Palin's Hiring of 'Chief of Staff' Evidence of Organizational Failure, not Presidential Candidacy

CNN reported:

Sarah Palin has added a veteran Republican strategist [Michael Glassner] to serve as chief-of-staff for her political action committee, Sarah PAC, CNN has learned. ...

And Politico reported:

Sarah Palin has hired a veteran operative to serve as a chief of staff to her loosely organized team, one of the biggest indicators yet that the former Alaska governor is leaning toward a run for the White House. ...

The fact is that nobody -- Todd Palin? -- was officially in charge of SarahPAC. That lack of management has led to a lot of problems, so it shouldn't be surprising that the PAC should bring someone in with management (and fundraising) experience. To construe the appointment of a chief-of-staff as evidence that Palin is going to run is something -- well! -- something straight out of the fevered minds of palinistas and palinoiacs. CNN's characterization of Palin's team as "loosely organized" was echoed in Politico's post, which stated, "Glassner will be tasked with bringing greater organization to the far-flung and small staff that resides in several different states and time zones."

Palin's has been quite an amateurish organization and has been long overdue for a shakeup. Glassner's first task will be to organize the existing staff, to improve its discipline, fund raising, expenditures and reporting. Heads may roll; the existing staff must be professionalized before any consideration can be given to staffing-up in anticipation of a run, if one is being considered. Remember, too, that if Palin runs, it won't be SarahPAC that manages the campaign.

There is a little deja vu in Glassner's appointment. Glassner became involved in Palin's VP campaign just before the VP debate, which, in 2008, according to The Wall Street Journal, might have been an epic fail:

... in recent days, Gov. Palin flubbed quasi-mock debates in New York City and Philadelphia, some operatives said. Finger-pointing began, and then intensified after her faltering interview with CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric. However, she performed better when she took questions from the press after touring Ground Zero and remarked about her parents' visit there after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Her performance also sparked negative responses from some conservative pundits, and she has slipped in some polls. Last week, nearly half the respondents in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll said she is unqualified to be president, while one in three said they were "not at all" comfortable with the idea of Gov. Palin as vice president, up five points from a poll in early September.

Until the weekend, the highest levels of the McCain campaign were focused on Sen. McCain's response to the financial crisis and his own debate against Sen. Barack Obama.

The McCain campaign has put in place several other well-regarded advisers to Gov. Palin, including head of vice-presidential operations Michael Glassner, who has worked for former Sen. Bob Dole, and Mr. Eskew, who worked for President George W. Bush's campaign and administration. ...

The Journal's report lends credence to what we're told in Game Change (pg. 401):

Given the acuteness of [Nicolle] Wallace's concern, McCain's advisers felt they had to bring the candidate into the loop that Saturday. Bluntly, they described to him their unease about Palin's mental state. McCain suggested that they move the debate prep to his spread in Sedona [Arizona]. Give her room to breathe. Let her bring her family. A change of scenery might do her good. Cindy would be there to support Palin, and a doctor friend of the McCains would be on hand to observer her.

Perhaps the PAC's namesake hasn't yet become organized, or has become disorganized, or ... . An interesting question is: Who realized that the PAC was disorganized and decided that a chief-of-staff should be hired?

Some of Glassner's other experience with the McCain/Palin campaign was reported in The Washington Post's "McCain Lists Top Bundlers," and The Huffington Post's "McCain Bundler, Booted Over Role In FCC-Fined Telecom, Now Staffs Palin."

Update, February 13, 2011: Added the quote from the Wall Street Journal. Reading between the lines, it may be that Glassner, who was head of operations for the 2008 VP campaign, became more directly involved with the candidate after her disappointing interview with Katie Couric and poor performance during debate preparations.

Wow! 'Morning Joe' Is Still Talking about Sarah Palin! With two Heavyweights Weighing In.

Nicolle Wallace, who worked with Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, and Mark Halperin, who co-authored the bestseller Game Change, talked about Sarah Palin on this morning's "Morning Joe":

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Wallace talked very frankly about Palin, saying that her nature is "very cynical," "very prickly." Wallace thinks Republicans aren't going to man up, like Joe Scarborough implored them to do, yesterday, unless Palin gets close to the Republian nomination, when they may talk, she says, about some of Sarah Palin's "more troubling deficiencies."

