2012
Sarah Hits Rock-Bottom: in new poll ALASKANS prefer Obama to ex-Governor
June 29, 2011
If I could summarize my 2008-2009-2010 research in Alaska about Sarah, I’d say the most surprising thing I found was that those who know her best like her least.
Perhaps I should amend that now to say that those who know Sarah best dislike her most.
It’s only the outliers, who know little or nothing, who cling to their fantasies about the woman who never was.
Alaska Daily News today reports on a new Hays Research poll that shows that President Obama would defeat (“The Oft-Defeated”) Palin 42-36 in Alaska.
And this poll was commissioned by right-wing Alaska radio talk show host Mike Porcaro. Commenting after seeing the results, Porcaro said, “the surprising result is she has become highly unpopular in her home state.”
Porcaro is a good guy and a reasonable man. But if he considers the result of his own poll “surprising,” it shows he hasn’t had his fingers on the same statewide pulse I detected last summer, and even in the fall of 2009 when I was researching THE ROGUE in Alaska.
In any case, now no one can deny the reality: Alaskans would rather re-elect an African-American Democrat than see their ex-Governor in the White House.
My first alert to the fraudulence of Sarah Palin came in June, 2008, and it came from a conservative, my friend Tom Brennan, the ex-newspaperman and p.r. man and present-day author, about whom I write in Going to Extremes. I was thinking of revisiting Alaska to write about the changes since the mid-1970’s, the period about which I wrote in Extremes.
That’s when I learned that Alaska had its first woman governor. Because she was described as a conservative Republican, I wrote to Tom, thinking he’d tell me that she was a brilliant crusader for all that was right (as in “right wing”) and that I should make her the centerpiece of my new book about Alaska.
Well, she has become the centerpiece, but not in the way I first intended. Tom wrote back that she was an ignorant nitwit. He quoted a high-ranking military friend who’d met her as governor and who’d said she had “less depth than a worn-out dime.”
That was my first clue that there was trouble in paradise. I started to pay attention to Palin. What I sensed from the start, and later verified through extensive research, was that by late summer of 2008 Sarah was already sourdough toast in Alaska.
As I write in THE ROGUE:
“As August waned…Sarah found herself at the low point of her political career. Former supporters, both Democrats and Republicans, turned against her. After promising honesty, transparency, and the highest ethical standards, she found herself accused of lying, cover-up, and actions that seemed, at the least, a grievous ethical breach.
Autumn is a mere blink of an eye in Alaska, and looking beyond it, Sarah would not have been able to see anything other than a long, dark winter of turmoil, acrimony and discontent. Then, like an angel on a mission from her Heavenly Father, John McCain swooped down to tap her with his magic wand.”
The rest is history.
And now more Alaskans would vote for Obama than for Sarah.
Repudiation–and that’s with a “p”–does not come in a stronger dose.
To put it another way to Palin supporters: Refudiate this.
Posted in 2012, Anchorage Daily News, Joe McGinniss, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | 
Tags: hays research, john mccain, mike porcaro, tom brennan barack obama | 
107 Comments »
Sarah sinks ever lower: will sign “books” with Bristol at Minnesota mall
June 28, 2011
So desperate is Sarah for cheap and easy publicity–and a few extra bucks–that, as Associated Press reports, on Wednesday, she’ll be horning in on her daughter’s first “book” tour appearance at the Barnes & Noble in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Pure coincidence, of course, that Michelle Bachmann (aka “The Sarah Palin of 2011/2012”) is from Minnesota.
Someone less cynical about the Palins than I am might look at this as a manifestation of motherly love and show of support for a daughter whose “screw & tell” memoir hasn’t even cracked the amazon.com top 500 list despite Bristol’s appearance on Good Morning America today.
As I’ve made clear in earlier posts, I simply do not care about Bristol. Nor about any of Sarah’s other children, except for continuing to wonder who really gave birth to Trig.
