07:45 am
Palin’s Tabloid Problem
As we count down the hours to Sarah Palin’s speech, she is dealing with a huge image problem. And it’s not just the progosphere or the mainstream media. Now she has to deal with the tabloids:
That is not a good headline if you’re Sarah Palin or John McCain. Especially coming in Us rather than, say, The Economist. Here’s an excerpt from the story:
On January 15, Alaska governor Sarah Palin laughed along with an Alaskan shock-jock DJ who called her political rival Lyda Green a “cancer,” a “bitch” and ridiculed her weight. (Green is a cancer survivor. “People were so nice and were motified. Newspapers that were never Lyda Green-friendly, they demanded that [Sarah] apologize,” Green told Us.
“You know what she said? She said, ‘I’m calling to apologize. I hope you didn’t misunderstand the radio program,’” Green says. “I told her, ‘I didn’t misunderstand.’” The Alaska state senator added, “It’s not a good way to behave. Why would anybody call a shock jock?” So what did Green think when she heard Palin was John McCain’s vice presidential candidate? “It’s been very difficult to work with her,” she tells Us Weekly. “I wish there had been more vetting.”
Here’s what ABC’s Rick Klein had to say about this:
Let’s say you don’t read The New York Times or The Washington Post (or The Note, for that matter). Let’s say you don’t follow the big political blogs and you’re not obsessed with every turn of the screw of this fascinating presidential race.
Let’s say, instead, like millions of working-class Americans, you get your “news” on the political race from the supermarket aisle. Let’s say you’re — I don’t know, a “hockey mom” — and you’re intrigued by this Sarah Palin person you’ve been hearing so much about since Friday.
So you’re shopping this week — and what do you see on the cover of US Weekly? That esteemed journalistic institution is taking it right to John McCain’s running mate — with a hard-hitting piece that details the “scandal” involving her daughter’s pregnancy.
But it’s not just Us. Here’s what the National Enquirer, which is making Palin its lead story this week, is claiming:
Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin attempted to quietly have her daughter Bristol get married before news of her pregnancy leaked out, the NATIONAL ENQUIRER is reporting exclusively in its new issue. Palin planned for the wedding to take place right after the Republican National Convention and then she was going to announce the pregnancy.
But Bristol, 17, refused to go along with the plan and that sparked a mother-daughter showdown over the failed coverup. The ultra-conservative governor’s announcement about her daughter’s pregnancy came hours after The ENQUIRER informed her representatives and family members of Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol’s child, that we were aware of the pregnancy and were going to break the news.
It’s impossible to know whether the usually disreputable Enquirer is telling the truth. That said, they did break the Edwards story and, back in 1992, the Gennifer Flowers scandal, so it is not unprecedented for them to break a political story.
The tabloidization of this story destroys another McCain talking point. It makes Palin the celebrity, putting her on the same covers that regularly feature Paris and Britney’s antics.
Tonight, Palin will speak. And because of what has happened this week, the focus will not be on Obama, but on her story. She will have to walk a line — expressing pain over the attacks without looking or sounding too much like a victim. And even if she hits a grand slam tonight, this stuff isn’t going to go away any time soon.
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