Fox
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.
Still think she’s not running? Sarah to Sudan in July//UPDATE: Sarah’s 2008 Lie about Sudan
Sarah told the Sunday Times of London, “I am going to Sudan in July and hope to stop in England on the way. I am just hoping Mrs Thatcher is well enough to see me as I so admire her.”
Aides to the ailing Margaret Thatcher won’t let Sarah anywhere near the former British prime minister. That’s no surprise.
But how about the trip to Sudan, where summer temperatures in the capital, Khartoum, average more than 105 degrees? (Maybe the move to Arizona was to acclimatize her.)
On anyone’s list of the most unfortunate countries on earth, Sudan would have to be near the top. Put it this way: Sarah’s not going there for the shopping.
Can anyone see any reason for Sarah to make this trip other than to give herself another “foreign policy” credential for the 2012 campaign?
Questions:
–Is Franklin Graham paying for it?
–Will Greta Van Susteren tag along?
–Think she’ll bring any of the kids? How about her “good biblical wife” Todd?
–Will Sarah pop over to Kenya to get a refill on her protection from devils from Rev. Thomas Muthee?
–How much of her fortune will she donate to humanitarian aid for the impoverished people of Sudan?
No matter what’s in the (heavily redacted) emails that the state of Alaska will release on Friday, video and photos of Sarah touring refugee camps in Darfur –location of genocide so appalling that former Secretary of State Colin Powerll called it “the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century”–will make it old news by next month.
It’s one thing to hop on the back of a Harley in Washington, and wink and wave.
But for Sarah to inflict herself and her ambitions on the hundreds of thousands of suffering refugees in Darfur would be the most loathsome thing she’s ever done.

UPDATE:
During her 2008 vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, Sarah claimed that as Alaska governor she tried to fight atrocities in Sudan by having the state pension divest itself of investments there. Not so, as ABC News demonstrated. In fact, Alaska state representative, Les Gara, a co-sponsor of the divestment measure, said that Sarah’s administration “killed our bill.”
Despite Palin’s claim in the debate, her administration’s position on the bill was summarized by her deputy revenue commissioner, Brian Andrews. At a legislative hearing in February, 2008, he said, “Mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens’ financial security is not a good combination.”
In other words, forget the atrocities as long as we’re making money.
Nonetheless, in the debate, Palin said, in regard to the genocide in the Darfur section of Sudan:
“What I’ve done in my position to help, as the governor of a state that’s pretty rich in natural resources, we have a $40 billion investment fund, a savings fund called the Alaska Permanent Fund. When I and others in the legislature found out we had some millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars to make sure we weren’t doing anything that would be seen as condoning the activities there in Darfur.”
Which is exactly what she did not do when it mattered.
As the legislative session was ending, and there was no chance that the bill could even be brought up for vote, she had another aide say that she’d changed her mind and now supported the it. However, as the Washington Post reported, that was only after it was clear that time had run out.
In other words, she was against it before she was for it, and paid lip service to it only after she knew it was dead.
Of course, in the same debate, Sarah also said, “We’re building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline.”
How’s that AGIA thing working for ya now, Sarah?
Poor Piper No Better Today//UPDATE: Piper Photo Album of “My Summer Vacation?”
UPDATE:
Someone could–thus no doubt will–soon post an album of all “Pouty Piper” photos from this latest example of Sarah’s willful mistreatment of the very children about whose privacy she expressed such concern last summer, when I moved in next door.
I hope this photo will be included:
Is that, “I pledge allegiance,” or “Mommy, I’m feeling sick again?”
(By the way, don’t miss that clown in the back with a Statu(t)e of Liberty crown on his head: a stereotypical, not to say archetypal Palin supporter.)
Having a granddaughter Piper’s age, I not only sympathize, but empathize.
I also can’t help but be reminded of Sarah’s faux-outrage about me a year ago, as she swung into mama grisly mode on the Glenn Beck show.
In regard to my having become her summer neighbor, Beck asked Sarah:
“Do you feel, as a woman, do you feel violated?”
