Nothing But Palin

Sarah Palin visits the Tonight Show

2009-12-12T05:52:00Z

Sarah Palin dropped by the Tonight Show Friday night (eat your heart out, David Letterman) to read a few choice excerpts from William Shatner's autobiography -- a counterpoint to Shatner's earlier reading from her new book.

She performed nicely. In fact, it may have been the best public presentation we have ever seen her give -- polished, each line perfectly timed and delivered with panache.

Here's the clip:

Palin's new book - let's hope it's juicier than what's been leaked so far

2009-11-13T01:50:00Z

The goods are out on Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue: An American Life, and guess what? She didn't get along all that well with John McCain's campaign staff. Let's hope there's newer, juicier stuff in it than that. Otherwise, you'd have no reason to buy Palin's memoir from my Sarah Palin Sex Tapes Online Store, where it is on sale for the outrageously low price of $9.

We can't have that.

There are a few interesting tidbits in the parts of Palin's book that have leaked. For instance, she says she granted Katie Couric the famous interview that helped define Palin to the voting public as a dimwit because she felt sorry for the newswoman -- she'd heard Couric suffered from low self esteem.

And Palin complains that the McCain campaign stuck her with the $500,000 attorney bill from the vetting process. (No wonder the poor woman had the leave the governor's office to go out and make big bucks.) The campaign would've covered the cost of vetting her, Palin says she was told, if she and McCain had won.

Palin has started her media blitz to promote the book in earnest, spending this week in New York taping interviews. She even taped an interview on Thursday with Obama-pal Oprah Winfrey that's set to air Monday.

Maybe she felt sorry for Oprah, too.

Bristol's babydaddy: 'Marital problems' caused Palin to step down

2009-08-11T20:50:00Z

This is a crappy, sleazy interview, and I feel dirty for printing a link to it. But, hey, it's my job.

Bristol Palin's babydaddy (I suppose I should say ex-fiance or something but Levi Johnston, with his possum grin and laid-back manner, strikes me as more the babydaddy type)...

But anyway, Bristol's babydaddy says Sarah Palin stepped down from office because she was having marital problems. Well, first he says she's stepping down because she's "taking the money," an apparent reference to her plans to earn money to defray legal costs resulting from an ethics investigation.

But then, asked point-blank by the so-called reporter is the Palins were having marital problems he says "yeah, from day one" and goes on to say he thinks that was a factor in her decision to step down as governor.

Is Palin borrowing a strategy from Nixon?

2009-07-05T04:05:00Z

Did Sarah Palin resign as Alaska's governor in order to spend full time preparing to run for President?

If so, the New York Times contends, it's a risky strategy.

In a story posted to its website Saturday, the Times recalls that Richard M. Nixon announced he was retiring from politics for good in 1962 after losing his campaign for reelection and failing to win the White House two years earlier.

"In fact," the story says, "Nixon used the next six years to quietly refurbish his image,building ties with the conservative wing that was becoming ascendant in the Republican Party, ingratiating himself with Republican senators and candidates forgovernor by campaigning on their behalf, and becoming better schooledin issues."

Palin, however, is at a different place in her career than was Nixon. While conservative Republicans adore her, she is viewed disparagingly by many of the Republican Party's elites, the paper says, and has grown increasingly unpopular both in her state and nationally.

And, unlike Nixon, who hadbeen a vice president, a senator and a member of the House, Palin's credentials are weak. She has been the mayor of a small town and, by resigning, she gives up the right to claim she has served even one whole term as governor.

"Without a positive record of accomplishment as governor, Ms. Palin may find she has little to run," the story says.

Vanity Fair looks in on Sarah Palin

2009-07-04T08:03:00Z

Much of the talk about Sarah Palin's decision to step down as governor of Alaska centers on the question: Why now? In her rambling announcement, Palin mentioned the "full-court press" of attacks aimed at her. It's hard to believe this extremely readable Todd Purdum story in the August issue of Vanity Fair wasn't one of the things she was talking about:

"What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that apublic official who often seems proud of what she does not know is notonly accepted but applauded?" he asks early on. "What does her prominence say about theimportance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in publiclife? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—longregarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyallyworking for her election even after they privately realized she wascasual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency?Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiestsurvivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’sinjustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and anoverdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked aperson whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job allbut disqualified him for his?

Purdum continues:

In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdomamong Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that sheshould go home, keep her head down, show that she could governeffectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domesticpolicy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has donenone of this.

Nope. Doesn't look like she'll be doing any of it now either.

It's a great read. Have a look.

Is this any way to run for President?

2009-07-03T23:56:00Z

What a shocker?

When John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, the only qualifications she could point to were being mayor of her hometown and serving part of one term as governor of Alaska.

She announced Friday that she will not finish that term. She's stepping down by the end of the month. Why? "No more politics as usual," she said. Over and over.(See the video after the jump.) She also said lots of other stuff. She talked about basketball a lot. And a refrigerator magnet that says: "Don't explain - your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway."

