On Message: Republicans Hammer Palin Talking Points

The McCain campaign repeats (again and again and again) its defense of Palin.

ByABC News
September 3, 2008, 4:43 PM

Sept. 3, 2008— -- If it seems as if every talking head who has ever donned a "Republican hat" and stepped up to a microphone is saying the same thing about Gov. Sarah Palin, you're right.

Since revelations about the Alaska governor and vice presidential pick shocked the GOP convention with more force than Hurricane Gustav struck New Orleans, Republicans have been on message, closely hewing to a set of specific talking points.

"The campaign has a list of its surrogates and it sends them an e-mail every day, letting them know the line of the day," said Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who chaired former Gov. Mike Huckabee's primary run, but who is not affiliated with John McCain's campaign.

From speeches on the convention floor by the likes of Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman, to TV interviews with Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, to the natter on conservative talk radio, everyone seems to know just what the line of the day is.

Republicans want you to know she's a reformer, she's experienced, her family has a right to privacy and the media are unfairly beating up on her.

After it was revealed this weekend that Palin's 17-year-old daughter was pregnant, that the governor had hired a lawyer to defend her in an ethics investigation, that she attended meetings of a fringe party calling for Alaskan independence and that her husband had been arrested in the 1980s for drunken driving, the campaign has tried to steer the message in a positive direction.

"Reformer" has become the campaign's shorthand for the way Palin took on her state's Republican Party bosses and big oil.

"She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment," Thompson said in an address Tuesday night.

"Gov. Sarah Palin, like John McCain, is a reformer who has taken on the special interests and reached across party lines. She is a leader we can count on to help John shake up Washington," said Lieberman, who despite his Democratic roots (he's currently an independent) was considered for the Republican veep spot.