Dumber Than A Box Of Rocks.

Just as a quick refresher lets look back at the great advice Steve Schmidt tried to give Sarah Palin last fall about how to handle the media.

"Secession," he wrote. "It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate. The innaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this."

Say what you will about how Schmidt handled other aspects of the McCain campaign, but when you think back on it the Alaska Independence Party story never really made it into the Mainstream Media sphere. More than likely this was largely due to his advice to Palin to leave it alone. You don't draw attention to a controversy if you are a public figure, you leave it alone and let it die. But this woman has shown an inability to allow any slight, real or percieved, to go unchallenged. Here she is again allowing her spokesperson to engage in a public back and forth with the father of her only grandchild.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A spokeswoman for Gov. Sarah Palin is scoffing at comments by Bristol Palin's former fiance, who says he thinks Palin resigned to cash in on her fame.

"It is interesting to learn Levi is working on a piece of fiction while honing his acting skills," Palin family spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Levi Johnston, 19, whose wedding to Bristol Palin was called off earlier this year, said Thursday he lived with the Palin family from early December to the second week in January. He claimed he heard the governor several times say how nice it would be to take advantage of the lucrative deals that were being offered, including a reality show and a book.

"She had talked about how nice it would be to take some of this money people had been offering us and you know just run with it, say 'forget everything else,'" he said.

He said he thinks book deals were really what appealed to Palin.

"I think the big deal was the book. That was millions of dollars," said Johnston, who has had a strained relationship with the family but now says things have improved.

In what world does it make sense to trash your grandson's father to the media? In what world would anybody take anything Levi Johnston has to say seriously but for the fact that Palin and her cronies continue to attack him? This is why I think ALL of the pundits have this one wrong. Even the ones who suspect she will never win an election again are still expecting her to make a lot of money with a TV show or the lecture circuit but that misses a fundamental point. She doesn't have the mental discipline to go and make it rain for very long. Oh she may get a radio show or a TV show but that means she will have to actually have some original thoughts of her own every day or every night and she lacks that capacity. Even Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity come up with something new every week to be paranoid about. This woman is going to be like Emmitt Smith on Monday Night Football (I am the biggest Emmitt fan in the world by the way and consider him the best running back evah!). It sounds like a good idea right up until they have to open their mouths and talk. Besides that its apparent that if she in fact lands a job on TV or radio, she will likely spend the majority of her time trying to settle old scores or responding to new attacks. And who in the hell is going to want to watch or listen to that for very long? Even the wingnuts who have crowned her will grow weary and fast.

Please keep those words from her "trusted" spokeswoman and advisor Meg Stapleton in mind the next time anybody tries to spin for Sarah Palin running for President.

Aha!

I guess I missed this clip of Anderson Cooper interviewing Sarah Palin's spokesperson the other night after she announced her resignation. I think this exchange is very instructive for all of us who have wondered why Sarah Palin speaks as incoherently as she does on a regular basis. I mean when your spokesperson is this bad and pretty much sounds exactly like you do in the worst of your exceedingly bad interviews and press conferences I would say that there is some cause and effect there. The spokespersron, Meg Stapleton, spoke in nothing more than slogans and empty rhetoric, the same literary devices so frequenctly used by Palin herself.

In what world can you say its leadership to step down from the governorship and yet not have a solid answer about what you are going to do next? The point guard reference is absolutely the worst ever also precisely because it can so easily be turned on its head by those more versed in sports than Cooper. First of all a leader in politics usually would want to be known as more of a shooting guard ala Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant because those are the guys who make the biggest plays for you when the pressure is on. Besides that in sports if you have a point guard who never wants to take a big shot then they can never truly be considered one of the great ones. As a matter of fact true basketball enthusiasts will question their level of courage if they repeatedly pass the ball with the game on the line to someone whom is seen as a lesser talent whether they are open or not. Ask Vince Carter about it. Ask Lebron James about it from early on in his career when he didn't have that killer instinct.

But the fact that not only is Stapleton saying these things but she seems to think she is making good points just goes to show that Palin is institutionally destined for failure. She keeps insulating herself in a bubble with people like Stapleton who obviously have no clue what the hell they are talking about. The only qualification any of her inner circle seem to have for their jobs is total devotion to her. Well you might get away with that in podunk Wasilla, but it ain't going to cut it on the national scene. And I have a funny feeling that now that Palin is no longer a Governor, media types will not be as polite about not calling out her continual incoherence. If there isn't some pending scandal that ever comes out then this may well go down as the worst political move in the history of our nation.



(h/t PC )