If you see a parade over the next month, it may not be the Thanksgiving Day parade. It could be likely to be book publishers lining up to put in a bid to publish defeated GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s reported book deal…which could fetch $7 million. A roundup is HERE.

Much has changed since I worked in the Fame Factory as an editor, exploiting big names to sell magazines and, in the circular process, enlarging their status as media megastars.

But even in today’s climate of disposable celebrities who are quickly used up like Kleenex, there is still the rare publicity saint, where mere mention of a name invokes automatic interest over time, as Barack Obama and Sarah Palin (sorry to say) now do.

Merit is moot–it’s the tingle of curiosity that attaches to every sighting or utterance, no matter how trivial or vapid, as evidenced by reports that Palin is signing a $7 million book deal and by a magazine editor’s breathless comment that “photos of her just sitting there, looking like a normal person, could go for solid five-figure sums.”

At the other end of the substance scale, Obama’s imminent presidency recalls the editorial excitement over JFK.

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I must admit, Sarah Palin sounds better (or reads better) when she’s speaking to her fellow Republican governors about “conservative solutions to these economic challenges” than when she’s stirring up vicious mobs at hate-filled rallies on the campaign trail. Not that I approve of “conservative solutions,” but at least she was coherent today. Besides, I’m not entirely against “the federalist principle” (whether in the U.S. or here in Canada). As much as I desire an active/activist federal government on issues such as health care and education, there ought to be responsibility and accountability at all levels of government, and, in some areas, state and local government is indeed better suited than the federal government to address issues effectively and efficiently. And it’s not like I support government bailouts of big banks and big corporations.

And, yes, Palin also said some very nice things about Obama yesterday, things that are completely at odds with what she said about him during the campaign, such as: “If he governs with the skill, and the grace, and the greatness of which he is capable, we’re going to be just fine… [T]his is a shining moment in American history. Sen. Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for our country.” (Sure, but doesn’t he also pal around with terrorists?)

And yet… for Palin to complain about “obsessive, extreme partisanship,” well, that’s just nuts. As she proved on the campaign trail, she is as obsessive and extreme a partisan as there is. Her barrage of attacks on Obama was nothing if not obsessive and extreme. A partisan of the extremist fringe, she’s even obsessive and extreme within the context of her own obsessive and extreme party.

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Did the media cover the full racial aspects of Barack Obama’s run or did they miss some aspects? And since his election as President, has there been a shift? Has there been a renewed interest in minorities — not only in politics, but in other aspects of American life? In this Guest Voice post, journalism professor and author Walter Brasch looks at some of these issues. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily represent the opinions of TMV and its writers.

by Walter Brasch

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was called mentally unstable; his supporters were called unpatriotic. At Sarah Palin rallies, in newspaper letters-to-the-editor, on conservative radio and TV talk shows, supporters spewed hatreds, resorting to the Bush tactics of fear mongering to support their own candidate.

At many rallies, the word “kill” was often shouted. The ultra right wing, which infiltrated the McCain campaign, told us Obama is a (gasp!) Muslim, not understanding that not only isn’t Obama a Muslim, but that the Constitution prohibits religion as a test for federal office. Falsely linking Muslim to terrorist, these ultra-patriots said that Obama pals around with terrorists. They said Obama is a thief, a liar, and a scoundrel.

Not so subtly disguised beneath a lot of the hatred is the reality that Obama is multiracial, and that means he isn’t White. Some of the racism isn’t even covert. In comments to newspapers and on radio, Obama was called “Monkey ears” and other terms that would denigrate every person of color. At one rally, a McCain–Palin supporter waved around a stuffed monkey with a blue-and-white headband with one word: Obama. It didn’t even take an investigative journalist to find supporters who brazenly claimed they just couldn’t vote for anyone who’s “colored”; many even used even more derogatory terms.

Ironically, although the establishment media did an admirable job of covering speeches, they did a poor job of covering the racial hatred present at rallies. It was up to sites like Keystone Progress, which videotaped numerous rallies and posted them on You Tube, to help a nation better understand not only the political division but the racial hatreds that still exist in the country. Mike Morrill of Keystone Progress says that he noted a significant difference not only between the Obama–Biden and McCain–Palin rallies—”hope versus fear”—but more racist anger in the rallies where Palin was the primary speaker.

