Quote of the Day – Those Darn Bloggers!
This in from The Wall Street Journal’s book report on Sarah from Alaska by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe. There are lots of interesting tidbits, but this one’s my favorite.
There’s not a lot [in the book] about why Palin resigned this past summer as Alaska governor after less than a full term, except that it had something to do with “the extent to which she had allowed her critics in Alaska to get to her. The woman who had steadfastly faced down powerful oil companies two years earlier had now become preoccupied with bloggers.”
heh heh
Wow…if bloggers could make her quit as governor what could make her simply go away now? I’ve read a lot of the same excerpts from the book on several sites…has anyone read the whole book? Is it worth the read? Does it say anything about how the campaign reacted to Palin’s failed Gibson and Couric interviews or her total lack of intellectual curiosity? Does it make mention of staffers shock or her total lack of basic knowledge? I know I should just pick up a copy and read it myself but I don’t want to read the thing if it paints her in a better light than she deserves.
NY Daily News – Sarah to be on Oprah and Barbara Walters: Will she do her homework this time? Looks like Walter’s is doing a five part series (ugh) on her and coming to Alaska to interview family. Levi’s winning the who is more relevant poll right now that is with the story.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/11/05/2009-11-05_sarah_palin_to_do_oprah_barbara_walters_for_going_rogue_book_tour.html
Yeah for the Bloggers!! I suspect it was more than just letting you “get to her”. IMHO she was afraid of what you would dig up.
Awww, congrats, AKM!
Mudflats deserves much of the credit for making $P quit, then. Take a bow!
Regarding “Sarah from Alaska,” it’s not really worth the read. It’s neither as smarmy as the already-published paeans to $P, nor as well-researched as the forthcoming books by Joe McGinnis and Geoffrey Dunn are likely to be. The cream, such as it is, has been skimmed off by columnists and bloggers who’ve previewed the book. The best part, in my opinion, is the description of $P markin’ up her “acceptance” and “concession” speeches for election night, and how McCain staffers turned the lights off on the stage in desperation in order to keep her from delivering any speech at all.
Can ANYONE write about $P without going into pages and pages of detail about her high-school basketball exploits?? We have yet to see a book that skips this yawny-trite stage of her life…
Oh, and it ain’t over yet! That book is part one of a 3 part series, I suspect.
Let’s go with those ethics complaints, Alaska!!
She could “face down” the oil companies (who were making record breaking profits at the time) because they were haggling over money.
Bloggers held an objective mirror up to her words and actions, and she didn’t like what she saw. Of course, she blames the mirror.
BABA WAWA will ask Sarah what kind of tree she would be, and Sarah will be stumped (pun intended)!
Bloggers exposed Sarah Palin for what she truly is: a political lightweight with no backbone to stand up to anyone except her fawning few.
Absolutely, Bystander!
Here’s how I imagine that conversation went:
Sarah: mirror mirror on the wall, who’s biggest wuss of all?
Mirror: why you are, my dear. ya quit on Alaska, didn’t ya? if that don’t make you the biggest wuss, I don’t what will.
* * C R A S H * *
Sarah: stupid mirror.
Curses you bloggers! First you take down the Alaskan governor, what next, the world? (are you sending subliminal messages through my computer screen?):)
AKM should embed the theme from Rocky or “We Are The Champions” or something.
Here’s to the Creepy Twit remaining in blogger hell for the remainder of her public life. If she’d slither back to her hole under the rock, we’d have better things to do. But alas, her forked tongue will dart & strike until her dying breath so we’re gonna be here for awhile. That’s OK – it’s a noble cause and one that must be done! Cute new jammies are on the way to save the day!
This yesterday on SP’s FB account……does this sound like Ronald Reagan? I couldn’t find the speech it is supposed to be taken from….just wondering…
To the tireless grassroots patriots who worked so hard in that race and to future citizen-candidates like Doug, please remember Reagan’s words of encouragement after his defeat in 1976:
“The cause goes on. Don’t get cynical because look at yourselves and what you were willing to do, and recognize that there are millions and millions of Americans out there that want what you want, that want it to be that way, that want it to be a shining city on a hill.”
The cause goes on
@8 MissSunshine Says:
Bloggers held an objective mirror up to her words and actions, and she didn’t like what she saw. Of course, she blames the mirror.
Her modus operandi assumes that “nobody will ever know”. Bloggers merely performed the job which had been abandoned by traditional news outlets.
