If you want an indication of how low Sarah Palin’s fortunes have sunk, the first time I’ve seen anything written about her in a long time is the news that her son Track is divorcing his wife who he shotgun married when she was 6 months pregnant with his child. Bristol was on Dancing with the Stars this year, but Sarah no longer has the juice to make her rapidly-dwindling fanbase call in thousands of times, so America’s most famous single mom was voted off early in the festivities. Sarah’s reality show didn’t get picked up for another season, her buscapade is over, and even though she’s still working for Fox News, nobody’s paying attention. She’s the one-hit wonder of Republican politics.
It didn’t have to be this way. One of our trolls likes to point out that I predicted that Palin would run for President. I only remember praying for Huckabee, but no matter. If anything is clear from Palin’s fall to obscurity, it’s that she would have been better off if she had made a run. Look at Newt and Santorum. When the Republican race started, they were both minor lights compared to Palin. Neither is much better as a debater than Sarah would have been, had she been willing to take some coaching and do some work. Yet both of them have increased their stock within the wingnut branch of the party immeasurably, while Sarah’s left wishing and hoping that Roger Ailes doesn’t cancel her contract.
Sarah’s problem is that she thought she could become a real celebrity instead of a political one. The reality show, Bristol’s two left feet on DWTS, the books and attendant bus tour pilgrimages to America’s finest strip malls, not to mention using Facebook as her main mode of communication, are all symptoms of the same disease. She wanted to go Hollywood, or at least Burbank.
But try as she might, she can’t dodge the fact that her politics take all the fun out of a D-list career that could have rivaled the Kardashians. What’s interesting about the Palin clan is the fucking and fighting. But it doesn’t matter that she’s somewhat-hot and that her family is reality show trashy if her main message is buzz kills like abstinence and hating the gays. Staying married to Todd is also a liability, because the only reality show she could sell in her current state is “Sarah Palin, Single and Dating”.
Sarah’s past her sell-by date as a celebrity, and with the decline of the Tea Party, as a politician. After Ailes drops her contract, she’ll be running some kind of multilevel marketing scam or making infomercials with Ron Popeil, if she’s lucky.
aimai
I’m not so sure that Newt is unscathed. And I’m really sure he’s a better debator, even in his sleep (or sleeping around) than Palin could ever dream of being. One more onstage debate and she would have bit off her own tongue by accident.
However, that being said, the other thing Palin didn’t realize is you have to spend money to make money. The other guys are quite businesslike and set up a web of corporations and hired lower level grifters so they could engage in mass fundraising scams and phishing expeditions. Palin hired a passionate lunatic woman who was only marginally competent who liked to get into fights with people for ideological reasons–Rebecca Mansour, was that her name?–at any rate she never figured out that the real money was to be made phishing, buying advertisements on NRO to be sent to their legion of feeble minded readers, and then scamming them for gold coins or alaksan wildnerness “marks” or smoked salmon from Todd’s fishery or something.
aimai
Schlemizel
The key words there Mixie – “DO SOME WORK”
No way in hell was she was up for that. There are plenty of lazy pols but she would win hands down as the laziest
Ron
Sadly, to help them attempt to stay celebrities, the state of Alaska taxpayers got dinged for just over $350K for Bristol’s failed reality show. If they want to try to be “celebrities” I don’t care, but it sucks for Alaskan citizens to have to pay for it.
raven
Star-Making Machinery: Inside the Business of Rock and Roll
Great book about Commander Cody and not selling out.
PeakVT
Sarah who?
raven
@Ron: The “Alaskan citizens” that elected her? Xin loi mofo’s.
mistermix
@aimai: Yep, I think the key lesson here is that she was too proud to hire a good executive to run Sarah Palin, Inc and so she wasn’t able to build a Newt-like wingnut empire.
