Posted on 10/07/2011 1:42:59 PM PDT by Yaelle
Editorial by John Ziegler
An Open E-mail to Sarah Palin
10/5/2011
The following is an actual e-mail "Media Malpractice, How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted" Filmmaker John Ziegler sent to Sarah Palin's personal e-mail address after she announced she was not running for president.
Dear Governor Palin:
Wow. So, is this really how your political saga is going end? By letting down your remaining supporters and telling them, with a straight face, that you can do more to impact change as a Fox News Contributor than you can as President of the United States?
I was almost positive you would run because it appeared that your brand demanded it from a career maintenance perspective. I had even written a long letter blasting you for being either selfish or delusional in making a decision to run which could help President Obama get reelected. While I applaud you for making the right decision, thanks to the way you made it, I must also question your real rationale.
One of the many reasons (other than the conversation I had earlier this year with Todd about working on your campaign) I was so sure you would give it a shot was that I figured you were way too smart to go this far with a blatant tease without a legitimate exit explanation.
While you have used the “I don’t need a title to impact change” line before (to justify your politically inexplicable resignation as governor of Alaska), I never figured you would actually try to float that as a last minute reason for not pursuing the most important job in the world. It is hard to believe that even the most crazed of your fans will buy that, but I am sure at least some of the remaining lemmings will.
Of course, there is no way you actually believe it yourself. First of all, how is this “issue" new information? You mean to tell us that in the last year since you started talking openly about running for president that this never occurred to you before? If it was a decisive factor now, why wasn’t it that way several months ago before you started acting like a candidate? Why did you selfishly put your supporters through the long wait and stunt the process for the actual candidates?
Secondly, exactly what change have you impacted since resigning from office? Being generous, you raised legitimate questions about a healthcare bill which ended up passing, you may have helped energize a base that assisted in winning back the House, and you were heavily tied to three senate candidates who lost otherwise very winnable races (btw, if “titles” are so unimportant, why did you even bother trying to help those campaigns to begin with?).
Finally, what change do you think you can possibly “impact” in the future now that everyone knows there is no chance of you ever having real political power and your base of current support is sure to wither away? You do realize (as I warned you about after your resignation) that people/media will stop caring about what you say/write once they know for sure you are never going to be president, right? If you still don’t believe me, just ask any promising athlete whose career is cut down prematurely by injury (as yours was by an unfair kneecapping by the media) how they are treated once a comeback is no longer achievable.
It is certainly possible that you may not accept this premise because you are under the understandable delusion (thanks to the media’s obsession with you) that you are somehow special and not bound by the same rules which govern mere mortals. After all, if you didn’t think you deserved extraordinary consideration, you would never have had the audacity to even float the idea of a presidential run after resigning office in a way that was clearly designed to get rich and stay famous.
If this is indeed the case, you are finally in for a rude awakening.
The only reason the liberal media has been obsessing over whether you might run for president is that you would have added to the entertainment value of a Republican race with which they are already getting bored. As you recently accurately (and, given your family’s penchant for participating in such endeavors, rather ironically) observed that they see the whole thing as a “reality show” in need of a new wacky character to spice things up. Plus, they would love for you to have somehow been the nominee to insure Obama’s reelection.
The conservative media has been going along with this charade as well because they see their own ratings as more important than the cause of beating Obama and because they fear offending your fans who are some of their most important customers.
Now that you aren’t running you have made yourself almost totally irrelevant. Unlike with Chris Christie (did you notice how much more passionately the media pined for him than you?), no one with an actual chance will want your endorsement. Once the nominee and the new VP candidate are chosen you will be very old news, and with no elected office (or, thanks to you’re your incredible lack of popularlity in Alaska, even the theoretical chance of one), you will have no opportunity to alter your narrative or make any news.
My guess is that you won’t even end up speaking at the convention because you are too big for a minor slot and too dangerous for a prime one.
