Posted on 01/03/2012 6:32:07 PM PST by reformjoy
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Editorial by John Ziegler
Sarah Palin: Selfish, Hypocritical, Sellout
1/3/2012
As surreal as it may be, after spending over two years and several thousand dollars defending Sarah Palin at great personal cost, I now find myself in the bizarre position (three years to the day from starting the journey to Wasilla to do the interview of record on her 2008 VP run) of being perhaps the only conservative commentator willing to point out that Palin has now clearly revealed herself to be a selfish, hypocritical, sellout.
While she was doing her presidential tease (an act that I actually bought because I didn’t think she was capable of such contemptible deceit), I wrote an extremely long essay for the Daily Caller detailing why I thought a Palin run would be horrible for the cause of beating President Obama. At that time, I was roundly (and wrongly) criticized for betraying her, when in actuality I was being very kind to her personally and sincerely trying to save her from embarrassment.
Back then, I still honestly liked and admired her as a person. The events since then strongly indicate that I was totally wrong to give her the benefit of the doubt as a person. I don’t know if the unprecedented and unfair circumstances that she has had to deal with since 2008 have changed her, or if, like Tiger Woods, I was simply completely fooled by her from the beginning. But I do now know that she is worthy of a heck of a lot more contempt than portions of the base and the vast majority of the conservative media are currently holding her in.
A quick glance of the most recent past may help the scales fall off of your eyes like they finally did for me.
First, she not only put her supporters through an incredibly selfish presidential “tease” that she clearly contrived from the beginning, but when she finally revealed her deception, she did so on the Mark Levin radio show. This was inexplicable not because she didn’t do it on Fox News (which got some media attention), but because she broke her nationally televised promise to make the announcement on the Bob & Mark Show out of Anchorage.
This may not seem like a big deal at first, but keep in mind she made a huge production on the finale of her Alaskan reality show that Bob & Mark would be the first to know about her plans. Apparently, by the time she was ready to say “never mind,” rebuilding her Alaskan “ice cred” was no longer seen as very important. Neither was her loyalty to two long-time supporters and friends. Bob & Mark are just two of many people I personally know who have sacrificed for her only to be left by the side of the road for no apparent reason.
Then there is that matter that her political action committee sent out a fundraising e-mail the week before her “decision” which overtly sent the message that supporters could help her pull the trigger on a presidential run by donating immediately.
Obviously when that was sent out, Palin knew she was not running for president and yet when she was asked (ironically, only by Bob and Mark) whether her PAC would return the hard-earned money her supporters surely thought was going to a particular cause, she lamely claimed that people who donated to her PAC did not think they were donating to her prospective campaign. Unbelievably, no one else in the media (on either side) called her on this outrage.
Then there is the issue of her endorsement of another candidate for the Republican nomination. I have never understood how any political commentator could ever not make an endorsement in a presidential primary on their side of the ideological fence, but when you are Sarah Palin and you claim that you “don’t need a title to impact change,” such an omission is particularly incomprehensible.
After all, if she won’t exert her power in a Republican presidential primary, when would/could she ever?
The reality is that Palin hasn’t endorsed for the same reason she didn’t run. She knows that she has almost no influence and a remarkably small base and she is smart enough to not use her stick because she knows doing so will reveal how tiny it really is. She has basically decided it is better for her TV career to still be thought of as somewhat potent, than to be exposed as being essentially impotent (a word, interestingly, she likes to use from time to time).
This non act of cowardice and selfishness was bad enough, but then today on Fox News Palin had the gall to essentially call for Michele Bachmann to get out of the race and endorse someone else.
For me this was the very final straw. I don’t even like Bachmann, but I was immediately livid.
Where does Palin get off telling the only woman who (unlike her) had the guts to get in the race to endorse someone else when she hasn’t had the courage to do that herself? The multiple levels of hypocrisy here would be staggering even for a liberal, but for a conservative they are simply off the charts. Then, finally, lost amid her attacks of Bachmann (whom she surely sees as a potential future rival for air time on Fox News) was her defense of none other than that total fraud and publicity whore Donald Trump.
In perhaps the dumbest stance she has ever taken, Palin called for those who are upset at Trump for threatening to run as a third-party candidate to “shut up.”
Let me get this straight, a woman who agrees with Palin on almost everything should get out of the race and do something she herself wont do, but a liberal con-man who could easily insure the second term of Barack Obama (which she has said must be prevented at all costs) needs to be vigorously defended?
Astonishing. But not nearly as astounding as the reality that she will somehow get a pass on all of this from a conservative media that can be a corrupt and mindless as the liberal version is on its worst day.
I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but right now (while I still stand by everything that is in my documentary “Media Malpractice”) it is difficult for me to imagine making a bigger one than believing that Sarah Palin was worthy of all that I have tried to do to defend her.
My wife warned me about her almost from the beginning of my Palin odyssey. She presciently told me, “once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen.”
