to see Schmidt barrel through. Immediately, he began to bellyache about Gwen Ifill. “You know she’s going to f*** with you?”

I’m
thinking,
Why are you telling me this? Last minute .
..
what’s
the point? And no more[bombs around

please?

I wanted to focus on the points I planned to make about getting the economy on the right track with freemarket principles, not government growth and bailouts. I wanted to focus on a message of military strength and support for our allies, especially Israel.
In
the greenroom, various preppers kept quizzing me. Comm people flitted in and out. Schmidt was thumping around, mad about something. Meg had flown in from Alaska and was watching all the hubbub. Kris gave her a meaningful glance: time to herd the cats out of the room so there could be a minute of peace.
I wasn’t nervous, but I could always use some divine inspira-
tion, so I looked around for someone’to pray with before I walked onstage. I spotted Piper in the corner, still sipping my pop.

“Come here and pray with Mama, Pipe,” I said. No surprise for her; all my kids were used to my praying through life’s coaster ups and downs and competitions.

Piper walked over and we clasped hands. She looked up at me with her sweet, round face and freckle-dusted button nose. “Okay, Mama, what should we pray?”

I wanted to say that we should humbly seek the Lord’s strength

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befure 1 explained to 44 million viewers why they should vote for John McCain. 1 wanted to say that my heart’s desire was that our Lord would guide my words in a way thar would be truthful and honoring to Him.

But 1 said, as simply as 1 could, ‘Just pray we win the debate.” She drew a deep breath. “Mom!” she said. “That would be cheating’”

The debate commission had assigned a poised and serene woman to escort me to my toe mark, the spot just offstage where 1 would wait to be introduced before emerging from behind the curtain. As she led us down a hallway, she calmly reeled off times in hodrs, minutes, and seconds, speaking to debate producers through a mic and earpiece she was wearing. When we had nearly reached the stage, she turned to Jason and said, “I did the same job you’re doing for Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.”

Wow!
1 thought. What an amazing piece of

histotythat there had been only two women in debates at this level of national politics and the same dedicated woman had worked behind the scenes to help shatter the proverbial glass ceiling both times, on both sides of the aisle. 1 admired Geraldine Ferraro’s accomplishments During the campaign, 1 sometimes spoke about her contribution to the advancement of women in public service. Shortly after one of those acknowledgments, Ferraro called me on the campaign bus and we had a nice conversation. What struck me most was that she said my shout-out to her was the first time, in all those years, that she had been so publicly acknowledged for her historic step for the United States and for women. 1 don’t believe in voting according to gender or color of skin, but Ferraro’s vision and efforts helped a lot of women reach higher than they’d reached before.