I care about the phenomenon of Sarah only because–by many light years–she was the least qualified and most deranged person ever nominated for the presidency or vice presidency of the United States, and because she continues to successfully seduce the Beltway chattering class.
“To be or not to be,” is no longer the question. Now it’s, “Will she or won’t she?”
Like water, however, trash seeks its own level. Sarah’s appearance alongside her no-talent daughter at a Minnesota shopping mall is the clearest indicator yet that the 2008 Republican candidate for vice president of the United States is finally becoming not the national leader she never could have been, but part of our national landfill.
And in case you were wondering, no, I won’t be bringing Levi along on my own tour for THE ROGUE in September and October. (Media appearances already arranged in New York, Washington, Toronto, Alaska, Seattle and Los Angeles.)
Honestly, I’m not desperate enough to sit behind a table in a Minnesota shopping mall.
Although I willingly appeared on Fox & Friends with my son, Joe McGinniss Jr., when his novel, THE DELIVERY MAN (soon to be a major motion picture) was published in 2008.
Here’s a difference between McGinniss books and Palin “books.” Joe Jr. and I write our own: Sarah and Bristol aren’t able to do that.
And here’s another difference: neither my son Joe nor I would ever use/abuse a child the way Sarah did Trig at her Going Rogue signing at The Villages, Florida, in November, 2009.
I was there, in the company of my great friend Ray Hudson, of Newcastle, England, who after a brilliant career as a soccer player has become the world’s best soccer announcer for whom English is a first language. In his recent extraordinary profile of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Jere Longman of the NYTimes made clear how Ray and only Ray can transliterate Messi’s genius into English. If anyone thinks world-class soccer is boring (I readily concede that the sub-standard version played in the U.S. is yawn-inducing), please check out this one clip among dozens on YouTube wherein Ray Hudson demonstrates that it’s not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyEls-EqdOY
Ray flew up from Fort Lauderdale so I wouldn’t have to endure the Palin appearance at The Villages, an hour north of Orlando, on my own.
And thank God he did. Even in his great company, it was an ordeal.
But I snapped out of my torpor and into parent/grandparent mode when I saw how Sarah mistreated Trig.
As I write in THE ROGUE:
She emerges [from her bus], holding Trig. Once the TV cameras and still photographers have had their fill, she hands him off to an assistant, who soon puts him down on the asphalt parking lot and lets him crawl. The lot is covered with broken glass, cigarette butts, and old chewing gum, and Trig is barefoot. Eventually, Piper comes along and puts him in a stroller.
This is almost the full monty, family-wise. Chuck and Sally and old Aunt so-and-so, plus Piper and Trig. Chuck and Sally work the crowd. Leaving Trig in the stroller, so does Piper. She’s eight years old and has the fake smile of a ten-term congressman. For some reason this sticks with me as the saddest sight I see all day.
And now, on Wednesday, in a Minnesota shopping mall, patrons will get a twofer: Sarah and Bristol showing off their fake, smarmy smiles side by side as they peddle their fake books.
Sarah: where’s Trig?
Bristol: where’s Tripp?
Can either of you care about anybody but yourselves?
p.s. I’ve said I don’t care about Bristol or Levi and I don’t. But when they start poaching on my turf–taking up space in book stores with their whiny, self-aggrandizing, adolescent tripe–I’d be remiss not to point out the difference between thoroughbred race horses (i.e. Geoffrey Dunn and myself) and the steaming piles of shit said horses leave on the ground behind them (i.e. Sarah, Bristol, etc.)
Posted in 2012, Chuck Heath, Geoffrey Dunn, Joe McGinniss, michelle bachmann, Palin children, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, The Rogue | Tags: barcelona, barnes and noble, book tour, chuck heath, fox and friends, gol tv, horse racing, jere longman, joe mcginniss jr. the delivery man, lionel messi, mall of america, new york times, newcastle, piper palin, ray hudson, soccer, the villages, thoroughbred, trash | 170 Comments »
Bachmann Steals Sarah’s Thunder: Sarah Quits Again & Lets Her Take It
June 27, 2011
It’s tough to catch lightning in a bottle.
