Sarah Palin Reduced to Running Right Wing Click Bait Site

[Howl]

Sarah better start a GoFundMe,  'cause this happened today:  

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Howl

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

25 minutes ago, Howl said:

Sarah better start a GoFundMe,  'cause this happened today:  

 

Interesting that the judge issued a directed verdict even after the case had been sent to the jury. I wonder if he felt he needed to make sure the press was properly protected in these days of post-Trump attacks on legitimate reporting. 

[Xan]

I haven't read anything regarding the jury but I wondered if the judge worried about the jury members for some reason.  Maybe he noticed certain expressions on their faces.  At any rate, he decided he'd better step in and stop this before it went any farther.  I figure we will hear some rightwing whining about this.

[WiseGirl]

Not to worry.

On 2/14/2022 at 10:28 PM, Xan said:

wondered if the judge worried about the jury members for some reason.  

The jury found Palin couldn't prove defamation.  "The jury of nine, which had been deliberating since Friday afternoon, found the Times not liable for defamation against Palin."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/15/media/sarah-palin-new-york-times-verdict/index.html

[apple1]

Couldn't have happened to a better person. 👀

 

[Xan]

There's an article that I just read on "Slate" about the trial.  The writer said that the scariest thing about the trial was realizing that the lawyer associated with the Hulk Hogan (Peter Thiel financed) trial was there and taking notes.  The writer thinks that this portends more trials against the media by rightwing figures.

[Cartmann99]

Sarah Palin thinks she has the 'cojones' to be in Congress because she ‘has nothing to lose’

Quote

Sarah Palin thinks she may have the right stuff to succeed Rep. Don Young, who passed away after serving as Alaska's lone representative in Congress for 49 years.

Palin was interviewed about if she plans to run in the special election by Fox News Sean Hannity.

Hannity did not seem that familiar with the race, asking if Palin lived in Young's district, even though Alaska only has only ever had a single, at-large seat in Congress.

Palin said she might run for the seat.

"There is a time and a season for everything," she said. "And if this season is one where I need a more official platform to have, then yeah, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring because we need people that have cajones."

"We need people like Donald Trump, who has nothing to lose, like me. We got nothing to lose and no more of this vanilla, milquetoast, namby-pamby, wussy-pussy stuff that's been going on, that's why the country is in the mess we're in, because people who run for office, they look at it as a job or a business instead of as a calling," Palin said.

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

Sarah Palin thinks she has the 'cojones' to be in Congress because she ‘has nothing to lose’

 

Hey, Alaska, remember when Sarah Palin just decided being your governor wasn’t fun anymore so she quit with no forewarning whatsoever? Pepperidge Farm remembers! 

[Audrey2]

5 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Sarah Palin thinks she has the 'cojones' to be in Congress because she ‘has nothing to lose’

 

She'd fit right in with the MTG crazy crew.

[Cartmann99]

It's official:

Sarah Palin announces she’s running for Congress in Alaska

Quote

Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, said Friday that she was entering the race for Alaska’s lone congressional seat, marking her return to national politics after she helped revive the anti-establishment rhetoric that has come to define the Republican Party.

She will be joining a crowded field of nearly 40 candidates to fill the House seat left vacant by Rep. Don Young, whose unexpected death last month has spurred one of the largest political shifts in the state in 50 years.

Palin said she planned to honor Young’s legacy, painting a dystopian picture of the nation in crisis, criticizing the “radical left,” high gas prices, inflation and illegal immigration.

“America is at a tipping point,” she said in the statement. “As I’ve watched the far left destroy the country, I knew I had to step up and join the fight.”

In the past, Palin had suggested, but never followed through on, launching various campaigns for elected office several times in the years since she first electrified the base of the Republican Party after 2008 presidential nominee John McCain plucked her from obscurity and named her as his running mate.

But after a long hiatus from political life, Palin had hinted in recent weeks that she was more serious than she had been in the past about running for office again. In a recent appearance on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Palin said, “There is a time and a season for everything.”

