Posted on 01/03/2012 6:32:07 PM PST by reformjoy
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Editorial by John Ziegler
Sarah Palin: Selfish, Hypocritical, Sellout
1/3/2012
As surreal as it may be, after spending over two years and several thousand dollars defending Sarah Palin at great personal cost, I now find myself in the bizarre position (three years to the day from starting the journey to Wasilla to do the interview of record on her 2008 VP run) of being perhaps the only conservative commentator willing to point out that Palin has now clearly revealed herself to be a selfish, hypocritical, sellout.
While she was doing her presidential tease (an act that I actually bought because I didn’t think she was capable of such contemptible deceit), I wrote an extremely long essay for the Daily Caller detailing why I thought a Palin run would be horrible for the cause of beating President Obama. At that time, I was roundly (and wrongly) criticized for betraying her, when in actuality I was being very kind to her personally and sincerely trying to save her from embarrassment.
Back then, I still honestly liked and admired her as a person. The events since then strongly indicate that I was totally wrong to give her the benefit of the doubt as a person. I don’t know if the unprecedented and unfair circumstances that she has had to deal with since 2008 have changed her, or if, like Tiger Woods, I was simply completely fooled by her from the beginning. But I do now know that she is worthy of a heck of a lot more contempt than portions of the base and the vast majority of the conservative media are currently holding her in.
A quick glance of the most recent past may help the scales fall off of your eyes like they finally did for me.
First, she not only put her supporters through an incredibly selfish presidential “tease” that she clearly contrived from the beginning, but when she finally revealed her deception, she did so on the Mark Levin radio show. This was inexplicable not because she didn’t do it on Fox News (which got some media attention), but because she broke her nationally televised promise to make the announcement on the Bob & Mark Show out of Anchorage.
This may not seem like a big deal at first, but keep in mind she made a huge production on the finale of her Alaskan reality show that Bob & Mark would be the first to know about her plans. Apparently, by the time she was ready to say “never mind,” rebuilding her Alaskan “ice cred” was no longer seen as very important. Neither was her loyalty to two long-time supporters and friends. Bob & Mark are just two of many people I personally know who have sacrificed for her only to be left by the side of the road for no apparent reason.
Then there is that matter that her political action committee sent out a fundraising e-mail the week before her “decision” which overtly sent the message that supporters could help her pull the trigger on a presidential run by donating immediately.
Obviously when that was sent out, Palin knew she was not running for president and yet when she was asked (ironically, only by Bob and Mark) whether her PAC would return the hard-earned money her supporters surely thought was going to a particular cause, she lamely claimed that people who donated to her PAC did not think they were donating to her prospective campaign. Unbelievably, no one else in the media (on either side) called her on this outrage.
Then there is the issue of her endorsement of another candidate for the Republican nomination. I have never understood how any political commentator could ever not make an endorsement in a presidential primary on their side of the ideological fence, but when you are Sarah Palin and you claim that you “don’t need a title to impact change,” such an omission is particularly incomprehensible.
After all, if she won’t exert her power in a Republican presidential primary, when would/could she ever?
The reality is that Palin hasn’t endorsed for the same reason she didn’t run. She knows that she has almost no influence and a remarkably small base and she is smart enough to not use her stick because she knows doing so will reveal how tiny it really is. She has basically decided it is better for her TV career to still be thought of as somewhat potent, than to be exposed as being essentially impotent (a word, interestingly, she likes to use from time to time).
This non act of cowardice and selfishness was bad enough, but then today on Fox News Palin had the gall to essentially call for Michele Bachmann to get out of the race and endorse someone else.
For me this was the very final straw. I don’t even like Bachmann, but I was immediately livid.
Where does Palin get off telling the only woman who (unlike her) had the guts to get in the race to endorse someone else when she hasn’t had the courage to do that herself? The multiple levels of hypocrisy here would be staggering even for a liberal, but for a conservative they are simply off the charts. Then, finally, lost amid her attacks of Bachmann (whom she surely sees as a potential future rival for air time on Fox News) was her defense of none other than that total fraud and publicity whore Donald Trump.
In perhaps the dumbest stance she has ever taken, Palin called for those who are upset at Trump for threatening to run as a third-party candidate to “shut up.”
Let me get this straight, a woman who agrees with Palin on almost everything should get out of the race and do something she herself wont do, but a liberal con-man who could easily insure the second term of Barack Obama (which she has said must be prevented at all costs) needs to be vigorously defended?
Astonishing. But not nearly as astounding as the reality that she will somehow get a pass on all of this from a conservative media that can be a corrupt and mindless as the liberal version is on its worst day.
I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, but right now (while I still stand by everything that is in my documentary “Media Malpractice”) it is difficult for me to imagine making a bigger one than believing that Sarah Palin was worthy of all that I have tried to do to defend her.
