Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and medical letters - A comparison

Medical records of candidates in presidential elections are always of great interest.

The strategist behind former President George W. Bush is now handing out advice to presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

“It’s going to be important for her to get her doctors out there, quickly,” Rove said, ”to provide the medical records and to provide the reassurance that people are going to want to have.”

During the 2008 elections, buzz surrounding John McCain’s physical capability to serve as president forced him to produce over 1,000 pages of medical records. The then-71-year-old McCain, who would have been the oldest president ever to serve, was a prisoner of war and a cancer survivor, but doctors still found him fit to serve.

Not a word about Sarah Palin, who released her medical "records" late on the eve of the election.

Here's a letter from Michele Bachmann's doctor:

Letter courtesy of Think Progress

It's typed on headed paper and the text sits straight on the page. The tone is professional and the doctor didn't feel it necessary to devote a whole paragraph to his qualifications and awards.

Now look at the letter from Sarah Palin's doctor:

[These screenshots are too small for comfortable reading of the contents. I included them to compare how the text sits on the page. To read the full contents, please click on the thumbnails at the bottom of the post.]

For some peculiar reason, the text doesn't line up with the header and the information is vague. There are too many details about Trig, who's named in the letter, even though he wasn't the candidate. [At least we were spared the details of all Michele Bachmann's children and foster children...]

Michelle Bachmann released this letter some 16 months before the election and she's not yet the GOP nominee. Sarah Palin teased the world with her open book life, and even said "if" her medical records were released. They were, a few hours before voters headed to the polling booths, because Americans deserve to know...



Well, well...

Hey Bristol, it looks like Michele Bachmann decided not to copy your mom after all!

Please click on each
thumbnail to enlarge

(H/T to Pallottine)

You should have blinked, Sarah Palin

Laura Novak and I had an e-mail conversation earlier and the subject was, inevitably, Sarah Palin and her strange stories.

We pondered what would have happened if she had stayed in Alaska, in relative anonymity, minding her own business as the governor of that isolated state.

The rumours about her pregnancy (and Bristol's) were already around in Alaska long before Sarah Palin appeared at the Republican convention, but I tend to believe that Alaskans were not terribly interested in it and the rumours were bound to die down.

As it happens, Sarah didn't blink and decided that she didn't want to be a big fish in small pond anymore. She wanted to swim in the big pond and rub shoulders with the rest of the big political fish. She said "yes" to McCain and dragged her whole family (plus a convenient fiance) into the public arena.

That was a mistake. People started to pay attention, to ask too many questions about this mythical creature from the frozen tundra. People noticed that some of her stories didn't make sense.

Had she stayed safely in Alaska, there would be no conspiracy theories, no dedicated blogs going through her record and her weird stories with a fine tooth comb. There would be no books written about her.

Sarah missed a second chance to go back to safe obscurity when she quit her job to become a multi-millionaire celebrity. She gave more material to bloggers, journalists and the tabloids. Bristol Palin also managed to secure a place in the spotlight and lies about anything with the same ease as her mother. Willow has just made the news on TMZ...

Now everybody is asking pesky questions about the Palins, as Sarah made them such a big part of her narrative.


The scrutiny won't stop, Sarah. You should have blinked!

[This is the original post I had written to link to Laura Novak's interview with a doctor who looked at CBJ's letter. It reappeared as a draft, so with a couple of edits, why waste it?]

Sarah Palin's Medical Records - Too Much (Convenient) Information

On the eve of the election in 2008, Sarah Palin released this letter:

(Please click on images to enlarge)

This medical report raised many red flags:

The doctor who delivered Piper had her birth date wrong (Piper was born in 2001).

Sarah Palin's two miscarriages were not mentioned at all. We've learned about them by reading her book, Going Rogue.

The report describes Trig Palin's health in some detail. He was not the candidate for the vice presidency, so why disclose details of his birth and his health in particular? How come the other four children get a passing mention, but Trig has a whole paragraph dedicated to him?

Did candidate Obama's medical report contain details of his daughters' health and the circumstances of their births? OK, he's a man, so it wouldn't have affected his health directly. But if Hillary Clinton had been the candidate, would we have learned all about Hillary's pregnancy, Chelsea's birth and her general health? Would such information belong in a candidate's medical report?