There is still that anger and fear among a part of the conservative movement, but something changed with the election.
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Is former Republican ticket Veep candidate Gov. Sarah Palin getting a bum wrap? In this Guest Voice column, authors and speakers Floyd and Marth Beth Brown argue that Palin has been targeted by the party’s Old Guard. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TMV or its writers.

Palin Saboteurs Want to Kill Her Career Now

By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

Attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin by McCain campaign staff at first appear to be a case of making her a convenient scapegoat, but the attacks have a more devious motive. This post-election barrage is the first volley of the campaign to choose the Republican nominee in 2012. The Washington, D.C. based establishment that rules the GOP wants her career over now. She threatens them.

Firefighting 101 teaches it is easier to stomp out a wildfire when it is small. Don’t allow the fire to grow, spread and become an inferno. Sarah Palin was the spark of McCain’s reform campaign. She ignited the campaign and gave the reform message legitimacy.

Those knifing Palin are the old-guard Republicans who don’t want to see her as the nominee in 2012. The old-guard GOP candidates are likely Gov. Haley Barbour or former Gov. Mitt Romney.

Sarah Palin brought a vibrant, fresh face to the Republican Party. The GOP elitists saw how she easily connected with voters. Palin drew huge crowds of up to 30,000 people anxious to see and hear her. The crowds flocking to see Gov. Palin bond with her culturally. She has the potential to garner Obama- or Reagan-like devotion.

The Republican Party needs this grassroots energy and her reform agenda after a decade of broken promises and the disappointing Bush presidency.
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Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

With the election now over, pretty much, I really don’t want to waste much time on as loathsome a creature as Sarah Palin. I wrote about her extensively during the campaign, but what I may not have expressed explicitly — though it was certainly there implicitly — was my utter contempt for her. There are few political figures I despise as much as I came to despise her. She is, as I put it, an ignorant thug and an arrogant twit. Simply put, she was, given her place on the presidential ticket of a major party, an embarrassment to the United States. And nothing has changed since the election. She is still utterly clueless yet still thinks she has some sort of God-given right to impose herself on the American people.

Along these lines, my must-read of the day (actually, from yesterday) comes from one of Palin’s harshest and most determined critics — for which I admire him — Andrew Sullivan, whose post “Why Palin Still Matters” is an excellent recapitulation of what was, and is, wrong with Palin and the man who elevated her to unwarranted prominence, John McCain. As always, make sure to read it in full. Here are a few key passages:

Let’s be real in a way the national media seems incapable of: this person should never have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history.

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Former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin almost requires her own cable channel due to her slew of recent interviews, press conferences and the overall media attention that she’s getting. Why the sudden flurry of Palin activity?

One factor is that Palin is now free of her McCain campaign handlers.

Some wonder if the other factor could be an effort to solidify her Republican support with an eye on the 2012 race. Actually, what’s more likely is because of polling data such as this new poll from Gallup:

Just 45% of Americans would like to see Sarah Palin become a major national political figure for many years to come, while a slight majority of 52% say they would not. These sentiments are sharply divided along partisan political lines.

Over three-quarters of Republicans would like to see the former vice-presidential nominee and current governor of Alaska become a major national political figure in the years ahead, in sharp contrast to the 43% of independents and 20% of Democrats who share that attitude.

That doesn’t bode well for Palin if she has ambitions beyond Governor or being elected to Congress.

[For another take on Palin be sure to read TMV Columnist Tony Campbell’s post HERE.]

Her support from independent voters is weak and she joins George Bush in the South Pole in terms of popularity among Democrats. As this election indicated, political parties will likely have to start taking into account candidates’ cross over appeal: the days when political parties can afford to hitch their futures to nominating nationally polarizing candidates may be — if not over — on the wane…particularly as younger voters not cemented to Baby Boomer-derived divisions begin to gain a greater foothold on the polity.

