Sarah Palin Pretending She Might Run For Office Again
With the midterms over, it's time for Sarah Palin to start grifting again.
As the 2014 midterms wind to a close, Sarah Palin is once again hinting that she might run for office again, but like past flirtations with entering the political arena again it seems obvious that this is just a feint on her part:
Sarah Palin opened the door for another run for public office, railing against liberals who, she says, would like to keep her on the political sidelines.
In an interview Tuesday with Fox Business Network, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee was asked whether harsh criticism of her had driven her away from politics.
“Bless their hearts, those haters out there, they don’t understand that it invigorates me,” she responded. “It wants me to get out there and defend the innocent.”
“[T]he more they’re pouring on, the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there with a voice, with a message, hopefully running for office in the future, too,” Palin added.
She hasn’t run for office since stepping down as Alaska governor in 2009, in particular declining to run for the 2012 presidential nomination. Last year, Palin said on Fox News that she “considered” a run for the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Begich in November. Begich is in the midst of a close race with Republican Dan Sullivan.
We’ve seen this game before, of course. As noted, Palin teased her supporters and the political media with the idea of running for President in 2012 for months and months to the point where the speculation was becoming annoying to say the least. Even Roger Ailes was reportedly getting upset with the former Governor and sending strong signals that she either needed decide she was running and end her relationship with Fox News, or she needed to stop exploiting her time on the network with a cat and mouse game. In the end, when Palin did announce that she wasn’t running and did so on Mark Levin’s radio show rather than on one of his networks shows. The bad blood was so deep after that that, for a time, the former half-term Governor wasn’t on the network although she was ultimately brought back because, well, it’s Fox and she’s Sarah Palin. Since then, Palin was presented with the opportunity of running against Mark Begich this year and she turned it down. She also could have tried to challenge Republican Governor Sean Parnell, who first got that job by succeeding her when she quit in 2009, and indeed would not have been term limited had she somehow won such an election. The fact that she recently endorsed the fusion ticket of an Independent and a Democrat who are running against Parnell and his Lt. Governor running mate makes clear that there’s no love lost between Palin and Parnell in any case.
She did none of this, of course, because its clear that Palin isn’t interested in running for office. She’s interested, as she has been from the start of this media circus, solely in Sarah Palin and having attention focused on her. That’s exactly what cracking the door open to running for office again will do, of course. There won’t be much for her to do once the midterms are over, after all, and to be honest outside of the campaigning she did during some of the GOP primaries Palin has not been a major player this year at all. Moreover, as has been the case in previous election cycles, SarahPAC, the professional celebrity’s Political Action Committee has been incredibly parsimonious in donations to Republican candidates around the nation. In just the Third Quarter, out of the $1.4 million that the PAC had from donations and cash on hand, just $45,000 dollars had been donated to candidates or spent on the behalf of candidates. For all of 2014 through the end of September, the PAC had raised $2.5 million, had another $1.1 million cash on hand, and it spent some $2.7 million, of which only $150,000 went to candidates. The rest of the money appears to have gone to consultants and speechwriters who seem to be devoted to working only for Palin herself. In other words, unlike say Rand Paul, whose PAC is dropping something in excess of $100,000 in Kansas on behalf of Pat Roberts in the final week of the campaign alone, SarahPAC seems to be concerned only with Sarah Palin. Not that that’s anything of a surprise, of course.
None of that’s going to matter to the small and shrinking coalition of conservatives who still identify Palin as someone they take seriously politically, and its worth noting in that regard that my observations and conversations with conservatives online and in person make clear that she’s nowhere near being the star she was in 2008. To them, and to the media, she’ll continue to be someone to be tracked obsessively, and she’ll milk that up as we head toward 2016. Not only can she let them speculate her entering the Presidential field, which seems incredibly unlikely at this point given the fact that the GOP’s 2016 bench has people who are much more qualified and experienced than she is, but she can also let them speculate about her running in her home state again. Lisa Murkowski, who won in 2010 as a write-in candidate after being beaten in the GOP Primary by Palin-backed Joe Miller, will be up for re-election and will likely make a bid for the GOP nomination again. There’s never been much good feeling between the Palin and Murkowski clans, and the prospect of a head-to-head battle between the two is something that political pundits won’t be able to resist speculating about. And Palin, being Palin, will eat it all up. Don’t believe the speculation, though, because if anything has become clear in the past five years it is that Sarah Palin has no actual interest in governing because it gets in the way of being famous.