There had been no rumours about Hillary faking her pregnancy with Chelsea, but the McCain campaign announced Bristol Palin's 5 month pregnancy to rebut the rumours about Sarah Palin:

ST. PAUL | Mon Sep 1, 2008 6:47pm EDT

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - The 17-year-old unmarried daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Sarah Palin was reluctant to release her medical records:



IF they're released...

Yes, her medical report was released very late the day before the polls opened, too late to be examined the media.

Since then, the media not only failed to take a closer look at it, but appear to have grown allergic to the mere mention of Sarah Palin's strange pregnancy.

The story as had a reprieve and it's starting to be discussed again. Some in the media are still dismissive of the whole saga, but others are taking it more seriously, especially after Sarah Palin herself wished that Donald Trump would be successful in finding out what it is that president Obama is hiding about his birth certificate.

Trig Palin is three days away from his third birthday, according to the birth date that was made public. In these three years, Sarah Palin had plenty of time and earned enough money to be able to procure a suitable birth document to "prove" she gave birth to Trig on that date.

At this stage, only DNA tests conducted under the scrutiny of independent experts would satisfy the people who are all too familiar with Sarah Palin's history of obfuscation and deception...

- A detailed analysis of Cathy Baldwin-Johnson's letter may be found HERE (pdf file).
- A comparison of various Cathy Baldwin Johnson's signatures and further analysis of the letter may be found HERE.
- The "Wild Ride" can't be revisited enough times...

Revisiting the questions surrounding Trig Palin’s birth - "Anything goes?"

Guest post by Blueberry Tart

From the announcement of her pregnancy on March 5, 2008 to the announcement of the birth of Trig Palin six weeks later, Sarah Palin’s tale of her pregnancy and the birth of Trig was so incredible that it attracted deep skepticism, but no real investigation. While much of this has been discussed in the Babygate summary, there are certain aspects of Sarah’s story that demand more scrutiny. Among these, the roles of Sarah Palin’s friend and doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnston, and of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center remain very questionable and still largely hidden from view.

Let’s start with the hospital. The choice to “deliver” Trig at Mat-Su was, simply put, out of the boundaries of the hospital’s certification to provide medical services.

Mat-Su Regional Hospital in Palmer

Mat-Su does not perform high-risk deliveries, except in a medical emergency. It does not even deliver twins. Yet Palin’s “delivery,” according to her own accounts, would entail the following risk factors, all known to her and her doctor prior to the reported birth:

1. advanced maternal age (over 35; Palin was 44)
2. multiparous (>2 prior births; Palin had given birth 4 times previously)
3. two prior miscarriages (reported by Palin in Going Rogue, including the “wite-out abortion,”)
4. infant 5 weeks premature
5. infant with heart defect
6. infant with Down syndrome
7. rupture of membranes and other signs of labor beginning 22+ hours before arrival at Mat-Su. Premature rupture of membranes heightens the risk of infection and can cause prolapse of the umbilical cord, endangering both mother and child

Palin bypassed hospitals with NICUs in Texas and Seattle, and did not even arrange to meet CBJ at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, where CBJ had privileges. Instead, Palin’s (original) story is that she arrived at the hospital at around 11:30 at night and the baby was born at 6:30 the next morning, 7 hours after arrival at the hospital, and 29 hours after the leaking of amniotic fluid.

Birth was obviously not imminent when she arrived at Mat-Su; in fact, the Anchorage Daily News quoted CBJ saying that labor had to be induced. This makes no sense from a medical standpoint. Why induce if the baby was 5 weeks premature? Why not do everything possible to allow the fetus to develop further to avoid risks of prematurity? Was there any indication of infection or prolapse of the cord or that the baby was in distress? This seems unlikely, as Palin made no mention of any distress on her part or the baby’s and described it as an incredibly easy birth – the easiest of all her children.

