Sarah Palin and the End of an Era: Split from FNC highlights fade of Tea Party as well as her own

The National Journal ^ | January 27, 2013 | Jill Lawrence

[2ndDivisionVet]

The news that Sarah Palin will no longer be a paid contributor to Fox News puts an exclamation point on the end of an era, or at least a chapter, in U.S. political history. She could land somewhere else, and she still has her Facebook friends, but it’s hard to imagine she’ll find a more visible or influential platform than Fox.

The former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee has been fading from the scene for some time, as she inadvertently highlighted when she complained on Facebook during the Republican convention in August that the network had canceled her scheduled interviews that night. Her brother, Chuck Heath Jr., told Alan Colmes last week on Fox Radio that his sister is “kind of laying low right now,” though he wouldn’t or couldn’t say when asked why.

Once the face of an energetic and politically potent Tea Party movement, Palin is leaving Fox at a time when polls show the Tea Party at an all-time low in both membership and favorability. Her departure also coincides with calls by some leading Republicans for their party to stop saying things that erode the GOP brand and turn off voters in droves.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said bluntly this week at a Republican National Committee meeting in Charlotte that the GOP needs to stop being “the stupid party,” and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said he agreed. The two were talking in particular about losing Senate candidates Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana, both of whom made inflammatory (and in Akin’s case, flagrantly ignorant) comments about rape.

But Palin, with her flamboyant rhetoric, has stoked her own disproportionate share of controversies. This is the woman who, after all, coined the term “death panels” to describe discussions between patients and physicians...

[2ndDivisionVet]

How many times are they going to write her obituary?

[freekitty]

If she was on Fox I never saw her but once.

[The Cajun]

But Palin, with her flamboyant rhetoric.....

Yup, belief in the Lord, sanctity of human life, the constitution, honor and honesty are all flamboyant rhetoric.

Pound sand Jill Lawrence.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Sarah Palin should have her own TV channel.

[2ndDivisionVet]

She already has a spiffy studio in her home in Wasilla.

[Buddy Sorrell]

They will write her obit millions of times. They fear her.

[cableguymn]

As many times as it takes...

I suspect shes just gearing up for a stronger attack. Fox has been keeping their “commentators” limited in what they can say I am sure.

[Jonty30]

I’ve heard rumours she may be headed towards Blaze tv. That’s one of the reasons she declined a renewal of her contract.

[Jonty30]

If you support the tea party, do not let yourself be worn down by the establishment. Every election, local, state, and federal, is a fight for the country.

[Maurice Tift]

  So the press is saying that conservatism and the tea party movement are kaput - again? I guess they're relieved that they have nothing to worry about in 2014.

  and they're not even afraid of Obamacare's death panels...

  but they should be.

[MestaMachine]

[Cowboy Bob]

The author mentions the "demise of the Tea Party," but doesn't provide any facts to support the declaration. The refusal of conservatives to vote for Mitt Romney does not signal the demise of a movement, only a refusal to compromise a moral position (i.e., Tea Party members are not politicians!).

If the Tea Party movement has indeed faded, as the author claims, how does the she explain the surge on gun sales?

[MestaMachine]

This might explain the author...

Ummm. Meet jill.

[MestaMachine]

jill lawrence is definitely flame retardant.

[TigersEye]

Formerly Jack Lawrence?

Not that there's anything bizarrely abnormal about it. /s

[GeronL]

Since when did the TEA Party depend on the MSM??

Wishful thinking from a leftist no doubt

[savagesusie]

They keep trying to convince us she is GONE and not worth listening to-—when I think she is one of the most logical and Feminine woman out there. Such a refreshing contrast to the dykey, immoral, lying Hillary......they hate the contrast with all the creepy, slimey, ugly, Flukey Leftists.

Got to remove women who love themselves, their femininity who have manly men, and reject the obscene view that women are interchangeable with men.

.....I don’t watch Fox anyway-—quit when the Saudis bought shares and they started calling the Muslims “Youths”-—the ones burning all the cars. Just covering up the Truth-—like the other networks. Fox News is part of the Hegelian Dialectic-—to Progress us to the Left. It is helping to boil the water for the death of God and God-Given Rights.

Otherwise, they would be much more effective with getting the Truth out, because logic and reason and sanity is on Palin’s side. They confuse and blur the issues too much. They hate people like Palin-—who can make great soundbites.

[knarf]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh .....

She's re-loadin'

[itsahoot]

The two were talking in particular about losing Senate candidates Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana, both of whom made inflammatory (and in Akin’s case, flagrantly ignorant) comments about rape.

But we don't talk about the GOPe Romney that was at the top of the ticket huh Bobby?

[prisoner6]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh ..... She's re-loadin'

Huntin' RINO's and Ratz...