Palin reads cheat notes from her hand at Tea Party Q&A

By David Edwards and Gavin Dahl
Sunday, February 7th, 2010 -- 12:30 pm
Share on Facebook Stumble This!

Palin crib notesSarah Palin clearly had notes scribbled on her hand at the National Tea Party Convention Saturday.

Huffington Post obtained photos of the former governor answering pre-determined questions after her $100,000 speech.

At the same event, Palin mocked President Barack Obama's use of a teleprompter.

"This is about the people and it's bigger than any king or queen of a tea party and it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter," said Palin.

During a question and answer session after her address to the convention, Palin clearly looks down, reading notes off her hand. The words included "energy" "tax" and "lift American spirits."

Story continues below...

HuffPo's Stefan Sirucek comments:

"You can bet that the President wasn't reading scribbles off his extremities while he sparred with Republicans and Democrats in an unscripted format in his recent Q&As. Palin, on the other hand, seems to need a cheat-sheet just to get through a contrived lovefest with a smitten interviewer and an adoring audience."

Palin was expected to receive $100,000 for her speech. Appearing Sunday morning on Fox News, she confirmed this.

"They're writing a $100,000 check and as I said from day one on this, I'm turning right around and being able to contribute it back to the cause," she said.

Huffington Post later obtained detailed photos of what was written on Palin's hand. It appears to read, "Energy, budget cuts, tax, lift American spirits". The word "budget" was crossed out.

This video was uploaded to YouTube on Feb. 6, 2010.



Download video via RawReplay.com

Stephen C. Webster contributed to this report.

Share this article:
  • Print
  • email
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Story comments are below...

  • doug
    I thought that was Stigmata in her palm!
  • NadePaulKuciGravMcKi
    Her paid-for AIPAC Neocon talking points.
  • Of course she was reading scripted notes lol... she's too inbred and stupid to actually think without a script or book to tell her what to do lololol.... just watch the series of interviews with Katie Couric... Sarah Palin is a true inbred moron in every respect.
  • Reggie
    This leaves me wondering who those people are that responded in a recent poll, they think Sarah Palin is MORE qualified to be president than Barack Obama ?

    Sarah Palin would make George W. Bush's presidency seem respectable.
  • ericthefool
    Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck's sole job is to drive the Tea Party straight into the ground. The real Tea Party has been hijacked by the Neo-cons and now making them irrelevant.
  • TaterSalad
    Looks as if she adlibs her speeches a little bit it would seem. When Kid Zero doesn't use a teleprompter he starts to babble and stutter. Whether Kid Zero uses one or not he is consistent. He lies!
  • imwc
    how highschoolish...she can`t remember 3 words??...
  • leftsideTampa
    What has any of these comments about the Fed have to do with a poorly packaged presidential hopeful. The woman lacks common sense, and can't even be discrete when it comes to needing a prompt.

    The point of the story is that Palin is writing on her hand to remind her of the base principles of the whole "Tea Party" movement. You can't be a believer unless you share these principles. How can you profess to be part of movement if you need to be reminded of it core principles.

    Writing notes on your hand, and then poking fun at the President for using a teleprompter? I'm sure that Reagan, Bush, or W spoke extemporaneously, huh. Perhaps that's what people of importance need to do when giving important speeches. It's a high school cheerleader who writes crib notes in the palm of her hand.
  • boudin
    That is just so retarded.
  • rporter314
    Not notes ... looked like sign of the beast
  • Common Sense
    How bad is it that your crib sheet has errors that you have to cross out?
  • Platitudes are easy!
    Sarah makes it sound easy to cut the deficit and stop the spending, but leaves out any specifics. Platitudes are easy applause lines. Specifics may not go over as well. Just wait until she says cut entitlements like Social Security, and Medicare and the old folks will scream! Would she tell Republican Richard Shelby to stop demanding a new FBI facility in Alabama or that the new Air Force refueling tanker be built in his state. He has put a hold on 70 nominations to federal posts until he gets his way. If she were President at the start of the Iraq war, would she actually pay for it, or just add it to the deficit by using supplemental appropriations like G.W. Bush. Would she listen to a real Republican like Dick Cheney, who famously said "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." She bailed out of Alaska before she actually had to make hard budget decisions. Her head is as empty as her rhetoric.
  • dennycrane
    At least she didn't write them on trigs ass.
  • bordway
    I'm doin it the old way like Ronny Reagan and lookin at the paper instead of them fancy screens youbetcha.

