Politicians, Doctors and Secrets, Oh My!

8/7/2011

This wraps up the Week of the Photo – the special find that reinforces for us how fortunate Mrs. Palin was to have endured an easy one month pregnancy and look so, well, darn compact at 8 months along.

Palin's pregnancy tale inevitably brings up the subject of medical professionals, what they knew, did, and possibly covered up. Which is why I found this story on the PBS NEWSHOUR so intriguing.

Imagine a sitting president, in the throes of an economic meltdown, undergoes a medical procedure that he hides from everyone but a handful of doctors. Everyone, mind you, including his own vice president.

Grover Cleveland was so intent on keeping secret his surgery for mouth cancer, that he elected to have the operation performed while at sea, bobbing along the choppy Atlantic waters between New York City and Cape Cod where he recuperated in relative peace.

This was, of course, long before the days of the Intertubes and iphones. Yet, imagine sending someone as important as the vice president (security detail) packing so your secret could be kept as quiet as possible.

Imagine having physicians not tell a soul, except for the one doctor who had to explain to his partner why he was stepping away from the office for a bit (lesson one on how leaks start).

And how about the journalist who was vilified for decades for breaking the story that he confirmed from that very doctor! And imagine President Cleveland denying it! Lying outright about his physical condition!

For which, I might add, he wore a prosthetic so that no one would notice the sink hole in his cheek or his missing teeth. You can learn more HERE about Matthew Algeo's new book The President is a Sick Man.

So as the Palins have proclaimed: nothing to see here. No fake tummies. No dark secrets. Reporters are horrible. And it will take decades for the truth to come out. Also. Too.

41 Comments

Molly

8/7/2011 09:33:38 am

Fascinating....

8/7/2011 09:59:56 am

Interesting, but....I don't think there is anyone who had to lie for Sarah Palin, save for Dr. Baldwin-Johnson who really hasn't said a damn thing either way. There is not a gift shop worker, a receptionist, a neo-natal specialist, a security guard, a pediatrician, an anesthesiologist, a floor nurse or even a candy stripper who has had to lie about the circumstances behind Sarah Palin birthing a baby at Mat-Su (or anywhere else) in 2008. In fact, not a soul has mentioned being there when the Governor came in to hospital in labor and delivered a special needs baby boy. Not one person. There was no grand cover-up because it never happened. People can say HIPAA laws prevent such talk but give me a break - the small town gossip never followed because it never happened. The people who would have had an opportunity to participate in a cover-up all read about it in the ADN a day later.

Katie Taylor

8/7/2011 11:34:20 am

There is overwhelming evidence that $arah did not give birth to Trig on 4/18 but the single fact that I can not get out of my mind is that there is not a single picture of mom and the new born on that momentous day. Knowing all I have learned about Palin since she came on the scene no one could ever convince me that she gave birth that day and yet failed to have pictures taken from her hospital bed holding her new bundle of joy from God. That picture could have been used to raise billions in political and PAC donations for a generation....well maybe not for a generation but for a damn long time. I know some believe that the picture that exists of Palin in a red suit with fully coifed hair with Todd and Trig was taken on 4-18 but I don't believe it. Are we too believe she got dressed up and had her hair done immediately after giving birth for the picture. The picture in my opinion is obviously dated wrong.

I agree that no one has come forward to spill the details about what happened around Trig's birth at Matsu on 4/18 because there are no details to share. Neither do I doubt that Bailey saw members of the family (but not $arah) on 4/18 at Matsu. These 2 facts are not mutually exclusive. The journalists who took a pass on pursuing the truth over the years will undoubtedly be brought back to the story soon when Mcginnis's book is released in September. I think his book will make it acceptable for the "lamestream" press to start asking some tough questions about $arah's history.

