Palin Family Circus News - Friday, June 10, 2011

Politico's Molly Ball reports in "AMC will distribute Palin film:"

"The Undefeated,” a flattering new documentary about Sarah Palin, has inked a distribution deal with North America’s second-largest movie theater chain [AMC] for a July 15 release. ...

... The film, which Palin has seen but has no involvement with, casts the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential nominee as the hero and epitome of the tea party movement — an ordinary citizen stirred to action to restore common sense to government.

It leaves out or downplays many of the controversies that have dogged Palin. Bannon said they didn’t fit into the story the film sought to tell.

This might be interesting to see, if it catches on with the public, just for the insights into film editing it would offer.


Jonathan Capehart's "Rollins slap at Palin shows Bachmann isn’t afraid of a fight" explains "why an attack on Palin is a safe and potentially beneficial move on Bachmann’s part."


Hero of the tea party movement? Politico's "Will rivalry make Sarah Palin run?" may be looking for a Palin/Bachmann catfight:

... Bachmann, a native Iowan who is strongly attractive to the same social conservative, tea party forces who favored Huckabee, is suddenly positioned to take the first GOP contest by storm.

Team Palin is likely in panic mode. It fears Bachmann can win Iowa and become the new leader of the GOP’s tea party, social conservative wing. It might even be enough to get Bachmann the presidential nomination that Palin covets.

The Washington Post's Alexandra Petri writes about historical revisionism in "American History X — Palin, Paul Revere, Wikipedia, and our passion for revision." Someone is always wrong on the internet.


Was Margaret Thatcher disgraced when an "ally" said, "Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts?" Some of Palin's fans seem to think so, according to "Sarah Palin snub by Margaret Thatcher aides infuriates US rightwing." Don't be surprised to see Palin show-up in London on July 4th, where Thatcher is going to be present at the unveiling of a Ronald Reagan statue. Didn't she crash the "Rolling Thunder" party?


NPR's "Sarah's Choice: Email Dump Will Add To Doubt That She Will Run" offers up five indications that Palin won't run: 1) The wall of negative numbers has grown too tall; 2) The bus tour of the Eastern seaboard that began Memorial Day; 3) When in New York, Palin ate pizza and talked politics with Donald Trump; 4) Another key stop in Gotham was a visit with Palin's boss, Roger Ailes; and 5) The aftermath of the Paul Revere gaffe.

The e-mail dump is going to be available on-line and Bill Dedman of msnbc.com writes:

... Among those emails withheld from the public were those detailing potential state appointees, judicial candidates and others having to do with legal advice, settlements and staffing issues. Others appeared to have nothing to do with state business, such as one message about "children, dinner, and prayer."

Others removed from public view include several having to do with newspapers and editorials, including two citing a “response to Juneau Empire article.” Another two related to a “child custody matter,” and a meeting with “W. Monegan,” who had served as the Alaska public safety commissioner until being dismissed in July 2008 in connection with the scandal known as "Troopergate." ...

The e-mails are going to be made available at Crivella West, but it may take some time to scan all of them in order to make them available on-line.

The Washington Post's Jena McGregor, anticipating the e-mails' release, may have found something Sarah Palin has in common with Anthony Weiner! Indeed! "Anthony Weiner scandal appears to quiet congressmen on Twitter."

The Washington Post's Rachel Weiner writes, "Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s e-mails show constant discussion and concern about how she is portrayed in the media, on matters big and small."


Finally, Sarah Palin recently illustrated her ignorance of foreign policy in an attack on President Obama. At one time, we agreed with the Russians that nuclear parity was a desirable goal. Call it "mutually assured destruction," if you like; it's the world we live in. There are two capabilities with respect to this policy: offense and defense. When the two sides are roughly equal and then one side begins to develop or hints at developing a defensive capability, the other side will say, "Unfair!" Why? Because, if one side improves its defense, that improvement would diminish -- perhaps nullify -- the other side's offensive capabilities. The strategic balance of power would shift. We would no longer have nuclear parity. A new arms race would begin.

Palin is apparently unaware that her hero, Ronald Reagan, was comfortable with nuclear parity. Palin's contention that bolstering Russian nuclear defense capablities will result in a new arms race is the opposite of what will happen; it will forestall a new arms race, because it will maintain the balance of power. Palin claims to be interested in reducing government expenditures, so she would be well advised to consider that point. Finally, President Obama said, "We [are] committed to working together so that we can find an approach and configuration that is consistent with the security needs of both countries, that maintains the strategic balance and deals with potential threats that we both share."

Palin's ignorance of foreign policy can be attributed to an ignorance of recent history. What does she read?

