Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol apparently wasn’t impressed with her time in Middletown.
By Eric Robinette
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — In her new tell-all memoir, Bristol Palin, daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, talks about her life and her loves. And apparently the 20-year-old has no love lost with Middletown.
Palin’s autobiography, “Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far,” hit stores June 21. In the book, she dishes on everything from her early brushes with sex and alcohol to her relationship with Levi Johnston — the father of her child — and her drama with Meghan McCain, daughter of former presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.
But tucked amid those revelations are a few jabs at the town of “Middleton” — the book misspells the city’s name — where she first discovered her mother would become McCain’s running mate.
In her book, the younger Palin said she also discovered something else while staying at the 89-year-old Manchester Inn hotel downtown: cockroaches.
“The raggedy old hotel had dated furniture, small rooms, ugly pink walls, and an abundant supply of cockroaches,” she wrote. “I’d never even seen a cockroach before. Reporters might not think Wasilla is the prettiest town in the world, but at least we don’t have roaches.”
Like mother, like daughter
The Palins came to Middletown in 2008 just before McCain made an announcement at the Ervin J. Nutter Center in Dayton that Sarah Palin would be his running mate.
A few weeks after their stay in Middletown, Nicolle Wallace, a McCain-Palin aide, told reporters that the Manchester Inn was too “unposh” for then-Alaska Gov. Palin, her family and their staff to spend one night in.
In her book, Bristol Palin referred to the room they stayed in that night as a “so-called suite.” She tells how the environment mixed with the exciting news about her mother’s vice presidential bid made getting a good night’s rest a challenge.
“It was hard to sleep that night ... and not only because I was worried the roaches might scurry over us,” she wrote.
Judy Bober, a longtime associate of the Manchester’s late co-owner Perry Thatcher, was not amused by the comments in Palin’s book.
“That’s upsetting to me,” Bober said. “If you went looking for bugs, you might think that, but they (the staff) did their due diligence keeping things like that under control.”
Upon hearing that Palin misspelled the city’s name as “Middleton,” Bober said, “Well, then, there you go.”
Bober recalled how Sarah Palin herself wasn’t pleased with the hotel.
“It was pretty much the same thing. She thought it would be more plush. She was just disappointed,” Bober said.
Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan said Bristol Palin’s remarks were “certainly disappointing.” When he heard Middletown was spelled wrong, Mulligan said, “I maybe wonder how good the editors were or how good her recollection was.”
The Manchester Inn closed its doors in January. Cincinnati State Technical and Community College has discussed the possibility of using the facility as a culinary school.
Bristol Palin’s account also differs from earlier reports on the Palins’ visit, which stated that a Gulfstream IV jet flew Palin’s party nonstop from Anchorage, Alaska, to Middletown in about six hours.
Bristol writes in her book that her family took a jet that landed in Cincinnati about an hour before midnight. They then “drove about 40 minutes to a place called Middleton,” she wrote.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.