AFM

8/7/2011 11:39:43 am

It must be very sad to be afraid of a person that has that kind of power to speak up about anything about the Palins. I give credit to Saddie Johnson for speaking the truth and not being afraid. She is showing the others the way. Maybe there will be more.

nancydrew link

8/7/2011 11:54:44 am

JR--That's what I was getting at several days ago about the absence of eyewitness reports on the trip to and from Dallas. How many flight attendants and gate personnel would have been involved--none of whom had the slightest HIPAA problem. Not pregnant and not wearing the get-up, that's the explanation. Occam's razor and all that.

Long ago I decided that if one watched the whole Palin modus operandi, it was easy to conclude the the "birth morning" business was a shabby and not-well-thought out stage production. The baby-handoff was pre-planned, so there was to be no more need for the "costume", but I suspect at the last minute the teens threw a monkey-wrench into the plan by deciding to rightfully claim their baby and blow town. Grandma and Grandpa were then assigned emergency last-minute roles at hospital playing traffic cops until the Dallas long-distance travelers could arrive and heavy-handedly move the kids back to the script. The teens would most certainly have been too young and intimidated, not to mention ambivalent, to hold their. ground. What a sorry, sad and now memorable and scandalous mess.

crystalwolfakacaligrl

8/7/2011 12:32:41 pm

Amazing! I missed this on NPR.
Ummm, to JR I think there are PLENTY of people who covered up for TerroristSarah's Fake or Non-exsistant pregnancy?
Add that the current SOA allows her to harras blogs she doesn't like via her ITdept? Yes last month in fact. A-lass-ka is a cabal that the FEDS need to come in and clean out the snake pit that is there.
Of course no-one talks of Terrorist palins non-pregnancy?
But I think if she DARES to throw her hat in....The GOP will take her out for example the pics that Recently appeared on the internet....people have been looking for them and they show up last week? Sista Grifta...your daze are numbered :) :) :)

Venefica

8/7/2011 01:45:58 pm

I posted this comment elsewhere on this blog in June, but I think it's worth repeating here:

FYI, here's yet another audacious coverup I came across.

An excerpt from a review of the new book, "The President Is A Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth":

Matthew Algeo, a historian and radio journalist, focuses on a dramatic, little-known event in his new book....

Suffering from mouth cancer in 1893, Cleveland disappeared to undergo surgery on the yacht of a friend. The president, his doctors and political advisers feared that news might exacerbate a financial recession and trigger panic.

Cleveland's popular wife, Frances, young enough to be his daughter, lied to journalists about the president's whereabouts. Cleveland's press aide lied, too. Reporters accepted the falsehoods, misleading the citizenry into believing the nation's leader vanished for five days to undergo dental work -- painful, to be sure, but rarely fatal.

The truth did not begin to leak until about two months later. E. J. Edwards broke the story in The Philadelphia Press, only to be vilified as a spinner of falsehoods by a rival Philadelphia newspaperman, Alexander McClure of The Philadelphia Times, who convinced a lot of readers that President Cleveland had been treated shabbily.

Proud of his reporting and his skepticism, Edwards felt stung.

In this fascinating, rarely acknowledged saga, Edwards' reputation would not be restored until 1917, when W. W. Keen, one of the physicians aboard the yacht, decided to set history straight. He wrote a compelling, credible account in the widely circulated Saturday Evening Post magazine. As Algeo notes, Edwards was able to bask in the glow of vindication for seven years, until his death during 1924.

Cleveland had emphasized truth-telling during his presidencies, so the secrecy and unfair attacks on Edwards sullied the president's reputation. ...

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2011/06/matthew_algeos_the_president_i.html

One can only hope that CBJ will "set history straight" before decades go by!

Ottoline

8/7/2011 02:08:45 pm

Katie Taylor -- the red-suit jacket photo is at the office, on Mon? There was a video that showed SP bouncing out of a door, just as perky as possible, to walk over to Todd who was holding Trig. I haven't seen that video lately -- suspect it has been deleted. Because it showed a non-postpartum woman, slim abdomen, obviously no soreness from giving birth a couple of days earlier, no water-retention -- in short, clearly not postpartum.