    Why would anyone even remotely interested in national politics and calling for lower taxes cross out the word "budget" when it appears before "cuts"? She complains about the deficit as many others have before her, but those before understood that budget items (that whopping 14% of discretionary items) must be trimmed or eliminated. Something tells me that basic economic terms confuse her. Wait, I grossly understated that.
  • scytherius
    PLEASE let the GOP nominate her. PLEASE. Talk about a gift.
  • disgustedindc
    Are we sure Trigs the only one in that family with Downes Syndrome?
  • LPM49
    The lady spoke for a hour (WITHOUT A TELEPROMPTER) and supposedly had a few key word prompts for the whole event, including a Q&A session. What's the problem here? Our esteemed leader, after a year in office, still needs a telemprompter whenever he speaks - even when it's a bunch of school kids.

    I think it's pretty clear who REALLY has their shit together, and it sure isn't the thug from Chicago.
  • farang
    Well done Raw Story:

    there are three, count'em three, headlines with Palin's name in it. All near the top of page, all within one inch of each other.

    "Palin: War with Iran could help Obama"
    "Oops: Palin reads from palm-prompter during speech"
    "Palin: I may run for president"

    And if she does, she can thank her good friends at Raw Story for keeping her face and name familiar to the public..in spades.
  • wiseturtle
    that bitch is pathetic!!
  • Mark E.D.
    Probably how she got through college.
  • TrueYankee
    The tea party movement is nothing more than a collection of emotionally charged catch phrases thrown around to excite & ignite people who are frustrated with 21st century life. These so-called leaders prey on people who wish they could go back to the mythical "good ol' days", by promising to return to a world that , like it or not, is gone with the wind.
    They do not debate, they scream. They do not think, they merely repeat "God bless America, we support our troops" over & over again, without actually defining or explaining how, what, where, when and why the world is as it is. The Tea Party has no solution to any problems, it is just another rabble-rousing mob. I am sick & tired of having Republican Christian fundamentalists telling us who the real Americans are, and reducing politics to angry tirades, rabid flag-waving parties and irrational thinking.
    I am descended from actual Massachusetts colonists, a 13th generation "real" American, who has also served in the USAF. I am a proudly educated East Coast liberal, and I am mortified by down-home idiots like Sara Palin.
  • bushsworstnightmare
    Sarah Palin says` she would mull White House bid


    please, I dare you, DO IT !!!!! It will guarantee the Democrat's a second term in 2012!!!
  • dennycrane
    That wasn't notes, that was crap from not wiping well. Never shake hands with fishy-pants.
  • jamesbenton
    HA! So Miss constantly critical of the president using a teleprompter is busted reading from the palm of her hand a few bullet points she's not even able to memorize. Let's only hope she gets the nomination in 2012! GOP! GOP!
  • RichardCrow
    Sher has to have notes to answer her own cherry picked questions?

    What a total idiot!

    I hope the next time she speaks someone asks "Did you wash youur hands Sarah?"
    ROFL
  • ericthefool
    HEY PEOPLE!!!

    WHILE YOU ALL BICKER ABOUT WHO READS A TELEPROMPTER AND WHO READS A CHEAT SHEET, THE COUNTRY IS GOING TO HELL. WHILE YOU PEOPLE FIGHT OVER LIBS AND DEMS AND CONSERVATIVES AND REPUBLICANS...THE FLAG IS BURNING.

    Who watched the Geithner congressional hearing?
    Who watched the Paulsen congressional hearing?

    It's quite sad to see you guys bicker over something SO STUPID. While the real crook is running the other way, and YOU LET THEM GO.