She said:
“I feel more protective than ever in terms of my kids. Any mom would. Just wantin’ to bring your family even closer and wrap your arms around ‘em and not let the infringement on their rights and privacy be so overwhelming…”
Well, hell of a job this year, Sarah, protecting Piper’s “rights and privacy,” upon which, incidentally I never infringed in the least.
Scenes like the above make me all the more eager for Sept. 20 and publication of THE ROGUE, when I’ll finally blow the lid off this whole Sarah-as-AnyMom sham, not to mention a number of others.
“Roger Thinks Palin Is An Idiot. He thinks she’s stupid.”
Roger Ailes has been a friend of mine for 44 years. Most people think I first met him when he was working for Richard Nixon and I was researching The Selling of The President 1968, but we actually got to know each other a year earlier, when I was writing a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Roger was producing the nationally syndicated Mike Douglas show in Philadelphia.
If Roger and I have ever agreed about anything having to do with politics or policy, I sure can’t remember it. From Richard Nixon to Rupert Murdoch, I think everyone he’s ever worked for has harmed this country in some way. I also think Fox News is an excrescence. And Roger knows that. Mutual candor is one aspect of our friendship. Roger’s terrific sense of humor is another: he is one of the funniest people I know. I don’t think I’ve spent five minutes in his company, privately, without laughing out loud at least three times at things he’s said.
But the one quality Roger possesses that I admire above all others–and it is undoubtedly the one least known and appreciated by those who deal with him only professionally–is his generosity of spirit. Roger will do anything for a friend. My respect for his privacy prevents me from getting into detail, but I know this first-hand. Maybe someday, when he’s retired, he’ll let me tell people about his extraordinary loyalty, unselfishness and generosity.
Roger and I are in frequent contact by email, we talk by phone at least monthly, and we get together for lunch or dinner at least a couple of times a year. We talk far more about family than politics. I gave up trying to convert him years ago, and he’s known from my Philadelphia newspaper days that I was beyond redemption from his point of view.
When we do talk politics, it’s always off the record. Because Roger knows I’ll never violate a confidence, he has no qualms about telling me exactly what he thinks of the various high-profile political and media people with whom he deals. So I can’t, for example, tell you what Roger really thinks of Sarah Palin.
But I’ve just read Gabriel Sherman’s terrific, in-depth story about Fox News, the Republican party and Roger in the new issue of New York magazine. It contains this quote, from “another Republican close to Ailes”:
Roger thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid.”
As I say, my friendship with Roger precludes me from sharing anything he’s ever said to me about Sarah.
But I can say that I think Gabriel Sherman is one of the best young journalists in America. If it’s in a story he wrote, I believe it.
And thinking back to the lunch Roger and I had in a private dining room at Fox headquarters in July, 2009, just after Sarah had quit as governor of Alaska, I have no doubt that the above quote is accurate.
Of course, Roger hired her anyway. He hasn’t built Fox News into a nearly $1-billion per year company by letting his personal opinions interfere with his programming instincts.
And if you’d like to know what Roger thinks of Sarah as a possible GOP nominee in 2012, pay particular attention, in Sherman’s story, to the part about how hard Roger is pressing New Jersey governor Chris Christie to enter the race.
As is always the case with Sarah–and this is a point I make repeatedly in THE ROGUE–those who know her best like her least.
“Prayer Shield” Protects Palin from Critics//UPDATE: How can she stay out when “lamestream” wants her in so bad?
Much attention is being paid to Sarah’s comment to Van Susteren last night that she has “fire in her belly.” Video and transcript of her appearance here.
But to me the most revealing moment was when she said, “The darts and the arrows keep flying…it’s going to keep on coming and, you know, I feel like I have a prayer shield in front of me that deflects a lot of that..” [emphasis added]
No doubt the shield was manufactured by her Prayer Warriors, working overtime in the attic of the Palin home on Lake Lucille.
