More Bloggers on the Bus – Chapter 13a, Alaska Blogs and the End of a Very Short Era.
14 07 2009
There’s no doubt it’s been an unbelievably bizarre ten months on the Last Frontier. I don’t know if there will ever be as much political drama again. Our sleepy little state, content to grouse over our own brand of colorful local political corruption, was completely unprepared for what happened on August 29. The woman who many considered barely, if at all qualified to be the governor of our sparsely populated state was now going to potentially be a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. And bloggers who had been following Palin’s unlikely career were horrified as much by John McCain’s reckless and uninformed political gamble as by Palin’s reckless and uninformed acceptance of his offer.
The only thing as startling as how she rose to power, was how she extricated herself from the governorship. Eric Boehlert of Media Matters tried to capture the phenomenon of the Alaska blogosphere in Chapter 13 of his excellent new book Bloggers on the Bus. Unfortunately, the book came out before the end of Palin’s political career in Alaska. But the strange circumstances surrounding her hurried departure from state government demanded another chapter.
Palin will go on, and so will the bloggers. What direction she and we will take is uncertain, as are all things in the future. But, for now, we still live in speculation, in that murky grey three weeks of lameduckitude to which Sarah Palin has resigned herself.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:52 PM
This paragraph gave me nice chills. Wow, our hero Alaska Bloggers! Thank you all.
And the phenomenon can all be traced back to that morning in late August when word first broke about Palin’s ascension to the national stage. That morning, liberal bloggers at sites like Alaska Progressive, Mudflats, Celtic Diva’s Blue Oasis, Just a Girl From Homer, Kodiak Konfidential, Own The Sidewalk, What Do I Know?, Alaska Real, AndrewHalcro.com, and Immoral Minority began tapping away at their keyboards…. They didn’t realize it right then, but within just a matter of days, Alaska bloggers would emerge as one of the most important local newsgathering sources of the entire election season.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:19 PM
Lee323 (35)
BTW…..CBS poll out last night which found only 33% of Republicans believe Palin has the ability to be POTUS. Let’s keep it that way, eh?
_______________
It seems odd that a whopping 33% of Republicans feel she “has the ability to be POTUS,” another poll states that 70% of Republicans would vote for her as POTUS.
I understand that was two different polls, possibly making this an apples vs oranges point, it still makes me wonder.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:29 PM
After the Alaska polls, I no longer have any faith whatsoever in polls.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:17 PM
I’m in the chatroom if anyone cares to join with me!
July 14th, 2009 at 8:24 PM
…and here we thought she was the lesser of two evils with “Uncle Frank”. Thank GOD she resigned (quit). I’m thinking that weird language she speaks is as convoluted as her motives. …and we thought it was crazy when Hickel joined the dept. of the Interior just as the (oil) pipe line was being pushed. “crazy” like a fox? I’m hoping “spoiled celebrity” is the end of her.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:14 PM
@ Nan #52 Re: polls
———————————————————
The wording of the actual questions in polls is important in understanding the polling differences.
The USA Today poll from last week showed that 2/3’s of Republicans would like to see Palin as “a major national figure.” The vague term, “major national figure,” can range all the way from the position of POTUS…. to dear Sarah standing in the middle of the reflecting pool on the National Mall with pigeons perched on her head. (I’m personally leaning toward the pigeon gig for her).
USA Today poll link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-07-palin-poll_N.htm
In contrast, the CBS poll this week actually asked the respondents if Palin had the ability to effectively serve as President. Only 33% of Republicans would say that she has the ability to serve as President.
CBS poll link:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/14/poll-majority-of-republicans-dont-think-palins-qualified-to-be-president/
I suspect that a good deal of credit can again go to our outstanding Alaskan bloggers with respect to the latest polling results. Even though there was a “sympathy bump” for Ms. Victimized Palin amongst GOP voters after her foaming-at-the-mouth-heart-palpitations-ragged-breathing resignation speech, the bloggers were immediately busy exposing the lies behind her spreadsheet farce and the alleged zillions of dollars that ethics complaints were costing the state…….not to mention raising questions about the REAL reasons she quit.
Yep, Americans reeeeally don’t admire quitters, especially ones that lie about their reasons.
On the other hand, it’s patently clear that the Alaskan bloggers are no quitters. Cheers.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:22 PM
When are they going to write a book about conservative bloggers, specifically about the ones supporting our soon to be ex-governor “Bloggers on the Short Bus” And the thing I appreciate most about our Alaska bloggers is that if they make accusations against Sarah or whomever, they have the facts to back it up, not anecdotal evidence.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:32 PM
AKM- How about a button that says “I quit but I twit..SP”?
July 14th, 2009 at 9:39 PM
zyggy-is that $200,000 off the top of the reported $750,000 raised since January. If so and it comes to campaigning for a national office, $500,000 seems like a pittance!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:04 AM
I’ll still stop by to check on news of Brian!
July 15th, 2009 at 1:16 PM
#18, July 14th, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Writing from Alaska Says: ” “Unkind twitter tweet from SP – referring, I assume, to Andrea McLeod; “Are these constant, wasteful thumped-up ethics charges result of not caving when the filer begged for job?”
Yes, thumped up – but we all have trouble spelling on our key pads. Andrea may have applied for a job, did she BEG?? ” ”
I don’t believe $Quitter’s Snark about McLeod re: a state job, because I remember Andrea as a very intense and vocal community activist more than 20 years ago – that was before the first ‘job’ $arah quit, as a sports-caster intern.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:09 PM
AKM- How about a button that says “I quit but I twit..SP”?
July 15th, 2009 at 8:09 PM
AKM- How about a button that says �I quit but I twit..SP�?
___________________
Smarry
the best price for best entertainment