This bus tour?
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.
Ahh, the Da Vinci bus. Memories of pure ridiculousness. How anyone bought into that sort of thing I will never know.
Hey whatever happened to the Palin Iowa caucus write-in campaign? That appears to have fizzled pretty badly. Even more money sunk into the bottomless pit of a non-campaign.
At least she is not the slave to everyone's whims. She is making her own decisions. I wish everyone else would respect that and get over it.
This assclown was frozen out of the Palin inner circle when Todd figured out what a loose cannon he was.
He’s been going off on Palin for a half a year now because she wouldn’t give him a job.
That’s basically it.
Best,
Chris
I remember this guy from a few years back when a video of his was posted here showing him going to a CPAC convention and getting himself kicked out because he took to the stage and ranted about some hypocrisy or other committed by the chairman of CPAC. That part was all well and good but afterward he just kept being obnoxious to everyone long after his point was made. My impression of him was: here is a guy that could be a conservative star — tall, good looking (reminded me of a younger Dan Marino), good voice, smart, etc — but he doesn’t know when to stop.
After reading the things he has said about Sarah lately it only strengthens my initial impression of him. There’s no sense of balance. Only a sense of unbalanced self-righteousness. The sort of guy you could be friends with for years but the moment you do something he disapproves of, no matter how trivial, there is no getting back on his good side. In short, he comes across as a guy who is either all for you or all against you. No middle ground. No balance. Once you fall on his bad side there is no giving you the benefit of the doubt in any matter. Instead, everything you do or say is always cast in the worst possible light.
In a way, kind of reminds me of how Glenn Beck has become lately.
You'll take any excuse to jump on Palin, Hildy...and you've always been inclined that way. It's really ugly.
This bus tour?
Holding Bachmann accountable for comments she neither made nor openly authorized is silly.
Bachmann had nothing to gain going after a non-candidate. Rollins had everything to gain, as media personality. Cui Bono.
I don't know the particulars of Bachmann's idiotic hiring of Rollins, but I do know things about other women who have hired Rollins and seen him sabotage their campaigns, ignore their orders, and then malign them to protect his media-created reputation.
So they’re rooting for someone who isn’t running?
I think if the roles were reversed people would have been pissed off that Palin allowed one of her henchman to go on TV and malign a fellow Conservative. Bachmann hired Rollins, thus having to live with the consequences. Rollins is a jerk off, Bachmann should have known better..Bachmann and Palin were best buddies, she campaigned for Bachmann, and not defending her against ridiculous comments like THAT I think was the last straw..that and not defending her when she was being called a mass murderer. Hey no one knows what’s going on behind the scenes, what Im doing and what others are doing is only speculating. Just giving my two cents worth
Im rooting for Santorum and Gingrich..those are the two candidates I am rooting for
I’m with you...the whole bus thing soured me.
After that I pined away for Paul Ryan.
I’ll say this...these candidates put their names out there - their money - and they are stepping up to attempt to rid this nation of an abomination of a “presidency”
I will always remember who stepped up....and who didn’t.
Oh so you are admitting that Palin is the mean girl from High School that the Lamestream media has always accused her of being? What about being a Christian and turning the other cheek? I guess that doesn’t concern Palin, the Christian, because there is one set of rules for her and another for everyone else. If she really is as vindictive as you say, she is much too petty to be anywhere near the White House, ever, in any capacity, because that makes her too scary.
Ok, that’s good to know. :)
Sorry, I should have said she could see herself voting for him. the context apparently was anyone but Obama. I guess I wish she would have phrased it as “I’d rather not have to vote for him but I would if there was no other choice.”
You are a very ignorant (of facts) Ziegler told Palin not to run but run in 2016 and was beating that thought publicly for a long time, plus he considered himself as part of her inner circle.
when it looked like that she might considered running AND MORE IMPORTANTLY when he seemed to be locked out of her inner circle, he started to go snarky against her and started to write articles semi-negative against her and then attacked some of her people and then attack her staff. It was HE that was piggybacking off on Sarah name and making public stunts to get attention.
But wasn't this more inspiring?
In the First Amendment. She's allowed to express opinions, Johnny, just like you're allowed to feel bad after getting jilted.
You stated my own views to a “T.” The country at present is just too corrupt and too degenerate to really accept the kind of leadership a Sarah Palin could bring. She’s an almost-discordant reflection of a better America, the one which used to be.
Bachmann is NOT the first female candidate for POTUS.
What about Victoria Woodhull who ran as the Equal Rights Party nominee in 1872?
Ever heard of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm? She ran in 1972 as the first female African American candidate.
And Senator Margaret Smith ran against Goldwater for president.
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