Sarah Palin: Troll

KevinA

You make one false assumption, Alex: That she cannot possibly win the GOP primary. Why can't she?

You REALLY think Romney can win this nomination, with "Romneycare" hanging around his neck? Pawlenty? Non-entity with a past (correct) position on climate change that kills him w/ the base. He'll unite people in boredom.

If, as I suspect, it comes down to Romney v. Palin, she wins. Romney cannot relate to the fears and resentments of the base. She shares them, understands them, etc. By background alone, Romney never can.

If she runs, I think she's the nominee.

Joe Tripician

Her latest maverick move is sure to be controversial: "My Night with Sarah Palin" http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/joe-tripician/my-night-with-sarah-palin

Brandt Hardin

Palin’s taking her obscene and hate-filled rhetoric on the road for some coast-to-coast finger pointing which will surely continue to damage our country’s world view. Historically, her speeches are causing more harm than good. I shutter to think what she would do and say with the power allotted to our Presidential office. I drew up a visual commentary of the effects her he recklessness on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/01/sarah-palin-made-me-do-it.html

normanc

If we're using internet terms then Palin has been flamed by the media more than anyone else.

It's little wonder she now treats them with disdain they deserve.

Neither side are doing their reputations much good. Although neither sides reputation could be much lower than it already is.

Rhoda Klapp

I note that Christie is being urged again to stand. If he corners the obese vote, it's game over.

Otherwise, this post is journalist gets excited about other journalists getting excited by having something to print. A clue, Alex. They don't care if she's serious, it fills the space between the adverts.

DavidDP

"Palin has been flamed by the media more than anyone else. "

In what way? I mean, she has a show on the largest cable news channel, which itself treats her with kid gloves. Other politicians would kill for that sort of media treatment.

zakisbak

I see.Someone who 60 million people voted for,winning 45% of votes cast ,is actually just a troll.
I bet Palin at least knows what year it is unlike Obama.

FF

On the whole I concur with this article. But you clearly haven't considered the possibility that she might actually win.

AAE

DavidDP - you mean other politicians would kill for the tiniest part of her charisma! And name any politician who has surpassed her "How's that hopey-changey thing workin' out for you" as an opening!

Tom B

I don't agree with Palin on a lot of things, but she seems to drive relatively sane, if rather self consciously "highbrow" columnists, into a frenzy of silly comments.

I agree with the commenter who said that Mitt Romney has little chance: anyone running against Obama will need to run against his dreadful, expensive mess on healthcare. Yet MR has implemented similar reforms. He's totally compromised on this.

Ross

"Sure, Andrew Sullivan worries that she might even be so in love with her celebrity that she'll launch a third-party bid for the Presidency but..."

... but Andrew Sullivan also thinks she faked her pregnancy to cover up for her daughter who has a magic womb that can give birth twice in the space of about 10 months.

Hysteria

Palin connects with the ordinary folks in the US, and by-passes the usual media process. Drives'em nuts - which of course reinforces her connection with the ordinary folks.!

And - her record as Alaska Governor is a good one where she had consistently high poll ratings. Don't underestimate this woman.

But can she win the Presidency? I doubt it, which means the GOP wil play safe with Romney. Now - if Governor Rick Perry runs - that could be a good option for the GOP and one that may have some chance of success.

If Obama wins a second term - watch out for fireworks in the Republican party and the real potential for a new Conservative movement to take hold - behind people like Cain, West, Palin, Rubio etc.

Augustus

"So if she runs she runs and that's fine. We can all enjoy it." And we can also enjoy the media being in an adversarial relationship with someone in authority, not a cooperative one. A better world all round!

cg

If we get a Palin, Rubio, Cain etc GOP then they will never get the Presidency again. Activists are very dangerous because they are out of touch with real voters - so it is with the unhinged Palinite sector of the GOP.

Baron

A troll? Hmm, I dunno, Alex, for many years I lived in a society that labeled people in order to destroy them without engaging with their argument, I didn’t like it abit, never thought you would be like them.