    Guys, guys, guys....please wake up and see this is all a charade. One big lie. One scheme. One goal. POWER.

    Fight back and Fight together.
  • sambarber
    If she's "turning right around and being able to contribute it back" then why charge anything? The only logical answer is: she isn't donating all of it back. Who has the guts to find out how much she is keeping?
  • Boson Bison
    Look at my profile and see the comment that was scrubbed. If you are a person of humor.
  • am
    More sexist double standards from obamacrats: the party of hate.
  • wakeup32176
    Party of hate? We are not rupubs!
  • dennycrane
    Every time there is an article about fishy-pants-palin, "am" shows up. I'm telling you folks, fishy-pants is "commenting" under "am." Feel privileged.
  • jason
    you are correct im sure mr failbama wasnt reading scribs from his hand.he had his trusty telepropter he never leaves home without it even when hes giving a tough speach to elementary school kids.dang liberals.
  • Boson Bison
    BREAKING NEWS: Sarah Palin, Rahm Emanuel agree "We're all RETARDED" and "Bomb Iran for Israel." Rahm Emanuel said, "I suppose we're all a little retarded for Zion." Palin quipped, "It's a crazy, zany world out there!!" Palin handmarking dismissed out of hand as being "The Mark of the Beast," instead reported as a rave party stamp. Emanuel says "Yeah, I'm a mean guy, but the orthodontist is scheduled to file down my wolf teeth so I don't scare the children. Sarah Palin says, "My son Trig is only retarded because I am not just fucking retarded, but because of my RETARDED FUCKING, and lordy lordy, dontcha know I'll have to get back to ya on that."

    Jon Stewart continues to bludgeon, excoriate, and disembowel liberal blogs, saying "The Death March to the White House is Complete!!!"

    Go Indianapolis Colts!!!
  • LumberJock
    Jimmy Irsay got exactly what he earned & deserved tonight!

    Turd Blossom's philosophical twin.
  • Scorchy
    I find the hypocrisy and the ignorance on this site amazing. So Caribou Barbie has a few words written on her hand, meanwhile Bush 3 reads eloquently off of his teleprompter. Who cares? This is political theater. Both parties are owned by the same people. The Tea Party movement was co-opted by the Republican party from almost the very beginning and now they're trying to cram neo-con Palin down everyone's throat as some sort of populist. It amazes me how this trick works over and over again. It worked with Obama as it is with Palin and all of the sheep will lap it up. This country is doomed.
  • jimbo707
    If Karma works, she will soon be a spokesperson for Breast Cancer Research.
  • downwithteabaggers
    100,000 hand job. Wow, the Tea Baggers got their money's worth. I hope.
  • fred5399
    All she needs now is blond hair. She's nothing more than a [polical bimbo.Im mean she is her own best pimp.
  • Dan D
    Palin supported Rush Limbaugh for using the word RETARD several times on Foxnews

    Tea Baggers were protesting Palin outside because they could not afford 3 to 5 hundred dollars tickets. All Tea Partiers need to turn on Palin.
  • It's amazing that liberals can openly say that nearly every word out of Obama's mouth is read from a teleprompter that sits right in front of his face. And yet in the same paragraph you blast a lady because she has 5 words written on her hand?! Makes no sense to me. It's because of weak "stories" like this that liberal news is a joke.
  • alverant
    Well we expect Obama to know more than 5 words and be mature enough not to write words in his hand (or have someone else write words in his hand). Especially when those words are key points of a speech. Palin, not so much. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those words was misspelled.

    This is why conservative thought is a joke. They don't think very hard about why they're so fundamentally hypocrites.
  • Dan D
    The difference is Obama doe's not hide it and he doe's not act other people for doing it.

    Palin attacks people and calls them names and then writes on her hand like a little school girl. Rush uses the word retard and Palin defends him while attacks others.

    This is where democrats and republicans are different. To be a republican you have to be a HYPOCRITE
  • jimb
    This is interesting. So, right-wingers didn't know that there was such a thing as a teleprompter until they heard someone on Fox News start this bullshit meme about Obama having to use one?

