Rich Bitch, Alaskan Hick, Or True Servant of the People?
THE TELEGRAPH: Sarah Palin's public speaking demands, which include a "bendable" straw, two bottles of unopened still water, first class flights and three hotel rooms, have been disclosed.

Mrs Palin's public speaking requirements, reminiscent of those drawn up by rock star managers on behalf of their more demanding protégés, were included on the pages of a five-page contract allegedly found by Californian students in a bin.

These include two bottles of still water, unopened by a wooden lectern and accompanied by a "bendable" straw, three deluxe hotel rooms; and a first class flight or private aircraft that "MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger."

Mrs Palin, 46, whose standing as John McCain's vice-presidential candidate in 2008 was badly damaged when she stumbled over simple questions put to her by news anchor Katie Couric, also stipulates that all audience questions must be vetted.

"For Q&A, the questions are to be collected from the audience in advance, pre-screened, and a designated representative ... shall ask questions directly of the Speaker to avoid delay time with a roving microphone in the audience," the contract states in a clause highly unusual for a politician.

The contract, drawn up by the Washington Speakers Bureau and refers to a female speaker who will be aboard flights originating in Anchorage, Alaska, also provides sketches of how people should approach if they are to be photographed with her and how long the picture sessions should last.

The document, dated March 16, was discovered by students at California State University in a bin when they went searching for material relating to Mrs Palin's speech in June to the university's Stanislaus Foundation at a gala 50th anniversary event after they heard that university authorities were shredding documents. Sarah Palin's speaking demands: 'bendable' straws, three hotel rooms and a private jet >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sarah Palin Wants What? Bendy Straws and a Private Jet, Please
TIMES ONLINE: Sarah Palin faced embarrassing revelations yesterday about lavish demands that she makes before or speaking engagements, including first-class air travel or large private jets, suites in hotels and even bendable straws in her water bottles.

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate, who has reportedly earned $12 million (£7.75 million) since she resigned as the Governor of Alaska last summer, also insists that all questions must be collected from the audience in advance to be screened.

The speaking contract details were retrieved from a rubbish bin by a group of students at the California State University, where Mrs Palin is due to give a speech in June. Five pages of the contract were passed to a local Democratic politician, who sent them on to the press.

Mrs Palin faced controversy in 2008 when it emerged that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent by the Republican Party on clothes and make-up for her and her family after she was picked by John McCain to be his running-mate.

The latest revelation will do little to damage her reputation among the party’s grassroots activists, who view her as a straight-talking hero, but it undercuts her claim to be a down-to-earth “hockey mom” who is fighting for ordinary working Americans. >>> Tim Reid in Washington | Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hockey Mom? Sarah Palin Stayed at Home, Says Levi Johnston
TIMES ONLINE: If her estranged potential son-in-law is to be believed, Sarah Palin is not just the vice-presidential candidate who lost and the Governor who quit.

According to Levi Johnston, who nearly married her daughter, Mrs Palin was the supermom who did not cook, the hockey mom who almost never attended her son's hockey matches and the fearless outdoorswoman who had never touched a fishing rod and did not know what sort of gun nestled in a box under her bed.

Exhausted - or just bored - by her duties as head of Alaska’s state government, Mrs Palin would return home most days by 5pm to take long baths and watch her favourite home improvement shows on television, according to Levi Johnston, who fathered her first grandchild and nearly married her daughter.

Mrs Palin argued frequently with her husband about the idea of divorce, insisted that she was going to adopt the baby her daughter was about to have with Mr Johnston and rapidly lost what enthusiasm she had for the Governor’s job on her return to Alaska last November, Mr Johnston claims.

Most woundingly for a woman portrayed by the McCain campaign as a doting supermom, the former high school ice hockey star writes: “There wasn’t much parenting in that house. Sarah doesn’t cook, Todd (her husband) doesn’t cook - the kids would do it all themselves: cook, clean, do the laundry and get ready for school." >>> Giles Whittell in Washington | Wednesday, September 02, 2009