Monday, November 16th – Sarah meets Oprah. TiVo.
AKM, she’s strong to the finish, cuz she eats her spinach. Flex, flex, flex.
She’s going to be on the news for a solid week (or more) with interviews. ABC is even coming up to do interviews with her family. I wish I could take a vacation to a non-English speaking country this silly season.
So…..MONEY is now being called “BLOGGERS”?
I don’t think Barbara Walters is any bigger fan than most of the bloggers. I’m really surprised that SP agreed to an interview with her. She can be a lot tougher than Katie Couric. Should be quite enlightening. It may be the closest we’ll ever get to another good interview – unfortunately, there’s no way Palin will really engage in any kind of discussion with bloggers, except the ones that think she walks on water.
I had to laugh at the list of cities that are not on her book tour because they are too Democratic. Ahem, glad to see that Seattle made that list, but I’m sorry she won’t be interviewed by anyone here.
All I know is that it is so refreshingly quiet when that woman doesn’t open her mouth. To learn that we will be inundated by her loud and obnoxious nasal twang for a full week gives me good reason to get my news from the more sane and vastly more intelligent PBS. Has the US lost its collective marbles? Other than Italy, I cannot think of another western country that would give this ignorant and spotlight-seeking babe so much air-time.
To all Alaskan bloggers who shone their intellectual spotlight on Sarah for us: thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am sure your state is very grateful as well. Wish you could do the same for Kansas – our governor is fine, but we have two of the most dogmatic Senators around! We sure could use smart bloggers on their trail.
That said, I think you all have your hands full with the post-Sarah fall-out.
Again, many thanks. You’ve done our country a great service in sharing your knowledge and doing such great investigative work!
I hope William Shatner reads the new Palin book like he did Palin’s Tweets and Levi’s Tweets recently
http://mashable.com/2009/11/05/william-shatner-levi-johnston-video/
What amount of interviewing material could Barbara Walters find on Sarah that’s worth a 5-part series? I cannot imagine how $P is going to swing it and sound believable. In this whole Sarah saga experience, the craziest part is that she believes she has something to say that’s relevant.
She’s going to expose the trainwreck that she is, and if any loving friends or family out there don’t want her to make a complete fool of herself, they should intervene. THAT would be the christian thing to do.
These family and friends interviews will undoubtedly be pre-recorded. No chance of a “miss-speak” blunder.
Reason being….
…is that the bloggers were doing the vetting that the McCain campaign miserably failed to do….and those “who were paying attention” are also doing the jobs of investigative journalists; that which the MSM has still failed in doing.
Keep up the great work!
I feel like the word “bloggers” should forever be preceded by the words “pajama-clad.” Or maybe in should just be one big long word.
I do love the story about the McCain campaign turning off the lights after his concession speech, as Sarah hogs the stage for her “close up”….
I can picture a fox hunt: Sarah, pursued through the AK wilderness by a bloodthirsty pack of mudpuppies, egged on by pajama-clad bloggers mounted on moose! Paging flyinyoureye, once again! To the hunt!
AKM,
A great big THANK YOU for being one of the bloggers that helped to scuttle the Tundra Twit’s political career. You have done the nation a great service.
Gasman, #29 you are right. I consider the AK bloggers national heroes.
And as for the rest of the “journalists”…. Not so much!
AKM,
Here is another great big thank you for your relentless work. I was led to your site about 15 months ago, or whenever Scarah scared the crap out of me. Found you through HuffPo and now I check in several times a day to you, Gyphen, Linda, Palingates, and Shannyn. All of you saved me from a nervous breakdown and hopefully will cause The Quitter to have one.
Let us pray !!
Congrats to all the vigilant bloggers who help keep us informed *******
You can’t have a democracry without an INFORMED public (the key word being ‘informed’). As it seems that fully all of Ms. Palin’s and Ms. Bachman’s and Herr Limbaugh’s and Herr O’Reilly’s cult-like followers would rather not be part of the informed public, I can only assume these same people would prefer to live in a more rigid and less-free type of country where only those with the loudest voices and the least tolerance would rule……………they certainly are not honoring the tenets of Democracy.
Sarah famously lashed out at bloggers who criticized her, yet now she is the blogger, hiding behind her Face Book posts, never coming out to explain her position and her thinking on any subject.
OMG, I am so thankful for all you Palin bloggers. I swear that you were my sanity during the election period & you are still my sanity now.