    Please find for us the last instance of a U.S. president giving a 30 minute speech during which he didn't need to use a teleprompter. Be prepared to go searching back at least a few decades. And prior to teleprompters, they had to look down at their printed speeches on the podium. But, you wouldn't know that, because they didn't bother to mention it on Fox News.

    And, at the GOP retreat, as each of the Republican congressmen read their questions off of a sheet of paper, what did Obama read from to give his lengthy and better informed answer? Nothing. Unlike the Republicans, he knew what he was talking about.

    When did Bush ever take questions from anyone like that, never mind from the opposition party, and give meaningful answers?
  • kierthos
    Tell you what, hoss. You memorize a 45 minute speech, and read it out without verbal flubs and a teleprompter. Let's see how you do.

    Palin needed help to remember six words.

    If you're going to mock someone for using a teleprompter, you shouldn't need anything to refresh your memory.
  • shaky27
    Speeches are routinely read, do you think Lincoln did the Gettysburg Address of the top of his head, probably not. They are pre written and then delivered. What is pointed out by the liberals is the hypocrisy, she slams Obama for using a teleprompter for speechs yet has notes scribbled on her hand like a school kid to remember her simple talking points.
  • buzzby101
    Bush couldn't even make it with a teleprompter. They fed him direct into the ear, like a little wooden puppet. Hahaha. Makes me laugh just to think about him, probably had to wax the pivot of his jaw so he wouldn't squeek. hahahaha.
  • BrainRagYell
    No teleprompter:

    http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/291730-1

    I'd like to see any Republican field questions like this.
  • LumberJock
    Sam's right.

    She's unprofessional in her presentation.

    On the other hand ... if she'd come down here and used professional preparation, they would have yelled her out the door. Teabaggers / Partiers are so unprofessional ... they are luddites down here (South of the Ohio River) and will punish any - any - ANY -professionalism. republicant's are worshipped down here because of the electorate's stupidity, not because the republican'ts are "erudike" .

    For example name a Democratic Senator from south of the Ohio River or the extention of the Ohio west to / through Nevada.
    1. Blanche Lincoln
    2. Harry Reid
    3. New Mexico (2)
    4. Nelson, Fla
    5. Hansen, NC
    6. Jim Webb

    There's a message here. Yankee Demos need to work hard to pull us out of a quagmire. As long as our voters down here vote for guns, glory, god and the commandments. There is prescious little Democrats will do for them so they won't vote for Dems unless they are texas democrats.

    Last week the Supreme Court of Ky even issued an opinion that displaying the commandments in a couthouse environment was permissable.
  • DanM
    Honestly... I think we would all be better off today if the South had won the civil war, and the Mason-Dixon line was an international boundary.
  • Yea, great example, since there aren't videos of an early george bush doing the same thing. Believe it or not there was a time when he could speak, debate, and read fluently. I never said Obama CAN'T speak without a teleprompter, I just said that he chooses not to use his amazing "question fielding" abilities at all. Most politicians don't get far if they can't debate well or speak on the fly. And you probably don't realize this but answering questions and giving a speach are two different things. Not that I don't think that Palin is an idiot, but seriously, this isn't a story, it's weak liberal propaganda, and liberalism is a complete and total failure in every instance where it becomes completely adopted by society. This is the reason AirAmerica died, weak stories like this one.
  • DanM
    Okay Bubba.. let's step back a minute, shall we? We currently are in the midst of the worst financial crisis in 80 years, double digit employment, a budget deficit propped by Chinese, Japanese, and Saudi Arabian bondholders that is a more tangible and real threat to our national security than any terrorist outfit could ever hope to be. We have an entrenched culture of corruption in our election process recently validated by a Republican dominated Supreme Court, bank failures that are the fruition of thirty years of foolish deregulation, and two wars that bleed our treasury and lay waste to an entire generation of Americans.