Meanwhile, Wallace's view is that Sarah Palin will undo herself. And she is doing just that!

The Huffington Post's Nick Wing has a writeup, here.

Palin Family Circus News - Monday, November 22, 2010 -- Now with DWTS liveblog! -- Now with VIDEO!

Has Sarah Palin quit narrating the audio book of America by Heart? Chris Michael, comedian and artist, says so.


The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes writes The TV Column. This morning she wrote about the controversy over Bristol Palin's longevity on Dancing With the Stars, and she has a lot of comments from the show's executive producer, Conrad Green.


The NY Daily News has talked with a dietician about Bristol's weight gain on DWTS. Update: Gryphen has weighed in on this story with his experience as a personal trainer.


Life & Style Weekly quotes named sources on Willow Palin's 1:00 AM drug buy and underage drinking. Gryphen added his insight into the Palin family's problems here. Perez Hilton has posted a story, too.


I thought The Proposal, a 2009 movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, might afford people looking for Alaskan scenery an alternative to Sarah Palin's Alaska. Although most of the movie is set in and around Sitka, it was actually filmed in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts, mostly in Rockport. There is some beautiful scenery in the movie, however. It is a romantic comedy and held my attention; it wasn't boring. The contrast between the New York office and the outdoors, wherever it was, was especially interesting.

This morning Mudflats posted "Voices from the Flats: This Movie Was Shot in Alaska." It is very informative and has an extensive list of films shot in Alaska. "The King (Salmon) is Dead. Long Live the Mine" mentions that the December issue of National Geographic is now online and links to a slideshow of Michael Melford's very beautiful photos of Alaska.


Update: I must have lucked-out or become wise before I'm old. I waited until 7:45 PST -- oops! 6:45 PST; I've retreated to an undisclosed location for the holidays and should reset my watch -- before tuning in to DWTS. Bristol started in a cage, and it was Mark Ballas who ended up in the cage! Freestyle. They received scores of 8, 9 and 8 for a total of 25; 52 out of 60 for the night. Apparently, they're going to dance again, tomorrow night? I don't regularly watch DWTS, so I am unfamiliar with the rules.

I must say that Bristol's size can depend on lighting and camera angle. Before she danced she expressed her feelings about the "haters"; obviously, Mama has schooled her on the sympathy vote. The camera panned to Sarah Palin -- in the audience, again. Jennifer and Derek are up next. Derek is very good; Jennifer not so good in comparison with Derek. The judges are more enthusiastic about their dance -- scores after the break -- it's 10, 10 and 10!

Yes, more dancing tomorrow. The leaderboard: Jennifer/Derek, 60/60; Kyle/Lacy (?), 56/60; Bristol/Mark, 52/60. Can "the people" save Bristol? Whatever the outcome, there is sure to be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Apparently they danced twice tonight, and in my "wisdom" I missed the first dance.

OMG! Skating With the Stars is on next! When will we see Sleeping With the Stars?


Update November 23: The Hollywood Gossip has a summary of what happened last night.


Here is last night's first dance:



Carrie Ann Inabe had a little criticism of the way Bristol pointed her toes, but then said she was more "vibrant." You have to watch the video and see her say that to understand what she means. The judges were all enthusiastic about the dance. Bristol and Mark got three nines.

I am not sure why the video embeds at 240p. After it starts, it can be changed to 480p for a clearer video (there is a widget to the left of the YouTube logo, on the control panel).

People magazine has a story with backstage comments from Carrie Ann Inabe and some of the other participants, here.

PopEater's Rob Shuter writes that Sarah Palin is lobbying the show's producers to have failed senate candidate Christine O'Donnell appear as a contestant on DWTS! "Christine is not a bad idea at all," one ABC executive tells me. "After Kate Gosselin and Cloris Leachman, O'Donnell would fit right in. She certainly would be so controversial that the amount of press attention and buzz the show would get would be huge. Plus, you know they would make her dance in a witch's hat with a broomstick." That's the way it is. Isn't life wonderful?

Leaked email exposes Palin/Miller rift. Given a chance to redeem himself, Miller damns Palin with faint praise.

