A new book about the 2008 Presidential campaign provides solid, incontrovertible evidence that Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin did not “go rogue” when she said Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists.” She was specifically asked to do so by the campaign.

Palin has been dogged by allegations that she was difficult to manage and often “went off the reservation” in statements she made during last fall’s campaign since before the campaign was even over.  But in referring to Obama’s close personal relationship with domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Governor Palin was repeating, nearly verbatim, a script prepared by McCain campaign staffer Nicolle Wallace.

Turns out that the McCain campaign was a week away from running an ad linking Obama to Ayers. The e-mail from Wallace, according to Balz and Johnson, reads as follows: “Governor and Team: rick [Davis], Steve [Schmidt] and I suggest the following attack from the new york times. If you are comfortable, please deliver the attack as written. Please do not make any changes to the below without approval from steve or myself because precision is crucial in our ability to introduce this.”

McCain HQ had suggested the following line: “This is not a man who sees American as you and I do — as the greatest force for good in the world. This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.”

At the event, Palin said this:

“Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America.”

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