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Palin hiding from the press: Day 24

The Washington Post notes the historically unprecedented attempt by a vice-presidential nominee to hide from press accountability:

Mr. McCain's selection of an inexperienced and relatively unknown figure was unsettling, and the campaign's decision to keep her sequestered from serious interchanges with reporters and voters serves only to deepen the unease. Mr. McCain is entitled to choose the person he thinks would be best for the job. He is not entitled to keep the public from being able to make an informed assessment of that judgment. Ms. Palin's speech-making skills are impressive, but the more she repeats the same stump speech lines, the queasier we get. Nor have her answers to the gentle questioning she has encountered provided any confidence that Ms. Palin has a grasp of the issues.

There are only a few weeks to go before the United States may pick a potential president who has never given a press conference as a candidate for national office. This is not a functioning democracy.

And McCain is even worse: 40 days since his last press conference.

  • McCain, 2008: Ducking the Media. "He used to be the most accessible presidential candidate in modern American history, and he prided himself on that. No longer. The last time he took questions from his press corps was on Aug. 13." [ABC News, 9/11/08]
  • FOX News: McCain Skips Media Avails for Staged Rallies. "Today marks the four-week anniversary since McCain held his last press conference (8/13 in Birmingham, MI) and three weeks since his last public town hall meeting (8/20 in Las Cruces, NM)." [FOX News, 9/10/08]
  • MSNBC: McCain Hasn't Spoken to Reporters Since August 13. "McCain has not spoken to the press since August 13 in Birmingham, MI -- the day his wife sprained her wrist at a fundraiser." [MSNBC, 8/25/08]
  • Campaign Uses Promise of Availability to Lure Reporters to Campaign Event. "The strange scene was enough to distract reporters from the fact they believed they would be covering a 'press conference' this morning, as the McCain schedule had advertised. McCain, who has been at his Sedona cabin for several days working on his convention speech and readying the announcement of his VP pick, has not taken questions from his traveling press corps since Aug. 13 when he visited Michigan." [Newsweek, 8/25/08]

 

 

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