At the Americans for Prosperity RightOnline conference in Las Vegas on Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president, took a couple jabs at the media for their coverage of President Barack Obama in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election.
Palin opened with a wisecrack that compared opinion polls in Washington, D.C. to stripper poles in Las Vegas.
“If they had done their job, perhaps we would not be shocked to know our White House would politicize national security by leaking highly confidential information to prop up the polls. Now here we are in Vegas — you know, like in Vegas, in Washington too, they talk a lot about polls. There are a lot of poles in Vegas. The White House likes to cite polls because the figures in those polls are usually augmented too.” (14:50 in)
But the main thrust of Palin’s speech was about the role of the electronic and digital media, the theme of the RightOnline conference. And she took some digs at the old media, comparing her vetting to the vetting of Obama in 2008.
“They didn’t do their job,” she said. “The media didn’t do the job — but say for the sake of argument they couldn’t afford to do the job. They couldn’t afford to send reporters to Chicago to research a candidate’s record because they spent all their money in Wasilla. At the Mocha Moose, they were going to find out what kind of coffee Bristol really ordered when she was 17, you know.” (15:50 in)
Watch (courtesy of The Right Scoop):
Palin, continuing with her example, asked why the media didn’t even read the president’s autobiography.
“So, for the sake of argument, say they ran out of money,” she continued. “Why did they at least not read his autobiography? They’d have a learned a whole lot. They’d have learned a whole lot, and not just about that pot smoking and that cocaine snorting and what he ate — Fido, Rufus. I think it’s funny that the cocktail circuit/circus gives me a hard time for eating elk and moose, but come on. There’s a difference. Anybody here have a pet moose? There’s a difference.”
(h/t The Right Scoop)