Ginger

8/7/2011 02:54:15 pm

@JR

Levi said he was at Mat-Su on Friday morning, April 18, 2008 at 6:30 AM when Sarah gave birth to Trig.

Just for the record...

Jeanette

8/7/2011 04:32:54 pm

While I believe that Sarah did not birth Trig, I do not find it unusual for her that there is no picture with her and Trig in a hospital bed. Sarah's overriding concern at that point was that giving birth in no way showed her as having to take any time off from her routine of "governing".

I think that is why she had to "borrow" a baby for her return to work and baby shower. She had to go right back to work to portray the image she wanted but the real Trig was too large at that point.

Even if she had given birth, I don't think she would have allowed any pictures of her in a hospital bed.

search4more

8/7/2011 05:18:44 pm

Has anyone see this picture before? I'm not an expert on this subject, so it may well be that this picture is well known.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/8march2008fromaocnewsle.jpg/

It's from the 8th March 2008. It appears in a news letter by the AOC. here's the link to the news letter.

http://www.alaskaoutdoorcouncil.org/pdfs/AOC%20NewsletterApril2008.pdf

The pictures are on page 13 of that document.

-----------------

Another interesting pic I found which also is probably old news is this one on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boblynn/3127815342/in/set-72157611704523178

It's taken by Rep Bob Lynn on the 3rd July 2008 (assuming the EXIF data is corret). The things I find interesting about it are that

-Palin is bottle feeding the baby.
-Palin is quite dowdy in the picture. rubbish clothes and seemingly no makeup.
-in 2 months time that tiny baby somehow gets so much bigger and is presented to the world as Mccain announces his VP.

I'm not an expert on babies. is that much growth possible in 2 months?

K.M.R

8/7/2011 07:23:35 pm

The cover-up about Cleveland's mouth cancer was pretty unscrupulous but I don't put it in the same ball park as faking a pregnancy. Add to that the fact that many, many things were off limits during those times and one can understand his actions.
Cleveland's aim may have been to keep fear away from the masses or to keep Wall Street from crashing. The country was in the middle of a financial crisis. I can forgive that. But not a fake pregnancy targeting the gullible who would go on to adore SP for her supposed choice to bring a DS child into the world. Hogwash!
What political consequences would have resulted if Sarah Palin never ran for VP? None.

Grover Cleveland also fathered a child out of wedlock. Lots of secrets, true, but still not even close to an out and out hoax about faking a pregnancy.

Dis Gusted

8/8/2011 12:38:32 am

"Levi said he was at Mat-Su on Friday morning, April 18, 2008 at 6:30 AM when Sarah gave birth to Trig.

Just for the record..."

ah yes - the infamous photo of Levi wearing a hospital bracelet - because he's a parent?

I have that photo - scoffed it off the internet in May of 2008, long before Tripp was allegedly born.

Supposedly Levi was working the slope when Tripp was allegedly born in Dec. 2008 so he wasn't there for that birth.

Pictures of him holding a newborn in 2007 are probably of him and the Tripper.

Cat

8/8/2011 12:38:45 am

search4more -- I'm not an expert at all, but those photos from the newsletter are completely new to me. I did see the second photo you referenced and always found it interesting (and wondered at the date and context). Thanks for posting these!

lilly lily

8/8/2011 12:38:49 am

Seems to me Grover Cleveland may have raped a Widow,(her word against his) arranged to have the resultant child taken away and arranged to have the Widow in an insane asylum when she talked.

Or perhaps I am mistaken? I think there is a book out now. NOW.... How soon will Sarah Palins hoax be front page news on the T.V., magazines and Newspapers?

