Sarah Palin and The Seven Dwarfs: Clear-eyed view from across the pond//UPDATE: sending a message?

I often think that Beltway pundits are so close to the screen that they can’t see the picture for the pixels.

And once they reach a collective opinion (i.e. the conventional wisdom from mid-January to April that Sarah’s disastrous plunge into the pool of Narcissus following the Tucson shootings of January 8 had finished her as a force in American politics), they cling to it the way Obama said that embittered poor whites in Appalachia and the Rust Belt “cling to guns or religion.”

Granted, Richard Adams works in The Guardian‘s Washington bureau, which puts him technically inside the Beltway.
Coming from England, however, he’s also a foreign correspondent and thus–unlike the blind men in the Indian fable— able to see the whole elephant.  

In today’s Guardian, Adams points out that there are two strong indicators that Palin will run for president: “everything she says and everything she does.”

Including the fact that her bus tour will take her to New Hampshire this week and to Iowa next month.

You can’t hardly get much more definitive than that.

As Adams writes:

Palin would be crazy not to run for the Republican nomination. Just look at the rest of the field.

 

UPDATE:

Nothing subtle about this:


44 Responses to “Sarah Palin and The Seven Dwarfs: Clear-eyed view from across the pond//UPDATE: sending a message?”

  • lilly lily:

    So she will.

    And she will be laughed at the entire time.

  • SusanC:

    Even if, by some weird fluke, she captures the Republican nomination, she doesn’t stand a chance in the general election. I know lifelong Republicans who’ve said they’d vote for Obama were she his opponent. And I’m still snickering over George Will’s comment that no one would let this woman anywhere near the nuclear arsenal.

  • Mem:

    I have many friends who belong to groups called Republicans For Obama. Many of them started at the beginning of his campaign but got REALLY strong when John McCain brought Sarah Palin on. I’m just wondering who your pick for the run is Joe since you brought the “embittered poor whites in Appalachia and the Rust Belt “cling to guns or religion.” Odd thing to do at this point in the game. You must not be an Obama supporter so I am curious as to who you do support. Just asking…

  • grammy97:

    Actually, she has a good, solid chance. If the Koch brothers and the Dominionists can pay for enough hackers to pre-set the Diebold voting machines, she can win.

  • Joe:

    I voted for Obama in 2008 and I plan to vote for him again next year.

    –Joe

  • krbmjb05:

    She needs to announce she’ll run, and then I want her other GOP opponents to smack her down hard and fast!! She should (hopefully) get nowhere NEAR the nomination! She will turn the process into a sexist freakshow whining all the way. I think when she finally has to be the one “working” for the nomination, her laziness, mental instability and her skeletons will be front and center.

  • Mem:

    Then you are a very smart man Joe!:) Forgive my asking. I just know how the teapublicans run with anything they get their grubby little hands on and I just thought it odd to remind them of something that didn’t set well in the last election….Now with that said you can tell me to mind my own business:)

  • rm:

    Joe its like watching a bad episode of the the Partridge Family.

  • M. Aragon:

    And that possibility is what keeps me up at night: we need an official paper trail for all those Diebold machines in the Presidential elections. I do believe they would and will try to steal the next election.

  • Mem:

    I love that comment as well Susan “no one would let this woman anywhere near the nuclear arsenal.” but with that said, I think that people underestimate the power of the republicans. GWB twice! Because of the religious right and cheating, lying…same ol’ same ol’. Now the republicans have the tea party (koch brothers, thus their money) free platform in Fox and their money. Chamber of Commerce and their money as well as foreign money sent to them to sway politics towards the right. They have all the other corporations that are now people thanks to the supreme court and they have learned to lie and steal better then ever. It does not matter that the republicans do not want SP. They will bend to the will of the teaparty and they will rally around her if that’s what it takes. NO ONE cares in the political world that she is an idiot! Better to control her in the WH. (so they think…they forget…she likes to be the one in control and will push the button to prove it)

  • Mem:

    LOL the picture you added is funny. I noticed that picture this morning and thought how she holds her hands in such an odd way. It’s almost as though she is praying, thinking or whatever the heck she doesn’t really do…”Please don’t let that black man notice me or touch me. I’m just standing here for a photo opt but I will die if he speaks to me or …ewe…tries to shake my hand….maybe if I hold my hands like this…with my shoulders raised a bit…I will be invisible to him. Did you get that picture yet? C’mon you idiots…take the damn shot so we can move on…ewe”

  • Mem:

    Okay, this is something I have always wondered about Joe and maybe you know. IF she were to ever make it to the WH (biting my tongue) how would TAWD get clearance? His past membership and support of the AIP would make that impossible..right.

    I have an article that came out about that during the elections but no one really answered that question and as usual the media swept it under the rug.

    Any thoughts?

  • She will run but making everyone wonder is she or isn’t she so she keeps up the suspense and focus on her. I’m patiently waiting for the GOP big whigs with cojones to smack her down when she does announce.

