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Sarah Palin, the Musical
Eric Risberg / AP Photo
The media is ecstatic that the Palin show is playing again. And the timing of Going Rogue may be just right.
That Sarah Palin, what a tease!
This book tour of hers is one of the all-time great hoochie coochie dances. The tea partiers are lining up like rubes at the “Direct from Gay Par-ee!” tent at the Dingleberry County Fair.
The star attraction knows that you may take it off, but you don’t take it all off. As governor, she left the stage when she still had her political pasties on. As “author,” she knows that the key is to take off just enough to keep the crowd transfixed and wanting more, but not so much as to stand revealed in all her nakedness.
While Palin has been back in Alaska dictating imagined grievances to a ghost, America itself is mired in grievances that are all too real.
Maybe she doesn’t always get the proportions right, but it’s unwise to underestimate her. The timing of Going Rogue—a.k.a. “the most substantive book on policy” that Rush Limbaugh has ever read—couldn’t be better. The media are dying for relief after three months of health care, Afghanistan, and the economic slump. Obama’s cerebral aloofness makes him a cold fish in a hot medium, and Michelle, who used to provide the human crackle, looked as downcast as her husband’s latest poll numbers when peddling health care to seniors last week.
• Tina Brown: Sarah Palin Drops the Act While Palin has been back in Alaska dictating imagined grievances to a ghost, America itself is mired in grievances that are all too real. Palin is hitting the airwaves at a time when crossover voters in the last election have been left without prospects by the self-dealings of a callous financial elite. There’s a growing lack of connection to a passion-free president whose advisers all seem to be chosen from the same bloodless class. There’s an uneasy longing for something or someone to punish. Hence the desire on the right to prove, before there is evidence, that the Fort Hood shooter was a terrorist rather than a nut case.
• Michiko Kakutani: Memoir Is Palin’s Payback to McCain Camp (NYT)
• Max Blumenthal: Palin’s Literary Partners
• Gallery: A Palin Wardrobe Primer
• Lee Siegel: Leave Palin Alone
• More Daily Beast contributors on Palin’s book tour. Not that Palin betrays in Going Rogue the slightest clue how to provide any answers to the hornet’s nest of problems swarming around Obama. Her book offers just the usual stale jeremiad about "fiscal responsibility" and a need to return to the policies of Ronald Reagan. Anyone want to guess whether she’s found the time to read that copy of The Looming Tower that McCain adviser Steve Schmidt gave her when she joined the campaign so she could bone up on the roots of terror in Afghanistan? She spends so many pages trashing Schmidt in her own book we never find out.
One of the problems with the Republican argument right now is that government red ink isn’t your No. 1 bugaboo when you’re wondering how you’re going to hang on to what’s left of what you thought was your life. Just as the GOP’s representatives in Congress don’t seem to recognize that a majority of their constituents want a public option in the health plan (despite poll numbers resoundingly telling them just that), they don’t seem to understand that the American public is willing to load the government with debt if doing so will pull this economy back from the brink.
It’s an index of the fog we’re in that Palin’s confrontational ignorance still feels refreshing to a lot of Americans. With waves of sullen anger rolling through the country, her stringent vitality, her media mistakes, her unpredictability, and her pert victimology at least give us a reality show everyone wants to watch.
Someday there’s going to be a Broadway musical about Sarah, maybe based on the book. I see Going Rogue! (the exclamation point will be a must) as a blockbuster in the tradition of Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy, and Funny Girl. Or, come to think of it, Evita. Every 40-plus diva on both coasts will fight for the starring role. And there will be juicy parts for those cast as Todd, Bristol, and Levi.
What a hoot—except that this musical isn’t a comedy. Just by being out there again, Palin will fuel the tea party cranks, the talk-show ranters, and the suicidal wing of the GOP with the sheer force of her Q rating. To many people who feel marginalized and left behind, Palin’s brashness seems to represent clarity when in fact she represents ignorance. David Brooks might consider Sarah Palin “a joke” and “a potential talk-show host,” as he told George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. And he’s probably right that there’s no way she can actually get elected president. But that won’t necessarily stop her from getting the nomination. I have a persistent hallucination: Sarah Palin atop the GOP ticket in 2012, running with—yes, Lou Dobbs. Just to add a bit of gravitas.
Tina Brown is the founder and editor in chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times bestseller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Politicians Gone Crazy
Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
Nuld001
Tina,
Loved the write-up!
Sarah Palin w/Lou Dobbs on the GOP ticket = Vomit.
Must be the LSD talking that was slipped into your champagne!
Cheers
alaskagal
Those of us who have endured Palin's proclivities and pathological lying these many years are just so thrilled to have had a chance to share her with you all!
