Alleged Palin Family Video Turns Up on YouTube

Sarah Palin's either going to turn out to be the boldest vice presidential choice in American history or the worst. So little is known about the charismatic and unseasoned Alaska governor that the next 70 days will be a massive public version of This is Your Life, much of which will be a total surprise to the McCain campaign. There are numerous media reports that Palin and her family were not comprehensively vetted prior to her selection as running mate.

Sam Stein alleges on Huffington Post that the first person to pore through the archives of Palin's hometown newspaper, the Valley Frontiersman in Wasilla, Alaska, was a researcher for Barack Obama's campaign this weekend.

The paper's (massive) archives are not online. And when he went to research past content, he was told he was the first to inquire.

"No one else had requested access before," said the source. "It's unbelievable. We were the only people to do that, which means the McCain camp didn't."

Andrew Halcro, an Alaskan politician who ran for governor against Palin as an independent in 2006, wrote yesterday on his blog that the McCain campaign is just now sending staffers to Wasilla:

The campaign of John McCain has sent a staff of eight people into Alaska to conduct background checks and vetting on Governor Sarah Palin.

Word is they have have eight rooms reserved at a Wasilla hotel.

Gail Collins, a Republican and former speaker of the Alaska House, told an Anchorage Daily News reporter that she didn't hear from any party leaders in the state who had spoken to McCain vetters about Palin prior to her selection:

"I said to [my husband] Walt, 'This can't be happening, because his advance team didn't come to Alaska to check her out," Phillips said.

Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain's people doing research on his prospective running mate.

"We're not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something."

As I said Saturday, I expect a flood of colorful stuff to come out about the Palins, who've never been subjected to scrutiny one-thousandth as intense as what they'll be facing now. This morning, an Alaskan named Steven Oaks posted a 1996 family video on YouTube that's purported to be Todd Palin talking to his daughter Bristol on the day he learned Sarah was elected mayor of Wasilla. Oaks claims the video was in a camera donated to Iditarod Elementary School by the Palins when Bristol was a student in his mother Mary Oaks' class.

The video allegedly shows Todd Palin awakened from bed to hear that his wife has won the election, news he either doesn't take well or jokes with his daughter about. I don't know that it's really Palin, but there's a decent resemblance to a 2007 photo from an Alaskan TV station story and another photo on Flickr.

In the six-minute video, Todd Palin gets a call from his wife where he learns she won. "I know I said you'd never be mayor," he tells his wife. "Of course I'm thrilled. Yes, I'm thrilled. I'm glad. Congratulations." After the call, he tells his daughter Bristol as she operates the camera, "Your momma is the mayor and I didn't think she was gonna win. How can your momma be the mayor and I'm a fisherman?"

He continues, in a sleepy stream-of-consciousness ramble, "How can daddy be the boss if your momma's the mayor? Miss Whale Blubber 1996 is now the mayor. That kinda makes me feel uncomfortable, honey."

Expressing what he characterizes as "private fisherman thoughts," Palin occasionally pleads with his daughter to shut off the camera. "Your momma is a moose hunter. ... Daddy's starting to feel like a fisherman and that's all."

After asking his daughter whether being a fisherman is better than being a mayor and getting the wrong answer, Palin concludes, "Does daddy like that mommy's the mayor? No. Daddy don't like that. ... Daddy's startin' to feel inadequate."

Update: After it became clear that I was in the distinct minority in believing the video might not be a hoax, I started emailing around Alaska to see if I could find someone who knew what Todd Palin looked like in the mid-'90s. The aforementioned Andrew Halcro watched it and sent this response: "Not only fake but insulting."

Comments

To answer the inevitable response before I head offline for a while, anyone who thinks posting this is an attack on the Palins should explain exactly how it makes them look bad.

I don't like Palin as VP at all. But, I'm sorry, this is obviously a fake. This guy has gray hair; he's at least 45 and probably older in this video. Todd Palin would've been what... 32-3 in 1996? They were highschool sweethearts so they're within a few years in age. No way this guy is that young, I don't care if he did just get up.

OTOH I completely agree with your general thrust; they did NOT vet her properly - at all! Troopergate looks pretty bad already and will only get worse for her. Abusing her power and firing a beloved and decent man is far worse than some alleged video in an old camera (that isn't even real).

Funny thing about vetting - no one looked into Obama's work relationship with Bill Ayers until Stanley Kurtz requested access to the CAC files a few weeks ago -- obviously it was not of much interest to the MSM--just as his supporting nepotism and patronage in IL was not of interest to them. How long has he been running for Pres now?

When WGN, a local Chicago radio station had Dr. Kurtz as a guest to discuss the CAC files, Obama team had them email and call the station with threats and rants....nice.

