10 Comments Add your own

• 1. LRobertson  |  July 9th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

  The press is running scared of her. Were they not, they would not hate her so much or have to do the hatchet jobs they do.

• 2. Dave  |  July 10th, 2009 at 1:02 am

  Chuck,
  I read the article and I don’t buy “the press destroyed Palin” argument. Different sectors of the press are out to get every national politician. There are those friendly to and despising of Ms. Palin. She wasn’t ready to play on the big stage. Do you think foreign leaders in competition with the U.S. (friendly and otherwise) would treat her better and give her a fair chance to communicate? Perhaps the opposing party in Congress wouldn’t be so hard on her? No, they would ruthlessly attack and exploit her every weakness. If she can’t handle the domestic press she is not ready to run my country.

• 3. Jerry  |  July 10th, 2009 at 7:13 am

  Interesting article, puts everything into perspective. I think that all the liberalism begins with liberal teachers and professors. Kids come out of high school and are indoctrinated for four years that they need to be democratic, liberal and save the world. Redistribute the wealth, big government is good, control people lives from cradle to grave and it’s all paid for from an unending deep well of money supplied by the people’s taxes.

  Following the four years of college the new graduates enter the work force, including journalists, TV/Radio anchors and reporters. Year after year of graduates add to the ranks of liberal drum beaters.

  Let’s see how many liberals read the article and leave a comment here. I have a feeling I may be by myself here in this column.

• 4. Carl  |  July 10th, 2009 at 7:40 am

  Good Article. How true.

  Chuck how does one like yourself try to stop it?

• 5. jesse  |  July 10th, 2009 at 8:08 am

  Heaven knows we don’t want our children indoctrinated with none of that liberalism in school. Better that they be indoctrinated with stagnant thinking, be undemocratic and destroy the world. but I digress.
  It is an interesting article written by an obvious fan of Palin that I think correctly presents the idea that the media can be used by either side. Palin trotted out her family not to insulate them from the public but instead to effect the publics perception of her using the media as a tool. I this particular case I think it backfired but, is not without intent.
  In the interest of presenting a dissenting opinion from the particular article sited may I suggest the following; http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908

• 6. Monkey  |  July 10th, 2009 at 8:29 am

  I’m a liberal and, surprise, not even afraid to comment here. I’m going to try to make some points in a non-partisan fashion but I’m sure I’ll get flamed for whatever I write. Here goes:

  *I’m not a Sarah Palin fan, for reasons I’ll outline below but it’s a good article for sure and makes a lot of accurate points regarding her rise from obscurity.

  *Her complaints about the media are a little disjointed. McCain gave her the shot of a lifetime and the media helped launch her on to the national stage. If she wants to go further, now that she’s quitting, she’s going to have to rely on the media to further her message. And, she’s going to have to take the good with the bad.

  *Very quickly after she was named by McCain, it became clear that she was unprepared for most of her early interviews. Gibson, Couric, et. al., were lobbing pure softballs at her that any candidate running for the second highest office in the land should have been able to answer in a flash. She was unprepared, she blew it and she really never recovered.

  *This whole fascination with the fact that “she’s a hockey mom, she’s just like us, she’s gonna help the Joe Sixpacks of the world” is as ridiculous as it is scary. I’m sorry, but I want someone in the Oval who’s way smarter than the rest of us and who has the intellectual curiosity to navigate in an increasingly complex world. Our last dozen Presidents had either the intellectual firepower or government and world experience to do this. Palin has neither.

  *I agree that kids should be off limits in a campaign. However, should anyone be surprised that when a candidate espouses a certain policy position (abstinence or so-called “family values” for example) and then doesn’t appear to have influence over that in their own life, that they run the risk of being a hypocrite? If she wasn’t able to educate her daughter on the perils of teen sex, then Palin has no moral standing to push that policy on the country. And, remember, Bristol is now 18 and choosing to do People Magazine covers so she’s absolutely fair game and is going to be tied to Palin’s pushing of the abstinence agenda, like it or not. Again, she can’t have it both ways.