ET
Palin has always wanted attention – look at her career. Sports newscaster put her on TV. Politics made her a big fish in a little pond both in Wasilla and Alaska. She must have thought she hit the lottery when she was tapped to be the VP candidate. She quite being governor right after they lost – because she didn’t want to be governor near as much as she wanted to be famous, and being governor took away from the business of being the Palins.
It worked out well in the early days. But one thing about being a celebrity – particularly one that isn’t based on a talent – is that you have to remember that in entertainment, there is ALWAYS the Next Big Thing. If you make your splash being the Next Big Thing, and that is all you are you will soon stop being the Next Big Thing because as soon as that has run its course, then there is the Next Big Thing.
Patricia Kayden
McCain should hang his head in shame for the rest of his life for picking this trailer trash woman as his VP candidate. He’ll never live that down.
EconWatcher
I’m sure she’s made enough that she could keep herself and kin comfortable for the rest of their lives, if they lived reasonably. But they’ve all gotten a taste of the high life, so my guess is they’ll squander it all and end up in squalor. So sad (not).
White Trash Liberal
You are correct that Todd is a liability. She would be best suited for a Rock of Love style reality show. A couple dozen middle aged teabaggers vying for her attention… Set in the Alaskan wilderness where challenges to survival and sanity abound.
Title it “Palin’s Call of Nature”
Unlike Gingrich, she failed to make a brand. Sarah is all cult of personality, and tethered to a novelty that was bound to go stale. She’d have been better off staking her brand on apocalyptic Israel pron. set herself up as the gentile Esther, dogwhistling end times fan fic and adopting the hardest Likudnik policies.
Sarah’s problem is she has no vision and failed to convert herself into a wingnut Archetype. Her approach was a mess of short term grifting tactics. Ed Rollins could have molded her into something dangerous. Praise FSM he chose crazy eyes instead.
aimai
@EconWatcher:
I’m pretty sure she didn’t make all that much. The RNC gifted her with the clothes on her fucking back. If Roger Ailes is half the man I think he is the “studio” he built in her house still belongs to fox news and they will rip it out along with any bridgework they paid for when they go. They are probably next to squalor right now.
aimai
FMguru
Palin’s problem is that she was lazy, and she always took the easy, immediate money rather than putting in any sort of long-term effort to build her appeal. She always imagined herself a superstar, and whent he world came knocking in 2008, she treated it as if it was about time she got her natural, destined place in the sun. Taking that campaign credit card and buying complete designer wardrobes for her family really did tell you everything you needed to know about her and her lack of political cunning.
I’ll bet she spent it just as quickly as it came in, too, like those people who win the powerball and file for bankruptcy 3 years later.
Anyway, the important lesson for Democrats and liberals is not to over-react to every single Republican politician that becomes a blip on the radar. Just as music journalists declare every new band to be The Next Big Thing, it seems like liberals are forever in a panic that The Next Reagan is just around the corner and we ignore/underestimate them at our mortal peril – like a bunch of Chicken LIttles racing to be the first to declare the sky is falling. Rick Perry was a world-beating titan that liberals were supposed to be very, very afraid of, at least until he lost the ability to count to three in public. Palin was the future of the Republican Party after 08, until she wasn’t. Right now Chris Christie is supposed to be the Lurking Menace, even though it’s almost impossible to see how he navigates the GOP Primary system – and that’s assuming his goombah shtick doesn’t wear completely thin in the next four years.
JGabriel
__
__
mistermix @ top:
I was a free man, in Paris.
.
russell
Schlemizel and FMGuru beat me to it, but the story of Palin’s short shelf life can be summed up right there.
Randy P
@White Trash Liberal: I was thinking of some variant of “The Dating Game” (or whatever its current equivalent is). She blindly picks a bachelor based on questions, then the cameras follow them on their dream weekend. For that extra squalor, we can interview them on camera about any nookie that took place.
But your concept works too.
jibeaux
Good grief, I had forgotten that she actually does have a son named “Track”. And a grandchild named after a hockey equipment manufacturer.
Balconesfault
She was the definition of “not ready for Prime Time” when McCain picked her, and for that we can all thank William Kristol for that.
