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Sep 2, 2010

Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury

 

Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury

Even as Sarah Palin's public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor's road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/10/sarah-palin-201010

Backstage in the arena, a little girl in Mary Janes pushes her brother in a baby carriage, stopping a few yards shy of a heavy, 100-foot-long black curtain. The curtain splits the arena in two, shielding the children from an audience of 4,000 people clapping their hands in time to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The music accompanies a video "Salute to Military Heroes" that plays above the stage where, in a few moments, the children's mother will appear.

When the girl, Piper Palin, turns around, she sees her parents thronged by admirers, and the crowd rolling toward her and the baby, her brother Trig, born with Down syndrome in 2008. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, bend down and give a moment to the children; a woman, perhaps a nanny, whisks the boy away; and Todd hands Sarah her speech and walks her to the stage. He pokes the air with one finger. She mimes the gesture, whips around, strides on four-inch heels to stage center, and turns it on.

And how. Palin and the crowd might as well be one. She's glad to be here with the people of Independence, Missouri, "where so many of you proudly cling to your guns and your religion"—the first laughline in a 40-minute stump speech that alludes to many of the perceived insults she and her audience have suffered together, and that transforms their resentments into badges of honor. Palin waves her scribbled-on palm to the crowd, proclaiming that she's using "the poor man's teleprompter." Of the Obama administration, she says, "They talk down to us. Especially here in the heartland. Oh, man. They think that, if we were just smart enough, we'd be able to understand their policies. And I so want to tell 'em, and I do tell 'em, Oh, we're plenty smart, oh yeah—we know what's goin' on. And we don't like what's goin' on. And we're not gonna let them tell us to sit down and shut up."

The crowd's ample applause at these lines swells to something vastly bigger when Palin vows defiantly that "come November, we're taking our country back!" The phrase plays on the name of this event, "Winning America Back," which has been billed as a Tea Party rally organized by a grassroots Missouri political-action committee that no one had heard of until a few months ago, when the event was announced.

Behind the curtain, Piper plays with other children, oblivious to the speech. She runs in circles, plays hide-and-seek, poses for snapshots, and generally acts as if she were in another world—until she gets the signal to do her job: march to the podium, pick up Palin's speech, and allow Palin to make a public display of maternal affection.

On cue, Piper parts the curtain. As the child appears, a loud and doting "Awww" melts through the crowd.

Sarah Palin's connection with her audience is complete. People who admire her believe she is just like them, and this conviction seems to satisfy their curiosity about the objective facts of her life. Those whose curiosity has not been satisfied have their work cut out for them. Palin has been a national figure for barely two years—John McCain selected her as his running mate in August 2008. Her on-the-record statements about herself amount to a litany of untruths and half-truths. With few exceptions—mostly Palin antagonists in journalism and politics whose beefs with her have long been out in the open—virtually no one who knows Palin well is willing to talk about her on the record, whether because they are loyal and want to protect her (a small and shrinking number), or because they expect her prominence to grow and intend to keep their options open, or because they fear she will exact revenge, as she has been known to do. It is an astonishing phenomenon. Colleagues and acquaintances by the hundreds went on the record to reveal what they knew, for good or ill, about prospective national candidates as diverse as Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Barack Obama. When it comes to Palin, people button their lips and slink away.

She manages to be at once a closed book and a constant noisemaker. Her press spokesperson, Pam Pryor, barely speaks to the press, and Palin shrewdly cultivates a real and rhetorical antagonism toward what she calls "the lamestream media." The Palin machine is supported by organizations that do much of their business under the cover of pseudonyms and shell companies. In accordance with the terms of a reported $1 million annual contract with Fox News, Palin regularly delivers canned commentary on that network. But in the year since she abruptly resigned the governorship of Alaska, in order to market herself full-time—earning an estimated $13 million in the process—she has submitted to authentic, unpaid interviews with only a handful of journalists, none of whom have posed notably challenging questions. She keeps tight control of her pronouncements, speaking only in settings of her own choosing, with audiences of her own selection, and with reporters kept at bay. (Despite many requests, neither Palin nor her current staff would comment for this article.) She injects herself into the news almost every day, but on a strictly one-way basis, through a steady stream of messages on Twitter and Facebook. The press plays along. Palin is the only politician whose tweets are regularly reported as news by TV networks. She is the only one who has been able to significantly change the course of debate on a major national issue (health-care reform) with a single Facebook posting (in which she accused the Obama administration, falsely, of wanting to set up a "death panel").

Palin makes speeches before large audiences at least a few times a week, on a grueling schedule that has taken her to as many as four locations in three states in one day. She's choosy, restricting herself to Tea Party gatherings; fund-raisers for charities and Republican organizations and candidates; and moneymakers for herself, mainly business conventions and "Get Motivated!" seminars. Judging from the bootleg videos that sometimes turn up, her basic speech varies little from venue to venue. She presents herself as the straight-shooting, plainspoken, salt-of-the-earth advocate for "hardworking, patriotic, liberty-loving Americans" and as the anti-Obama, the lone Republican standing up to a federal government gone "out of control." Last July, the quarterly filing by Palin's political-action committee, SarahPAC, revealed a formidable war chest and hefty investments in fund-raising and direct mail, the clearest signs yet that she may indeed run for president. Republican leaders privately dismiss her as too unpredictable and too undisciplined to run a serious campaign. But on she flies, carpet-bombing the 24-hour news cycle: now announcing her desire to meet with her "political heroine" Margaret Thatcher (the better to look like Ronald Reagan, presumably, though Palin seemed unaware that Thatcher is suffering from dementia); now yelping in theatrical complaint ("I want my straws! I want 'em bent!"), to shrug off revelations that her speaking contract demands deluxe hotel rooms, first-class air travel, and bottles of water with bendable straws; now responding (in a statement read on the Today show) to reports of her daughter Bristol's re-engagement to Levi Johnston; and all the while issuing scores of political endorsements and preparing a fall media blitz. A TV show, Sarah Palin's Alaska, for which Palin is being paid $2 million, will have its premiere on the TLC network in November. A new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, will be published the following week.

This spring and summer I traveled to Alaska and followed Palin's road show through four midwestern states, speaking with whomever I could induce to talk under whatever conditions of anonymity they imposed—political strategists, longtime Palin friends and political associates, hotel staff, shopkeepers and hairstylists, and high-school friends of the Palin children. There's a long and detailed version of what they had to say, but there's also a short and simple one: anywhere you peel back the skin of Sarah Palin's life, a sad and moldering strangeness lies beneath.

Fist of the North Star

It was a baking-hot Kansas afternoon, and from the lobby I watched as three slender, solemn young hairstylists and makeup artists approached a front-desk clerk at the Hyatt Regency hotel, in Wichita. The tallest of them said, "We're here for North Star." The desk clerk understood. He nodded and directed the three women to the Keeper of the Plains suite, on the 17th floor, where North Star herself awaited. The North Star is mentioned in Alaska's state song and appears on its state flag. Fairbanks lies in a region called the North Star Borough. Palin is on the way to making North Star a personal brand. If she ever does run for president, it might well serve as her Secret Service code name.

Hours after the styling session, three bodyguards and one aide accompany Sarah, Todd, and Piper to a $1,000-a-plate V.I.P. dinner to raise money for Wichita's Bethel Life School. Each guest has a photo taken with Palin and receives a "personally autographed bookplate copy" of Palin's autobiography, Going Rogue. (The autographs are fake, made with an Autopen.) After dinner, Pat Boone, his skin a taut orange against the trademark white suit, leads the crowd in the singing of a spiritual. Congressman Todd Tiahrt, who will receive Palin's endorsement in his race for the U.S. Senate, tells everyone to buy a copy of Palin's book—"so Sarah can buy a Learjet!" (Learjet is based in Wichita.)

Palin delivers basically the same speech she gave 18 hours earlier to the Tea Party group in Independence. You could pretty much replace the word "constitution," from yesterday's remarks, with "Bible," and be good to go. Then Palin departs from the script and speaks as if from the heart, describing her fear and confusion upon discovering that Trig would be born with Down syndrome. "I had never really been around a baby with special needs," she tells her listeners. For what it's worth, this statement is untrue. Depicting the same moment of discovery in her own book, Palin writes that she immediately thought of a special-needs child she knew very well: her autistic nephew. Such falsehoods never damage Palin's credibility with her admirers, because information and ideology are incidental to this relationship. Palin owes her power to identity politics, pitched with moralistic topspin. She exploits the same populist impulse that fueled the career of William Jennings Bryan—an impulse described by one Bryan biographer as "the yearning for a society run by and for ordinary people who lead virtuous lives."

Palin does not always treat those ordinary people well, however—it depends on who is watching. Of the many famous people who have stayed at the Hyatt in Wichita (Cher, Reba McEntire, Neil Young), Sarah Palin ranks as the all-time worst tipper: $5 for seven bags. But the bellhops had it good in Kansas, compared with the bellman at another midwestern hotel who waited up until past midnight for Palin and her entourage to check in—and then got no tip at all for 10 bags. He was stiffed again at checkout time. The same went for the maids who cleaned Palin's rooms in both places—no tip whatsoever. The only time I heard of Palin giving a generous tip was in St. Joseph, Michigan, after the owner of Kilwin's chocolate shop, on State Street, sent a CARE package to Palin's suite, and Palin walked to the store to say thank you. She also wanted to buy more boxes of candy to take home. When the owner would not accept her money, Palin, encircled by the crowd that had jammed the store to get a glimpse of her, pressed a hundred-dollar bill into the woman's hand, saying, "This is for the staff." That Ben Franklin was the talk of State Street the whole rest of the day.

Warm and effusive in public, indifferent or angry in private: this is the pattern of Palin's behavior toward the people who make her life possible. A onetime gubernatorial aide to Palin says, "The people who have worked for her—they're broken, used, stepped on, down in the dust." On the 2008 campaign trail, one close aide recalls, it was practically impossible to persuade Palin to take a moment to thank the kitchen workers at fund-raising dinners. During the campaign, Palin lashed out at the slightest provocation, sometimes screaming at staff members and throwing objects. Witnessing such behavior, one aide asked Todd Palin if it was typical of his wife. He answered, "You just got to let her go through it… Half the stuff that comes out of her mouth she doesn't even mean." When a campaign aide gingerly asked Todd whether Sarah should consider taking psychiatric medication to control her moods, Todd responded that she "just needed to run and work out more." Her anger kept boiling over, however, and eventually the fits of rage came every day. Then, just as suddenly, her temper would be gone. Palin would apologize and promise to be nicer. Within hours, she would be screaming again. At the end of one long day, when Palin was mid-tirade, a campaign aide remembers thinking, "You were an angel all night. Now you're a devil. Where did this come from?"

The intensity of Palin's temper was first described to me in such extreme terms that I couldn't help but wonder if it might be exaggerated, until I heard corroborating tales of outbursts dating back to her days as mayor of Wasilla and before. One friend of the Palins' remembers an argument between Sarah and Todd: "They took all the canned goods out of the pantry, then proceeded to throw them at each other. By the time they got done, the stainless-steel fridge looked like it had got shot up with a shotgun. Todd said, 'I don't know why I even waste my time trying to get nice things for you if you're just going to ruin them.' " This friend adds, "As soon as she enters her property and the door closes, even the insects in that house cringe. She has a horrible temper, but she has gotten away with it because she is a pretty woman." (The friend elaborated on this last point: "Once, while Sarah was preparing for a city-council meeting, she said, 'I'm gonna put on one of my push-up bras so I can get what I want tonight.' That's how she rolls.") When Palin was mayor, she made life for one low-level municipal employee so miserable that the woman quit her job, sought psychiatric counseling, and then left the state altogether to escape Palin's sphere of influence—this according to one person with firsthand knowledge of the situation. The woman did not want to be found. When I finally tracked her down, her husband, who answered the phone, at first pretended that I had dialed the wrong number and that the word "Wasilla" had no meaning to him. Palin's former personal assistants all refused to comment on the record for this story, some citing a fear of reprisal. Others who have worked with Palin recall that, when she feels threatened, she does not hesitate to wield some version of a signature threat: "I have the power to ruin you."

Palin's public voice is an instrument of great versatility. In a few moments, she can turn from kind to hateful, rational to unhinged. At her best Palin can be folksy and pungent. But she needs outside help to give her voice its national range. For messaging strategy, Palin relies on William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and Fred Malek, who was an aide to Presidents Richard Nixon and George H. W. Bush. The lawyer Robert Barnett, the most successful literary agent in Washington—his clients range from Hillary Clinton to Dick Cheney to Tony Blair—negotiated Palin's reported $7 million advance for Going Rogue, and he helps oversee her speaking schedule, which is arranged by the Washington Speakers Bureau. The small inner circle that shapes Palin's voice day to day includes lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, a director of the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century, who advises Palin on foreign affairs, and Kim Daniels, a lawyer with the Thomas More Law Center, which has been called "the Christian answer to the A.C.L.U.," who advises her on domestic issues. Palin's speechwriter is Lindsay Hayes. Doug McMarlin and Jason Recher, both of whom did advance work for George W. Bush, serve as body men and confidants. Both Hayes and Recher were on Palin's 2008-campaign road team, and both were known for indulging her whims, according to their colleagues. (When John McCain decided to pull out of Michigan, a decision Palin disagreed with, Recher and Palin hatched a plan one day to make an early-morning drive to Michigan anyway. The Secret Service, becoming aware of the plan, asked the McCain campaign what it should do. The answer came: "Shoot out the tires.") Campaign e-mails indicate that Recher was disrespectful of field staff and support workers. "Our volunteers don't want to do Palin trips because of the way they are treated by Recher," wrote one of his supervisors. Of all those who have professional relationships with Palin, only Robert Barnett is generally considered to be at the top of his game, and he is basically just cutting deals, as he would for any client.

Palin's most unconventional hire is a novice media consultant, Rebecca Mansour, a 36-year-old Los Angeles resident who has been identified in news stories as a screenwriter. Mansour has said that she volunteered for Obama early in the 2008 campaign and then became disillusioned. Not long after the election, with Joseph Russo, a then 23-year-old college student from New Jersey, who would also go to work for Palin, she co-founded the most popular pro-Palin blog, Conservatives4Palin, known informally as C4P (and not to be confused with the "adult swingers" Web site of that name). C4P functions as a hybrid news service, discussion board, and field headquarters for a virtual army of Palin supporters, who pride themselves on brute devotion. "Who We Are and What We Stand For," a post written by Mansour, declares, "We're ordinary barbarians here. No one controls us. We're a horde." A prominent C4P contributor, Nicole Coulter, told CBS.com this summer, "We would literally walk across hot broken glass for this woman… She's our family, and you protect your family; it's like the mafia."

On C4P, any journalist or public figure who questions Palin in any way is flicked off as a "creep," a "hack," a "loser," a "storm trooper," a "liar," or as just plain "slime." "I assumed the governor was above that," says Jay Ramras, an Alaska state legislator who has been a frequent target of the site. "Or at least that there was a Chinese wall between her and these people. But then they crossed over—she hired them." Mansour's words have continued to appear on the site occasionally, even after she was formally taken on board by SarahPAC. She used to police C4P message boards for dissenters from the party line and, under the name RAM (her initials, shortened from her earlier, more descriptive handle, RAM Hammer), rip them mercilessly: "Now you are banned for life, you sick son of a bitch." In one comment string, a woman named Sandra wrote, "I wish Sarah would tell us more about what is involved with caring for Trig. I understand there are many professionals involved in his education and training. If we knew more about this there would be more support for organizations that are involved." Mansour shot back, "Sandra, what are you implying?," and the comment string went dead. The nastiness on C4P exists alongside an idealization of the former governor, as displayed in the closing lines of "Who is Sarah Palin?," an 8,000-word posting by Mansour: "C4P has your back, Governor. And when you finally ride out from the north with your banner lifted high, we'll rally."