Anyway, for anyone who can bear watching it, here’s the full interview on Fox Business Channel:
I sure hope that she runs, the entertainment value is enormous.
From an entertainment standpoint I’m hoping for a Cruz/Palin ticket (or vice versa, don’t care either way).
What trash this woman is.
Her drunken brawl episode proves beyond question that McCain is unworthy for public office and should resign in shame for his role in bringing this mess to the national stage. Imagine this woman a heart beat from the nuclear codes.
And to think that some here on OTB actually voted for her.
@C. Clavin:
Because it is funny when women are assaulted if they are Republicans.
@C. Clavin:
Two words Joe Biden.
You’re just afraid of Romney/Palin in 2016.
*sigh* Damn it all, and here I was thinking I only had to see the Paulian fanboy screeds for this next run. You know what, if she finds someone dumb enough to keep giving her money under the “I might run again” BS, then god bless her. She’s found a better gold mine then I have. But I really, really REALLY don’t want to see/hear/have my ears assaulted for the next few months (years, ehh) while people damn her with faint praise thinking the sun shines out her ho-ha just because “ZOMG she might run! YAYZ we’re saved!!”
I know a playa’s gotta play but damn if I don’t wanna be anywhere near that game.
Well put.
Running for President without being supported by McCain’s team, or even running for Senator from Alaska, is hard work. Palin isn’t going to do hard work.
@Paul L.: What did C. Clavin say that led you to believe he thought this was at all funny?
@Paul L.: Dearie, if you listen to the tape and read what the other witnesses have to say, it’s the other way around: Bristol assaulting the homeowner at the party they crashed.
But of course, Palin and her brood are the victims…..
That Paypal button won’t push itself, you know!
@Paul L.:
It’s pathetic…not funny.
The Palin’s are once again the victims…in a brawl they started.
@Paul L.:
Joe Biden is a gaffe prone goof-ball…but he’s done a great job as VP.
I mean…he hasn’t invaded and occupied Iraq for no reason, outed any covert spies, claimed that deficits don’t matter, or shot anyone in the face. But I guess that is a low bar to clear.
Troll logic.
@Paul L.:
No. It’s pathetic – not funny – PATHETIC when a family – THE WHOLE FAMILY – is involved in a drunken brawl where they show up uninvited. Anyone listening to that audio – all of it – who defends the actions of Bristol, Willow, Sarah, Todd, Track, et. al. is pathetic as well. Yes, Paul, that means you.
On the audio tape, Bristol complains that her five year old son, Tripp, is in the limo. WTF is she doing taking her five year old son out while she’s getting trashed – literally and figuratively – on a Saturday night? Seriously, WTF?
Funny? Not even a little bit. Pathetic, sad, and all too typical for the Palin bunch? Definitely.
@C. Clavin:
Just gave guns to the Mexican Drug Cartels and used the IRS to target his opponents.
Opps
White House Exposes CIA’s Top Spy Operative in Afghanistan
Her deluded fan club over at http://www.conservatives4palin.com is in ecstasies over this announcement. I could almost feel sorry for them, but they seem to enjoy being suckered.
@Paul L.:
Fast and furious and the IRS? You should have thrown in Benghazi and gone for the conspiracy nut-case trifecta!!!!!
How do spell grifter? P-A-L-I-N
How do you spell white Trash? P-A-L-I-N
@Paul L.:
@Mu:
See? This is EXACTLY why, as a liberal Democrat, I am hoping that Palin is serious about running.
She brings an entertainment value that is unmatched in American Politics. She, with the possible exception of minor players like Michele Bachmann and Allen West, brings out the worst in Republican voters, and frankly, that is completely consonant with today’s dysfunctional political environment. Palin-Cruz? Who could ask for more (less?).