First, it tied the anchor to McCain’s campaign that got even folks like Colin Powell to abandon ship. Second, Palin might have actually built some more momentum in Alaska had she not been thrust into the spotlight so early, and ended up as a Senator or something. This was a lot better result.
Thanks, Bill!
Litlebritdifrnt
I went over to Conservatives for Palin yesterday just for grins and giggles and hardly any of the most recent stories on their front page are about her. There was one amusing thread where they were all making their 2013 predictions and almost all of them predicted that she would not announce a run for any office. There was one precious dear (bless her heart) who was convinced that Obama would be found to be ineligible to serve as POTUS and congress would magically appoint Sarah to the job. The delusion was strong in that one.
NonyNony
I don’t think that’s clear at all. She could have easily flamed out like Michelle Bachman did, without having the House seat to fall back on. Or like Rick Perry did, without having the governor’s office to fall back on. Especially if she went into the campaign with the wrong goal in mind.
What she needed to do was realize what was going on – she thought she had a shot at what is the ultimate brass ring for her – celebrity – when really the door that McCain opened up for her was to the Ultimate Grift. She should have concentrated more on sucking the money out of the deep pockets of fools like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers and less on trying to get her face plastered all over Us Magazine.
Hal
I always think about that old story in Newsweek about PBO’s first victory and how he did it, and remember a specific point in the story about how PBO, McCain and Clinton all had massive reservations about running. PBO wouldn’t do it without Michelle on board 100% and McCain and Clinton weren’t sure being President was worth the pain.
Then they get to Palin who basically says she said yes with no hesitation and never doubted that. Flipping channels the other day there was a clip of her on Oprah’s show being asked whether she; with a newborn, special needs child, and pregnant teen, a pre-teen and a son in Afghanistan, had any reservations at all, and again it was nope.
Palin lacks an amazing amount of awareness; to her strengths and weaknesses, to the gaps in her knowledge, and to any real sense of humility.
mai naem
Palin is an intellectually stupid woman. I know I’m just repeating what’s been said but seriously she is a stupid woman. Her dad was a science teacher and yet she was making fun of fruit fly research. There was that story in TAP about how when she was a Wasilla councilwoman and the sales tax brought in more money a year later, she thought the other councilmen had increased the rate, not that there was more money coming in from increased sales. She could have gotten about 6-9 mos. of people teaching her about geography/history and politics after the election and she would have come across halfway intelligent and even got a real gig somewhere. Palin will be able to make some small $$$ for another fifteen -twenty years,however long it takes for her looks to fade completely, on the wingnut circuit. Meanwhile we’ll see the blurbs about her various spawn having kids out of wedlock, getting divorced,having shotgun weddings and writing Mommie Dearest books.
Napoleon
Praying for Huckebee?!!!!
Are you nuts? He is the one guy in that group who is truely dangerous in that he could easily slip under the radar and get elected. He comes off better than anyone else on team elephant that has a shot at the WH.
Amir Khalid
I have the impression that Sarah Palin is actually less competent at the professional celebrity game than, say, the Kardashians — she’s certainly less disciplined at it than they are, and that’s saying something. In a sense, she’s not even on the level of Lindsay Lohan, who at least had a talent to squander. That leaves just one head-scratcher for me: how the fish did this dim, untalented, and unappealing person get to be Governor of Alaska?
JGabriel
@mistermix:
You libtards. Why should she? Sarah Palin has already PROVEN her execyootive
bono fiedsbano feedaysbona fidaze as Alaka’s governor and premier execyootive!.
Cassidy
Someone needs a sex tape.
