‘PALIN DIDN’T KNOW AFRICA WAS A CONTINENT’: MCCAIN AIDES BEGIN REPUBLICAN MUD-SLINGING IN WAKE OF DEFEAT
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 2:06 AM on 07th November 2008
Last updated at 2:06 AM on 07th November 2008
Shopping spree: Palin’s wardrobe bill has appalled party insiders
Sarah Palin may have lost her bid to be Vice President – but she was still the talk of America last night.
She apparently did not know that Africa was a continent, not a country, and was also unable to name the nations in the vitally important North American Free Trade Agreement.
There are only three. Her own, its northern neighbour Canada and its southern neighbour Mexico.
The 44-year- old former Republican running mate’s lack of general knowledge – and a storm over her designer wardrobe – emerged as she returned to her home state of Alaska.
Extraordinary details of bitterness and jealousy between the Alaska governor and John McCain were laid bare following their White House defeat.
McCain aides complained that Mrs Palin refused to be coached before TV interviews – – even after it emerged she wasn’t sure about Africa’s status in the world.
Republican bosses also complained that Mrs Palin and her family spent even more on new clothes and shoes than previously reported.
One McCain aide described the Palin family shopping spree in some of America’s most exclusive department stores as ‘Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast.’
According to Newsweek magazine, a party donor who agreed to foot the clothes bill was expecting to pay out up to £15,000.
He was stunned when he received the bill for nearly £100,000. And that wasn’t even the whole tab, it was revealed yesterday.
Mrs Palin also allegedly leaned on some of her low-level handlers to put thousands of pounds worth of additional purchases on their personal credit cards.
Aides claimed a Republican Party lawyer is now being dispatched to Alaska to inventory the clothes and retrieve any still in the governor’s possession.
Divide: Sarah Palin watches as John McCain gives his concession speech early Wednesday morning. She allegedly wanted to speak during the speech, but was barred from doing so
Mrs Palin denied the claims yesterday, laughing of suggestions that she lived a ‘diva lifestyle’ in Alaska.
‘The knives are out and Sarah’s getting filleted,’ one U.S. television network reported yesterday.
The Republican contenders for president and vice-president barely spoke to each other in the lead-up to election day and indulged in a sixweek-civil war, it was claimed.
The ill-fated pair began to fall out only a fortnight later in mid-September, insiders revealed yesterday.
Just getting started: Sarah Palin waves to supporters as she returns home to Alaska… to shouts of ‘2012!’
Mrs Palin’s aides hit back, claiming she was naive about designer labels and outraged when she found out how much her suits and dresses cost. Spending by staff was reimbursed, they said.
They also revealed she was enraged by leaks from officials dubbing her a ‘whack job’ – slang for mad.
Last week’s hoax call from a Canadian comic who convinced her she was talking to French leader Nicolas Sarkozy caused fresh aggravation because she conducted diplomacy on the hoof – and then failed for three days to tell the McCain team she’d been hoodwinked.
The Alaska governor tried to counter backlash against her shopping spree by appearing in jeans on more than one occasion – including on the day she voted
There was a striking metaphor for the doomed partnership when the pair went their separate ways on Wednesday afternoon. Mr McCain, 72, drove himself away from their hotel base in Phoenix, Arizona, in his own Toyota.
But Mrs Palin and 18 family members left in a motorcade stretching to a dozen vehicles flanked by a dozen police motorcycle outriders.
It was more proof, according to McCain aides, that her ambition had stretched way beyond the job in hand as she focused on running for President herself in four years.
She had even intended to deliver her own speech just before Mr McCain’s concession address on Tuesday – an unprecedented move – before being firmly told it was out of the question.
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PALIN LAYS LOW AS INTERVIEW REQUESTS PILE UP
Play Video ABC News – Palin Blame Game 
Thu Nov 6, 7:35 PM ET
Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, right, greets supporters after returning to Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday Nov. 5, 2008. Palin returned after 70 days on the campaign trail as Sen. John McCain’s vice president candidate.
(AP Photo/Al Grillo)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin hadn’t been back home in Alaska for a full day and her staff had begun fielding requests Thursday for postelection interviews, including from Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and others.
Palin had been expected at her office in Anchorage but later notified her staff that she wouldn’t show up after all. She remained at her home in Wasilla, located 40 miles to the north, but was expected in her office on Friday, spokesman Bill McAllister said.
“The intensity of all the interest is amazing. Everyone wants to talk to her,” he said.
Palin is coming off a whirlwind nine weeks of almost nonstop travel and campaigning since becoming Republican John McCain’s vice presidential running mate in late August. McCain and Palin lost Tuesday’s election to Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“I think she’s been working from home,” McAllister said. “Maybe she just liked the idea of spending a whole day at home. It could be the first time she woke up in her own bed and spent the night in her own bed on the same day since late August.”
Aides to McCain and Palin, meanwhile, responded to reports of tension between the two sides over the Republican Party’s purchase of more than $150,000 worth of clothing for Palin and her family, and accusations that Palin was ill-prepared for her role.
Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s foreign policy adviser, called the idea of a split between the two campaigns “laughable.”
“It’s hard to believe these people worked for John McCain. They obviously have no loyalty to John McCain and no loyalty to his running mate,” said Scheunemann, who prepared Palin for the vice presidential debae.
“I’ve worked in Washington for over 20 years. I have seen literally dozens of politicians, and Sarah Palin is as smart, tough and focused as any politician I’ve ever seen. I’m proud of the time I was able to spend with her,” he said.
Meg Stapleton, a campaign spokeswoman for Palin, said the accusations were unfortunate.
“We have the highest regards for Sen. John McCain,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “Gov. Palin was honored to be chosen as McCain’s running mate.”
Palin returned to Alaska late Wednesday night, her final flight in the McCain-Palin campaign plane. Dozens of supporters greeted her with chants of “2012! 2012!” as she walked off the airplane — encouragement for her to run for president in four years.
Asked by reporters if she might run, Palin said: “We’ll see what happens then.”
The governor said she hoped to work with President-elect Obama on energy policy.
She returned home after spending Tuesday night in Phoenix, where she watched election returns with McCain.
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On the Net:
Gov. Palin: http://gov.state.ak.us/
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 
oh wow, this is so typical of them.. what a way to end the campaign, with still a lot of mudslinging!
If Palin runs for President in 2012, at least she has name recognition going for her… but that may not work in her favor
@ven@the jabber.
Yes, and they are throwing mud at each other 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for your comments.
@patrick.
Yes.
There is good name recognition, and there is bad name recognition.
Palin definitely does not have good name recognition.
Thanks for you comments, and thanks for stopping by.