These words resonate with the code name Palin used in Wichita. Palin has invoked the North Star in several of her most important speeches, including her July 2009 farewell address, when she resigned as governor of Alaska ("Wherever the road may lead us, we have that steadying great North Star to guide us home"), her January 2009 state-of-the-state speech ("United, protecting and progressing under the great North Star, let's get to work"), and her December 2006 inaugural address, in which she used the North Star concept to frame Alaska's relationship to the rest of the country, much the way Ronald Reagan used the "city on a hill" image to portray America's relationship to the rest of the world. "America is looking for answers. She's looking for a new direction; the world is looking for a light," Palin said. "That light can come from America's great North Star; it can come from Alaska." According to an account on US for Palin, another pro-Palin blog, Palin recently told a Christian audience in Georgia that "in Alaska they refer to the North Star a lot," and indicated that this is sometimes meant as a reference to God.

Palin's rooms in Wichita were booked by NorthStar Strategies, a Virginia company registered to Jason Recher. When a man in Wichita asked Palin how he could get involved if she decides to run for president, Doug McMarlin offered him a business card identifying himself as a partner in NorthStar. An Amazon.com store called the North Star Group, maintained by a Palin blogger, "sells Governor Palin's books, and numerous products she has referenced or is known to use," such as the red Naughty Monkey Double Dare pumps she often wears. As a side project to Conservatives4Palin, Joseph Russo in 2009 contributed to a separate pro-Palin blog called Fist of the North Star. The blog shares its name with a Japanese manga series set in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by nuclear war, in which a faithful remnant work to save their Heavenly Empress, who has been imprisoned by the corrupt Imperial Army. The Fist of the North Star blog once featured a staggeringly obscene mock news item about one of Palin's Alaska nemeses, the activist Andree McLeod, who had filed a series of ethics complaints against the then governor: "On Friday, an international team of doctors successfully removed the world's largest parasite from her desperately overstretched colon. One must wonder what kind of freaky shit this ghetto bitch was ingesting… You never know what else that Harpies Twat is carrying!"

As late as April 2009, Palin's press spokesperson contended that C4P was "not affiliated in any way with the governor." Mansour's reaction to that statement suggested otherwise. The next day on C4P, she wrote, "Some readers have wondered if I felt tire tracks on my back this morning," and went on to say, "I understand" why Palin's spokesperson denied any connection, adding, "I'm not hurt … much." Twelve days later she told a reporter for a McClatchy newspaper a different story: Sarah Palin, Mansour said, "has nothing at all, whatsoever, to do with any of what we're doing here." In early July, Mansour made a trip to Alaska to meet with Palin, according to a source in Anchorage. By mid-August, her byline, long the most prominent one on C4P, had vanished from the site.

But her voice, or at least a voice that sounds much like hers, was about to turn up in another venue. When it was first set up, in January 2009, Palin's Facebook page might as well have been a file cabinet for official press releases ("Palin Pushes Parental Consent Legislation") written mostly in a stiff, third-person form. The same was true of her Twitter feed, which went live in April. After Mansour's voice disappeared on C4P, however, Palin's voice on Facebook and Twitter started sounding increasingly provocative and irascible. A company called Aries Petra Consulting was formed in September and registered to Mansour's home address, but under someone else's name. (In astrology, Aries is the ram—or "RAM.") SarahPAC's first payment to the firm was made in October, about two weeks before Palin began her book tour. By then, Palin's new virtual voice was growing in intensity. The more shrill it became, the more news Palin made: "QUIT MAKING THINGS UP DNC" … "OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S ATROCIOUS DECISION: HORRIBLE DECISION, ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE" … "ARE YOU CAPABLE OF DECENCY, RAHM EMANUEL?" The payments to Mansour were not made public until February 1, 2010, when SarahPAC had to disclose its quarterly filings with the Federal Elections Commission. The day before the disclosure, knowing what was coming, C4P made an official announcement acknowledging that both Mansour and Russo had left the site months earlier and gone to work for SarahPAC. This summer, in her capacity as a SarahPAC staffer, Mansour insisted to a reporter that "anything that goes out under [Palin's] name is hers." Palin's virtual voice does sometimes have the ring of authenticity. But often it sounds less like Palin herself than someone else's fantasy version of Palin at her most vitriolic. On one occasion Palin's virtual voice contradicted remarks she made in a TV interview two days later.

Angels and Demons

Early in the 2008 campaign, when John McCain's aides discovered that Alaska-size gaps existed in Palin's general knowledge (among those previously unreported: she had no idea who Margaret Thatcher was), they from time to time would give her some books to read in hopes of improving the candidate's learning curve. On one such occasion, Palin accepted the books, set them aside, and for the next 25 minutes was held rapt by one of her three BlackBerrys.

Eventually, an aide asked, "What are you working on?"

"I'm reading these great e-mails," she said, "from the prayer warriors."

On the road, Palin gives "prayer warriors" regular shout-outs. She did it in Wichita and again in June during "An Evening with Sarah Palin" at Chicago's Rosemont Theatre. Standing in front of a 50-foot-long American flag, wearing a black leather jacket, Palin thanked prayer warriors in the audience, just as at other events she has thanked them for keeping her "covered" and "providing [a] prayer shield."

The term "prayer warrior" describes a person who offers a specific kind of supplication: asking God to direct an unseen battle between forces of light and darkness—literal angels and demons—that some Christians believe is occurring all around us. A leading member of Wasilla's Church on the Rock, the non-denominational evangelical congregation where Palin sometimes attends worship, confirmed this understanding of the term. When Palin thanks prayer warriors for keeping her covered, she is thanking them for calling on angels to shield her from demonic attacks. On the night of the vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden, Palin received an e-mail marked "URGENT … Urgent for Sarah to read … " The e-mail came from pastor Lou Engle, a prominent right-wing activist who identifies himself as a prayer warrior and is a central figure in dominionist theology. (Dominionists believe that, until Jesus Christ returns to earth, society should be governed exclusively by God's law as revealed through a literal reading of Scripture.) In the e-mail, Engle compared Palin to the biblical Queen Esther. "This is an Esther moment in your life," he wrote. "Esther hid her identity until Mordecai challenged her to risk everything for such a time as this. Your identity is 'Sarah Barracuda.' Esther removed corruption from the Persian government and Haman fell. She didn't have experience, she had grace and favor. Sarah, don't hide your identity tonight."

Palin has often stated that the strokes of luck propelling her political success were divinely ordained: "There are no coincidences" is a favorite maxim. In Going Rogue, Palin casts herself as a reluctant prophet, accepting providential election against her wishes. The reluctant prophet is a character trope found throughout Hebrew and Christian scripture. (Jesus prays, "Father, if it is Thy will, let this cup pass from me.") The opening scene of Going Rogue, at the 2008 Alaska State Fair, ends with Palin's BlackBerry ringing. As she reaches to answer, Palin prays, "Please, Lord, just for an hour, anything but politics," only to find John McCain on the line, "asking if I wanted to help him change history."

Whenever I heard Palin speak on the road, her remarks were scored with code phrases expressing solidarity with fundamentalist Christians. Her talk of leading with "a servant's heart" is a dog whistle for the born-again. Her dig at health-care reform as an expression of Democratic ambitions to "build a Utopia" in the United States is practically a trumpet call (because the Kingdom of God is not of this earth, and perfection can be achieved only in the life to come). But it is Palin's persistent encouragement of the prayer warriors that most clearly reveals her worldview: she is good, her opponents are evil, and the war is on.

Palin's belief that evil surrounds her may account for the secretive nature of her business arrangements. SarahPAC staffers and contractors have made what seem like concerted efforts to disclose an absolute minimum of information. Palin's tours around the country are supported by a network of organizations that are not always what they claim to be. The Winning America Back conference was organized by a Missouri political-action committee called Preserving American Liberty (PAL-PAC). The group's Web site states that "Members of Preserving American Liberty are from the Kansas City metropolitan area and are all unpaid volunteers who want to make a positive difference in the community." Yet when I asked local politicians (including state representatives, a Senate candidate, and a congressional candidate) and local journalists about who had organized the event, I found that they knew nothing about the sponsors—"maybe because they're Tea Partiers," one reporter guessed, "and they're all new to politics."

PAL-PAC seems to have been created for a single purpose: to pay Sarah Palin to give a speech. PAL-PAC announced the Palin event at the same time that it announced its own formation. After the Palin event was over, most of the information on PAL-PAC's Web site disappeared. In effect, PAL-PAC was a disposable entertainment company, set up to put on a one-day show that collected the contact information of thousands of people who came to see Palin in the flesh, and to give her their money. The organization has not been mentioned again anywhere online or in local newspapers. The group's financial statements are curious. PAL-PAC was registered in Missouri last November; as of April 15, 2010, when it made its second quarterly disclosure report to the Missouri Ethics Commission, two weeks before Palin arrived in Independence, PAL-PAC had only $3,202 in the bank. This was not nearly enough money to reserve the venue, much less cover security, printing, advertising, or any of the other expenses associated with throwing an event for 4,000 people. PAL-PAC's third disclosure report, filed on July 14, reveals large payments to Wayne Graves, a Kansas City physician, whose wife, Karladine, also a doctor, is the president of PAL-PAC. Wayne Graves performed a key service for Winning America Back: he personally paid the speakers' fees and travel expenses. On June 23, according to the report, he was reimbursed for these outlays: $15,134.83 for "Reimburse Speak[er]," and $126,000, also for "Reimburse Speak[er]." By fronting the money for these expenses, Graves made it possible for PAL-PAC to keep details such as Palin's precise fee under wraps. But the lion's share of that $126,000, it seems safe to assume, went to Palin—that would tally with verified reports of what Palin has been paid elsewhere. When reached by phone, Karladine Graves refused to answer any questions about PAL-PAC: "I'm—we're just a tiny little group, and we're not really anything, I just, oh, no, I can't talk about this." (Palin is on track to earn well over $3 million in speaking fees for events this year. Washington Speakers Bureau did not respond to an interview request.)

Other stops on Palin's road show raise questions similar to those surrounding Winning America Back. Palin spoke to a group in Dallas that claimed to be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group but is not registered as one. That event was advertised as a fund-raiser for the Uptown Women's Center, whose eponymous U.R.L. redirected visitors to a Web site selling tickets for the event, palin4life.com, which has since disappeared. In June, Palin was scheduled to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, for two events, a $300-per-ticket "Evening with Sarah Palin" and the free "Complete Woman Expo 2010." Both were sponsored by a newly formed organization, the Blue Ridge Educational Resource Group. Like PAL-PAC, the Blue Ridge group had sprung up from nowhere, and also like PAL-PAC, it somehow landed one of the country's most-sought-after female speakers to headline its very first event. Local officials eventually expressed skepticism that Blue Ridge was competent to manage the logistics for an expected crowd of 30,000, and at the last minute both events were canceled. The Blue Ridge group's Web site, like PAL-PAC's, was reduced to a shell.

Timothy Crawford, the treasurer of Sarah-PAC, presumably has some responsibility for the byzantine structures undergirding Palin's travels. Before joining Palin, Crawford was the interim finance director of the Republican National Committee. He is currently being investigated by the Ohio secretary of state for his role in Let Ohio Vote, a state-referendum campaign bankrolled in its entirety by New Models, a Virginia organization Crawford owns, which calls itself a nonprofit. Earlier this year, he refused to respond to a subpoena—issued under state laws that prohibit concealment of campaign money—that sought to discover where New Models had gotten the $1.6 million to fund Let Ohio Vote. Ohio secretary of state Jennifer Brunner has called New Models "a 'straw-person' out of state corporation." Also, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, New Models "was behind controversial automated calls to Pennsylvania voters made during the 2008 presidential election. The calls told voters that Barack Obama's aunt was living in America illegally and that he accepted campaign contributions from his 'illegal alien aunt.' "

If Satan and his associates top Palin's list of enemies, the legions of anti-Palin bloggers may rank a close second. After the 2008 presidential campaign, when she returned briefly to the governor's office, Palin became so obsessed with responding to criticism from bloggers that it sometimes paralyzed her administration. In the year since her resignation, independent bloggers have produced some of the most robust reporting about her—for instance, revealing that the Palins did not pay taxes for years on two vacation cabins, and pointing out that, during the "bus tour" to promote her book, Palin in fact sometimes traveled by private Gulfstream. The Anchorage Daily News no longer has a beat reporter assigned to Palin. Owing to newsroom cuts, the paper has no staff to spare, and editors reportedly see Palin as "a nonentity" in Alaska now—a phenomenon primarily of concern to the rest of the country (collectively referred to as "outside"). The blogs that keep closest tabs on Palin include Palingates, Mudflats, the Immoral Minority, and Shannyn Moore: Just a Girl from Homer. Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish and Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post serve as the main conduits of information from the blogs to the mainstream media. Palingates is run by a German attorney who will identify himself only as "Patrick." Jeanne Devon, who owns an Anchorage retail store, runs Mudflats. Jesse Griffin, a part-time assistant teacher in Anchorage, is the Immoral Minority.

All attend to Palin's every move with a focus that could be called obsessive, and all are given, in varying degrees of intensity, to juvenile outbursts that can rival C4P at its worst. For instance, among the Immoral Minority's fictional captions for screen grabs from a Palin interview with Sean Hannity was the following: "Yeah I tole Levi to place his nasty sperm filled nuggets right here before he started his apology to my family. And every time he did not look sorry enough to me, I just gave them a little squeeze." Still, without these blogs, the world would have much less information about Palin's life right now.

Of the group, only Shannyn Moore, an Anchorage radio and TV personality, has any experience as a journalist. Moore and Devon, who consider themselves political activists as well as reporters, have become close friends and share a dream of persuading wealthy donors to give them millions of dollars to renovate an old Anchorage theater as headquarters for a foundation, where they would study Alaskan politics and do proper investigative work on Palin. For now, they do what they can with the meager resources they have, which means they spend a lot of time reading tea leaves. Moore, a green-eyed blonde who, like Palin, was once an Alaska beauty queen, albeit a few stripes more self-aware, drives her Subaru through downtown Anchorage, steering with one hand, holding a cigarette and her smartphone in the other. When Devon calls to tell her that Glenn Beck has booked the Dena'ina Center, the largest venue in Anchorage, for a speech on September 11, 2010, she sits bolt upright and yells. Immediately, they start trying to figure out what the news might mean. "Listen, listen, listen: Why in the world do you imagine Glenn Beck would come to Anchorage on 9/11? You think he might have a special guest? With a special announcement? Oh," she says, her whole face falling as the implications of a Palin campaign kickoff hit her, "Jesus Christ."

The best-known investigative reporter to insert himself into Alaska is Joe McGinniss, the author of The Selling of the President and Fatal Vision, who moved to Wasilla in May to spend the summer reporting for a book about Palin to be published next year by Random House. McGinniss rented the property next door to Palin, who, upon learning his identity, wrote a scathing Facebook post, accompanied by a snapshot of McGinniss standing outside on his deck: "Wonder what kind of material he'll gather while overlooking Piper's bedroom, my little garden, and the family's swimming hole?"

Overnight, C4P, Glenn Beck, talk-radio hosts, and many other Palin allies rallied around. Within 24 hours, McGinniss had received 5,000 hostile e-mails. Death threats were investigated by the F.B.I. A local man who helped move some furniture into McGinniss's house had one of his truck's windows shot out. The author, with his disingenuous response to all this, did himself no favors. On the Today show, McGinniss absurdly claimed that he "didn't expect any publicity at all" for moving in next door to Palin. On July 3, the first anniversary of Palin's surprise resignation, I had dinner with McGinniss on the deck of his rented house. "I can't even see her windows!" he said, gesturing across the way. Actually, from where I stood on the deck, even with the 14-foot-high fence the Palins put up the week McGinniss moved in, it was possible to see several of the Palins' windows, a fair bit of the yard, and much of the lakefront edge of their property.

