Bear market
I’m tired of Sarah Palin—I doubt she’ll be the Republican nominee and if she is, she’ll be crushed in the general election. These numbers on how voters feel about a Palin endorsement are stunning: 37% are “very uncomfortable with this attribute”, while only 7% are “enthusiastic about this attribute”. So it’s really no surprise that, despite all the media starbursts, no one actually watched her “Mama Grizzly” video:
In the week since it was first posted on Palin’s Facebook page, which boasts over 1.8 million backers, the video has drawn 368,000 views. Yet despite her large following, only 33,000 people watched the video via Facebook, according to YouTube statistics. That means only one out of ten viewers found “Mama Grizzlies” through Palin’s social network—and under 2 percent of her Facebook community watched the video. So who did watch “Mama Grizzlies”?
Mostly traditional news readers and Palin detractors.
Almost a third of all views came through an article on Yahoo! News, for example, while ratings for the video ran almost two-to-one for “dislike” over “like.” “The bulk of the views seem to come after it had been covered in the mainstream media,” observes Pete Warden, a social media analyst who has studied Palin’s Facebook strategy. “
To put that in perspective, this video of some kid imitating Ian McKellen reciting the lyrics to the theme to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has drawn 624,000 views (personally, I prefer his rendition of Saved By the Bell, but that only has 75K views). Who’s the real genius here?
July 15, 2010 4:46 pm
Posted in: Excellent Links, Good News For Conservatives, Hoot-Smalley
53 Comments
53 Responses
beltane - July 15, 2010 | 4:50 pm · Link
You’re right. Sarah Palin has reached the point where I am not even interested in laughing at her anymore. She is just dull and boring and passe and ready to perform free concerts at the county fair. Maybe she can lay low for a few years and then come out with a nostalgia act in Vegas. They don’t do Hollywood Squares these days, which is really where she belongs.
Poopyman - July 15, 2010 | 4:51 pm · Link
Ah, but she’ll still be the Right’s darlin’ after The Wedding of the Century.
If she bothers to go, that is.
(Why the press is still following these hillbillies is a mystery to me.)
gmf - July 15, 2010 | 4:53 pm · Link
“I doubt she’ll be the Republican nominee…”
Don’t you mean, “I hope she’ll be the GOP nominee?”
Am I wrong to hope for that myself? I’m seriously considering throwing a few dollars her way if she runs. She’s the crazy-cherry on the top of the Republican shit sundae.
Her running would guarantee a Obama win in 2012 & would hopefully split the GOP in a spectacular fashion.
Palin 2012 !!
Elizabelle - July 15, 2010 | 4:54 pm · Link
OT, but I just saved a PDF of New York Times online page.
Congress Passes Financial Regulation Bill
subhead: Few Republicans Join Effort to Change Rules on Wall Street
Goldman Sachs to Settle with SEC for $550 Million
Oil Flow from Well Has Stopped as Cap Is Tested, BP Says
This is all bad news for Democrats, of course.
Mama Grizzlies? Meh. Although I love the Economist’s suggesting that 2 years time might help Mrs. Palin to improve her credibility. Ain’t gonna happen.
DougJ - July 15, 2010 | 4:55 pm · Link
@gmf:
Of course I hope she’ll be the Republican nominee. But I don’t think she will be.
Brachiator - July 15, 2010 | 4:55 pm · Link
But if Palin can get Levi and Bristol back together, surely she can heal the nation.
More seriously, it’s unlikely that Palin could ever be the GOP nominee. But she has value in keeping the tea baggers excited and rallying GOP donors.
Also, too.
Davis X. Machina - July 15, 2010 | 4:55 pm · Link
@gmf: The president makes less per year than a second-string shortstop. Even with the book deal and the bio-pic, and the backhanders from supporters, it’s a lot of work, and on balance it’s too short a con..
Joshua Norton - July 15, 2010 | 4:57 pm · Link
If you gave 5 monkeys 5 typewriters, they could come up with a speech for Sarah Palin. In 5 minutes.