 

[Maggie Mae]

That ballot is PACKED though. The deadline to file was about an hour ago (from when I made this post) and there are more than 50 people on the Special Primary Ballot, which will be a 100% mail in election.  Ballots should go out in late april/may, be returned by June 11th. The top four candidates will move on to the Special Election, which is the same date as the primary for the November Election.  Whoever wins will serve a term of less than 6 months.

This is also Alaska's first election using the new voting rules that were enacted by a ballot initiative a few years ago. Blanket primary (no more closed party primaries!), then ranked choice for the top four. 

[Cartmann99]

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

13 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

Weirdest fan art ever.  Putting the two of them in such close contact would probably create some kind of vortex of stupidity and crazy so intense it would create a black hole. 

[fraurosena]

On 4/14/2022 at 4:09 AM, Cartmann99 said:

 

Trump with a mullet. Now there's an image I never thought I'd see...

[Howl]

On 4/1/2022 at 9:27 PM, Maggie Mae said:

and there are more than 50 people on the Special Primary Ballot

Holy Frijole that's a lot of people. 

Some years ago our county had a bond election to acquire a ranch for a county park (it passed).  A county employee was tasked with holding meetings for public input.  He described attendees as like the bar scene in Star Wars. 

I suspect many folks on this Alaska ballot would fall into that demographic, or maybe crazier. 

I'm very interested in ranked choice voting.  

@Maggie Mae any other insights into the state of Alaskan politics? 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Howl

[47of74]

I'm pulling for Santa Claus this time

Quote

The wildest congressional contest of 2022 is unfolding in Alaska, where the state's former governor and onetime Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is attempting a political comeback in a crowded field for a House seat that is open for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Palin was a late and last-minute entrant in the special election race, and her run was met with an immediate endorsement from former President Donald Trump -- who said in a statement that he was paying Palin back for her early support for his 2016 presidential bid.

Palin is known on the national stage for the then-governor's 2008 bid for vice president as the late Sen. John McCain's out-of-nowhere selection as running mate. At home, though, many still resent Palin for quitting her job as governor in 2009, less than three years into her single term in office. Trump, meanwhile, ran behind many Alaska Republicans in 2020, though he won the state by 10 percentage points.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

"Sarah Palin is back, and smaller than ever"

Quote

When Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska in 2009, midway through her only term, it was plainly because she thought she was destined for even greater things. She had become a national celebrity as John McCain’s running mate, she had heard the cheers of joyous crowds, and she had visions of TV offers and endorsement deals and her own ascension to the Oval Office. Who had time for the mundane responsibilities of governing?

Thirteen years later, Palin is back. And she’s smaller than ever.

In a special primary election to replace the late Rep. Don Young (R), the state’s only House member, Palin is placing first among dozens of contenders (though counting is ongoing). She appears to have secured her slot in a runoff. Although there are other strong candidates, if all goes well for Palin, she could be heading to Washington soon.

So look out, America, because she’s really going to shake things up! If by “shake things up” we mean add one more member to the House Far-Right Bananapants Caucus, sending out tweets to troll the libs and jockeying for Newsmax appearances.

It’s not quite the heroic triumph she had planned.

Although Palin might be irrelevant as a potential lawmaker and of limited interest as a low-rent provocateur, there’s a good case that she was the seed from which the current Republican Party grew. She revealed the nature of what would become Donald Trump’s base, and our country is still dealing with the results.

The GOP “establishment” that elevated Palin, and then was horrified by her and eventually cast her out, has been so diminished in the intervening years that for all intents and purposes there is no longer any meaningful conflict between that establishment and the base. The base won the fight.

In so many ways, Palin really was Trump before Trump. Ignorant, unprepared, gleefully characterizing denizens of small towns as the “real America” (thus denigrating people in cities and suburbs), she was possessed of a similar kind of chaotic charisma. Some people hung on her every simple-minded word, while others gaped at her and said, “Can you believe this?” But nobody could look away, at least for a while.

