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.
No. Mr. Ziegler appears to take Palin's actions as a personal affront - that's his business - but this bit of analysis is self-serving and false. I challenge him to name another non-candidate whose every utterance is ridiculed by a legion of media shriekers, who has the ability to bring them to a frothing frenzy by a single Twitter post, whose critics claim desperately that she is trivial but behave entirely otherwise, as Ziegler is himself.
They really can't have it both ways. Claiming someone is inconsequential on the one hand who you treat as the most significant political power since Demosthenes on the other hand is simply too ridiculous to debate. If nobody cared what she thought, why don't they simply leave her alone?
I’ve felt the exact same thing for more than a year now.
I have to say I used to have a very good opinion of her, but that non-candidacy bus tour of hers was for what purpose? To go on tour, raise money and then say no is just plain erratic behavior that jerked a lot of people around. The TV show also was pretty good, but politically it made no sense. Resigning the governorship because she was being attacked just didn't quite figure either.
I'm not even sure what Sarah Palin is. A candidate? No. A commentator? Sort of. A powerful force for change? No because she hasn't tried. At this point I just have Palin fatigue.
There seems to be something creepy about this writer.
i never understood her quitting the governor position. That is a deal breaker for a Pres run...you just can’t trust her.
We no doubt will get flamed ...its already happening ...instead of posters just responding to the criticisms.
Not to mention keeping those fund-raising dollars rolling in.
Put your flame proof suit on! ha.
I think Sarah had planned to run, but at the last minute Perry entered and that put a stop to it. It was too many conservatives splitting the vote and slamming each other. From that point I believe her wait and see attitude, according to who entered/dropped out. Right now, I believe sarah will eventually endorse Santorum or Gingrich, whoever surfaces, and then be chosen as the VP.
Palin fatigue...agree.
OMG..I hope not...not antoher Mcain/Palin run redux!
And Im supposed to give a damn about what this prick has to say?? KFI fired his ass for being a major tool
Ziegler is a RomneyBOT who supports Sharia by Romney
and RomneyCARe by Romney.
What a disgusting misogynist is Ziegler for
backstabber Bishop Romney.
Instead, you check in on the night of the Iowa Caucuses, in order to pile on in a sour-grapes whinefest about Palin.
Huh.
Cheers!
My sentiments exactly..
Where did he say he hates her?
Palin took a shot at Bachman because Rollins(with Bachmans assent) insulted Palin at the end of summer, right before she decided. Rollins called Palin “not a serious person”.
Sarah remembered that. Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it Michelle?
“I think Sarah had planned to run, but at the last minute Perry entered and that put a stop to it. “
That is what I saw, Palin was brilliantly building to an announcement, and then Perry jumped after telling her he wouldn’t, the media fell in love with Perry until the deed was done, then they him cut to pieces.
I am with you. Ziegler was a true believer for years and his point by point gripes seems legit. I too would love to know where the money taken in on that last plea from the PAC before she decided not to run will go.
Doofus?
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