Sarah Palin has trouble with truth, says top US campaign strategist

Washington, January 11 (ANI): John McCain's top campaign strategist has accused Sarah Palin of being dishonest and inaccurate in the 2008 US presidential elections.

Steve Schmidt criticised the former Alaska Governor, alleging her far from truth statements as the vice-presidential nominee affected the campaign and her own public image.

"There were numerous instances that she said things that were - that were not accurate that ultimately, the campaign had to deal with," the Politico quoted Schmidt as saying in an interview broadcast on CBS's 60 Minutes.

"And that opened the door to criticism that she was being untruthful and inaccurate. And I think that is something that continues to this day," he added.

Citing the example of an ethics report based on an investigation into whether she had improperly used her government position, Schmidt continued: "She went out and said, you know, 'This report completely exonerates me'. And in fact, it - it didn't. You know it's the equivalent of saying down is up and up is down. It was provably, demonstrably untrue."

Political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, authors of the forthcoming book Game Change also formed a part of the show.

Heilemann claimed that despite receiving crash-course tutorials by campaign aides, Palin still failed to grasp basic policy issues.

Heilemann told the show:"[S]he still didn't really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11." (ANI)