Palin takes prank call from fake French president. What is up with her security people?

Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call Saturday from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and telling her she would make a good president someday.

"Maybe in eight years," replies a laughing Palin.

The Republican vice presidential nominee discusses politics, the perils of hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy's "beautiful wife," in a recording of the call released Saturday and set to air Monday on a Quebec radio station.

Palin campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt confirmed she had received the prank call.

"Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie," she said.

The call was made by a well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state.

Audette, posing as Sarkozy, speaks in an exaggerated French accent and drops ample hints that the conversation is a joke. But Palin seemingly does not pick up on them.

He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor.

"I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," the fake Sarkozy says. He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he says he has never done.

"Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we're getting work done," Palin counters. "We can kill two birds with one stone that way."

The comedian jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney along on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.

"I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin.

Playing off the governor's much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," the caller tells her: "You know we have a lot in common also, because ... from my house I can see Belgium."

She replies: "Well, see, we're right next door to different countries that we all need to be working with, yes."

When Audette refers to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada's prime minister, Palin replies: "Well, he's doing fine and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder." Canada's prime minister is Stephen Harper.

Palin praises Sarkozy throughout the call and also mentions his wife Carla Bruni, a model-turned-songwriter.

"You know, I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife," Palin says. "Oh my goodness, you've added a lot of energy to your country with that beautiful family of yours."

The Sarkozy impersonator tells Palin his wife is "so hot in bed" and then informs her that Bruni has written a song for her about Joe the Plumber entitled "De rouge a levre sur un cochon" — which translates as "Lipstick on a Pig."

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama derided his Republican challenger John McCain's call for change in Washington as "lipstick on a pig," days after Palin made a lipstick joke at the Republican convention. The McCain-Palin campaign then released an ad implying Obama was calling Palin a pig with that remark.

The caller asks Palin if Joe the Plumber is her husband and adds: "We have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France. It's called Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit." He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the "documentary" made about her and referred to a pornographic film with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt.

She answers tentatively, "Ohh, good, thank you, yes." The callers then reveal the prank and identify themselves and their radio station. "Ohhh, have we been pranked?" Palin asks. "And what radio station is this?" - ap

Kind of a missed opportunity but they did find out a few interesting things if you read between the lines. The most dangerous game could have been revealed to be true or false with the right question. ( Some say "Quail" is a code word for the human slaves Dick Cheney hunts and this is why there was an odd time delay when he had the hunting accident where he supposedly accidentally shot a lawyer friend in the face. )

This prank makes me angry because it reveals a real threat to national security. It took four days to set up the call, supposedly. What happened during those four days? Was a single call made to France to verify!? This shows the world that the Secret Service does not trace calls coming in to people under their protection. If the Russians can impersonate McCain and call up Sarah Palin and tell her to say or do something ... do you see where I'm going with this?

Opsec please. With the amount we spend on national security, there should have been at least 3 entirely different groups who could have caught and stopped this prank before it happened.  Did they intercept and let it happen anyway? Did the Secret Service look the other way? Was Palin set up?

Combine this with her Yahoo account getting hacked and one hopes her security team has looked at the records carefully by now to make sure her other communications have been legit.

This also has potentially damaged real US relations with the real Sarkozy, because who could blame him for being angry that Palin would think he could really say these things?

On the pronoia side, those of us with an interest in intelligence could look at this as a planned psyop to make other government's THINK that our security for top political candidates is really that bad.

Here is a video with the entire call from MSNBC.

The fact that this call could get through to her is much more of a blooper than Obama not knowing the details of his aunt's immigration status.