Tina Fey Reprises her Role as Sarah Palin

First and foremost, I apologize for the light posting recently. I have been traveling and these travels have resulted in some interesting and very exciting opportunities which I will announce in an upcoming post.

With that being said, and to start off the week on a light note, Tina Fey returned to Saturday Night Live this past weekend and reprised her role as Sarah Palin. It gave me several laughs and I thought I would pass it on to all of you:

Palin's Lawyer Threatens to Sue Blogger and the Myth of Palin's Destruction by the Media

A couple of additional notes on the resignation of Sarah Palin from her tenure as Governor of Alaska. Palin continues to level charges against the so-called "mainstream media" and bloggers who she thinks have given her unfair treatment and who have reported rumors as fact. Most notably, Palin's attorney Thomas Van Flein issued a statement which threatened legal action against Shannyn Moore, a blogger for the Huffington Post who has written about possible ethics questions surrounding the construction of the Palin house:

Van Flein wrote in his Saturday letter that the Palin family built the Lake Lucille house using Palin's husband, Todd, as general contractor. It said Todd "is no stranger to construction."

"The Palins used a combination of personal savings, equity from the sale of their private home, and conventional bank financing to build the house, like millions of American families" Van Flein wrote.

Van Flein's letter threatening legal action specifically pointed the finger at Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore as "most notably" claiming as "fact" that Palin resigned under federal investigation.

Van Flein, asked why he singled out Moore, said it's because she went on national television and talked about it. Moore was on with MSNBC's David Shuster on Friday, the day Palin said she will resign.

How did Moore respond? By holding a press conference and saying the following:

On the Fourth of July, when Americans everywhere were celebrating our most sacred national holiday with parades and barbeques, Governor Sarah Palin was busy having me, Shannyn Moore, declared an Enemy of the State.

In a rambling quasi-legal letter, the most powerful person in this state accused me of defaming her for pointing out the fact that there have been rumors, -rumors- of corruption, rumors that have been around for years.

When Sarah Palin gave her three-weeks notice to the people of Alaska, aborting her term as Governor, a lot of people wondered why she quit. Mid-level managers turn-in their notice, not elected public officials. It didn’t make sense. It still doesn’t. People have been trying to guess why she really quit, and everyone in Alaska has been playing the guessing game. They’re rumors. There are a lot of rumors. And with all the corruption we’ve had here in Alaska, of course we wonder what’s really behind her resignation.

Governors don’t just quit. But Governor Palin did.

The governor’s massive overreaction -on the Fourth of July no less- should make any reasonable person wonder what’s wrong with her. The Lady protests way too much. Eventually we’ll all find out why she really walked off the job.

Sarah Palin is a coward and a bully. What kind of politician attacks an ordinary American on the Fourth of July for speaking her mind? What’s wrong with her? The First Amendment was designed to protect people like me from the likes of people like her. Our American Revolution got rid of kings. And queens, too. Am I jacked-up? You betcha.

Sarah Palin, if you have a problem with me, then sue me. Shannyn Moore will not be muzzled!

Palin began claiming that the so-called "liberal media" was out to destroy her after she was announced as John McCain's running mate last August and continues to point to Tina Fey and Katie Couric for helping to take her down. Let me just say that there have been some mean-spirited and untrue things that have been written about Palin since she was first announced as McCain's running mate, but for her to assert that Couric's interview was "gotcha" journalism or that Fey's impersonation (which borrowed heavily from Palin's actual transcripts) were unfair or a plot to take her down, is ridiculous. Even during her rambling and confusing resignation announcement she made reference to the media:

Some say things changed for me on August 29th last year – the day John McCain tapped me to be his running-mate – I say others changed.

Let me speak to that for a minute.

Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations – such as holding a fish in a photograph, wearing a jacket with a logo on it, and answering reporters’ questions.

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn’t been cheap - the State has wasted THOUSANDS of hours of YOUR time and shelled out some two million of YOUR dollars to respond to “opposition research” – that’s money NOT going to fund teachers or troopers – or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the “politics of personal destruction” … Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn’t cost them a dime so they’re not going to stop draining public resources – spending other peoples’ money in their game.

It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now. I know I promised no more “politics as usual,” but THIS isn’t what anyone had in mind for ALASKA.

[...]

In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children (where the count was unanimous… well, in response to asking: “Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children’s future from OUTSIDE the Governor’s office?” It was four “yes’s” and one “hell yeah!” The “hell yeah” sealed it - and someday I’ll talk about the details of that… I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.) Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we ALL could learn so much from someone like Trig - I know he needs me, but I need him even more… what a child can offer to set priorities RIGHT – that time is precious… the world needs more “Trigs”, not fewer.

and over the weekend Palin has tweeted things like:

Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to not run again....

and...

Trying to keep up w/getting truth to u, like proof there's no "FBI scandal", here's link http://tinyurl.com/nzlae8 Thanks, AK!

