Before you conclude Fox is exercising some real independent judgment, consider how the network’s skepticism fits right into in the Republican party’s interests.
Palin dropped her “really interested in running” tease bomb in Iowa where she is attending a Republican beauty contest/confab held by conservative Congressman Steve King.
From The Washington Post:
“I am. As I said yesterday, I’m really interested in the opportunity to serve at some point,” Palin said Friday, as former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, a potential 2016 rival, looked on.
…Palin said, “It is a significant step, of course, for anyone to publicly announce that they’re interested. Who wouldn’t be interested? Who wouldn’t be interested when they have been blessed with opportunities to speak about what is important to this country and for this country?”
However, WaPo also noted that Palin “is not yet ramping up a national political operation.”
James Hohmann in Politico was a little blunter: “But this much was clear from her appearance here on the eve of the biggest GOP cattle call of the presidential season so far: She’s definitely interested in people thinking she’s interested. Even if she’s not really that interested.”
But Fox, which continues to present Donald Trump’s equally phony “consideration” as a genuine possibility, was just as skeptical, if not more so.
From today’s FoxNews.com, which described Palin as a “perennial potential candidate” who is “injecting some intrigued (sic)” into “the already crowded field of potential GOP candidates” (my emphasis):
However, exactly how serious Palin is remains unclear, considering her uncanny ability to keep the media and the rest of America interested in her most every public word and movement. She also has a upcoming cable TV show.
In addition, Palin says she has yet to ramp up a national campaign, and there are no obvious signs that she is already in the process.
What FoxNews.com didn’t say is that Palin is still on the Fox News payroll, at least officially. Dr. Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee have already left their Fox positions even though they have yet to formally declare. If Fox takes Palin's claim seriously, she'd have to go, too.
But Politico’s Hohmann may have the real clue behind Fox’s selective BS detection. He wrote that while “few GOP insiders” believe Palin will “go through with the hard work of actually staging a credible bid,” her move would “generate buzz and could overshadow other more conventional candidates.”
In other words, Palin's fake candidacy could harm the prospects of real candidates.
Just saying.
Palin graphic: DonkeyHotey via photopin cc
She was forced to abs-lib when her teleprompter broke down. Remember when she bashed President Obama for using one? She then got caught with the cheat notes on her hand making her a laughing stock.
A comment I read on another blog described it perfectly, they said “It was like watching a drunken brawl without the brawl.”
Palin’s letting everyone know that she’s “really” interested now so that she can graciously accept the GOP nomination by acclaim when the convention is deadlocked and only she can “save” the party.
Now, of course, that’s an incredibly long longshot but consider what it means.
1—Palin doesn’t have to give up her FoxNoise job until August of next year (since she’s not actually running for the Presidency).
2—She doesn’t have to worry about raising campaign funds and after getting the nomination, the GOP is obligated to do the majority of the fundraising for her (and if the party doesn’t raise enough by her standards, she can always whine that her loss was due to the party’s failure to support her candidacy).
3—She’ll be able to “borrow” the best ideas from the losing candidates, meaning she won’t have to think of any policies on her own (not that she could if her life depended on it).
4—She doesn’t have to do any kind of work for it. She just spends the next year and a half doing what she’s doing—speechifying and keeping her name before the public (especially, potential convention delegates).
Again. I doubt Palin’s got the ability to plan any scheme that requires this much forethought so we’re probably lucky that this is Palin and not some intelligent GOPer (of course, an intelligent GOPer has no chance of winning the nomination because he or she would alienate the party’s base by having an IQ greater than a low-grade fever).
She’s a wishy-washy broad with a dysfunctional family.
I think you mean read the telePALMter:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/02/09/us/09palinpalm_caucus/09palinpalm_caucus-blogSpan.jpg
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Which is what she’s REALLY INTERESTED in promoting . . .
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Hell, Gretchie is an ex-Miss America.
Palin could easily read the teleprompter as good as any Dimbo on the network.
On second thought … “read” … hmmm)