Yeah- if Obama was ever vetted--I doubt he'd be the nominee. But go ahead and express you surprize about Palin who was selected less than a week ago--some of us see the double standard.

Rogers scratches the bald spot, "To answer the inevitable response before I head offline for a while, anyone who thinks posting this is an attack on the Palins should explain exactly how it makes them look bad."

It is incredible! Are you perspectively handicapped?

Can you please provide the link to some rightwing site where either Obama's or Biden's family is subjected to some supposed right to invade their bedrooms and spread negative conclusions over the words claimed to be said by that family's children?

Actually, I think your party is so limited in their perspective, because it is made up of petty tyrants, small dictators who think their empathetic feelings for selected 'causes' gives them license to attack and destroy any disagreement. It is always their way, or no cooperation, no bipartisanship, no abiding by the rules of government, running away to subvert the democratic process, as nauseam ...

Progressives assume the 'right' to invade the privacy of their opponent's family, and conive with those who may have some personal grudge to destroy their reputations, release all the rumor as 'supported (media) truth', and belittle by some invented evil in the commonness of anyone's family life!

You are a partisan, political stooge, and I wonder at your effort to hide that obvious fact!?!

Quit with the excuses, and talk reality, not your invented right to destroy a family's reputation in order to gain votes for your vile Progressive party of slime tactics ...

pecanpii,

I'm not certain who responsibility it is to vet the presidential nominee of either party. The party leaders, the voters, the media or the other candidates? I'm not sure how much either party can do about choosing the presidential nominee other than lay out the process? But, It is clearly the presidential candidate and their staffs responsibility to vet the vice presidential candidate. Any shortcoming in those duties should reflect on the candidate and their decision making skills.

Jay

Question number one. Is it a Fake?

Meh, prolly.

Question number two. If real wot does it tell us?

That one's trickier.

Tells us that Todd Palin from ubermachismic Alaska felt like Sarah's biatch after her rise from City Coucil to Mayor.

Beauty Queen? That's why he married her.
PTA head? Five kids. No brainer there.
City Council? "Well, that's okay" admits Todd.

Mayor?

Not so much.

That's when he went from being the big breadwinner to just being the Mayor's husband.

Project that basic sentiment into the here and now.

Hmmmm, Spud imagines Todster's taking the latest news about his wife's potential Veepness very, very well.

...Or Not.

Be Well.

/Ya know wot might make him feel better?
//Maybe he and Michelle and Jill and Sindy can all watch the View together.
///Wot? Spud is just trying to help.

And Roger makes it official. Palin Derangement Syndrome has now replaced Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Sad really.

To those asking about obamas family being grilled/investigated.
"Terrorist fist jab"
"Muslum"
"Jihadist school" (when Obama was 8)

Maybe Bill clinton...

Bill clinton's brother
bill clinton's brother's land deals

etc, etc, etc....

get a flipping clue right wingers, if you want to play in the mud, you're going to encourage the other side to do the same. It's not a surprise, and you shouldn't be caught flat footed.

Odds are this is fake, but so what, we're going to find out an awful lot about this family. She's in an election to be a heart beat away from the most powerful postion in the world. She should be looked at with a microscope, I wouldn't survive under it, but I don't want to be president. Hell, the fact that john mccain would be the oldest person elected president should make us look at the VP that much closer.

Hahahahhaha, gutter, gutter, gutter, now Rogers is posting phony You Tube vidoes. What's next, the Palin sex tapes?

Revolting attempt to continue his traffic here.

I can see the conversation now aroudn the Cadenhack dinner table.

'Hey dad, what did you do today?' asked the youngster.

'Why I savaged a good woman and her 17 year old daughter for cheap politcal kicks and extra posts on my blog.' said the Cadenhack.

'But dad, I thought you were for women rights and wanted a female to break the glass ceiling of the white house?'

'No dear, that is a sham lie I tell to help me sleep at night.' 'I hate anyone that is the left to Keith Olbermann and would print any lie or slander to hurt them. Paritcualrly women, I hate them with a passion and kick them in the snatch whenever I get a clean shot and have a clear path to run afterwards.'

'Gee dad, thanks for the lesson in humanity!'

Het Rogers, just an update, your party is screwed.

In one swift blow McCain took away the Husseinaiacs Big Adventure, molified the right wing, attracted the Clinton supports, and added Juno to the mix.....

Hahahahahhaha, keep on throwing shit, monkey, your false prophet and his drunken ass grabbing side kick are doomed to failure.

You have soldout the last shred of decency you had in you with these attacks, and ruined your blogging reputation in the process.

If this is real, it is no wonder the daughter has found (different) male attention.

