Palin camp claims Dems attacking her family, can't name any

A fundraising solicitation accuses "Obama/Biden Democrats" of "vicious" attacks against the Palins, but her campaign hasn't been able to produce any evidence.

Published September 5, 2008 1:49AM (EDT)

A fundraising letter that Sarah Palin's camp sent out Thursday afternoon tells potential donors, "Unfortunately, as you've seen this week, the Obama/Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain. The misinformation and flat-out lies must be corrected."

The point, of course, is that the McCain/Palin campaign needs money to help defend against these awful "Obama/Biden Democrats."

That is, if they exist at all.

A couple reporters have now pressed various spokespeople for specifics about who's being referenced in the letter. One of them, ABC News' Jake Tapper, reports:

The response I got was that Obama spokesman Mark Bubriski erroneously attacked Palin as a supporter of Pat Buchanan.

That's it. That's the evidence.

An attack on Palin herself.

In other words, they can't name one person affiliated with the Obama-Biden campaign who attacked the Palin family.

Sara Kugler of the Associated Press got a slightly different answer when she posed the same question to a spokeswoman for Palin. "Asked who was to blame, the spokeswoman said, 'You want me to tick through all the stuff that's been ticking through all the blogs the past few days? What about the stuff that was on Daily Kos, that rumor that was spread?'" Kugler says.

Actually, as Tapper notes, there are some politicians who have personally attacked opponents' family members. For instance, in 1998, it was John McCain who joked, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

MORE FROM Alex Koppelman


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