The authors of a new book about former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin obtained a copy of the speech Palin would have delivered on election night in 2008 if Sen. John McCain's campaign managers had allowed her to speak.
In their book "Sarah From Alaska," Scott Conroy of CBS News and Shushannah Walshe of Fox News, who both covered the Palin campaign, "uncover more than a few interesting nuggets," Newsweek reports.
McCain's handlers barred Palin from speaking after it was clear Barack Obama had defeated McCain because they "worried that she was trying to steal [McCain's] moment or, worse, that she would go off script as she had done before and undermine the gracious tone they hoped to set," Newsweek's Katie Connolly notes.
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Palin's speech included these lines:
"It would be a happier night if elections were a test of valor and merit alone, but that is not for us to question now. Enough to say it has been the honor of a lifetime to fight at the side of John S. McCain.""I wish Barack Obama well as the 44th president of the United States. If he governs with the skill and grace we have often seen in him, and the greatness of which he is capable, we're going to be just fine. And when a black citizen prepares to fill the office of Washington and Lincoln, that is a shining moment in our history that can be lost on no one." "I will remember all the people who said they were praying for me."The speech includes a handwritten line in the margin: "You prayer warriors have been my strength and my shield."
As Newsmax reported earlier, Palin was lobbying to deliver her speech before McCain’s concession address even though vice-presidential candidates traditionally do not speak on election night.
According to The New York Times, Palin actually had the text of her speech in hand when she met up with McCain, but was told she could not deliver it by McCain advisers Mark Salter and Steve Schmidt.
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