The reason: I actually had a co-worker say to me the other day, “Did you see SP has a book coming out in the next couple of weeks?” Another co-worker says to him what could she possibly say? She is such a nitwit. The SP lover (who absolutely HATES the government & authority & taxes, etc.) who said he would NEVER vote for a R or D said, “If she was running for president today I would vote for her in a NY minute.”
I guess I don’t need to mention that he is old & gets a you know what looking at her. God sometimes I think men are so stupid!!!!! Sorry to those men who have a brain like my husband…….
Yes, Palin quit because bloggers were getting too close to the truth on so many of her “gates”.
With various media units heading north, can we assume the Palin Compound will be toured and that we might find out what the additional structure will be for? Wouldn’t it be interesting if Barbara Walters’ researchers looked into the various Gates posted, and actually took the time to compare the Wasilla Sports Complex with the Palin house?
Has anyone thought to send the links to Barbara?
Don’t we have some posters who live in or near to Wasilla that could give us an update on the compound, or any local gossip from about town?
Maybe Barbara or Oprah will ask SP why she hasn’t accepted that dinner invitation. I would really love to see her squirm trying to answer that question.
Bein’ she is soooo supportive of our troops and all; ya know?
And she could have got away with it too if it hadn’t been for you darn bloggers.
Congratulations AKM, on a job well done.
Those darn bloggers, they always seem to catch me when I’m making stuff up.
@13 RouletteRog Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 9:45 AM
AKM should embed the theme from Rocky or “We Are The Champions” or something.
Oh, gosh, NO! Then I couldn’t sneak in here while I’m supposed to be working!
Thanks, all you bloggers, for keeping me sane.
All, this was on the open thread, but $P seemed to think reporters were “stalking her:”
http://trueslant.com/michaelhastings/2009/11/05/palin-accused-reporters-of-stalking-her-tried-to-intimidate-them-out-of-alaska/
“It wasn’t just frivolous ethics complaints that caused Palin and some of her staff to overreact to perceived menaces. In December 2008, we put [Walshe and Conroy] in a phone request to the governor’s closest aide, Kris Perry, to interview governor Palin for this book. Within minutes, Perry called back with Palin by her side and extended an open invitation to come to Alaska for the interview. “What’s in it for me?” Palin jokingly shouted into the phone. But the arrangement was revoked a couple of weeks later when Stapleton emailed us to say that the governor would no longer agree to be interviewed.We were disappointed but pleased that several of her friends and family in Alaska did agree to participate. One afternoon, while conducting interviews in Juneau, we decided to take a short walk to catch a glimpse of the governor’s mansion, which is located on a busy street in the heart of downtown. On our way back, we crossed paths with Piper Palin and two of her friends, who were evidently returning from school. We had known Piper as a frequent guest in the back of the plane during campaign flights between the cities. Her energy and humor made her a favorite among the ever-exhausted members of the traveling press corps, and she seemed excited to chat briefly with us about her return to Alaska…
“Okay, all sounds more or less normal. Then the freakout from Team Palin.
“We thought little of the unexpected encounter until about an hour alter when a voicemail arrived from an irate Sharon Leighow, the governor’s deputy press secretary. Leighow explained that a security official had notified the governor that piper had stopped to talk to a pair of strangers on the street and that we matched the description. Palin, of course, knew quite well who we were and that we were well acquainted with her daughter on a friendly basis. In fact, one close aide told us that Palin frequently used to encourage Piper to venture to the back of the campaign plane to butter up the press corps. But that didn’t stop Palin from dispatching an intermediary to attempt to intimidate us with a series of absurd accusations. Leighow accused us of “cornering Piper at her bus stop for comment.” Then she added for good measure: “We don’t appreciate you being here, and we don’t appreciate you stalking the governor as you have been.”
——–
Wasn’t she and her family stalking Wooten in the Troopergate episode?
Here’s a toast to you AKM & all Akaskan bloggers & all bloggers everywhere. As Martha UYS mentioned it’s time to stock up on jammies…it ain’t over til the fat lady sings.
Am going to guess that most of the networks – including Oprah – will shoot softball questions at MsQuitter – talk more of “what are you doing now” and “family” and “book” …. nothing about her building an Alaskan Estate to rule over.
And MsQuitter will blame it all on the “pj clad bloggers” that just kept nit-picking her under that guise of transparency she so often declared. Yes – she thought she took on the “good ole boys” when in fact she actually joined them (and looking at multiple fundraising sites – learned a few things from them).