The magnet should've added: "...unless you're governor and you're resigning in the middle of your first term."

The closest she came to an explanation: She's not going to run for reelection, so she's quitting now to avoid being a lame duck.

Since she did it at the start of the 4th of July weekend when everyone is tired of hearing about Michael Jackson, TV pundits will dissect her decision to death. Already, a panel on Lou Dobbs concluded to a man that it's "political suicide."

Some are theorizing that she's quitting so that she can earn money from speaking engagements and other opportunities unencumbered by office. Others say she plans to spend the time between now and 2012 staying in the public eye in preparation for a presidential candidacy. Still others say she's leaving before some still unknown scandal breaks (sex tape, anyone?).

Time will tell.

Sarah Palin: Guardian of the Northern Frontier

2009-06-09T03:07:00Z

Hey, we found this cool cartoon shooting game on Politico. Now we're addicted.

Sarah Palin: Guardian of the Northern Frontiergreat free widgetsWidgetbox

MILF no more. Nation's hottest governor now a GILF

2008-12-30T05:39:00Z

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is now a granny, People magazine reported Monday. Palin's unmarried 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, gave birth Sunday to a 7-pound, 7-ounce boy. The baby was named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, according to the magazine.

Bristol and Levi Johnston, her babydaddy, reportedly are considering a summer wedding.

The pregnancy became publicly known just as the Republican National Convention was beginning last September, when Bristol still was 17. The news caused Palin's critics to question her credentials as a social conservative as opposition started to build against John McCain's choice of Palin for vice president.

After the campaign announced that the couple planned to get married, Johnston -- a former high school hockey player who dropped out of Wasilla High School to become an oil field apprentice electrician -- attended the convention with Bristol.

The soap opera that is Palin's life took another turn earlier this month when Johnston's mother was arrested on felony drug charges after state troopers served a search warrant on her home. Authorities say she sent text messages to police informants discussing the illegal purchase of illegal pain killers.

Palin spent more on clothes than we knew

2008-12-05T19:20:00Z

You knew it wasn't over, didn't you?

It looks like the Republican National Committee paid more for Sarah Palin's fashion and grooming than has previously been disclosed.
A new report filed with the Federal Election Commission shows that $54,900 was paid to Palin's fashion stylis. At least, that's what the New York Times suggests in what appears to be a hastily thrown together blog report.

The money went to “Lisa Kline & Co.” for "Consulting-Campaign." Kline's name previously appeared on much of the $150,000 in charges that already have been reported. That money went for clothing and accessories from luxury stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Kline has never returned reporters' phone calls to discuss the matter.

The "campaign accessories" purchased in the new report again came from Saks and Neiman Marcus and other stores, including Victoria's Secret, Brook's Brothers, Ann Taylor, Macy's and Target.

Palin (and the woman who beat her as Miss Alaska) campaign in Georgia

2008-12-02T23:47:00Z

Republicans in Georgia treated Sarah Palin like a rock star on Monday -- what else is new? -- but Democrats had Palin on their minds, too. That's because Maryline Blackburn, the woman who beat Palin in the 1984 Miss Alaska pagent, sang the national anthem at an event Monday night.

She was inroduced by Jim Martin, the Democratic senatorial candidate, as "Georgia's own Miss Alaska."

Georgians vote today in a runoff election between Martin and Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss.

Blackburn, who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, is a singer who has recorded four albums in the pop, rock, R&B and gospel genres, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She's lived in Atlanta for 22 years, but she grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska. Palin was first runner up in the competition.

Blackburn's first impression of Palin (then Sarah Heath): "Oh my god, she’s gorgeous -- she’ll probably be the one who wins."

Then she says she noticed something else, something the rest of the nation now knows:

“She had this look about her, this look in her eyes that tells you she’s calculating, figuring out ‘How am I going to win this competition,’ ” Blackburn said. “There was a determination there.”

Talking turkey with Sarah Palin

2008-11-22T06:14:00Z

After performing the traditional Thanksgiving ceremonial function of sparing a turkey's life, Sarah Palin cheerfully chews the fat with reporters as a blood-splattered worker slaughters turkeys right behind her.

Sweet.

The question now: Can Palin write?

2008-11-18T03:41:00Z

Publishers are chasing Sarah Palin and they're waving cash, according to news reports.

"She clearly has a constituency and we know books by conservatively-centered politicos usually sell very, very well," a spokesman for Random House told the New York Post.

And it's not just publishers. There also is the possibility of her own TV show and cable news commentary gigs.

"Her buzz is incredible," said Linda Mann, who books celebrities for TV. "She has car-wreck appeal. You're compelled to watch, hoping she'll say the dumbest things possible."