Randy P
@Cassidy: Or a wardrobe malfunction on “60 minutes”?
amk
Is tundra twit still around ?
gnomedad
Speculation: she really believes the Tea Party BS about how awesome she and her family are. Even a complete cynic should have recognized that value of memorizing a few canned answers to completely predictable interview questions. She thinks it’s all about being Sarah Palin and having Real Murkin Values.
jim filyaw
“…if she’s willing to take some coaching and do some work”???
i think you’re basing this on a depth of character she has proven she doesn’t have and doesn’t covet.
weaselone
@Ron:
350K works out to less than a dollar being deducted from each of the oil royalty checks that Alaska sends out to residents each year. I’m not going to shed any tears for them.
priscianusjr
@White Trash Liberal:
Southern Beale
Is feature not bug. Sarah never wanted to be president. Hell, she didn’t want to be governor! What she wanted was to be a celebrity and to parlay that into massive grift. Toward that end she’s been remarkably successful.
Maude
@mai naem:
You beat me to it. Remember the newspaper question?
priscianusjr
@FMguru:
Davis X. Machina
@jibeaux: Who names a kid CCM?
jibeaux
@mai naem: Even better, she made fun of fruit fly research (I never studied the fundamentals of science past high school biology and even I know that fruit fly research is genetics research) when it was in connection with genetic markers for autism. Autism. Remind me, Sarah, didn’t you sort of appoint yourself Queen of the Special Needs Kids?
priscianusjr
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Punchy
I disagree with those that said she didn’t make much money. Her book sold a bajillion copies due to wingtard welfare assistance, her speaking fees are (were?) in the high 5/low 6 figgys the last time I heard, and I’m sure she’s making at least 7 figs from Fawks Noobs. I suspect her credit union account is carrying 8 digits before the decimal.
arguingwithsignposts
This is OT, but what the hell. It seems that the chaps at Lawyers, Guns and Money have gone to thermonuclear blog war with good ole FPer Freddie deBoer. Here’s the latest from Robert Farley, but it’s been going on for a day or two, at least.
The Red Pen
A lot of Freepers unironically dub her “the new Reagan.”
It’s hard to tell whether that represents a base or not. There’s not a gush of “dittos” to these posts.
Kirbster
If the Fox “News” gig ends, I expect to see her team up with daughter Bristol on some future grade-D celebrity edition of The Amazing Race. When she is not treated with deference by by airline employees, taxi drivers, and shopkeepers around the world, she will ask indignantly, “Don’t you know who I am?”, and receive blank stares in return. It will be a hoot! I can’t wait!
priscianusjr
@Amir Khalid:
Jose Padilla
She should have run for president. She could have run a truly insane, bizarro-world, rogue, off-the-wall, reality show-style campaign filled with all kinds of outrageous statements and weird debate performances designed to appeal to the tea-bag set. When she lost, she could’ve written a book about how she got screwed over by the Republican establishment. It would’ve extended her fifteen minutes by another year or two.
HeartlandLiberal
It occurs to me that his is just another opportunity to trash Sarah Palin.
But that just seems so, redundant.
WereBear
There was a news story about some big broadcasting studio they were building, and other extravagances, and my exact thoughts were: They going to spend it all as it comes in, and be left with nothing.
Maude
@arguingwithsignposts:
Thanks
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Sarah will never be defeated. There’s always the meth market to fall back on.
Tom Levenson
I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning.
Davis X. Machina
There are no second acts in American lives.
There are, however, direct-to-DVD releases.
Mandalay
She’s still churning out her word salad though:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2012/12/04/socialism-rising-us
I would have paid to watch her answer if she had been asked to explain her “quantitive easing” remark.
quannlace
Has anyone cracked one of her books to see what she actually had to say? You, know, actually read them? And I’m including her fans, who probably just showed up at her appearances to gush and get her signature.
I’m amazed she had enough to write, or had ghost-written, to fill one book, let alone two.
*********
Gingrich and Santorum’s stock’s risen since the primaries? I don’t know. Re:Santorum: If the best you can get is a writing gig over at World Nut Daily, you haven’t exactly hit the jack pot.
japa21
SP made a fundamental mistake. Just like drug dealers generally never use their products, hucksters make sure they don’t believe their own hype. SP actually believed the hype about herself. She had an adoring fan base, ignoring the fact that it was basically people who saw her as a reason to support McCain, who in general they didn’t like.
