Campaign Speeches You Didn't Hear

Did both candidates have two speeches ready for Tuesday night? Perhaps we will never see the manuscripts that were almost certainly readied for John McCain's acceptance speech and Barack Obama's concession speech, had the election come out otherwise.

And then there is Sarah Palin's speech on Tuesday night. The one that did not get delivered.

The New York Times reports today on the contention between McCain and Palin that ran through the campaign--the clothes, the Couric interview, the refusals to be guided by the campaign.

But behind those episodes may be a greater subtext: anger within the McCain camp that Ms. Palin harbored political ambitions beyond 2008.

As late as Tuesday night, a McCain adviser said, Ms. Palin was pushing to deliver her own speech just before Mr. McCain’s concession speech, even though vice-presidential nominees do not traditionally speak on election night. But Ms. Palin met up with Mr. McCain with text in hand. She was told no by Mark Salter, one of Mr. McCain’s closest advisers, and Steve Schmidt, Mr. McCain’s top strategist.

There was a moment in McCain's gracious speech when he thanked Sarah Palin and suggested she had a bright future; one could see Todd Palin give Governor Palin a look of acknowledgment and satisfaction--and it looked to me as if she was giving him a wink and a nod of confirmation.

Elisabeth Bumiller, "Internal Battles Divided McCain and Palin Camps," New York Times, 6 November 2008.