If the Republican ends up winning you will no longer have a purpose at all (unless you go really rogue and decide to be the chief conservative critic of the new president) and 2016 is obviously not an option, especially with no way to significantly enhance your resume. If they lose, by the time 2016 comes around a whole new wave of Republican superstars will be ready to take the plunge and you will have already shown yourself to be afraid of getting in the water even when people were still begging you to get in. By 2020 your name will be almost as remote as Dan Quayle’s and you will have been out of office for almost five times as long as you held it.
About the only way you could retain any semblance of political potency is to become the conservative Ralph Nader, constantly threatening a third party run. This would be roughly the “fall from grace” equivalent of Tiger Woods being reduced to doing a dating reality show for attention.
Now, if you realize all of this, then I praise you for making a selfless decision for the betterment of the cause. There was a time not long ago when I truly believed you when you said you were letting your principles guide you and, “If I die politically, I die.” You are now, clearly, about as politically dead as someone of your celebrity could possibly be.
However, based on my personal experience, I have lost my faith in your ability to correctly perceive reality or to be totally honest with yourself and the public. Therefore, I question whether this realization was truly the motivation for your decision not to run.
AMEN!!!
And you might be right about the Perry thing. I really wasn't paying attention to any of it...I've been on the Cain Train since he announced. :)
I agree with everything you said.
And I personally don’t count as “real” supporters those who turned on her on a dime when she made a decision they did not respect.
If you get all fangirly about politics, you’re not doing it right.
Rush frequently has said that money is the mother's milk of politics. Some have said that she wasn't getting the financial support needed to take the plunge. Possibly Perry's entrance had something to do with that.
I do like her and am disappointed she didn't get in, but I'm also aware of the years of vitriol, the intensity, insanity and sheer nastiness of her enemies' efforts, the lawsuits, the hit pieces, including from her POS son in law.
But she put herself out there and did what she could to enhance her brand.
She campaigned for others, wrote, did television, her bus tour, etc. and when it was time to make a decision, put it off as long as possible, but apparently didn't see enough boots on the ground and/or monetary support to wage a viable candidacy.
If she is simply cashing in, as her detractors accuse, then so what. She ran hard for VP, for McCain and I believe for America and what did she get in return? No one in my lifetime has been mauled like she and her family have been and they still are.
Cashing in??? Whatever. All I know is, you couldn't pay me enough to go through what she's gone through and I'd be a damn sight more bitter than she appears to be. Watching her handler herself, I'd say she's a far better human than I or, from where I'm sitting, any of her detractors.
This was what was just so darn WEIRD about the whole thing!
Good grief, a person is perfectly legitimate in expressing his opinion that he thinks Sarah Palin will run. But to say he KNOWS Sarah Palin will run --- and then go from there to attack rudely, sarcastic and with vulgar namecalling not all that different from what the MSM subjected Palin to --- anyone who simply suggests maybe we don't KNOW and can't KNOW whether she will run . . . that's just plain weird.
I'm only commenting on it now because I think this type of weirdness really took FR to the brink. And we need FR to be strong, intellectually honest and vigorous in the coming months. So I'm saying I hope some lessons can be learned here.
bttt
What you said.
Plus it’s rather astonishing that there sometimes seems to be little real grasp of how complicated the decision to run for president is.
(Or “should” be - hello, Rick Perry.)
That’s an EXCELLENT analysis.
I imagine she’s heartbroken right now about how this ended, despite her giving it her all, and the fact that even her “friends” seem to be treating her no better than the worst treatment she’s received since this all started.
A very thoughtful post. I would only dispute that her supporters have turned on her. Her groupies have. There is a difference.
I supported Palin and still do.
Disappointed? Yes.
Shattered? No.
Conservatives are not going to win the Presidency in 2012, but the collectivists can still lose it. That is my focus now.
I surely hope she did not dignify that email with a response.
I liked Palin in the beginning but I began to lose confidence in her but nothing she did or said could shake off her rabid supporters.