My wife warned me about her almost from the beginning of my Palin odyssey. She presciently told me, “once a beauty queen, always a beauty queen.”
It now appears that she was right. Sarah Palin is, at least now, all about Sarah Palin and not about the cause. After the events of the past few months you can clearly see that reality all the way in Russia from land in Alaska.
John, I’d take all the boo-hoo-hoo about what a cynical little witch Sarah Palin is a lot more seriously if your entire career over the last few years, well, actually, a good portion of the political machine’s careers over that time, hadn’t been (and weren’t still) almost exclusively an attempt to profit from her and/or her supporters, one way or another. You people are completely full of crap.
HE has a wife.
The man is a complete nut. His new life is Romney so why is he writing about Palin.
HE has a wife.
The man is a complete nut. His new life is Romney so why is he writing about Palin.
I never saw that.
I’m not mad at her - I still like her just fine.
I’m still wild about Paul Ryan.
I’m just disappointed that...with Obama so ripe for defeat....that many excellent people took a pass.
The people running right now were not my first,second, third....etc....choice.
But my goodness - they ran didn’t they?
Kudos to them for taking on this Evil Empire.
My thoughts exactly. The groupies who idolized her now revile her. The people who supported her still do.
“There seems to be something creepy about this writer.”
Very.
No?? How about Game On?
Ditto. Guilty as charged. I saw Palin tonight on Fox. She looked like she just rolled out of bed. Her hair was a mess. She driveled on about nothing. She won’t endorse anybody. She won’t run. I’m am totally over it.
“I have to say I used to have a very good opinion of her, but that non-candidacy bus tour of hers was for what purpose? To go on tour, raise money and then say no is just plain erratic behavior that jerked a lot of people around.”
I think a gray, empty suit from a gray, empty political party made her an offer she could not refuse. Not to her benefit, but still one she could not refuse.
I don’t hate her - I defend her constantly on other sites. But many of you people worship her here.
I was just pointing out that Mr. Ziegler heard the same interview I heard yesterday - she defended Trump’s possible third party run, yet this very action keep 0bambi in the WH.
How can you possibly defend Trump doing such a thing? Sarah did.
I’m looking at a blank screen -maybe my laptop is missing the right magic dust to see that.
Wrong, but you probably already know that. She quit being governor of Alaska so that her family wouldn't be bankrupted by the endless stream of frivilous lawsuits which, even though she'd been in office almost two years, didn't begin until right after she'd been chosen the VP nominee. Every single charge had to be investigated, and were judged unfounded, but as soon as she left the office, the lawsuits stopped. Coincidence? I don't think so.
She got the gig with FoxNews, because the network determined she could bring more eyeballs to their shows. It was only later that she got the TLC show.
She had always said she'd make the decision whether or not to run in the Fall, and that's what she did. She had a lot at stake in her decision, mostly because of how it would affect her family. She knew that the MSM would continue their attacks against her children, and though she acknowledged that she was fair game, she detested the way they treated her children. And sadly, the Republican party didn't seem interested in criticizing the MSM for their actions against Sarah's family.
Well I hope your not referring to me because I worship no one(Except God of course) I support her absolutely, and I was one of the 1st to come here on this site when she said she was not running and said I respected her decision. When others were trashing her I said I fully understood why she chose not to do it, her family had been through enough.
As far as Trump goes, she said that she respects his right to run as an Independent but that it would only ensure an Obama victory. She said the same thing about Ron Paul, that if he runs 3rd party it would only help Obama win. She has said repeatedly that she will support whoever the Republican nominee is. She is good friends with Trump I think she was just defending him since he was under attack, but she does NOT support his run as an Independent(if that is what he ends up doing).
Ziegler sounds like a guy who got rejected by his prom date. He said that he had spoken to Palin and said that she should not run in 2012, that she would have a better chance in 2016, then he said months later if she runs and gets the nomination Obama will win in a landslide, now he’s upset that she went on Mark Levin’s radio show to announce she was not running instead of Fox News? Why does Ziegler give a damn what Fox News does? He sounds like a spurred lover, he really needs to get over himself
I saw her tonight on Fox too and what a change! She looked awful, such a beautiful woman where did it go? She didn’t sound coherent either, something is wrong.
Palin was extremely catty about Bachmann on FOX tonight.
Waiter, quick! A saucer of milk for the lady in red at the back table in Wasilla!!
I am sure tomorrow morning after a reboot and a cup of coffee you will see them just fine :)
I knew she wasn't running from the time the first posts appeared claiming she was. It was pretty obvious to me she had no intention of running. I never was one to follow a crowd off a cliff, and last Spring /early summer it seemed most here were sure she was running based on her activities.
She doesn’t like her..can’t say I blame her
;^\
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