It’s hard for rational people to appreciate the extent to which Sarah is in the grip of religious delusion. I honestly believe that Sarah thinks God has armed her with both sword and shield and has sent her forth to do battle with the infidels. The Anchorage Daily News was on to more than its reporters and editors realized when they called Sarah “The Joan of Arc of Alaskan politics” in 2006.
Look again at her remarkable words to “Focus on the Family” founder James Dobson toward the end of the 2008 campaign:
As I write in THE ROGUE :
Dobson told her that not only was he praying for her but that he’d just hosted a gathering of more then four hundred “prayer warriors” and that, “We were sure asking for God’s intervention,” in the campaign.
“Well, it is that intercession that is so needed,” Sarh said. “And I can feel it, too, Dr. Dobson. I can feel the power of prayer and that strength that is provided through our prayer warriors across this nation…We hear along the rope lines that people are interceding for us and praying for us. It’s our reminder to do the same, to seek His perfect will for this nation, and to of course seek His wisdom and guidance in putting this nation back on the right track…I have to have faith that our message will get out there minus the filter of the mainstream media…I have to have that faith that God’s going to help us get that message out there.”
Unfortunately, the Big Guy in the Sky fell asleep at the switch on election day. But Sarah’s had his ear plenty since then and she’s not going to let him make the same mistake twice.
UPDATE:
See Chris Cillizza in “The Fix” in Washington Post:
In a field without much star power, a Palin candidacy would immediately suck the media oxygen out of the room for the other contenders. Put simply: Palin is the only potential candidate in the field who could go to Iowa tomorrow and have 5,000 people show up.
The Beat Goes On…Sarah + Van Susteren Tonight
Sarah’s back on her chatty pills. After two Fox News appearances last night, she’s scheduled to be back with her spiritual Siamese twin, Greta Van Susteren, on Fox tonight. Any day now, I expect to see a National Enquirer headline about the “love triangle” involving, Sarah, Greta and Franklin Graham. For a Scientologist, Greta sure hangs with militant fundamentalist Christians a lot.
Do you think Sarah is squeezing all she can out of Fox because she knows that once she announces her candidacy that golden goose will turn back into just another Lake Lucille grebe?
The math is simple: the longer Sarah delays her announcement, the longer she can keep her hands in Rupert Murdoch’s pockets.
And Fox is putting no pressure on her. Why should they? Every time she’s on their air, their ratings go up.
Expect this win-win situation to stay as it is, at least through the summer.
Until, let’s say, September 11.
The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is coming up. Keep an eye on Sarah’s plans for the occasion.
Sarah Palin: Media scrutiny next year? “I just have to be prepared for it and overcome it.” UPDATE//: Ivan Moore in Anchorage Press says “absolutely yes, Sarah will run”
Oh, man, I was just on my way to bed when I saw Sarah-sites overdosing on her Hannity interview.
So I watched it. I figure that since I’m still writing my last chapter, I get paid to stay up late and do such things.
Some of it was (unintentionally) funny, such as:
I think one of my problems in this whole process is I don’t live for that game of the pundincy [sic] of the opining and speculating on who’s doing what …What I live for is fighting for family and faith and freedom in this country.
But I won’t go to sleep smiling over her later words:
I’m still not ready to make an announcement….I’m still seriously considering it and praying about it…I want to make sure that we have a candidate out there with Tea Party principles.
Perhaps scariest of all was Sarah’s Freudian slip at the start.
I realize that the Wasilla Assembly of God taught Sarah that Sigmund Freud was Sigmund Fraud, and that she’s believed it ever since, but that doesn’t immunize her from what the rest of us might call a Freudian slip. Speaking of Gingrich’s recent stumble out of the gate, Hannity asked her, in regard to 2012, “Is there going to be a different standard?” Meaning: will candidates be held accountable for their words? Sarah said:
There’s gotta be the preparation on all the candidates’ parts for those gotchas. That’s what the lamestream media is known for nowadays is the gotcha, trip-up questions, and I just have to be prepared for it and overcome it. (emphasis added.)