  • Joe:

    And who might they be?

    –Joe

  • rm:

    She and her family are vacation stopping in historic sites in the Northeast, So this must be for another darn stupid TV show!

  • Karl Rove is my guess.

  • Jewels:

    http://politicons.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/NewImage2.png

    Rep. Allen West and Sarah Palin making some kind of pact?

  • colacarat:

    Mem,

    That man is Representative Allen West from Florida (my district, unfortunately). Here’s a photo of her shaking his hand.

    http://politicons.net/photo-sarah-palin-meets-allen-west-at-rolling-thunder/

    Read the comments under the picture; a lot of teabaggers think that they would make the dream ticket. That is a scary thought. The picture that Joe included above does look like she’s trying to wipe off her hands; I’ll bet it was taken right after she shook hands with him.

  • colacarat:

    Sorry…I meant to reply to Mem at 10:00 p.m.

  • Joe:

    It’s not Rep. West, it’s the cross that scares me.

    –Joe

  • rm:

    Sarah Palin talks to Greta on the tour bus: “I Don’t Think I Owe Anything to the Mainstream Media”

    http://politicons.net/sarah-palin-talks-to-greta-on-the-tour-bus/

  • colacarat:

    Equally frightening.

  • Pam:

    I’m sorry but I look at this picture and I just laugh. How can anybody take this noob seriously?

  • Chuck in Alaska:

    We all had better take her seriously. She and her Palinbots are seriously dangerous. The scary thing is that it seems like the number of “real Americans” who would consider voting for this fraud seem to be rapidly increasing. The dumbing down of our country is terrifying.

  • MC3031:

    Oh come on! David Cassidy (is/was) much cuter than Tawd! 🙂

    “Traveling along / hear the song that we’re singing / Come on, get Happpppeeee!”

  • I guess wearing a big old cross makes her Christian, a Star of David makes her Jewish and on the bus with Greta she was wearing her Wonder Woman bracelet…what fashion accessories next? I’m waiting for her to wear something with rainbow colors to show she’s gay or maybe a tiara would be a better choice. She is a joke but what’s scary are the people who adore her and believe her lies.

  • FEDUP!!!:

    I saw that picture also, and the same thing came to my mind – NOTHING SUBTLE ABOUT THIS!!!

  • SCmommy:

    I was a “Republican for Obama,” complete with bumper sticker proclaiming so. After the 2010 elections, when the Tea Party turned the Republican party into complete MORONS, I left the “for Obama” portion of the bumper sticker, but took an exacto knife to the “Republican” part & removed it.

    I also added an “I Stand with the President” sticker & an “O” sticker just for good measure. 😉

    It’s almost shameful to admit that I used to be able to identify with the Republican party. Today, I don’t recognize it.

  • Lidia17:

    Roger Ailes saw to it that Nixon became president. He ushered in Reagan, and helped GHWB cheat on live interviews by flashing him cue cards. We all know how it went down with GWB, the “Brooks Brothers riot” aired non-stop by FOX, and their premature announcement of Bush’s election as a fait accompli.

    Now who is FOX backing? Sarah Palin, of course. She is their creature.

    As Joe cites from the Guardian piece, watch what Fox DOES (they don’t fire her; they continue to give her virtually unlimited free promo time). Hence, the powers that be (whether one considers the buck to stop with Ailes or with Murdoch) have not abandoned her at all; they are “doubling down”.

    Ailes orchestrated Nixon’s campaign in the exact way that Sarah is comporting herself today:
    To bypass journalists, Ailes made Nixon the star of his own traveling roadshow – a series of contrived, newslike events that the campaign paid to broadcast in local markets across the country. Nixon would appear on camera in theaters packed with GOP partisans – “an applause machine,” Ailes said, “that’s all that they are.” Then he would field questions from six voters, hand-­selected by the campaign, who could be counted on to lob softball queries that played to Nixon’s talking points. At the time, Nixon was consciously stoking the anger of white voters aggrieved by the advances of the civil rights movement, and Ailes proved eager to play the race card.

    Does anyone besides me have a strange feeling of deja-vu?

  • Lidia17:

    The above citation is from the recent Rolling Stone profile of Ailes:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-roger-ailes-built-the-fox-news-fear-factory-20110525

  • Lidia17:

    Rove says she will run.
    He has had many chances to smack her down; so has Bill Kristol…

    I’ve always thought Rove was the author of the “we’re creating our own reality, and you will just be left to watch what we do” phrases. He’s in the “I’ll do what I want until the courts tell me I can’t” camp; witness his influence on the Bush administration to that effect (the imperial executive and the effective overthrow of the Supreme Court).

    Maybe they think they can run Palin as a figurehead they way they ran the doltish Bush Jr. There’s also the weird Israel connection/vibe: think Michael Ledeen, the third temple, Elan Frank the ex-IDF guy who filmed Palin for FOX, the Israeli flag on display in Palin’s AK office, her traveling to Jerusalem for Purim (Queen Esther). Kristol and the neo-cons want all-out war with Iran and the whole Muslim Middle East. Palin would not hesitate to give them that.

