# Fascinating Newsweek article (in which Palin goes rogue and Obama says the F-word) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 5, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327 "2008-11-05T19:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/21 "2008-11-05T21:32:31Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Why? All they’re doing is finding out whether registered voters’ names have been crossed off the roles as having voted already. What’s wrong with that? I drove a friend around Tuesday who was going to voters’ homes to encourage them to vote. She was working from just such a list. Didn’t seem all that nefarious to me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/22 "2008-11-05T21:37:48Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > That’s not what it said. It said people ‘waiting in line at the polls’. They hadn’t voted yet. So how did they identify them? How did they match up somebody standing in line with a voter registration? Did they take pictures when they registered the voters? Did they ask the person in line for their personal information? I’m going to go waaaaay out on a limb, here, and guess, “They asked people their names.” If the person gave their name, they could cross it off their list. The names that are still on the list are people who hadn’t shown up to vote yet, so they contacted them at their homes to make sure they got to the polls. > [@](#): > > And it was being used by ‘flushers’ to round up people. If you hadn’t gotten crossed of the list, they presumably must have called, stopped by the house, whatever, and cajoled you into the poll station. And the creepy part of all this is…? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/23 "2008-11-05T21:45:19Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > Does anybody else find this a bit chilling? No, that’s just kind of fascinating. “Chilling” is the fact that death threats against Obama increased when Palin started implying he was a terrorist. McCain comes across as a man torn between desperately wanting to win and wanting to preserve some principles. It was obvious a few weeks ago he didn’t want to attack Obama based on Wright, or he would’ve done so. And yet the socialist and Marxist stuff wasn’t any less cheap or dirty even if it lacked the racial element. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/24 "2008-11-05T21:45:42Z")
That’s interesting that the Obama campaign had lists like that, since we got a call last night from a woman reminding us to vote for him…when we already had. I didn’t think anything of it until now. Maybe things were a little less high tech out here in the boonies? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/25 "2008-11-05T21:57:33Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > That’s not what it said. It said people ‘waiting in line at the polls’. They hadn’t voted yet. So how did they identify them? How did they match up somebody standing in line with a voter registration? Did they take pictures when they registered the voters? Did they ask the person in line for their personal information? Have you ever voted? When you go to vote, they ask you your name, then they check to see if your name is on the list of registered voters for that precinct, then they have you sign off that you are said person, then they mark your name in a data base as having voted. They do that so other precincts can tell if you voted somewhere else already. It’s all public information. All the Obama camp was doing was accessing public record. They weren’t “matching up people standing in line,” they were keeping track of names on the data base as they got marked as having voted. They weren’t surveilling people in lines. When the article mentioned people bein g “identified,” it was talking about identification by the poll workers, not some kind of science fiction, satellite surveillance system bt the Obama campaign. > [@](#): > > And it was being used by ‘flushers’ to round up people. If you hadn’t gotten crossed of the list, they presumably must have called, stopped by the house, whatever, and cajoled you into the poll station. That’s called “getting out the vote.” It’s what all campaigns do. McCain did it too, and the Bush campaigns were actually known for being particularly aggressive at it. I don’t know why it’s “chilling.” It might be annoying if you get too many phone calls, but being able to eliminate names from your voter lists who have already voted actually cuts DOWN on redundant, annoying GOTV calls. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/26 "2008-11-05T22:19:23Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Thanks for the link, **Diogenes**. If I remember correctly, Newsweek did a similar piece on the Bush/Gore campaigns after that election, and it was really an interesting read. (It’s been a while, so I may be misremembering the publication or the election year, but I distinctly remember reading about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff going on in W’s campaign and being nauseated by it.) They’ve been doing it since '84. They use a separate, clean-room staff to research the article. I wonder if insiders are more candid when talking to this staff – knowing that their article will come out after the election. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/27 "2008-11-05T22:40:19Z")
> [@CaerieD](#): > > That’s interesting that the Obama campaign had lists like that, since we got a call last night from a woman reminding us to vote for him…when we already had. I didn’t think anything of it until now. Maybe things were a little less high tech out here in the boonies? I think it is (less high tech). In the 2004 election, poll watchers stopped by the polling place and were given a list of names of people who had signed the voter list. Presumably, they compared the voter list with their list of registered party members and would call anyone not on the voter list and remind them to vote. But it’s all on paper here – no computers (or any mechanized list) at the polling place. So no way to immediately tell if someone had voted anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/28 "2008-11-06T02:17:24Z")
> [@Sinaijon](#): > > Does anybody else find this a bit chilling? I did eight hours as a telephone canvasser on election day for Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change in Ohio. We kept careful track of all the registered voters and the contacts we had with them. You logged out the voter list for your precinct and recorded your contacts, logged it back in when you were done, and logged out the next precinct. No duplication of efforts, no unnecessary wasted time. If the voter had moved or had a bad telephone number that was noted and they were not called again. If the voter was not an Obama supporter that was noted and they were not called again. If the voter was an Obama supporter and had not already voted I told them, “We’ll be calling later on to see how it went”. and we would call in the next pass. Obama supporters who had not voted got at least three telephone calls until they confirmed that they had voted. We were inexorable. If they needed a ride, we got them a ride, if they needed a chair to sit on while they waited in line to vote, we got them a chair. If they had already voted, that was noted and they were not called again. They were “disappeared” from the list and did not get called on the next pass. We did not get feedback from flushers, at least in my county. We relied on door knockers in the walkable neighborhoods and telephone calls in the ones that weren’t. It’s not rocket surgery, why would you waste your time calling people who had already voted, or people who were voting for the other guy, and why does that sound chilling? ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/29 "2008-11-06T03:30:12Z")