A public relations hot shot, however, cautioned that she'd better watch what she says or writes -- it could haunt her should she seek the presidency in 2012.

"If she plays a game and looks foolish, if she sounds like she doesn't know what she's talking about -- like saying Africa is a country -- she may talk herself out of a political job," he said.

Palin: A woman on 2012 ticket would be 'good for the party'

2008-11-12T21:33:00Z

When we predicted that Sarah Palin wouldn't go away after the election, we had no idea she'd be quite this visible.

The woman is everywhere -- on Fox News, on CNN, on NBC...on every TV and radio program in America, seemingly, talking about plowing through God's open doors and going rogue.

Why, the other morning on the Today Show, it even looked like she was auditioning for her own cooking program, dishing up moose chili while chatting with Matt Lauer in her Anchorage kitchen.

Speaking at the Republican Governor's Association on Wednesday, Palin talked up the benefits of having a woman on the Republican ticket in 2012 but did not directly say that she would run for President.

"It would be good for the ticket," she told reporters. "It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation."

Earlier in the week, she addressed her political future with Greta Van Susteren, saying she'd ploy through any door God opened for her.

Palin says her anonymous critics are 'jerks'

2008-11-08T07:32:00Z

You didn't really think she'd vanish from view, did you?

On her first day back in her Anchorage office, Sarah Palin spaent time chatting with reporters. The unnamed McCain campaign aides who've maligned her in recent weeks are "jerks," she says. Palin bashing intensified this week with anonymous sources calling her and her husband "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast" and telling reporters she didn't know what countries make up North America.

Palin will have lots more to say next week. She's scheduled to speak with Greta Van Susteren for an hour on Fox News Monday night.

There are reports she's been inundated with interview requests. We may hear more from her in coming weeks than we did during the campaign.

Anonymous Insiders: 'Palin couldn't name countries of North America'

2008-11-07T05:24:00Z

Sarah Palin is back in Alaska but back here in the Lower 49, we can't stop talking about her. This clip from The O'Reilly Factor provides a nice summary of the blistering allegations that have been (anonymously) leveled against her.

Our favorite part is when Bill O'Reilly essentially says, "Yeah, ok, she's stupid, but people can be coached and shown a world map -- there must be something more."

McCain concedes graciously, Palin parties deep into the night

2008-11-05T05:27:00Z

As Barack Obama's supporters celebrated across the United States -- indeed, the world -- Republicans, for the most part, were pretty glum after election results came in. The Republican exception was Sarah Palin. An anonymous contributor sent us this photo of Palin celebrating deep into the deep, long after John and Cindy McCain had gone to bed. We wonder how long ago she had those T-shirts printed up.

Whatever happens Tuesday, you'll always have Sarah

2008-11-04T05:09:00Z

Missing her already? You don't have to.

Let's say McCain and Palin lose on Tuesday (as the TV pundits are trying real hard not to say out loud) and Palin defies everyone's expectation and slinks back off to Alaska to the wilds of Alaska to shoot caribou and make more sex tapes.

What do you do then?

Yeah, there's the Sarah Palin luv doll, but maybe that's not your style.

Don't worry. Surely there's a Sarah Palin action figure just for you. They come in a variety of flavors - plain vanilla, Tomb Raider-style heroine (complete with gun and thigh holster) and -- our favorite -- the Sarah Palin school girl action figure.

Whatever happens Tuesday, you'll never be Palin-less again.

President Palin in the Oval Office

2008-11-03T22:34:00Z

This is fun. Let your cursor wander around the screen. We'll late posting this, but cut us some slack. The blog has only been up a couple of days. We'll be playing catch up for a while.

Sarah Palin sex doll - insurance against post-election Palin withdrawal

2008-11-02T20:12:00Z

Win or lose, it's a safe bet that Sarah Palin won't retreat from the national eye and consciousness anytime soon. But if she does hightail it back to Alaska, the legions of horny, conservative men who formed the core of her fan base won't have to go cold turkey.

Topco has created an inflatable Sarah Palin sex doll to help them get through those cold Democratic nights, according to The Frisky.

"This is NOT Sarah Palin," the box says, right next to a photo of a busty Palin lookalike in a conservative business suit with her blouse unbuttoned.

“Cross party lines with your own inflatable running mate!” the box says.

Topco promises: “This blow-up sex doll could really satisfy the swing voters.”

No, she didn't...please tell me she didn't

2008-11-02T12:54:00Z

You never know what to believe these days, especially when you stumble across it on the interwebs. But this sure sounds real. I don't know how Keith Olbermann missed it (or maybe he didn't -- we can't stand to watch the Sputtering Lunatic anymore), but it sure sounds like the good governor was tricked (Borat-like) by a Montreal radio personality into having an absurd phone conversation with someone she thought was the president of France.

Sort of makes you wonder how her meetings with real foreign heads of state will go should she and McCain win the election.