Although Palin and McCain lost that 2008 campaign, by the end it was clear that she was the one drawing crowds and attention. Far more than McCain, who for all his “maverick” mythmaking was deeply respectful of institutions, she showed what the Republican base truly wanted: anger, resentment and a project devoted to tearing it all down while Owning the Libs (though we didn’t yet call it that). Every time a political ad features a gun-totin’ young Republican mom talking about showing the socialists who’s boss, it’s walking the trail Palin blazed.

Yet today it’s almost impossible to imagine Palin becoming a leader in the way it had first appeared she might. The fact that she turned out to be far less compelling after extended public exposure is part of the reason. More important is the way Palinism turned out to be only a part of what is now the Republican formula.

While her brand of politics was shocking and compelling in 2008, today it’s the GOP baseline. Most every Republican, even those for whom such positions don’t come naturally, has to be an election-denying, lib-trolling, socialist-loathing culture warrior. When everyone is doing it, those who have little else to offer other than the superficial version don’t have a real claim to leadership.

If Palin gets to Congress, she’ll be just one of many members of that GOP chorus, alongside the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.), whose purpose is to go on right-wing media, say outrageous things that liberals will condemn and separate gullible conservatives from their money.

As disturbing as these characters might be, they won’t be running the Republican Party in the future. They are more like hype men: They’re not the main attraction; their job is to keep the crowd worked up and excited, but they’re fundamentally supporting players.

Instead, the ones to watch are more serious, more focused, more ambitious and much more frightening. It’s people such as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri who are working to craft a new model of ferocious authoritarianism for America — one where you don’t just make snide remarks about your enemies; you mobilize the power of the state to crush them.

Palin wants a part in that project, and she might get one. But it won’t be as the leader of a movement. And even if she’s a bit player, she can still congratulate herself for helping bring us to this awful moment, when the survival of our democracy is in serious doubt. She has already done more than her share of damage.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Palin outpaced her rivals in the primary. Now she faces new challenges."

Quote

WASILLA, Alaska — In a dive bar a few miles from Sarah Palin’s house, Stu Graham nursed a Miller Lite to decompress from an hours-long city council debate.

He had gone into the meeting with concerns about an ordinance, but he offered last-minute amendments that made it palatable enough for him to support. That was what good governance looked like, he explained over beers: compromise and results.

Graham said he would like his representative in Congress to have that same attitude, which is how he made his choice in the special election primary to replace late Rep. Don Young (R) this month. He decided to cast his ballot for Nick Begich III, a Republican endorsed by the state GOP, and not Palin, who played basketball at his local high school.

“I consider Sarah a friend,” said Graham, a Republican running to unseat state Rep. David Eastman, a member of the right-wing extremist group Oath Keepers. “But I consider Nick to be a more effective politician.”

Palin, whose campaign did not make her available for an interview, showed in the primary that she is still a political force in the state where she ascended from municipal government to vice-presidential nominee in 2008. She advanced from a crowded field of 48 candidates with the most support. After outperforming some expectations by claiming about 27 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results set to be certified on Saturday, she is now a top target of her rivals in the next stage of the race — which culminates Aug. 16.

But at a moment of sharp polarization across America, some Alaskans in Wasilla and beyond said they are far more interested in deals that would benefit their far-flung state than political combat. With only one seat in the U.S. House and needs that are often different from the rest of the country, these voters said in interviews since polls closed June 11, they are eager to elect a representative who is willing to buck party lines and work across the aisle. That sentiment could pose a challenge for Palin, a combative conservative, as she gears up for a ranked-choice general election that experts said might benefit candidates with broad appeal.

“The theory is that it favors candidates who have strengths across the ideological spectrum,” longtime Alaska pollster Ivan Moore said, referring to the ranked-choice voting system. “And that is not the case with Sarah Palin, because she is polarizing.”

