The McCain senior adviser opens up about the campaign and fires back at Fred Barnes.
UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon, Barnes made a public apology to Nicolle Wallace, admitting he was "wrong" to scapegoat her. Whether it was an error on Barnes' part or on the part of whomever in the campaign told him that Palin's post-selection shopping spree was Wallace's doing is unclear. But the apology is direct enough: "I was rough on Nicolle Wallace of the McCain campaign who was identified as the one responsible for getting the expensive clothes for Sarah Palin and being cowardly and not admitting she was the one. Well, it turns out I was wrong, I discovered. I apologize for my mistake and apologize particularly to Nicolle Wallace."
Wallace accepted the apology promptly, telling The Daily Beast: "I'm deeply appreciative. Fred is a class act."
- - -
Nicolle Wallace is the funny smart girl who is allowed inside the largely male McCain campaign adviser club house. Actually, she's more than allowed in: She basically built the place. True, Steve Schmidt is often credited with bringing discipline and order to the organization that more resembles—in the words of former aide Mark McKinnon—"a pirate ship." But Wallace, Schmidt's fellow Bush-Cheney ‘04 and White House veteran, is the person reporters—and the public—actually see enacting that discipline; whether it's bantering with her opposite in the Obama campaign, Robert Gibbs, or conducting almost daily impromptu press conferences, Wallace brings charm and a smile to the ruthless messaging McCain has adopted.
So it makes sense that she was one of the first advisers tapped to help transition "Governor Sarah Palin" to "Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin." The two women are both charismatic, attractive, and—it turns out—controversial. In the wake of the disclosure that the McCain campaign had bought Palin $150,000 worth of new clothes, angry Republicans—and gleeful Democrats—have repeatedly invoked Wallace as the person responsible for what's become a signature gaffe. Monday afternoon, Fox News contributor (and Bush biographer) Fred Barnes told a stunned panel, "The person who went and bought the clothes and, as I understand it put the clothes on her credit card, went to Saks and Neiman Marcus... the staffer who did that has been a coward," then named Wallace as the staffer in question.
“Sarah Palin reminds me a lot of Jeb Bush, who was very hands on... She gets on her email and deals directly with press and the staff and it's very, very impressive.”
We reached Wallace Monday night, enjoying a rare evening at home with her dog, Lily, who also joined the conversation at one point. "That's Lily protecting me from Fred Barnes," Wallace explained.
Wallace opens up about:
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Wonkette emerita, political junkie, self-hating journalist, and author of Dog Days. She has worked for Time, Mother Jones, Suck, and most recently, Radar. Follow her on Twitter.
Note to Wendy Button: this is how a classy woman in politics handles herself. I'm voting Obama/Biden, but good luck in your career Nicolle, you're great at your job and you will go far.
Nicolle is a rock star, as you can tell from this interview. Her integrity runs deep and will continue to steer her well in what ever she does. McCain/Palin are lucky to have her.
Gee - I guess it's ok to be seeking the most powerful position in the world (in line to the Republican throne) and not have to face any media questions?
If she gave us just ONE honest to goodness press conference to show how she thinks on her feet, we'd all release a HUGE sigh of relief (or HUGE sigh of agony, depending on how it goes)...her hiding is the biggest reason they are losing this election.
I almost feel sorry for Nicole Wallace
But the fact that she was/still is an accessory to Sarah Palin possibly getting anywhere near the Federal Gov't overrides any sympathy I feel for her
Up until now seeing Nicole on TV made me cringe - yesterday I saw her on David Gregory and she was sympathetic
Get off the bus Nicole = they're throwing you overboard anyway so help your country and make sure Palin goes back to Alaska --- for good
There were times that I respected Nicolle over the past few months. She shouldn't be blamed for the 150k clothing expense, but after reading this article I respect her LESS. She's just a BS artist.
Ana, Dear,
Bit of a puff piece, no? You let Ms. Wallace discuss sexism in the race but ask nothing about Governor Palin's fervent desire to remove womens' right to choose.
You ask nothing about Palin's deliberate initiatives to divide the nation into 'real' America and urban areas (read: areas with minorities).
You provided Wallace a platform to humanize Palin - at best a controversial, at worst an outright hateful candidate.
