Levi Johnston: Mr. Mayor!

Guess what? Levi Johnston is going to run for Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin's old job. I am not makin' this up; The NY Daily News has a story, "Levi Johnston for mayor?! Bristol Palin's ex to make Alaska gov run for reality show."

Apparently, Levi is going to make a reality show: 'Titled "Loving Levi: The Road to the Mayor's Office," it will chronicle Johnston's dual pursuits in Hollywood and his "red-neck" life as a single dad, skilled hunter, avid biker and wannabe politician looking for love and success back home in Alaska, ... .'

Another story, "Levi Johnston signs reality TV deal days after breaking off engagement to baby mama Bristol Palin," appeared in The NY Daily News yesterday afternoon.

People magazine has a story, too, "Look out Wasilla: Levi Johnston Eyes Run for Mayor."

What a hoot, huh?

And, if a Palin would run against Levi, we would have Johnston vs. Palin, the election of the century!

But some caution is in order, because The Hollywood Reporter has a story which states that a pilot is being filmed and that the production company is pitching the show to the networks, not that it has been sold yet.


Here's Levi, at the recent 2010 Teen Choice Awards:

Palinpalooza still rollin' - how long can the wheels stay on?

Multiple Bristol/Levi + Baby shows are being shopped, according to TMZ.

Hey! They could do parodies of stories from Going Rogue! Would they cower in the car all night staring slack-jawed at some Mama Grizzly stealing food from their campsite? No! As soon as Bristol said, "Levi, I've seen this movie before," it'd be, KABOOM! Problem solved.

But Celebrity Cafe is being more cautious regarding the rumors of any show:

... No one has been able to confirm that the reality show deal even exists. Palin’s reps have yet to comment concerning such a program and Johnston’s attorney Rex Butler didn’t return phone calls for a statement.

Bravo and MTV both verified that no shows about the pair are in the works. Two nameless prominent reality-show producers said that a show about Palin and Johnston were not even being considered in the shopping stage.

One producer said, “If they prove to be bankable — and the Us Weekly cover could prove that — there could be a number of companies who want to air their story.”

These kids are entrepreneurs. Sarah should be proud of them.


Daily Beast's Mark McKinnon wrote, "She's Running!" Oh! But Jonathan Bernstein says anyone claiming to know what she'll do should be ignored. Pick your poison.


Associated Press is reporting that Palin was paid $75000 for her appearance at California State University, Stanislaus. The Los Angeles Times has a story, too.

This disclosure certainly gives organizations that might engage Palin a starting point in their negotiations with her agent, Washington Speakers Bureau. An excellent negotiating strategy would be to determine how effective a Palin appearance is. For example, an organization might ask, concerning appearances she's already made, "What percentage of the money raised was paid to Palin?" And, "What were the event's total costs, as a percentage of the money raised?" If they would do that, organizations could determine whether a Palin appearance is cost effective. It could be that more traditional fundraising techniques are more cost effective, i.e., more efficient.

For example, if the $207000 being reported is the net from the event, with Palin's fee $75000 and other expenses, assumed, $50000, then $125000 + $207000 = $332000 was raised. $207000 is only 62% efficiency ($207000/$332000). Charitable organizations with efficiencies less than 80-90% are generally considered rip-offs, because their cost of raising funds is too high.


Greg Sargent's got his ear to the ground, listening for that stampede of Pink Elephants. Today he reports on a new Gallup poll that shows Sarah Palin with a high favorability rating among Republicans, but high negative ratings among Americans overall:

... The numbers from Gallup tell the story. Palin has a whopping 76 percent favorability rating among Republicans; only 20 percent don't like her. That's significantly higher than the other GOP 2012 hopefuls.

At the same time, among all Americans, she's viewed unfavorably, 47-44. That's also significantly higher than all the other GOP 2012 hopefuls. Only nine percent of Americans don't have an opinion of Palin, while that number is in high double digits for all the others. Her situation is different than that of her rivals: They have room to expand their appeal, and she doesn't.

As Ben Smith has noted, Palin's strategy of going around the lamestream media filter has been a huge success with the Palin Nation hordes but it has failed in that she continues to grow more unpopular with everyone else. As the above numbers demonstrate, this works for her in her current role, but make it increasingly unlikely that she'll succeed if she ever sets foot outside of the bubble she's created for herself. ...

See Sargent's post for late-breaking news about why Democrats may find reason to like Palin!


It was a blogging frenzy kind of day, today, and I did three other posts! Just scroll down to read them: People are thinking of Sarah as Pat Buchanan in drag? The nerve of them! Gail Collins foresees a Palin-Johnston edition of "Dancing With the Stars." Shoot your TeeVee. Some anonymous Romney/Palin aides got into it ... Romney tweeted about their stupidity (take that, Palin-aide!).