The long trip with the Palins -- Are we there yet?

There isn't a lot of Sarah Palin news. My story alerts are way down ... I should have kept track of the number of them each day, then I could post about the decline -- With a chart! -- and considered the decline to be a measure of Sarah's fading star.

There is a story (again from TMZ): "Kyle Massey Thinks Bristol Palin 'Fight' Was a Setup." There was certainly a script. The question is whether the "heckler," Stephen Hanks went off-script. I think it's likely that he didn't. Did Bristol go off-script? It may just be that this thing backfired on her, so she's trying to disassociate herself from it. That's hard to do when it's on video for the entire world to see. Some have said that the Saddle Ranch Chop House is a "gay bar." It's actually a restaurant with a bar, and it's a chain restaurant, promoting itself as an "entertainment experience," with "a mechanical bull amidst the tables and booths providing endless entertainment to diners." I've never been there, but browsing the restaurant's website indicates that its clientele may be rather diverse. Would Applebee's restaurant be a "gay bar" if some gays happened to go there? It has a bar, too. Some have said that Bristol was simulating a sex act by riding the bull. What? It was a simulation of a rodeo event, an event that has nothing to do with sex. I have been to a rodeo, by the way.

Whether Sarah Palin will stop teasing about running for the republican nomination may never be known, but major clues will come as each state's deadline for entering the race passes. She can't have much influence at the convention without some delegates. Another clue would be her suspension as a Fox News contributor, but then they might suspend her for sleaziness ... Fox News does have some standards, don't they?

There will be more to post about as Joe McGinniss' book is read. There are AGIA, troopergate, babygate, earmarks, profligate spending, tax increases, reportergate, religious extremism ... . So, this may be a good time to read more of McGinniss' book.

Anyway, it's possible, just possible, that the Palins aren't driving the car anymore!

Update: The Hollywood Gossip has "Bristol Palin Heckling Incident: A Reality Show Setup?" We have to remember that everyone filmed was under contract to the show's producers, so there was a setup script. When people talk about a "setup," they should probably say from whose point of view they think it was a setup or not a setup: Bristol Palin's? Stephen Hanks'? Both? Some might claim that the restaurant was setup, too: it wasn't good publicity for them. I think it was a "setup" in the sense that there was a script and that both of them followed the script. Of course, someone might argue that there were cameras from two organizations present: the show's producers and TMZ, and that TMZ disrupted the production; however, no one has yet claimed that. It's unlikely that anyone will, because the show's producers would be unlikely to allow another organization to tape the event, unless they were in cahoots with them.