By Kathleen
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| Cover Picture kindly used with permission from Geoffrey Dunn |
Geoffrey Dunn is on a roll. Another of his articles about Sarah Palin has been published at Huffington Post and I understand that several more are in the works. Geoffrey has seen an advance screening of the film Game Change and reveals that the film is more about Steve Schmidt's transformation than the "hyperbole being focused on Palin."
Geoffrey's article reveals that Steve Schmidt thinks that Sarah Palin had a "destructive impact" on American politics. Schmidt further acknowledges that he was one of those responsible for unleashing an "unprepared, know-nothing whose nomination trivialized American politics." Harsh words indeed.
Geoffrey writes that Game Change is "Schmidt's confession" and asks the question that all Americans should be asking themselves "how can the United States best select its leaders when celebrity packs more electoral cache than experience or political courage?" Will the GOP strategists learn the tough lessons that Steve Schmidt did? The jury is out on that one.
Award-winning writer and filmmaker Geoffrey Dunn's best-selling The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power was published by Macmllan/St. Martin's in May of 2011 and will be published in paperback this May.
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UPDATE by Patrick:
Sarah Palin again made headlines today, with a rather passionate defense of Rush Limbaugh. She said to a CNN-reporter who "surprised" GOP-starlet Sarah Palin today in Wasilla:
“I think the definition of hypocrisy is for Rush Limbaugh to have been called out, forced to apologize and retract what it is that he said in exercising his First Amendment rights and never is that the same applied to the leftist radicals who say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, about the defenseless. “So I think that’s the definition of hypocrisy, and that’s my two cents for you.”
This is such a brilliant example of Sarah Palin's ignorance and her ever-present willingness to distort facts in order to create sympathy for her friends and in order to smear her enemies, that I decided to create a little clip with this quote. The clip shows the part of the interview in which she defends Rush Limbaugh - and then shows Limbaugh "exercising his First Amendment rights."
I believe that Sarah Palin, America's most famous mean girl, rather enjoyed Rush Limbaugh's performance. I think I could hear a few giggles. After all, this is the woman who giggled when an Alaskan "shock jock" called cancer survivor and Palin's arch-enemy Lyda Green a "bitch" and a "cancer" and who got a kick out of calling Alaskan Rep. Jay Ramras (another one of her Republican arch-enemies) "Vajajay" and "Bird-Nose" in her email messages.
I suggested to Kathleen earlier today to publish a post with the CNN video, but she replied that she was not in the mood right now for, I quote, "Palin crap." Luckily, Geoffrey's brilliant article later changed her mind - and got her in the mood to write about our most (or least) favourite subject. ;-)
Watch Sarah defense of Rush Limbaugh and then him "exercising his First Amendment rights":
In the same interview, Sarah Palin said that "anything is possible" if her name is called in a brokered GOP convention. Wonkette posts the full clip of the CNN-interview and observes:
Sarah Palin went on — or should we say, was transmitted through someone’s phone-toy in the direction of — CNN during Tuesday’s Super Snoozeday parade, and proclaimed that who knows whether she’ll run for president today, tomorrow, or after the Mayan apocalypse, but anything is possible because Americans can do anything they put their minds to, emphasis on “minds” and excluding jobs. Later on, while Romney was disappointing America, CNN spent a good portion of the long process of cell degeneration we call life talking about Palin some more, with what little comprehensible English was made available by her mouth yesterday. Conclusion: Sarah Palin is an alive person. Plus, hates misogynists as long as they are liberal.+++
The "war of realities" has begun - Sarah Palin's reality against the reality of the other 99%, so to speak. The AP reported about the outrage of Sarah Palin's "aides" - the people who are on the payroll of SarahPAC. As was to be expected, Sarah Palin's servants dutifully people rallied around the "Governor" and loudly denounced the upcoming HBO movie "Game Change", with good old trusty Megan "Alaska big mouth" Stapleton even calling the movie "sick":
Interestingly, Frank Bailey described in his book "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin" exactly that: The close circle around Sarah Palin was expected to defend Palin under all costs against accusations which quite frequently were directed at Palin. The Governor fumed, raged, screamed, and her subordinates had to defend her honour. Therefore it's like a "deja vu" - and of course it didn't matter that Sarah's busy staffers haven't even seen the movie yet. Sarah has to be defended, period!
It's exactly like the conservative Alaska pundit and former radio-talk show host Dan Fagan wrote in November 2009 in his immortal essay titled "Sarah Palin: A Dark Soul":
She is a grudge carrier. Settling scores drive her and she is hell bent on revenge, payback, getting even. (...)
She has no self-control when it comes to letting things go. She must settle the score. She must. She Will!
So now it's time to settle the score the makers of the "Game Change" movie and the authors of the book. It's that simple. Because everyone lies - apart from Sarah Palin. It has never been any different.
This might come as a surprise to the authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. One has just only to watch for example their interview from 15th March 2010 to realise that they probably didn't expect such harsh attacks.
In the following clip from about 46:00, they start to talk about Sarah Palin in detail. Mark Halperin says that the depiction of Sarah Palin is actually "empathetic towards her" and also provides "a very balanced view." But above all, Mark Halperin stresses: "It's all accurate!" - and Halperin even mentions that in contrast other things which have been written about Sarah Palin elsewhere sometimes "have not been accurate."
It's almost amusing to observe that Mark Halperin was apparently under the impression that Sarah Palin is a sane, rational human being. I do hope that he has seen the light now!
The discussion about the upcoming movie "Game Change" is also a good opportunity to take a look at what some of the participants of the 2008 Republican campaign had to say about Sarah Palin. In a very interesting clip from 2010, former Senior McCain-aide Nicolle Wallace didn't hold back - and it sounded like a warning to Sarah Palin. Nicolle Wallace says that people would start to talk about Sarah Palin's "more troubling deficiencies" if she was to become the Republican nominee, "her incredible cynicism, her bitterness, her aggressive attempts to claw anyone that points out an area for her to work on." According to Wallace, "a whole lot of people would stand up and say a whole lot of things."
Watch:
Watch:
The interview with Steve Schmidt on "60 Minutes" with Anderson Cooper is also worth revisiting:
In case you would like to know more about Nicolle Wallace, take a look at her appearance at Rutgers University from March 2011 where she talks about her novel "Eighteen Acres" which she wrote after the 2008 campaign - a fictional account about "the first female president":
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BONUS:
For your enjoyment, here is Julianne Moore on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart:
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UPDATE March 12, 2012 (by Patrick):
All Americans, regardless whether they are Republicans or Democrats, today should feel proud of Steve Schmidt, McCain's former senior campaign advisor. Steve Schmidt today gave an absolutely brilliant, brutally honest interview on Morning Joe, which I regard as almost historic. Rarely before have we seen such an honest, straightforward and merciless assessment by a former political player. Just the plain truth, free of party politics and ideology, but driven by regret and feelings of responsibility. Steve Schmidt has shown a lot of courage, and hopefully this will have an impact and change things for the better.
Watch:
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