Hear! Hear!

Major Party Honors

For Sarah Palin ?

A major political party may be honoring former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, according to uninformed party outsiders who requested anonymity. The revelations came in an after-meeting apologue with cocktails among the party’s national committee.

“She’s done so much for us!” said one character, who added “and she hasn’t asked us for one dime for doing it!”

Palin is currently on what is being billed as a book tour for her memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.” Some political analysts have suggested the tour is less about selling books than about keeping her political image fresh, but she’s drawing enthusiastic crowds and the book is ranking at the top of Amazon.com’s bestseller list.

Palin’s love/hate relationship with the national media continues with a dustup over a Newsweek cover photo of her in super-tight-and-short running gear and a spate of snide reporting about her confusing Iraq and Iran.

“That’s just what makes her so valuable to the party!” was the explanation offered by another commenting pol. “She’s doing things that no other politician out there would dream of doing and she’s doing them consistently.”

Palin was Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain’s surprise pick for the veep slot in the 2008 presidential campaign. She brought a style and command of both the facts and issues seldom seen on the national political stage.  Less than six month after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44^th President, Palin announced her resignation as Alaska’s governor.

“Former Gov. Palin and the crowds she draws are exactly the sort of thing we need to energize our base and draw the contrasts between us and them,” one party workhorse explained. “She’s really helping voters to understand the difference between what we offer and what the other side is pitching.”

Palin’s family life has been the subject of some media coverage since her unwed daughter Bristol delivered a baby boy and the expected marriage to the baby’s father, Levi Johnston, got sidetracked. Johnston, meanwhile, has posed for Playgirl.

“Those are just real-life, everyday issues the voters she attracts deal with in their own families and the contrast Gov. Palin makes with the way others handle those things has been a major asset for our party’s reach-out efforts,” a senior party official beamed.

Others were no less effusive in their praise of Palin, who is considered by many to be positioning herself for a 2012 run at the White House, talk she coyly turns. But there was no coyness in this meeting as the party elders filled their glasses and the most senior among them rose and said “Ladies and gentlemen, to Sarah Palin and her future!”

“Hear! Hear!” chorused the members of the Democratic National Committee.

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Gov. Go Go’s Going – Where?

Alaska’s Governor Go Go contributed a big firecracker of her own to the nation’s July Fourth weekend celebrations by announcing that she was now Governor Going, soon to become Governor Gone. But gone where?

Sarah Palin told a surprised world Friday that her work as governor of Alaska was done, and that she would resign with about a year and a half to go in her first – and only – term. That prompted speculation and comment all over the political playground:

n Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, already dealing with a flurry of zipper problems on the U.S.S. Elephant, now has to contend with a loose cannon firing bird-brain shot through the gun deck. Maybe an Appalachian Trail hike would clear his head.

n Sarah Palin cleverly shows that the best pro-active defense against a presidential campaign charge of “She can’t even run Alaska!” is to stop running Alaska.

n Sarah Palin’s keen hunting skills have given her an appreciation for being in the crosshairs, as unnamed prosecutors look to add a pair of red high heels to their trophy case – speculation that the FBI at least felt compelled to deny.

n She knows you get elected in the Lower 48, so she’s got to get out of Alaska and into the mainstream media spotlight. Besides, Alaskans and Alaskan media are on to her.

n She’s too much in the mainstream media spotlight and maybe dropping out for a while will give her a chance to kick back and read her second newspaper.

n Having Maureen Dowd say in The New York Times that “Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy” is just part of a clever strategy to solidify Palin’s anti-media base that doesn’t hold too much with all that reading stuff.

n Senator John McCain, whose gift to the nation was lowering Sarah Palin from obscurity to be his presidential running mate, reportedly said "she will continue to play an important leadership role in the Republican Party and our nation." (Of course, he probably thinks he will, too.)

The list could go on and on, which may also be part of the Palin strategy or simply indication that even the media finally got sick of the Michael Jackson story. If you’re interested in Palin, or just wonder how to imitate wonderfully a Beijing third-grader’s first attempted English essay, you can read a transcript of her speech and lots more on the excellent Anchorage Daily News page at http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/.

Here is a speech transcript passage from that source:

“Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out. And a problem in our country today is apathy. It would be apathetic to just hunker down and “go with the flow”.

“Nah, only dead fish "go with the flow".

If you understand how plodding along would appease those who want you to sit down, or how keeping your head down and continuing to plod would make you a quitter, and what any of that has to do with how dead fish float, then you too could be Governor of Alaska, or maybe even President of the United States.

You betcha!

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Gov. Go Go and Sen. Stormy –

Steele’s 2012 GOP Dream Ticket?

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has the unenviable task of shepherding two candidates into what figures to be the 2012 model Obama Republican Shredder, unless he strips away his blinders and sees a winning ticket as Mother Nature made one.

If he keeps the blinders, he’ll only see the likes of Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, to name a few. But if he sheds those blinders, he’ll see the greatest Republican national ticket since Reagan-Bush.

The pulsing, throbbing political passions these two candidates inspire are guaranteed to arouse the Republican base.