McGinniss told me his version of the story of the night Todd came over to ask who he was and what he was doing there. After a tense conversation, McGinniss says, Todd left, and Track Palin, Sarah and Todd's older son, came out to the front yard "to do sit-ups" while holding what McGinniss assumes was a digital camera—which he figures Track used to take the picture that Sarah posted on Facebook. While McGinniss and I talked, there was no sign of life in the Palin house, and the only noise on the water came from squawking grebes—until about 8:30, when a floatplane roared in for a landing on Lake Lucille. It slowed to a stop directly in front of the Palins' house, turned, crept closer to the shore, then idled for a long moment in front of us before taking off and heading back in the direction whence it came. The airplane was too far away for me to read the tail number, but it was a white Piper PA-18 Super Cub with red stripes: the same model and colors as Todd Palin's airplane.

The Palins that night were in Todd's hometown of Dillingham, about a two-hour flight southwest of Wasilla. If this was Todd's plane, and if he was flying it, the choice to make the trip up here seemed odd. Given that this was the anniversary of Sarah's resignation, it perhaps made sense that the Palins would want assurance that no curiosity seekers would trespass. But why make such a long flight, just for a quick look at the house? "Wouldn't it be easier to hire a guard?," I asked aloud. McGinniss, whose reporting has put him in the frame of mind of his subject—where everything is fungible, and everyone is suspect—replied, "A guard would have a story he could sell."

City of Fear

You might be tempted to dismiss such a thought as the product of paranoid contagion—and it does seem at odds with the way Wasilla likes to present itself. Outsiders' descriptions of the town (population 7,245) usually highlight the strip malls and the drug problems—which are real, but are less salient features of life here than the townspeople's connection to the landscape, especially the majestic peaks of the Chugach Range to the southeast, visible from almost everywhere. The people of Wasilla, in the main, are reflexively generous and open. During coffee hour after worship at Church on the Rock, where a moose head is mounted over the sanctuary entrance, a member of the congregation invites me to join him for a three-day fishing trip a mere 15 minutes after we meet.

When I ask about Palin, though, a palpable unease creeps in. Some people clam up. Others whisper invitations to call later—but on this number, not that one, and not before this hour or after that one. So many people answer "Off the record?" to my initial questions that it almost seems the whole town has had media training. They certainly have issues with the press. Some tell of reporters who seduced them with promises—Don't worry, I'll make you look good—and then published stories that made them out to be hicks, stupid, less-than. "These were people we let into our house," one Wasilla resident says. "We served them food." But the real concern is with Palin herself—they don't want her to find out they have talked with a reporter, because of a suspicion that bad things will happen to them if she does. The salty, seen-it-all bartender at one of the town's best restaurants says, "I wish you luck—but I like my job." Has Palin actually had people fired for talking about her?, I always ask, and the answer always comes, Remember that trooper? The reference is to Mike Wooten, a state policeman who fell out with the family after divorcing one of Sarah Palin's sisters and ended up at the center of the scandal known as Troopergate. The Alaska Legislative Council found in 2008 that Palin "abused her power" as governor in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired.

Even Palin's strongest supporters say they feel confused by what their former governor has become. "She quit us," says one Wasilla woman. "We elected her, and she left us," says another. ("Sarah was my babysitter," she later adds, as an indication of goodwill.) Yet they are too nice to turn me away, and they are too honest to completely suppress what they themselves feel unable to tell. After one local Republican delivers 90 minutes of uninterrupted praise for Palin, I ask whom else I should talk to, and the answer comes so fast it's like a cry for help—which is how, the next day, I end up in the living room of Colleen Cottle, who is the matriarch of one of Wasilla's oldest families, and who served on the city council when Palin was mayor. She says she and her husband, Rodney, will pay a price for speaking candidly about Palin. Their son is one of Todd Palin's best friends. "But it is time for people to start telling the truth," Colleen says. She describes the frustrations of trying to do city business with a mayor who "had no attention span—with Sarah it was always 'What's the flavor of the day?' "; who was unable to take part meaningfully in conversations about budgets because she "does not understand math or accounting—she only knows buzzwords, like 'balanced budget' "; and who clocked out after four hours on most days, delegating her duties to an aide—"but he'll never talk to you, because he has a state job and doesn't want to lose it." This type of conversation is repeated so often that Wasilla starts to feel like something from The Twilight Zone or a Shirley Jackson short story—a place populated entirely by abuse survivors.

To appreciate how alien Palin has become in Wasilla, how inscrutable to her own people, you have to wrap your mind around the fact that Sarah Palin is more famous than any other Alaskan, ever, and to remember that mass-media fame is a property of "outside." It still does not quite seem real to most Alaskans that there are all these thousands of people in the Lower 48 turning out for … Sarah. It seems all the more unreal because Palin's image as an engaging, down-to-earth small-town hockey mom was more or less accurate until two years ago. To be sure, some elements of that image were never true to life. "This whole hunter thing, for Sarah? That is the biggest fallacy," says one longtime friend of the family. "That woman has never hunted. The picture of her with the caribou she says she shot? She got out of the R.V. to pose for a picture. She never helps with the fishing either. It's all a joke." The friend goes on to recall that when Greta Van Susteren came to the house to interview Palin "[Sarah] cooked moose chili and whatnot. Todd was calling everyone he knew the day before—'Do you got any moose?' Desperate." In any event, her life is very different now: flying by private jet, driving a gleaming new Escalade ESV with tinted windows, and speaking to the whole world via a Fox News feed from her house until the network installs a TV studio on her property, where contractors are now also finishing a 6,000-square-foot stone-clad château that will contain an airplane hangar for Todd's Piper Cub, two private apartments, and an office for Sarah.

Almost any small-town person who makes it big has some slight edge of ruthlessness, or an above-average ability to cut and run. The nickname "Sarah Barracuda" doesn't come from nowhere, and Palin's edge was always harder than most people's. Her sense of entitlement, fueled by persistent feelings that she was underappreciated, came to full blossom in the heat of the 2008 race. In late October, when stories of Palin's exorbitant campaign clothing budget surfaced, Todd Palin dismissed the criticism in an e-mail (subject line: "Cloths") to several campaign aides: "How many fundraiser's has she done for RNC, how much money has she raised and how much has voter registration increased for RNC since she was announced. So what if RNC purchase's some cloths for her for the work she has done for the party." Though the clothing issue has been discussed at length, internal campaign documents reveal new information that contradicts the account Palin has given. The shopping sprees continued through late October and were not, as previously claimed, mainly undertaken to clothe the family for the unexpected emergency of the Republican National Convention, in St. Paul. The number and range of items purchased for the entire Palin family—more than 400 in total—is mind-boggling. For Sarah, the campaign bought about 30 pairs of shoes, roughly $3,000 worth of underwear (including many Spanx girdles), a pair of Bose headphones costing more than $300, and even her incidentals and toiletries. Charging a campaign for underwear would appear to be unprecedented. A campaign e-mail shows that one of Sarah's senior aides requested that an outfit be purchased for Bristol for her birthday, explicitly stating that the items should be charged "via the campaign." Todd Palin received as much as $20,000 worth of clothing—a wardrobe that would last most men for many years, if not for life.

Even after the campaign was over, and Palin had returned to Wasilla, she continued to try to get what she could. In an e-mail, she wrote, "Remember the five black leather Flyers bags w sweatshirts and jerseys and Flyers propaganda in each bag? Anyone know where they ended up?" At the same time, she was scrambling to contain the damage to her image: "Absolutely amazing … now the negative coverage that is on our local news, all regarding these campaign clothes that are not even mine. Amazing. Where are all the campaign spokespersons on all this?"

During these post-campaign days, according to insiders, Palin's temper veered wildly. It was as if something had snapped. Visitors to her house witnessed her in core meltdown. To one of her children, she cried, "We weren't good enough for America. We'll never be good enough for America." Sometimes when she went out in public, people were unkind. Once, while shopping at Target, a man saw Palin and hollered, "Oh my God! It's Tina Fey! I love Tina Fey!" When other shoppers started laughing, the governor parked her cart, walked out of the store, and drove away.

After starting her new career as a national figure, Palin disengaged from the community. When in Wasilla, she rarely leaves the house. At her favorite coffee shop, Mocha Moose, Palin has been seen only once in the past three months. On those occasions when she goes to Church on the Rock, she usually arrives late, leaves early, and sits in the back. For runs to Target, she waits until it's almost closing time. She has never darkened the doorway of Wasilla's one independent bookstore, Pandemonium Booksellers, which took part in her Going Rogue book signing at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center. Sarah's mother, Sally Heath, is a charter member of the Valley Republican Women's Club, which sells a batch of Palin-family recipes for $5, but Palin has not been to any of their meetings since resigning as governor.

Her Wasilla social circle has narrowed practically to nothing. People who know Kristan Cole and Kris Perry, her closest local friends and advisers of longest standing, say that the relationships have deteriorated. Her former aides Meg Stapleton and Ivy Frye are said to have parted with Palin on bad terms. (None of the four responded to requests for comment.) Palin's only employees in Alaska appear to be the staff of True North L'Attitudes, a small scheduling firm in Anchorage. Someone must give the family a hand with errands; the rumor around town is that the Palins have "a Mexican" who helps out, though nobody knows his name. Palin does lean on her parents. Chuck and Sally Heath, together with at least one of Palin's church friends, handle the mountains of mail that arrive for Palin at the post office. When Piper and Willow are not traveling with their mother, they go to schools east of Wasilla, not far from where the Heaths live in a house that gives some idea of how Charles Addams might have imagined Old MacDonald's farm. It is full of stuffed and mounted animals ranging from a tarantula to a mountain goat. The license plate on Chuck's truck reads "EIEIO." One person at Church on the Rock said that the girls frequently sleep overnight at their grandparents' because the Heaths' house, unlike the Palins', is near their schools. When Trig joins Sarah on the road, Palin's mother sometimes goes along to take care of the baby.

Every year on July 4, a parade marches through downtown Wasilla, ending at a city park, where the mayor throws a picnic. When I saw Chuck and Sally Heath marching in the parade, behind the campaign float for the current governor, Sean Parnell, I jumped from the curb to say hello. Chuck wouldn't—couldn't—talk about his daughter; the strict rule in the family now is no interviews, ever, without Sarah's permission. After we had been walking for a while, he looked around and asked where Sally had gone. "Sally's upset," said the woman marching next to him, glaring at me, "because you are not following orders."

In whatever remains of Palin's inner circle, however, most people are following orders. Some details of the Palins' private life, however, suggest a reality at odds with Sarah's image. In speeches, Palin pays tribute to the man she still calls "the First Dude." One of the strangest passages in Going Rogue concerns post-election rumors that the couple was considering a divorce. "That day in sunny Texas when the divorce rumors were rampant in the tabloids, I watched Todd, tanned and shirtless, take the baby from my arms and walk him back to the ranch house," she writes, like a frontier Barbara Cartland. "Dang, I thought. Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?" Locally, much speculation surrounds the marriage. Some say Todd is henpecked, and others see him as the heavy. One person who has been a frequent houseguest of the Palins' says that the couple began many mornings with screaming fights, a fusillade of curses: " 'Fuck you,' 'Fuck this,' 'You lazy piece of shit.' 'You're fuckin' lucky to have me,' Sarah would always say." (This person never saw Todd and Sarah sleep in the same bed, and recalls that Todd would often joke, "I don't know how she ever gets pregnant.") Whatever the nature of the relationship, Todd is now as much a part of Sarah as Hillary Clinton is of Bill. Whether they like it or not, the Palins, like the Clintons, are probably stuck with each other.

There's a general consensus in town that, at least since the start of the 2008 campaign, Todd has been shouldering the bulk of the parenting and that Sarah's relationship with her children has grown more distant. The children did not, as Sarah has claimed, have a chance to weigh in on her decision to run for vice president. She did not even deliver the news to them personally; as has been reported, she asked McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, to do it for her. Todd reportedly told Sarah that, if the children spent too much time on the campaign trail, they would pay a price: grades would tumble and discipline would fall apart. When she agreed to serve as McCain's running mate, one of her children was already failing in school, according to campaign aides. But Sarah, these aides say, seemed comforted by having the children around, and she seemed lonely when they were gone. An aide overheard conversations between Sarah and Todd in which Sarah tried to make a self-serving argument sound selfless, holding that the campaign was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one that she could not deny the children. "I don't care what it costs," she said. "I want them here." Although the couple hired a nanny to help the children with their homework, little homework got done.

On the road, aides say, Sarah spared the rod. When one child refused to sign autographs unless she was provided with pink or purple Sharpies that had been custom-printed with her name, the staff tried to argue that black Sharpies—the only kind they had—would do just fine. But Sarah ordered them to do what the child said, and personalized pink and purple markers were produced. Another time, when one daughter wanted to have her hair and makeup done by Palin's campaign stylists (the children's grooming was not part of their job), Palin's initial response seemed like an old-fashioned lesson in manners. According to an aide, Palin told the daughter that, since she was seeking a favor from the stylists, she should ask them nicely herself and see what they said. When the stylists apologetically told the girl they didn't have time that day, Palin, incensed, sent the child back to give them a message: "Tell them they don't have a choice. They have to do it." And so they did. Despite railing at the press for invading her family's privacy, Palin showed little ambivalence during the campaign about making some aspects of the childrens' private lives public to serve her interests. Soon after her nomination, she brought up with McCain aides the subject of Bristol's out-of-wedlock pregnancy by Levi Johnston: "Would it be good for the campaign if they got married before the election?" she asked, and went on to wonder whether one weekend or another would be more advantageous for media coverage.

Sometimes the children rebelled. A campaign aide remembers that one of the Palin children found her mother's public displays of piety especially grating. Though Palin prayed and read the Bible every night, aides never saw the family join her for devotionals. "You're just putting on a show. You're so fake," one of the children said when Palin made a point of praying in front of other people. "This is not who you are. Why are you pretending to be something you're not?"

Managing the Palin family is an increasingly unwieldy business. Track was discharged from active duty in the army at the end of January and now reportedly lives at the Palin house. Bristol, who has said she works as a dermatologist's assistant, also generates a healthy income from her celebrity and bought a $272,000 condominium in Anchorage. She enrolled in a certified-nursing-assistant program at a local technical school last year but quickly dropped out, according to one of her high-school classmates. In addition to TV appearances, including a guest spot on The View and playing a teen mom on an episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager, she reportedly received $100,000 from In Touch magazine for rights to photographs of Tripp on his first birthday. The New York Post reported that she and Johnston received another $100,000 for giving the story of their re-engagement to Us Weekly.

A week prior to the engagement announcement, Johnston, who has been critical of Palin, told People magazine that, "against my better judgment, I publicly said things about the Palins that were not completely true. I have already privately apologized to Todd and Sarah. Since my statements were public, I owe it to the Palins to publicly apologize." It was an odd pronouncement, never indicating which statements were not "completely true," or where he had said them. (Johnston's October 2009 article in Vanity Fair, "Me and Mrs. Palin," was one possibility.) The negotiations that led to Johnston's statement, like almost everything else about the family's life, were more complex than may ever be fully known. According to a source close to Johnston, Levi met with Sarah Palin in June in hopes of burying the hatchet. Palin opened the meeting with two questions: "Are you recording this?" and "Are you wearing a wire?" When Johnston said he wasn't, the source says, Palin told Johnston that burying the hatchet wasn't good enough. He had to publicly recant his critical remarks about her. Asked whether this account is accurate, Johnston answered, through his attorney Rex Butler, "I do not want to respond to that… I don't want to stir up that fight again."