The new voting system was rocked by a surprise development this week, when independent Al Gross withdrew from the race after advancing to the general election as one of the top four finishers in the primary. State election officials later said he pulled out too late to be replaced on the Aug. 16 ballot, where Alaskans can select several candidates and rank them.

Palin, Begich and Democrat Mary Peltola have advanced to the general election in what is now shaping up as a three-way race. In the days since the June 11 primary results started coming in, Palin’s opponents have tried to distinguish themselves from her by focusing on their pragmatism and ability to find middle ground.

“I can make the business case for Alaska effectively down in D.C. on behalf of all Alaskans,” Begich said in an interview last week with The Washington Post. He added, “I can pull in not just folks from the right, but also the center and those left of center.” According to unofficial results, he finished roughly eight percentage points behind Palin in the primary.

Peltola, who has spoken out against negative campaigning, discussed her interest in working across the aisle.

“Right now, national politics is so divisive,” she said in an interview with The Post last week. “People are craving unity, working together, and building alliances and coalitions to make positive change.”

Palin, who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump, sounded some results-oriented notes of her own just after voting in the primary closed, saying on Twitter that she was “looking forward to the special general election so we can highlight our ideas for fixing this country.” Then when Gross withdrew his candidacy, Palin attempted to appeal to his voters by describing her mission as “strengthening relationships our State needs in order to get nationwide Congressional support for Alaska’s interests.”

But in public appearances since resigning from Alaska’s governorship 13 years ago, Palin has characterized politics in Washington as “war for the solvency, the sovereignty of the United States of America” and urged Republican leaders to “get on offense.” In her first television interview after announcing her run for Congress, she called Democrats on Capitol Hill “pretty wacko.” Voters like Graham said they have come to know Palin for her “hard right-wing speech” and as a “mouthpiece” for the most extreme bloc of the GOP.

Palin’s campaign did not respond to questions about the concerns some have voiced about her candidacy.

If she is to become Alaska’s next U.S. House member, Palin will probably need support from those who ranked one of her competitors first, some observers said. Under the new voting system, if a candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes, they win. If not, the last-place finisher is eliminated and each of their ballots is recast toward the voter’s next choice. That process is repeated until one candidate has a majority.

Moore’s firm, Alaska Survey Research, conducted a poll in May that showed Palin to be the top choice in the pick-one primary but losing to Begich in the general election due to who voters ranked second and third. After the results of the primary, Moore says the two Republicans could be neck-in-neck in a ranked-choice election. He also said Peltola could be a contender with a newfound ability to consolidate first-place votes and financial support from the left.

To win in August, Moore said Palin’s base or hard-line Republicans will have to turn out with such force that they overpower the roughly 40 percent of Alaskans who vowed in the poll to rank her last.

John-Henry Heckendorn, a partner at an Alaska campaign management firm working for Peltola, argued that the ranked-choice system would spell trouble for Palin if Republican voters decide to break party lines for their second-choice vote because of their disdain for their former governor. But he also said he feels optimistic about Peltola, who would be the first Alaska Native member of the state’s congressional delegation, in a ranked-choice system.

Also on Aug. 16 is the pick-one primary for the full two-year term starting next year. Palin is also a candidate in that race, which will conclude with a ranked-choice general election in November.

A city of roughly 10,000 nestled in a deeply conservative region shaped by glaciers and three mountain ranges, Wasilla is home to the type of voter critical to a Palin victory. It was here that the mother of five launched her political career 30 years ago, first edging out a Republican incumbent to become mayor and then winning reelection in 1999 with around 75 percent of the vote.

A deeply conservative area where land is cheap and self-reliance is a virtue, Palin is expected to turn out many avid supporters. But after a losing vice-presidential bid, a rise to fame and an abandoned Alaska governorship, interviews with dozens of Wasilla residents revealed some potential vulnerabilities for her.