Napoleon - July 15, 2010 | 4:57 pm · Link
OT, but Goldman Sachs settles with the SEC for $550m.
http://www.calculatedriskblog......usher.html
Third Eye Open - July 15, 2010 | 4:58 pm · Link
My Facebook strategy includes posting at least one article from Fark, at least once a day, and then digging through the friends of my friends to look for cute girls. Perhaps I am doing it wrong.
blahblahblah - July 15, 2010 | 4:58 pm · Link
Get to work, Todd! If ever there is a woman who needs to learn a little discipline in life, it’s Sarah Palin:
http://christiandomesticdiscipline.com/warmup.html
suzanne - July 15, 2010 | 4:59 pm · Link
The only reason I give even a tiny shit about Sarah Palin anymore is because I am sickly fascinated by her family drama. I realize this makes me a bad person, but seeing Bristol and Levi on the cover of TrashWeekly filled me with warm, tingly schadenfreude. I won’t tell you what I did next.
Instead, I’ll show y’all new pet pics.
Here’s my little Scout. http://www.flickr.com/photos/4.....795591194/
And the lovely Luna puppeh, who is obviously adjusting nicely. http://www.flickr.com/photos/4.....795119285/
Joshua Norton - July 15, 2010 | 4:59 pm · Link
Oil Flow from Well Has Stopped as Cap Is Tested, BP Says
And in other news, the Titanic has finally stopped sinking.
ricky - July 15, 2010 | 5:00 pm · Link
Is Mama Grizzly part of the reality series she signed up to do?
Crashman - July 15, 2010 | 5:03 pm · Link
DougJ, Master of Title-Fu.
ricky - July 15, 2010 | 5:03 pm · Link
@Third Eye Open:
What, praise the Invisible Hand, does a Social Media Analyst analyze?
ajr22 - July 15, 2010 | 5:04 pm · Link
Ya I don’t get why Palin’s social media gets attention. I mean a guy with the last name 85(Chad Ochocinco) has 800,000 more followers than her.
licensed to kill time - July 15, 2010 | 5:04 pm · Link
The amount of attention she gets from the mainstream media is baffling to me, and completely out of proportion to her abilities or accomplishments, spindly as they be. In fact, those seem to exist primarily in her own mind and the fervid imaginations of her rabid followers.
Spindly Sarah, that’s my new name for her.
Oh, and on the subject of Bristol and Levi? I bet a dollar that she’s knocked up again. Hence Levi’s public apology, kissy face with the matriarch, and the shotgun wedding. My 2 cents.
Chat Noir - July 15, 2010 | 5:09 pm · Link
@Elizabelle:
Steve Benen:
And Democrats are supposed to lose their majority in the House in November. My head hurts from all the cognitive dissonance that is flying around that meme.
@suzanne: Cat and dawg! Is Scout a tortoiseshell? And I love the name Luna for your new pup.
Bobby Thomson - July 15, 2010 | 5:09 pm · Link
@blahblahblah: Further confirmation of Poe’s Law.
Mojotron - July 15, 2010 | 5:10 pm · Link
some kid imitating Ian McKellen reciting the lyrics to the theme to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
I mistakenly thought of “Ian MacKaye” instead, somebody make that youtube please
How do you do? I don’t believe we’ve met
My name is Will, West Philly was my set
Bobby Thomson - July 15, 2010 | 5:12 pm · Link
@Chat Noir: Cognitive dissonance only if you cling to the belief that elections are determined on the basis of a clash of ideas, or even rational thought, rather than macroeconomic forces.
Swing voters vote their pocketbooks. Always have. Always will.
Third Eye Open - July 15, 2010 | 5:12 pm · Link
@ricky: You got me, but good work if you can get it, I suppose.
blahblahblah - July 15, 2010 | 5:16 pm · Link
@Bobby Thomson:
Is that anything like “Natural Law”?
BruinKid - July 15, 2010 | 5:17 pm · Link
Aw, I thought the Greg Sargent link was a new thing; it’s from June 24th. I had been wondering why some of the commenters there were talking about outdated polling until I saw the time stamps.
Still, good to know, and I hope they keep asking that question so we can get some good trendlines.