Equally tough to recapture the sound of thunder once someone else has spirited it away.
Sarah Palin’s endless, erratic dithering about her 2012 intentions has created a vacuum on the evangelical right that Michelle Bachmann has been quick to fill.
Who was all over the Sunday talk shows today? Bachmann. Suddenly, the press is all about her.
Just look at this.
Through her fear of engagement with America’s opinion-makers, and movers and shakers, Sarah has painted herself into a corner at which fewer and fewer people even bother to glance.
Bachmann has effortlessly slid into the groove that Sarah once occupied.
Suddenly, it’s Bachmann who is the “serious” female candidate for the GOP nomination.
Suddenly–or not so suddenly–Sarah has been shoved to the sidelines, from which her shrill cries can barely be heard.
I start the last chapter of THE ROGUE by writing:
The time has come to strike the tent.
That may seem like a strange thing to say in the last chapter of a book about the star performer of the circus. But no matter how much my book sales might benefit from a Palin presidential campaign in 2012, I sincerely hope that the whole extravaganza, which has been unblushingly underwritten by a mainstream media willing to gamble the nation’a future in exchange for the cheap thrill of watching a clown in high heels on a flying trapeze, is nearing the end of its run.
Someone who knows Sarah better than I do told me recently that the only thing that would propel her into the 2012 race would be a credible Michelle Bachmann candidacy. Because Sarah couldn’t bear to yield the limelight to another woman.
Yet it’s happened. I’d always thought Sarah would run for president because to not do so would destroy her credibility even among the cretins who would have supported her.
But she just didn’t have the guts, or the commitment, to do so. She’s always been a phony and a bully.
Because of John McCain’s desperate and deeply unpatriotic inanity, she got in over her head in 2008.
She’s been treading water ever since. Now she’s about to sink out of sight.
To switch the metaphor back to the circus, she’s skulked away from the center ring, conceding it to Bachmann without a fight.
A venal, lying, avaricious quitter she always was, and a venal, lying and avaricious quitter she’ll always be.
Goodbye, Sarah, “The Oft-Defeated.” We knew ye all too well.
Posted in 2012, evangelical, Fox, mainstream media, michelle bachmann, right wing, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, The Rogue | Tags: 2012 gop candidates, bachmann, cowardice, fear, instability, john mccain, quitting | 95 Comments »
Sarah Cancels Sudan Trip & Bus Tour
June 22, 2011
As the Washington Post reports, Sarah has cancelled her ill-advised journey to Sudan for the July 9 independence ceremony of South Sudan.
And as was widely reported earlier, she’s also abandoned her U.S. bus tour after just the one leg that ended with her embarrassing blunder about Paul Revere’s ride.
The excuse, such as it is, seems to be that it’s prime fishing season in Alaska.
But that makes no sense. Sarah hates fishing, and only pretends to like it when in front of a television camera.
And it’s not like Alaska’s current nineteen hours of daylight per day is a new phenomenon she just felt she couldn’t pass up.
Something has thrown her badly off course, and it’s not just publication of Bristol’s trashy ghost-written “memoir.”
All guesses as to what it might be are welcome.
Hey, wait a minute, do you suppose she’s p-r-e-g-n-a-n-t?
In any event, at least this summer she doesn’t have to worry about me watching her mow her lawn with Trig on her back.
Instead, I’m planning to attend next week’s Rosanne Cash concert at Bard College.
Posted in 2012, Greta Van Susteren, Joe McGinniss, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | Tags: alaska, bard college, bus tour, fishing, red hook, rosanne cash, south sudan, sudan | 181 Comments »
Increasingly Desperate, Sarah Palin Supporters Pin Hopes on New Movie
June 19, 2011
As they see even what used to be her base losing interest in Sarah as Queen Esther–and as a presidential candidate–her shrinking hard core of unblinkingly blind zealots is praying out loud that the propaganda film made by one of their own can somehow overcome all that Sarah herself has done over the past two-and-a-half years to make herself irrelevant, laughing all the way to the bank.