It is obviously a fake, and a sarcastically funny one at that.
It is NOT Mr. Palin (yes, I noticed the advancing grey hair as well) but it is amusing to say the least. Political satire - yes. Commentary on the Palins? No.
He keeps saying the name of hte girl, he keeps asking her to turn it off but keeps talking, the girl is unerringly keeping it on his face at the age of what - 4? 5? He does look to be mid 40's and would only be about 32 then.
Please.
Funny.
But not real.

You can't be serious. And if you are serious, you're incredibly stupid.

I never said it was real, but I obviously thought it might be or I wouldn't have written about it at all. Andrew Halcro watched it at my request this evening and emailed this response: "Not only fake but insulting." The post has been updated.

And Roger makes it official. Palin Derangement Syndrome has now replaced Bush Derangement Syndrome.

If I caught it, let the record show I caught it first. Don't let Andrew Sullivan or those baby swapping truthers on Daily Kos steal my thunder.

Here is a thought, learn a little about her before you slander and defame her. I watched several interviews of hers today and a debate.

She is going to kick ass and she is a MILF I wouldn't mind being 'first (or second?) husband' too.

Slamming her out of the gate didn't work so well, did it?

Rogers, I'm incredibly disappointed in you.

You used to be a good guy, and wouldn't be caught dead saying this sort of thing. You'd have made a joke, written something clever, and won the point. Not any more.

Just realize this: This sort of amateur hour, pathetic crap is what's going to lose the election for the Democrats. You had a chance. The Dems could have led a clean campaign, left Obama up front, saying his pretty words, and won easily.

But every time this sort of thing gets major exposure, you lose some voters. And the longer it goes on, the worse it gets.

Notice the polls? Obama was supposed to have a huge post-Convention jump of at least eight points. What did he get? Four? That's a disaster. Which is why we're seeing these sorts of pathetic attacks. And no, backpedaling with "it's satire" or "it's just a joke" really, REALLY doesn't work. You have to stop following the lead of idiot sites like Daily Kos or lunatics like Andrew Sullivan.

DId anyone notice Obama didn't have any real family at his convention. Where are his brothers, father, uncles, etc. Wonder why he didn't profile them as part of his heritage.

Just realize this: This sort of amateur hour, pathetic crap is what's going to lose the election for the Democrats.

I appreciate the advice. Honestly, I do. I'm not immune to the notion that I can be completely full of shit.

But I'm not blogging for tactical purposes to win elections for Democrats. I shared my thoughts on Palin's flight and this weird video because they're my thoughts, and this is my blog, so that's where my thoughts go.

If my thoughts might cause Obama to lose the election, I'd still share them. I could not be a Democrat if I was exceptionally hung up on winning elections. My entire adult voting life has been one in which Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Where are his brothers, father, uncles, etc.

Obama's parents are both dead. His grandmother is alive, but as he said one night at the convention she's not able to travel.

Hey, I found some great footage for you to write about Rogers. Real cutting edge stuff to base your opinions on.

Rogers next Big Breaking Story

Oh, Rogers. Rogers, Remember how I told you that in bad sitcom pilots the characters always say each others' names over and over again? Rogers, the dude in the video saying the distinctive name of the governor's daughter repeatedly shoulda been a big tip off. That, and all the snorking at the end.

Will people ever forgive you, Rogers? I don't know. I just don't know.

But I'll forgive you. I have to. We're brothers... we tell each other everything... you were the best man at my wedding...

Jack maunders, "To those asking about obamas family being grilled/investigated."

Unreal! Ask for a link or a reference and get sheis for answers from Progressives!

""Terrorist fist jab"
"Muslum"
"Jihadist school" (when Obama was 8)
"

That is Obama, the person you creepazoids have nominated to be the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth -not a vice presidential nominees family! And, you can't resist attacking family in place of the person, and because you idiots are too intent on misdirecting that scum sucking action as equivalent to finding out about a PRESIDENT ... you hypocrites are so oblivious! As 'smart' as you are, you are the most stupid jerks on this planet!

"Maybe Bill clinton..."

A blowjob in the Whitehouse is just fine with you hypocritical, partisan liars, but a woman's choice, if she is a Republican, is something you Equus asinus can use to revile and dehumanize ... since Republicans are the neo-Juden for the elite Progressives of the 21st Century. A vice presidential candidate you can revile to misdirect that your presidential candidate doesn't have even half the humanity that the Republicans second choice posseses. What a pathetic party of backstabbing, anti-patriotic vermin the Progressive label represent!

"Bill clinton's brother - Bill clinton's brother's land deals"

I defy you to present one rightwing site that presented propaganda to that effect. The facts are that it was the mainstream media which dogged Bill's past ... not the RNC.

"etc, etc, etc...."