We refer of course to a Republican 2012 presidential ticket of Alaska’s Gov. Sarah Palin and the person many in politics call a real comer, Stormy Daniels, who has an exploratory committee looking at a 2010 race against Louisiana’s Republican Sen. David Vitter.

Governor Palin’s candidacy speaks for itself, which is fortunate since her speaking performance as Senator John McCain’s running mate got mixed reviews. But it introduced her to the national stage you betcha. Her ability to balance the Golden Ager at the top of the ticket with the Miracle of Life provided by her unwed pregnant daughter, all the while keeping an eye on Russia across the Bering Strait and shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue made her the stuff of legend.

Rather than being cowed by national media milking the issues of unprotected sex and Saks, she became the go-to person for lively quotes in the McCain campaign, a Governor Go Go on the national stage.

Ms. Daniels is a veteran of films noted for exceptional wardrobe cost control. She brings excellent face recognition to the ticket, with similar results on all body parts. Although some questioned whether a star of porno flicks could perform in the United States Senate, supporters said her experience and the long list of Senators caught with their pants down would be a good fit.

Ms. Daniels film positions are many and well recorded. For others, she has a forthcoming book, according to her exploratory committee’s website, “Stormblazer! Stormy Daniels and the Triumph of Responsibility.” Her exploratory website splash page doesn’t declare a party affiliation.

As he considers the implications of a ticket featuring Palin and Daniels, Steele’s job is probably made easier by recalling that while Daniels is comfortable on top, she doesn’t need to be there to perform well.

The wide-appeal fundraising possibilities alone of a Palin-Daniels ticket make it worthy of serious consideration. Donors could be offered a chance to explore field dressing or undressing with each candidate demonstrating their particular skills.

It’s not known whether anyone has approached RNC Chairman Steele with these ideas before. The Republican National Committee website splash page informs us that “Chairman Steele is listening to social media,” so anything is possible, including Republican wins in 2010 and the big one in 2012.

You betcha.

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Weekend Tids and Bits

Governor Go Go Is Right for a change in a way not connected with the political spectrum. Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin visited New York City and went to a Yankees game with her 14-year-old daughter Willow, prompting CBS Late Show host David Letterman to make a joke about Willow getting “knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” The governor snarled and Letterman offered a half-hearted, half-baked apology that boiled down to saying he meant to insult Bristol, Palin’s 18-year-old single-Mom daughter. That’s supposed to make it better? With Palin herself working so hard to keep comedy writers across the nation busy, her kids should be left alone. Those who want to follow the result of John McCain yielding to the Dementia Side of The Force should bookmark Anchorage Daily News’s politics reporting at http://www.adn.com/politics/ and take a look at http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/.

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Saudi Arabia’s Tentative Steps to the Twelfth Century continued in June with the showing of a movie in Riyadh, the first such wild and crazy behavior in more than three decades. No women allowed of course, and no girls over the age of 10. Still, conservatives in the kingdom demonstrated against the obvious slide to decadence that could lead to –gasp! – mixing of the sexes. Contact between unmarried men and women is very strictly prohibited in the oil-rich kingdom. No wonder those camels always look nervous.

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Newspapers keep “preparedness” obits on hand so that when some notable sounds a final note, the obit is ready for quick updating and publication. Now that newspapers themselves are stumbling towards the Last Checkout counter, whoever will do the obit should ponder this tidbit: only about an average 14 percent of a paper’s operating budget goes to produce content. The rest is gobbled by printing, delivery and the suits who supervise. Look for more and a link at: http://news-cycle.blogspot.com/2009/06/moody-analyst-newspapers-cost-structure.html a page in the News Cycle blog.

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Magazine covers shouting doom are hardly new and not limited to Time Magazine, but the venerable news weekly has had some doozies. They’re neatly presented at Reason Online, the web presence of Reason Magazine. Look at http://reason.com/news/show/134038.html and enjoy the yucks that 20-20 hindsight makes possible. And enjoy it while it lasts, because if daily new publications are keeling over, weekly news publications shouldn’t be making long-term plans.

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Here’s a look at what we discussed this week:

n Monday we talked about child care tips for fathers that are very unlikely to come from mothers (or allowed to continue once discovered). http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/06/fathering-tips-fathers-day-is-less-than.html

n Tuesday was a ho-hum day talking about Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor’s broken ankle and Alaska’s Governor Go Go being accused of plagiarizing Newt Gingrich. http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/06/news-is-busting-out-all-over-actually.html

n Wednesday was Federal Follies day as we follow our government’s relentless attempts to drive common sense out of the public arena. http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/06/federal-follies-current-edition-tuesday.html

n Thursday’s topic explored free speech issues that develop when an employee says unkind things about a customer and an employer raps knuckles, Not a real sexy issue, but an important one if you’ve ever told your Facebook buddies that your boss needs the front half of a horse for a complete life. http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/06/mind-your-mother-revisited-seems-like.html

n Friday covered the strange turn of events in Washington, where things are actually getting done. http://larryblaskosaid.blogspot.com/2009/06/strange-washington-signals-things.html

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