During the 2008 election, one of the major complaints regarding John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin was the lack of vetting which went into the decision. Once the choice was set in stone, though, criticism in some circles shifted to the abysmal handling of the VP candidate and her “not ready for prime time” persona. Apparently things haven’t improved since the election ended, because one lesson which Governor Palin never seemed to learn is that Americans don’t generally care to vote for a whiner.
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run.
As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film out this week, Palin said she believes the media made a decision that “we’re going to seek and we’re going to destroy this candidacy of Sarah Palin’s because of what it is that she represents.”
“Obviously something big took place in the media,” she added. It is “very frightening, I think, what the media was able to get away with, this go around.”
Even if this were true, the voters don’t much care for people who blame their failures on others. When your team loses the big game, the one thing you don’t want to do is go on camera and blame somebody else. It just looks bad.
Also, I’ve long since grown tired of this endless chant from Palin’s conservative base about how poorly she was treated. What she received was far less than she’d have gotten if the 4th estate had been given a few more months to really get into high gear. As it played out, we barely had 12 weeks to figure out who Governor Palin was before the whole shooting match was over. In that short time plenty of fodder turned up which the media never got a chance to fully explore with the public. Many of the facts surrounding Palin were lost in the endless buzz created by her sheer inability to stand in front of a camera without completely melting down. In a few short months she managed to land herself a place as the female Joe Biden, a feat which the Vice President needed a lifetime of Foot In Mouth moments to achieve.
If Palin dares to run for President in 2012, the media is going to be locked and loaded next time. Endless examinations of her highly questionable cabinet appointments in Alaska will be conducted. Questions will be raised about taxpayer dollars which were funneled through her completely unqualified Secretary of Agriculture into fat checks for family and friends. (Payments which state auditors later said could not be justified.) The ambulance chaser she appointed as Attorney General (who recently had to resign in disgrace) will be on full display. And if the Governor can’t find a way to conduct an interview without sounding like an angry scold, high on umbrage but low on substance, President Obama will be able to take most of the election off on holiday and slide in to an easy win.
Quit blaming your problems on the press, Governor, and work on hiring a competent staff and going back to media and debate prep school. Otherwise, you may as well just let Tina Fey run in your place for the entire thing. If nothing else, she’d handle the interviews better.