PJ: Most of the world looked at the media-created Sarah Palin phenomena as a Hollywood styled bad movie. Promoting a woman who was clearly unqualified to seek the office of the Vice President of the United States sent shivers down the collective spines of the world. Luckily she lost that bid. Shockingly she quit her day job as governor, giving bizarre reasons that simply amounted to the fact that she was not strong enough to take the heat. That should have been her end but the media continued to beat the drum for her, hanging on her every tweet. Had they let her sink into obscurity then, the embarrassing spectacle of a will-she won't-she seek the presidency gambit would have never taken place. After all, Palin had the thinnest of resumes and her so-called accomplishments in her 18 months as an active governor were more smoke and mirrors than reality (she actually served over two years but many of those months were spent campaigning for VP). Her two main accomplishments were ACES, her signature tax on oil producers, was recently overturned and the gas pipeline she touted during her VP campaign was never built and has been deemed a failure.
Only in America could an intellectually lazy fraud receive such attention and be discussed as a potential leader of the free world. Only in America.
The Guardian
Sarah Palin's worst week ever
The former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has had a terrible week. What can we do to help her get over it?
By Hadley Freeman
Poor Sarah Palin has had a truly terrible week, one that really proves the ol' maxim that men plan and God laughs. Or, in Palin's case, a woman plans and the lamestream media, once again, reveals its screwy priorities.
After four solid years of what one really, really, really must not describe as cockteasing the media with hints of an eventual presidential run, and a summer of touring the country in a bus wrapped in images of the constitution at a cost of $14,000, Palin at last chose Wednesday of this week to announce grandly that she will not, in fact, run for president.
This is because, as Palin told Greta Van Susteren of Fox News last week, the title of president would in some way "limit" her, and especially her ability to be a "maverick", and definitely limit her ability to earn money from Fox News acting as pundit from the TV studio they built for her on her property.
Presumably she expected – and with good reason (a phrase one rarely employs in connection to Palin) – to be front page news the next day. Never mind that her candidacy was always going to be much less of threat to the Democrats than that of, oh let's say, Chris Christie, who also announced that he would not run this week.
It's very, very hard not to imagine Palin grinning in anticipation at all the attention she would, once again, take away from the actual candidates by her announcement that she is Too Big To Run.
And then, that west coast geek had to go and die.
Yes, Steve Jobs had the temerity to die on the day Palin made her announcement – or, to be strictly accurate, for talk show host Mark Levin read out her announcement – meaning that all the talk in the papers the next day was of Jobs and how he changed the world blah blah and Palin was bumped to page 14.
The only talk about her was along the lines of "Is the Sarah Palin industry doomed?" and other dimly heard voices about how Palin would slip away, like a Slinky, or Beverly Hills 90210, or any other once seemingly inescapable cultural fad and in just six months time we'd all look back and wonder what madness had briefly possessed the land.
So, like I said, it's been a bad week.
But not one without redeeming points! SarahPAC, Palin's very own political action committee founded in 2009, has at least $1.4m in the kitty, and, now that she's not going to have to spend it on all that boring campaigning, she can spend on herself.
This might sound a little dodgy, not least because some of the money very likely came from SarahPAC's last fundraising drive just a few weeks ago when it sent out letters to her supporters telling them that "Gov. Palin is on the verge of making her decision... Someone must save our nation from this road to European Socialism. Do you think it should be Gov. Palin? If so, can you send your best, one-time gift to SarahPAC today to help her elect more common-sense conservatives - and show her that we support her if she decides to run?" But that's only because you're unAmerican / don't love your country / don't understand the constitution / [insert any other phrase here from the Palinbot].
Now, leaving aside the frankly disrespectful suggestion that it is likely Palin knew as far back as, ooh, when she stood down as governor of Alaska that she was not going to run for president and therefore this whole candidacy flirtation was, as that heretical imp Jon Stewart suggested on The Daily Show on Thursday night, little more than a money-making scheme for her. Like I said, we're leaving that aside.
But what to do with that $1.4m? I've seen Nick Broomfield's documentary, Sarah Palin: You Betcha!, and I've seen how little there is to buy in the town of Wasilla, Alaska. I couldn't even see a Juicy Couture up there. Poor Willow!
Obviously, Palin COULD use it to support other GOP candidates and help their campaigns, but seeing as that would take a kind of selflessness and desire to help others get into the spotlight that she has heretofore not displayed, I think we can dismiss that . But what else? Seeing as Palin, one imagines, has quite a puss on, let's try to turn that frown upside down by putting forward some suggestions how she can spend her $1.4m, now languishing there with nothing to do.
Go on 9.3 shopping trips
Palin and her family (in)famously spent a widely reported $150,000 or so of Republican funds on clothes and make up when she was picked by that kingmaker, John McCain, to be his VP candidate. Back then, in that more innocent time of January 2008 when Politico broke the story, this was seen as quite shocking. Even downright disgusting.
But now that Palin basically earns that amount per minute from her various lucrative speaking and publishing deals, it looks like mere pocket change. Sarah, enjoy the shopping spree. You've earned it. "Earned"? No, that's not quite right. You've got it, anyway.
Get Tim Pawlenty elected and then double it
Tricky, this, because Pawlenty has, strictly speaking, dropped out of the race. However, details have never bothered Palin before and she should really get behind this one because Pawlenty's economic plan suggested a $1.4m tax cut for the top 0.1% of US taxpayers. Because they need the break, you know, times are tough!
Build a super-church
One of the most fascinating details to come out of Broomfield's documentary is the importance in Palin's life of the Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church and a pretty evangelical one at that.
In the film, former schoolfriends of Palin recall how she would ostracise people at school if they weren't in the Assembly of God, and there are brief clips of her as an adult in the church and doing, let's just say, some pretty wacky stuff .
The church has certainly shaped much of her world views, or at least, her vocalisation of them: the emphasis on the apocalypse, the suspicion of science, homophobia, and so forth. After all, nothing proves spirituality more than stirring up fear and hate.
So maybe Palin could now prove her much-vaunted spirituality by building a big ol' church, possibly with a giant gold statue of her out in front, just as God intended. Lovely!
Set up a drugs rehab centre
While Wasilla might have only come to most people's attention when Palin first emerged onto the national political field, this small town already had quite an impressive accolade: the meth capital of Alaska.
In 2007 alone, 42 meth labs were uncovered in the Wasilla area by authorities, and seeing as this was almost six times more than were discovered just four years earlier, that suggests that there is possibly quite a lot o' cookin' going on in Palin's smalltown USA today.
So maybe Palin could style herself as the Betty Ford of the north and open up a clinic. Or maybe she could do pig all nothing, just as she did when she was mayor and just sit around with her thumb up her butt.
Run for president
Running for president is a big deal! It's real expensive! And it requires a constitution-wrapped bus! This could be the ideal nest egg to kick off a campaign – oh. Wait a minute.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/hadley-freeman-blog/2011/oct/07/sarah-palin-worst-week-ever?newsfeed=true
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