In a conference call involving Johnston, Butler, and representatives of the Palin family, Butler proposed that Johnston make a statement to the effect that "a maturing Levi has decided to reach out to the Palins and end an ongoing feud to bring the families together in the best interests of his son." That formulation did not go far enough. Butler's understanding is that Todd Palin wrote the statement that eventually was issued. Johnston, through his lawyer, now says, "I had nothing to do with putting that statement together." Nor, in the end, did it secure the desired rapprochement. On the day the couple's US Weekly cover hit newsstands, Bristol called the whole thing off, as she later explained in an interview with People. After that, an agreement for joint custody of Tripp, filed in Alaska Superior Court, forbade both Bristol and Levi to "speak badly about the other parent in front of the child… [or] allow anyone else to speak badly about the other parent or members of their family in front of the child." A few days later, Johnston declined further comment on his relationship with the Palins, but suggested that the story is far from over. "If I am going to marry Bristol," he said, again through his lawyer, "responding to that situation doesn't help anything."

Why are you pretending to be something you're not? That is the question so many Alaskans have asked this year as they've watched Sarah Palin travel the nation. According to almost everyone who has ever known her, including those who have seen the darkest of her dark side, Sarah Palin has a great gift for making people feel good about themselves. Her knack for remembering names and faces and the details of her interactions with people—and for seeming to be present to the person in front of her—constitute an extraordinary power of engagement. Now she is using that power in a fundamentally different way. In part she is using it in the service of her own ambitions. But she is also planting the idea with audiences that they might not be good enough, by telling them she thinks they're plenty good, no matter what anybody else may say. ("They talk down to us… They think that if we were just smart enough … ") To some, the message sounds like an affirmation. But is it really? Or does it seed self-doubt and rancor among her partisans, and encourage them to see everyone else as malign?

Those who once felt close to Palin have followed her public transformation with a confused range of emotions. The common denominator is sadness. "People who loved Sarah Palin are disappointed," said one woman in Wasilla, "because they found out that Sarah Palin loves Sarah Palin most of all." I remembered that remark every time I drove past the Palins' property. The entrance runs through a grove of birch trees, at least eight of which have NO TRESPASSING signs nailed to them. For all that, police have been called to the property only once in the past year, when someone at the house reported a Peeping Tom. The investigating officer found nothing.

The freshly paved driveway is blocked by a new, spiked gate, which, though forbidding, is ornamental and freestanding, and not connected to a fence. From a thin piece of wire looped over one of the gate's central spikes hangs a large metal decoration. It is five-pointed and two feet high and wide. The North Star has long been seen as a symbol for Alaska—and for God. They can both move over now. It belongs to someone else.

Clarification: Lindsay Hayes, identified in this article as Sarah Palin's speechwriter, left that position in April.


"Sarah Palin's Shopping Spree: Yes, There's More...," by Michael Joseph Gross.


When her name first came to light.. I thought to myself... Who is this? I was open-minded and heard herspeak. Right off the bat I didn't like her mannerisms or her angry tone. When I discovered she had a 6 mo old and 4 other children I was surprised so I started to do my own vetting. It didn't take very long before I started discovering all the skeletons in this woman's closet. I didn't buy her phony fake act for a minute. I commend VF for this article but was a little disappointed you didn't touch on the biggest controversy surrounding this woman.... the very questionable "wild birth ride". Her entire pregnancy with Trig is filled with half-truths and bizarre behavior. As a 43year old mother of 4, including a 3 yo, I can tell you that there is no way - after all the research I have done, that she had Trig herself. She IS narcissistic enough to pretend that baby was hers as opposed to Bristol. There are just too many coincidences. And for the record, no one misses 6 mo of school for having mono. Wake up and smell the coffee from Mocha Moose. There is NO WAY IN HELL you wait until you are 7mo pregnant to tell people you are pregnant. Not even her staff knew she was pregnant. I can't wait for someone to spill the beans - but until then, I hope millions of people read this article and realize the truth behind this woman's scary facade. Thanks again for getting the truth out there! Oh and if you think people aren't devious enough to fake a pregnancy.. ask Jack Nicholson, who later in life found out his sister was actually his mother.
Posted 9/2/2010 8:05:40am
by mermeg67
her idea of restoring america equates to restoring segregation. my wish the media & pundits stops giving her so much attention. imop they are enabling following her tweets & facebook posting as if it's gospel. the article confirms that she's truly the hilbilly from wasilla
Posted 9/2/2010 7:55:56am
by richdoll
To think, this woman wanted to be our vice president! I hope she gets on the ticket in 2012! lol
Posted 9/2/2010 6:46:28am
by greggy
Thank you VF; keep it up. Perhaps the IRS will be interested in taking a look at Palin's finances; they took down Capone so why not Palin? Palin might want to rethink using North Star. The North Star was a 1945 film, directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Walter Huston,Anne Baxter, Walter Brennan, Dana Andrews and Farley Granger. It glorified the Soviet people (Hello, Comrade!)and their struggle against the Nazis. The movie was named subversive by witnesses before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in October, 1947. Does this mean that Palin is palling around with Commies?
Posted 9/2/2010 6:38:57am
by BethNYC
Whoops - sorry - meant McPalin in 2008...!
Posted 9/2/2010 5:53:47am
by AlaskaSmiles
As an "North Star" Alaskan resident, I found this article SPOT ON about our former, bailed on Alaska, run for the money 'Gov. After the Monumental Tea Party Event in D.C., mark my words, it will be McBeck in 2012 (just like McPain in 2008)! They will be fighting for the top spot!
Posted 9/2/2010 5:52:54am
by AlaskaSmiles
Thank you Vanity Fair for printing this true picture of Palin the idiot..... ..... After reading this article, I'm utterly convinced that Palin is stupid dumb idiot. President Obama would beat her easily in 2012...... ..... My family and I are going to cross over and vote for her in the GOP open primary so that our President Obama would crush her easily by a landslide in 2012. We are urging all our Democrats friends and President Obama supporters to vote for her during the GOP Primary. We're also going around telling our friends to make regular contributions to her stupid SarahPAC so that our President can have a big punching bag to punch...... ..... Let's us all make sure that this idiot will be the GOP nominee...... ..... Obama vs Palin 2012 = Johnson vs Goldwater 1964…..Yes We Can......
Posted 9/2/2010 4:28:25am
by tmbodok
I would love to see a woman as our future President and Commander-in-Chief, a stateswoman (a la Margaret Thatcher) who would make this country proud, here and abroad. If only a fraction of this article is true, it confirms my worst fears since first she stepped on to the national stage. Palin doesn't fit the role of stateswoman in any sense of the word.
Posted 9/2/2010 3:46:21am
by ccira
Finally! A good scrape on the tip of the bottomless SP iceberg. Thank you, Mr. Gross.
Posted 9/2/2010 3:37:35am
by truthmonger
Brilliant title! Quoting from Macbeth, in his lowest moment, calling life "full of sound and fury, a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing." What it implies about SP is clear!
Posted 9/2/2010 3:34:24am
by prof
She is amazingly like the Whore of Babylon.
Posted 9/2/2010 3:21:26am
by sophiez
I think she might be seriously mentally ill.
Posted 9/2/2010 3:01:10am
by buggertons
WOW from what read all you are low IQ. Have any of you meet Palin. Most likely no if you had you not have said such hurtful things about her. Dose everyone believe half truths? Way don't you all try to know person before you cast your option on them. I guess I would have label you all as raciest.
Posted 9/2/2010 2:50:02am
by Brian3
As long as the low IQ Republican base (Teabaggers) is willing to throw money at Sarah the Half Term Quitter, the trailer trash Palin clan will continue to live the same life-style (elitist) of those whom she claims to be railing against. Youbetcha! also. .
Posted 9/2/2010 1:48:59am
by JeffY
Sarah Palin is a classic narcissist. It really is all about her. I think that we should all be very afraid of the power this nut case is weilding. She is a paranoid bully and has managed to amass people who think she is the coming of Christ, and she thinks so too! I know that many of my family members from around the US think she is just wonderful. They are all very religious but otherwise normal people and I would not have thought them extremists but I am starting to believe otherwise. Sounds to me like anyone who gets behind Sarah Palin may be in for a ride they don't expect. Hmmmmm doesn't this sound like what we used to call the Jihadists? Religous extremists? @Kasport do you really believe Saint Sarah lets any of this roll off her back? Many of you say you don't understand how people can be falling for the BS she is putting out but then they said that about Jim Jones and those guys in Utah/Texas/New Mexico who had followers believing that he was the only way they would be safe and get to heaven or that they should let their children and especially nubile young girls have sex with them so they would all get to heaven. How can be watch this kind of stuff go on in the US in the name of Religion and then go to war with other countries because they don't what to do with their people who believe some crap someone is telling them! Get Real People! Trust me, if Sarah Palin gets to a positon of power we will all regret it!
Posted 9/2/2010 1:37:26am
by mimismad
We all already knew that Sarah Palin was vengeful, petty, cruel, vindictive, idiotic, shallow, narcissitic, sociopathic, learning-disordered, a pathological liar, and a pathetic excuse for a human being, who markets her children like plush toys and would sell her dying grandmother for a half-penny. This article just confirms how desperately desperate she is these days. Yet, as is confirmed by the ludicrous comments here from her brainless and totally devoted, brainwashed followers, Sarah Palin has the power, in a single Tweet (written by a staffer, of course; she lacks the intelligence to tweet), to rattle the political establishment. Given how many racist, bigoted, religion-obsessed, right-wing idiots there are out there, there's no doubt she'll be the GOP nominee in 2012, and then will crash down in horrific flames, taking the Tea Partiers and all the other horrific right-wingers with her. And then people will ask, "How could that possibly have happened???"
Posted 9/2/2010 1:34:31am
by Lodestone
Vanity Fair magazine now has a place among the tabloid magazines found in grocery store check-out lines. This article is an op ed piece by Michael Joseph Gross and cannot be called an "article" by journalistic standards. It is yet another hateful attack on Sarah Palin, private citizen. Personally, I'm neither for nor against Sarah Palin. She is currently a private citizen who has the right to make money through books, speaking engagements,etc. without having to justify or explain it to the general public. I truly cannot believe that Vanity Fair would print such an article. It is almost entirely based on unnamed and anonymous friends, neighbors, staffers, hotel clerks, and any other people offering up negative stories about Sarah Palin. What ever happened to presenting both sides of the story, or better yet, having a reliable source backed up by a secondary source? Michael Joseph Gross and Vanity Fair magazine is providing more evidence of the bias that exists within the media. In my opinion they've both lost all credibility.
Posted 9/2/2010 1:17:25am
by OhMom
Sarah Palin reminds me of the Wizard of Oz--all show and no substance. How can people be so easily fooled by her? Sad.
Posted 9/2/2010 12:52:45am
by sk8nski18
"Dear Mr Gross Lets stop bashing this terrific lady. She ousted a corrupt sitting Governor from her own party while Obama campaigned for Blago in 2 Elections. We need more Sarah Palins in America. Posted 9/1/2010 10:28:06pmby dencal26"--------And Palin turned out to be more corrupt than he was. Dairygate, anyone? http://tinyurl.com/38sz8un and http://tinyurl.com/37rd8n5 That's just ONE of Palin's "-Gates".
Posted 9/2/2010 12:52:17am
by WesternCorresp
It takes some kind of arrogance to build yourself a brand new 6,000sq.ft house when you already have a nice 4,000 plus sq.ft. house while you are soliciting money from folks who cannot pay their mortages to pay your legal debt you brought on yourself. Crazier moreover their queen are those who are right now donating to pay down an additional 87 grand to Palin's attorney and business partner Van Fleigh for not accepting the first determination the trust fund was a fraud. Who is this stupid? Palin claims (Without ever providing invoice) she is in tens of thousansths of dollars in debt for legal matters. Instead of paying it down she starts more drama causing more legal debt. When Palin is ruled against for the fraud fund (The one she was told at it's conception was invalid and not to initiate) she gives the okay to continue battles creating a purse for Van Fleigh without ever contributing her own funds. That is some kind of racket.
Posted 9/2/2010 12:47:53am
by Reutov
 
I find Todd's spelling/grammatical errors extremely revealing. Also.
Posted 9/2/2010 12:31:32am
by daphne
"Somebody happy, successful, and not dependent on someone else" LMAO, how many PACS and Trust Funds does the beggar have?
Posted 9/2/2010 12:25:26am
by Reutov
She's a caricature of a malignant narcissist. Until now, I wouldn't have believed I could disdain her even more.
Posted 9/2/2010 12:23:40am
by daphne
9/1/2010 6:14:03pmby WendyG: "How can an article have any credibilty if it's 95% anonymous sources." ------Let me answer that with another question.------How can so many deluded people in the United States reject the 100% verified (by a Republican governor, by the director of the Hawaii state Dept. of Health) birth certificate for President Obama because all they've seen is a computer generated copy of the INFORMATION on that birth certificate, despite the testimony of a woman who documented the statement of the doctor who delivered Obama's mother?-----Instead, they prefer to believe self proclaimed "experts" like the dentist/lawyer/swimsuit model/failed CA Secretary of State candidate Orly Taitz, who was so desperate to "prove" President Obama was born in Kenya that she obtained a forged but easily debunked "Kenyan birth certificate".
Posted 9/2/2010 12:19:41am
by WesternCorresp
@conservativejoe - Glad you think that $arah and family are happy. They certainly don't seem to be. And she is certainly dependent on someone - either the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch or John Mellon Scaife. She didn't get where she is on sheer talent or her push up bras - it took a special kind of crazy, which she possesses by the bucket load. As Bob Dylan so rightly put it: "You gotta serve somebody." $arah serves hers neocon puppetmasters and so do you.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:40:53pm
by Phillycook
Poor poor jealous liberals. Somebody happy, successful, and not dependent on someone else just cannot be tolerated. You must try to destroy her, but unfortunately, just make her look better and better, and yourselves, worse.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:34:38pm
by conservativejoe
Sarah Palin is the high priestess of a new religion that has created God in their image and he hates anyone who isn't a rich, conservative hetero who loves guns and money.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:25:33pm
by rc53
Sarah Palin, trading on her "Female" gender. Greed, avarice, envy, Malice,Jealousy. Deadly sins. A candid description of Sarah.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:23:32pm
by imposter
I agree with a poster - as a psychiatrist, it is readily apparent that Sarah displays clinical symptoms of severe Narcissistic and Borderline Personality Disorders. Those with these disorders are usually very charismatic and 'get their way' but eventually alienate everyone around them. God forbid she ever gets elected again - our country (and our planet) can't afford the fallout of such an illness.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:20:26pm
by qwerty1
I think the people that she treats so poorly should just tape her little tirades and show it on u-tube. Of course, the same people who brought us Bush/Cheney are in the driver's seat of this train wreck.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:15:38pm
by rc53
 