The fact is that if there was time to induce labor, then there was time to transport Palin by ambulance to Providence Hospital in Anchorage, where her doctor had privileges – and past which she and Todd had just driven, on their way to Palmer from the Anchorage airport. This hospital had the medical staff and facilities, including a NICU, that would be needed for such a high risk delivery. But no; they chose to go ahead with the “delivery” at Mat-Su. If the details of the risks involved are in any respect truthful, then his aspect of the story is far beyond credibility. As one of our readers wrote, “If she were needing to be induced, and showed up at Mat-Su with that history, she'd be in an ambulance, and maybe even in a helicopter, to Anchorage within 15 minutes of arrival. Especially considering she was the Governor at the time… That. Delivery Does. Not. Happen. In. A. Hospital. Without. A. NICU. And. Neonatologists. Present.”

But arguendo: If Mat-Su did in fact allow this high-risk birth to take place there, this is not a trivial matter. Mat-Su cannot practice medicine beyond its accreditation-certification and expertise. Doing so would represent a huge risk to patient safety and leave the hospital open to major liability claims, as well as sanctions regarding its certification. Its lawyers would certainly have prohibited this from taking place. Did Mat-Su violate the limits of its certification? If the story is as Palin tells it, apparently so. (Take a look at the accreditation standards).

Complicating matters is Palin’s own role as a former board member of the hospital. She and others had tried to influence the hospital’s practice of medicine, most notably trying to prevent Mat-Su from performing abortions. They lost this effort when the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that, because they received substantial income from federal sources, they could not prevent the hospital from providing abortions. Despite the loss in court, it is apparent that Palin, and CBJ, had considerable influence within the hospital. Did this influence allow them to use the hospital as the venue for the Sarah Palin birth hoax?

The hospital did not report the birth in its on-line birth registry. No press conference of the physician announcing the birth of the governor’s son ever took place. Although there are a report and photos from Mat-Su on 4/18/08, including photos of Sally and Chuck Heath holding a baby, the hospital Mat-Su has never publicly acknowledged any role in the birth of Trig Palin. This could not be due to a desire for privacy, as the birth was widely reported, including the on-site report by Lori Tipton of KTUU on 4/18.

Regarding the photos of the Heaths and the baby, several people knowledgeable about neonatal care have stated that a premature newborn with DS, a hole in his heart and jaundice would not have been allowed out of the nursery into a public area hours after birth, nor would he have appeared at Sarah’s Anchorage office three days later.

What can we conclude? If that scenario really happened as described by Palin and the media, it would have violated the standards of practice of The Joint Commission (TJC) which surveys & accredits almost all hospitals across the United States.

Mat-Su’s role in this charade was either complicity in covering up Palin’s hoax, or they violated their accreditation-certification limitations. At the least, these scenarios warrant an investigation.

Here is a link which explains how The Joint Commission (TJC) will follow up on complaints and get back to the complainant. This has to be done within 3 years of the incident in question.

**************

Now, continuing the medical theme, let’s turn our attention to Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson. If Palin’s story were true, not only Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, but Cathy Baldwin-Johnson individually, was practicing medicine beyond her expertise and credentials. She is a family practitioner, not an obstetrician skilled in high-risk deliveries. In the prior year, she had reportedly attended only three births at Mat-Su. She did attend Palin at the birth of Piper 7 years before, but this does not qualify her to deliver a high risk infant with known health problems in a facility not equipped with an NICU nor accredited for such deliveries. Imagine the malpractice claims, and then imagine that ANY physician would expose themselves to such risk. Her malpractice insurer would NEVER allow that to happen.

Cathy Baldwin-Johnson

What do we know, specifically, of CBJ’s role? Well, there is the quote in ADN, and there are the quotes from Palin in Going Rogue, saying that Todd had called CBJ the morning of 4/17/08 and, after discussing Palin’s condition, they concluded that she could take it easy, go ahead with her speech, and then return to Alaska. The ADN report cited above quotes CBJ saying, “I don’t think it was unreasonable for her to continue to travel back,” but also saying that Palin did not ask for a medical OK to fly.

Aside from the press reports cited above, CBJ has been silent regarding her role in the “delivery” of Trig Palin. The only purportedly official report made regarding this question was the letter, released by the McCain-Palin Campaign at 10:30 p.m. on November 3, 2008, barely hours before Election Day. This letter was supposedly the campaign’s response to requests for Sarah Palin’s medical records, which she had promised to release on October 24, 2008, in an interview with Brian Williams of NBC. The last minute release of this letter meant that no one examined it in any detail before the election, and after McCain-Palin lost, it slid into partial oblivion.