Immediately after the election the size of that base started to dwindle, although those that remained were the loudest. I think she actually believed that the base had increased, because they were so noisy.
And she didn’t realize that she had really done nothing to deserve the adulation and therefore believed there was nothing else she needed to do.
Cervantes
Ron Popeil is dead. Not that it should matter.
Cassidy
@priscianusjr: Never once found her attractive, not even in the “eh, maybe if I’m drunk staring at the top of her head way”.
Gus
@White Trash Liberal: Ya know, I’d probably watch that show. I’d hate myself for it, but I’d watch.
John (not McCain)
How much time passed between Track’s “surprise” divorce and Bible Spice’s photo op during the Fart-Fil-A gaybashing fest?
Chris
@Napoleon:
Nope. Base hates him because he’s soft on crime and soft on immigration. Elites hate him because they’re afraid he’s a populist who might have a W. J. Bryan streak in him. He’d never even make it to the end of the primaries.
WereBear
According to the disillusioned staffer who wrote a book, she wasn’t always the Queen of the Grifters we see today.
She went door to door during her early campaigns, dragging her kids on a sled. The Governorship fell into her lap; there was a scandal, she was in the opposing party, and we’ve seen her effect on True Believers. There’s a spark of charisma there that is more powerful in person, according to the staffer.
So she was motivated to work to get there… but once there, did not bother to maintain. Not the first or the last.
Chris
@mai naem:
I’m not sure how much of it is true stupidity and how much of it is laziness. As others have said, she’s INCREDIBLY lazy. I mean, it really doesn’t take THAT much work to be caught up enough on stuff that you’re not left gaping stupidly at questions like “what newspapers do you get for information” or “what Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with” (there was a foreign policy fiasco too but I think my memory blocked it out for being too painful). She just didn’t think she’d need that.
To be fair, her act really fired up her audience, so I guess she did have grounds for thinking she could get away with it. It just never occurred to her that there are people in America other than suburban white guys in Medicare scooters, and they have votes too.
Chris
@japa21:
Well, that at least isn’t a Palin problem. Or at least not JUST a Palin problem. As we just saw with the Romney fiasco, the entire goddamn Republican Drug Cartel’s been sniffing its own product.
handsmile
While it may be redundant or even a little feeble, I’m more than happy to piss on Caribou Barbie this morning. Particularly when the malign curmudgeon who elevated her to national prominence is once more being anointed by the Village as the President of American foreign policy.
Palin may now be a stinking carcass to the salons of Versailles, but the ardor and amnesty for Gramps McCain never ebbs.
Swellsman
I also predicted Palin would run for president; in fact, I wrote a lengthy post about it, explaining that she basically had no choice in the matter — if she didn’t run, that would be the end of her semi-celebrity and her career.
But I guess no one will ever go broke underestimating Palin’s intelligence — girl is dumb as a bag of rocks. She apparently was unable to grasp that she needed to continue to be perceived as a contender in order for anyone to bother paying attention to her. Her failure to realize that the vast majority of people don’t see starbursts when she winks at them led her, as always, to take the easy option: not running.
Now she is, as stated, past her sell-by date, and her looming utter obscurity is both to be wished for and entirely predictable.
Soylent Green
As governor of Alaska, Palin was paid $125,000 a year. She turned McCain’s ill-considered choice to lift her from obscurity into 12 million dollars. How dumb was that?
Frankensteinbeck
Okay, a few people have addressed this, but not strongly enough. Mix, this woman is a moron. She is dumb as a stump. Not only is she stupid, she is too arrogant and too malicious to take direction. What part of this wasn’t abundantly and unquestionably proven in the election? She could not answer a question about WHAT NEWSPAPERS SHE READS. Average people could have fielded that question. Sarah is below average, and her successes were all arranged by other people who saw her as a useful idiot. In debates she would have flamed out faster than Perry. You cannot say ‘if she were smarter’, because she would not be Sarah Palin.