Dencal26, those some big words there for a simple man. You some elitist or what using them big words? And while I'm at it let me correct you: the homosexuals are bolting for the Republican Party. This is because Republicans and gays both worship the green IDOL of money -- yep, even more than Jews do LOL By January the Dem party will be little more than a fringe party of Angry Blacks, Homosexuals and Secular Marxist Jews like Gross. Posted 9/1/2010 10:30:23pmby dencal26
Posted 9/1/2010 11:13:47pm
by diegoboy
Yeah, no way she was pregnant with TRI-G and how many TRI-G's are there anyway? http://www.box.net/shared/ze1x0eyplo http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2010/02/tale-of-two-babies-by-sarah-palin.html QUESTIONS to ponder. Why was Mercede and Levi Johnston allowed in Sarah's maternity room moments after TRI-G was born? Why were they, especially Levi, holding the his girlfriends, mother's newborn with such LOVE & KINDESS? Why are there no pictures of Todd or Sarah holding their newborn in personal moments? Why did Mercede on her MySpace comment she was holding her new baby brother Triigybear, showering the words Family Love with Bristol in another caption and best of all calling Sarah mommy in law? http://palingates.blogspot.com/2009/03/sarah-palins-white-trash-fairy-tale.html
Posted 9/1/2010 10:47:11pm
by Reutov
Although I don't believe that Sarah Palin deserves any sympathy or benefit of the doubt, the author loses a certain credibility by focusing on petty and almost gossipy factoids. Inserting asides like the comment about the campaign having purchased Spanx girdles for Sarah gives undue credence to Palin supporters' outcries of media unfairness. Indeed, it's unnecessary to mention that a woman over 45 may wear controlling under garments; this speaks less of the subject's character and more of the author's. Let facts speak for themselves - there are plenty in this case.
Posted 9/1/2010 10:38:03pm
by ChasingUtley
Every time I see or hear her all I see is greed, avarice, lies, pride, rage, pride and everything else that everyone fears. She does not represent ANY values at all and has sold her soul to the Almighty Dollar, which is the only thing she understands. Her thirst for power is all she can see and people who know her have said she will run over anyone or anything in her quest for more $$$ and power. Is this the America you want? Full of hypocrisy and corruption? She talk about grizzlies yet she's always off without her "cubs" and only needs them for photo ops. She's unworthy of trust and the tea party will soon see she's someone to fear (just like everyone else who doesn't "adore" her).... no conscience, morals or values, she looks at weaknesses and plays on them, which is why she spouts the dribble she does and plays to the basic urges. She makes my stomach turn.....
Posted 9/1/2010 10:38:02pm
by FromNV
Please!, No more press for Sarah. Treat her for what she is. A spoiled, agitating little brat. If she really acts like a child, then treat her like one. Just ignore her rants. Aloha, Richard
Posted 9/1/2010 10:32:14pm
by rabart808
By January the Dem party will be little more than a fringe party of Angry Blacks, Homosexuals and Secular Marxist Jews like Gross.
Posted 9/1/2010 10:30:23pm
by dencal26
Beware!! Ignorant comment below. She is frighteningly reminiscent of George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler -- so goofy that to too many they don't seem dangerous until they get power. Thanks for the expose. Posted 9/1/2010 9:12:30pmby LiberalArts
Posted 9/1/2010 10:29:16pm
by dencal26
Dear Mr Gross Lets stop bashing this terrific lady. She ousted a corrupt sitting Governor from her own party while Obama campaigned for Blago in 2 Elections. We need more Sarah Palins in America.
Posted 9/1/2010 10:28:06pm
by dencal26
Obviously, Sarah Palin is one of the best things to happen to the Democratic Party. She is doing the Republican brand remarkable damage. She and her sheep are amazingly ignorant and their public behavior is truly repulsive (read the blogs... they are creepy at best... whiny and angry and mean spirited... hardly Christian.) But it's sad, in a way, that the US has so many that are so utterly incapable of serious thought and research. Then again, the humor is never ending, some bumper stickers of her on Zazzle: "Dinosaurs are Jesus babies" "I believe marriage is between two unwilling teens," "Being unstable is part of my mystique." I think these nutty souls would be well served to take a deep breath and try to engage in political and social discourse with some grace and dignity. But, then again, they aren't exactly skilled at self-control and self-reflection.
Posted 9/1/2010 10:25:11pm
by JamesMadison
I'd just like to point out one glaring bit of misinformation. The plot stated above for Hokuto no Ken is actually the plot of Hokuto no Ken 2.
Posted 9/1/2010 9:45:31pm
by oishi_47
 