The serious neo-cons, such as Kristol, Barnes and Krauthammer, whom she so successfully seduced in 2008, have abandoned her.
To them, she’s become a dirty joke they wish they hadn’t told.
Most of the Tea Partiers have given up on her, too, transferring their affections to Bachmann, while dreaming of Perry.
This leaves Sarah increasingly isolated, no more a “Mama Grizzly,” but a polar bear marooned on an inexorably shrinking ice floe (but one, she will assure us, that isn’t melting because of man made global warming.)
God used to open doors for her. Now she needs a deus ex machina just to keep herself afloat.
The dwindling few who still proudly proclaim themselves as cult members see “The Undefeated” as their last best hope.
See this frantic call to arms–or at least to the box office–at The Daily Caller.
Or listen to the last gasps of the drowning at Conservatives4Palin, such as this and this.
As if a propaganda film could save her now.
For the record, Sarah Palin is not undefeated. She was not only defeated as McCain’s running mate in 2008, but she was defeated in her race for lieutenant governor of Alaksa in 2004.
“The Twice-Defeated” would be a more accurate title.
Not that accuracy has ever mattered to Sarah.
Posted in 2012, evangelical, glenn beck, Greta Van Susteren, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, michelle bachmann, right wing, Sarah Palin, Tea Party, The Rogue | Tags: 2008, charles krauthammer, conservatives4palin, deus ex machina, dirty jokes, fred barnes, god, ice floe, john mccain, mama grizzly, michelle bachmann, palin movie, polar bears, propaganda, queen esther, rick perry, the daily caller, the undefeated, william kristol | 71 Comments »
Bachmann Waves Wand: Suddenly Sarah Palin is Yesterday
June 18, 2011
Sarah is in danger of becoming only the second most disgusting Republican woman who wants to be president.
Bachmann’s performance in New Orleans tonight was pure (if there is any such thing) Palin, from vicious attacks on Obama down to calling male attention to her underwear.
Referring to the recent New Hampshire debate, she said:
“I didn’t know if they were going to ask boxers or briefs – a girl never knows.”
It’s reported that she got a standing ovation for that line. Which figures, given her audience.
If you look at my most recent post, you’ll see I mention that an informed source told me recently that the one thing most likely to draw Sarah into the race would be Bachmann claiming her turf as GOP’s new sexpot loudmouth provocateur.
Memo to Sarah: it’s happenin’, babe. By Labor Day your theme song could be from the Beatles:
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
We’re not halfway through 2011 yet and already Bachmann is the Sarah Palin of 2012.
Will our gal just sit back and let that happen?
Stay tuned.
A year ago, Sarah’s worst problem was having me for a neighbor—though it was a problem only in her own disordered mind.
Now she’s at risk of sinking into the quicksand pit of obscurity that consumes used up political hucksters who haven’t noticed that they’re no longer tomorrow’s main course at the banquet, but only yesterday’s breakfast.
It happens fast, Sarah. Just like your arrival from nowhere happened fast.
By next year you could be doing Sunday morning infomercials for “Sarah Palin Scottsdale SPF 100 Sun Block.”
I wonder if she’s placed an advance order for THE ROGUE.
Probably she’s hoping for a free copy.
It won’t come from me.
Even the version shown to magazines this week for possible first serial excerpt in advance of Sept. 20 publication was redacted.
Just like the Palin emails.
There are revelations in the book that Random House/Crown just won’t risk having leaked prematurely.
Let me put it this way: if Sarah doesn’t announce her 2012 decision before Sept. 20 when THE ROGUE is published, I predict she won’t run.
And I know why.
Posted in 2012, Joe McGinniss, michelle bachmann, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | Tags: bachmann, breakfast, crown publishing, GOP, mcCartney, new orleans, palin scandals, provocateur, random house, Scottsdale, sexpot, sun block, the beatles, the rogue, yesterday | 64 Comments »
Sarah’s Decision Coming Soon? Not likely.
