Bachmann Steals Sarah’s Thunder: Sarah Quits Again & Lets Her Take It


It’s tough to catch lightning in a bottle.

Equally tough to recapture the sound of thunder once someone else has spirited it away.

Sarah Palin’s endless, erratic dithering about her 2012 intentions has created a vacuum on the evangelical right that Michelle Bachmann has been quick to fill.

Who was all over the Sunday talk shows today? Bachmann. Suddenly, the press is all about her.

Just look at this.

Through her fear of engagement with America’s opinion-makers, and movers and shakers, Sarah has painted herself into a corner at which fewer and fewer people even bother to glance.

Bachmann has effortlessly slid into the groove that Sarah once occupied.

Suddenly, it’s Bachmann who is the “serious” female candidate for the GOP nomination.

Suddenly–or not so suddenly–Sarah has been shoved to the sidelines, from which her shrill cries can barely be heard.

I start the last chapter of THE ROGUE by writing:

The time has come to strike the tent.

That may seem like a strange thing to say in the last chapter of a book about the star performer of the circus. But no matter how much my book sales might benefit from a Palin presidential campaign in 2012, I sincerely hope that the whole extravaganza, which has been unblushingly underwritten by a mainstream media willing to gamble the nation’a future in exchange for the cheap thrill of watching a clown in high heels on a flying trapeze, is nearing the end of its run.

Someone who knows Sarah better than I do told me recently that the only thing that would propel her into the 2012 race would be a credible Michelle Bachmann candidacy. Because Sarah couldn’t bear to yield the limelight to another woman.

Yet it’s happened. I’d always thought Sarah would run for president because to not do so would destroy her credibility even among the cretins who would have supported her.

But she just didn’t have the guts, or the commitment, to do so. She’s always been a phony and a bully.

Because of John McCain’s desperate and deeply unpatriotic inanity, she got in over her head in 2008.

She’s been treading water ever since. Now she’s about to sink out of sight.

To switch the metaphor back to the circus, she’s skulked away from the center ring, conceding it to Bachmann without a fight.

A venal, lying, avaricious quitter she always was, and a venal, lying and avaricious quitter she’ll always be.

Goodbye, Sarah, “The Oft-Defeated.” We knew ye all too well.

95 Responses to “Bachmann Steals Sarah’s Thunder: Sarah Quits Again & Lets Her Take It”

  • Nat:

    If only it were so Joe! I’d love to see the end of this nightmare unleashed on the lower 48. Sorry Alaskans but she was yours before she was ours. Keep her Please!

  • SusanC:

    She never had any intention of running, despite what she told Greta van Susteren about having “that fire in [her] belly,” which may have been just indigestion from a surfeit of Taco Bell. I do think she’ll drag out the suspense as long as possible in order to keep herself a marketable commodity to the poor saps who worship the ground upon which she treads. She can probably drag this farce out until November 2011, anyway, when the deadline for filing for the New Hampshire primary takes place.

  • newmeximan:

    Even the Sea o’ Pee has no clue what $arah will be doing on Tuesday in Iowa. They are pleading for volunteers, since there is not public management of the even published.

    The theater with less than 400 is sold out, and there will be no screening outside for those who travel there but have no ticket. There will be a barbeque after the screening, but no one knows where, or what is required to attend.

    The smell of desperation and fear drifts about the site. If $arah doesn’t run, what will happen to the site?

  • I love your way with words!

  • Joe:

    Thanks, Laura. You’re pretty good with words yourself. I like everything you are doing with Brad Scharlott.

    –Joe

  • Nat:

    Can’t wait for your book! Sept is good timing as the train wreck we all have to watch will keep going into your afterword. I’m sure of that!

  • jk:

    In Sarah’s diseased brain, she believes she deserves to be president, that she CAN be president, that she WILL be president. The sycophants she’s surrounded herself with feed her delusion. And, yes, there’s no way she will sit back quietly and let another woman achieve what she believes to be HER destiny (even though Michele Bachmann won’t be president either). When Sarah comes out against Bachmann–either as an opponent or a commentator–it will be ugly.

  • Nat:

    Who doesn’t love a cat fight! Meoooow….

  • Deb:

    “Goodbye, Sarah. We knew ye all too well.” – Sarah may think you’re baiting her Joe!!

    I’m thinking that Sarah’s look-alike that she met on her bus tour in NH, will fill in for Sarah in Iowa. The look-alike that was filmed walking into the bakery where inside Sarah answered what she refers to as her ‘gotcha question’. The look-alike just has to appear and in the pics that the cult will take – they won’t know the difference!!