Sarah Palin promising to release her medical records in an interview with NBC-reporter Brian Williams, October 24, 2008:

The oddities and discrepancies of this letter have been covered before, by various blogs. I will not repeat all of the problems with the letter, but only reiterate a few:

Quoting from a Palin’s Deceptions post which was written by a member of the research team:

“This letter is the only documentation that has ever been provided by anyone about the circumstances of Trig Palin's birth. Yet it was not released by the doctor; it was not actually signed by the doctor; it has never been authenticated by the doctor; it contains information which the doctor could not know first-hand; it contains erroneous information; and most notably, it does not ever say that Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig Palin. The letter's unprofessional appearance, modified electronic signature and lack of clear factual statements give rise to numerous questions about its legitimacy, and some have suggested that these may be a deliberate ploy to allow Dr. Baldwin-Johnson ‘deniability’ – that is, grounds to claim that she is not legally responsible for the letter.”

A very detailed, but not exhaustive, summary of the problems with the letter can be found here. Readers of Palins Deceptions and other blogs pointed out additional problems with the letter, as well.

A few months later, the editor of the Anchorage Daily News, Pat Dougherty, made clear that ADN had assigned reporter Lisa Demer to try to “report the facts of Trig's birth thoroughly enough to kill the nonsense once and for all.” However, despite contacting Dr. Baldwin-Johnson (and others), Demer did not receive information to “put this nonsense to rest.” In fact, on advice of counsel, CBJ refused to answer Demer’s questions, even refusing to confirm whether she was present at the birth.

What we can say, with certainty, is that either Dr. Cathy Baldwin-Johnson violated the code of medical ethics by giving Palin medical advice over the phone when only a physical examination could reveal the level of risk – or she is complicit in perpetrating a hoax on the American people.

I will close by quoting this from AnonPoster a few months ago: Any doctor who tells her 44-year old patient who is leaking amniotic fluid, having contractions and 5 weeks early with a high-risk pregnancy that she need not go the hospital, and can instead spend the next 18+ hours taking cross-country flights on commercial airlines, is a MENACE who should not be allowed to practice medicine.

Let's see CBJ investigated and having to defend herself to investigators who have the authority to revoke her license to practice medicine. Would she lose her license rather than tell the truth?

Investigations/Complaints
Alaska State Medical Board
550 West Seventh Avenue Suite 1500
Anchorage AK 99501-3567

Electronic complaint form.

+++

Note by Patrick:

Many thanks to Blueberry Tart for submitting this excellent post! The time has come to examine the responsibility of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer and of Cathy Baldwin-Johnson in greater detail.

I would like to include what one of our readers from Alaska reported after calling Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, because it proves that the hospital would have grossly violated their own policies regarding the care of premature babies, given that the story that Sarah Palin presented in public is true. In the real world, however, it's not conceivable that a hospital would ignore their own policies if a Governor gives birth there. In Sarah Palin's fantasy world, and apparently also in the minds of MSM journalists who refuse to investigate this story, anything goes.

Our reader from Alaska wrote me:

"Patrick,

I called the Mat-Su Regional Hospital again today and spoke with

their Lori in their Maternity Center. I asked them what the cut

off was for them to deliver a preemie at their facility. They told

me that you must be over 35 weeks pregnant before you can deliver

at their hospital. Of course they said there were exceptions.

I asked them what they typically do if a women in labor comes in at 35
weeks or earlier in her pregnancy. They said that they normally do a
labor check to see how the labor/dilation is progressing and what
stage the expectant mother is in. If the labor isn't too far along,
they will probably transport the mother to Providence Alaska Medical
center in Anchorage, where there is an NICU. If the expectant mother
is too far into labor & there is a qualified pediatrician at the
hospital at the time, they may go ahead and let the mother give birth
at the Mat-Su hospital.

After birth, if the infant has any complications or high-risk factors,
like problems breathing or heart problems, they will immediately
stabilize & transport the new born to Providence Alaska Medical Center
in Anchorage, which is equipped with an NICU."

+++

PLEASE RE-TWEET (corrected!):

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/27366863951

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/27366896413

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Sarah Palin's "wild ride": Child endangerment or the fraud of the century?