Dis Gusted

8/8/2011 12:40:58 am

the links in search4more's post do not match any documents...hmmmm. That was quick.

lilly lily

8/8/2011 01:03:17 am

In fact he smeared the woman, saying she was a prostitute with many men.(though he paid for the childs care) Took away the child and put it in an orphanage. (I think he was sheriff at the time. A small time lawyer in Buffalo). After he had her put in the asylum a doctor released her as it was an abuse of Clevelands power. She was sane. All the ministers in her town vouched for her being a god fearing widow with two children and not a loose woman as Cleveland claimed.

Sounds familiar? Abuses of power. A powerful man destroying a weak woman?

Out of Charles Dickens like Oliver Twist?

villages

8/8/2011 01:11:09 am

Responding to Search4More @ 18:44

I've always agreed with the assessment that Sarah Palin, though physically attractive, doesn't know how to dress herself, and has very little innate style. "Dowdy" is actually the most apt describer I've read about her.

I am a Yup'ik Eskimo, from a region North of Todd Palin's Bristol Bay region. I was never a fan of Sarah's, especially when she ran for Lt. Governor, Governor or VP. While I knew she had a "fire in her belly" and was thirsty for power, I knew she hadn't a clue about protocol or decorum required of those who seek to lead. She fancied herself a diamond in the ruff, ready to grow beyond the Mat-Su Valley, it was my mistake to think that other people would see through this yokel that she was getting in over her head.

Sarah, also hides behind her loose association with the Eskimo by being married to a blue-eyed descendent - the way she used Alaska's proximity to Russia and Canada as a credential to her foreign policy skills, meaning, she doesn't give two shits about Alaska's First Peoples the way many Valley residents don't. In fact, most are quiet racist. If it weren't for Todd being able to make a lot of money off of commercial fishing his family's traditional harvesting waters and access to Indian Health Services, I don't think either Palin in that household would put out a fire in the village with their piss. The way she handled the food and fuel crisis in the Lower Yukon is evidence enough. The way Todd thwarted political appointments of Natives he grew up with, despite their qualifications, is appalling.

Anyway, I digress, she is wearing a kuspaq in that Rep. Lynn photo - a traditional top of many of Alaska Natives. She is also wearing Orca earrings most likely carved by a Tlingit or Haida Indian.

I'll give her this, as an early grifter, Sarah wore whatever people gave her, so often times she did wear Native garb when appropriate - like visiting a large Native town of Barrow.

She wears a lot of Native crafted jewelry and hand fashioned clothing without fanfare or explanation, which is a relief since she isn't exploiting this dress as her nod toward living in harmony with Natives.

There is no way she is Trig's birth mother. I never felt it, in fact I knew she was up to something the day she announced she was 'pregnant.'

anonfornow

8/8/2011 01:41:53 am

I know that over the years many people have commented on the lack of a photo of Sarah holding Trig in her hospital bed as proof that she didn't birth him. Well let me say that I have no such photo of me holding my second child. I looked so horrid in the photo of me holding my FIRST child (typical comments of anyone who has seen that photo: "Oh, poor Name!" and "God, you look like you've been hit by a truck!") that I refused to allow anyone to photograph me with my second. Yeah, I'm vain--but so is Sarah.

Having said that, I still don't think she birthed him. And it would have been easy to fake such a photo: just crawl in bed with the babe and make sure her wrists were hidden.

Ottoline

8/8/2011 01:48:53 am

Dis Gusted -- the links still work for me. The one feeding the baby I have not seen before. Bottle-feeding and breast-feeding can go together, if one pumps (for absences or public feeding times). The point (about that baby looking tinier than the Trig we saw at the convention) seems right to me, too. But exif data depend on the camera being set properly, which we found was not the case on many pix, previously. Odd that that one photo of Palin is among others that seem in a completely different context. If you look at the text in upper right, saying when the photo was taken, they all seem to be Jun/Jul 2008 except the Palin one. which says "This photo was taken on December 21, 2008 using a Nikon Coolpix S550."