Still, she may not be the best candidate for the Presidency for the same reasons the vast majority of the American unwashed cannot run for the post, what she does do, however, is to remind those who de-coupled from the hoi polloi that their power derives from, rests ultimately with the grass roots, if they keep on ignoring the huddled masses, the contract between them may shatter.

DavidDP

"DavidDP - you mean other politicians would kill for the tiniest part of her charisma! "

Morbid fascination isn't the result of charisma.

"And name any politician who has surpassed her "How's that hopey-changey thing workin' out for you" as an opening!"

Churchill, Thatcher, Reagan, Obama, FDR, Gladstone, Disraeli, Pitt the Younger, de Gaulle, Lincoln, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, I could go on.

AAE

DavidDP - well I too could add to your list (and indeed would remove one or two names), and of course I should've qualified myself by saying recently surpassed.
I think by attributing Palin's pull to morbid fascination is to miss the reality of her gifts. She knows her own electorate much better than you do.

FvH

She's an ignorant freak

Nicholas

Brandt Hardin your artwork really sucks - almost as badly as the warped thinking behind it. It's on a par with national socialist demonisation propaganda. Real satire and caricature comes from an insight into the contradictions of the subject, exagerrated yes, but not demonised beyond belief. Looks like you are stuck in 1968 and the world of "underground" comics. I suggest that you stay there and don't come out.

I don't have much time for Palin but she has become a hate icon for the Left (you know, the visceral hatred that only the Left can do when they are not bleating about "equality" and "diversity" with tears in their eyes). I dislike her but I dislike the Left much, much more. Others should too because they are far more dangerous.

Campbell

KevinA: God I hope you are right but for precisely the opposite reasons that you seem to do.

Tusec

When you write a snippy piece like this against Sarah Palin, you lose the right to refer to the media as "them". You have chosen sides. You are now part of the media that is being tweaked and that is in a snit over being tweaked. This piece explains you, not her.

Cameo Parkway Kid

Don't think you get her really Alex - but then neither do I (can't reallly agree with much of what she says). But you have bit on to her hook I'm afraid.

However, you can't really argue that she connects with her folk - she sounds really great. But more importantly, she looks great.

More Sarah for me - yee hah, ding dong and hello (and all that). Fnar

diane

I, too, think a third party run is possible.She could enter late after the R candidate is chosen, stating her fans pushed her to run.
There are many benefits and only one serious draw back.
I think it would be more of a symbolic run and designed to keep her in the mind of her public and their unending supply of donations.
She would keep her Fox salary longer and gather more donations. She could run as SHE pleases, would not have to bow to party rules. She would not have to campaign any place that she didn't want to. She would not have to do the debates and not speak to anybody else but Fox.
The only draw back is if she endangered the R candidate and cost him the election.
Then I think she would be finished politically.
But if she entered late, she could still run in 2016 or accept the VP nomination for 2012

The Prisoner

Sarah Palin is the Madonna of the political set, serious people and those who really know their stuff don't take her seriously but her marketability is still there. No matter how many Britneys, Jessicas, and Cristinas come along, there will always be a Sarah Palin. Get used to it, it happened to the music industry, it is happening to the political industry.

George Wallace

'Diane - The only drawback is if she endangered the R candidate'. Are you suggesting she might also draw votes from Democrats?
She would never run as a third party candidate - she'd lose her lucrative gigs, particularly Fox, overnight. Also, she'd expose herself to real scrutiny which she is intellectually and emotionally incapable of dealing with. She is a celebrity figure, not a political one.

Richard Thomas

Setting aside the strains of Rainbow Tour from Evita coming unbidden to my mind, I wonder whether Stanley Baldwin's description of the Press Barons seeking power without responsibility might fit ex Governor Palin?

lescam

zakisbak
June 1st, 2011 1:58pm

"I bet Palin at least knows what year it is unlike Obama"

And I bet that Obama at least knows the difference between North and South Korea.