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Kevin Drum makes the appropriate observation about Sarah Palin: And speaking of politicians and sound bites, does it strike anyone else that Sarah Palin has basically become a social media version of Ann Coulter? That is, they're both conservatives whose schtick mostly depends on generating liberal apoplexy over their periodic word bombs, and who are both fading away because they're having problems coming up with new material that's fresh enough for anyone to care about? I didn't even know Coulter had yet another book out until I saw it at the bookstore today (in almost self-parody fashion, it's called Demonic),...

The vice-chair of Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential team in New Hampshire told The Washington Times Wednesday that he thinks former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will take a pass on running for president. "I have no inside knowledge, but I would be very surprised if Gov. Palin decided to run this time," said Steve Duprey, a national Republican committeeman in New Hampshire. "She is tremendous at raising money, has a tremendous support in the base, but it would take an incredible allocation of time to do well in New Hampshire and I'm not sure she is gearing up for that."

Sarah Palin is back in the news! She has announced an east-coast bus tour, has reportedly purchased a new $1.7M crib in Scottsdale, AZ., and her $1M self-authorized and approved documentary titled The Undefeated is set to hit Iowa next month followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada before being released to the rest of the nation. Palin has mastered the media and shows great signs of using it to her advantage. She has not been blessed by the Republican establishment and sits behind Mitt Romney by only two points of the strongest potential contenders for the Republican nomination...

According to the latest polls, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s political popularity trajectory is heading south. It was inevitable given our 24/7 fame-obsessed culture which feeds on new personalities and controversy to fuel the celebrity media machine. Once Sarah Palin resigned from her office as Alaska governor, she left that respected “higher platform” reserved for our elected leaders and crossed over into celebrity jungle. There, she willingly subjected herself to the unforgiving forces of media pop culture, where the masses are easily bored. And now, without a new hit show, movie, book, clothing line, charity cause, or fragrance, Palin is...

Dearly as I esteem Ross Douthat, I thought his blogpost today on the press and Sarah Palin did not hit the nail on the head. Ross: "No politician, from Bush to Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi, is hated so intensely by so many Americans [as Sarah Palin]. And this is what’s so problematic, to my mind, about much of the Palin coverage: The media often acts as though they’re covering her because her conservative fan base is so large (hence the endless talk about her 2012 prospects), when they’re really covering her because so many liberals are eager to hear...

When I see the fervor of Sarah Palin’s fans — and by no means just those who swell the adoring crowds who go to her public appearances — I am convinced that the question is not, “How can she win the GOP nomination?” but “How can she not win it?” When you have anywhere between five and fifteen GOP candidates, all expressing basically the same conservative views, how can anyone other than the only one with the passionate fan base possibly win? And yet: Reading between the lines of what conservative-movement people are saying and writing, there is a great...

A journalist yesterday asked me a thought-provoking question: Why does Sarah Palin command so much media attention? By most measures, she currently stands about equal in the Republican field alongside Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and only a little ahead of Newt Gingrich. Yet the cable shows do not erupt when Mitt Romney makes a speech. Newt Gingrich is on Twitter almost every day, but his messages don’t make news. So why Palin? Five guesses. 1) She polarizes. Modern media culture favors contrast and conflict. Sarah Palin serves both up by the bucketful. Most presidential candidates present themselves as gracious and...

“A nightstick the size of a telephone pole and the muscle to wield it effortlessly.” Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about insurgent campaigns, sees the power of the Palin candidacy. Taegan Goddard links this morning to the Des Moines Register: Mike Huckabee told the Des Moines Register that Sarah Palin would be a strong contender for president should she decide to run. Said Huckabee: “No question, she will be a very, very strong presence and force, if she gets in. You know, she may run away with it. And that’s one of those things everyone needs...

In a National Review Online column on November 19, Mona Charen provided an explanation of why she believes Sarah Palin shouldn’t run for President. She argued that after the 2008 campaign, Palin “quit her job as governor after two and a half years…and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity.” She asserted that “Palin seems consumed and obsessed” by the media, labeled Palin’s new TLC show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, a “cheesy entrant in the reality-show genre,” and took issue with the fact that Sarah and Todd sit in the Dancing with the Stars audience “cheering on their unwed-mother daughter.” She...

But … I thought they were friends. Well, acquaintances. Sort of: She had spent most of her time [on election day] ensconced at the Fox television studios, though she managed to squeeze in a jog in Central Park — which she promptly chronicled on Twitter: “Beautiful!” Also at the studios was her fellow Fox News contributor Karl Rove, who had recently questioned in a British newspaper whether Palin’s new reality TV series, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” made her appear Oval Office-worthy. The building was abuzz over what would ensue when the two would inevitably bump into each other. The moment came...

