By Patrick
The good old Sarah Palin madness started again, although some people are still in denial. But let me thank our brilliant readers first: The collection of links and stories in our comments is simply invaluable. Poor Kathleen went to bed already several hours again with a bad migraine, and when I came home today after a tiring working week, I was so glad (as usual) to see all the collected links, news and facts in our comments. This makes it so much easier for us to prepare new posts. Thank you, everybody, and keep up the good work!
Sarah Palin's bus tour starts with a propaganda blast and the usual Palinesque chaos which in the end makes her appear a "victim", as usual, as always, as it was to be expected.
SarahPAC today released this propaganda video for the bus tour - fodder for her gullible fans:
Then there is the usual chaos surrounding this tour, but don't expect that it will make Sarah look bad, because it's so totally not her fault, it's just the others who always get their facts wrong, you betcha.
Andrea Mitchell interviewed Ted Shpak, spokesman of "Rolling Thunder", who said that Sarah Palin was "not invited", that the organizers heard "yesterday through a press release" that she was coming, that the event is not political and that he considers Sarah Palin to be a "big distraction":
Even Ben Smith from Politico, who is known to be incredibly careful in his criticism of Sarah Palin, smelled the blunder and felt compelled to declare:
"Palin invited herself to motorcycle rally"
But he should have known that Sarah Palin makes no mistakes. It's always the others who get it wrong. She is the victim. Do you get it, Ben?
Oh yes, he did - just about one hour later:
"Palin had invite to bike rally"
She had an invite from Alaska! She is the victim. How could the lamestream interview a spokesman who clearly had no idea what he was talking about. How mean of Andrea Mitchell! Sarah, they are all picking on you for no reason as usual!
It's not very difficult to predict that similar "confusions" will probably happen a gazillion times in Sarah Palin's "sphere" during the next 12+ months - and that the "lamestream" will dutifully report each other's "mistakes" as far as Sarah Palin is concerned.
But we have a real discovery, and strangely enough, a Palinbot made it: Sarah Palin uses exactly the same tour bus for her upcoming "One Nation" bus tour that she used for her reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska!"
A right-winger posted this picture on twitter (click to enlarge):
The busses are not only identical - in fact, even the number plates are the same! It's the same bus, without any doubt.
So what the heck does that mean? On the bus, there now is a huge sign with says:
"Paid for by SARAHPAC"
Is everything paid by SarahPAC, including the bus? Who is the owner of the bus? Who paid for it when it was used for her reality show "Sarah Palin's Alaska?" Did SarahPAC secretly finance parts of the reality show as well?
So many questions - so few answers. This would also be a good title for a Sarah Palin biography. ;-)
In the meantime, Lawrence O'Donnell doesn't believe that Sarah Palin will run for President:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Lawrence O'Donnell is certainly entitled to believe that, and he received much praise for his stance for example in the comments at Huffington Post, and I believe that a number of our readers will agree as well. But I don't agree at all, and I find it quite painful to watch how Lawrence O'Donnell mocks the New York Times because they chose to take Sarah Palin seriously.
His comparison to Donald Trump is as flawed as it can get. Sarah Palin has prepared her run for President for years, and everybody who has closely followed her story also should know that she is virtually been eaten up by her desperation to become President. She is much cleverer than Lawrence O'Donnell realizes: She doesn't need to follow the "usual script" for a presidential candidate - because she always got away with doing it "the other way." Giving speeches to enthusiastic fans, hiding behind facebook and twitter, producing a reality show, produce additional propaganda through more staged events like the bus tour, giving interviews to pro-Palin journalists - that's her dream, and she is just about to live it. Because she is allowed to do it, by the people she despises, by the "lamestream." At some point, they might wake up, but until then, Sarah Palin will be able to do a lot of damage.
Thankfully, the New York Times understands as well that the comparison to Trump is flawed:
But Mr. Trump’s was a brief dalliance with presidential politics that almost appeared to have been done on a whim. Ms. Palin, by contrast, has been moving slowly and methodically for several years. Aides have said for months that she wanted to be in a position to run for president if that’s what she decided to do.
Ms. Palin and her aides revealed few clues on Thursday, which leaves a lot of people in Washington and around the country guessing.
Yeah, but I am not guessing. Please don't look for sanity or logic in Sarah Palin's actions. She is a mad cow on the lose. That's really all one needs to know.
