Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:02 pm
Sarah Palin: Those wigs aren't cheap.
How much longer is the myth that Sarah Palin is the GOP’s messiah going to persist? More evidence was delivered against her when then Southern Republican Leadership Conference chose to support both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul over Sarah the Savior. Palin even showed up for this gathering and spoke to the crowd, but still failed to look like anything more than the reality TV train wreck that she is.
The surprise coming out of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll was that Sarah Palin actually showed up, quite possibly even unpaid, and it did not make a bit difference in her results with the attendees who were polled.
Mitt Romney and Ron Paul tied for first in the straw poll at 24%, but Romney got the win because he gained one more vote than Paul, 439-438. Sarah Palin finished third at 18%. Oh, but Palin was not alone because tied with her in third was Newt Gingrich. Now does anyone in their right mind believe that 1990s Republican relic Newt Gingrich has any shot at the Republican nomination? Yet, Sarah Palin keeps being treated by many in the media and all of her Jonestown of the North followers as if she is the great white hope for the GOP in 2012.
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Romney didn’t even speak to the audience at the SRLC and he won their support. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has more true grassroots activist support than Sarah Palin could ever dream of, but he is labeled a fringe loony red headed step child by the Republican establishment, while Sarah Palin gets a high profile job at Fox News, and anointed a serious contender for the 2012 GOP nomination. The problem is that Palin appears to lack the popularity to justify the hype.
Sarah Palin and the intellectual zombies of death that support her are trying to put a big con over, not only on the Republican Party, but also the American people. The numbers don’t back up their claims of Sarah Palin’s national popularity. Since she ran on the GOP ticket with John McCain, Palin has seen her favorability ratings drop from 52% when she was the fresh face on the ticket in September 2008 to 24% today. To put this into context, she “wrote” a book, landed a few national TV gigs, and she lost over half of her support.
Palin’s zealots counter any negative utterance that tries to explain that she is more Alaskan Kardashian than political Moses by claiming that Democrats are afraid of Sarah Palin. What should Democrats be afraid of? At her current pace, by 2012 Palin will have a favorability rating of roughly 12%. Assuming that the Democrats actually want to win the next election, could the GOP give them a greater gift than nominating one of the most unpopular politicians in America to represent their party?
Sarah has done a masterful job at promoting herself as someone with a following, but she has burned everyone from magazines to Fox News with her inability to draw a crowd beyond those who already love her. What about Palin’s book Going Rogue? Well it turns out those sales numbers were extremely inflated. Most retailers quickly discovered that after Palin’s fans bought theirs, they couldn’t give the damn things away, although many of them stopped just short of doing exactly that.
Sarah Palin is the Enron of Republican presidential candidates. She is a myth built on tricky accounting and smoke and mirrors. Like any good snake oil salesman/woman/person, she has now been trying to sell herself as the right wing messiah who can bring both the Tea Party and the Republican Party together. In reality, Palin is a false prophet. She is exploiting the right and selling them a phony dream, while lining her own pockets with their cash. Even if she would unite the right, that 24% favorable rating of hers ensures a landslide reelection victory for Obama, so sorry Palin fans, we don’t fear Sarah, we’re rooting for her.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