  *I have no problem with her quitting as governor. Spin it however you want, but that’s what she’s doing. Though, if I were an Alaskan, I’d be mad that she’s cutting out only two years in. If she’s tired of being in the spotlight and just wants to make some money for her family, that’s great. At least be honest about it. However, if she truly wants to run for President, she’s going to have to get used to the media, figure out how to get her message across, study a bit and learn to take the good with the bad. Like it or not, politics is a game and those who are tough and smart are usually the ones who win.

• 7. Kathy  |  July 10th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

  This was a very good article with some great points. I am a proud “liberal.”

  I agree she did get some “lickings” from the press. However, some of us at work were talking about how she was constantly parading those kids everywhere. If she doesn’t want them in the press then they should have stayed out of sight. Yes, the Obama girls were also out there, but very occasionally and at carefully chosen events.

  I recall from memory her criticism of Hillary Clinton complaining about the press and saying something like, “it comes with the territory, so get used to it!” Okay……

  She did VERY well during her nomination speech at the convention. Of course, she practiced and read the speech, pretty much word for word. When approached with un-rehearsed questions, she fails. Doesn’t know what she reads to get the news? Please! Surprising, because she was a Communications major in college.

  For me, she completely lost any credibility when she resigned her office as Governor. The citizens of Alaska voted for her to stay for 4 years and she should have done so.

  In conclusion, the following article about Alaska’s public health administrator’s being forced out concerned me. I fully understand these things happen behind the scenes all the time, but this concerns me as a woman and public health worker: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/852044.html

• 8. coldhotel  |  July 12th, 2009 at 9:28 am

  Ok, I read the article. The author report several instances in which he says coverage of Palin was not entirely accurate. I think the same could be said about most nationally significant politicians. For example, Barack Obama. Yet he won his race.

  The author really fails to put forth a positive case for Palin as a national leader. Is it because he thinks it is self-evident, or because he doesn’t have a case?

• 9. Chuck Sweeny  |  July 12th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

  I suggested the article to promote conversation on the topic of Sarah Palin, because she’s going to be with us for some time.

  I think that she quit being governor because she was bored with day-to-day administration of an isolated state that no one thinks about.

  Palin likes being a celebrity. She was a celebrity as a beauty queen, and a celebrity as a sportscaster on TV in Anchorage.

  I think she’ll continue to be a celebrity, whether she gets a talk show like Mike Huckabee did, or gets on the speaking tour circuit. She’s also going to write a book, and then she’ll be on every radio and TV chat show in the U.S., promoting that.

  Palin has a big fan base among certain segments of the Republican Party, but she’s a polarizing figure who is reviled as much as she is hailed.

  Already Republican candidates for 2010 offices are distancing themselves from her. So, she now says she might campaign for conservative blue dog Democrats.That won’t buy her any friends in the GOP, or in the Democratic Party.

  She made a big mistake by leaving the governor’s office. Many successful governors leave the detail stuff to their adminisrative staff. She could have done that.

  Now, she’s oficially a quitter, and Ameicans do not like quitters.
  Whatever you think of George W. Bush, he ran for re-election as governor of Texas, telling people during the campaign there was a possibilty he would run for president. He didn’t quit the job..

  Should Palin run for president, people can legitimately ask, how do we know she won’t quit?

• 10. johnny  |  July 17th, 2009 at 4:35 pm

  Palin’s problems are not a result of sexism or looks-ism or liberalism. They started because John McCain criticized Obama’s lack of experience every day for 6 months, and then picked someone with even less experience as a vice-president. Chuck Sweeny himself pointed that out in his column. Then, to prove she had experience, Palin exaggerated the importance of Alaska’s proximity to Russia, and lied about the bridge to nowhere (”we told them ‘thanks but no thanks’”). I know she didn’t say she could see Russia from her house, but she DID say, one can see Russia from a part of Alaska.
  This article’s main contention, that Palin beat Biden in the VP debate is and that the media said the opposite, is ridiculous. It wasn’t her substantive answers that were criticized–it was her over-the-top, too-cute-by-far, winking, and “say it aint so Joe” and “you betcha”s. If that is really her, then she is not who we want in running our government. If she was dumbing herself down, then we said: “thanks but no thanks, on that patronizing there, governor.”

  by the way, there were no “forces that toppled” Sarah Palin. She quit on her own. She was under no outside pressure to quit. If she was, then why was it such a surprise when she did quit?
  As for her future, she would make a great RNC Chair.

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