@Amir Khalid:
The answer there is in Alaska’s population. There are less voters in Alaska than in most moderate sized cities. Don’t think of her as winning a governorship, think of her as winning a mayor’s race. Luck and superficial charm can pull that off.
@Soylent Green:
As liberals, don’t we understand that we don’t live in a meritocracy? She got lucky and was handed her wealth by other people serving their own ends.
1badbaba3
@arguingwithsignposts: He raised a ruckus the other day when he took a swing at Tbogg over a reference to GG. He got squashed like a bug, scarpered off, and did not return. I suppose he must have started some mess at LGM as well. Will some enterprising FPer here pick up on it? Stay tuned.
shortstop
@handsmile: Really, I am absolutely furious that his Rice gambit succeeded. This highly qualified and accomplished woman has been trashed solely because an egotistical, half-informed old goat with an abiding anger problem can’t get over losing to the younger, smarter, nonwhite guy.
I really cannot wait for McCain to be gone, though I feel fairly certain that if a fury-induced MI or stroke doesn’t get him, he’ll be sitting in the Senate having Alzheimer’s rages until he dies during a floor debate. There’s no way he’d ever retire with a shred of grace or graciousness.
gene108
@Napoleon:
I think he’s said enough crazy stuff on his stint with Fox that he’ll struggle to live it down in a general election.
Otherwise he’d be tough to beat, assuming right-wingers will forgive him for his court ordered tax increase, while governor of Arkansas, that was needed to help fund the schools per the terms of Arkansas law.
He was the only Republican candidate in 2008, who was talking about how he’d focus on helping the middle class, as opposed to just throwing more tax cuts at the rich.
eemom
I don’t hate to say I told you so, and I’ve predicted Palin’s fizzle out all along, including in her glory days on this blog.
My hubster too was prescient, always noting that her sell by date would be up when her looks started to go. And have they ever. She’s looking like a withered old shrew these days.
Tee fucking hee.
Violet
@eemom:
This was pretty clear from the beginning. And it’s now shocking to look back at photos of her from 2008. She looked so young and fresh-faced and attractive. Now she looks like a meth addict wearing a bad wig. She doesn’t even look like the same person.
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
This. Save for the recent pics of her looking super thin, I’ve always liked looking at her. Never mind that she’s as dumb as a box of rocks & espouses positions I utterly disagree with, but I’ve never minded looking at her.
Pluky
You can call me bad for feeling this way, but if Sarah and Todd split up, it’s not Sarah being available that I’d find intriguing.
Villago Delenda Est
Sarah has made a pretty nice pile in the process, even though her star has waned considerably in the last year.
She’s set for life now in a fairly well off lifestyle. It won’t feed her desperate attention whoredom, of course, but she’s set.
Assuming she was smart enough not to spend it all recklessly and foolishly, which of course is a pretty shaky assumption.
The Ancient Randonneur
The movie version would be Some Like It Not.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: She will have to have had some good financial advisers. A lot of money coming in for a few years doesn’t really set you up for the rest of your life. You need the money to work for you.
Given Sarah’s history with advisers, I don’t think she would allow a financial adviser to make decisions for her. She doesn’t seem to trust her advisers very much or for very long.
Yutsano
@Napoleon: Four dead cops in Washington directly tied to him that he refuses to even discuss. Huckster is dead meat in a general election with that big albatross around his neck. And he knows it.
catclub
@Napoleon: Naw. Huckabee is not rich. So, while Mitt could just not answer the question on why he did not release his tax forms. Huckabee would not be given the same leeway on all the decisions ( pardons and paroles of guys who end up raping and murdering more women, or murdering policemen) that are in his past. It will be like Teddy Kennedy and Chappaquiddick, if the Kennedys were not a wealthy dynasty.
catclub
@Yutsano: Hey, great minds and all that.
