Oh my, this radio station prank call to Sarah Palin, from “President Sarkozy”, is, well, oh my.
What were her staff thinking? What was she thinking? Just … what?
You’re welcome to use this thread for any US election chat.
Transcript, via DK:
SP Assist: This is Betsy.
MA: Hello, Betsy. This is Frank l’ouvrier (Frank the worker], I’m with President Sarkozy, on the line for Governor Palin.SP Assist: One second please, can you hold on one second please?
MA: No problem.SP Assist: Hi, I’m going to hand the phone over to her.
MA: Okay thank you very much I’m going to put the president on the line.
SP Assist: Ok he’s coming to the line.SP: This is Sarah.
MA: Okay, Governor Palin?SP: Hellloooo…(long drawn out, like Well, hellooooo)
MA: Just hold on for President Sarkozy, one moment.
SP [To someone in the room]: Oh, it’s not him yet, I always do that. I’ll just have people hand it to me right when it’s them.
FNS: Yes, hello, Governor Palin? Yes, hello, Mrs. Governor?
SP: Hello this is Sarah., how are you?FNS: Fine, and you, this is Nicolas Sarkozy speaking, how are you?
SP: Oh…so good, it’s so good to hear you. Thank you for calling us.FNS: Oh, it’s a pleasure.
SP: Thank you sir, we have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you and thank you for spending a few minutes to talk to me.FNS: I follow your campaigns closely with my special American Advisor Johnny Hallyday (the most famous French singer, looks like and sings like Elvis), you know?
SP: Yes! Good!FNS: Excellent! Are you confident?
SP: Very confident and we’re thankful that the polls are showing that the race is tightening and–FNS: Well I know very well that the campaign can be exhausting. How do you feel right now my dear?
SP: Ah, I feel so good. I feel like we’re in a marathon and at the very end of the marathon, you get your second wind and you plow to the finish—FNS: You see, I got elected in France because I’m real and you seem to be someone who’s real as well.
SP: Yes, yeah, Nicolas, we so appreciate this opportunity.FNS: You know, I see you as a president, one day, you too.
SP: [Muahaaa...weird laugh], maybe in 8 years. HahaFNS: Well, ah, I hope for you. You know we have a lot in common because personally one of my favorite activities is to hunt too.
SP: [Giggle]o h very good, we should go hunting together.FNS: Exactly! We could go try hunting by helicopter, like you did, I never did that.
SP: [Giggle]FNS: Like we say in France, “on pourrait tuer des bébés phoques aussi” [Translation: We could also kill some baby seals.]
SP: [Giggle] Well I think we could have a lot of fun together as we’re getting work done, we can kill two birds with one stone that way.FNS: I just love killing those animals. Mm, mm. Take away a life, that is so fun!
SP: [Hahahaha]FNS: I’d really love to go as long as we don’t bring your Vice president Cheney, hahaha.
SP: No, I’ll be a careful shot, yes.FNS: You know we have a lot in common also except that from my
ass[house - DK transcriber thought it was "ass"] I can see Belgium. That’s kind of less interesting than you.
SP: Well, see, we’re right next door to other countries that we all need to be working with, yes.FNS: Some people said in the last days, and I thought that was mean, that you weren’t experienced enough in foreign relations, and you know, that’s completely false, that’s the thing I said to my great friend, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stef Carse [Stephen Harper is the PM and Stef Carse is a Quebecois country singer who covered Billy Ray Cyrus' Achy Breaky Heart in French in the 90s].
SP: Well, he’s doing fine, too, and yeah when you come into a position underestimated, it gives you the opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder-FNS: I, I was wondering because you are also next to him, one of my good friends, also, the prime minister of Quebec, Mr. Richard Z. Sirois [a famous Quebec radio host], have you met him recently? Did he come to one of your rallies?
SP: Uh, haven’t seen him at one of the rallies, but it’s been great working with the Canadian officials in my role as governor; we have a great cooperative effort there as we work on all of our resource development projects. You know I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness, you’ve added a lot of energy to your country, even, with that beautiful family of yours.FNS: Thank you very much. You know my wife, Carla, would love to meet you. You know even though she was a bit jealous that I was supposed to speak to you today. [Hahahaha]
SP: [Hahahha] Well give her a big hug from me.FNS: You know my wife is a popular singer and a former top model and she’s so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you.