That may explain why Palin — perhaps the most partisan and polarizing of the four candidates on either of the two Presidential tickets — has now issued a call for something she was not noted to epitomize during the election season: bipartisanship:

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Preface:

Because of a technical problem—mea culpa—links to this post were corrupted (in the technical sense). As interest in this topic continues, and even the foreign press is picking it up, I am re-posting it. But, please be sure the read the last (new) paragraph.

I was reading my favorite New York Times column yesterday morning (Maureen Dowd’s Op-Ed with a strange title, “Boxers, Briefs or Silks?”), and my negative opinion about Sarah from Alaska continued to be reinforced. But, towards the end, I read that Sarah Palin was “still receiving shipments of custom-designed underpinnings up to her ‘Saturday Night Live’ performance in October.”

Could I have been wrong about this woman? Could all of us have been wrong about her? Were there really more than folksy “you betcha” and “doggone it” thoughts and concepts in her head? Was she really burning the midnight oil during a strenuous campaign and consulting with structural engineers to evaluate various “custom-designed” supports and foundations for our crumbling bridges and infrastructure?

For a second or two, my opinion of her soared. My momentary admiration, however, was replaced by confusion when I read the next sentences, “Silk boxers and custom-designed underpinnings? Sounds like Sarah and Todd were treating the vice presidential run as a second honeymoon.”

Did the First Dude also have a structural engineering background? But what was this about silk boxers and a second honeymoon?

Then, I re-read the preceding paragraph that I had obviously not yet assimilated:

As Michael Shear reported in The Washington Post, on top of the $150,000 first cited in F.E.C. filings, Palin spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on more clothes, makeup and jewelry for herself and her family, including $40,000 in luxury goods for the First Dude. The campaign was charged for silk boxers, spray tanners and 13 suitcases to carry the designer duds…

Just to be sure, I asked my wife whether the word “underpinning” could have a second meaning, and she explained that the plural, “underpinnings,” could also mean “underwear.” Still incredulous, I Googled the word and the first web site that came up must have been one that was created at the turn of the century (the nineteenth century, that is) because, as a sub-set of “underpinnings,” it defined “Drawers” as:

For modesty, especially with hoops
Mid calf length, split crotch
Trim: minimal pin tucks and white work

My only question now is, why was Sarah Palin buying these for the First Dude?

Having said all this in a satirical vein, and for the sake of a “Moderate Voice,” I now refer you to another TMV columnist, Tony Campbell, who does exactly that in “The Self-Sacrifice of Sarah Palin.”

Anyone who has read my column knows that I was not a fan of Governor Sarah Palin during the campaign. For the record, I am glad John McCain and Sarah Palin lost the election. However, as I have stated before, it is ludicrous to blame Palin for the mismanagement and lackluster performance of the McCain campaign - it is a cowardly way to protect your exposed flank.

A few days ago, it was reported that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal turned McCain down when he was asked if he wanted to be vetted for the V.P. slot. My guess is that there were a lot of rising national G.O.P. stars that saw the McCain campaign as a sinking ship and did not want connect their political futures to the worst Republican rejection by the electorate in decades.

Governor Palin should be commended, not attacked, by the G.O.P. She had the guts to put her neck out and take one for the team. If McCain had a chance to win, the list of viable V.P. candidates with experience would have never included a first-term governor from Alaska. The bottom line is that the experienced people stayed out of harm’s way in 2008 while Palin took the bullet for the party. Sarah Palin deserves a medal, not a firing squad.

Mike Lane, Cagle Cartoons

I was reading my favorite New York Times column this morning (Maureen Dowd’s Op-Ed with a strange title, “Boxers, Briefs or Silks?”), and my negative opinion about Sarah from Alaska continued to be reinforced. But, towards the end, I read that Sarah Palin was “still receiving shipments of custom-designed underpinnings up to her ‘Saturday Night Live’ performance in October.”

Could I have been wrong about this woman? Could all of us have been wrong about her? Were there really more than folksy “you betcha” and “doggone it” thoughts and concepts in her head? Was she really burning the midnight oil during a strenuous campaign and consulting with structural engineers to evaluate various “custom-designed” supports and foundations for our crumbling bridges and infrastructure?