  • krbmjb05:

    You are a great, visual. colorful writer Joe, and I can’t wait to read your book.

  • Nat:

    Gotta repeat a great joke from huffpost… If God called on Bachmann (or Palin) to run then he must want Obama to win!

  • Up:

    Please God, let it be so. No President Palin, no President Bachmann.

  • Melly:

    Wellll, I don’t think the tickets were sold but rather offered.

  • Ratfishtim:

    If she runs, you can do a new book. Let me think of a catchy name.

    Hmmmm. How about “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 2012?”

  • Kimberly:

    Has Palin herself stated she will be in Iowa? All I am getting from Googling is, “In a statement distributed by the film’s producer and distributor, Ms. Palin said, “We are very excited to visit historic Pella and its opera house and look forward to seeing the finished film for the first time with fellow Americans from the heartland.” This sounds to me like she did not say whatsoever she is going this is the producer trying to force her to appear when freebie tickets were not being asked for.

  • tom:

    well said but while everyone was watching palin they gave us a new loon who by comparison or maybe just exhaustion, is every bit the danger that palin represented if she ever were to achieve real power.

    and this observation that the media creates and enables these cretin’s must always be part of the story because the political dialogue is forever pushing further and further right wing and one day we may all wake up in utah!

    ugg!!!!!!

    so as I have always believed (and stated) the palin side show is leaving town and may occasionally turn up in some small unheard of spot on the map where its citizens hold onto their hope of heavenly rapture glued to the TV watching their favorite charlatans for inspiration.

    but on her way out please notice what was left behind.
    and make no mistake about it that the dim bulb of what she was nevertheless has lighted the way for worse to follow.

    she clearly was not up to the race of what her miserable character represented but be aware the baton of what she represents has many willing to carry it to the finish line……….

  • Rocky in Texas said...:

    I also like what Laura is doing with Brad Scharlott…

    Please keep up the good work.

    Joe, are you considering doing a book on Bachmann?

  • mb:

    “I’d always thought Sarah would run for president because to not do so would destroy her credibility even among the cretins who would have supported her.”

    She will assure them that god has given her a different mission. They will eat it up because they believe god moves people around like a holy chess game. Personally, I never thought she’d run — especially after she quit her governorship — because she cannot survive the scrutiny of a national race. That was obvious when they had to hide her from the press during the 2008 campaign. I have no doubt she’d like to be crowned President, but I don’t think she’ll ever submit herself to the grueling process that it takes to actually run.

  • krbmjb05:

    Great comment Tom. Definitely a reminder of “beware what you wish for”.

  • Joe:

    Nope, I’ve suffered enough. I’m considering writing a bio of Bruce Springsteen, although if he’s actually at work on his own memoir I think I’d let him tell his great story his own way. In any case, I am done with right-wing evangelical nut jobs. Life was always too short and now that I’m 68 it’s even shorter. All I wanted to do was write a new book about Alaska, but Sarah “became” Alaska in my time frame.

    –Joe

  • omomma:

    I hope, fervently, that you are right about this. Clown in high heels indeed, and worse.

  • AlaskaGal:

    it doesn’t look like Pella is all that excited about her being there.

    I checked out the Opera House website – no mention of “Undefeated” on their list of “events.”

    I checked out the newspapers in Pella – Pella Cronicle and Towncrier News – nothing! No article about her comin’ to town; nothing listed under movies showing; nothing under events.

    Somebody might tell Paylin that there doesn’t seem to be many Pella fanfare waitin’ to cheer her on – unless Bannon and Paylin will be paying locals to stand on the streets. (Kinda reminds you of her latest book signing at Costco in Anchorage – they planned for a crowd and got barely a trickle).

    Sure hope someone is there with a video to interview those wackos that do show up – see how many are from actually Pella.

  • John Thomas:

    Fortunately, there are people keeping track of that new loon gal also, too:
    http://www.dumpbachmann.com/

  • I. Wanda:

    I wonder which one will turn out to be worse … ?

    The ultra-conservative, evil-minded, evangelical pin-up queen whose insanity is obvious from the fact she’s a total fake … or the one whose insanity is obvious from the fact she totally believes it ?

  • Think:

    “ALWAYS been a phony and bully”????