We read about Ms. Wallace's time with her dog, she seems so nice! However her chosen line of work has real consequences for real people, perhaps the 'Beast' is not the right place to come to best understand issues that matter.
This user is no longer registered.
Nicole Wallace is unprofessional, rude and treats her peers and members of the media with contempt and disdain whenever she is given the opportunity to speak on her candidates' behave. He arrogance, sense of entitlement and inability to answer a question makes her an embarrassment to her profession.
I hope this election cycle is Ms. Wallace's last assault on the public.
Tricialea Tobin
Comments on just 2 of the whoppers from this spinmeister:
1) that "not any rational person accepts" that Powell's endorsement was a "cold examination of Barack Obama and John McCain": it sounded pretty cold to me.
2) re the "different standard" for Joe Biden and divine Sarah, agree with that: he is held to the standard of talking to reporters, and she is held to the standard of awaiting the "deference" due the rightful Queen of Alaska. Palin has been held to a miserably low standard from the moment she was foisted on an unbelieving country.
Mmm... to be perfectly honest (and a little sexist) I would LOVE to go out on a date with Nicolle Wallace. Not only will our debates heat up during dinner at the local McDonalds (I gotta budget myself in these times of crisis) But she's not that bad to look at. Not saying that I don't have any standards because, frankly, I do. (no matter how low you think they may be)
But if Nicolle Wallace is up for a little one-on-one debate about our... stimulus package, then I'd be more than happy to REVEAL my plans to her. Although, I will have to ask for a time limit of 2 minutes for the response and wait for 15 minutes before the other gives a rebuttal. Who says I'm not fair and balanced?
Are you kidding? Has anyone DARED to ask the Obama/Biden buffoons anything? Do we know anything about them? Their arrogance is astounding! Take the day off for Obama on Tuesday? Unbelievably arrogant...Delay the World Series? This is like Big Brother invading our homes and saturating us with political BS...I hope it backfires!
Meanwhile they poke fun at working-class voters who are the foundation of this country. Michelle Obama spends $500 on room service (not reported but NOTHING is reported!) and Palin is mocked for her clothing (which she is donating after the campaign is over to charity by the way!). Why won't the LA Times release this tape they have of Obama's plan to re-write the Constitution and leave Israel to fend for itself! Amazing! Yet all of Obama's supporters are drinking the kool-aid!
I am a registered Independent and have voted for dems and reps in the past. But this year will vote straight republican. I have never witnessed such a media smear on a very dangerous man whose platform to use Obama's words is "just words, just speeches" and tainted with many holes.
This is all shit...to many problems, controversy, and streached out truths
To many unprosesional tricks and unessesararies
UNPROFESSIONAL sarah....
You should stick with doing the right things like morals and problems of ou nation instead of media and you fighting for clothes
Politics is running for president on crack....
Teenagers no about something
14 year old revolusionists!
I would have liked to see a follow up question to Wallace's statement
"The notion that it was a cold examination of Barack Obama and John McCain is not one that any rational person accepts."
What is she implying here? Is she implying that Powell is simply voting for Obama because he hates Bush? Or Powell is voting based on race? What is she saying?
It sounds like an attempt to dismiss Powell's decision as an uniformed endorsement.
from the moment that Sarah Pallin walked out on stage and announced herself as an average hockey mom, I saw someone who was not going to be able to control the way that she was " evolve " through this process. It is wrong to blame it on the media. Give us a break. Was it the twinkle of her shiny red shoes, or the saucy lipstick remark?
You cannot take someone and package them like you did her, then hide her like she is something to be protected, then in the end call her a maverickpitbullhockeymom. It won't fly in the real world. And that is what is so depressing and sad about how the people who operate these campaigns see the voters. We are not stupid.
I'm betting the shopping spree was Cindy's idea.
...and behind this beautiful, vulnerable, well-spoken Republi-thug robot is the insidious GOP machinery. That should soak up whatever little pang of sympathy the article would otherwise have elicited.
"The very nature of debate, the reason it makes good live television is it's two mother lions defending their cubs."
Which sums up exactly what's wrong with political discourse in this country. You have your idea, I have mine, and we'll spend x amount of time screaming at each other rather than attempting to find a middle ground.