Mudflats broke the news of Todd Palin's anger over Joe Miller's evasiveness when he was asked whether Sarah Palin is qualifed to be President:


... An irate email written by Todd Palin seems to confirm his wife’s presidential ambition, and revealed his anger at Alaska Republican Senate candidate Joe Miller. The email demands that the treasurer of SarahPAC, Tim Crawford, “hold off on any letter of support for Joe,” and came on the heels of an interview Miller gave to Neil Cavuto on Fox News Sunday. ...

The email in the first box -- from millerlaw -- comments on an email, in the second box, from Todd Palin to Joe Miller, Tim Crawford, SarahPac's treasurer, and Thomas Van Flein, attorney for Palin and Miller:

Click to enlarge (From: Gawker)

Does Todd Palin's statement, "I DON'T KNOW IF SHE IS," mean that he doesn't know whether Sarah Palin is going to run or that he doesn't know whether she is qualified to be President? Could he be expressing what he thinks Joe Miller thinks? Joe Miller didn't say, "I don't know."

Salon, from which the post's photo was taken, has a post about the email leak, as does Seattle's Post Intelligencer, whose story also tells of Joe Miller's latest attack on The Constitution: He wants to repeal the seventeenth amendment.


Update: Today, Miller damned Palin with faint praise: She's constitutionally qualified:

9/11: Nine years later - There was a 'mosque' in 2 WTC

Steven Weber bills himself as an "actor and wise-ass," but may have summed up Sarah Palin best:

"My favorite low-brow bromide is that Sarah Palin "terrifies the Left." The truth is she (and her ilk) terrify all sensible, thoughtful people on the Left and on the Right, let alone every civilized nation on Earth. That a personality less qualified, less able, less educated should ascend so rapidly (and clearly with the help of an opportunistic media on both sides of the ideological divide) speaks to the depths this nation has sunk in terms of selecting viable, wise leadership. [...] Terrified? You betcha."


Today, on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, Weber has posted "Historiphobia," which describes some of our own history and how a public ignorant of its own past may be easily exploited:

Remember attacks on German Americans during World War 1? How about more of the same in World War 2? The Japanese internment camps? The perennial demonization of Jews? Gays? Catholics? Not to mention those who toiled and died in slavery and lived lives of humiliation under Jim Crow.

It's all there in the history that seems to have been almost purposely mislaid by those who know too well that a public which knows its own story knows itself; it is an activist public, educated and energized against forces which inevitably seek power through oppression and division.

Like a recalcitrant child who refuses to see the lesson of its past imperfect behavior, the mobs who lately decry Islam and discharge their fatuous bile are only the latest in a long line of porous intellects railing against convenient scapegoats and destined to replay an episode that, were history a requisite part of this nation's diet (instead of just another quaint castoff from the pre-IPhone era), would surely have evolved out of existence. ...

In "Muslims and Islam Were Part of Twin Towers' Life," we're told that there was a Muslim prayer room in the southern tower of the World Trade Center:

... On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race. ...


Media Matters has created a timeline of the past year's anti-Muslim demagoguery.


President Obama has condemned the demagogues:

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Update: Crooks and Liars' "On This 9-11 Anniversary, It's Just Us," has transcribed President Obama's response to a Fox reporter's question:

"We are not at war against Islam. We are at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts. And we've got to be clear about that. We've got to be clear about that because ... if we're going to successfully reduce the terrorist threat, then we need all the allies we can get. The folks who are most interested in a war between the United States or the West and Islam are al Qaeda. That's what they've been banking on.

"And fortunately, the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world are peace-loving, are interested in the same things that you and I are interested in: how do I make sure I can get a good job, how can I make sure that my kids get a decent education, how can I make sure I'm safe, how can I improve my lot in life. And so they have rejected this violent ideology for the most part, overwhelmingly.

"And so from a national security interest, we want to be clear about who the enemy is here. It's a handful, a tiny minority of people who are engaging in horrific acts -- and have killed Muslims more than anybody else.

"The other reason it's important for us to remember that is because we've got millions of Muslim-Americans, our fellow citizens, in this country. They're going to school with our kids. They're our neighbors. They're our friends. They're our coworkers. And, you know, when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them?

