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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

UK: Sarah Palin, the ultimate political troll

The Spectator

Sarah Palin: Troll
By Alex Massie

Being a top-class troll takes time and effort. Not everyone has the patience to do it, far less derive quite so much pleasure from infuriating other people. Not for any great principle either but for the sheer devilment of it. As horses are entered for the 2012 GOP Disappointment Derby it's not a surprise to see Sarah Palin, the grandest, most effective political troll of our time, back in the news.

Nor, obviously, is it surprising to discover that she's not actually done anything to merit this fresh burst of attention. Not unless you include a splendid photo op at Rolling Thunder in Virginia and DC and now some kind of patriotic bus tour designed to, well, god knows actually but perhaps test some of the waters for a presidential campaign or something. Whatever.

Memo to the press: she's messing with you. Sure, you know this and you love it too even as she refuses to tell you where she's going, forcing reporters on the Palin beat to spend half their time stalking her and the other half filing blog posts and articles about being co-opted into appearing in the latest episode of Sarah Palin's political and celebrity game show.

And let's be honest: she's exceedingly good at it. She knows just what to say and what to do to provoke maximum irritation. Her role is, I think, now to be defender of American Values and Chief Tweaker of Liberals and the Lamestream Media. This is not altogether unworthy: parts of the American media landscape demand to be tweaked. Nevertheless it's further evidence to support my long-held view that Palin's celebrity, while still catnip to editors, will eventually damage her political prospects.

Sure, Andrew Sullivan worries that she might even be so in love with her celebrity that she'll launch a third-party bid for the Presidency but, come on, eve by Palin's improbable standards this seems improbable. Besides she's having much too much fun right now. Annoying people is what she likes better than almost anything else. She is, in other words, a Troll.

But even some trolls have a limited shelf-life. When the GOP race begins for real, Mrs Palin will have to make a decision. I've previously assumed she will run because when the race begins all the attention will be on the runners not those who declined to enter in the first place. Much Beltway wisdom still insists she won't run, largely because she's not doing any of the things insiders think she should be doing if she were serious about running. This seems to be some kind of category error. Why do they think Palin would listen to the people she considers one of her many types of enemy? Or, of course, she may just be freestyling as she goes along. Which is fine too.

Even so, assuming that celebrity is now an important part of Palin Inc, running carries a risk too. What if she loses? (When she loses, that is.) Defeated primary candidates are washed-up every four years and most of them are almost never heard from again. Palin may belong in a different category but her appeal, to some extent at least, rests on the myth that she and all she stands for were betrayed by John McCain and his dastardly advisors. If she runs her own campaign and loses at least part of the marty myth must be damaged. And it's that sense of victimhood that seems to lie at the heart of Palin's political persona. In the end all the boasting and rather good jokes and stunts and provocations can't quite cover-up the self-pity at the bottom of it all.

So if she runs she runs and that's fine. We can all enjoy it. If she doesn't run we may all be granted license to forget about her. In the meantime her undoubted flair and trollish truthyness will continue to provoke her foes and cheer her devotees. But what, after that, does she offer? Precisely - and that will become a problem. Sometime.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/6990605/sarah-palin-troll.thtml

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