For a second or two, my opinion of her soared. My momentary admiration, however, was replaced by confusion when I read the next sentences, “Silk boxers and custom-designed underpinnings? Sounds like Sarah and Todd were treating the vice presidential run as a second honeymoon.”

Did the First Dude also have a structural engineering background? But what was this about silk boxers and a second honeymoon?

Then, I re-read the preceding paragraph that I had obviously not yet assimilated:

As Michael Shear reported in The Washington Post, on top of the $150,000 first cited in F.E.C. filings, Palin spent “tens of thousands of dollars” on more clothes, makeup and jewelry for herself and her family, including $40,000 in luxury goods for the First Dude. The campaign was charged for silk boxers, spray tanners and 13 suitcases to carry the designer duds…

Just to be sure, I asked my wife whether the word “underpinning” could have a second meaning, and she explained that the plural, “underpinnings,” could also mean “underwear.” Still incredulous, I Googled the word and the first web site that came up must have been one that was created at the turn of the century (the nineteenth century, that is) because, as a sub-set of “underpinnings,” it defined “Drawers” as:

For modesty, especially with hoops
Mid calf length, split crotch
Trim: minimal pin tucks and white work

My only question now is, why was Sarah Palin buying these for the First Dude?

When someone wins a Presidential election there’s no shortage of advice: everyone says they have the perfect advice on what chart to course, who will be just perfect for the cabinet and how tough they should be on the opposition.

But it’s even worse when a party loses big — as the Republicans did last week. Advice is coupled with finger pointing, recriminations and a lot of self-serving posturing. And if you look at American political history, no political party is in the “wilderness” forever and few politicians are never forgiven for their losses.

The advice is now pouring in — big time — for Republicans..and for the party’s losing candidate Senator John McCain. And here are two MUST READS:

1. Ron Beasley on the continued debate over how Republicans can get out of the wilderness.

2. The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn on what John McCain needs to do now regarding his former running mate Gov. Sarah Palin. [UPDATE: Be sure to read Dick Polman on Palin’s response to things now being said about her…]

Rest assured: Lots more advice will be offered the GOP, Democrats, McCain, President Elect Obama — some of it on this site.

Bill Kristol’s Monday column in the New York Times is the gift that keeps on giving.

Normally, I take a few minutes to address his follies. That won’t be necessary today.

His column, “G.O.P. Dog Days?” today was so, let’s say, “evocative” that as of early afternoon it had prompted 653 readers’ comments in the Times’ on-line “comments” section. Needless to say, the vast majority negative. And needless to say that the comments themselves were more interesting and revealing than Kristol’s column

As one reader puts it:

Actually, I’d like to echo/paraphrase another commenter’s recent observation: there is value in having Kristol’s column in the Times.
Reading the column? Not so much. Well, actually, not at all.
Reading the comments? Absolutely.
Normally, if one happens upon Kristol or his ilk - mostly by accident - while channel surfing, all one can do is yell one’s disgust, alone, at an inanimate object.
At least when one reads Kristol’s column here, there is the chance to join a larger community of like minded souls, expressing their disgust, en masse - and the feedback at least lets one know that their outrage is shared by others.

So, today I would like to just quote some of the readers’ comments. There are so many—so many good ones—that it was almost impossible to select just a few. If you would like to continue the fun, please go to the New York Times “Comments” section.

The following are some selected comments, starting with one about Kristol’s paltry remarks on Obama’s observations about selecting a puppy for his kids:

Bill Kristol: “(If one were being churlish, one might say that it was typical of a liberal to promise the dog before delivering it. A results-oriented conservative would simply have shown up with the puppy without the advance hype.)”

A reader: “No. A conservative would have unfurled a banner declaring “Puppy Mission Accomplished.” Shortly thereafter, it would be revealed that the puppy was actually a cat and it had been run down by a car and replaced by a stuffed lion that had been made in China out of dangerously inflammable materials.”

Here are the rest:

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To be an American (unlike being English or French) is