Having said that, she's been an unavoidable presence over the last week in my readings. The Big Question has been "Will she run?" with arguments and counter-arguments flying back and forth. The best insight I have read into the prospects of a Palin for President campaign is this:
Her book and the way it is being promoted are perfectly calculated to sell books and not all calculated to get herself elected president. Flamboyant bridge burning, a book tour that pisses off fans while generating lots of media attention, a bizarre war of words with a trou-dropping teen-ager—these are all things that sell books and lose votes.I don’t think this is so uncommon. Maybe Sarah Palin is the first figure who has completely blurred the line between reality tv contestant and presidential hopeful, but I don’t think Newt Gingrich is so different. He’ll never make a serious run for president, but showing up on MTP every week helps keep him and his nonprofit in the pink. And it’s not just politicians—most of the regular “journalists” on the gabfests make a lot of money via speaking engagements.
It’s easy to miss this, of course, because it’s so rarely discussed. Howard Fineman and Cokie Roberts would never describe George MItchell and Tom Daschle and Billy Tauzin and Fred Thompson as the whores that they are, because what Cokie and Howard are doing isn’t so different. It’s all a big, lucrative circle jerk and no one involved wants it to stop.
2 comments:
[blah, blah, blah]...but I don’t think Newt Gingrich is so different. He’ll never make a serious run for president, but showing up on MTP every week helps keep him and his nonprofit in the pink.
This pretends that Democrats have the high ground here. We have a President of the United States who more or less routinely shows up on late night talk shows. No one stays away from the entertainment press anymore. Gingrich and Palin aren't doing anything that Al Gore is not doing today... except that Palin attracts more attention.
I don't think this is in the least partisan. It's an indictment of the punditocracy, and you should note the author explicitly includes George Mitchell and Tom Daschle as examples of the "media whores."
Palin & Gingrich are unique at the present moment because they are thought to be possible presidential candidates who use that cachet to increase their media profile. I don't think there's a Dem of that stature right now -- maybe Dean -- riding the gravy train. Frankly the Dems don't have a media star to compare with Palin at the moment. But they're in no way immune to the opportunity when it presents itself.
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