SP: Oh my goodness! I didn’t know that.FNS: Yes, in French, it’s called “Du rouge à lèvres sur une cochonne” [Translate: Lipstick for a sow literally (but not properly) but it actually means an uninhibited girl] or if you prefer in English Joe the Plumber, [sings] It’s his life, Joe the Plumber…”
SP: Maybe she understands some of the unfair criticism but I bet you she is such a hard worker, too, and she realizes you just plow through that criticism likeFNS: I just want to be sure, I don’t’ quite understand the phenomenon “Joe the Plumber,” that’s not your husband, right?
SP: Mmhmm, that’s into my husband but he’s a normal American who just works hard and doesn’t want government to take his money.FNS: Yes, yes, I understand, we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France, it’s called, “Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit, oui.”
SP: Right. That’s what it’s all about, is the middle class, and government needing to work for them. You’re a very good example for us here.FNS: I seen a bit about NBC even Fox News wasn’t an ally, an ally, sorry, about as much as usual.
SP: Yeah that’s what we’re up against.FNS: I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler’s “Nailin Palin.”
SP: Oh, good, thank you. Yes.FNS: That was really edgy.
SP: [Laughs] Well good.FNS: I really love you. And I must say something, so, Governor, you’ve been pranked.
By the Master Avengers. We’re two comedians from Montreal
SP: Oohhh have we been pranked? And what radio station is this? [tries to force herself to sound nice but you can tell she’s pissed]FNS: This is for CKOI in Montreal.
SP: In Montreal? Tell me the radio station call letters
[SP leaves phone, continuous griping in background, sounds like, "For chrissakes...that was ??? Just a radio station prank...chrissakes..."]MA: Hello? If one voice can change the world for Obama, one Viagra can change the world for McCain.
[Man’s voice in background: hang up, hang up.]
SP Assist: Hi, I’m sorry, I have to let you go. Um, thank you.
Ohhhhhhh shit.
I can totally understand not getting the pop culture names, and even though I sort of feel like she should know the name of the PMs of France and Canada I don’t exactly expect her to cause she don’t know jack about shit (keep cramming, maybe the next four years will catch you up all the way)…
But some of what he said to her was so bizarre or outright inappropriate! Doesn’t she think that the damn president would have enough sense not to talk about his sex life with someone (especially a prominent female politician!) he’s not even met? And he would be a little less inane than to talk about how “real” she is? And not address her as “Mrs Governor” or “my dear”?
OMG. Everyone in that room should be fired. Including Palin. But this is just going to make her think, even more, that those plebeians are uppity and rude and against her and she shouldn’t bother listening or even letting them talk to or see her, isn’t it?
….But “Marcel, the guy with the bread under his armpit” is seriously gold. <3 that line.
I get missing almost all of that stuff in the rush, but – why the hell wasn’t anyone, not even herself, vetting her calls? This seems just bizarre to me. If her own staff are useless, why hasn’t the McCain campaign dropped someone in to control access?
At first I wondered whether they were, I don’t know, deliberately falling for it so they could claim that the lefties were big ol’ meanyheads, but, c’mon, this is the Presidency we’re talking about (heartbeat away…). It’s just every kind of witless, no matter which way you look at it.
Incidentally, if you’re a savvy politician with a savvy team, what kind of things happen if you suspect you’re being pranked/how easy is it for people to get access to you like that?
Is this for real?
Anna–yep, it’s been picked up by the MSM and I found a few articles that said her staff confirmed it. Let the spin begin!
Lauredhal–in your transcript you have “except from my ass you can see Belgium.” Sounded to me like he said “house.”
Quix, I saw a bit of discussion of that – I’ve placed a note in the text.
I listened to this via HuffPo with the 11 yo Tormentor beside me – by the time we got to the Belgium line, he was looking at me open-mouthed, saying “doesn’t she know this is a joke?” …kinda answers the question about inexperience.
