"Bridge to Nowhere" On August 29, when first introduced as McCain's running mate, Governor Palin told the crowd: "I told Congress, thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere" – a line that garnered big applause. Early McCain–Palin television advertisements claimed that Palin "stopped the Bridge to Nowhere". These claims have been widely questioned or described as misleading in several newspapers across the political spectrum.
Howard Kurtz called this a "whopper", writing: "She endorsed the remote project while running for governor in 2006, claimed to be an opponent only after Congress killed its funding the next year and has used the $223 million provided for it for other state ventures." McCain also weighed in on the Gravina Island Bridge. In advertisements, McCain labeled the bridge as wasteful spending, and in an August 2007 town hall speech recorded on video and quoted again on April 30, 2008, he blamed the
Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse on the Gravina Island Bridge. His advertising and comments that (before September 21, 2006) contradicted Governor
Sarah Palin's support of the bridge drew the attention of the media when he chose Palin as his running mate, opening the ticket to charges of
hypocrisy.
Interviews with Charlie Gibson On September 11 and 12, Palin submitted to her first national interview, with ABC's
Charles Gibson Gibson asked Palin, "Do you agree with the
Bush doctrine?," to which Palin responded, "In what respect, Charlie?" After asking Palin for her definition, Gibson defined the concept to be for the United States to "have the right of anticipatory self-defense". Gibson also asked Palin about a prayer she had offered with regard to soldiers in Iraq. Commentators' reactions varied. Those generally critical of Palin's candidacy applauded Gibson's penetrating questions and thought aspects of Palin's responses showed that she was not ready to serve as vice president, whereas those generally supportive of her candidacy took a more positive view of her performance. Palin's second media interview was with Fox News's
Sean Hannity. ===
Saturday Night Live parody=== September 13 saw the first of many performances by Tina Fey in the role of Palin. The first sketch, "A Nonpartisan Message from Governor Sarah Palin & Senator Hillary Clinton," featured Tina Fey and
Amy Poehler as Palin and Clinton, respectively. The sketch mocked Palin's performance during the Gibson interviews. Palin's comments on Alaska's proximity to Russia gave rise to the satirical line
"And I can see Russia from my house." It also drew attention to Palin's apparent lack of knowledge about foreign policy:
Email hacked On September 16, the Yahoo! personal email account of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was subjected to unauthorized access. The hacker had obtained access to Palin's account by looking up biographical details such as her high school and birthdate and using Yahoo!'s account recovery for forgotten passwords.
Interviews with Katie Couric After McCain announced Palin as his running mate,
Newsweek and
Time put Palin on their magazine covers, as some of the media alleged that McCain's campaign was restricting press access to Palin by allowing only three one-on-one interviews and no press conferences with her. Among the reasons that the news organizations criticized the restrictions was Palin's first major interview, with
Charles Gibson of
ABC News, met with mixed reviews. Her interview five days later with
Fox News's
Sean Hannity focuses on many of the same questions from Gibson's interview. However, Palin's
performance in her third interview, with
Katie Couric of
CBS News, was widely criticized, prompting a decline in her poll numbers, concern among Republicans that she was becoming a political liability, and calls from some conservative commentators for Palin to resign from the presidential ticket. Other conservatives remain ardent in their support for Palin, accusing the columnists of elitism. Following this interview, some Republicans, including
Mitt Romney and
Bill Kristol, questioned the McCain campaign's strategy of sheltering Palin from unscripted encounters with the press. Palin's performance in the Couric interview was lampooned several days later on the September 27 of
Saturday Night Live. That sketch featured Palin being interviewed by
Katie Couric who was played by Amy Poehler; In the sketch, Fey quoted verbatim some of Palin's actual statements:
Vice-presidential debate Palin was reported to have prepared intensively for the October 2
vice-presidential debate with
Democratic vice-presidential nominee
Joe Biden at
Washington University in St. Louis. Some Republicans suggested that Palin's performance in the interviews would improve public perceptions of her debate performance by lowering expectations. Polling from
CNN,
Fox and
CBS found that while Palin exceeded most voters' expectations, they felt that Biden had won the debate.
Anti-Obama rhetoric Upon returning to the campaign trail after her debate preparation, Palin stepped up her attacks on the Democratic candidate for president, Senator
Barack Obama. In a campaign appearance on October 4, Palin accused Obama of regarding America as "so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country". The accusation referred to
Obama's contacts with Bill Ayers, a founder of the 1960s radical group called the
Weathermen, and a
New York Times article describing such contacts. The Obama campaign called the allegation a "smear", citing newspaper commentaries critical of Palin's attack. Obama has condemned the Weathermen's violent actions. The criticism of Obama based on his purported relationship with Ayers was subsequently carried on by McCain himself. At a fundraising event, Palin explained her new aggressiveness, saying, "There does come a time when you have to take the gloves off and that time is right now." By late October, voter reactions to Palin had grown increasingly negative, especially among independents and other voters concerned about her qualifications. Republican and former
US Secretary of State Gen.
Colin Powell endorsed Obama on October 19 and said of Palin "Now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president."
"Troopergate" On October 10, 2008, the twelve-member
Alaska Legislative Council voted unanimously to release, without endorsing, an investigative report, which found Palin had violated the ethics law covering state executive employees.
RNC campaign expenditures On October 22, it was reported that the Republican National Committee's monthly financial disclosure report for September showed that US$150,000 had been spent on Palin's wardrobe, hair and makeup as well as clothing and accessories for her family. Campaign finance experts expressed concern about the legality of the spending and the tax implications to Palin. A campaign spokesperson responded saying that the clothing will be donated to charity following the election. By January 2009, it was reported that the clothing was stored in garbage bags at the Republican National Convention headquarters. In March 2009, a spokesperson for Palin stated that the clothes had been donated to charities The spending was later reviewed and approved by the U.S. Federal Elections Commission by a 5–0 vote. Another controversy erupted when it was revealed that her campaign paid makeup artist, Amy Strozzi, a sum of $22,800, making her the highest paid staffer on the McCain campaign. (A year after the election, Palin would
title her memoir after this accusation.) An unnamed Palin ally "outside the campaign" said that Palin felt "completely mismanaged and mishandled and ill advised ... Recently, she's gone from relying on McCain advisers who were assigned to her to relying on her own instincts." ==Election==