I wonder what Fox News contributor Liz Trotta has to say about Palin's complaints about the media coverage (this may surprise you!):



Forget Liz Trotta, I wonder what Sarah Palin herself had to say in August, 2008 about Hillary Clinton complaining about media coverage:



I really hope that Palin will not use her resignation to claim that the media helped to force her out or to establish herself as a kind of political martyr. I can't imagine that angle would get much mileage except for with the right-wing base of the Republican Party that already believes that this is the case. Greg Mitchell, author of "Why Obama Won" wrote a piece titled "The Myth of How the Media Destroyed Palin". A clip:

It's been amusing to observe, in the past few days, Sarah Palin hit the media (from blogs to the New York Times) for causing all of her troubles, even threatening to sue some of them for "defaming" her. She's even tweeted the charges, repeatedly. It's been equally fun to read some of those who backed her and John McCain last fall now admitting, after her resignation speech, that she is a true lightweight. This was apparent to most Americans within days of her emergence on the national ticket late last summer.

[...]

In fact, in the months after the November election, we heard from pundits and disgruntled GOPers that the media helped elect Obama by attacking, or mocking, Sarah Palin. These critics still allege that she gave John McCain a big boost in the polls when first named and that she would have help drive him to victory -- if not for the allegedly unfair treatment by Katie and Tina Fey and those mean bloggers and all the rest.

But this is not true. The myth should be put to bed once and for all, as Sarah finally crosses that bridge to nowhere.

In fact, Palin never really helped him except with the GOP "base," which he would have won over anyway. She never had broad-based appeal and, as I have written here previously (and in my book, Why Obama Won), McCain had been fooled by false media coverage of the purported huge number of Hillary Clinton fans -- women and the working class -- who were eager to bolt Obama for the GOP. This never came to pass.

In reality, the undermining of Palin happened well before the networks and SNL got to her. The polls proved it. Her home state paper, the Anchorage Daily News was quick to expose elements of her past that raised questions and just days after she was named, the Fairbanks, Alaska daily called her choice by McCain a silly one. And the evidence mounted from there, within days.

More than anything, McCain was hurt by shattering his strongest calling card -- "experience" -- by picking a neophyte to serve one heartbeat away. Now, some conservative pundits who long backed her now may be reaching the same conclusion as evidence has mounted.

Reality is elusive to someone like Palin and to borrow from Stephen Colbert, in Palin's eyes, the truth often has a liberal bias.

Sarah Palin Resigns as Alaska's Governor

Sarah Palin has announced that she is resigning as Governor of Alaska:



So why did she resign? In Palin's words:

And there is such a need to BUILD up and FIGHT for our state and our country. I choose to FIGHT for it! And I'll work hard for others who still believe in free enterprise and smaller government; strong national security for our country and support for our troops; energy independence; and for those who will protect freedom and equality and LIFE... I'll work for and campaign for those PROUD to be American, and those who are INSPIRED by our ideals and won't deride them.

I WILL support others who seek to serve, in or out of office, for the RIGHT reasons, and I don't care what party they're in or no party at all. Inside Alaska - or Outside Alaska.

But I won't do it from the Governor's desk.

Of course the odd timing of this resignation, as well as her rambling resignation speech, have led many to speculate on the "real" reason that Palin is stepping down.

There is one report from Andrea Mitchell at MSNBC that indicates Palin is fed up with politics altogether and wants out:

Speaking on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell reported that, according to "people very close to Sarah Palin," she has "told her supporters that she is out of politics, period. She is fed up with politics. She doesn't like her life. She feels that she needs to raise her family. She's sick of the commute from Wasilla to the capital. And she really does not want to run for higher office, that this is not a case where she is stepping down in order to clear the way for a presidential run. In fact, she has told some of her biggest backers in the national Republican Party that they are free to choose other candidates for 2012, which of course opens new avenues for Mitt Romney, for Tim Pawlenty, for other potential candidates who are definitely in the running."

There are also people speculating that Palin resigned in order to make some money before running for the Presidency in 2012 and then you have those who are saying that Palin is resigning in front of a big scandal that is about to break. Max Blumenthal on The Daily Beast:

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.

SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin's snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice's Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

As of right now, analysts can only speculate, but it must be noted that Palin's resignation probably doesn't make a lot of sense if she plans to run for President in 2012. It would seem to me that she would at least want to have served a full-term as Governor to be able to tout that qualification if she was going to run for the nation's highest office. It would probably even make more political sense to run for re-election so that if she was planning a Presidential run, she could at least tout that she was elected to a second term.

What doesn't seem to make sense is if she is planning on laying low and playing the "the liberal media forced me out" card before running for President in 2012. While that may have some appeal to her conservative base, I can't really see that as a political strategy that would give her the type of widespread appeal that she would have to rely on to get her through the primaries. In all other normal situations, I would almost put money on the option that her resignation has something to do with an upcoming scandal. The abruptness of her decision as well as the odd timing really sets off my political scandal radar, but I need to remind myself that we are talking about Sarah Palin. Palin is not a normal political candidate and her decisions do not always make rational sense. Maybe she really is planning a run in 2012 and thinks that this is her best option. Time will certainly tell, but something tells me that the story of Sarah Palin's political career is not over just yet.