Here is the evidence of a black and white attitude. If Republicans produce 10% of their campaign in a negative manner ... then it is okay for Democrats to conduct negative campaigns FOREVER at 90% production!

The reality of the situation is that Democrats produce the vast majority of negative politics, and your misdirections can't change that fact ...

"... get a flipping clue right wingers, if you want to play in the mud, you're going to encourage the other side to do the same."

See? It is always the responsibility of the other side and you are just responding like the knee-jerk idiots your collective happens to be! Unreal! Democrats have been practicing negative politics since Carpetbaggers -- WAKE UP!

Democrats were Sotherners intent on defying Republican efforts to desegregate the South and to enforce Northern economic rules and regulations ...

If you don't even know the history of your own party ... you should shut your ignorant trap up!

Democrats have ALWAYS tried to manipulate the constution to satisfy their own desires ... originally for slavery and segregation, and now to deny the constitution in every other way. Democrats fought the civil righs legislation tooth-and-nail.

Nothing has changed, you are still abstractly Southern segregationists (party from party and party against nation) and intransigent on demanding their way or no way at all (dissolution of the union). Indeed, "nothing" is what hasn't changed in your 'leadership' of blacks and dictating their politics and depending on their dependence; originally created by the Democrat slave owners of the South.

Now, with a new label, the Progressives want to dictate and demand and if no agreement is reached they will hold their breaths to defy an Energy Bill ... keeping their government 50% tax windfall profit, and the hope to make it 75% by creating hate and revulsion for an American capitalist business. A business that provides retirment for millions of elderly, profits for intelligent families in investment, support charities invested in mutual funds, and a hundred, a million other benefits to citizens of America and around the world.

But, Democrats, Progressives sow class hatred and hatred for capitalistic profits in order to encourage the mob to revolt and demand punishment for not being a socialistic minion of the state ... at least not more than the 50% they have already made as their demands up to the present. Now it is more, "Stand and deliver!", they urge the mob to riot and revolution, so that government can take even more and more to give to the elite ... then the poor ... whom they choose to define ...

Is Obama a socialist?

You bet your sweet asinus he is!

1996? That would have made Bristol about 5 years old? Regardless, the tape shows nothing incriminating. Other than Todd has dedfinite problems with his grammar.

img364.imageshack.us

LOL... pwn'd. What a chump!

Palin's husband, who you thought was John the Fisherman, is really an executive for ExxonMobile. Of course. Because all good Repukes work for oil companies.

I just find it hilarious how much conservatives love a hardcore socialist like Palin, who never saw a government handout she didnt want.

So if you know that this is a Fake then take the crap down. This is ridiculous.

Stop playing games.

Rogers excuses effort at political lying, "... I'm not blogging for tactical purposes to win elections for Democrats. I shared my thoughts on Palin's flight and this weird video because they're my thoughts, and this is my blog, so that's where my thoughts go."

Your friends express concern for your actions, and you abuse their care by repeating your self-serving excuses.

No one is fooled! This isn't the dimwitted collective at the Retort, and which was dredged from out of depths of your political addiction. The site was dedicated by you to the Yellow-Dog-Democrats in order that they might have a home to stir the hate-filled, caldron, bubbling over with dehumanizing propaganda reviling the rightwing. You post in both sites, among others, and routinely issue political propaganda there; often the same article, as you have in these attacks.

You are a cake eater - you want your friends and your egregious political chicanery, too.

Really, if this were my blog, and I had made such a shameful example of myself ... I'd remove my political lies and apologize. However, you are literally one of the yellow-dog-democrats and haven't the basic honesty to do any such thing.

Well, well, well, another lefty loony strikes again! This guy is such a fake and phony with the grey receding hair. I really hope no one out there swallows this junk!
This is so typical of the leftys they always come through with juvenile tactics to win a race instead of the issues that concern our country.

The followers of the deMEcratic party only care about themselves and not the country as whole for the most part. I will say there are some who are not so self absorbed. You hear there cry...what are you going to do for ME, ME, ME. What hand outs will you give me, can I still take the life of an unborn baby, same sex marriage even though we can't reproduce, but we want to adopt a normal hydrosexual couples baby
!
Most of the peoples financial problems are not a result of the government, but lack of managing their personal finances and over spending. But don't you know it's all Bushes fault, he made you buy that home or car that you cannot afford. Oh, yeah and the liberal ACLU who what to take away your right to pray or any religious article (ten commandments) from a public place (court room). Don't you know the criminal might see "thou shalt not steal" in a court of law!

I do not dislike Obama in fact he is very charismatic and intelligent. It's his inexperience and the people he surrounds himself with that concerns me. We just don't agree on issues like some of you fine people.

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