People, it is “chilling” because it helped Obama crush McCain. Stupid democracy in action! ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/30 "2008-11-06T03:51:19Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Umm, symbolism in clothing is a very old tradition. So is a lot of other woo woo horseshit. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/31 "2008-11-06T04:53:14Z")
An interesting article in the [NYT](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06mccain.html?ref=politics) about Palin. One part: > [@](#): > > Ms. Palin, who had prepared for and survived an initial interview with Charles Gibson of ABC News, did not have the time or focus to prepare for Ms. Couric, the McCain advisers said. “She did not say, ‘I will not prepare,’ ” a McCain adviser said. “She just didn’t have a bandwidth to do a mock interview session the way we had prepared before. She was just overloaded.” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/32 "2008-11-06T05:09:44Z")
[QUOTE=Newsweek] 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. [/QUOTE] It looks like the GOP Circular Firing Squad (“Ready! Fire! Aim!”) is locked and loaded… ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/33 "2008-11-06T05:21:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m going to go waaaaay out on a limb, here, and guess, “They asked people their names.” If the person gave their name, they could cross it off their list. The names that are still on the list are people who hadn’t shown up to vote yet, so they contacted them at their homes to make sure they got to the polls. This is exactly how I spent election day at a local precinct – asking people their names as they came in and taking their names off the contact list. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/34 "2008-11-06T05:23:01Z")
How many of you seriously believed that there wouldn’t be a McCain=honorable storyline _after_ the election? Oh: look at all the things he _didn’t_ do!! Sorry. Appointing Palin without a vetting process was grossly irresponsible, and short-sighted. I see that McCain didn’t want to bring up Ayeres. But he did in the end didn’t he? There was little or no substance in his attacks until the very end, when he accused Obama of being a redistributionist. The country soundly thumped McCain down for that one: the progressive income tax has a long and bipartisan history. McCain has a long history of giving speeches where he expresses his regrets. I’ve been fooled once (Keating 5) and I’ve been fooled twice (South Carolina and the confederate flag) by the guy. After a while, the shtick gets a little old. Awesome article, btw. Slashdot focused on the hacking incident. I observe that Palin is pretty corrupt. The article is packed with gems: I hope they print the long detailed version. More post-mortem: CNN reports that Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s top foreign policy adviser was secretly fired last week after he went ballistic on staff members and went off the reservation by leaking rumors to the press. [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/05/soruces-mccain-aide-fired-for-trashing-staff/](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/11/05/soruces-mccain-aide-fired-for-trashing-staff/) It will take a while to sort through these conflicting and self-interested accounts. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/35 "2008-11-06T07:59:49Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Awesome article, btw. Slashdot focused on the hacking incident. I observe that Palin is pretty corrupt. The article is packed with gems: I hope they print the long detailed version. Click on the “How he Won” link for Chapter 1 of the full article. It talks about how Obama convinced Michelle that he should run, and has a bit about Billary’s meltdown in Iowa. Makes me really glad that Obama got the nomination. > [@](#): > > It will take a while to sort through these conflicting and self-interested accounts. My birthday is coming up soon, and reading through this dirt makes an excellent present! ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/36 "2008-11-06T08:22:29Z")
> [@2nd\_Law](#): > > This is exactly how I spent election day at a local precinct – asking people their names as they came in and taking their names off the contact list. We’re you working for the Obama campaign? Or your local elections board? ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/37 "2008-11-06T08:48:06Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I love that (unspoken) answer and almost wish he’d actually said it during that debate. I not only find it amusing to get a glimpse into what’s really going through his head when he sometimes gives those halting, carefully deliberate answers to questions, I’m also heartened to know that what’s going on under the surface is even sharper and more incisive (not mention wittier), than we we see on top. Much of the criticism of Obama during the early debates in the primary was that his answers were too convoluted and academic, as though he were trying to grapple with complex issues in a subtle way. God forbid. :rolleyes: But the reality is that although a good leader has to \*think \*that way, they can’t \*talk \*that way–at least, not if they want to get elected. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/38 "2008-11-06T12:00:20Z")
[Fox reports](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/palin-didnt-know-africa-i_n_141653.html) that Palin didn’t know that Africa was a continent, and that she did not know the countries in Nafta (or what countries are in North America). What was McCain thinking?! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/39 "2008-11-06T12:43:24Z")
So the storyline from the McCain people is that eeeeeeverything was Palin’s fault. The Newsweek story and this stuff about the Couric interview also backs up an idea I’d heard elsewhere: McCain really resents people he perceives as unqualified when they try to advance beyond their abilities and experience. Kinda makes you wonder why he put himself in that situation. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Gozu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gozu/32/6615_2.png) [@Gozu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327/40 "2008-11-06T12:44:43Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Umm, symbolism in clothing is a very old tradition. The way you wear your suit has a lot of meaning behind it. I bet Obama knows of those meanings. > > Hoping Obama doesn’t pay attention to his clothes is hoping that he’s an idiot. No one who appears on television should be ignorant of such things. > > How you can see the most media savvy President in history and hope he doesn’t think about his clothing, is an incredible disconnect for you. > > Politics is theater. Someone should be picking his clothes for him. He has enough things to deal with. If somebody follows him around with a bottle of sanitizer to disinfect his hands after handshakes, somebody can take care of his apparel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-newsweek-article-in-which-palin-goes-rogue-and-obama-says-the-f-word/471327.md?page=3)