PanAmerican - July 15, 2010 | 5:17 pm · Link
She’s fan service for reactionary GOP asshats. As far as interest in what she’s spouting, they’d rather watch her porn doppelganger take it up the backside.
eemom - July 15, 2010 | 5:20 pm · Link
the ONLY good thing, in the entire universe, about Sarah Palin is what TBogg does with her. Check out today’s post; it is a masterpiece.
Srsly, the man deserves a Pulitzer—if that means anything given who they’re awarding them to these days.
Warren Terra - July 15, 2010 | 5:21 pm · Link
@Crashman:
Indeed. I wasn’t really paying attention, and so didn’t make sense of the title until later – but this one was just inspired.
JCT - July 15, 2010 | 5:25 pm · Link
@Elizabelle:
Is that the current waiting list time for a brain transplant?
CalD - July 15, 2010 | 5:27 pm · Link
Sarah who?
Jody - July 15, 2010 | 5:31 pm · Link
Well, there’s really no comparison when you think about it. That Ian McKellan kid has talent.
NR - July 15, 2010 | 5:32 pm · Link
Don’t be so sure.
I think you vastly underestimate the damage that Obama’s corporatism has done, both to himself and to the Democratic party.
Davis X. Machina - July 15, 2010 | 5:33 pm · Link
Has her daughter really done anything terrible enough to be called ‘Snowpack Snooki’ by tbogg?
No.
Is it still awesome?
Yes.
CalD - July 15, 2010 | 5:34 pm · Link
OK, much as I hate to expend a single keystroke more on Sarah who, hows about if Palin and Fred Thompson teamed up for an indie run? They could call themselves the mama and papa grizzly party (or some appropriately folksy-sounding shit like that). They were made for each other. Their tag-line could be, “No, really! We’re serious.”
Now that’s the ticket.
Davis X. Machina - July 15, 2010 | 5:36 pm · Link
@NR: Why, if he had just held out for the public option, I’d bet he’d be in the 65-70% range.
With U6 at 16%.
Uh-huh….
Lane Haygood - July 15, 2010 | 5:36 pm · Link
Holy #$%#. That’s my best friend’s YouTube channel. Small world.
Elizabelle - July 15, 2010 | 5:37 pm · Link
@Chat Noir:
Thank you, mon black cat favorite. Had not seen that.
I think our professional media is interviewing each other, which is how they missed the Obama phenomenon and desperation for change too, for the longest time.
Time for the “optics” to change.
Re media: we need to pay them less and make them get out more. Even to the suburbs, never mind the Applebee’s salad bar.
Talk about numerous professional classes with perverse incentives for not doing their jobs with the public good in mind.
New Yorker - July 15, 2010 | 5:38 pm · Link
But Levi and Bristol getting back together shows she’s getting her house in order, and she surely intimidated Levi into total surrender much as she will the media once she begins her campaign. And with the unemployment rate sky-high in 2012 and Iran rattling its nuclear sabers and Christianists looking for divine guidance from Queen Esther, SHE WILL BECOME PRESIDENT!
Sorry, Sully is off this week and I figure someone had to pick up the slack.
Albatrossity - July 15, 2010 | 5:43 pm · Link
@ajr22: Yeah, but since we’re talking about FaceBook followers, and the teabaggers are all either racist morons or ancient fogeys hoping for the reincarnation of Alf Landon or St. Ronnie, I’m amazed that she has any FB followers. In fact, I suspect that at least half of them are left-wing bloggers or late-night comedy writers looking for fresh material.
joeyess - July 15, 2010 | 5:43 pm · Link
Never underestimate the power of Wingnuts At a Primary.
Especially this brand of wingnuts.
JGabriel - July 15, 2010 | 5:46 pm · Link
DougJ:
To be fair, that kid’s video has been up July 2009. He has an 11 month head start over Palin.
As one of the apparently few who watched the Mama Grizzly video, all I can say is that it managed to pull off being batshit crazy, boring, self-worshipping, and grating all at once. In other words, typical Palin.
.