Oh, come now, good people. There was never any drunken brawl. The police reports and the audio of a drunken Bristol screeching like a harpy were fabrications of the Anchorage Police Department, who were paid off by Karl Rove and George Soros because they’re terrified of the prospect of Sarah Palin being swept into the presidency on a tsunami of popular acclaim in 2016.
Here’s what really happened: The Palins, returning home from Bible study group, encountered a platoon of heavily-armed drunken jihadists laying siege to the Wasilla Town Hall. They leaped from their vehicle, Bristol leading the charge, and smote the evil Muslim fanatics into submission.
And Bristol’s manicure wasn’t even ruined, as she told police.
“For all of 2014 through the end of September, the PAC had raised $2.5 million …”
Holy sh!t. They somehow pulled 2.5 MILLION rube-bucks this year? (Sarah’s Rube-bucks — they’ll mail you a catalog.)
I know there are suckers out there, but unless that’s $2.5M from the Palin family using this as a tax shelter, I can’t fathom how you rake in that much cash in 2014 as a dried up mound of political, intellectual, and entertainment excrement.
@C. Clavin: Biden oversaw the stimulus program, that ended up not having a whiff of corruption about it (and no, Solyndra doesn’t count), was trying to persuade Obama not to go to Lybia, the greatest foreign policy error of his term, and was the first US politician to point out the obvious: that a Kurdish state might be the best we can achieve of the Iraq disaster. On those three things alone, he should be remembered as a way above average VP.
@ptfe: There are a lot of stupid people out there. Witness one of the commentators on this thread as an example.
I’m just hoping that Palin pulls in as much ca$h as possible. Given what she’s done with it, it’s the equivalent of standing in a whorehouse, tearing up $100 bills, and not getting laid. Her marks will at least not be donating to political action groups that actually DO anything with the money, a.k.a. use it for elections. So donate away!
Push that Paypal button, guys! Push, push, push!
Can we also point out what a stand up family man Joe Biden is? Used to travel by train every evening to Wilmington so he could be with his family. Held it all together when his wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident. He’s a real mensch.
@humanoid.panda:
He also worked through the one of the debt ceiling faux-crisis’ with the Republican hostage-takers.
@CSK:
Why wasn’t this reported by the “Main Stream Media”?
As we have seen with gay marriage, interracial marriage and a host of other issues, eventually conservatives catch up with liberals – but they do a lot of damage in the interim.
@C. Clavin: That whole thing I wouldn’t credit to anyone’s benefit.
@al-Ameda: True, but we’d loose Doug to alcoholism within a week, as he’d be starting every morning on twitter with “Awake. And not nearly drunk enough”
@al-Ameda:
Why did the mainstream media not report the Palins’ stunning victory against the terrorist horde?
Because, obviously, the mainstream media–or, as the Divine Sarah would have it, the lamestream media–were involved in the conspiracy against her, along with Karl Rove, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Rick Perry and the rest of the Socialist Progressive Liberal Republicrats.
You know, nothing says “trash with money” quite like an entire family (including the baby) getting drunk and cruising around looking for low rent parties in a stretch Hummer limo.
If the Palin’s did not actually exist, that late Elmore Leonard would have had to create them.
@anjin-san:
Agreed. At this point, aspiring to be Kardashians would be an improvement for them …
Griftin’ at the Grifter’s Ball
y’all
Griftin’ at the Grifter’s Ball . . .
@anjin-san: “If the Palin’s did not actually exist, that late Elmore Leonard would have had to create them”
I’m thinking Carl Hiaasen…
@wr:
@anjin-san:
I’m thinking Ruth Handler or Stephen King
@Paul L.: “Two words Joe Biden.”
Two words – not comparable.
@Paul L.: “…used the IRS to target his opponents”
Stop lying.
@Paul L.: “When Vice-President Joe Biden outed the SEAL team that supposedly killed Osama Bin Laden”
Bad even for you.
@CSK: ” I could almost feel sorry for them, but they seem to enjoy being suckered.”
F*ck ’em. They will get nothing which they don’t deserve. And it’s better that their money goes to a grifter and huckster like her than somebody with a chance of winning.
@Barry:
I DID say almost. 😀