That photo is in this other set of photos too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boblynn/3127815342/in/datetaken/

Ottoline

8/8/2011 02:04:54 am

Villages: Thank you for a good comment -- I really appreciate it.

ginny11

8/8/2011 02:06:11 am

Wow, them Palin wimin shur have fast pregnancies! Dint Track n' Britta jus' git married a couple/three months ago?

http://www.joemcginniss.net/sarahs-a-grandma-again/Joe%20McGinniss

Viola-Alex

8/8/2011 02:24:16 am

HOLY COW, search4more. That's Curt Menard next to Palin in your photo. Nope. Never seen that one before. March 8, 2008. No scarf, no belly. Lots of windbreaker. Good searching!

--

Recently I came across a quotation by FDR in a letter to Colonel Edward House, 1933: "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson."
For some reason, I find these words profoundly chilling, and infinitely damning. Even FDR lied to the American public about many things, for her own protection. . .

Thanks, Laura. I heard this story on NPR and found it significant to our current situation.

Katie Taylor

8/8/2011 02:39:17 am

Anonfornow, while it may not be uncommon for women not to have pictures holding their newborns in their beds, it would be extremely uncommon for Sarah not to have a picture taken that day given her use of the pregnancy to enhance her "prolife" bona fides with conservatives. She had no problem trotting him out early and often on the campaign trail as a tool to enhance her "prolife" image. Given what we now know about her thinking I fully expected her to have had pictures taken of her and Trig on the day of birth....had it happened. There is not even a picture of her leaving the hospital with him. No way Sarah passes on this kind of photo op.

search4more

8/8/2011 03:35:39 am

Just to clarify, I assume that a person in the know has seen the pics I posted before. I'm not claiming they are a big revelation.

The one with Palin in the orange coat I found on Photobucket. A user on there (WestCorrespondent) has a whole pile of Palin photos. The person is obviously an anti-Palin person like other people on here. They had the pic and I hadn't seen it before. The one they had though was very low resolution. I found the original PDF document and found that the photo embedded inside it was actually of quite a good resolution, and so my only achievement is in extracting a picture with more detail in it.

-----------------

I imagine everyone that reads these kind of blogs does a periodic trawl for images. The discovery of the new 26th March 2008 pictures has peaked my interest. Is there a site where I can go to post all the ones I have found? They are of course going to be identical to everyone elses who has searched. The thing is though that we all don't know that. If there was a website where all amateur sleuths could upload all they had then the person running it could sift through them all. If there was such a place then people in Alaska who have photos could anonymously upload them.

It's so obvious that I assume such a site exists? ...Is there one and what's it's URL?

I'm an amateur at this palin sleuthing thing. So not fully up to speed.

Viola-Alex

8/8/2011 03:49:09 am

Search4more: interesting date on the Sarah feeding an unknown baby maybe Trig photo. Also, such an unflattering closeup of her. Double chin, rat's nest hair. Really very natural and unscripted. GREAT find!

V ictoria link

8/8/2011 04:12:32 am

WRT the March 8 photo - is that the date of the newsletter or can we confirm that the photo itself was taken that day?

Viola-Alex

8/8/2011 04:52:57 am

@Victoria: the newsletter shows an event on that date, so that seems pretty accurate.

@search4more: I don't know of any public anti-Palin photo databases. IN the past, various commenter/watchdogs maintained some caches on photo websites, but I've forgotten now who they were and the addresses. It would be helpful, especially if the photos are tagged. Because then when people search for say, "birth hoax," a bunch of Palin photos will pop up.

Cat

8/8/2011 04:57:36 am

Viola-Alex -- here is a similar photo from a different location (the Governor's BBQ, July 2008)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31242357@N07/2980689582/

DiOR

8/8/2011 05:10:19 am

@V ictoria--The awards banquet that is documented in the photo (and other photos of the same event in the newsletter) occurred on March 8, 2008, according to the newsletter and other information on the internet.