This screams BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER. * Wild swings of emotion * Chronic, Disproportionate Rage * Outrageous Sense of Entitlement and Lack of Boundaries * Casting those who differ with you as Evil and Worthy of being Destroyed * Manipulation and Deceit * Self-absorbed; Lack of Empathy * Hostage-taking: Others live in Terror of the Borderline's Behavior * Abandoned Children
Posted 9/1/2010 9:42:11pm
by RachelDear
In the Troopergate complaints, Palin says she was terrified and her sister was scared to death, of Wooten, who was in a rage, probably drunk, with a loaded gun. "Wooten was headed home in a rage, McCann said. She called Palin and put the phone on speaker so Palin could listen when Wooten got there and get help if things got bad. Palin had her teenage son Track listen in, too. As McCann remembered it, Wooten said if their father got a lawyer for her "he would eat a f'ing lead bullet. I will shoot him." Palin drove over and watched through the window. She and McCann both said Wooten was all wound up. Palin said she did not call 911 because she had to leave for an importnat mayors meeting." Her sister is in a life or death situation, Palin does nothing because she has to go be mayor? Official Transcripts...READ FOR YOURSELVES WHAT KINDOF PETTY, ALL ABOUT ME, SELF INDULGENT, creep, Palin is. That is if you can read past all of Palin's...UMMMMMM's. http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/07/18/13/071607-palin-monegue-050205-interview-transcript.source.prod_affiliate.7.pdf http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/07/18/13/071607-palin-monegue-050205-interview-transcript.source.prod_affiliate.7.pdf Then watch what kind of, meeting, was so importnat, Palin, bailed on her sister & young autistic nephew, in a life or death situation to get to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMocEINn-E8
Posted 9/1/2010 9:34:30pm
by Reutov
Palin's are a bunch of crooks, criminals and sociopaths. Palin's mother in law poisoned a child while at her party for A.A.A. in a bar. Who puts posion in a drink picture? Palin's mother in law burns a child inside out with posion afterward tries to sue the state for her mental hardship having to see the child. On November 27, 1993, Blanche Kallstrom and other members of the public attended a social function and dance at Jake's Place, an alcohol abuse transitional care facility in Dillingham. The lights at the facility had been dimmed for the dance. Non-alcoholic drinks were available to guests in the kitchen area adjacent to the dance floor. During the dance, Kallstrom went to the kitchen at the request of her young cousin to get a drink for nine-year-old Lori Dee Wilson. Kallstrom poured a drink from a pitcher sitting on the counter which she believed to contain fruit juice and gave it to Lori Dee. In fact, the pitcher contained a lye-based caustic detergent that caused severe, permanent internal injuries to Lori Dee when she drank it. Kallstrom was not related to Lori Dee, but was friendly with Lori Dee and her mother and would see them every two to three months in Kallstrom's store. As a result of her mistake, Kallstrom claims that she sustained severe shock and emotional distress that has persisted in the months following the tragic incident. http://votepalin.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/kallstrom.pdf
Posted 9/1/2010 9:31:09pm
by Reutov
Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is "Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean" "So Sambo beat the bitch!" This is Sarah Palin described Barack Obama's win over Hillary Clinton to political colleagues in a restaurant a few days after Obama locked up the Democratic Party presidential nomination. According to Lucille, the waitress serving her table at the time and who asked that her last name not be used, Gov. Palin was eating lunch with five or six people when the subject of the Democrat's primary battle came up. The governor, seemingly not caring that people at nearby tables would likely hear her, uttered the slur and then laughed loudly as her meal mates joined in appreciatively. "It was kind of disgusting," Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the "lower 48" about life near the North Pole. Racial and ethnic slurs may be "just Alaska" and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin. Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N'-Fetch-It, "darkie musical" swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska's Aboriginal people as "Arctic Arabs" – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful "mukluks" along with the totally unimaginative "f**king Eskimo's," according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article. But being openly racist is only the tip of the Palin iceberg. According to Alaskans interviewed for this article, she is also vindictive and mean. We're talking Rove mean and Nixon vindictive.
Posted 9/1/2010 9:22:45pm
by Reutov
Michael Joseph Gross, you are still at it. If S.P. is such dolt and undisciplined airhead why are you still writing about her, following her circus wherever it goes? I don't know Sarah Palin personally, but what I learn about her by your and your colleagues hateful writings I applaud her for her sanity in spite of the odds against her. In contrast to her, the bozos in the W.H. are real jokes and professional liars. Biden cannot open his mouth without a lie running out of it and you laugh about it. The other guy is so proficient in his lies, you pencil pusher miss them constantly. Now, their position is so much more important to the life of this nation which they run with full speed into the abyss and you still praise him for the disaster he has already created. Yet you are so concerned with a Lady who is an the sidelines making a living or trying to, has no chances whatsoever to ever get a national office, according to you and a bunch of disgruntled other people. Why are you denying her the income she makes and where it comes from? Your jealousy of her millions for the work she does is amusing if it were not so sad. You and your progressive colleagues are green with envy, give it up, you only hurt yourself, she is out of your league!
Posted 9/1/2010 9:22:26pm
by Springer67
Is Sarah Palin Racist? "Well, She Ended Our Conversation When She Learned I Was Black" Pregnant with her first son, Track and newly married, Sarah trolling the Anchorage airport for attention. He told Sarah about talking about the Modern Jazz Quartet as an example of not strictly jazz style music but could still be cool. "I was trying to keep the conversation going," Royal says, "so I mentioned some of the musicians, including Percy Heath." "She quickly let me know that Heath was her name too," Royal recounts. Royal claims that she mentioned going to school in Hawaii but did not say anything about being married or being pregnant. "I would remember that. Anyway, it was May 1990 and she was just a couple of months pregnant and wouldn't have shown." Royal felt he was making progress with Sarah Heath and when a couple of his musician friends approached, he waved them off. "But she saw them and got weird." "Sarah asked me if they were with me. I asked her what was up because she was obviously a little weird after seeing them," states Royal, who has Native American blood in his ancestry is a fairly light skinned while his buddies were much darker. "I don't mean any harm," Royal says Sarah told him, which is exactly what she meant but he recalls her saying that she doesn't do black guys. "I said 'I'm Black,'" Royal relates, to which Sarah replied with, "Well, you aren't really black. You're like …"
Posted 9/1/2010 9:20:09pm
by Reutov
She is frighteningly reminiscent of George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler -- so goofy that to too many they don't seem dangerous until they get power. Thanks for the expose.
Posted 9/1/2010 9:12:30pm
by LiberalArts
Can we stop letting $arah and her supporter have red meat and anything with high fructose corn syrup? It's obviously making them crazier than they should be.
Posted 9/1/2010 9:01:03pm
by Phillycook
You can't have it both ways. The lefties take fawning, brainless bozos to task and they don't like successful women with grit either. What do they want? Some braless, barefoot member of the great unwashed who will love everybody and never get mad? Get real. Get over it. A man gets angry and he's a leader. A women gets angry and she's a shrew. See line #1.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:58:00pm
by AdirondackEd
ought to be arrested eh? (yup a Canadian) Your media that is owned by who? seems to love her even though some of them hate her? lets just call it despise her, but she's money in the bank. She's dangerous because she resonates with so many people that don't think before they ally or vote. So much US media seen from above our mutual border is obsessed with her. We up here have a similar problem, but he's actually in power and turning Canada back to 1950's 'values', those being fear, hate and division and secrecy about how government works. If I was religious I guess i'd pray. But being a thinking person, I fight, back.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:50:15pm
by fenderbender
Do we really need another 'gut' republican military spender when the nations finances have already been put twice in danger by Reagan and George W Bush. It's ironic that it was a Democrat Clinton, that put the nations finances back in order, such does the Repubican avowed belief in small government contrast with it's opposite reality Palin's identification with Thatcher is only partially appropriate, for after all Thatcher was a brilliant woman. It is true however that Thatcher was intensely disliked by nearly all who worked for her and Palin seems to provoke similar emotions. I find it distressing when and wherever 'brain lite' fundmentalists are supported by an electorate. The running of any country is a very difficult business and we need our best brains to do it, particularly as the US is not facing up to a failing Russia, but the economic rise of Asia and China's 10% growth swop with our 10% unemployment. Can anyone seriously claim she is anything other than an opportunist preying on the lives of simple people for personal gratification. Should she ever become President we will all find ourselves in a position of being delighted to invite George W back gladly despite Hurricane Katrina, World financial crisis et al.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:45:33pm
by TrueBrit
Great article about a troubling trend. Investigative journalism we sadly needed before and during Cheney's reign in the White House. Kudos to the author. My favorite takeaway: 'she arrives late for church, sits in the back and leaves early'. Perfect! Does anyone remember the "Fundamentalist" government type from the great computer game, Civilization 2, by Microprose(copyright)? Acquisition of knowledge was crippled. Warriors fought for blind-faith. Why did Sid Meyers include such a fictional government type in a game for westerners? To forewarn us of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism,...or of our own. I just moved out of the white mid-West (suburban and rural Illinois) where most peeps who "love" Sarah are Born-Again Fundamentalists. When I bait my former countrymen, they eagerly go on to proclaim Obama is the Anti-Christ. I still receive the chain-emails they send each other. The lack of common sense, reason or logic in these propaganda would be laughable, but for the fact they are having the desired effect: creating a legion of mindless zombies, eager to follow their religious clarion-call to arms. "Take back our country" is their theme. The dismal economy is 100% a legacy from Bush/Cheney mismanagement of the public purse. Blaming Obama is like blaming Lincoln for the Southern Insurrection. But try telling that to a Sarah-loving Republican. No, they believe their modern literal interpretation of a 1500 year-old book about good and evil. Their modern litmus test for good vs. evil is three-fold: knowledge, gay marriage and abortion. If you support any one, you are evil. Bush supported none, therefore he was very good. Obama supports all three, thus he is very evil. These self-proclaimed religious fundamentalists get very upset when I point out that our intelligent, open-minded, law-abiding president follows an agenda that serves the least of our brothers(so-called socialism) whereas his predecessor created a legion of unemployed "least brothers". In other words, Obama is acting more like their Christ would. (They get even more upset when I remind them that Regan was a card-carrying Democrat in Illinois and California until he ran for governor.) Why the hypocrisy? Simple: selective ignorance to prop up dubious blind-faith. Why post? BE VERY AFRAID OF WHAT THIS WOMAN'S IGNORANCE CAN DO TO YOU! Too many voters like her. It is very possible, though improbable, that she represents some form of the future leadership of this nation. Ignorant religious fundamentalism, or IRF, is the best description of the present-day, so-called Tea Party, of which SHE is the recruitment chairwoman. From Barry Goldwater to Megan McCain, we are being warned about the real dangers of mixing religion and politics. Self-Serving Sarah has become the manifest face of that danger. Ask not for whom the bell tolls....
Posted 9/1/2010 8:36:12pm
by logically_considered
Why VF, HOW UNCLASSY YOU ARE! You have no problem touting a nasty cheap druggie like Lindsay Lohan all over your rag mag, but you spend 10G words beating up on Sarah Palin? So original, no one's done that in the last 15 seconds. How utterly pathetic this rant is! And yet.... it's so totally YOU!
Posted 9/1/2010 8:34:37pm
by Vanitywho
Anonymous?? Really?? LOL what a joke. I won't even bother to retweet this garbage. he doesn't deserve the attention.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:34:36pm
by kazport
LOL Is this a joke? I think thee may be obsessed with Sarah. How many candidates has Nancy Pelosi gone on the stump for? 0 because they are running away from her in droves. It is just sad that lies are made up about her everyday, good thing is she justlets crap like this roll off her back. Now to drop all subscriptions to VF. Dem, Liberal Or Republican, Conservative you have to draw the line somewhere.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:32:07pm
by kazport
Anyone who thinks this woman is presidential material ought to be arrested. She is the worst kind of airhead: the dangerous kind. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It really does matter that she doesn't read anything. Putin, et al, would eat her lunch. Go away, Sarah, go far away with the phony patriotism and the fake zealous Christian bit. Anyone with a wee bit of intelligence can spot this b.s.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:10:20pm
by EternalBuzz
it seems some NYC media types, to say nothing of D.C. vultures, can't get enough of trashing Palin. jealous much? and where, exactly is the female Dem or even Ind. candidate who would be preferable? go ahead, tell me. I'll wait. (crickets)
Posted 9/1/2010 8:05:40pm
by starbrite
Palin is the Anti-John Doe.
Posted 9/1/2010 7:39:44pm
by Libproud
Who needs unnamed sources when there is video. Sarah Palin Rifle Training youtube it. At second 14 the guy has to move the butt off of her face where Palin was resting it. What person who has ever shot a gun places the butt on their cheek to stablize the shot.
Posted 9/1/2010 7:39:41pm
by Reutov
Who needs unnamed sources when there is video. Sarah Palin Rifle Training youtube it. At second the guy has to move the butt off of her face where Palin was resting it. What person who has ever shot a gun places the butt on their cheek to stablize the shot.
Search Wasilla Town Hall Meeting and watch a dramatic reading of the real Sarah Palin word for ignorant word out of her own mouth before the McCain smoke screens and the ghostwriters.
Posted 9/1/2010 7:34:09pm
by Reutov
When will Obama release his college records? The mystery continues.
Posted 9/1/2010 7:13:16pm
by dantana
Well VF, You have dropped to the bottom of low. This is about as much of a leftard article as leftard articles can get. Gov. Palin is kicking the living crap out of just about every Democrat in this country and all your writers can up with is this crap? "She Is A Bad Tipper" ??? "She Has A Temper" ??? Just what are tabloids such as yours going to do when the tables turn after the November midterms? You need to take a lesson from the rest of the far-left media that are closing up shop as we speak. I don't think Gov.Palin is a shoe-in for 2012 by any means, but for now, by the looks of this article she is kicking the asses of those just like the writer of this article and the editor of this tabloid.
Posted 9/1/2010 6:59:17pm
by SoVerySad
WOMEN (AND, YES, MEN) BEHAVING BADLY At least there's truth in advertising here. Palin never purported to be Mama Koala Bear but Mama Grizzly. Her behavior should not be surprising or maybe you've never worked for an out-of-control, dominant/insecure, ambitious woman before. When you look at women who make it to the top, these are the traits you often see. Likewise, neither should it be a surprise that Meg Whitman struck a staff member because Meg felt inadequately prepared for a media interview. I have seen firsthand that these ugly traits are evident in many other -- certainly not all -- women leaders in the public and private sector regardless of party...and of course many men, too, such as Bill Clinton who was notorious for his temper. The only difference is that these other women have admirable qualities that may counter their less desirable traits. But this is less clear with Palin. She certainly lacks the standing and stature of a Meg Whitman, Hillary Clinton, among countless others.
Posted 9/1/2010 6:45:26pm
by diegoboy
"And um of course, Carly Fiorina, um, it was uh, y'know. The credibility there that SBA allows, a candidate, to have, knowing that uh, oh, ok, I'm safe, there, endorsing Carly Fiorina you all have endorsed her, you all get it. You understand, that there in deep-blue-California ENYone who's there runnin for officewho'sboldenough to declare their pro-life stance or pro NRA, their pro-uh business and development and anti-tax and anti, big government uh, um. Principles that they stand on. Here. She. PrOUdly proclaiming that and yet. Some. Wanting. To accuse-her-of-kindofbeing-a-rhino-I-say-nUHnuhnuhnuhno there in the deep-blue-California. If she's, unabashedly pro-life and all those other, commonsenseconservative things that she stands for, she's the rill dill, and I appreciate you too being bold enough and, strong enough. To take a stand in that race and to take the stand in so many of these races, across, the country." sarah palin
Posted 9/1/2010 6:36:57pm
by jackflash
Unamed sources? Typical of author's writings? "And the days dwindle on...October...November (2)". Apologies to September Song writer.
Posted 9/1/2010 6:32:29pm
by f100
"The list of skeletons in Sarah Palin's closet is basically endless. A tragic historic figure like Joe McCarthy really seems like "small fish" in comparison when you take a closer look at Sarah Palin and her scandals and her lies". PALINGATES
Posted 9/1/2010 6:27:38pm
by jackflash
She makes me afraid for my life....
Posted 9/1/2010 6:21:44pm
by jackflash
Blindly follow her? How about those that blindly believe all the lies told about her. The knife cuts both ways.
Posted 9/1/2010 6:18:54pm
by WendyG
BTW, I love the people that say it's a well written article..grammatically? It's fine that it is also mostly fictional when 95% are from unamed sources..PLEEZE.
Posted 9/1/2010 6:16:50pm
by WendyG
For a variety of reasons, Sarah Palin will never be elected to the White House, so let's all just relax, shall we? It's true, she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she's certainly no duller than some who currently hold office (CA's Barbara Boxer and Lynn Woolsey come to mind). That being said, this has to be the most pathetic excuse for journalism I've ever seen! There is nothing of substance here, only vague assertions by an author who obviously loathes Sarah Palin. Is there ANYTHING of consequence attributable to ANYONE in this piece?! Nope, just the unsubstantiated rantings of a snarky little twerp. It shouldn't come as a surprise, VF has always been all style and no substance, but still... Vanity Fair, you should be ashamed for printing crap like this. Sarah Palin will melt down on her own. Your sleazy attempt at character assassination makes you look just as inept.
Posted 9/1/2010 6:16:10pm
by LucidThought
How can an article have any credibilty if it's 95% anonymous sources. Come on..the only people who would/could possibly believe it are the people who hate Palin already..and are willing to do so because they don't agree with her idealogy..and don't do their own discovery..this is just another agenda driven article..and as far as Palin loving the media..I don't know..maybe she does..but she certainly isn't forcing the left media to write about her..please give her that much...
Posted 9/1/2010 6:14:03pm
by WendyG
Sarah isn't disturbing. It's all the people who blindly follow her.
Posted 9/1/2010 5:48:12pm
by ezywonder
Even if Sarah Palin is all the bad things that Liberals claim, she could still do no worse than the current Prez on her worst day. I didn't realize how fast he would take the car out of the ditch and drive it right over a cliff. November is going to be a blast!!
Posted 9/1/2010 5:40:43pm
by AndyLovesLiberty
As I read this great article, I couldn't help from thinking how similar she was to the mother in "The Manchurian Candidate."
Posted 9/1/2010 5:24:51pm
by ezywonder
Well written piece with compassionate insight of a woman who remains a mystery to all thinking people...
Posted 9/1/2010 5:23:07pm
by jaxx
Liberals are not afraid of Palin . . . Blagovich has a better chance at a successful national ticket . . . they are afraid of the fact that despite her consistent incompetence, mendacity, and substitution of slogans for any sort of substance, people that otherwise appear to have the capacity for rational thought still delude themselves into seeing her not only as honest/competent/stc., but as a viable political candidate.
Posted 9/1/2010 5:01:11pm
by GandalftheFuschia
Here's hoping that Michael Gross follows this excellent article with the part II: Finally, at long last, give wider MSM readership to the FACT that $arah Palin did NOT give birth to Trig on April 18, 2008. The so-called "wild ride" from Texas to Alaska did not involve a woman in labor. Trig Palin may legally be the Palins' son, but Mrs. Palin did not give birth to him. www.palingates.blogspot.com
Posted 9/1/2010 4:53:37pm
by MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel
I fail to understand what it is about Sarah that makes liberals so hateful and vicious in their smugness, but who then completely overlook the very real transgressions of those IN a place of power that affect us all. This article is nothing but a snide hit job.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:46:19pm
by Campy
Excellent, in-depth, well written and informative article. You've managed to put in to words what the majority see in Palin. Careful now, because by writing this you are messing with the "first dude's" golden egg as well as upsetting her devoted groupies who cannot deal with facts or anyone/anything who might pop their fantasy bubble. Her minions are working hard right now to put up your private phone numbers, house address on the internet and already boycotting any ads in VF. I'm sure your inbox, fax machine & answering service are flooded with death threats and hateful comments. We know this because that is what her worshipers have done to others who dare speak badly about their phony baloney queen. I've been in forums where you cannot hide behind a name to post - your ip address is shown. Wonder how many of her chicken hawks would like that?
Posted 9/1/2010 4:45:22pm
by something