FlipYrWhig
I think that the thing Palin badly. badly squandered was the whole “common sense” angle she and her handlers started with. Thanks but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere, selling the governor’s plane on eBay, that whole thing. Because with that element she could take her dimness and incuriousness and play it as a strength: “gee, there’s a lot a gal like me doesn’t know, but I do know we got to get a handle on this debt. Also, too.” But she was routinely so abrasive and belligerent that she burned through the jes’ folks goodwill she began with.
The Golux
@Cervantes:
And no doubt thankful that he is, to avoid contact with the Tonya Harding (but less talented, or classy) of politics.
Boots Day
My sense was always that she was arrogant enough to believe that once all the pretenders to the Republican nomination started dying off, there would be a groundswell for Palin among the GOP faithful, and she’d be able to win the nomination without doing any actual work. That would explain the bus tour and the Fox news segments as sort of a shadow campaign.
I’m just disappointed that the seemingly invevitable Playboy spread never happened before her looks went south. Ah well, there’s still Bristol.
Violet
@Boots Day: You mean plasticized Bristol? Maybe Willow would be a better choice. Or wait until Piper is of age.
Tiredofitall
@Soylent Green: Oh, YEAH!
Bubblegum Tate
Facebook Wingnut Barometer shows the Tragedy of Sarah Palin in 3 acts.
Act I: Palin gets the VP nod, and FWB declares that McCain is now guaranteed to win in a landslide, as Palin will win over independents, women, and most specifically disaffected Hillary supporters (remember that?). “I haven’t been this fired up about politics in a long time!” he declares.
Act II: Palin gives a bizarre speech announcing she’s quitting the governorship. FWB declares that Palin “has the liberals running scared” because they “can’t comprehend someone of her integrity and genius” (seriously). But FWB also lets on that he’s perhaps more nervous than his bluster would indicate, as he takes a page from Zell Miller and says he will “duel” anybody who questions Palin’s motives for quitting so abruptly (and weirdly) and announces that he will gladly serve time in prison to defend Palin’s honor against those scum-sucking liberals.
Act III: “Sarah Palin is about Sarah Palin, not conservatism. I don’t want her representing me or conservatives as a group.”
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Boohunney
@aimai: Yes, a master debater….
g
Palin wanted the money and the fame without having to work for it. Say what you will about Santorum and Newt, they put in their time in the trenches. Vile as they were, they toiled away, Newt building his brand and working in the House for years, and Santorum clocking in his hours on K-street. That stuff is unglamorous work, and that’s what put them in the public eye. Newt may be lazy now, but that’s the pay-off for all those years.
Palin, OTOH, wanted the fame and money right off the bat, and she didn’t want to do the work that comes with it. She made her big fish splash in a small pond and got plucked out by McCain at just exactly the right time to land on the national scene. Had she not been tapped by him, her popularity in her own state would have diminished as her term went on – it already was beginning to.
She saw her chance and went for it, but she didn’t set her goals; she picked the easiest things to do to keep herself in the spotlight, and with the money flowing in, but she never did anything else, especially anything difficult.
Even her approach to fundraising was easy – she courted her small-time donor base with appearance over substance – People magazine spreads vs. hunkering down with the policy boys like Dick Armey and the big powerful donors like Shelly Adelson. No, paying court to the likes of Shelly Adelson isn’t fun, I’m sure; having lots of red state wanna-be matrons adoring your platform sandals on Facebook is much more fun.
Even Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have to work their asses off to keep up their celebrity grift – and Palin wasn’t even willing to work as hard as they.
Visceral
@shortstop:
This made me laugh.
mazareth
“…Palin’s fall to obscurity…”
I read the above originally as “Palin’s FAIL to obscurity.” I like that!
Bubblegum Tate
@g:
Kim Kardashian clearly hasn’t worked her ass off–she just works her ass.
HIYOOOO!
Kib
Ron Popeil is alive!
Dead or alive