    And still you sit there spouting the same silly talking points straight from Rush Limbaugh's prayer book: "Liberalism is a complete and total failure." Well, if your brand of conservatism is "success," I would hate to see the apocalyptic failure that a change in direction from the last thirty years might bring.
  • mrpopo
    Weak story or weak minded provocateur? The latter.
  • sambarber
    If you were getting paid $100K for a speech, wouldn't you prepare like a professional? Oh, I forgot; Sarah(!) is unemployed! She isn't a professional! It's because of weak "comments" like this that conservatives are still a joke as a political movement.
  • eldurado
    I think that are pagan signs for hate, breed hate on her palm. What a moran!
  • ezpolysci
    I really hope she chooses to run for president. The gift that keeps on giving.
  • ezpolysci
    Wow... I really hope she chooses to run. The gift that keeps on giving.
  • probill
    Is "being able to contribute it back to the cause" the same as actually writing a check and giving it back to the Tea Party movement?
  • Tyke
    She carefully failed to mention which "cause".
  • larrymo
    I suspect that the additional loop here will be to garner a TAX DEDUCTION for her "donation".

    Grifter that she is, I doubt Caribou Barbie would miss that opportunity.
  • LumberJock
    Is it caribooboo-barbie or cariboohoo-barbie? Is she a greater fuck-up or cry-baby?
  • Lol....really? lol... these people make my soul happy.
  • qoqo
    What a revelation. She can read!
  • yohomosobro
    too bad obama cant read, like the other day he tried to read corpsman from his teleprompter
  • alverant
    One word out of thousands doesn't mean he can't read (forgot the apostrophe yoyo). Using your logic W and Palin can't speak English since they get so many more words wrong.
  • DeadFed
    ?????????????????????

    And what is your point?
  • Hooker
    How would yohomosoro like to bet his mortgage on Palin vs. Obama in an I.Q. test or any other test that meaures intellect, learning,logic, common sense, law, history, math,science, or any other damn thing. Palin has bigger tits than Obama, but that's about it.
  • sambarber
    wow, you found one word in the past year he had trouble with! Good boy! Here's your dog biscuit!
  • pitbullstew
    Gotta be the mark of the Beast!
  • gypski
    Its only showing how sophomoric she really is and those who believer her. She really can't keep a mental track and its her form of a teleprompter.
  • You Betcha
    Teleprompter? No, that's her Hillbilly Palm Top.
  • Dr.Toxic
    It's even funnier when she tries to scroll the "screen"
  • pitbullstew
    GOTTA BE THE MARK OF THE BEAST!
  • hobocopagitprop
    No no - that's supposed to be the right hand...wouldn't want to be too obvious, though.
  • enorceht
    or maybe glenn beck's private phone number ...

    oh that's right, they're the same number
  • christoofar
    After paying her her speaking fee, I guess a teleprompter just wasn't in the budget.
  • gr0o
    Could someone explain to me what the big deal about the teleprompter is about? Presidents have speechwriters and better things to do with their time than to memorize a speech after they've approved it.
  • sambarber
    There is no "deal." It's manufactured outrage from the Rovian sycophants. Every President for the last generation or two has used teleprompters...but now, NOW! it's suddenly a big deal to the Wingnut party.
  • Scuby
    Well what more can you expect from the idiots on the right? These are the same people who criticized Obama for ordering spicy mustard on his hamburger rather than regular mustard!! Spicy mustard after all is only for "elitists"...LOL
  • yomosobroho
    the guy can even read from a teleprompter correctly, IE corpsman
  • sambarber
    See my reply above; in your rush to re-type your inaccurate post, you wrote the wrong verb. When you pass freshman English, try posting again.
  • legal
    The rap is that Obama is somehow inauthentic because he uses teleprompters. As if other presidents don't? But the GOP keeps repeating this meme to impress on dummies who don't know better that Obama is an exception.

    They won't let it go, unlike the Democrats who have never bothered to follow up whether Bush was mic'd at that debate. The DNC couldn't have hired PIs to find out? Shouldn't we know things like that?
blog comments powered by Disqus