Sarah Palin outraged by the treatment Associated Press to visit Haiti, "takes the cake '

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin visited the cholera ravaged Haiti this weekend, accompanying a delegation from Franklin Graham's charity Samaritan's Purse, and accompanied by Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren. Although there has been some sniping definitely less than gracious about Palin's visit, which was the caption for this photo from the Associated Press, linked to a Free Republic blog, which led to Palin tweet "This takes the cake. Really?"

The legend says that Palin "has her hair done" during the visit, but another picture reveals that the "hairdresser" alleged it was really Bristol Palin. Yet while Palin may have a point about the coverage surrounding his trip, I think she is off base about the photo.

AP writers took pains to point out that Palin's visit was "well organized" and that it "prevent (ed) the crowds and the press," and she was accompanied by Greta Fox News' Van Susteren. Since they had little access to Palin, there was not much to report them, but Palin certainly could be forgiven for exception to the "stage management" characterization.

The AP also reported that while Palin had no doubts at a press conference, she did create "confusion."

At the press conference, Palin created some confusion when referring to a survey of potential U.S. aid to Haiti.

"I know there has been some discussion of U.S. aid, perhaps, be lifted from this area," she said. "Once again - not to be political - but if some politicians who come here and see the conditions, perhaps saw the need for, say, a military airlift to come and bring supplies that are so needed here."

It was unclear what she was referring to, and a Palin spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

This could be seen as a sort of "gotcha", I suppose, since the whole point of Palin here seems to be that those in power should see the situation first hand before making (possibly hypothetical) judgments. She seems to be trying to convey how deeply it has affected the visit.

MagazineOnline time focused on how fast trip was Palin, and took the fact that she had a crew of Fox News with her. The suggestion that Palin is nothing subtle is opportunistically exploiting the tragedy of Haiti to get some good press.

It seems to me that there are plenty of good reasons to criticize Sarah Palin but I fail to see how his visit to Haiti falls into that category. She seems to be trying to do something good, and if you can not bring themselves to praise, so you certainly should not mess with it for her. Even if all she does is stay a few more dollars going down to Haiti, which is more than most of us can do. If you do not like Franklin Graham (who became a somewhat controversial figure in the "debate" about Obama's religion), and you can not see the past, to donate to charity, then find one you like.

As for Palin's indignation over the photo, though, I think she picked the wrong battle to fight here. The legend should indeed be corrected, but I seriously doubt that the error was deliberate. For one thing, I left with a lot of photographers, and they are a bunch as apolitical as you'll never find. Shockingly so. The photographer, in this case, Chery-Dieu Nali, is a native of Haiti, and probably a freelancer. There's a good chance he did not recognize Bristol Palin, or that the picture was captioned by someone who forgot to cross-reference to other pictures to determine that it was Bristol.

Anyway, there are still plenty of trial to go around, and it is not pretty. Give her a chance to do some good.

Samaritan's Purse, has posted the following video of Palin's visit Haiti:

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