Palin's media strategy
James Forsyth 12:13am
Boston, Massachusetts
One of the striking things about the week since the election is the sheer amount of media Sarah Palin has done. She has sat down with the local press in Alaska, Fox News, NBC and is doing CNN tomorrow. By contrast, McCain is making his first post-election appearance on Leno tonight. Palin has evidently decided that she can’t leave the stage with the impression that she is a “diva” and not able enough for national politics the conventional wisdom.
But these media appearances are a distinctly mixed blessing for Palin. While they may give her a chance to defend herself, they also rehash her various missteps on the trail. The other thing is that they keep her in the news and that is helping to turn her into a proxy in the battle for the heart and soul of the GOP. Those who want the party to broaden its appeal point to exit poll data which shows that 60 percent of voters did not consider her qualified to serve as president if necessary—only 35 percent of independents thought she was. While her defenders point at how enthused the base were by her.
There is, obviously, a long way to go until the 2012 primary season—although, you wouldn’t guess this from the way some on the right are talking—but Palin is clearly determined to keep herself in the headlines and stake her claim to be considered a player in this race. This means that she is going to take an awful lot of incoming over the next few months. I suspect she might have been better served by going back to Alaska and bolstering her record as a reformist governor. Also, and I’m only half-joking here, one wonders whether she can establish herself as someone to be taken seriously on the national stage when Tina Fey is waiting to mock her every move with her uncannily accurate impression.
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strapworld
November 12th, 2008 8:40am Report this commentMr Forsyth.
Leave the woman alone for goodness sake. IF she was not newsworthy the news organisations would have left her alone. the fact that they are clambering to get interviews shows that she, whether you like it or not, is now a National figure.
John McCain was extremely kind to her on Leno.
I predict she will be one of the favourites to lead the Republicans in 2012 and will get the nomination.
RMH
November 12th, 2008 8:52am Report this commentHow do you scrub away the fact she is a whack job, whose views on almost every subject give 25% of the population a hard on, the rest are reaching for the sick bag.
She is the Tony Benn of the GOP. Appeals totally to the base, but veryone else thinks they are a muppet
THX1138
November 12th, 2008 8:53am Report this commentPalin's media strategy should be.
Shut the f**k up.
This made me cringe.
http://community.adn.com/adn/node/134247
You lot go on about Brown lying a lot, which I agree he does but Palin is in another league.
Augustus
November 12th, 2008 2:52pm Report this commentIt's funny how, just like numberplate here, feminism today often equates to a condescending liberalism. Emancipated women who, like Palin, do not believe in abortion, or are devout Christians, are at best considered unsophisticated dupes. At worst, they are considered interlopers, piggybacking on the hard work of left-wing women whose progressive ideas alone have allowed the Sarah Palins of the world choices they otherwise would not enjoy. People like them seem to think, as Joe Biden does, that "Palin's election, given her politics, would be 'a backward step for women.'"
What hypocrisy, while so many of these women found their own careers enhanced through the political influence of their fathers, or advantageous marriages, or inherited capital. But the irony is that Palin, like a Golda Meir, or a Margaret Thatcher, made her own way without the help of money or influence.
But apparently millions of Americans like Palin's underdog feminist saga, and her can-do pluckiness. Many seem offended by haughty liberal media elites sneering at someone they should be praising - for her inspirational personal story and her considerable achievements. But somehow all that was lost in a media frenzy about her blue-collar conservatism, her small Alaskan town, her children and snowmobiling husband, and Idaho college degree. But none of the media seemed to care too much about Barack Obama's own career.
So feminism in the States today, it turned out, is no longer about equal opportunity and equal compensation, but in fact little more than a strain of contempory elitist identity politics, and unquestioned support for abortion.
Chingford Man
November 13th, 2008 2:18pm Report this commentI also think that she should concentrate on building on her successes as Governor. i love her home-spun style but she needs to vary it depending on the audience more than she does presently.
She obviously needs to rebuild her image amongst the "centre ground". However, she has a long time to do this and it is do-able. There's a good article on the National Review website today (bit more conservative than the Spectator, IMHO) on the centre ground. In a nutshell, it says that since the centre ground is pretty amorphous with contradictory opinions, a politician needs to draw it towards him/herself, rather than charge towards a twilight area and endlessly navel-gaze in the process.
The Social Affairs Unit have been very fair to Mrs Palin through Standpoint, so why doesn't someone invite her over to London and get her to give a speech on feminism or vouchers in education? The tickets would sell like hotcakes and it would become obvious that Mrs Palin amounts to more than her critics would concede.
Also, it would shut up the likes of Iain Martin who posts risibly ignorant blogs about her. So much for political journalism being invariably high-minded.
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