"I've got Muslims who are fighting in Afghanistan, in the uniform of the United States armed services. They're out there putting their lives on the line for us, and we've got to make sure that we are crystal clear for our sakes and their sakes: They are Americans. And we honor their service. And part of honoring their service is making sure that they understand that we don't differentiate between 'them' and 'us.' It's just 'us.'"

Update: Alaska Dispatch has a report (with slideshow) of today's event at Wasilla's Menard Sports Center. Sarah Pallin and about 300 people attended.

Palin Advisor is 'Foreign Agent'

From an article by Geoffrey Dunn, an award-winning journalist, filmmaker and historian:

... According to sources close to the Palin camp, [Randy] Scheunemann plays a major role in advising Palin on foreign policy issues as she positions herself for a run at the White House in 2012. As Ben Smith of Politico pointed out, it was Scheunemann who drafted Palin's first major foreign policy speech in Hong Kong a year ago. Scheunemann accompanied Palin overseas to that engagement.

FEC records indicate that Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, is paying Scheunemann's Virginia-based Orion Strategies $10,000 per month and has expended $90,000 to date for his services. ...

... Scheunemann's lobbying efforts on behalf of several foreign governments during the Bush II years--most notably Georgia, Macedonia and Taiwan -- have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum. Moreover, Scheunemann played a critical role in engineering the war in Iraq as director of the New American Century and as executive director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. He also served as a special advisor on Iraq to Bush II's discredited Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Former UN Weapons inspector Scott Ritter described Scheunemann as a "very dangerous figure" and a "classic behind-the-scenes player in the Neo-Conservative cabal."

Conservative political commentator and communications director for Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan, was even more direct in his condemnation of Scheunemann:

He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man.

She [Palin] is certainly the horse on whom the Neo-Cons are placing their bets in the 2012 GOP presidential sweepstakes. Palin has crafted a hard-line position in Afghanistan and the Middle East and has supported NATO going to war against Russia to protect international oil interests in the region. Scheunemann is clearly the architect of these policies.

Leave it to Pat Buchanan to make the compelling summation of Scheunemanns:

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence...a free people ought to be constantly awake," Washington warned in his Farewell Address. Our Founding Father was warning against the Randy Scheunemanns among us, agents hired by foreign powers to deceive Americans into fighting their wars. And none dare call it treason.

The complete article, which can be read here, provides more information and also tells of Schuenemann's work as a lobbyist for BP.

Alaskan teacher reminds Sarah Palin that she quit on Alaska.

Sarah Palin's Homer Moment-D'Oh!



The video originally appeared in Shannyn Moore's article at The Huffington Post. It has also appeared in stories at New York magazine, mediaite, and Media Matters. The video is interesting, because it provides a glimpse of Sarah Palin in a rare, unscripted moment.

A lot is at stake here. Some insist that the girl with Palin is Willow, rather than Bristol, and there is a golden opportunity for people to project their own feelings onto Palin as they speculate about her state of mind and body language while the camera is running. Mediaite may have the most informative story, which ends with "Watch [the video]. Or you can probably just wait until the cablers track down [Kathleen] Gustafson and she pops up on a slew of shows in the next few days."

It would be interesting to see an interview, although Gustafson said something like, "I'm a stills person, rather than video person," when Palin asked her to turn toward the camera. She might have more insight into whether Palin rolled her eyes when she told her she was a teacher. Whether the girl is Willow or Bristol matters to some heavily invested in a rumor that Bristol is pregnant. The girl in the video does not appear to be pregnant.


Update: Wonkette has a story: "'Worst Governor Ever' Ruins Sarah Palin's TeeVee Show, Results In Weird YouTube Conversation"


Update: Newsweek has a story: "Sarah Palin Gets Snarky on a Schoolteacher:"

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's carefully crafted image as a regular hockey mom has taken a few hits since her unsuccessful vice presidential bid. Starting with her bizarre decision to quit the governorship in the middle of her term, which New York's Gabriel Sherman later compellingly argued was a move to freely cash in on her celebrity, there's also been the ruckus caused by her massive speaking fees at events such as the Tea Party convention in Nashville and at nonprofit institutions such as universities. ...