She wore a windbreaker to an awards banquet?

bees-wax

8/8/2011 05:20:35 am

Victoria, I wondered the same thing. Looks like the awards banquet was held in February 2008, not in March. Here's a link with that argument:

http://www.palindeception.com/calendar/february2008.html

which leads to: http://alaskajournal.com/stories/021908/loc_20080217020.shtml

Phyllis

8/8/2011 05:53:04 am

search4more:picture in orange windbreaker was taken in Feb.2008.

Link:
http://alaskajournal.com/stories/021908/loc_20080217020.shtml

Picture feeding baby,wearing Alaska Native dress taken in Barrow,Ak June 30 2008. The only time Palin was in Barrow in 2008.
Link:
http://tinyurl.com/3fv7jgq

More pictures taken while she was in Barrow.

http://tinyurl.com/3b6fjhe

Baby wearing same outfit in supermarket photo as in Rep.Bob Lynn photo

lilly lily

8/8/2011 06:00:55 am

The Globe has a two page spread about the Palin family. Brave Bristol is battling to save her parents marriage.

Of course they have led separate lives for years, but Bristol believes in her parents marriage.

Horseradish.

Take some V-8 add horseradish, worchester sauce and lime and that at least is a refreshing drink. add a stick of celery. some vodka if you want a kick.

The bull that these people throw out is stupifying.

Who swallow this stuff?

DiOR

8/8/2011 06:23:45 am

@bees-wax: I am in awe of Audrey and the others who helped with her research. I hope she is still around and providing input (beyond all the wonderful info that is still available on her site).

FrostyAK

8/8/2011 07:08:58 am

From the day the first politician walked the earth (maybe a Neanderthal?), we have been fed a meal of lies, spin, and bullsh!t, oh my! If it calls itself (or is called by others) a politician, you know there will be lies - lies of commission and lies of omission. $P has just upped the ante so that MOST of the word salad that spills from her babbling lips is pure bull. She is just the worst of the worst...

There is one current politician I have some hope for, Bernie Sanders. But who knows for sure?

search4more

8/8/2011 07:17:43 am

Phyllis,

Thanks. Like I said it's am amateur attempt at finding stuff. I know people have been doing this for years and have a great depth of knowledge about it all that I don't.

shaytripp link

8/8/2011 08:47:59 am

Keep it up Laura! I think Mercede Johnston should be commended for speaking up and telling the truth about the Palins.
All the best Shailey

comeonpeoplel

8/8/2011 09:57:49 am

Don't see any baby in the prange windbreaker photo from Feb 08. Is this the correct date for real??
Comeonpeople!!

Ginger

8/8/2011 03:03:50 pm

@Viola-Alex

Thanks for your post, Viola, however, there was one commenter over on Audrey's blog (Palin's Deceptions) by the name of, Dangerous. He was smart enough to figure out Bristol wasn't pregnant twice in one year (the one thing we agreed on), but he insisted it was Willow who was pregnant and gave birth to Trig.

It took Audrey forever to convince him it was Bristol and not Willow who gave birth to Trig. This is probably why Bristol mentioned this in her book.

@Dis Gusted

Levi was on the Larry King show and this is where he told us he was at Trig's birth and also at Tripps. There is video footage of this...somewhere!

@Katie Taylor

There "is" a picture of the Palin family leaving Mat-Su Hospital on Saturday, April 19, 2008. I saw Todd (holding Trig), Sarah, Bristol, Willow and Piper leaving from the back door of the hospital. Lori Tipton, KTUU reporter, was camped across the street. They took pictures of them. There is an e-mail confirming this.

Keep up the good work, Laura!

search4more

8/9/2011 04:51:44 am

@Ginger

I'd like to see the picture from the 19 April 2008 that your talking about. Do you have a link for it or more information about where I could get it?

Ginger

8/14/2011 05:47:50 pm

@search4more

I saw that picture once. But I've never seen it again. So many people have asked about it. I think it was on Gryphen's blog, a long time ago, but I can't be sure.

You can contact Lori Tipton at KTUU. I'll bet they have the pictures but I don't know if they would release any.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

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