Embarrassingly for CNN host and liberal commentator Kathleen Parker, not only does she suffer from a severe case of SPDS (Sarah Palin Derangement Syndrome), but -- like a smitten tween trying to emulate her favorite actress in the Twilight series -- obvious envy and jealousy have prompted her to try and steal Palin's look based on the leather jackets Parker has been sporting of late on the air. Ironic behavior to say the least when you consider that just last week, Parker loudly, proudly, and with a finger wagging, proclaimed on CNN that "I led..." the media assassination of Sarah...

Joe Scarborough has a decidedly cynical take on Sarah Palin's public musings about the possibility of a 2012 presidential run. The Morning Joe host asserts that Palin knows she can't win and won't run. According to Scarborough, Palin is in it for the money, and is engaging in open speculation about a run for the mercenary purpose of keeping her brand alive. Joe offered his jaded view on today's Morning Joe after the show aired a clip of Palin telling Barbara Walters that she believed she could defeat Pres. Obama. View video after the jump.

You know it is a slow news week when something which happens on CNN’s dreadful “Parker & Spitzer” show makes “news,” but that is what happened when I appeared on the not-long-for-this-world program last Thursday. The full story behind the appearance may be even more interesting than why it was deemed by many to be “buzz worthy.” The reason I was asked on the show was that my latest documentary film, “Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted,” is in the process of being re-released nationwide in a truly unprecedented fashion (a major development that is being...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) cost the GOP control of the Senate, a powerful House Republican said. Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.) said that Tea Party-backed candidates whom Palin endorsed underperformed against their Democratic rivals, costing the GOP key pickup opportunities. "The Senate would be Republican today except for states [in which Palin endorsed candidates] like Christine O’Donnell in Delaware," Bachus said at a local Chamber of Commerce event last week, the Shelby County Reporter wrote Sunday. "Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate." Bachus' is one of the most visible Republicans to criticize Palin for her political activity...

Is the Sarah Palin backlash beginning? Unlikely, but this remark from Rep. Jack Kingston on “America’s Morning News” radio show this morning is further evidence that the GOP is far from united behind the former Gov. of Alaska. Kingston told the hosts that he wished Palin would “butt out of primary races” because “what she is doing is dividing the Republican party at a time when we don’t need to be divided.” Of course, one might argue it’s that very division that Palin has used to her best advantage. Or that she has done a good job creating the perception...

I guess it’s time we did. Palin is one of the top two contenders for the nomination right now. She is the only candidate with an actual and substantial popular base of support, the only one who can generate real popular enthusiasm. She has little in the way of an organization of her own, but she’s the candidate in the best position to coopt the organization that the Tea Party Movement is building. And to the extent that her endorsements are perceived to have made a real difference in the primaries (as, after Georgia, they are beginning to be), that...

On the very day America learned so-called journalists conspired to destroy Sarah Palin from the moment John McCain chose her as his running mate, Politico's Roger Simon declared she's at the top of the Republican Party. Assuming he's correct, what does that tell us about all those in the mainstream media that have been looking down their noses for almost two years as they worked overtime to smear this woman? Before we attempt to answer that question, let's see what Simon had to say: More than 13 months ago, I wrote a column that began: "Sarah Palin can be the...

Sarah Palin Should Beware Of Exploiting Her Youngest Child By Kathleen Parker February 14, 2010 A hurdle familiar to any mother is learning to view her baby as separate from herself. How many of us have answered questions about our babies in first-person plural? -- How old is your baby? -- Oh, we're 22 months now. Well, no, we're not; he is. Yet we nod in universal understanding of the profound sense of oneness that evolves in part from pregnancy. For nine months, mother and baby are inextricably "we" -- linked in body and spirit, every move and morsel belonging...

Cover Photo: Excerpt: The result, encouraged by ever-willing far-right agitators such as Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, has been the creation of the so-called Tea-Party movement - named after the quintessentially American, anti-British, anti-taxes and anti-big government Boston Tea Party revolt of 1773. Early next month, none other than the 45-year-old Palin - an ambitious lady whom you dismiss lightly at your peril - will reportedly earn a six-figure sum as the keynote speaker at the first conference of a new political entity called the “Tea Party Nation” (TPN), at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. “We believe in...

I don't get the BCS. Don't get it at all. I don't get why banks are making it so hard to get a loan when the main reason the economy is staggering is because people can't get loans. I don't get why Americans watch so many shows about dancing. I don't get how Taylor Swift can be considered country. But what I really don't get is Sarah Palin. I haven't understood Sarah Palin since I first heard her name as John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential election, may it forever rest in peace. She was a first-term governor...