She’ll talk about how precious life is (Trig & Tripp), how wonderful her life is (in AK with the family), how God made it all possible by opening another door (vp candidate to writing a book) and how evil the rest of us are in not biding by God’s choice to choose her.
Kudos to GeoffG – spot on!
It is evident that Sarah lives in an accountability-free zone. Her appeal is based primarily on two things – (1) who she is, a small-town mom with heartland values, and (2) the fact that she pisses off “elites”. These qualities do not require policy smarts or most of the other skills that politicians are normally required to possess to at least some degree, and are in fact inimical to them. A small town mom can’t be expected to know a lot about policy – that’s for “professional politicians,” which Sarah, to her alleged credit, decidedly is not. Thus, even her most ardent supporters among the far right reactionary intelligentsia (yes, that’s an oxymoron) say she has a lot to learn, but most view it as more of a feature than a bug.
When it comes to pissing off the “elites” who are “persecuting” her (as stated in the title of Matt Continetti’s book), the lack of knowledge works in her favor because it makes her look bad when she’s interviewed by people who expect her to know something about the issues of the day. If Sarah can’t answer a question from the dreaded MSM, it’s taken as proof of the MSM’s perfidy rather than Sarah’s lack of knowledge.
Imagine a kid who comes home with rotten grades – most parents would say “you’d better buckle down.” In Sarah’s case, the “parents” are saying “those rotten grades aren’t your fault, but your teachers’.” You can imagine that a kid with that kind of parents might not work too hard to improve. If her parents actually applauded her for bringing home Cs, Ds and Fs (“That’ll show those damn elitist teachers!”), you can imagine that she wouldn’t learn much of what the teachers were trying to teach. To put it the way my parents (and a couple of teachers) did when I fell below their expectations, she needs her ass kicked. But, anyone who tries to give Sarah constructive criticism is not trying to help her, but is instead out to get her, so there’s no one who can kick her ass.
Let’s compare Sarah to another inexperienced politician who did better than she did in 2008, Barack Obama. Obama wrote two books, the first of which is considered pretty darn good by many people. Even so, he has speechwriters. Sarah doesn’t – her rambling resignation speech, the speech in Hong Kong, indeed every speech she’s made since McCain’s staff stopped writing for her – was the product of someone who is not used to organizing her thoughts coherently, and, more importantly, is unwilling to acknowledge that she needs help to do so. In her accountability-free bubble, no one is able to tell her she needs help and she blithely believes she doesn’t.
From appearances, Obama has been thinking about public policy for a long time (hell, he was already learning at Bill Ayers’ knee through correspondence courses on the internets before he even reached puberty!), while Sarah mostly has not. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, particularly in the case of a small town mom. But Obama, who already knows a lot about policy, reads more briefing books and policy papers in a week than Sarah has read in a lifetime. He has a phalanx of advisors and handlers – as much as he knows, he knows he needs to know more; however much he trusts his instincts, he still recognizes the need for reality checks and help getting his message across. For all his alleged hubris, he takes advice and guidance from dozens of people every day.
And, for all that the liberal MSM loves, loves, loves Obama, on any day a whole host of left of center bloggers and pundits are taking him to task for one thing or another. A speedreader couldn’t digest one day’s criticism before the next day’s came rolling in. He’s been criticized more often than he’s been praised on the editorial pages of the New York Times and WaPo. Jon Stewart just did a “half Cramer” on David Plouffe. Obama has to acknowledge the criticism and sort out the valid from invalid critiques otherwise he’d never get his agenda passed.
Sarah, in contrast, can revel in the criticism and succeed by failing. There are no reality checks, just praise. She cannot be held to any objective standards – anything she does is the right thing to do because she did it. If she spells potato with an e, the dictionary needs to be changed. Sarah needs to grow a lot to be a credible national politician, but she won’t because she can’t. And she can’t, because in order to grow she’d need to learn from criticism and her mistakes – the way the rest of us do.
Aw $P can’t handle blogger’s. But………she Thinks that she can be President of the free world……..She is a Joke. Good job you bloggers.
I am so SICK of Palin. If only she would walk off the edge of the flat Earth she believes in.
$carah chased by bloggers carrying torches and pitchforks..WTG AK..ROTFL
“If she was running for president today I would vote for her in a NY minute.”