June 17, 2011
The NYTimes summarizes todays non-story here.
In short, The American Spectator wrote that Sarah would announce her decision within a week or so.
Sarah promptly tweeted thusly:
“Really? Hmm, guess they forgot to inform me what I’m ‘expected to do’ next wk…”
The latest I’ve heard from sources I consider both reliable and informed is that Sarah will drag out whatever suspense there is as long as possible.
She’ll go to Sudan, possibly to Israel in August for a Glenn Beck rally, and do two more legs of her bus tour, all the while delaying her announcement.
Unless of course she gets into a bad mood and cancels any or all of the above. (Her history of extreme mood swings is something I pay considerable attention to in THE ROGUE.)
In the end, my best sources tell me, she won’t run. All the skeletons in her many closets are begging her not to, and she’ll listen to them.
She’s afraid. She’s just plain scared of what might happen if mainstream media finally decides that the honeymoon is over and starts to dig. If she runs, they will, this time. If she doesn’t, why bother?
She also lacks the organizational ability to build the complex structure that a presidential campaign would require, and she doesn’t trust anyone enough to let a professional take over. Remember, in 2008, McCain just plugged her into an operation that was already in high gear, and even that didn’t work out.
Also, she’s not really committed to any cause except herself.
HOWEVER…I was told a month ago that the one factor that could change all the above would be the sudden emergence of Michelle Bachmann as the “new” Sarah Palin. Sarah’s ego would not allow her to stay on the sidelines and watch Bachmann take the center stage that Sarah feels belongs to her.
And that’s exactly what’s happened in the past few weeks. Bachmann is this month’s media darling. If that lasts through Labor Day, Sarah might have to take the plunge.
I’ve always thought she would run. I still think so. But people who know more than I do tell me she won’t.
Bottom line for now: expect the tease to continue until Sarah has sucked the last egg out of the golden goose.
When Rupert Murdoch Buys NY Times
June 9, 2011
More than a hat tip to Tony Hendra and his gang for this hilarious new edition of “The Final Edition,” featuring “Mama Grizzly Bare–It’s President Palin in 2012: She Comes Out Swinging…” and “Roger Ailes: “Fuck it, I’ll just be President myself.”
Admittedly, the Palin illustration is tasteless. I think it’s gross and I don’t approve of it.
On the other hand, Sarah herself is tasteless. She’s gross and I don’t approve of her. But it’s not as bad as the photo of Anthony Weiner’s wiener that Breitbart leaked via right-wing radio today.
Sometimes you reap what you sow.
But forget Sarah for a while, and just enjoy The New Fox Times, which along with Christwire is the funniest thing on the web.
[Full disclosure: my son James, founder of McGinniss Associates, is the literary agent who developed and sold Christwire’s first book, to be published early next year by the Citadel division of Kensington. I have never met Tony Hendra.]
Posted in 2012, Breitbart, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | Tags: anthony weiner, fox, james mcginniss, mama grizzly, mcginniss associates, new york times, roger ailes, rupert murdoch, satire, tony hendra | 42 Comments »
Anybody want to vomit?
June 8, 2011
If so, this should do it for you:
http://www.sarahpac.com/posts/the-american-spirit-unfortunately-missed-by-the-msm
Meanwhile, at Daily Beast, Alex Massie has a bracing article about Sarah’s foolhardy hope of meeting with Margaret Thatcher.
As Andrew Sullivan would say, the money quote:
There is something loathsome about this attempt to use a frail 86-year-old stroke victim (who has largely retired from public life) as fodder to enhance your own domestic political agenda. It is vulgar and it is vainglorious and therefore entirely typical of Palin’s political style.