    I beg to differ. Sarah used to be a very compassionate person who was a friend to all. She’d still do anything for a friend, as i have witnessed personally, but because life took her to bigger stages, she had to evolve. I think that’s what her critics, at least in AK, don’t understand. When a person evolves in life, they make changes. The more I speak to her once really close friends, the more I feel they’re just hurt that she left them behind.

    But in reality, she still makes time for her oldest friends. She still has lunch with the old group, she makes time for my dear mother, who in her 70s. It’s understandable for people to be hurt to have lost the old Sarah, but mature people realize life moves fast. It’s never a moral decision to begin telling lies about her as some have done (I will not be naming names)

  • dmoreno:

    Joe, I love the way you f**k with scara’s brain…………….she is so easy to bait, isn’t she!

  • diz:

    Book date is getting closer but can’t come soon enough and I imagine that Mrs P cracks another molar every time she hears the name “Joe” these days after she nearly wore it out touting her little plumber friend. It’s quite gratifying to watch her dreams turn into dust, more so considering her wounds are self-inflicted. She was so certain that she could merely charm her way into office after the McPain campaign fueled her tank with unvetted gas. I’ve lived many years hearing about paybacks and bad karma and had lost hope that those truly deserving would ever be served. How sweet it will be being treated to ringside seats for the coming smackdown. Suh-weet!! Unfortunately, as one door closes (on $P), another has been kicked down by her wild-eyed clone so we can’t bask in the glory of her riddance for long.

  • deennaa:

    sarah palin was never “ours”. She (and her family) are just another bunch of paid transplants(squatters) from the lower 48 (Idaho) to the Matanuska Valley. Ask the people who have been here some thousands of years (Alaska Indigenous). Otherwise, most Alaskan’s despise her and her dirty down dirty ways. Don’t you who can THINK in the lower 48, also now feel her taint and the foul smell emanating from her presence? No, Alaska doesn’t want her either. She’s just another toxic dump. Not fit to be anywhere near human habitation. If she were an Indian from the old old ways, she would be banished. What worse fate for any human being than to be cast away from ALL other human contact. Yes. Banished. The equivalent of Cain in the Garden of Eden…

  • carollt:

    If only the Queen would go away; that is all I want from Sarah – to go away. But she never seems to go away.

  • Linda1961:

    Sarah Palin thinks that God has picked her to be president.

  • Mattie:

    Even though I think Bachmann is just as bat shit crazy as Palin, I don’t know the name of one of Bachmann’s 5 children.

  • Dirk:

    LOL, when President Obama travels and give speeches, he does not have to offer free bbq in hopes that you will come see him.

  • deennaa:

    “A venal, lying, avaricious quitter…” That says it all about one sarah palin. Right to the root and the core. The instant recognition of which her immature followers cannot grasp. Always, it will be too late for them. Not unlike those tragic followers of the crazed and sick Jim Jones in the ’70’s. Only a handful managed to escape his deadly lies and self-made religious propaganda. The rest lie in poisoned kool aid graves. Its beyond sad that there is this element of humanity that allow themselves to be so swept away by unthinking idol worship created from nothing more than sly, cunning, manipulative, unbound ambition dripping with cobra poison in the form of another human being. The sadness of this unthinking crowd is overshadowed by the dangerousness of what they elevate and follow. I wouldn’t care who they followed, but this cult worship crap affects our lives without our choice. So damned UNDEMOCRATIC. I can’t abide having my life affected by someone I cannot stand to even hardly look at for the obscenity, criminality, injustice, STUPIDITY, HYPOCRISY, LIES AND DANGER this false idol represents. Its enough that there are plenty of these to go around and live amongst the peaceful, innocent, unsuspecting masses of everyone as our usual condition of living. To have one of these snakes rise to a national level of possible (but totally phony) leadership is just going over the last line in the sand. I protest LOUDLY. FIRMLY. ABSOLUTELY. Whether palin or bachman or any of the rest of these mentally imbalanced vampires. She is up there with the worst of the worst. She was a spoiled rotten brat that was allowed to rule the roost with no one standing up to her. Arrested development and no character and conscience development to end the little tyrannical brat’s behaviors. Voila! : sarah palin. She was just an old angry man’s delusional short-cut to imagined power. The media in this country did the rest. They should be an object of total derision, disgust and held up as the total national cowards of all cowards of this country. She never did anything for anyone. Anywhere. There are no commandments of God or man/woman that she honors or obeys. She is an aberrant calling herself “rogue”. Like cancer cells out of control. If one didn’t know any better she could pass as the devil in disguise. You know. The one who is able to appear “as an angel of light”. Fooling the foolish. Capturing the silly and the stupid. Even snaring some who aren’t silly or stupid, apparently. Many of the intelligentsia and tons of us “rill amercans” she can’t really stand, have weighed in on who she “rilly” IS, and she is exposed for everything. Just damned everything. I can literally feel the tension of all posters who are so fed up with this hoax/fraud/whore/PATHOLOGICAL LIAR/greedy/obscenely ambitious/out-of-control/rotten to the bone person, that we are chomping at the bit to see her GONE FROM OUR SIGHT AND FROM OUR HEARING. And we want it NOW. If not now, when! I want to say GOOD RIDDANCE sarah! And don’t let that door hit your fat a** as you “plow” on through/out of it. I also want to say, you are not better than Barack Hussein Obama. You are not better than Maryline Blackburn, the really beautiful young black woman who beat you in the Miss Alaska Beauty Pageant, you are not better than Andree McCleod, you and your pretend native todd palin are not better than ANY Alaska Native, you are not better than Lyda Greene (by a jillion longshots), you are not better than ALL the GENUINE intelligent women in this country, you are not better than the young man who FIGURED OUT your simpleton yahoo password, you are not smarter, prettier, professional nor more competent than Michelle Obama, you are not better than Walt Monegan (he makes you look like cesspools of sludge in his ocean of pristine integrity and ethics), you are not better than Ashley Judd whose genuine beauty and integrity makes you look like the wicked witch of the west from the Wizard of Oz (you’ll never be able to fit your big feet into those ruby shoes of the innocent Dorothy!) you are not better than MR. Joe McGinnis – whose intelligence, journalistic and writing abilities make you look like the worst and most outrageous tabloid rag of yellow “journalism” on the planet with your “little” alleged journalism degree notwithstanding – the list of “you are no better than” is as infinite as all your lies and I would continue, but its boring to everyone who already KNOWS who you REALLY are. You do not deserve one iota of praise, not one kudo for accomplishment, not one acknowledgment for family values or high spiritualism, not one bit of recognition for political professionalism of any office you “plowed” your way into by all devious means possible. “Its not rocket science” sarah: you are not worthy of any recognition except perfidy and fraud. You’ve only fooled some people who cannot discern the difference between really false and really true. You are a shame beyond words. Lastly, you are no patriot, no freedom lover, no “rill” amercan. You are NOTHING of what you have attempted in all falsity to portray to the REAL and ENTIRE American public. You need to KNOW that there are consequences for your dangerous and great fraud that you, without any merit whatsoever, have hurled upon the people of this country. You know what karma is? YOURS is on its way in full. YOUR “God is not one to be mocked.” And neither is the rest of His “children”. I wonder if you realize, (check out your holy book “sister” sarah) that God/Creator/Great Spirit/Allah/Yahweh is kind of fuming that you have “used” and “abused” Him for your arrogant without humility ambitions that He closed the door upon you already? Wow. I think you’d better hide, uh, oh, I forgot. Don’t think you can hide from God can you? (BTW: How’s that standing in for God letter writin’ workin’ out for ya?) Its so easy to be mean isn’t it? If you were nicer and more “RILL”, all this comeback/paybacks wouldn’t be necessary. “Rilly” it wouldn’t. You brought it ALL ON. That’s the only kudo you deserve. Nothing is coincidental…. get it?

    Note to Mr. McGinniss: sorry this was so long, but I know palin reads your blog & for what its worth, I wanted her to know that she is not loved by many many many people. I apologize for using your space to do this. It probably won’t make a dent in her “thick” snakeskin. But to you an apology for the long post at the very least. (You know this is just a short blurb on her and actually needs much much longer to do the job, but YOUR book is going to do that!)

  • jk:

    Bachmann still has time to fake a pregnancy, especially since she only has to “show” for 1.5 months. She’d be smart to do it. We all know how much the GOP and the media lap that stuff up.

  • lilybart:

    Her fans are desperate. THEY care far more than she does, about this event. They see it as the Game Changer when I see an embarrassing over-the-top propaganda film that will do more harm than good.

    If she does not run and Bachmann does, no one will care about her supposed “power” and she will not be a kingmaker either. Irrelevant is what she will be.

  • lilybart:

    Bravo! Just wanted you to know I read the whole thing and could not agree more.

    Think it is over now but the fallout will be great.