I was about to give up FR because of their defense of her and subsequent attacks on anyone else.
Ziegler is a scumbag. I’m sad that Palin isn’t running and upsest with her, but Ziegler would be mad at her if she did or didn’t run. Ziegler tried to get famous off of her. I also didn’t like how Ziegler was ambushing people in interviews, such as, I think it was the leader of C-PAC etc. I also remember Ziegler defending Palin resigning as governor on O’Reilly, and now he says it was “inexplicable” why she resigned?
I agree wholeheartedly.
Conservatives are not going to win the Presidency in 2012,
I disagree wholeheartedly. ;)
At least with the "not going to" part. If there's anything that should be learned from this situation, it's that politics is too fluid to make conclusory statements. That said, it's only a semantic issue until a poster starts literally attacking someone who opines that "well, maybe there's some chance conservatives can win."
Cheers!
I think she wanted to run, planned to run, and was looking for a way to make a run. Somewhere along the way in the past two months, she began to realize that it was looking less and less likely that she could pull it off - for whatever reasons, political and/or personal. But she still had time to declare and kept looking for a way to make it work.
That's what the bus tour, film, videos, speeches, and appearances were all about. That's why she "was tired of" giving "the same dopey answer" when asked about a run. She wanted to run and did everything she could to keep herself in the political arena while trying to work out the details. But ultimately she couldn't make it work and was facing a rapidly approaching deadline. So she had to accept a reality that she didn't like.
I don't believe she intentionally mislead or teased her supporters and I don't believe it was about the money. I believe she has a servant's heart. She likes to encourage and empower others. And because she prayerfully considers her decisions, I believe God made it clear through circumstance that encouraging and empowering is where he wanted to use her.
In truly terrible times for many, people are desperate for a leader and will elevate a flawed individual to a God like stature. That is occurring right now with other Presidential candidates.
I've never met Palin and I have no personal knowledge of her. But, my best guess is that she is a very capable campaigner. As far as being President, I think she knows there's no way. One of the major differences between her and Obama is that Obama isn't even honest enough to admit he's unqualified for the position.
Hindsight gives me perspective. I'm not to proud to say I was duped. I'm also not to arrogant to admit that some of the Palin detractors on the Right and the Left were right, and I was wrong. I do believe Palin strung out her decision and I suspect her motive was a financial one and a means of staying relevant for as long as possible. Her explanation of discovering she had a family to protect might of held water in July, not October. I also believe she was never seriously considering a run. Her employer seemed to know the truth all along, which certainly would explain their attitude towards her as a non candidate and lack of coverage.
I'm grateful for her work on the campaign trail in 2010, and the positive results we had. I agree with Ziegler that the way she handled the timing of her decision and the reason given for not running has (likely) significantly reduced her ability to influence anything in the future.
Remember, just because the messenger was flawed doesn't mean the message was such.
Well, I will be -delighted- to be wrong about 2012.
I remember being all morbid on election day in 1980 too, thinking that Reagan would not win. Sometimes it is really good to be wrong!
There are a lot of “whys”. WHY did Peter Singleton come to Iowa 11 months ago and stay at his own expense working for O 4 P, not even knowing if he had a candidate?
I know.
As far as I was concerned people could be as weird and far-out as they wanted to be in reading Sarah Palin tea leaves. But the attacks on everyone else, that was astounding.
I don't need that in my life. And many here said they remained silent -- iow, they exercised self-discipline in just letting garbage go in order to maintain some kind of functioning forum.
If mature, intelligent, civil and above all non-vulgar discussion does not occur here, mature, intelligent, civil and non-vulgar people will eventually leave.
Then this forum becomes no different from "theirs." Nasty.
It seems the people who hate Palin the most and didn’t want her to run are the most upset.
It’s a long way between then and now. I say we just “put some dirt on” and get going.
This is why they play the game!
I hear you, but she also kind of just became a future has been.
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