Walking around downtown handing out real estate business cards on a recent afternoon, Jetta Minerva, a self-proclaimed conservative, voiced worries that the government will take away the guns that make her feel safe as a single mom.

Minerva, 44, said she voted for Palin 16 years ago when she ran for governor, excited by the candidate’s focus on the Second Amendment and her deep community ties. But sometime between 2006 and last Monday afternoon, Palin lost Minerva’s support.

She said that Palin had become too “Hollywood” for the people of Wasilla and that her recent speeches seemed “so out of left field that it was bizarre.” Minerva said she wants a candidate who will deliver on the conservative policies she believes will best serve the region.

“I just don’t really think Sarah Palin is in it to help us anymore,” she said, crossing the parking lot at the center of this city on a highway. “I think she’s out for her own personal gain.”

That is why Minerva has decided to rank Begich first in August, she said, and Palin last.

There are plenty of Wasilla residents, however, who disagree with Minerva, and many of them showed up to vote in the June primary. Palin won around 44 percent of the state House district that includes Wasilla, roughly 20 percentage points more than Begich. Some who cast ballots for candidates not advancing to the general election said they would shift their first-choice vote to Palin.

Sam Elwell is one of those voters. The 24-year-old said he had a hard time taking the primary seriously with 48 choices and a candidate named Santa Claus in the running. So he decided to cast a “satirical vote” for Alaska Independence Party member John Wayne Howe, simply because he recognized the name from old cowboy movies he watched with his dad (though politician Howe has no known affiliation with the actor John Wayne).

“It wasn’t an intellectual decision,” Elwell said. “But now that it’s narrowed down to the top contenders, I am looking more into what they represent and whose values align with my own.”

Elwell still sees Palin as a member of his community. He said he ran into her at the local ice rink growing up, and again a few months ago at his favorite spot for chicken and milkshakes.

His second spot on the ballot is still up for grabs. A libertarian, Elwell is skeptical of Begich — a Republican candidate from a family famous for its Democratic politics.

Voters across party lines, in Wasilla and elsewhere, expressed similar reservations about Begich; some said they were not comfortable with Palin either.

Andy Josephson, a Democratic state representative who says he plans to make Peltola his first choice in August, has been wrestling with who, if anyone, to list after that.

He briefly considered ranking Palin for her willingness to criticize the mainstream Republican establishment, but decided she was too beholden to Trump and might not take the job in Congress seriously enough to represent Alaskan interests. He ultimately concluded that neither Republican in the race is worthy of a vote unless they speak out against the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

“We can disagree on 99% of the issues, but you gotta believe in democracy and rule of law,” he wrote in a letter to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News calling on the candidates to take a stand against the insurrection. “If they can’t, my pen will run out of ink.”

Gross’s decision to drop out, Josephson said, only made his ballot simpler.

As of late June, he planned to vote for Peltola and no one else.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Sigh.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

One word: EWWWWW

 

[Ozlsn]

It's 7.40am here and I'm laughing hysterically at the idea of this being played in court. Please Rufus may it happen, that would be the best!

[Howl]

Best. Thing. Ever.  

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

On 7/10/2022 at 9:31 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Sigh.

 

The people cheering makes it even more disgusting.  Oh hey there, Sarah, aren't you the one who keeps trying to blame your son's extreme violence on his absolutely cake job he had in the military where he was basically a taxi driver for very well-placed higher-ups and never came anywhere close to the possibility of a hangnail, much less actual combat?  You know, the job you arranged in exchange for him not going to jail for cutting brake lines on school busses?  That sounds an awful lot like retreating to me!  Come to think of it, quitting as Governor of Alaska with no notice to anyone sounds like retreating as well!  By the way, what's Hot Toddy doing these days?

[onekidanddone]

On 7/10/2022 at 11:19 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

One word: EWWWWW

 

Did Sarah grab him by them?

Off to the Payer Closet