Opinion : The slip of the tongue that changed modern American politics

She would have remained anonymous, in Alaska, if it wasn’t for an unbelievably bizarre combination of a slip of the tongue and a technological error in the summer of 2008.

Buried in the thousands of pages of documents released by Wikileaks is the story of how Sarah Palin – the virtually unknown governor of Alaska – became an overnight sensation who could impact politics for years to come.

Mid-summer, 2008. John McCain finally pulls ahead in the GOP race for president. Mitt Romney – after losing primary after primary – declared victory and left the race. The McJeep (Iowans saw the vehicle in Cedar Rapids during a rare McCain appearance there) had broken down, and the McBus was still being painted.

John McCain decided to take a few days off, but being aware that whatever he did on vacation would probably make headlines, had to be careful in deciding where to go and what to do. He began consulting with his aides and pollsters to determine which vacation activity would be most appealing to independent voters.

It was also during this time that the media began calling to ask about possible running mates. Quietly, behind the scenes, the same pollsters who were discussing the vacation thing also began dropping names of potential vice presidential nominees.

McCain made it clear that he did not want to make the same mistake that John Kerry made in 2006 – vacationing like a rich East Coast lifetime politician.

This focus-group surveying on uneventfully for several weeks. But in mid-August, a still-unnamed aide made what has become to be known as the “Call Heard Round the World.”

Sitting next to a stuttering phone volunteer, the aide overheard when the stutterer answered the phone and received an invitation for McCain go to the Gulf of Mexico, where he could celebrate a small Mississippi town’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina with a weekend of water-related recreation.

Meanwhile, the press guy was on the phone, juggling calls about potential running mates while also talking to people about the vacation options.

That’s when the press guy made his own slip of the tongue. He thought he was speaking to a vacation advisor, when he asked about a specific activity. But he had pushed the wrong button on his Blackberry, and was actually speaking to a media guy who called about the VP choice. This would have been no problem, but the press guy, who had overheard the slip of the tongue made by the vacation-planning guy, looked questioningly at him and repeated it, a little too loudly. The aggressive reporter on the other end of the line heard what the press guy said. Eager to be the first to break a big story, immediately tweeted it on his 2008 blog. Soon, the news was on every station.

John McCain must have been quite startled when he saw on that evening news that his choice has been leaked to the press.

“No!” he said. “I said para-sailin’! Not Sarah Palin!”

But it was too late; unwilling to be identified with the infamous Kerry “flip-flops” of 2006, McCain stuck with the accidental choice. He then got on Google to find out whether Palin was the Governor of Alaska or Arkansas. The rest is history.

So, the next time you hear someone stutter, pay attention: You may be witnessing history.