Okay, so it’s Friday. You know how it goes on Friday. Dump day in Washington, where uncomfortable news and people get politically whacked. See ya, Greg Craig. Thanks for everything, but man, you really screwed up over Gitmo, though that’s hardly you’re only boneheaded piece of advice, pal. So, it’s only fitting that I actually link to Drudge today (a first?). After all, it’s trash day.
I’m forced to do so because of the collision between AP’s account and a post over at Dan Abrams’ Mediaite by John Ziegler, which eviscerates the AP article talking about Going Rogue, Mrs. Palin’s bestseller that comes out next week.
I haven’t read Palin’s book, so I’m not going to posture according to sources that are going down the usual low road when it comes to Sarah Palin. It’s sport to hate Sarah, just like it used to be for the right to hate Hillary. The weirdest thing to come out so far, however, is the clip CBS has of Sarah and Oprah where she talks about Levi Johnson. It’s hard to know what to make of that one, except that Mr. Johnson gives us his view:
“She’s being smart,” said Johnston, when a reporter told him last night that Palin didn’t blast him in the interview she taped with Winfrey Wednesday afternoon. “She knows what I got on her. It’s a smart move on her part.”
What a crew. Not exactly First Family material, now is it. That’s on top of Sarah Palin’s gravitas questions and foreign policy knowledge canyons. Hey, but tea party activists are in now so anything is possible.
Segue to Sarah Palin’s book or at least a couple of pages of it that Drudge posted. Brought to you by anticipation teaser time before the big interview on Monday with Oprah.
Nicolle went on to explain that Katie really needed a career boost. “She just has such low self-esteem,” Nicolle said. She added that Katie was going through a tough time. “She just feels she can’t trust anybody.”
I was thinking, And this has to do with John McCain’s campaign how?
Nicolle said. “She wants you to like her.”
Hearing all that, I almost started to feel sorry for her. Katie had tried to make a bold move from lively morning gal to serious anchor, but the new assignment wasn’t going very well.
“You know what? We’ll schedule a segment with her,” Nicolle said. “If it doesn’t go well, if there’s no chemistry, we won’t do any others.”
Meanwhile, the media blackout continued. It got so bad that a couple of times I had a friend in Anchorage track down phone numbers for me, and then I snuck in calls to folks like Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and someone I thought was Larry Kudlow but turned out to be Neil Cavuto’s producer. I had a friend call Bill O’Reilly after I was inundated with supporters in Alaska asking why the campaign was “ignoring” his on-air requests for a McCain campaign interview. I had another friend scrambling to find Mark Levin’s number. Aboard the campaign plane I was within twenty-five feet of reporters for hours on end. Headquarters’ strategy was that I should not go to the back of the aircraft and talk to the press. At first this was subtle, but as the campaign wore on, Tracey or Tucker would call headquarters to request permission, and someone in DC would respond, “No! Absolutely not- block her if she tries to go back.”
Matthew Continetti, who has written a book about Sarah’s “persecution” by the media (see video), has some advice for Mrs. Palin, as she begins her rehabilitation tour:
During her book tour, Ms. Palin is sure to mention that the Obama administration’s opposition to offshore drilling and domestic nuclear power, and its support for an onerous cap-and-trade scheme, will raise energy prices across the board. But she also might spend less time discussing campaign intrigue and Alaska trivia, and more time outlining how to spur job creation through tax reform.
She might mention, too, that the Democrats’ health-care plan would hike taxes, raise the cost of doing business, and lead to rationing down the line. She might point out that, on top of health care, the stimulus and bailouts, President Obama’s 2010 budget will further bury the United States in debt. Every time the media try to shift the conversation to personal gossip or past mistakes, Ms. Palin should pull it right back to how the Obama agenda will hurt the middle class.
I realize I’m the only progressive who believes Sarah Palin is not done on the national scene. Even Joe Scarborough has pronounced her unelectable nationally, quarantined to getting 25% and that’s all. This is not only ignorant analysis, but belies the appetite the American people have for comebacks. It also ignores something many other Democrats are dismissing, to our detriment. That there isn’t a politician on the right that comes close to her charisma, crowd drawing power and ability to reach into people’s hearts. The American people don’t vote on intellectual prowess, they vote on emotion, which Sarah sure knows how to tap. That alone should make Democrats take notice. No doubt it has Romney and Pawlenty stewing.
Oprah on Monday. Then to Rush Limbaugh, who remains a besotted Palin fan, on Tuesday, 10 a.m. eastern time, which he announced to much fanfare today. He said her book contains substantive policy prescriptions, though he hasn’t read it. You could sense the chills going up his legs as he talked. Newsmax is selling Sarah just as hard.
I guess since the Stupak amendment development, “the newer feminism,” as defined by Sarah Palin and her tea party activists, has landed.
But whether Sarah runs for national office or not, you can bet there will be a huge audience for her interview with Oprah, as her makeover begins. At the very least, she’s getting revenge and doing so by traveling battleground states one by one hawking her bestselling book.
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