No questions, please; Palin sticks to her script

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-10 11:04

LEBANON, Ohio -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain took a risk in picking little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, but now the campaign's playing it safer.

US Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (L) introduces Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) during a rally in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 9, 2008. [Agencies]

She is sticking to a greatest hits version of her Rebublican National Convention speech on the campaign trail and steering clear of questions until she is comfortable enough for a hand-picked interviewer later this week.

More than 40 million people tuned in last week to listen to the speech from Palin, the 44-year-old first-term governor whom McCain announced as his surprise vice presidential pick just days before. She has electrified conservative voters and helped boost John McCain's poll ratings over rival Barack Obama, showing particular strength among white women.

Since the convention last week, the basic script is all anyone has heard from her publicly, and her only interaction with the media was a brief conversation with a small group of reporters on her plane Monday, off the record at her handlers' insistence.

Associated Press reporters were not on the plane, but an aide told the journalists on board that all Palin flights would be off the record unless the media were told otherwise. At least one reporter objected. Two people on the flight said the Palins greeted the media and they chatted about who had been to Alaska, but little else was said.

By comparison, her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, has been campaigning on his own for weeks, at times taking questions from audiences. He was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

Amid growing sniping from Democrats, the McCain campaign announced that Palin would sit down for her first interview, with ABC. It will take place over two days at her home in Alaska.

And then? McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has said that Palin will "agree to an interview when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it."

"She's not scared to answer questions," Davis said on "Fox News Sunday."

So far, Palin has barely spoken with voters either. Since the convention, she and McCain have breezed through a Wisconsin ice cream shop, a New Mexico restaurant and a Missouri barbecue place, shaking hands with diners but not taking any questions. Photographers and television cameras have been allowed full view while reporters are typically ushered too far away to ask questions or hear most of the conversations.

Her public remarks essentially have been excerpts of her convention speech, delivered while introducing McCain at rallies.

Her schedule released Tuesday shows she will attend a "welcome home" rally in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Wednesday evening, her first major campaign appearance without McCain at her side and his advisers hanging in the wings.

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