The Palin Principle: Show Me Your Anger and Your Money

Sarah Palin represents a remarkable brew of celebrity, politics, religion and sex appeal. To borrow a construct from Esquire's Stephen Marche, she "is nothing if not a product of [her] time": instant celebrity, blissful ignorance, a lack of truthiness, and boundless self-esteem.

Whether you like her and get a kick out of her spunk and snark, revel in her celebrity, and find her absolutely fascinating, or you can't stand her, think she's obnoxiously ill-informed, and are tired of hearing and reading about her and her family, Palin is hands down the most compelling political figure in the country.

To fans, her reputation cannot be tarnished, and it won't be, regardless of how many misstatements and gaffes she makes, like her recently calling North Korea, America's ally. The fact that her SarahPAC shamelessly purchased $64,000 worth of her new book, "America by Heart," and is selling autographed copies of same for $100 dollars a pop, is likely to be seen in pro-Sarah quarters as savvy entrepreneurialism.

And, it certainly won't matter to Palin-ophiles if it is true, as comedian Margaret Cho claimed on her blog last week, that Bristol Palin -- her fellow combatant on "Dancing with the Stars" -- was guilt-tripped by her mother into taking part in television's top-rated program. (In an open letter on her Facebook page, Bristol answered Cho by saying, that she would "give my friend credit for creativity, and extra points for getting so many 'facts' wrong in so few sentences. Let me be blunt: my mom did not 'force' me to go on DWTS. She did not ask me either. The show approached me."

Sarah Palin is selling books; she's making lots of money from assorted speaking gigs; her TLC series, "Sarah Palin's Alaska" -- although experiencing a sharp dip in the ratings -- is still generating buzz; she made Barbara Walters' list (for the third consecutive year) of "The 10 Most Fascinating People" in 2010; and, Mitt Romney said nice things about her, Newt Gingrich called her a "phenomenon," and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said that she was "absolutely" electable as president.

(Of course, there are those within the Republican establishment -- Karl Rove, George Will, David Frum amongst them, that are concerned that her presidential ambitions will sink the Party in 2012.)

She's commenting on just about everything, including describing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands," and calling for him to be hunted down as if he were a leader of a terrorist group.

She is making the kinds of political alliances that pay off in the long run; alliances that count in states that count, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- the first important presidential primary states.

In her assessment of potential Republican Party presidential hopefuls, the Des Moines Register's Kathie Obradovich recently wrote: "'Formidable' is the word opponents use to describe a potential Palin campaign. Her star power, money-raising ability and appeal to Joe and Jane Six-pack can't be discounted. Some establishment types remain wary of her mid-term resignation from the Alaska governorship and her preparation for the presidency, but they're not her caucus constituency. She can bring new faces into the caucuses, and she'd be seen as the candidate to beat. Her celebrity status and aversion to non-Fox media would challenge the conventional wisdom about the need to court Iowa voters one-on-one."

Whether she runs for the presidency in 2012 or not, Sarah Palin is slated to be the big winner during the two-year run-up to the presidential elections.

'Show me the Anger'

In a recent San Francisco Chronicle column titled "Politics of anger could fuel Palin's drive to White House," Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and current professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, wrote: "No prospective Republican candidate so sharply embodies the anger of America's middle class as does Sarah Palin. And none is channeling that anger nearly as effectively -- even though her prescription will make things worse."

Reich pointed out that Palin "avoids the bilious rants of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and their ilk. But her cheerfulness isn't sunny; she doesn't promise Morning in America. She offers pure snark, and promises revenge. Over and over she tells the same snide, sarcastic inside joke, in different words: 'We know something they don't (wink, wink). Their days are numbered. We're gonna take America back from them.'"

For Palin, Reich wrote, the path to the presidency "is to circumvent the Republican establishment," by playing on her celebrity: "It's a snarkfest with the nation's angry middle class. But my book and we'll show the know-it-all coastal cities a real book directed at real people! Tune into my reality show and we'll the real America -- far from the urban centers with immigrants and blacks and fancy city slickers! Vote for Bristol's dancing and we'll show the media establishment how powerful we are."

'Show me the Money'

While he was at it, Reich might have used some of the same words to say that no other prospective Republican candidate so sharply understands how to cash in on her celebrity status -- in fact no other republican has her celebrity status -- as does Sarah Palin.

Palin's Sarah PAC raised $469,000 between October 14 and November 22, out raising both Gingrich's American Solutions PAC and Romney's Free and Strong America PAC. The Washington Post reported that, "Palin used that surge in fundraising to dole out about $250,000 in contributions to GOP candidates in the final two weeks of the campaign."

According to the Washington Post's Aaron Blake, "Palin shelled out $582,000, paying a smattering of consultants for speechwriting, fundraising, political advice, media, research (not polling) and a pair of somewhat unusual expenditures for "issue consulting" and "coalitions consulting." She also sent money to a number of obscure House candidates with little chance of winning, including opponents of ultra-safe Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas).

In a late-November piece for Mother Jones, Andy Kroll and Daniel Shulman discovered that "In recent months, ... SarahPAC, has paid thousands of dollars to a mysterious company that's gone to significant lengths to mask its ownership. Addresses linked to the firm lead to mail drops. It has no website. No phone number. Not even the California lawyer who incorporated the company knew who was behind it ... . Federal Election Commission filings show that SarahPAC has paid the company, Paideia Research LLC, at least $16,000 for its services. The payments to Paideia - which takes its name from the ancient Greek word meaning 'education' or 'instruction' - are the only research-related expenditures listed on the PAC's latest disclosures.

"... interviews and a review of domestic and international business records led to the identity of Paideia's owner-which presented yet another mystery: Why is Palin's political action committee employing a Dutch right-wing journalist named Joshua Livestro, who is known for incendiary rhetoric?" (You can find out much more about Livestro's career path @ http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/sarah-palin-pac-joshua-livestro.)

And as Robert Reich concluded "Her war on the nation's cultural and intellectual elites will only divide America. But in the absence of any other voice that speaks to the anger of the middle class and offers real solutions, it may win her the presidency."

Berkowitz is a freelance writer and longtime observer of the conservative movement who documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the U.S. Right. In addition to BuzzFlash, his work -- which has been cited in a number of books -- has appeared in Alternet, Inter Press Service, The Nation, Religion Dispatches, Z Magazine, and numerous other online and print publications.

© Scoop Media