It now appears that she was right. Sarah Palin is, at least now, all about Sarah Palin and not about the cause. After the events of the past few months you can clearly see that reality all the way in Russia from land in Alaska.
Something made her drop out and disappear.
I think she sort of did a Perot-Drop on the Conservatives,
got everyone all charged up and ready to follow, like the people of Hamelin following the Piped Piper.
But, that’s okay.
She didn’t run.
The Conservatives in the Middle and on the Right and even
the Patriots on the Left can go for a GOOD GUY.
We can still WIN, you know.
Ziegler actually told her to wait til 2016..then he bitches about her not running and going on Mark Levin..OMG God forbid, she actually went on a nationally known radio show, instead of Fox News..BIG FREAKIN DEAL. Mark Levin is a great man, and has supported her from the beginning. I am glad she chose his show to make the announcement..Ziegler is a prick who loves the attention..probably asked her out on a date and he refused. She actually invited this guy into her house, hope she had it fumigated after wards
I do know that history, and agree with you. Besides President Bush, I think only Sarah Palin can compete as far as the most viciously attacked, villified, and abused person in the political arena.
But there’s still something else going on, at least in my opinion. I almost picked up a hint of resentment that Michele Bachmann will, after this is all over, be the first woman to be able to have the “title” of former candidate for POTUS.
I do not like Bachmann’s tactics and do not support her as a candidate...and haven’t for quite some time.
I just really got a sense that something has changed about Sarah. I hope I’m wrong, I really do.
Ziegler has been a bitter, sick bastard for a long time.
Yeah LOL I mean its common sense people!! She is a paid commentator..and that is exactly what she is doing. The ones who say she is after her 15 min of fame never liked her to begin with. But hey it’s all good, haters gonna hate
Nah its not resentment towards running or possibly winning, its that she sees Bachmann as a backstabbing phony who screwed her over. Go to ANY Pro Palin blog or board, no one there would vote for Bachmann, because of exactly what I posted above
“but that non-candidacy bus tour of hers was for what purpose?”
Her fans on FR were convinced that once she got the bus, it was a sure sign that she was running. As one who never bought into the Palin worship, I felt she was going to run at that point too...why else would you paint a bus and go on a tour? So people on both ends of the Palin spectrum came to the same conclusion but it didn’t happen. Your question is a good one. I am sure someone will say that Palin ‘brilliantly’ planned this for some reason.
John Ziegler is a loose cannon and, IMHO, slightly unbalanced and unpredictable.
Again, I agree with you, but something still seemed different about her. I’m quite likely wrong about what exactly it is, but I really picked up a different tone.
Anyhow, Happy New Year to you! :^)
Yeah Im not a good body language reader LOL. But hey maybe you see something I don’t :-) Happy New Year to you too!!
Bingo!
I just read the transcript. You’re right. I retract. I was positive I heard Rush say what I wrote. I hate it when I do that. Sorry.
RUSH: If he runs for president again he’s gonna be that much ahead of the game the next time around if he does it. This is his first time. But on the substance and the issues and the policy, there’s one thing I know about Santorum, and I look at the endgame of this. The campaign is one thing and the troubles that people have, but I know that if Rick Santorum were elected president, I wouldn’t have one doubt any day what he would be fighting for, not one. And it would be great if he could get there. I totally agree with you about that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
Heh.. It sounds like a Trump/Palin turd party run is in the making.
Oh good grief. There is nothing different about Sarah - other than that she is getting older and perhaps wiser like the rest of us. Palin is doing political commentary on Fox News and getting paid a million bucks a year to do so. She's supposed to say interesting, thought provoking and sometimes controversial things. That is her job. Suggesting that Bachmann should consider dropping out isn't a stab in the back, it isn't some secret Sun Tzu like strategy, it isn't shaping the battlefield for some ridiculous late entry, etc, etc. Sarah is doing what she is paid to do - and on this issue she is probably right. Bachmann blew up her campaign over the HPV thing and never recovered. The screeching and wailing over the 12 year old girls that never actually got the HPV vaccinations (mental retardation inducing vaccinations if you believe Bachmann) sunk her for good.
Childish and petty? This is a man who went on a limb for her. I agree with every single thing he says. This last thing with Bachmann is outrageous. She lost so much of her credibility. I didn’t even know that she asked for money and now keeps it. Shame on her. And shame on you for having blinders on and not admitting that maybe, just maybe, you are wrong.
Palin endorsed Mitt Romney? When was that?
No one was more prepared than I to jump on the Palin bandwagon, but I have no sense of being jilted at all. We don’t deserve Palin-types yet, so I’m not surprised at all that someone of her ilk could easily resist the urge to “lead” a corrupt nation. No matter how you parse it, a significant portion of America is souless, diseased, and morally bankrupt. Decent people can’t live amidst such decay without losing that which they cherish most: A strong moral and centered life. Nope, I don’t blame her one bit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.