Sarah Palin doesn't play in Bethlehem

Sarah Palin failed to visit Bethlehem during her visit to Israel. She drove to a checkpoint, then turned around.

William Butler Yeats wrote of visitors to Bethlehem, years ago:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Politico has a story about Palin's spin on her failure to enter Bethlehem, but the Guardian article, linked above, states: "Tourists need to carry passports to cross checkpoints into the occupied Palestinian territory ... ." Bethlehem is not part of Israel.

It is not Sarah Palin's hour.

Sarah Palin's 'Snuff Film' Gets Global Attention

Jason Deans, writing in the UK's Guardian:

West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin today gave Sarah Palin both barrels over her US TV reality show, accusing the contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination of shooting an animal "for political gain".

He described Palin as "deranged", a "witless bully" and a "phony pioneer girl". He also said The Learning Channel, the US cable network, "should be ashamed of itself" for broadcasting her "truly awful reality show".

Before the show, in what was likely an attempt to gin up controversy and boost the show's ratings, which failed, Palin tweeted: "Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation." Palin also accused those whom she was trying to bait of hypocrisy.

Deans continues, quoting Sorkin:

"I eat meat, chicken and fish, have shoes and furniture made of leather ... I'm able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical," Sorkin wrote in an incendiary comment piece posted on the Huffington Post website early today.

"I don't watch snuff films and you make them. You weren't killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals," he added.

"And you didn't just do it for fun and you didn't just do it for money. That was the first moose [sic] ever murdered for political gain. You knew there'd be a protest from Peta and you knew that would be an opportunity to hate on some people, you witless bully. What a uniter you'd be – bringing the right together with the far right."

Sorkin said he could not make a distinction between what Palin got paid to do in her show and "what Michael Vick went to prison for doing". Vick is an American football player convicted three years ago on dog-fighting charges.

Sorkin's post is receiving a lot of attention. The Washington Post's TV Column, written by Lisa de Moraes, covers it here.

Sarah Palin Can Win By Being Stupid! WTF?

Here, we see an eager Sarah Palin as she thinks, "Boy! You sure can fool some of the people all of the time."


Greg Sargent's WaPo blog has an interesting post, "Sarah Palin plays media for chumps." It begins with a video of Chuck Todd commenting on MSNBC's "Morning Joe:"

"I hope we don't hear from Sarah Palin about media bias anymore. Because it is amazing the ability this woman has to get media attention with as little as she does, whether it's a Twitter or a Facebook update, and she gets all this atttention."

Sargent then cites a very important article written by Politico, last year:

The dirty secret here is that news orgs hype Palin's Tweets and Facebook missives because they drive clicks and traffic, not because they're newsworthy. Just ask the editors of Politico, which recently told its readers bluntly that Palin and the media have a "symbiotic relationship," because for the media, Palin is good "for the bottom line."

And argues that the attention has been good for her:

Some have argued that the media attention lavished on Palin has actually been a negative for her, as evidenced by her dropping approval ratings. But negative media attention actually plays in her favor. It plays into the narrative she's trying to construct, in which she's a warrior for a latter-day silent majority against pointy-headed eastern elites who are trying to destroy her because she represents the values and concerns of Real America. Negative attention only helps her tighten her emotional grip on her supporters. Palin keeps up the nonstop media bashing in order to feed this narrative.

Whoa! Wait just a minute! The attention has been good for her in the sense that it solidifies her fans' support. The attention hasn't helped her with moderates, independents and democrats, all of whom she must woo in order to be elected. The moment she moves to the middle in an attempt to woo them, her base of support will crumble, and everyone else will doubt her sincerity. Everyone will say she's flip-flopped!


It is interesting, and it can be perplexing. From the perspective of someone seeking web hits, nothing could be better than Sarah Palin acting batsh*t crazy and running for President. Isn't she? What could be more entertaining and controversial?

Today the UK's Guardian ran an article "Sarah Palin's war chest points to 2012 presidential bid," in which a blogger was cited for writing,

"'She's too stupid' is what the Establishment GOP really thinks about Sarah Palin. 'Good-looking,' but a 'ditz'. This is unfertile ground, since Palin can turn the argument on a dime and say: 'They drive the country into bankruptcy, they underwrite Fannie and Freddie, they bail out Goldman Sachs, they fight wars they don't want to win, they say enforcing the immigration laws is silly and they call me stupid! I'll give you a choice: you can have their smarts or my stupidity, which one do you want?' A large number of GOP presidential primary voters will take Palin's "stupidity" in a heartbeat." [emphasis added]

Bring on the clowns!