Bob Collins
Sarah Palin has avoided the media since she was tabbed for the #2 spot with John McCain, shortly before the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
Now, a “truth squad” has been formed with Republican women to — as the press release stated — “counter recent attacks on Governor Sarah Palin, her family, her friends and her record of accomplishment. The Palin Truth Squad will set the record straight against Internet and liberal smears of Governor Palin.”
Two Minnesotans are on the squad, 6th District congresswoman Michele Bachmann and state Rep. Laura Brod.
The group is headed by former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, who has had her run-ins with the media over her role not only as a state official, but as a mother. Whatever scrutiny Gov. Palin has gotten in the dual role, Swift got first.
She used state employees to babysit her kids, and used a state helicopter to ferry her home to see her sick daughter (she lived in Williamstown, about as far as you can live from Boston and still be in Massachusetts).
Eventually, though, Swift gave up. Mitt Romney was in the process of putting together an organization to run for governor, and Swift announced her intention not to seek re-election in the face of the pending challenge.
Time Magazine said the move saved her political career.
The Boston Globe, in a profile last year, said she is “alternately viewed as the victim of the merciless Boston media, a symbol of the failed promise of feminism, or an accidental leader who stumbled bullheadedly to her political demise.”
Well off the political radar, but only slightly less intriguing than Gov. Palin, Swift is staging the comeback of the original Governor Mom.
