Sarah Palin hits out at tensions in McCain camp

Published on Friday 13 November 2009 21:23

FORMER vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's new memoir has lifted the lid on the tension in the John McCain camp during last year's United States election.

In Going Rogue, released on Tuesday, Mrs Palin

confirms that there was substantial tension between her advisers and those of Mr McCain. She details bitterly how she was prevented from delivering a concession speech on election night, how she had been kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign and prevented in many ways from just being herself.

She also contends she was prepped to give non-answers during her TV debate with the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Senator Joe Biden.

While the book follows Mrs Palin's life from her birth in Sandpoint, Idaho, to wondering about the next stop in her future, the former governor of Alaska saves her strongest words for run-ins with McCain staffers and her widely criticised interview with Katie Couric, of CBS television news.

The closest Mrs Palin comes to naming names occurs in the passages about the chief McCain campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt. Quoting another campaign official, she writes that Mr Schmidt felt she wasn't prepared enough on policy matters.

Mrs Palin comes across as particularly upset about being stuck with $50,000 (30,000) in legal bills, which she says were related to the legal vetting process for the vice-presidential slot. According to the book, Mrs Palin asked officials at the Republican national committee and what was left of the McCain campaign if they would help her financially. She was told that if Mr McCain had won, the bills would have been paid, but since he lost, the bills were her responsibility.