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Ok, I'll weigh in. As many of you know, I'm not sold on candidate Palin yet. Nevertheless, 2nd Div Vet is right: this is Steve Bannon's movie. I know Steve. We briefly discussed him producing "A Patriot's History of the United States" before I decided to have another director do it.

Steve, not Palin, is deciding when and how to roll out his movie. This is "bidness" to quote Eddie Murphy. I know Bannon believes in Palin and her message, but he also has a hefty investment that he has to recoup. The more press buzz he can generate, the better. He knows he'll NEVER get a fair review from any of the mainstream news orgs, but he can get them to cover the story of how they aren't being let in . . . and thereby generate tremendous publicity.

I have no doubt that this will be a huge commercial success for Bannon. Whether it will change a single undecided vote or not, who knows?

And Vet, you're right: this is no different than a premiere event somewhere else, where the film company pays the police and security (I think probably as much hoping that the police will catch the lefties in some act of lunacy as in actually protecting the theater). It's quite common to rent an entire hotel, like the Palms, or a theater, like Graumann's, for a premiere event and for the company to put up the security.