... But all those who wonder whether revelations of her personal prima donna qualities will damage her image are proceeding from an assumption that she does, in fact, disguise her self-centered side well in managed environments. I've long disagreed with that assessment, because her famous Facebook postings often have the tone of a nasty, snotty, slightly dense but popular high-school girl. ...

... Well, Palin's dark side came out in full effect this weekend, and this time the victim was not President Obama but a schoolteacher in small-town Alaska. ...

Update: Sarah Palin has weighed-in, inveighing against — what else? — wait for it! — lamestream media. She does, however, have a little snark to offer:

The LSM has now decided to use this brief encounter for another one of their spin operations. They claim I – wait for it – “appear to roll my eyes” when the lady tells me she’s a teacher. Yes, it’s come to this: the media is now trying to turn my eyebrow movements into story lines. (Maybe that’s why Botox is all the rage – if you can’t move your eyebrows, your “eye rolling” can’t be misinterpreted!)

Southern Strategist Sarah Palin Denies the Southern Strategy

Bob Cesca, a contributor to the Huffington Post, has written about Sarah Palin and the Southern Strategy:

During her honeymoon speech at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Sarah Palin echoed a jab at Barack Obama that had been lurking around in Republican circles for most of that year. ...

... I'm referring here to the emphasis on President Obama's service as an urban community organizer. Clearly, this was a Southern Strategy-style racial dog whistle -- a way of underscoring the president's ethnicity, his race and his association with scary inner-city black people.

It's worth mentioning again the Lee Atwater quote regarding the functional language of the Southern Strategy. Suffice to say, Atwater made it perfectly clear that Republican political tactics included (and still do) exploiting race -- winning white votes by demonizing blacks. And the way to play this game in the modern age was to use code language. Dog whistles, because overt racial language would too easily "back fire."

At the time, Atwater suggested the exploitation of issues like tax cuts or states rights with the implication that the Republican Party supported the preservation of white dominance. (Not surprisingly, tax cuts and states rights dominate the 2010 political discourse.) And the demagoguing of issues like welfare, affirmative action or Medicaid would underscore, to predisposed white voters, the fallacious notion of lazy black freeloaders horking white jobs and white tax dollars and not contributing anything to society other than crime. ...

... Sarah Palin is and was a Southern Strategist.

So it's with considerable hilarity that I read her latest Facebook remarks in which she insisted there isn't a racial component to the various tea party groups.

"I am saddened by the NAACP's claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of America's Constitutional rights are somehow 'racists,'" Palin wrote in a Facebook note.

... [T]he NAACP was specifically referencing the obviously racist elements of the tea party, whether it's the tea party's use of Southern Strategy dog whistles to rally white support, or the very overt displays of racism, beginning with the screechy Curious George-wielding freaks outside the Palin rallies during the campaign, or the Birthers, whose whole thing is about race, or the (often misspelled) signs at tea party rallies with the president Photoshopped to look like a witch doctor.

The NAACP, with its resolution this week, wasn't even going as far as I am here in suggesting the tea party is built upon Southern Strategy politics. The members were merely requesting that the tea party denounce the racially-motivated characters within its ranks. I don't think that's such a big deal. But Sarah Palin evidently believes that the people who shouted racial epithets at Congressman Lewis are "patriotic Americans" and "somehow" not racists, when, in fact, they clearly are. These are the people the NAACP asked to be denounced. Why would Sarah Palin have a problem with that? ...

... Remarkably, and despite volumes of documented evidence, including a candid admission by the chairman of the RNC, we constantly hear Sarah Palin, and many other Republicans for that matter, claiming that the Southern Strategy doesn't exist as a central component of the party. The far-right (and not-so-far-right) totally denies the existence of the Southern Strategy in the face of cold, hard historical fact while also embracing its tactics and language.

Another RNC Chief, Ken Mehlman, said that the Southern Strategy was wrong, in 2005. Mike Allen of the Washington Post wrote:

It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.

Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."

"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

Didn't Republicans get the memo? Sarah?

Wikipedia has a Southern Strategy entry.

Some additional background information about the NAACP's resolution and Sarah Palin's reaction to it was covered in my post, here.