Sarah Palin, 32 weeks pregnant, on March 26, 2008

We have covered this topic before, but it won't hurt to take a fresh look at Sarah Palin's wild ride...

It's very difficult to find straightforward medical advice regarding long haul flights in late pregnancy, but there are bits and pieces to be found on the forums. Funnily enough, when searching for medical advice about flying while leaking amniotic fluid and having contractions, the results are overwhelmingly about Sarah Palin and the wild ride!

I found an actual medical opinion and emphasized the relevant passages:

Women who fly during pregnancy, whether as passengers or crew, continue to fuel the debate over the potential impact on pregnancy outcome and fetal development, the two risk factors most commonly invoked being relative hypoxaemia due to the decreased cabin pressure and, more recently, cosmic radiation. On both theoretical and experimental grounds (altitude physiology and studies in pregnant women during flight), commercial flight poses no threat to the fetal oxygen supply in a normal pregnancy. As for cosmic radiation, only theoretical estimates are available of flight crew exposure: if annual doses approximate to background at ground level (3-5 mSv), the dose received during an individual pregnancy can be estimated from the fraction of annual flight time spent while pregnant. It is doubtful whether any epidemiological study could ever confirm or refute this theoretical estimate of a low increase in risk. Many airlines have opted to allow pregnant crew to continue flying. There is thus little if any ground for advising against passenger flight in pregnancy. Flying is probably the safest and most comfortable way to travel long-distance in pregnancy. The few relative contraindications include flying close to term, a history of miscarriage and premature delivery, heavy smoking, severe anemia, cardiopulmonary disease, and a serious fear of flying.

We all know that Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig was not normal and her own book revealed that she had two miscarriages.

From a forum:

After reading the postings regarding flying when pregnant, and having had a trip planed for my 30 week of pregnancy, I realized that perhaps I also should contact my doctor to get their advice. I belong to Kaiser and can tell you that the advice nurse all but laughed at me when I told her my situation. She said that she would forward the message to my doctor but could tell me immediately that the doctor was NOT going to approve it. Granted, my situation is slightly different as I was planning on flying to a wedding one day, and returning the next. Wanting to get a second opinion, and make sure that Kaiser was not overreacting to prevent a potential lawsuit I sent email to my father-in-law who is a retired general practitioner. Below is his reply. Hence, my trip has been cancelled.

"The third trimester is a time when complications occur, which can be abrupt. As an example, if membranes rupture in the seventh or eighth month, labor can be very rapid, all within the period of an airplane flight. Although the odds are fairly low, such complications, unfortunately are common, and you would have much better chances for a favorable outcome if you are near your physician and hospital. My answer was always no. My usual response was that, although you'll miss the wedding, it is far better to visit later, and show off your new baby."

I don't think doctors anticipate having to advise their patients about flying in the late stages of pregnancy after they start leaking amniotic fluid. Their advice is normally about one or the other, not both! The same goes for contractions.

Article on the ADN:

Palin said she felt fine but had leaked amniotic fluid and also felt some contractions that seemed different from the false labor she had been having for months.

Sarah Palin reinforced the story about the contractions in Going Rogue, but left the fluid leakage out:

The next month, Todd and I checked into a hotel in Dallas. The following day I was scheduled to keynote another oil and gas conference. My pregnancy was going fine, and with five weeks to go, I felt great. But at 4 a.m., a strange sensation low in my belly woke me and I sat up straight in my bed.

(...)

Later that afternoon we entered a packed house at the energy conference, where I’d speak on the urgent need to tap conventional supplies and innovate on stabilizing renewable sources.

(...)

Then I took the podium and opened by teasing the audience about how great it was to be in our "little sister state of Texas."

Big laughs. More contractions.

Dr Cathy Baldwin-Johnston found herself in a very unique position, having to advise her patient on three different aspects of pregnancy, all at the same time.

On the same ADN article, we find this quote:

"I don't think it was unreasonable for her to continue to travel back," Baldwin-Johnson said.