  • mea:

    remember when Regina at Palingates wrote that Palin was just a front for the real candidate being readied to run for President? SPAK was just the one to run through all the talking points, and when we’d tired of her, the Powers That Be would put in a candidate that seemed less WGE, and everyone would vote for the new guy.
    Bachmann or Perry might just be that new guy.

  • lilly lily:

    I hope Joe is right.

    Next to go Bachman and Perry.

    Neither is worth spit.

    They might be the drges, but Sarah Palin was pure toxic sewerage.

  • Leona:

    The Opera House in Pella, Iowa is now a privately owned venue for parties, events, weddings, etc. Pella itself is a quiet, conservative, earnest sort of town. Folks who live in Pella are, for the most part, the kind of people who do not go in for bragging and self-promotion. I wonder what will happen when the Palin group show up. I suspect that the “adoring crowds” will mostly consist of imported Palinbots.

  • Leona:

    I thought the same thing myself: “Meow!” “Snarl!” “Eeow!” , claws, hisses, fur flying…
    The thought upsets me a lot because I own three kitties and hate the fact that two volatile, batshit crazy, stupid women are compared to cats.

  • MissSunshine:

    Sadly agree. She can not stand to be out of the spotlight. The idea of adding “presidential candidate” to increase her speakers fee and inflate her self-regard will be irresistible. After teasing her idiot fans for as long as she is able, I expect her to declare at the last minute, and then quit a few days later.

    She will never be able to submit her medical or financial records for public scrutiny, so “god” will command her to quit and “serve the people of America” as a fire-and-brimstone television evangelist, and make her second fortune whipping up fear and hate in Jesus name in a tax exempt “religious” organization.

    P.S. I will have a little smile on my face if after her “political” career collapses, she is not able to saddle up on the back of the Graham Ministries. I hope your book provides enough evidence to persuade Franklin Graham that she would treat him as badly as she did John McCain, and all the others before him

  • Mary:

    I am so excited for your book, Joe. I love your writing and thank you for applying your talent to the vile story of Sarah Palin.

  • lillibird:

    Joe, I wish you would write a new book on the REAL Alaska, not Sarah’s RILL Alaska, she is not a representative of the real Alaskans in any way. My grandfather James A Carroll wrote a book , My First 10 Years In Alaska (the original, written in 1957), about life in the village in the old days (1911/1922) ,raising a family and the hardships people had to go through. Everyone I loan it to loves reading about the old days in Alaska.

  • LisaB:

    I don’t. Really. I don’t need to watch two women validate every negative stereotype on a national scale. It’s tough enough for women as it is.

  • lillibird:

    Excellent comment!

  • jcinco:

    You’ve more than done your duty Joe. Once you put this puppy to bed you need a well deserved break. The thought of you writing a bio about the Boss sounds wonderful, we’ll see how that unfolds. Thank you for your service to America in your efforts to expose the greatest fraud of our lifetimes. We needed someone of your literary stature to take on the task!

  • Leona:

    Brava, Deennaa, brava! Thank you for the passion of your statement. I wish the witch would simply melt into a glob of green goo.

  • lilly lily:

    I had a old discarded library book on Alaska about the time of the gold rush, up to the twenties. Incredable courage and tenacity of both the Native people (I’m not sure of the politically correct attribution to the original peoples or tribal groups of Alaska.. Inutis?) and the men and women who were at a point in their lives that hardships leading to some riches made it worth all the risks.

    An example. If a cat was left out of doors in the winter overnite it could lose its ears from frostbite. And that was only the cats.

    My father was there in the 2nd world war, and nephew and neices in the 90’s. His wife and her family were Alaskan. So I only know Alaska 2nd hand.

  • jcinco:

    If simple sarah watched any of the bachmann interviews from yesterday’s morning shows she should know she wouldn’t be able to stand up to the razzing and grilling she would be subjected to. We all know she wouldn’t have remained calm and maitained a civil speaking voice the way bachmann did. Sarah would have folded like a cheap suit and started screeching the way she did in Madison to out yell her detractors. I believe bachmann to be every bit as whacked as sarah but more articulate and able to keep it together when under pressure. I suppose if sarah takes her place in history, a bug splat on the side mirror of America, some will have to sacrifice their time and join forces with the stop bachmann movement…sigh a liberal’s work is never done.

  • Punkinbugg:

    Hate to harsh your buzz, but don’t forget: She’s establishing residency in Arizona. If Arizonans can elect the likes of John McCain and Jan Brewer, they can certainly elect Sarah Palin as their next Senator, especially now that poor Gabby Giffords may be too injured to run.

