It seemed way too whacked to be true until Palin’s staff confirmed it.
On the off chance you haven’t tuned into cable news tonight, here’s the deal: Earlier today, Governor Sarah Palin got a prank call from the Quebec comedy team known as the Masked Avengers who claimed to have French president Nicolas Sarkozy on the line to speak to the governor.
Sarah got right on, no prob—and chatted away for six minutes to “Sarkozy” AKA young and notorious Quebec comedian, Marc-Antoine Audette, who talked to Palin in an Inspector Clouseau-like French accent.
(It purportedly took the Avengers five days to set up the call, including, they said, going through the US Secret Service.)
(NOTE TO SECRET SERVICE: What were you guys thinking????)
The painful moments in the call are many and varied.
One might think, for example, that when Sarkozy/Audette mentions ” my great friend, the prime minister of Canada, Stef Carse,” that Palin might notice that the Canadian prime minister is not, in fact, named Stef Carse ( a Quebec pop singer), but ….like, you know….Stephen Harper.
Instead she motors on about how great it has been to work with Canadian officials.
Here’s some of what the Canadian Press reports:
Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something’s amiss.
He identifies French singer and actor Johnny Hallyday as his special adviser to the U.S., singer Stef Carse as Canada’s prime minister and Quebec comedian and radio host Richard Z. Sirois as the provincial premier.
“We should go hunting together,” Palin offers when Audette professes a love of hunting – or, more precisely, killing animals. “We can have a lot of fun together while we’re getting work done. We could kill two birds with one stone.”
Audette then jokes that they shouldn’t bring Cheney on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.
“I’ll be a careful shot,” responds Palin, who praises Sarkozy throughout the call.
And for any of you who have even the teensiest doubts about Palin’s ambition, the most telling moment comes when Audette says: “….I see you as a president, one day, you too.”
“Maybe in eight years,” Palin says with a light giggle
Palin comes off as likeable in a strange, cringe-making way in the recorded call, but—-after all these recent days of campaigning, fact-cramming and intense coaching—that she is still so woefully uninformed about such things at the name of the Canadian prime minister is a tad horrifying.
I used to think she was merely frighteningly incurious, but that she was smart enough.
Judging from this tape….evidently not.
When she is reciting lines like a trained seal, she’s okay, but otherwise… Yikes!
If Sarah Palin is really the Great Conservative Hope for the future, the conservative movement is hopeless indeed.
There’s an old saying in Tennessee  I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee  that says, fool me once, shame on  shame on you. Fool me  you can’t get fooled again.”
G. W. Bush
I was giggling when I heard that his special American advisor was Johnny Hallyday.
I almost felt bad for her when I listening. *Almost*.
I love how the Obama camp responded (from abcnews):
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Asked by ABC News if he’d heard the prank call played on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told reporters that he’d heard parts of it.
His response?
“I’m glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama,” Gibbs said.
Hah! Obama doesn’t take calls. He doesn’t give open interviews. He doesn’t have press conferences. He doesn’t have town hall meetings. Obama relies on scripts from the teleprompter. It’s nice to know that Paliin will take risks to be available instead of hiding behind a podium.
Painful. The prime minister of Canada is Stephen Harper, not Stef Carse. That the woman who might be “a heartbeat away from the presidency” doesn’t know who the leader of Canada is… it’s just embarrassing.
Do you think that that Obama can name the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff–the guys for whom he would serve as Commander-in-Chief? After all, why get to know people if he’s going to gut their forces, as you leftists want? It’s worse than embarrassing when our military is drained and leaves our nation exposed to attacks.
Woody, in answer to your question, yep, if I were a betting person I’d take that bet.
But whether he can or not, it’s a teensy bit stranger for someone who wants to be, not just the VP, but the president, not to recognize when someone has just declared the PM of Canada to be someone named Stef Carse.
By the way, if you haven’t seen the YouTube version of McCain on SNL last night, do google it. McCain was a great sport and very charming—with excellent comic timing.
I could almost forgive her for not knowing who Karzai is, or even the PM’s of Israel and Japan, but for pete’s sake, she can see Canada from her house!
You’re right about the Secret Service totally screwing up, Celeste. This could have been a major breach of security with serious consequences. I HOPE they’re learning from this mistake and beefing up security.
Woody’s also right, though, that Obama’s scripted speeches don’t give a real sense of what he’d do under duress — not much, from how he disappeared during the bailout crisis. (Although McCain didn’t perform any better.) Obama’s half- hour, totally contrived documentary also creeped me out — including the shots from behind his podium as he spoke to a gigantic arena, and Mao/ Che-esque close-ups: Leni Riefenstahl would almost have been proud. (All that was missing are the shots of him reviewing the troops, but of course, he wasn’t Commander in Chief yet, we’ll have to wait for that.) When speaking off the cuff against McCain, like at that church forum, Obama’s too “thoughtful” to be inspiring. More of a policy wonk BEHIND the man in charge.
But Palin’s sheer idiocy in cases like this, not being able to name a single rag “that they put before me” to read, her earnest belief that Fred Flintstone’s baby had to run from baby dinosaurs — make it impossible for any reasonable person to vote for McCain.
Even on SNL last night, he seemed to tacitly distance from her, her ambitious stupidity. Kind of made fun of himself for having been led into selecting her, clearly knowing that if he loses by a landslide, it’s thanks to her. A likeable guy. (But anyone else notice how Tina Fey couldn’t bring herself to even be NEAR Cindy McCain at the close, when Cindy approached her for the usual farewell gladhanding, even though phoniness is part of the drill? That wasn’t too polite of Tina, considering the McCains put themselves “out there” on her show.)
Nobody’s mentioned how graceful Cindy McCain’s hands were in the QVC jewelery bit. I thought it was a hoot, and cheers to them both for their good sportsmanship.
While I have the proverbial soapbox, what’s the deal with Ben Affleck? Is this guy full of himself or what? I saw him on Bill Maher 2 shows back and he displayed his pompousity in spades.