Apart from the sheer reckless arrogance of assuming Sarkozy would just ring up for a chat, it’s her breathless first 45 seconds or so that is horrifying – the guy’s not asking you out on a date for chrissake.
I notice that the clip is no longer up on YouTube – I wonder who took it down.
When I heard it I thought I head them name a PM of Canada and a PM of Quebec – an obvious trap for the unwary, but did I mis-hear?
The clip’s still loading for me. A temporary glitch?
I just watched the clip, no worries. Like Lauredhel, I originally thought that it must have been a planned stunt– for me, simply because she was spouting her rehearsed talking points in exactly the same way she has been doing when she knows she’s got a big audience. But I’m also with Quixotess that some of that was highly inappropriate, particularly the bit about Naylin Paylin, which I see as nothing less than sexual harrassment.
Nonetheless, I agree with everyone that this raises even more doubts about her readiness for office– hopefully any undecides left will see it that way too.
Persuading undecideds? Maybe, but…well, I looked at a conservative forum discussing this, and some things said:
1. this is the only thing they have against mccain/palin
2. dems said they wanted to talk about the issues; how hypocritical ($150,000 wardrobe also mentioned)
3. palin kept her professionalism and politeness admirably throughout the call
4. plenty of other famous folks have been pranked before; were they stupid?
5. those guys were mean and hateful
6. how is this palin’s fault when her assistant was the one who handled the phone and told her she was speaking to sarkozy?
So that’s another way to look at it. One I disagree with entirely (except maybe 5), but just…people will see what they want to see.
What it says to me is that she doesn’t have sufficiently professional staff to handle the office that she’s aiming for.
Can anyone imagine Rupert Murdoch, for instance (I’m listening to him deliver his first Boyer lecture as I type), ever getting pranked like this? His staff would filter it – all it takes is finding out the name of the alleged person and looking up their publicly available contact details.
I betcha it would take me less than five minutes to find the publicly accessible contact details for Sarkozy, using only English-language websites.
Don’t they have…caller ID? That would show a phone number coming from Montreal and not, y’know, Paris?
Also correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the impending destruction of Sarkozy’s marriage all over the news not long ago? Bringing his happy beautiful family up is sort of…tactless. And ignorant.
Ah well. This is appalling on so many levels, really.
Some of it’s inappropriate as hell, but at the core, it proves, as Lauredhel pointed out, that there’s massive fail at the Palin office, and the vetting of the Republicans this year is craptacular. That said, if American conservatives are blaming this on the Dems, I laugh.
Big election stuff here is McCain on Saturday Night Live, though, which was some combination of ‘gee, it’s good he can mock himself’ and ‘wow, this is depressing’.
I’m as anti-Palin as anyone else, but my reaction is “Oh, the poor woman. I can’t look any more.” Watching the McCain-Palin campaign has become like rubbernecking at a particularly gory car crash.
Imagine the conversations at campaign HQ… or rather… don’t. I’m going off to look at some furry otters or something.
Yeh, this reflects appallingly on everyone concerned. Like all reasonable people I am horrified by Palin and by what this conversation reveals about her, but (a) I think it could backfire in much the same way as Pauline Hanson’s ‘Please explain?’ moment, and (b) I think this kind of stuff is entrapment pure and simple.
Calling something like this a ‘prank’ is like insulting someone online and then adding a smiley-face emoticon.
And I also have zero tolerance for smartarse boys.
Whut Dr Cat and Helen said. In spades.
Has anyone mashedup this with the “3 am phone call” ad yet?
Y’all know that smartarse boys irritate me as much as they do anyone here, and I don’t hero-worship these chaps.
On a scale of “ugh” to “HOLYCRAP”, however, a couple of sniggering smartarses in Canada doesn’t rate (for me) anywhere near the fact that someone who is catastrophically foolish and functionally incompetent could have her finger on the button in 78 days. I’m not losing any sleep over the smartarses.
Edited to add: And no, she doesn’t “deserve” the sexist stuff that was thrown in at the end of this phone call. Which should be a SotBO, but, well.
I’m irritated whenever someone in politics demonstrates that they don’t know the name of the leader of the country next door. If she can see Russia from her house, she can probably also spot Canada.
Ah well.