Negligible Knowledge Base

I agree that you’re likely to continue to see more and more of the “behind the scenes” information on Sarah Palin coming out of the McCain campaign in the coming weeks. Here’s the first two revelations:

Newsweek:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent “tens of thousands” more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as “Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast,” and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Fox News Live: (YouTube link)

SHEPHERD SMITH: Now that the election is over, Carl, tell us more about all those reports of infighting between McCain and Palin staffers.

CARL CAMERON: Well, I wish I could have told you back at the time, but all of it was put off the record until after the election. There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We’re told by folks that she didn’t know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada, the US, and Mexico. We’re told she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself, a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled, was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn’t accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times that she was hard to control emotionally there’s talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings.

To all of this, she says, she doesn’t understand how anybody could feel that way. She says she [has] done everything asked of her, and she bears no ill will to staff. Notwithstanding that, there is to be an avalanche that will continue for many days now, we’re told, of story upon story of the foibles of Sarah Palin.

Watch the video. There’s more info about the haste with which Palin was chosen, and the reasons therefore (”Hail Mary”). This is what I find most disturbing:

CARL CAMERON: The McCain campaign makes a very interesting point about this in defending her selection: from the moment she was picked until September 15th, John McCain surged into the lead, both in the national polls and on the electoral map. On September 15th, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and John McCain said ‘the fundamentals are strong’, from that point forward Barack Obama took the lead and never looked back.

“Very interesting”??? What? So it’s okay to pick a dipstick for a running mate if that dipstick helps you win? Is that really the message the McCain campaign is using to defend the choice of Palin? (If you are offended by my use of the word “dipstick” in the preceding sentence, please feel free to substitute the phrase “someone who lacks a sufficient degree of knowledgeability”. Can anyone else remember when Fox News was totally against such “politically correct” speak?)

More to come.

[via gruber and anadart on Twitter]