Why would someone who did not intend to seek the Republican nomination say “I”?
If she weren’t planning to run–notwithstanding how she makes everything about herself–wouldn’t she have said “they?”
Dr. Fraud, where are you now that we need you?
I, for one, am going to need someone to interpret the dreams/nightmares I’m about to have as I go to bed with Sarah’s mantra in my head:
“I just have to be prepared for it and overcome it.”
At least she’s got God helping her. I’m all alone down here, trying to muddle through with nothing more than rationality, a modicum of decency, and whatever I learn from my reporting.
Anybody know a good Jungian shrink? Because here’s what I’m afraid I’ll be seeing tonight:
UPDATE:
Alaskan pollster Ivan Moore says in Anchorage Press that it’s “Palin’s Perfect Storm.”
Here’s his lede:
Us pollsters don’t like making predictions. No really… we don’t. We can measure things at any given point in time, but we can’t, no matter how much others may want us to, see into the future. Today, however, I’m going to make an exception, because I’m absolutely certain of what I’m going to predict.
No ands, ifs or buts about it, Sarah Palin is going to run for president.
And so to bed.
Sarah Palin Hits Daily Double: Obama Okays New Alaskan Oil Drilling & Huckabee Says He Won’t Run
The president’s announcement, which included plans for expanded drilling in Alaska demonstrate[s] his commitment to reducing oil imports by increasing domestic production…Mr. Obama said the administration would begin to hold annual auctions for oil and gas leases in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, a 23-million-acre tract on the North Slope of Alaska. The move comes after years of demands for the auctions by industry executives and Alaska’s two senators, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat.
In crediting Murkowski and Begich for the policy change, The New York Times omitted the name of Sarah Palin, who’s been screaming about this for at least as long and even more loudly than have Alaska’s two U.S. senators.
Hours later, Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Caucus, announced he would not be a candidate next year.
Today’s news makes it clearer than ever that Sarah will have a second chance–and her last chance–at the brass ring of national political power.
And don’cha think she’s gonna take it?
Because Sarah is not an elected official, but only a celebrity screecher from the sidelines, she can’t claim credit (except on her Twitter and Facebook pages and on Fox News) for having persuaded President Obama to change his mind about the vital economic and environmental issues posed by the prospect of reopening Alaska’s North Slope to further exploration (some would say “exploitation”) by Big Oil.
And won’t it gall her to see Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in particular, cited as one who made “demands” to which President Obama eventually caved?
Especially with Huckabee handing her, gift wrapped, the USA’s evangelical base, it seems obvious that Sarah will announce her candidacy for president later this year: if she doesn’t, a year from now people won’t even remember how she spells her name. (Is it p-a-l-i-n, or p-a-l-l-i-n, as in “pallin’ around with terrorists”?)
Even if, as many argue, the personal bottom line of http:www.Palingrifters.com is what Sarah cares about most (or only), she must recognize that as soon as she definitively takes herself out of the GOP 2012 candidate pool (aka “The Sargasso Sea”), nobody will care any more about what she says, what she wears, how she looks, Track’s latest brush with the law, Bristol’s latest plastic surgery, Willow’s latest brush with the law, or even whether she really gave birth to Trig.
Sarah’s greatest fear is irrelevance. What if she fell in a forest and nobody heard?
Bruce Springsteen might as well have been writing Fade Away for Sarah in 1980, when she was a sophomore at Wasilla High:
I don’t wanna fade away
Oh I don’t wanna fade away
Tell me what can I do what can I say
Cause darlin’ I don’t wanna fade away
Do you really think she’ll just fade away now?
Having come out of nowhere to get this far, will she go gently into that good night without even a last hurrah?
Especially after Huckabee’s Saturday night announcement that he won’t run,
His decision to forgo a run presumably leaves that space wide open for Ms. Palin, a self described “Bible-believing Christian”
Doesn’t it seem that God is working overtime this weekend to open doors for her so she can plow through?
Hope he gets at least time-and-a-half.




