In the parallel universe between her ears, simply stating something makes it true.... From her campaign comments you would think she had actually built "a gas pipeline, the largest energy construction project in US history" and was ready to turn open the gas valve herself any day. She actually just gave a lot of state money to her allies at a Canadian firm to research the proposal. The gas producers themselves aren't interested in her pipeline and are doing their own thing. And there is barely even a survey marker to show for it all yet. But she touts this as her major energy credentials....the pipeline is "real" because the voices tell her it is.
mtseo101
Sarah Palin is Not a lier. True lier is Obama and Clinton. Calling Sarah a lier is calling your mother a lier. Be careful not to make judgement on yourself and your mother.
cbl99201
Tina, not bad, substantially better then some other columns of your's I've read. Actally, all Sarah needs now to top the Republican ticket is some good theme music. Any suggestions?
Matt572
Ain't No Rest For the Wicked - Cage the Elephant.
bigmacha
Theme song - It's Only Make Believe by Conway Twitty.
yeshe09
"Sexy Sadie, what have you done ?
You've made a fool of everyone ....." ( apologies to Paul and John )
but also "Fool on the Hill" and the 1812 overture ...and Jaws .....
debbieqd
Theme from JAWS?
piktor
"Gas Gas" --> MUST SEE TV:
http://bit.ly/tQ1HO
cbl99201
And the winners are.......yeshe09 and debbieqd for "Jaws" !! Please keep yor acceptance speeches short, least Kanye be tempted to disrupt them. ;>).
FrancisDrec
The Return of the Crazy One - Digital Underground
mtseo101
Nuld001, I think you are sick, mentally, spiritually. How can you not see the beauty & truth, the wholesomeness in Sarah? I guess you may never be able to reach to her level even if you may live 10 lives.
elcigueno
...And you need to read a Psych 101 book, especially the part about 'projecting your shadow on the percieved foe'...mmmm?
mtseo101
Tina is a sexist. Tina cannot deal with her own jealousy when she sees & hears Sarah Palin. Sarah is 100 times more woman than Tina. She has 100 times more truth in her heart than Tina's. She has wisdom and courage. God is with her. Wake up, and see the signs all around you. What kind of confused generation you are living in. This generation needs Sarah Palin.
chefbob50
this generation needs caribu barbie like a skunk needs more smell. If gaud is with her no wonder she's such a deluded f*#k
Granite
Thanks Tina, for brightening up my Monday morning!
marinepro2
While on the subject of Sarah jokes. How about pairing her with the other one--Silverman. One would be serious, politically savvy, engaging, bright, brilliant and Palin could do walk-on-stand-up, kind of be the comic relief. It'll be a sure thing. Your basic American voter would be mesemerized--which is all it takes to get votes.
piktor
By the time the musical is made the only obvious title would be "Saritah!", the subtitle: "Palinisin' you!, Palinize me!"
pennsykid2000
"Don't cry for me, O Wasilla!"
rjcrawford33
"confrontational ignorance" - that is sooo good, Tina.
liviapeacock
I hate to say it, but I too am enjoying Sarah's resurrection. I believe it will take over the entire week; but not go over into next week as much. She's so damn entertaining!
mkaiser
Not a huge fan of yours, Tina, but this was a great column up until the point that you equate Palin with ignorance. You're implicitly saying that those who believe in the principles she espouses are likewise lacking knowledge. How exactly is that accomplishing anything other that further dividing an increasingly polarized political citizenry?
bigmacha
What principles?
Perhaps you would be kind enough to share them with us and, at the same time, avoid the usual platitudes.
Thanks in advance for your clarity.
MTinMO
But Palin is ignorance. She spouts things- for example- she thinks Ronnie ended the estate tax, he didn't- and she doesn't really have a clue about the facts. She has heard it somewhere and runs with it. She can't actually do the work. Just as she had to hire a city manager right after she became mayor in Wasilla, a very small community that had never needed a mayor AND manager before, how she declared corruption was rampant in the Oil and Gas Commission she was appointed to so she could then quit with "justification" without having to prove she couldn't do the work, and as governor, where she surrounded herself with only those close to her so nobody outside her circle would know who was doing the actual work.
She IS ignorance. It is her middle name. The ignorance in those who love her is that they can't see beyond the perky front-woman who sounds like "one of them" and has just enough of the catch phrases and vomiting of the rhetoric. The danger is that some smart people in Alaska were fooled by her and helped propel her to the governorship. While I would hope there are enough smart people in the republican party to know that she is not presidential material, I will not hold my breath on it. They may be more blinded by the possible in taking back the White House than the true danger they would put this country in by getting her in office. And I do know of what I speak. I watched her rise in Alaska. I saw how she ruined the once beautiful small town of Wasilla, a town I once called home. I saw how she never really did the work. She did fool a lot of people, but I think a lot of them in Alaska have been awaken to the facts. I guess we will see if they love their party or their country more.