Just in: The Washington Post makes fun of Sarah Palin's upcoming movie and publishes an imaginary script:
MORGAN FREEMAN (voice-over)
Ahem. My name is Sarah Palin. I was born and raised in a small town called Wasilla, Alaska. I’ve spent my whole life trying to escape it, and the rest of the world has spent its whole life trying to return me there, like a package with insufficient postage (chuckles). I wanted a reality TV show. They said, “Fine. Go back to Alaska.” I wanted to govern a whole state. They said, “Fine. Go back to Alaska.” I wanted to be Miss Alaska. They said, “Sorry, that’s just not happening.”
EXT. SOMEWHERE ELSE IN ALASKA – DAY
Sarah stands with Todd. We can only see her feet, because the camera is hidden in some bushes.
SARAH
I’m not going to be engaging in too much of that fictitiousness that I’ve been hearing about, in regards to that stuff in the chitchat, that I’m running with regard to hoping for the attention and the fiscal value and not feeling that good belly-fire. But in the unmortal words of Ronald Reagan, “Give me liberty or give me death, and Sarah Palin should be the President in the future, not of the future, or, as some amongst us say in regards to the future, ‘winning,’ but with and amongst, amongst the all-Americans.” Joe here knows what I’m talking about, don’t ya ,Joe?
TODD
I support you, Sarah, but I’m not sure what you just said actually makes any sense.
Bristol salsas past the camera.
BRISTOL
I’m here too! I’m shy and withdrawn, just like my new chin.
Andrew Sullivan's vendetta against Sarah Palin reached a new milestone on Friday after he insinuated that the former Alaska governor was somehow akin to Adolf Hitler. Sullivan referenced Leni Riefenstahl's infamous pro-Nazi movie after quoting a former Palin spokeswoman on what he labeled "the upcoming propaganda movie,'Triumph Of The Will''The Undefeated.'"
But there is something which I have been asking myself. We all know that Sarah Palin hates to give interviews to anyone who cannot be considered to be a faithful supporter - but did Adolf Hitler actually give interviews to the press?
I originally thought that he didn't. However, I was only half-right. Interestingly, there is a very fascinating story on the record about an attempt to interview Adolf Hitler - in 1931, by an American journalist. The story was published in 1936 in Harper's Magazine and can be read here.
The encounter was Hitler wasn't a success - but it surely was expensive:
Hitler’s secretary, a nervous little man who clattered like a teletype, introduced me. Herr Hitler paced back and forth in an almost unfurnished room. He wore black, which set off rosy cheeks against a dead white face. A lock of hair over his forehead frequently got in his way and he pushed it carefully aside. In civilian clothes he appeared far slimmer than in pictures in uniform.
The secretary read to him from my list of questions. None of them was particularly provocative. Hitler answered like a man who has lost all conversational tones. Everything was double or triple forte except the greeting and the farewell. Er brillt, as the Germans say.
“A Fascist government in France and a Nazi government in Germany – then the two nations would understand each other. . . .
“The Jews? Can you shoot flies with machine guns? By the way, you aren’t Jewish, are you? Your name is the same as that of the Jew police commissioner here. . . .
“Put the unemployed on the marginal land. . . .
“Between Germany and the United States there should be nothing but increasingly good relations. . . .”
The secretary said softly, “That was your last question.”
“Thank you.”
“Auf wiedersehen!”
I added. “I shall write this and send it over for your signature.”
“Certainly. With pleasure.”
I sent a copy of the interview and felt satisfied. Hitler had said nothing startling but it was the first interview he had given for many months.
Four hours later a messenger brought me an envelope. In it were the pages of the interview. Every line and every paragraph was crossed out, not neatly but savagely, with many blurs and blots. One line remained: “Between Germany and the United States there should be nothing but increasingly good relations.” Signed, Adolf Hitler. For that astounding fact I had paid two hundred marks. Possibly some of the things said did look brusque on paper but I had written them as they were spoken.
So here we have another politician who didn't like to have his words twisted by repeating them verbatim. Certainly "Triumph of the Will" (1934) was much more enjoyable from his point of view.
How to end on a more humorous note? After all, we can have so much fun with Sarah as well.
Twitter came to the rescue, where I just spotted the following clips from 2008 - have a relaxing Friday evening, everybody!
Please re-tweet:
http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/74281299195604992
http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/74281766013239297
http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/74281926063685632
http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/74282294642352128
http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/74282690605621248
http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/74282971175190528