  • Lidia17:

    That sentence alone proves she is delusional!

    That babygate book cannot come soon enough…

  • Montrealer:

    I agree, Chuck. It is shear torture to watch how strongly her whorshippers support any and all things Palin. It matters not how outrageous & devisive her words and actions, they are always unconditionally accepted and even applauded as being very smart and excellent stradegy on her part. The idea of this person occupying the Oval Office and being leader of the free world is just too horrorific to contemplate.

  • Jame doe seeker:

    I think a Palin-Ryan ticket is much more likely. Ryan has a huge backing of power-brokers and the tons of money that they represent.

    The two of them will quickly privatize Social Security and Medicare, making them unrecognizable. They’ll have their dream-come-true: a two-tier medical and social retirement system, with death-panels-by-default for those who didn’t earn enough money earlier in life to sustain them in old age. And Wall Street is just salivating to bring this about. Think I’m kidding?

  • sallyngarland,tx:

    If Rick Perry gets in, don’t underestimate a smackdown he might deliver. Rove knows him well. Perry has never lost an election, he has big, big money behind him and knows people in high places. Perry might not directly deliver the smackdown but he has people on the sidelines who would. He is slick Rick.

  • KatieAnnieOakley:

    She won’t run on the GOP ticket; she’ll be the Tea Klux Klan’s candidate. And then, the GOP will bury her. Right now, she’s drawing too much attention – and money – to GOP causes, like cutting social programs, abortion, etc.

    But once she declares… Pandora’s Box WILL be pried open.

  • I think you are right on. It is frightening. Someone who comes right out and says how she will take this country apart…..and not for the good.

  • Mem:

    SC Mommy…I stand in shame with you but at least we can say we are the smart ones…we were not blinded or so closed minded that we could not see the truth. Now we can hold our heads high!:)

  • Mem:

    Wow that is interesting colacarat. I thought she was trying to avoid the black man but still get a photo opt. Look at me…I’m standing next to a black man. Now, knowing she shook his hand I can understand the look, the hands more….I think she is VERY racist! Just sayin!

  • Samantha:

    Can we all stop talking about how she can be president, or how she get over 50 percent of the vote in America when her percentages are in the single digits now? There comes a point where we just feed into her publicity machine. She will never get the nomination and never be president, ever. In fact, she wouldn’t even be doing this much if the GOP field wasn’t such a joke. The reason it’s a joke is because a) the election is lost, and b) the media will still cover the joke candidates!! Trump was exhibit A. Treating that man like a serious candidate shows you just how far gone the press is. So in that respect, sure why wouldn’t the woman “run” for a while? Another irritating position is how the GOP will squash her. Are you kidding? She could never run in their party without their permission! If they feel she has a role, they’ll let her run.

  • carollt:

    Mitt Romney will be announcing in New Hampshire this Thursday. Any bets on Sarah holding an impromtu press conference somewhere in New Hampshire at the exact time of Romney’s announcement?

    The more I find out about Sarah Palin, the easier she is to predict.

  • fromthediagonal:

    Katie, Susan and Grammy, speaking of sleepless nights! Can one “second” three writers all at once?

    It is all about the money, and the corporatists have been shoveling money into the pit that is all things Palin.
    They want their “bushy” figurehead back, and if that now comes in the form of what many consider an attractive female form, all the better.
    And voter fraud? They do not even have to go to the extent of manipulating Diebold etc. Florida has just made it more difficult to vote with the stroke of a pen.
    Taking a deep breath, swallowing rising bile… it is a beautiful day… get me off my soapbox!

  • fromthediagonal:

    Funny, how we can see the same picture and come to different opinions.
    I see her standing there, pulling down her shirt, and “throwing herself into her chest” as the German saying goes, and shouting to herself “Yessssss… ” “Give me more, America!”… Before too long that inside shout will come out screaming for recognition, and we will be subjected to the obfuscating word salad agitators, demagogues and dictators of all stripes have in common.
    I shudder at the very thought.

  • ananair:

    “sarah palin and the seven dwarfs”
    I thought this would be an original line but see that others have already beaten me to the punch
    Lessee now, who are the declared Republican candidates as of today, June 7,2011?
    Paul,Gingrich, Cain, Pawlenty, Romney, Santorum, that’s a total of six
    There’s one missing, who might be Huntsman
    If he declares, that would be seven males, seven dwarfs, six of them all white, one all black (how did he get to be Republican without the name Tom?)
    There are two females yet to declare, Palin and Bachmann, if both do, one would be our SNOW WHITE
    wouldn’t this be the ideal Republican replacement for a halfblack sociocommunonazi president born in Kenya?

    A PalinBachmann ticket is what America needs
    mariopiperni.com/teaparty