Advice about leaking amniotic fluid: (Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes -- PPROM)

How is it diagnosed? If you are leaking amniotic fluid, the diagnosis is easy. The doctor will do a pelvic exam to look for amniotic fluid leaking from the cervix. A speculum will be inserted much like when a Pap smear is done. A fluid sample will be taken. The fluid will be tested by putting a drop on special paper. Amniotic fluid will cause this paper to change color. The fluid can also be tested by looking at a drop under the microscope. When amniotic fluid dries, it looks like a fern pattern. An ultrasound will tell if there is less amniotic fluid around your baby.

Based on the information we have, Dr Baldwin-Johnston performed this test and an ultrasound over the phone.

How will the affect my pregnancy? PPROM can lead to other problems such as premature labor, infections of the mother or baby, kinking of the umbilical cord, delivery of the umbilical cord before the baby (prolapsed cord), and poor growth of the baby’s lungs.

The sac around your baby helps to protect the baby from germs that normally live in the vagina. When this sac breaks, these germs can cause an infection in the mother and/or baby. This is called chorioamnionitis.

The umbilical cord could get pinched with less fluid to protect it during uterine contractions or when the baby moves. In rare cases, the umbilical cord can come out of the vagina before the baby is born (prolapsed cord). An emergency delivery would be needed because the baby would not be able to get oxygen. Without enough amniotic fluid, the baby’s lungs may not grow well. If the lungs are too small, (this is called pulmonary hypoplasia), it may be hard or impossible for the baby to breathe after birth. There is no way to predict this problem.

Apparently, Dr Baldwin-Johnston was able to make many predictions based solely on telephone examinations.

There are two ways of looking at the good doctor's behaviour:

1. She gave very, very bad advice over the phone. I can't imagine any other doctor thinking that it would not be unreasonable for a 44 year old multipara leaking amniotic fluid and having contrations to continue to travel back from Dallas to Anchorage, then travel a further hour to reach a hospital without appropriate facilities. Did I mention that the baby in question was already known to have Down syndrome?

2. It was not unreasonable for Sarah Palin to continue to travel because she was not pregnant at all.

Whichever of these options is true, it leaves Dr Baldwin-Johnston facing a conundrum. Either she gave appalling advice or she's covering up a major fraud.

The third option is that she was caught in one of Sarah Palin's many instances of using people as she pleases, then discarding them. Dr Cathy Baldwin-Johnston has been awfully silent and virtually unseen since the April 2008.

I wonder why!

(Previous post about the wild ride)

Click here to hear Sarah Palin's own description of the wild ride on April 22, 2008:

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Sarah Palin's little problem with the truth

Meg Stapleton has released a statement regarding the "gang rape" threats against Willow Palin, saying that the threat was real, made in a MySpace post and duly reported by the family to the governor's security detail, investigated, blah blah. The statement comes as an obvious reaction to speculation that Sarah Palin lied about the incident in "Going Rogue".

There are many, many lies in Sarah's book. If we give Sarah the benefit of the doubt, there are certain memory lapses, at the very least.

For example, Sarah Palin tells this little tale relating to Willow's birth:

"Then our third child, pretty little Willow Bianca Faye came along. I went into labor with her on the Fourth of July while kayaking with the Menards on Memory Lake. I so wanted a patriotic baby that I paddled as hard as I could to speed up the contractions, but she held out until the next day."

Sooo... according to Sarah, Willow was born on July 5. (Memory Lake, sweet irony!)

Several people found this information (page 59):

Willow Bianca Faye Palin was born July 7, 1994 at 7 lbs., 12 oz. [Anchorage Daily News (AK), 7/25/94]

Did the Anchorage Daily News make a mistake? Who reported the happy event in the life of Wasilla's council member and provided the birth date?

Sarah Palin appears to have a recurring problem with birth dates. Nobody seems able to get any dates right!

Cathy Baldwin-Johnson's letter released on the eve of the November election gave Piper's birthday as 2000.

The same document (also on page 59) that gave Willow's birthday as July 7 states:

Piper Indi Grace Palin was born March 19, 2001 at 7 lbs., 13 oz. [Anchorage Daily News (AK), 3/29/01]

Last year Tripp Johnston's birth date was initially given as December 28, 2008, according to a relative in the state of Washington, then changed to December 27. The press release from the office of the then governor didn't specify the date.

Poor gal, there must be some kind of conspiracy going on. All these people get their facts wrong and make Sarah Palin come across as some kind of liar...
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