The second clip, by the way -- the one where Wallace is fighting with Jay Carney -- is ridiculous. To sit on national television and defend the cloistering of a candidate for a major political office is nothing short of scandalous. Wallace says in the piece that she's not done anything her parents would be ashamed of. I don't know her or her parents, but I know mine would be ashamed of me if I took part in this kind of obfuscation.
"...when I was 25 years old and I took a job as Jeb Bush's press secretary without telling my college boyfriend of six years and moved to Tallahassee ten days later." This reminds me of the last scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind where the character played by Richard Dreyfuss simply walks up the ramp of an alien spacecraft and--leaves his wife and family forever without so much as a phone-home [sic]. Life now imitates art.
(you can't make this stuff up)
Nice P.R. - but I'm not buying it. I watched Nicole Wallace lie to the cameras, to the pundits, and to the public too many times. As much as anyone on that campaign, she smeared, lied, and deceived the public about Senator Obama and Senator McCain. She's only proven that she's good at being utterly false and without integrity. Get a real job, lady...you've done nothing but add to the crap that has saturated this campaign.
deanpaul1 needs to repeat kindergarten. namecalling people with whom you disagree is not an acceptable form of debate.
Okay, I absolve Ana Marie Cox because of the recent "Radar" changes. But, still, what was the point to this article? I've read it twice and I just don't get it. Will this be part of a series perhaps? Next ... "Straight-Talk Express driver denies that he ran over anyone -- but admits to doing 75 on a 65-mph throughway."
Wallace can spin all she wants, and TDB can post her spin all it wants. I prefer the facts: she has spent her career in aid of the most corrupt and destructive administration this country has had the misfortune to endure, and those who put it in power. Sarah Palin© is both the nadir and the apotheosis of the neo-con dream, a Trojan horse, alluring yet empty, except for what has been loaded into her to by the the Scmidts, Davis' and Wallaces of the underworld in order to lay waste opponents and seize the state. Damn the welfare of humanity! Power is the ultimate and only goal. Truth is what one claims it to be. Opponents are to be terminated. This is the legacy of the footnote that is Nicole Wallace -- a gift wrapper in the sewer of civilization.
So,The Daily Beast has no problems posting campaign P.R> and pretending it's serious journalism?
I don't care who wrote this,it's just a bunch of McCain talking points,very badly disguised as serious reportage.
Wallace on Colin Powell's endorsement:
"The notion that it was a cold examination of Barack Obama and John McCain is not one that any rational person accepts."
See, now this is why they are losing -- the Bush/McCain position that you're either with us, or you're a moron or a lying, cheating, anti-American traitor. Or, according to Rush, a racist. Colin Powell endorsed Obama because he's a bigot. Puhleese.
Ms. Wallace,
You state that you do not know why Gov. Palin has brought such a strong reaction from the press, supporters and detractors. As an Independent, white, female, middle class, married parent of two young women let me tell you how I see it...
Gov. Palin chose to introduce herself to the nation at the RNC with a sarcastic, divisive, arrogant, dismissive and belittling voice. This may have been what the "base" wanted to hear, but did she not realize that the rest of the nation could hear also? I expect a candidate who is asking for my vote to speak to me in a respectful and intelligent manner.
And please let's stop the nonsense of blaming the media. It is somehow the media's fault that she wouldn't give an interview, and then when she does, it is again the media's fault that she blew it!!
From the very start your campaign knew it had to vilify the media, (that Eastern, elite media) laying the groundwork for then being able to quarantine Ms. Palin with mock outrage at the "unfair", "sexist", and "biased" coverage. We all know why she was hidden. The joke is on you, because your tactics are thoroughly transparent and insulting to the American voter.
As for your conversation with Mr. Carney...a stump speech, "speaking directly to the American people" is a one sided conversation. An interviewer is my proxy voice, asking for explanations that I want to hear, but am unable to ask for. Without follow up questions, a one sided speech is useless.
I don't so much question Gov. Palin's professional qualifications to be VP, as I do her personal qualifications. I see a candidate that may indeed have political savvy, but not one with leadership skills. Her lack of humility and divisive nature do not inspire greater citizenship and unity, but are instead, insulting to "real" Americans and do a great diservice to our nation.
I now hear her cries of being mishandled...oh please!! If she was forced to portray herself as something other that her true self, then shame on her!
So much for standing up to her own party!!!
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.