Would that be a NY minute like the one that tanked Sarah’s “chosen one” Hoffman and turned a district that had been Rethuglican for 123 yrs into a Democratic hold?
That had to sting big time when her “influence” didn’t help win, but actually accelerated the loss. Go Sarah!
We haven’t heard her excuse for that huge slap in the face. She wasn’t prepared for a statement on the loss, naturally expecting her highnessness would propel him to victory.
I join in with my sincere thanks to you, AKM and the other Alaskan bloggers for your work this past election. I sometimes thought my sanity was in question, as my elderly parents were quite charmed by the quitter.
You, and the commenters on this site became my life line to the harsh reality of how pitiful our political system was serving the citizens of this county as it became apparent what a walking, talking sham SP was – and quite a commentary on how stupid the campaign managers thought the voters were – to think the quitter was the Republican “equivalent” of Hilary Clinton.
That’s why the right wing wants to end Net Neutrality.
why is barbara walters going to alaska?
@FW
Knock, knock, knockin’ on Palin’s gates!
What a nice acknowledgment, and from professional journalists, no less.
Of course, we have suspected it for a long time…
You and Shannyn keep up the good work…
Pretty soon, we’ll have her committed!! YIPPEE!!!
Thanks AKM. I knew this time last year that your blog was going to have a huge impact on the election.
You and all the other Alaskan bloggers deserve our graditude for investigating and keeping us informed on the Pig with Lipstick.
Now doesn’t that make life worth living?
Congratulations AKM!
I have the feeling that palins handlers or she herself would not go on either of these shows if awkward questions would be asked and I would bet a contract is written to that effect. One can only hope that Oprah wonders if there is anything in the book to bother reading it,That crazy for God book I am forcing myself to read is really dry even if it does tell a lot of bad things the evangelical people do.Like saying come on suckers when the pass the collection plate and most the money goes to the benefit of the higher ups and that includes Robertson and Dobson also. A lot of it is about his childhood and how he grew up among the liberals of that time till someone turned his father into a money making machine.He hasn’t lost his faith ,he just sees how some of these mega churches are taking advantage of people and help no one but themselves.At least that is my take so far.
Palin became “preoccupied” with the bloggers because they knew that the real Sarah Palin didn’t match the grossly mythical Palin “image” which was put forth by her and the McCain campaign.
They knew her soft spots amidst her otherwise scaly exterior.
They knew her Achilles heel(s).
They knew what was in her dirty little closet.
…..And they were relentlessly exposing the reality behind her carefully concocted bullsh*t image.
The bloggers were dangerous in a way that the oil companies could never be…..
Well done, Alaskan Bloggers. Don’t let up the pressure on this mendacious, narcissistic fraud until she’s run out of town on a rail with the dogs barking at her heels.
now minnesota bloggers need to pool together and shine a big bright floodlight on bachmann and her actions within her own community there…I’m sure there’s more to her than meets the analytical eye…bloggers all around the nation should out the rest of the crazies the same way.
good work AKM
Maybe the Mudflats Store should make pyjamas with “Sarah Truth Squad” on the front of pyjama tops, with little moose speckled here and there.
If she indeed quit because of bloggers, it would tie in neatly with the possibility of a personality disorder. NPD sufferers need to keep their image intact; obsession with control and image control. They would rather sink a whole ship (like Ahab) than give in to their nemesis(bloggers who could expose their true nature). A woman I knew whose mother had never been diagnosed, but showed the NP disorder symptoms, could not even hold her daughter’s hand, or tell her that she loved her, as she (mother) lay dying in hospital. To the very end, they can’t forgive, or forget any slights. Very unfortunate.
#62 rebekkah
I would buy those pajama’s…
Congrat’s
I think our master blogger AKM should write a book about Scarah. I believe people would find it way entertaining and informative. Bloggers explain your side of the story, lol.
How about it AKM? have you considered it? Please, I’d buy it. I know you participated in the Going Rouge book, but will it cover all of your insights about Scarah and Alaska. And hey, perhaps it would ‘wake people up’, bonk them ‘in’ the head with a book, lol.
We ALL love the way you write, I’d love for others to discover your talent!
Congrat AKM! You are doing an excellent job keeping us informed.
The frankness and honesty of your articles…refreshing!!
Yes, Backmann should be exposed. Minnesota bloggers, get
to work.
Palin and Backmann don’t represent the American women.
They are frauds!!
I’m a bit behind but this just cracked me up!