But Lady Thatcher is not a boardwalk attraction to be gawped at by tourists from Palookaville…Why should Lady Thatcher have any interest in meeting Palin? Even if the Iron Lady were not in such rusty health, what would be the point or purpose of any such encounter? What possible interest could she have in meeting a two-bit, half-term governor of Alaska?…What could they possibly talk about? One is a giant figure; the other…a carnival pygmy.”
Posted in 2012, Andrew Sullivan, Joe McGinniss, Sarah Palin, The Rogue | Tags: alex massie, american history, margaret thatcher, paul revere, the daily beast | 27 Comments »
Still think she’s not running? Sarah to Sudan in July//UPDATE: Sarah’s 2008 Lie about Sudan
June 7, 2011
Sarah told the Sunday Times of London, “I am going to Sudan in July and hope to stop in England on the way. I am just hoping Mrs Thatcher is well enough to see me as I so admire her.”
Aides to the ailing Margaret Thatcher won’t let Sarah anywhere near the former British prime minister. That’s no surprise.
But how about the trip to Sudan, where summer temperatures in the capital, Khartoum, average more than 105 degrees? (Maybe the move to Arizona was to acclimatize her.)
On anyone’s list of the most unfortunate countries on earth, Sudan would have to be near the top. Put it this way: Sarah’s not going there for the shopping.
Can anyone see any reason for Sarah to make this trip other than to give herself another “foreign policy” credential for the 2012 campaign?
Questions:
–Is Franklin Graham paying for it?
–Will Greta Van Susteren tag along?
–Think she’ll bring any of the kids? How about her “good biblical wife” Todd?
–Will Sarah pop over to Kenya to get a refill on her protection from devils from Rev. Thomas Muthee?
–How much of her fortune will she donate to humanitarian aid for the impoverished people of Sudan?
No matter what’s in the (heavily redacted) emails that the state of Alaska will release on Friday, video and photos of Sarah touring refugee camps in Darfur –location of genocide so appalling that former Secretary of State Colin Powerll called it “the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century”–will make it old news by next month.
It’s one thing to hop on the back of a Harley in Washington, and wink and wave.
But for Sarah to inflict herself and her ambitions on the hundreds of thousands of suffering refugees in Darfur would be the most loathsome thing she’s ever done.
UPDATE:
During her 2008 vice presidential debate with Joe Biden, Sarah claimed that as Alaska governor she tried to fight atrocities in Sudan by having the state pension divest itself of investments there. Not so, as ABC News demonstrated. In fact, Alaska state representative, Les Gara, a co-sponsor of the divestment measure, said that Sarah’s administration “killed our bill.”
Despite Palin’s claim in the debate, her administration’s position on the bill was summarized by her deputy revenue commissioner, Brian Andrews. At a legislative hearing in February, 2008, he said, “Mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens’ financial security is not a good combination.”
In other words, forget the atrocities as long as we’re making money.
Nonetheless, in the debate, Palin said, in regard to the genocide in the Darfur section of Sudan:
“What I’ve done in my position to help, as the governor of a state that’s pretty rich in natural resources, we have a $40 billion investment fund, a savings fund called the Alaska Permanent Fund. When I and others in the legislature found out we had some millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars to make sure we weren’t doing anything that would be seen as condoning the activities there in Darfur.”
Which is exactly what she did not do when it mattered.
As the legislative session was ending, and there was no chance that the bill could even be brought up for vote, she had another aide say that she’d changed her mind and now supported the it. However, as the Washington Post reported, that was only after it was clear that time had run out.
In other words, she was against it before she was for it, and paid lip service to it only after she knew it was dead.
Of course, in the same debate, Sarah also said, “We’re building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline.”
How’s that AGIA thing working for ya now, Sarah?
Posted in 2012, Fox, Greta Van Susteren, Joe McGinniss, Palin children, Sarah Palin, The Rogue, Todd Palin, Trig Palin | Tags: abc news, AGIA, alaska permanent fund, civil war, darfur, divestment, england, genocide, margaret thatcher, palin lies, poverty, prime minister, refugees, sudan | 72 Comments »