My favorite feature about Palin is the fact that her fans, like AndyLovesLiberty, RedForman, Remington, truly seem to believe liberals are frightened or even threatened by her when in fact the exact opposite is true. We want her to be in the public eye as much as possible, actually. I cannot wait for her reality show to hit the air waves. The more Sarah, the better. And hopefully she will run in 2012. We liberals cannot wait!!!
Posted 9/1/2010 4:44:49pm
by ChrisB
AndyLovesLiberty: Palin lovers continually drag out their ridiculous, "If Sarah Palin is so (fill in the blank) then why are libs so afraid her?" That this is your "favorite feature" about SP and means she is doing something "right," speaks for itself. The most disturbing thing about Sarah Palin is the people who don't find her disturbing!
Posted 9/1/2010 4:43:26pm
by truthmonger
With all these pro Sarah comments, one has to wonder if the same paid monkeys who cranked out all the mindless, George Soros inspired pro Obama blog commentaries before the 08 election are now working for Palin's crew.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:42:06pm
by dantana
For what it's worth, they have meds to treat those bi-polar symptoms Palin clearly exhibits. If her family and friends truly love & care about her, they will get her some psychiatric support and medication.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:37:51pm
by barkway
78976
Posted 9/1/2010 4:37:27pm
by something
The taller they are, the harder they fall (and especially when discovered to be slowing deteriorating from the inside out!). Enjoy it while you can honey, your fall from grace is gonna be one very painful ride.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:31:08pm
by barkway
Are the Palin children home schooled? Seems that Piper is always accompanying her mother on her travels, which must otherwise make it difficult for the little darling to learn from books, "all of 'em."
Posted 9/1/2010 4:25:06pm
by FauchonPlait
I can see November from my front porch.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:18:29pm
by something
Interesting, informative, and a bit melancholy. It is always a pleasure to read a well written and well researched story, column, op-ed or article on public figures who attempt to shape public opinion.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:15:17pm
by linicx
Liberals are so threatened by this woman , it's really pathetic
Posted 9/1/2010 4:12:53pm
by Remington
Jim2: You should read some other blog sites, besides your C4P, and then you would find that MOST of the ethics complaints were actually filed by a REPUBLICAN, not by a 'liberal'. Also, too, the government of Alaska has a set of lawyers that is being paid - whether they work or not - but instead of using the state employed lawyers, she got herself a highly paid shill, van Flein. When she was mayor of Wasilla - then 6000 people - she got the town into debt of $20 Million for building a sports stadium it did not need or want (outside the town actually), and she built her Million dollar house at the same time that that sports stadium was being built - with the same material the sports arena was using... (That was taking place at a time when she made just a tiny fraction of what she made later as governor...)
Posted 9/1/2010 4:11:48pm
by Karena
Nice hit piece, good to see Sarah still brings the cold sweats to the progressive talking heads, (writing hands?). Cant really blame you for trying, but you seem to be preaching to a continuously diminishing choir.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:10:36pm
by RedForman
For more information about what $arah Paylin [sic] actually stands for, got to http://tinyurl.com/bjupye - check out the links on the right hand side.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:02:55pm
by Karena
My favorite feature about Palin is that the Libs are so scared of her. That HAS to mean she is doing something right.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:58:46pm
by AndyLovesLiberty
I can't help but think back to the Katie Couric interview when we got a glimpse of the real Sarah Palin before she became aware that coined phrases don't work in real interviews (and now refuses to do interviews). We saw a lack of intelligence and awareness that we rarely see in a politician. To think some want her to run the country, I can't believe anyone thinks that having "religious" and "family" values (whatever that really means), and being cute are going to be enough to run a country. That's going to be so great for us all. Dick Cheney and the gang will be back in power!
Posted 9/1/2010 3:51:50pm
by suet
"...Trigg is not Palis son? You wackadoos mock the Birthers and support the Truthers...Posted 9/1/2010 3:45:07pm by silenceisgolden" -------- #1, the poor child's name is Trig, with one G. #2, the conclusion reached by many who've looked into Palin's so-called "pregnancy" and Wild Ride from March to April 2008 is that Trig Palin is not Sarah Palin's BIOLOGICAL son -- big difference. There's overwhelming evidence (the long-unrevealed birth certificate, insurance records) that she and Todd Palin adopted the child.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:50:20pm
by WesternCorresp
Correct, jseipp.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:45:39pm
by WesternCorresp
Palin Derangement Syndrome is still going strong. Journolist is dead, long live Journolist. Trigg is not Palis son? You wackadoos mock the Birthers and support the Truthers. I am bummed you are allowed a vote.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:45:07pm
by silenceisgolden
This woman has absolutely nothing of substance to offer the country and nothing of substance to add to any national dialog (although there she joins the other rightwing blowhards--McConnell, Boehner, all members of congress from the State of Texas, et al.). And people commenting here defending her because they think we're all "jealous" of her are delusional. To quote Keith, "That woman is an idiot."
Posted 9/1/2010 3:35:40pm
by Badgerwoman
WesternCorrep, are you saying I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for Jim to back up his rant with citations?
Posted 9/1/2010 3:32:28pm
by jseipp
Sarah and her klan would make a great movie - John Waters, are you listening? Too bad Divine isn't around anymore - she'd be perfect.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:30:36pm
by woodchipper
Brilliant, abosolutely brilliant. This article captures the essence of who Sarah Palin really is. I live in Alaska, BTW.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:28:47pm
by aspiecelia
Anyone who believes in a Big Invisible B-Polar Daddy Who Lives in The Sky IS dim-witted and semi-literate.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:27:10pm
by DavidEhrenstein
Hi, Jim2, aka JimAK -- I've seen your rant (posted @ 3:14:15pm) posted many times at Alaska Standard, Alaska Dispatch, and in the comment sections of many Anchorage Daily News articles that discuss Sarah Palin. It seems that no matter how many times Palingates ( http://palingates.blogspot.com ) or other FACTUALLY-BASED blogs refute what you rant about, you never correct your computer notebook file -- you just copy-and-paste the same old debunked blather.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:23:33pm
by WesternCorresp
SpanishLady325 complains that the article mischaracterizes anyone who believes in "God, family or country as dim-witted or semi-literate" (which it does not, if you actually read it), then continues "we can follow the liberal course and return this country to the European Empire & re-establish are lost titles" - I take it you mean OUR lost titles. What was that you were saying about "semi-literate"?
Posted 9/1/2010 3:20:53pm
by jml
"The media has lied about her banning of books, forcing victims to pay for their own rape kits, and her stance on sex education." Citation please!
Posted 9/1/2010 3:20:52pm
by jseipp
SailFree, in your 2:40:07pm comment, are you implying your "rock" hit a lame leg? No, I'm speaking up for relatives of several disabled folks who DID remark that Sarah Palin's use of the term "lamestream media" was insensitive to the people they caregive for. ------- And JUST BECAUSE a "liberal" coined the phrase doesn't make it right to adapt it to RWNJ usage. You should know that.------ But, as usual, RWNJs seem to think the middle-school excuse of "well, THEY do it, so why can't we?" is permission to be as low-down nasty as possible in their discourse.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:18:29pm
by WesternCorresp
Palin is a sociopath; a bully. I know this personality; my sister is one. I stay the hell away from her! Toxic bitch.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:15:44pm
by moorlock2003
This article is bullshit; this little "takedown" is so petty it's almost laughable. Their vendetta against Palin is just embarrassing at this point. Anyway , Sarah Palin didn't quit; she "reloaded" in order to fight for what is right on a fairer battlefield. She promised to keep the frivolous anti-Palin law suits away from the Alaskan people ( saving the state tax money and time) and to be more effective on the stump ( supporting candidates , fund raising, etc) Sarah Palin was truthful on both accounts. Sarah Palin resigned because she recognized the cost that the frivolous ethics complaints were having on her state , and she saw how much of her staff's time and her own time were forced to deal with those issues. She wasn't able to effectively fulfill her role as Governor, so she passed the reins onto someone who didn't have to be concerned that if he sneezed in the Lower 48, an ethics complaint would be thrown at him. Palin's entire administration was paralyzed by those frivolous complaints. She wasn't going to allow those intent on destroying her to destroy the state. She saw that if she stayed on as Governor it would continue to cost the state millions of dollars in wasted time and resources to defend against false and maliciously ethics complaints and doom the state to gridlock. The bottom line is that Sarah Palin hates to waste time and money, and this would have been the inevitable result of her remaining in office and fighting these political attacks disguised as "ethics" complaints. Sarah Palin had to step down for the better of her state and it was the honorable thing to do. She simply took the fight to a new battlefield. Sarah Palin instead knew she could fight for Alaskans and Americans outside of office and she has most definitely done that. The media has lied about her banning of books, forcing victims to pay for their own rape kits, and her stance on sex education. They have tried to portray her as a religious nut, even though she was elected and maintained a high approval rating as governor of one of the least religious states in the country. They have portrayed her an unintelligent, even though she has effectively negotiated the one of the largest private sector infrastructure projects in North America's history when her predecessors had done little to move that project forward in the previous three decades. The media have portrayed as greedy for making money after she stepped aside from the Governor's office, while completely ignoring the fact the Obamas made more than 5 million dollars in his first year in office and a prominent Republican purchased a house in the San Diego area for the same amount that the media claims that Governor Palin has made since her resignation. They have maligned her family by spreading rumors of divorce and claiming her youngest son isn't really hers. And the list of smears , gossip and misinformation about Sarah Palin and her family goes on.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:14:15pm
by Jim2
Bad article which portrays anyone who believes in God, family, or country as a dim-witted or semi-literate. Why don't you just publish articles that say how great progressive politics would be great for the country? Then, we can follow the liberal course and return this country to the European Empire & re-establish are lost titles starting with the "Royal Democrat Party family the Kennedys". We can practice bowing to the Celebrities and forget about the working person because they are small and government needs to control & take care of them. But your writers at Vanity Fair already know that.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:07:44pm
by SpanishLady325
A fair number of these posts seem to have been written by the same pen. Perhaps the same roomful of slavering minion monkeys that comes up with Sarah's tweets and ghosts her "books" are charged to come to her defense whenever the truth comes out. If this moronic, narcissistic child ever manages find her way into the Oval Office, every sane person on the planet is going to be going to bed at night hoping the US will disappear overnight, imploded by the critical mass of its own STOOPID.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:04:16pm
by woodchipper
I love that all the Palin protectors beating their chests haven't actually "refudiated" any of the criticisms put forth in the article. Excellent read.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:00:42pm
by jseipp
Hi, WesternCorresp! Grasping at straws. Too bad I'm not a straw man.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:57:32pm
by SailFree
Just another Sarah Palin opinion hit piece posing as news. Nothing new about the very liberal FV. Can't stand it that Sarah Palin is kicking Obama around on a daily basis. VF has a job to do and that is to conjur up all things anti-Palin with the illusion that people will actually take it seriously. This piece really is more of a rant. The writer seams a bit unglued and unhinged. I guess that is what happens to lefties who have a bad case of Palin Derangement Syndrome. It gets worse, so the writer may want to get some help for this condition and soon. If this rant us any indication of what is to come for the writer, having to say, "Madam President," in 2012 may cause this writer some serious mental instability and ought to be checked now.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:53:46pm
by LeeVon
What's going on here at Vanity Fair? Is the author of this brilliant and well researched article afraid to mention the huge elephant in the room? The fact that Palin faked her pregnancy with the Down Syndrome child, Trig.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:53:30pm
by Michael
She IS loud, aggressive and the mouth-breathers, such as "hamilton" fear that in ANY woman! No matter who "takes" the WHite House next, it WILL be soon, the one-term will be up - and not soon enough! The gang in there now have NO clue!
Posted 9/1/2010 2:49:36pm
by jag3
Excellent article! Except for one big thing and that is the lack of any mention of Palin faking her pregnancy with Trig. Also, the very reason for the blogs that are mentioned is because of the faked pregnancy.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:49:09pm
by Michael
"Lamestream media" was a term coined by a liberal, Bernard Goldberg, and there is no intention to insult anyone with a handicap nor, I'm sure, would anyone with a handicap ever think so. Gee, WesternCorresp, did the rock thrown into the sty hit a pig? Completely unhinged by Sarah Palin, I suspect, and just overly sensitive.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:40:07pm
by SailFree
"When she agreed to serve as McCain's running mate, one of her children was already failing in school, according to campaign aides. " WHICH CHILD? Was it Bri$tol, who subsequently 'graduated with honors'?
Posted 9/1/2010 2:39:58pm
by Karena
So, does this mean RAM doesn't know that "refudiate" isn't a word, when all along we thought it was Palin?
Posted 9/1/2010 2:34:28pm
by AlmostPhD
I have worked in several professional workplaces where most of my bosses were women--Ph.Ds, directors, supervisors. I have seen the egos that existed in the women I have worked for/with at these levels. They are not the "participatory' kind (as is said of women in management roles)-- more like the self-centered egos that are just as interested in power as any male counterpart. Sarah Palin scares me-- I have seen these women who got into power in my professions-- not necessarily by merit and some being pushy, ADD, and unable to communicate without answering their blackberry or phone every second--They might be marginally intelligent- but not ones that I thought should have been in a power/supervisory role. They were totally "me" oriented-- Sarah Palin fits this mold!
Posted 9/1/2010 2:28:19pm
by teabug1
If you've never been in the limelight, or even close to someone who is, you'd know that it isn't easy. I'm not saying she didn't ask for it, she did. But the people who blame her for pushing back against the invasive aspect of it, should shut the fruk up. If you don't get her appeal, fine. That's you. But a lot of people find her refreshing and fearless. THey like her disdain for the political and media elite crowd that piss and moan but don't know shit from shinola about the world around them. I'm not sure if she can make it to the top, but she can sure get a lot of new people into the voting booth, and that's more than liberal nazis like Olbermann and Matthews can do.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:27:59pm
by mpalesse
What we have here is a case of clinical narcissism, one of the most intractable of mental illnesses. Particularly revealing is the inability to accept any criticism, and the great gulf between public persona and private person. I know, I lived with one for 7 years and very nearly came to grief, and finally just had to literally escape. Because the American people by and large share at least the superficial aspects of this narcissism, we may very well end up with a president who is not only abysmally stupid, but also clinically mentally ill. -drl
Posted 9/1/2010 2:26:24pm
by DRLunsford
Looks as though Sinclair Lewis' prediction that "When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." has just arrived in the persona of Sara Palin.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:26:09pm
by Mykelb
Good article, which is fair and portrays Palin and her followers for what they are; semi-literate mouth breathers. One thing that is encouraging in the negative comments from all of the Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh nutjobs is it seems like they actually attempted to read something.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:25:52pm
by Hamilton
mmau - "The death panels do exist in the current plan under the guise of 50 some-odd bureaucracies. One of these just this summer said woman under the age of 50 would not be covered for a mammogram." Ridiculous and a flat out lie. And, as for withholding treatment; there are all kinds of rational and explainable specific treatments or tests would be withheld by a physician. That's why they're doctors.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:24:54pm
by lukyoldson
For the past 2 years, I have followed Sarah's rise to stardom. I do not understand why anyone thinks she would make a good leader for the United States. She's an unhinged lunatic quitter who would leave her job as president as soon as things got to difficult (day one?).
Posted 9/1/2010 2:21:13pm
by se7en_days
I see the usual brand of moronic tea bagging fools is out in full force, defending this idiotic twit. You make yourselves look even dumber than she is...and that takes some doing.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:20:49pm
by lukyoldson
"Lamestream media indeed not welcome. Posted 9/1/2010 1:58:39pm by SailFree" ----Sailfree, you and your idol Sarah Palin should know that the truly "lame" resent your careless and insensitive use of that word in describing the mainstream media -- and that paraplegics, muscular dystrophy sufferers, post-war-spinal-injury veterans and amputees for injury/disease related causes, multiple sclerosis suffers -- they all vote.---They probably made up their minds many months ago to never ever cast a vote for Sarah Palin when she began bandying around the term "lamestream media".
Posted 9/1/2010 2:20:10pm
by WesternCorresp
The death panels do exist in the current plan under the guise of 50 some-odd bureaucracies. One of these just this summer said woman under the age of 50 would not be covered for a mammogram. The could mean a death knoll for someone under 50. These same "panels" will tell us that at a certain age we will not receive certain life-saving treatments due to cost containement. READ THE BILL!
Posted 9/1/2010 2:17:19pm
by mmaupai
Reference to "arrogant elitists (oikophobes)" by SailFree @ 9/1/2010 1:56:10pm ----- Too funny! Even AVERAGE elitists don't use the word "oikophobes". Why? Dictionary.com = oikophobia is "a fear of houses, homes, or being stuck in a house". That has nothing to do with the oft-repeated morphed joke about "seeing Russia from my house".----- We average elitists use "paranoid narcissistic evil schemer" instead.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:14:28pm
by WesternCorresp
"I could understand, somewhat, this sort of catty, gossipy piece if it were written by an unattractive jealous liberal woman... Posted 9/1/2010 1:50:22pmby SailFree"------What an odd, shallow, beauty-obsessed remark.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:06:37pm
by WesternCorresp
Sarah Palin is a diamond. The more you hone her, the more brightly shines her lustre. Please write about Trig and his sister who obviously loves him. do not write about Levi. He is a liar. When he posed naked for Playgirl, he bared nothing. This toothpick has nothing to show but his teeth, and they are not even attractive. Only gossiping journolists dig this boy. Poor Levi. Stop posing naked. You have nothing to show. Shame on you, boy.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:03:29pm
by AnatolePushkin
The woman is pure evil
Posted 9/1/2010 2:00:50pm
by MGQuigley
If I had heard, seen, and read as many lies about me and my family that have been spread through the elitist left-wing media, I would be a little reserved too. Lamestream media indeed not welcome.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:58:39pm
by SailFree
I used to root for Hillary Clinton but DemoRATS dumped her in favor of the crush of Sissy Matthews whose legs tingled in orgasmic frenzy every time he/she heard him read his teleprompter. Now I am one hundred percent in favor of Sarah Palin. We want her to our President. She will be in 2012. What happened to Camille Paglia? Did you dump he in favor of Lesbo Maddow? She was the only readable and intlligent writer you have. This article is seething with sarcasm. But it's a publicity for Sarah Palin. Good or bad, it's still publicity just the same.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:57:55pm
by AnatolePushkin
"the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion..." LOL! That's the surreal new world ALL Americans are living in now, Michael. You're a little slow, huh? Lame article. You're obviously just jealous of her. Every time you write an article like this she gets more popular. Doh! Nice going, Michael. Maybe look into politics?
Posted 9/1/2010 1:57:37pm
by DopeyDopenstein
What really strikes me as bizarre is that the arrogant elitists (oikophobes) who attack Palin, who seem to think that Sarah Palin spoke the lines in a SNL comedy skit (It was Tina Fey who said "I can see Russia from my house"), who claim she incites hate and violence but have presented no examples of such, think that this is somehow winning campaign strategy to insult and display contempt for the average, plain ordinary Joe and Jane, middle-American voters.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:56:10pm
by SailFree