  • lilly lily:

    Too bad the lame stream media hasn’t said this in one way or another.

    They truly are wimps. Palin pussy whipped them, and they rolled over and said. “MORE.”

  • mitch:

    So does Bachman. Can you imagine the debate between these two? Arguing about who god really talks to?
    It would be a primer in schizophrenia.

  • Quiet1:

    Thank you, Mr. McGinniss, for including this sentiment: “Because of John McCain’s desperate and deeply unpatriotic inanity . . .” As much as I despise SP, I’ll never have a shred of respect for JM or the GOP for having foistered her upon this nation in the first place.

  • KatieAnnieOakley:

    That is a GREAT Bachmann website, and has been following her for years…

  • KatieAnnieOakley:

    Now, THAT was magnificent!

  • karenw729:

    I’m hoping/praying that the reason why Gabby’s husband just retired from NASA is so that he can run for her seat, or retiring Senator Kyle’s. I have a feeling Gabby and Mark will do everything they can to stop $arah from digging in her heels in AZ.

  • karenw729:

    If that’s true it would be Perry. I’m from TX and while a lot of Texans don’t like him, he’s got the same kind of charisma that Palin does. But, he follows orders a lot better than she does, so they can control and schedule him. I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with a Perry/Bachmann ticket.

  • karenw729:

    I think the Pella, Iowa movie event is her attempt to upstage Bachmann. But the problem is $arah is not organized and she can’t/won’t hire good people. So her Iowa movie, supposedly sold out (which we all know really means they gave away the 340 tickets to select supporters and media, will merely get a passing glance instead. She’s going to have to show up naked or something in order to steal Bachmann’s thunder now. (Go ahead, $arah, I dare you to do that.)

  • akvoter:

    Well, Think, there may a tiny kernal of truth in what you say. I do, however, respectfully disagree with you on Sararh’s “evolving”. I live (well over 30 yrs) and vote in Alaska and I’ve watched Palin ever since she was on the political radar. From my perspective I feel she has “devolved” (if there IS such a thing). Further, I think you will find many Alaskans who agree.

  • akvoter:

    Deennaa you GO!!!! When writing or talking about this woman I’m nearly incoherent with rage! There’s so much to say I think my brain will explode! I, too, read your entire comment. Bravo indeed!

  • lilybart:

    Competent women like Hillary and Kirstin Gillabrand are not so much fun for the media.

  • DKey:

    Brilliant writing, Joe! Can’t wait for the whole book . . . Michele Bachmann has been called the ‘intelligent Palin.’ But how smart can you be when, Pyramids be damned, you think the Earth is just 6,000 years old? I guess a person who also thinks giving the uber-rich more money will, somehow, help the poor. And, yes, Bachmann has totally stolen the limelight from Palin! Sarah must be prayin’ that Bachmann doesn’t haul out a few of her 28 kids as props! Cue the Clown car.

  • FEDUP!!!:

    LOL! I guess you are right – she will weasel out by saying that SHE did not say so on her twitter or her FB page…

  • Tservo:

    Yet I doubt Palin is very interested in the US Senate.
    The work to win a senate seat is arduous, and adoration simply fails to follow a senate victory.

    I’ve always contended that Palin does not want to work in government, but loves being on television.
    Her heart lies with celebrity, not legislation.

  • karenw729:

    According to Politico, $arah’s trying to set up some meetings with key Iowa operatives when she’s there on Tuesday. So yeah, she’s pissed about Michelle. It figures it would take a woman (Bachmann) to stand up to her. Never gonna vote for Michelle, but I’m glad to see her not being afraid of little miss quitty pants.

  • Diane:

    I think she will have to run in this race, unless she declares her intent to run for Congress within the next year or 2.
    I still think she will get in the race very late, because her ‘supporters’ want her to. She will bypass the R’s and run as an independent.
    The campaign will go no where but it will keep her supporters and that lovely free money coming in.
    If she doesn’t run for something soon, then her resignation from the gov.’s job was just plain quitting.
    She has to do something else soon to keep the buzz going.
    The only way a run for the Presidency would be disastrous is if the election was close and she split the R vote and they lost.

  • FEDUP!!!:

    He is retiring from NASA, because NASA has no future anymore. They gave up and went from #1 in space-related issues to being the very last one. 🙁

  • SLQ:

    Apparently, they don’t even want her in Arizona, the bastion of the extreme right.

