Sarah Palin: Let The Rehabilitation Begin
She may be taking heat for a while and be blamed by some for McCain's losing the election, but as a I said a week or so ago, Sarah Palin is the new GOP rock star. Take a look at this from the Associated Press:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin hadn't been back home in Alaska for a full day and her staff had begun fielding requests Thursday for postelection interviews, including from Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey, Larry King and others.
What's noteworthy about these interview requests in that they're from programs with very mainstream audiences. This is not Meet The Press. She'll get softball questions about lifetsyle rather than substantive questions on issues. Palin is likely to shine.
My guess is that Letterman and Colbert will be on her list soon.
Don't think so
First off she's being touted as one of the reasons that McCain lost. And campaign insiders have nothing good to say about her (didn't know which countries were in NAFTA?, Africa is a country, not a continent?), and they've been generously spreading the stories about her lack of etiquette, and spending habits (showing up in front of staff wearing only a towel, asking low level aides to put tens of thousands in clothing purchases onto their credit cards). Low class stuff to be sure, and it paints a less than flattering picture of her character and intelligence.
But I think her worst, and most defining moments were her "real America" statements, and insinuations that Obama must be a terrorist because he was "palin' around" with Ayers. Obama's new press secretary, Gibbs, took this on quite deftly with Hannity, by asserting Hannity is an anti-Semite because of his associations -- a clever way of showing how ridiculous this tact was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgn6rjGbp0c
Post-election analysis would indicate that the Republican party needs to move away from the evangelist faction and these Rovian tactics, which Palin was known for in the campaign. Interesting interview with a former Republican senator:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27578776#27578776
They won't expand the base with Palin.