Bill Berkowitz for BuzzFlash on Sarah Palin Redux: "Failed VP Candidate and Failed TV Star Running for Vacant Alaskan Congressional Seat" After Becoming "Bored" With Politics
April 30,, 2022
By Bill Berkowitz
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has filed papers to run in a special election for Alaska’s only House seat, once held by the late Rep. Don Young. There are 16 Republicans on the special election ballot for the temporary seat. While Palin’s return to politics might be a boost for Tina Fey’s bottom line (not that she’s lacking for work), don’t expect a reprisal of Fey’s fabulicious Palin on “Saturday Night Live” … at least not yet!
Given that the GOP is now populated by Sarah Palin wannabes, i.e. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and countless others that have adopted sass and schtick from her playbook, is she a viable candidate, or, as a headline from an Alternet piece by Alex Henderson put it, “a relic from the past?”
She has garnered the endorsement of Donald Trump. In a statement, Trump said: "Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big. Now, it's my turn." According to The List, Trump reportedly called Palin shortly before she announced her congressional bid and joked about what it would be like if both of them held office at the same time. "I said that sure would shake up a lot of things," Palin quipped.
Politico contributor Joanna Weiss recently pointed out that Palin’s candidacy appears to be "generating a media buzz that may be out of proportion to her ability to win" (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/24/sarah-palins-return-to-politics-00027304).
After running as John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate in 2008, Palin stayed out of politics, but not out of the spotlight. She quit as governor of Alaska, launched a reality TV show, and was on her way to a Kardashian-like future. Her show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” debuted on TLC in 2010. It lasted only one season.
Palin’s show was produced by Mark Burnett Productions. Some credit Burnett with single-handedly keeping Donald Trump in the public spotlight with “The Apprentice.” Weiss reported that Palin’s show was supposed to be an “inside look at the Palin family’s down-home life in Wasilla, Alaska. It was faux verité, along the lines of ‘The Osbournes’ or ‘Duck Dynasty,’ but calculated to serve not just a commercial brand, but a political one. Marbled into the heartwarming moments was some sneaky us-against-them propaganda, with pointed lines about ‘Alaska values’ and the importance of ‘teaching kids strong worth ethic and being together and being productive.’”
According to Weiss, “Over the next decade, a string of media ventures were announced to great fanfare, but short-lived: a Lifetime docu-reality series starring her daughter, Bristol; a subscription internet channel called the Sarah Palin Channel, that folded in a year; a syndicated courtroom reality show that never got off the ground.”
However, as Weiss notes, "Palin isn't the kind of right-wing figure who gets the most attention today. The surprise is gone, and so is the envelope-pushing. She's a gentle reality TV star, a retro act on the lecture circuit, a relic of the past."
"Her return to politics doesn't necessarily mean Palin has discovered a new love for the minutiae of legislating or the grunt work of constituent services," Politico’s Weiss wrote. "Instead, it suggests that national political office has changed to better suit her real ambitions. Since Palin first seized national attention in 2008, there are even more TV channels, more social media platforms, a million different ways to burnish viral stardom. And there are plenty of politicians who have used Palin's playbook to build fame out of political office, rather than the other way around. Republican House members like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn and Lauren Boebert have learned that freshmen members of Congress can command outsized attention — and that outrageous statements are a ticket, if not to policy success, then at least to the kind of attention and fundraising prowess that keeps a career alive."
From her first moments in the national spotlight, Palin was “intoxicated” by the attention, Steve Schmidt, who managed McCain’s campaign when Palin was put on the ticket, told Weiss.
It didn’t hurt that Palin had an undeniable natural talent for the public arena, says Lara Brown, a political science professor at George Washington University whose book, Amateur Hour: Presidential Character and the Question of Leadership explores the complexities of political celebrity, told Weiss that Palin had a natural talent for political celebrity. “Brown recalled Palin’s introduction to the general public: an electrifying speech at the Republican National Convention. Her stinging line about Obama’s political history — ‘I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities’ — encapsulated her attacks against elites, her sense of grievance against the media, and her ability to tap into an anti-establishment mood. ‘It wasn’t until after that,’ Brown says, ‘that the Democrats completely got worried, because the poll numbers started to move.’”
After suing The New York Times for defamation (she lost the suit) and after divorcing her husband Todd, after three decades of marriage, Palin’s media appearances have leveled off; “She sang ‘Baby Got Back’ on ‘The Masked Singer,’ disguised as an oversized purple bear. She spent part of the pandemic making videos for the celebrity-for-hire service Cameo; her rate for a personal video is $199, which is more than Mark McGrath from the band Sugar Ray, but less than Brian Austin Green from ‘Beverly Hills 90210.’”
A special primary election for her state's only seat in the House of Representatives is scheduled for June 11, followed by a general election on Aug. 16.
Since announcing her bid, Palin has appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast and on Jesse Watters’ Fox News show, where she asked for a public face-off against AOC: “Oh gosh, I want to debate her.”
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