  • Jame doe seeker:

    Don’t worry: Bachmann has already fired FIVE Chiefs of Staff! To say she is erratic is an understatement. She claims to have fired one or more based on incompetence, which begs the question: if this claim is true, why is she so completely lacking in discernment as to hire that many incompetents in the first place?

    Palin and Bachmann reinforce every single bad male stereotype about women: that they are erratic, vain, petty, manipulative, vindictive, lacking in credentials and experience, and completely unworthy of our trust in anything involving worldly power. When I see the extent to which they are ‘backed’, I truly wonder whether they were deliberately supported and ‘thrown out there’ as presidential contenders by the men behind the curtain, the real puppet-masters, who knew that in doing this they could set the women’s movement back by many, many decades.

  • lilly lily:

    Besides free tickets given out, there is a barbeque afterwards.

    Have to have the free tickets to the feast? Or is it all inclusive.

    Wonder if Sarah will be as neat an eater as she was on the Washington Party she crashed.

    Barbecue sauce does have a way of dripping on people. Even those who aren’t normally slobby.

    And all her supporters who are driving down to support their idol, (not to see the film or eat,) will have to drool at the smell of barbeque. and go home hungry but with cherished memories of seeing their beloved Mama Grizzley.

  • zenna:

    American media loves and adores a Freak Show.

  • CougInPortland:

    “Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne. The only problem….”

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2011/jun/27/the-wrong-john-wayne/

    hahaha! Mimic the spirit, eh?

  • grammy97:

    If this comment section had a “Like” button, I would try to “like” a thousand times. Thank you, Deennaa!

  • CougInPortland:

    Leave them behind? She threw them under the bus.

  • DKey:

    Excellent, Coug! Wrong John Wayne. Ha! Waterloo, indeed. Sarah and Michele are the original “Insane Clown Posse!”

  • Bretta:

    The Rogue may be in danger of becoming only a footnote to a has-been’s nevuh-wuz campaign.

    Just kidding: I’m sure sales will be great but your publisher is sure cutting the release date thin to win.

    It’s still terrific to watch the Grisly Grifter Guv go down.

  • CDNpotpourri:

    fanned

  • jenny:

    Joe,
    I work part time in a library and a couple of weeks ago I noticed an uptick in some of your old books being checked out! One of the patrons who was checking out told me she was anxious for your new Palin book. I told her I was too.

  • DKey:

    “now that I’m 68 it’s even shorter.”

    Ha! My BFF of many years, Genevieve, will be 101 in August and she’d say you’re “just a kid.” She’s totally cogent and active, lives in her own house and was just Grand Marshall with Ron Howard in Burbank, California’s, 100th birthday parade. I now live on Maui, and she even flew over to visit last year! So age is just a number, as “they” always say, and you’re doing the job of three 22-year-old grad students! At least.

    I know I speak for many on this site when I say we’re so grateful for your dogged pursuit of the Truth (purposely capitalized) where this, possibly, dangerous grifter is concerned. An author with your credibility and stature will shine a huge klieg light into the dark corners of this unhappy American tale. Thank You! Truly . . .

  • nancy:

    Joe– several questions–“venal, lying, avaricious quitter”–bad character or illness? Do you think she knows right from wrong? Can she stop herself?

  • Phil Blythe:

    That’s a shame, Joe. Scarah is an embarrassment to us. I loved Going To Extremes. And I love the image of a clown in high heels on a flying trapeze; bullseye.

  • CougInPortland:

    Joe, etal, have asked our patience to “ride it out.” You’ll notice c4p/Team Sarah/handlers are out in force more than EVER. It’s getting close and I won’t ask questions. A game of chess.

  • BlueberryT:

    I wish I felt that it was over (not that Michele Bachmann is any prize) but I can’t help but feel that you’re baiting her a bit here.

  • SusanC:

    Well, C4P really screwed up. They extended a blanket invitation to the whole world to descend on Pella, only to be informed an hour or so ago that the premiere is a small, local event, and that only ticket-holders will be admitted to the movie and bbq. Whoops.

  • SusanC:

    I know this is a Bristol-free zone, but apparently Sarah will appear at Bristol’s book signing at the Mall of American on Wednesday…to sign her own books.

  • sherry frazier:

    Joe, luv ya brothah. But what IS the reason for your book’s timetable…last chapter written – check; legal review – check; printer lined up but could make room for your job — check; marketing department — hmmm. Need to approach them again about their strategy.

  • lilybart:

    AND you have to buy Bristol’s book to be allowed to by her book, guarantee the bots buy her daughter’s damn book.