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n--Y--PDee55puddlejump
Your first named is Envy,
your second, Lazy Complainer,
and your Last--"I'd Rather Sit on My Butt and Whine at TDB than do anything positive"
Autopilot
Tina is attacking the engine that's driving the polarization. In her own words it's the "confrontational ignorance" that the GOP has adopted as a platform. This was born of the muscular anti-intellectualism that has plagued the Republican party (to our collective detriment) for the last decade.
In today's world we simply can't afford to be ruled by people who won't read. As Mark Twain said " A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read". Republicans have tapped into the vein of fear that results when people quit trying to understand what's going on around them. Capitalizing on this fear is a lousy strategy for the GOP and it makes for a dumb political party. Our system of government depends on a legitimate, intelligent, informed opposition. So encourage your friends to read - and not the same thing over and over. Challenge them to stretch those little grey cells. Our future depends on it.
mkaiser
Geez guys, I said I really enjoyed most of the column. But then I'm just an unprincipled, ignorant, polarizing kind of guy. And if Palin is a pathological liar, maybe you could help a politically incorrect fella with the proper term for Clinton's whoppers?!
Lindam11
Sometimes calling out the foolishness is important. There is a difference between pointing out weirdness and polarzing.
NanCMac
Hysterical! Thanks for the laugh, Tina. Tina Fey, get ready for Broadway....
now, who will play McCain?
henryviii
Brad Pitt, who else?
Chuckv
"As governor, she left the stage when she still had her political pasties on."
What a wonderful sentence. It says more than paragraphs of cogent political analysis. A clear victory of poetry over prose.
Llplo99
She is cheap entertainment and a musical of the Far Right nuts along with the tea parties, NY23 election, birthers, Prejean, Limbaugh and Dobbs would be hysterical.
Frivolous
Ms Brown's description of President Obama as passionless and cerebral is stupid. Americans should desire gravitas and calm in their presidents, not someone who is excitable and prone to snap judgments. I suspect she is speaking mostly from the position of a media person, for whom drama and chaos are bread and wine, and not from the position of an American, who wants a leader who can actually think.
koyaanisqatsi
Frivolous, I agree in part. Obama's calmness and cerebralness are greatly appreciated, by me at least. But, it would be nice to see him kick some Democrat and GOP butt occasionally, just to remind people that he was elected POTUS because he is forward thinking. He's trying to repair a country that was dominated and managed by the rearward looking GOP (don't change a thing, we're perfect as we are).
As for Palin's book, I it should be required reading for all Americans because, as Sun Tzu said, one must know one's enemy in order to prevail.
menckenlite
Obama's gang of sweet talking self-serving politicians are indifferent to the needs of ordinary citizens. They say they have compassion for vulnerable persons while passing laws to benefit wealthy and powerful interest groups. Palin's compassion and passion are real not manufactured. Gore, Biden, Axelrod and Emmanuel show no emotions. They are expert actors at appearing sincere. Palin's appeal is her genuineness something that Obama will never have.
Veronicaxy
Usually Tina's editorials seem geared more to provoke a torrent of comments rather than make astute points about our world (although they're always a fun read, and so are the comments).
This one got a laugh (While Palin has been back in Alaska dictating imagined grievances to a ghost) and a nod from me (To many people who feel marginalized and left behind, Palin's brashness seems to represent clarity when in fact she represents ignorance.).
She is the foil to Obama. The Obama admin needs to step up to the circus they're in. Bill loved being the ring master and relished the spotlight, therefore he seemed to know and love us. It doesn't have to be Obama, he can easily round up a clown or acrobat to take the light on his behalf.
But allowing the Repubs to be the loudest commentary voice is one of the Dems most frequent political gaffes, loud and brash is extremely effective.
brownjackson
But people who are that excitable don't tend to rise far in democratic or even republican politics. Obama's disposition is his weapon, while boring an al sharpton, jesse jackson, rush limbaugh, rachel maddow type will never get elected. (Note: I'm only comparing them as far as temperment). Obama is leaving a whole for a firebrand (he's unnervingly a lot like Dinkins) but he can't feel it. Hopefully whoever does, if they win pray to god their intelligent and articulate, and moreover informed. Dont see that happening, unless they hold competency exams for higher office.
loloo33
Tina Brown is one of the best writer, I always enjoy your work not necessary that I agree or dissagree, but your piece is always has this unusual charm and insightful thoughts. Thank you Tina.
loloo33
The poppularity of Sarah Palin shows how America is under fear, and willing to sacrifices everything it has. It's the same climate Hitler rose to the to. ,
Reenilou
Fabulous. And I agree with Chuckv -- your sentences pack all of the diatribes into concise, smart bits of observation. I, personally, love "To many people who feel marginalized and left behind, Palin's brashness seems to represent clarity when in fact she represents ignorance." Perfect, perfect.
Thank you.
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