Warren Terra - July 15, 2010 | 5:46 pm · Link
@NR:
I’m not in love with Obama’s abject failures on civil liberties, or with his moderation on stimulus and regulation – but try to maintain some tenuous grip on reality: Obama’s approval rating, today, is higher than Ronald Reagan’s at the same point in his Presidency. And this despite all of Obama’s relative disadvantages (a unified, rejectionist, and often vituperative opposition party instead of Tip O’Neill; a media much less dedicated to puffing up his Presidency; an entire opposition movement dedicated to his personal, not just political, destruction, both motivated and unhinged in no small part by race; and, most importantly, a vastly worse economic recession).
And I at least hope that you underestimate the good that Obama has done for the Democratic party with the Affordable Care Act, with what stimulus and FinReg he did manage to achieve, and with the effect on long-term public perception of his consistent, and consistently rejected, attempts to meed the Republicans halfway.
PIGL - July 15, 2010 | 5:47 pm · Link
@blahblahblah: I can’t tell if that’s a spoof or serious. Creepy as hell, either way.
Michael - July 15, 2010 | 5:47 pm · Link
I’d rather watch porno bloopers than Palin propaganda pieces. At least with porno bloopers, you know you’re going to gain some useful information….
suzanne - July 15, 2010 | 5:48 pm · Link
@Chat Noir: Awwww, thanks. :) Scout is indeed a tortie, but is mostly black. When I adopted her as a kitten from a friend, she was completely black except for one toe. The tortie markings came later. Luna wants to play with her so bad, but Scout will have none of it. The only “accidents” we’ve had housebreaking Luna have been because she gets so revved up and excited, and she just pees from all the excitement.
Probably much like Sarah Palin, come to think of it.
New Yorker - July 15, 2010 | 5:49 pm · Link
@joeyess:
I dunno. I don’t think John McCain was the first choice of wingnuts in 2008. Isn’t he pretty much hated by the Ann Coulter set?
JGabriel - July 15, 2010 | 5:52 pm · Link
@Poopyman:
Remember how, in the 90’s, the press were all over Hill’s & Bill’s crazy brothers – Hugh, Anthony, and Roger?
The Palin brood, including Sarah, is the winger equivalent of the crazy Rodham & Clinton boys, but without Hill & Bill to moderate the insanity.
.
blahblahgurgleblegblah - July 15, 2010 | 6:21 pm · Link
@PIGL:
But isn’t that what Christ meant by: “Turning the other cheek”?
Hal - July 15, 2010 | 6:28 pm · Link
Sarah Palin can win dammit! All she has to do is continue with her current strategy:
1. Post some inane, general ramble about some Obama policy you disagree with on Facebook. Make sure to use “Founding Fathers” or Ronald Regan, but don’t actually discuss in depth the policy specifics. (Not like you know any real details anyway.)
2. Go on Fox news show to back up claim. Only Fox will do, as you know anyone else would actually challenge your contentions and ask you to explain yourself.
3. Follow up with twitter post repeating step one. Make sure to mention something vicious in describing yourself; Grizzly Bears, Pittbulls, Naomi Campbell with a black berry.
4. Repeat ad nauseum until 2012.
Bill Murray - July 15, 2010 | 6:51 pm · Link
Everybody knows the Real Genius is Val Kilmer.
and if not him I think I qualify since I have watched none of those videos. Not that I don’t watch plenty of stupid stuff.
and the best TV show song cover is Husker Du’s “Love is All Around”, which was the theme for the Mary Tyler Moore Show
DougJ - July 15, 2010 | 7:05 pm · Link
@BruinKid:
It’s old, but it’s the most telling poll I’ve seen on this topic. Also too, it’s not that old.
maus - July 15, 2010 | 7:54 pm · Link
@Bobby Thomson:
What they THINK will happen to their pocketbooks. Faux-independents aren’t very well-informed.
steve - July 15, 2010 | 8:18 pm · Link
I’m amazed at people who follow national politics and think ideas and candidates matter in the general election. They don’t. In the 9 presidential elections of my lifetime, 8 of the results—almost 90%—can be predicted by the rule
Is economy good?
Yes->keep incumbent
No->replace incumbent
it has nothing to do with who the nominees were, or their intelligence, or their policies. Whether the GOP nominee in 2012 is romney, palin, or a friggin guinea pig, a look at the unemployment and GDP growth rate will tell you the election results in advance.