  • Joe:

    Sherry–Good questions, happy to answer. THE ROGUE has always been scheduled for fall, 2011. There’s never been a reason to rush it. More books are sold between Labor Day and Christmas than in all the rest of the year. My publisher feels this book is strong enough to fare well despite the competition for readers’ attention in the prime season. September 11 will be the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Justifiably, there will be massive media attention to this somber reminder. So Sept. 20 will be like the start of a whole new season.
    There’s simply no reason to rush this. Crown Publishing is doing the best job of pre-publication I’ve ever seen. They are wildly excited about this book. It’s their #1 book of the busy fall season. And if it’s as good as they think it is, it will sell for many years, like THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT, FATAL VISION, GOING TO EXTREMES, and THE MIRACLE OF CASTEL DI SANGRO. Books are not blog posts. Real books are meant to last.

    I actually don’t “need to approach” Random House/Crown about their strategy. They’ve nailed it.

    But I am truly grateful for your concern.

    –Joe

  • AKRNHSNC:

    Uh-oh, the clowns at the Pee Zoo are going to be mighty upset as they’re comparing the premiere of this movie with $arah and Toad attending to be the equivalent of Gone with the Wind with Vivien Leigh & Clark Gable. However, they actually said that $arah and Toad are better looking and better known. Poor delusional souls, they’re going to jump off a cliff when she doesn’t run. They don’t believe that’s possible because $arah would NEVER have allowed her followers to spend their hard-earned money organizing ahead of time for her for months, purchasing t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. She just wouldn’t do that to them. Right?? Well??? Yes, she damn sure would and wouldn’t think about it for a second. However, if she could sue them for using her name, she might give them a thought or two. That’s just how $arah is, it’s all about her, all the time.

  • AKRNHSNC:

    Great job, Deenaa! You said what I’m sure many of us are thinking and I’ll bet that $arah reads this column daily. She can’t stay away from anything with her name on it, good or bad. I love the fact that there’s a lot more negative for her to wade through trying to find the one or two slightly positive articles by the Palinbots.

  • deennaa:

    To all the posters and those who commented on this last post of mine, and to the DEMOCRATIC Mr. Joe McGinniss for allowing us to express our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT of FREE SPEECH (SO unlike little bitter Hitlerian/palin): Thank you for your responses. I am always amazed and greatly entertained by reading your posts on the palin toxic blight we are all enduring/suffering under. I sincerely believe we outnumber those pitiful persons who need to follow THEIR version of Jim Jones. I do. As an Alaskan, I suffer an extreme embarrassment and an obvious outrage at the freak sideshow of the palin’s and their being allowed to tromp our state and this entire country. To think that their nothingness could spread over the entire world and be noted as “something” fires up my “activism” abilities to push back at this empty tyrant – push her back down in the dirt and under the rocks she slid out from. I challenged her to a fair fistfight WITHOUT any of her “stand-in’s” and got no response. I’m older than she is but I promise you, just me and her? Her black tight skirt and generic shirt/blouse would be out of style when she got back up! I know. I know. Just a lovely dream. Fist fighting for a woman is frowned upon as not very feminine and pretty crude and I would be lowering myself to her level (down in the DIRT), but that’s how I honestly feel when just her name comes in view, so I try to calm myself down, act like the intellectual person I think I am and wonder why my Golden Gloves winning uncle and brother taught ME to do that boxing thing! Lastly, I want to reiterate how entertaining and clever all the posters are who stand up to and against palin poison. I’ve laughed coffee out of my nose at some of the comments and many others I’ve said my own “bravo’s” to. And I envy those who can say so much with the fewest of words. Something I aspire to. Lastly Lastly, to our mission: palin WILL go DOWN. From NOTHING to NOTHING.

  • Reality Check:

    She’s going to lose her credibility either way! If she doesn’t run, well…hell hath no fury like a palinbot who got rolled. If she does run, she’ll lose; maybe not the GOP nomination, but certainly the general. I think she’s got a plan C in mind: launching her career as a celebrevangelist. Nauseating yes, but never underestimate the market for sanctimonious and stupid.

  • JANETLYN:

    Thank you for such a lovely-sarahPalin paragraph; I appreciate all the time it took for you to write that; I take my hat off to such well-thought out words, and the underlying honesty. I may want your autograph in the future, if possible…a million thank yous. A great job of expressing yourself; I’m looking for someone more like ‘elizabeth edwards’ type of a candidate…that’s as far as I could think;D