Can't Is Not an Option by Nikki Haley

Author:Nikki Haley [Haley, Nikki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101568866
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2012-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The Palin Effect

The first thing we needed was an Internet connection.

We were still in shock, and we didn’t want to let ourselves get too excited, but we needed to plan, and for that we needed the Internet. So we all headed to Taylor’s apartment to process the news Todd Palin had just given us. Taylor had maintained his Charleston apartment after he had come to work for our campaign earlier that year. And Taylor, we knew, had Internet.

Once we got there, we got a little silly for a while. We were all jumping up and down. Governor Palin’s endorsement was something that we had been hoping for for a full year, but I had never allowed myself to think about too much because I knew she marched to the beat of her own drum. She did things in her own way and on her own time, and now that she had come through for me, I could barely believe it. We didn’t know exactly what was about to happen, but we knew it would be huge for our underdog campaign. Everyone was screaming into cell phones and typing furiously on computers. At one point, Taylor had to make us pause for a group hug. Even Jon was excited.

We didn’t have a time for the endorsement, and we didn’t have a place, but we couldn’t wait to start planning. Governor Palin was scheduled to address the National Rifle Association convention in Charlotte around midday the next day, which would put her in South Carolina that afternoon at the earliest. That meant we had less than twenty-four hours to pull together one of the biggest, if not the biggest, events of our campaign. Complicating the scheduling was the fact that Sarah and Todd, in the style they were famous for, were freelancing. They were making plans without the knowledge of their staff, so at first we couldn’t get a straight answer about when Governor Palin would be in Columbia. At one point there was word that she would be holding a 10:00 P.M.—yes, 10:00 P.M.—press conference!

After we’d had a few minutes to process the news, the first thing Tim did was to impose a campaignwide gag order. No one could tell anyone about the impending endorsement before he could get word to the press, he said. No one could know besides Michael, Jon, Tim, Taylor, and me—no boyfriends, no girlfriends, no parents, nobody. He looked straight at me. “And that includes you, Nikki.”

Then Tim got to work on Taylor’s computer composing a press release. Taylor got busy putting out a “code red” to our volunteers for people to set up tables, collect e-mail addresses, and sell T-shirts. Tim called Jeff at our campaign headquarters in Columbia and told him to start making “HALEY FOR GOVERNOR” rally signs. “I can’t tell you what it’s for,” Tim told him. “Just start making signs!”

While everyone was busy, I saw my opportunity. I had been warned, but I couldn’t help myself. I sneaked outside to the parking lot with my cell phone.

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