HE'S RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.
Stuck in single digits in the polls, behind both Ron Paul and Herman Cain -- no matter what he does. Yet T-Paw is the one that the serious GOP-ers turned to after white-knight Mitch Daniels opted out. They think he will be the one left standing at the end of the primaries.
Did it help his ratings? Nah. He just doesn't make that splash that gets crowds excited. He's not even boring like Mitch Daniels. He even shouts and points his finger. But people still yawn.
This may sound sexist (in fact this whole piece is very sexist, calling them 'girls' -- read it as ironic levity) but there's just something about the name "Tim" that doesn't sound, well, quite manly. And his voice lacks booming resonance; it's closer to squeeky. I'm just suggesting that his image does not convey authority, mastery, and leadership -- and that has nothing to do with his actual accomplishments. I'm talking about early impressions that make someone stand out in the crowd.
Like, who even noticed that he made his big announcement last week in Iowa telling us that he's
RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT?
It's the fault of those damn girls, stealing the spotlight.
Sarah just stole all the attention by waltzing in a few days later to start her hyped up bus tour of America's Historical Sites -- kicking it off Saturday by riding through DC on a Harley with the bikers, leather jacket and all. Then she and Todd and the kids went to the National Archives to commune with the actual authentic parchment of the Constitution. Talk about masterful image-making. Mama Grizzly, biker, but beautiful and sensitive, all in one. Take lessons, Tim.
And she won't even say if she's running for president. Just plays coy. That girl's a big tease, that's what she is. George Will says she is "a genius at manipulation." He's so right. She won't even tell the media where the tour is heading next. She's playing "catch me if you can" -- which of course just makes all the more news: Where's she going next? Stay tuned and find out !!!
You can't tell whether that girl's serious or not. Maybe she will, maybe she won't. She's not telling. Personally, I think she's just getting her revenge at the media and the political pros for dissing her in 2008 -- plus, of course, all that dough she's raking in that'll dry up as soon as she says, "No." She'll say that for herself she would be willing to make the sacrifice "fer all the good Americans out there in the Real America," but that all that toxic media exposure would be harmful to her family. That's a good one. Has anyone in history ever exploited her family any more than Sarah?
And then there's that other one -- you know, the one who's "not interchangeable" with Sarah. What did Michele do to steal T-Paw's thunder? She let it be known that God's telling her to run. She feels the "calling." Did God tell any of the guys to run? Haven't heard of it, if He did.
Damn, those girls. They just don't play fair. T-Paw, he's just so sincere and decent and plays it straight. And they're running circles around him, grabbing the spotlight.
So who would you rather have answer the red phone at 3 AM? Sarah, Michele, or T-Paw?
Well, actually, my preference is that guy, Barack. But I'd sure take T-Paw ahead of the girls.
Ralph
According to Jason Linkins of HuffPost:
ReplyDeleteThe line the Palins want people to believe is that this bus tour is a test to see whether the family can withstand this kind of a on-the-road campaign.
The beauty of a live-in bus tour is that you don't have to make hotel arrangements ahead and thus tip off the press. You keep them guessing. She's toying with a very unconventional type of campaign, if she does choose to run. And this is a test run of that.
But Linkins thinks the real reasons are:
1. After lying low since her post-Tucson fiasco, she's trying to reclaim her relevance and regain media attention so she can continue to raise money for her PAC. This will give her some influence in the election by having lots of campaign money to pass on to local candidates, as well as for her to travel around campaigning for others, all the while boosting her image and ensuring the gravy train will continue for at least two more years, and after.
2. To what extent is the tour for manipulating the media? Quite a bit. As Linkins says: "It’s hard to know when the last time was when a public figure so publicly and shamelessly mocked, taunted and ridiculed the press as irrelevant, all the while using them to further her own ambitions and purposes."
3. But the best indication that Palin will not run is that FoxNews has not terminated her contract, as they did for Gingrich and Santorum when they were this stage of teasing about running. So she must have an understanding with Roger Ailes that she's not running.
Howard Fineman on what Palin is up to:
ReplyDeleteHe says that she is good at appealing to disaffected people, and she will keep doing that and building up political power in this nontraditional way. How she will trade in all that Monopoly money at the end, he doesn't know.
What I take from this is that she's not going to run in the primaries but hopes to build up such a popular following that she might be drafted at the convention. I don't know. But Fineman's right: as soon as she starts trying to do it the traditional way -- with tv interviews, media scrutiny, and debates -- she begins to lose credibility and popularity.
So -- I think what we do know is that she's not going to compete in any usual kind of way, if at all.