Great article and one that probably surprises no one who is open to the truth of what Moosejaw Barbie is really all about. Lies and Money, money and Mo' Money. As for the nutjobs out there slamming the Clintons,they must not read much (not surprising when you realize you are dealing with tea baggers)because there have been billions of words written about the Clintons and at least half investigative unflattering, BUT none as bad as this witch from Wassilla. But the secretiveness is the most telling. An honest person would be willing to sit down with any member of the press and talk to them, but the fact that Moosejaw Barbie is terrified of the press is pretty much the giveaway that she is a complete and total phony. One has to wonder though why she and others like her hate America so much that they resort to lies, half truths and character assassination to bring down honest people. She is a disgrace but a prime example of the ultra rightwing movement in America, petty, mean, lying, and sore losers.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:54:57pm
by Buzzramjet
I could understand, somewhat, this sort of catty, gossipy piece if it were written by an unattractive jealous liberal woman...
Posted 9/1/2010 1:50:22pm
by SailFree
$arah,Beck and the other Fox harpys promote Murdoch and the Tea/Koch family's agenda of misinformation, ignorance and hate. They falsely use god,lie and are the center of divisiveness in our country. Thank you for this article, $arah is a dangerous con artist who's goal is to make our country into oligarchy/religious state (a select group of robber barons and a lot of ignorant poor policed by her perverse version of Christianity).
Posted 9/1/2010 1:46:37pm
by zeltar
Though his article is most informative, I feel that Michael Joseph Gross downplayed and even mocked the influence of the Palin watchdog site Palingates, which has conducted the most in-depth explorations on all things Palin, as well as other Alaska bloggers such as Gryphen (The Immoral Minority) and Shannyn Moore. VF should have mentioned Palin's efforts via her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, to harass bloggers Gryphen (The Immoral Minority) and Shannyn Moore, threatening lawsuits that never came about. Gross' remark that Mrs. Palin "makes people feel good about themselves" is "also, too," as $arah would say, sheared of its context: Palin incites violence, hatred, and intolerance against those who do NOT consider themselves "like her." If audiences pay to see her, pay for her expenses, her Learjets, her ghost-written books, her underwear and so forth, that's really what's most important to $arah Palin. If her fans "feel good about themselves," it's a secondary benefit derived solely from Palin's divisive "us vs. them" battle plan.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:41:21pm
by MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel
Graywolf, VF published several articles critical of both Bill and Hillary Clinton. You should know your facts before posting ill-informed opinions.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:33:29pm
by proudlib
Don't you worry Dantana, even without edumacation, Palin is a master grifter.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:32:21pm
by ambivalent
Graywolf, you are reaching and losing. Bill Clinton was never the mean, spiteful harridan that Sarah is. Wiley, loose with the truth, yes. Bill Clinton never has had a need to tear down others. He is confident in his own abilities and has the intelligence to parry with the best. Sarah's own inadequacies make her the unhinged rager that she is.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:30:53pm
by ambivalent
DigiMark, you are forgetting that the violent rages, the vengefulness, the greedy spending of OPM, the willful ignorance.... those are all pre-2008 Sarah Palin.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:28:15pm
by ambivalent
Wow, all these people offended by a negative article about Sarah "I can see Russia from my house" Palin are the very same dolts who'll authoritatively tell you that Obama is a Muslim, a Socialist (incompatible with being a Muslim), a Communist (also incompatible with being a Muslim) and not an American citizen (amazing how his parents knew to fake that birth certificate all those years ago). Now they're outraged that VF has the audacity to criticize poor Sarah! To paraphrase Shakespeare, me thinks they doth protest too much (and extremely hypocritically)!
Posted 9/1/2010 1:27:19pm
by proudlib
Sarah comes off, in this article, as a female version of Bill Clinton (without the constant cheating). Did you people ever write a similar story about Clinton?
Posted 9/1/2010 1:26:32pm
by Graywolf
Since there is a some part of the nation that is truly mis-informed or truly stupid enough to embrace some thing like Palin. The 'dumbing down' process has taken decades and is only coming together now because that part of the nation sees Palin's COMPLETE fairy tale as a culmination of THEIR 20 or 30 year journey to become an absolute idiot. That's real hard in most cases because the brain actually wants to grow and form new pathways. It's built to learn.. That's what human existence is about. Pitifully, the subset of the nation that chooses to embrace the false narrative coming out some bad, 19-year olds' made-up one-liners; fawning by people from a propaganda company; and inclusion/delusion by someone who thinks that: 1) a pan of cornbread dressed up in a red dress with bad lipstick and, 2) pancake makeup smeared all over her so the glare of the spot lights and cameras won't melt her is a good thing, then that part of the population is gone.. they no longer have a place in day-to-day dialogue of reality. Some small number of these people can be retrieved - but not many. Most have been caught in the snare of delusion and are gone for good.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:21:44pm
by Winski
If Palin was well read and had an Ivy League education, she would be worthy of joining the ruling class. Only then could she find clever ways to game the system on the backs of ordinary taxpayers and send the country into trillions of dollars of debt. Too bad she doesn't meet those requirements to join the elite. She's unelectable.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:19:46pm
by dantana
Where's that big investigation of the Tides Foundation and dozens of related "non-profit" shell organizations Soros channels his money through? Still waiting.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:18:28pm
by dantana
Stogiebear said, "you do the reader a disservice by not making patently clear the goal of Dominionist/Seven Mountains theology in the USA". A fine place to find out more about this would be Leah Burton's "God's Own Party" blog -- http://godsownparty.com/blog/ Burton's archives are full of frightening information about these fanatics.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:16:34pm
by WesternCorresp
"I assume this article is an opinion piece." Quite a lot of the situations surrounding the anecdotes related in this article are factually backed up in the many "-Gates" listed in the menu and blogrolls listed at Palingates ( http://www.palingates.blogspot.com )
Posted 9/1/2010 1:10:46pm
by WesternCorresp
What what a great piece of............journolism. Filled with allegations, rumors and innuendos. Seriously, what a load of crap this article is. I look forward to VF folding up. Is it any wonder the media is on it's last legs. The National Enquirer has more integrity and journalistic ethics than VF and most of the liberal rags out there. VF look forward to your expose on Obama and his affair with Vera Baker. I have a friend who has a friend who knows someone who has it on good authority that Obama is on the down low with Reggie Love and Michelles drops the F-bomb on Obama every morning. See how easy that was. Dang maybe I should be a writer for Vanity Fair.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:09:43pm
by AgentX
i hate that VF always posts it's leading articles online before i even get my magazine at home. now why did i just renew my subscription? i think i'll just save my money next year and read it for free online.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:07:05pm
by psgoodguy
"The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in sloans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out." -Adolf Hitler. ...get it, this is her formula...
Posted 9/1/2010 12:52:16pm
by Edwin1967
Erratic behavior and a pattern of lying matter little: "Such falsehoods never damage OBAMA's credibility with HIS admirers, because information and ideology are incidental to this relationship." There... fixed it for ya.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:42:04pm
by LakesideObserver
Great article that squares with everything we've learned about Palin in Alaska. My first inkling of her true character came from reading original documents from the Alaska State Trooper investigation into her ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten. [You can read some of them here: http://tinyurl.com/3akv5wh.] She and her sister showed themselves to be truly unhinged and bent on revenge. They did things like report to the troopers that Wooten had screamed at an attendant at the local dump after receiving a $5 fine for unsecured garbage. The troopers would duly investigate and discover no such thing happened. Comparing the facts in the report with her version of Troopergate after she became governor made it clear that she's a shameless, power-hungry liar who is not very rational. But I guess most of America has figured that out by now. For a really good time, check out the cultists on C4P. They would make a great psychological study in willful denial of reality.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:37:51pm
by Arctos
I still can't find your "investigation" of John Edwards. Only a non-liberal gets this dishonest, sneering hackery.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:37:49pm
by Graywolf
If Palin was well read and had an Ivy League education, she would be worthy of joining the ruling class. Only then could she find clever ways to game the system on the backs of ordinary taxpayers and send the country into trillions of dollars of debt. Too bad she doesn't meet those requirements to join the elite and is unelectable.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:33:25pm
by dantana
@older-wiser, Now, now, be honest. If Sarah reminded you, or any Neo-Comm, of Hitler you would have a permanent stiffy and singing her praises 24/7. Hitler is the current Comm we have in office destroying this nation with each passing second. It's hilarious how the kooks spend so much time and effort attacking, lying and smearing someone that is so "stupid, insignificant and meaningless." You don't see we sane citizens spending all our time attacking Gore, Maher, Matthews, Olbermann, Maddow, O'Donnell, Moore, etc. We celebrate these nutjobs. If we had it our way they would be in front of a camera every conscious moment of their days. The more people see what the Democrat Party has become, the more people will be scared sh*tless of what we have in office right now.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:33:13pm
by neo
Thank you for the article. I have only one criticism of it: you do the reader a disservice by not making patently clear the goal of Dominionist/Seven Mountains theology in the USA: the overthrow of out constitutionally-based Federal Republic and replacing it with a fundamentalistic christianist theocracy. More than simply wacko or even scary, these people are dangerous and they mean to make sure they take charge of the USA.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:32:32pm
by Stogiebear
I assume this article is an opinion piece. I am no supporter of Sarah Palin. I find it amusing that you think people who knew Obama were interviewed. I don't remember any more for him than Palin. Obama attacks anyone who has a different opinion than his. He questions their intellect and social standing. George W. Bush had his faults but at least when someone attacked him he acknowledged there American right to voice their opposition and didn't verbally attack them back. Palin is a bit of a cook. Her strategy is brilliant. She is making herself relevant to voters. Not you, but other voters. She's working the system like Obama worked the system. Both have softball interviews where the terms are arranged before a word has been spoken on camera. Everything is scripted. Everything is fake. Finding a politician that is not a scumbag is like finding a needle in a haystack. Palin and Obama are 2 twins from the same broken system. The fact you attack her and give a pass to him disgusts me.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:31:57pm
by Homer
Oh no! Here come the Palinbots! You can tell who they are quite easily. They REFUSE to be open minded regarding any FACTUAL information about Sarah Palin. They will slam the author and the publication followed by Obama and then say Palin is going to be President. They have no idea how absolutely foolish they are. Typically their notes are filled with false information, like all of Sarah's picks in the PRIMARIES won - when that isn't so, only 3 or 4 of 15 have! This is an incredible article, very factual about Sarah and her temperament. She also lacks knowledge about fundamentals. She didn't know who Margaret Thatcher was?? HAHAHA!!! My only disappointment is in the way you portrayed the anti-Palin blogs. If it wasn't for them, very little would be known about Sarah. I knew everything in this article already and I got most of it from Palingates, Mudflats and the Immoral Minority. You should give them a lot more credit. Sarah Palin is a mentally disturbed narcissist who isn't fit for any type of political office. It is really too bad she doesn't use the talents she does have for the good of the country instead of being such a negative force....She is an extremely negative polarizing figure and she will go down in history as this, someone very close to McCarthy and nothing like Thatcher...She could turn this around, but she can't because of her temper and mental illness.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:28:38pm
by TruthMatters
Vanity Fair is about the worst publication I know of if you want unbiased factual information. The liberal spin is unequaled. You try your best to demean Sarah Pain and any other conservtive who is doing well. Sarah Palin's huge victory in Alaska Senatorial race is undoubtedly the reason for your hit piece. Sorry, it won't work. You cannot minimize Sarah Palin. She continues to grow in popularity and influence in spite of, and in some cases because of, irresponsible publications such as this one. Governor Palin will use the victory of all the candidates she has endorsed in the November election to launch her presidential campaign. Better get used to it Vanity Fair: Madam President Palin.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:17:32pm
by Granitepaw
This woman is obviously as much of a megalomaniac as Adolph Hitler. It figures the rightwing would go for the crazies...
Posted 9/1/2010 12:12:42pm
by Older_Wiser
I don't think the planet will be large enough to absorb Palin's rage when she does NOT win the presidential bid. And there are still Palin devotees in Wasilla including my relations. Glad I got the hell out.
Posted 9/1/2010 12:12:07pm
by wasillaborn
Great Article. It shows that Power changes people especially politicians. Sarah is no home grown hockey mom and never was. She created the whole spin about being one. She has now become a product of what her fans make her out to be. She is a woman who actually believes all the hype about herself just like her fanbase (hunter, hockey mom, average joe). She would fit in perfectly in Hollywood. Everything is fake. She can stay in character just like the hollywood stars if need be in order to advance her paycheck and political career. And her fans are obsessed with her just as if she was a hollywood star. She's got a pretty good racket there and she's not going to stop and who can blame her. Money talks. The sad thing is that some people actually believe her hype too. Pretty scary.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:59:38am
by QueensNYer
"This is a great work of fiction. So sad twhat passes for "journalism" these days. Hey- why don't you guys be a little more equal opportunity and profile Obama in an equally negative light?" It is difficult, if not impossible, to shed someone in an 'equally negative light' if the two individuals in question do not share an 'equal' amount of negative qualities.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:47:53am
by lovelea
The sad sense I get about Palin is also something I see in other dreamers who politicize their wounds. Unfortunately, there's not enough self-awareness on the right to explore this issue deeply. It's much easier to simply create another Us vs Them battle and enjoy the fireworks.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:41:13am
by walt
Don't be surprised, Vanity Fair editors, if you see many more comments from Palin fans comparing Sarah Palin to President Obama -- and like Chicago60657 has urged, write about him negatively. That's like suggesting a parent beat the kid who got caught stealing a bike AND beat her innocent brother who didn't know about it and who has never stolen a thing in his life. This is how Palin's followers think. Yes, it IS sad.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:31:53am
by WesternCorresp
Re: Jim2's comment -- there has been a JimAK who comments on many, many blogs discussing Sarah Palin, including the C4P pro-Palin blog mentioned above. No telling if Jim2 is also JimAK, but it's known to many that JimAK is Sarah Palin's husband's father. No surprise that he'd crusade on so many blogs and comment forums in loyal defense of what is probably his meal ticket.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:27:23am
by WesternCorresp
Some of the information left out of the article : she dents cans at the grocery store and tries to get them for half price . She's a bad parker . She kicks her dog . She mows her lawn in dirty sneakers . She takes candy from babies . She laughs when someone falls . She leaves the butter out .
Posted 9/1/2010 11:19:48am
by Jim2
LOL, more like the sound of dumbness LOL www.be-anonymous.at.tc
Posted 9/1/2010 11:16:28am
by WingMoo
Yikes. Borderline/narcissistic personality disorder. Heaven help us if she ever gets any real power.
Posted 9/1/2010 11:14:15am
by Mickey7
KUDOS MICHAEL, you rank right up there with the HuffPalinPost in your vitriol and hatred. Once again , you and liberal ilk are terrified of a strong conservative woman. The sexism and bigotry you spew with impunity are masterful
Posted 9/1/2010 10:47:31am
by BSERIUS
Jim2, anticipating the often told story about why she quit, I've already debunked your often repeated lie. So-called "frivolous" lawsuits don't take millions of dollars to negate, $arah already tried this lie but intelligent people saw through her quitting as a means to a quick buck. What wasn't mentioned as it happened after the publishing date for this article, is that when she sent the money back to the people who donated to the Alaska Fund Trust, she asked that they sign the checks back to her and send them in the pre-addressed stamped envelope. Isn't that nice? This multi-millionaire, who has made more money in the last 12 months than most make in a lifetime was going to pay the postage for you if you would just send that money right back to her? The gall of someone who could pay half a million in legal fees and never miss it, now asking her supporters to give her their hard-earned money? Sarah loves to spend other people's money, not her own. I always thought it was so "generous" of her to use her SarahPAC money to donate a whopping $1k to the Down Syndrome Foundation on the last day of the quarter, no less! Of course she gave Michele Bachmann $5k for her campaign but I guess Bachmann is a lot closer to her heart than the Down Syndrome Foundation. She did however, give a free speech to the NRA convention but charged the Special Needs Association she spoke to a day earlier. There is no way that anyone who can make sense of these financial decisions. It speaks of someone with a very cold heart, especially her lack of tipping for those who depend on tips for their salary. But you still expect us to believe you're one of us, right, $arah, a "real American", one of the regular people?? Thankfully, the majority of people see through this charade of hers.
Posted 9/1/2010 10:37:45am
by Katie1230
Excellent article. I'm sure I'm not the only one who, after reading it, thinks I would have liked the pre-2008 Sarah and her family a great deal. I can only think that it must be an incredible amount of stress and energy keeping the whole ediface together, and at some point Ms. Palin will drop a few of the many balls and plates she's juggling. Perhaps then she and her family will let it all go and go back to being themselves. Politically I don't agree at all, of course. (Member of the reality-based community here!)
Posted 9/1/2010 10:28:38am
by DigiMark
"This is a great work of fiction. So sad twhat passes for "journalism" these days. Hey- why don't you guys be a little more equal opportunity and profile Obama in an equally negative light?" ARE YOU 'FREAKING KIDDING ME? There is a WHOLE freaking television conglomerate whose sole mission is to disparage Obama 24/7. I don't think ANY president had to face that kind or amount of negative adversity in their life, yet like the typical hypocritical Repuke you are, you are 'bitchin about ONE negative article on Ms. Palin. Lame-O!
Posted 9/1/2010 10:27:27am
by WitchyD
Great Article! I'm sure the entire FOXNewstainment contingent will be howling at more of the liberal media bias, but I'm glad SOMEONE finally dared to critique Sarah Palin. I don't know if you reported is true. However, I also doubt that all Palin purports herself to be is true either. This woman is in no way qualified to even think she could be President. Our country would be a laughingstock.
Posted 9/1/2010 10:21:11am
by WitchyD
This is a great work of fiction. So sad twhat passes for "journalism" these days. Hey- why don't you guys be a little more equal opportunity and profile Obama in an equally negative light?
Posted 9/1/2010 10:14:53am
by Chicago60657
If you yokels would have vetted Obama like Palin has been we wouldn't be in the crapper right now. Go over with a fine tooth comb all of Obamas relationships and the only people he knew were terrorists felons and radicals. His speech last night was dismal. His speeches from the oval office are pathetic I long for a real president
Posted 9/1/2010 10:01:58am
by sodakhic
Great article. I'm glad to see that someone is finally willing to call her out for what she is. She is a dangerous woman and must be exposed. Also, it's interesting to note that since this article was published, C4P have been cleaning up their website and editing comments referencing the President.
Posted 9/1/2010 9:02:41am
by Palinized
Wonderful soliloquy Jim2 except her lawyers fees never amounted to more than sixty-thousand dollars--and it was the complaint she filed against herself. The state attorneys dealt with the other ethic complaints--they are on salary and it did not cost extra. Yet she set up an illegal Fund Trust and had to pay back almost 400 grand to pay for these other imaginary lawyer fees. What did she do with that money? Sarah quit so she could write a book, take speaking fees and give bad, canned, uneducated speeches to red meat audiences. Ask real Alaskans. Most don't appreciate a quitter. She quit. You cannot rebrand what she did. She quit.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:30:55am
by MarthaCZ
North Star? From the sound of things it's more like Death Star.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:11:55am
by RanceMoest
When I first heard of SP during the 2008 campaign, I admit, like many, I felt she was a new spirit of refreshing candor to a mean spirited and detached system. As time has moved on and I discovered her shallow and simplistic view of complex and serious issues her 'star shine' has faded and once again I see an empty suit who helps define narcissism and power in America today. Our corrupted and depleted society is straining to see and discover anyone who appears to be a leader that may help our miserable situation. Our vulnerability is possibly the most frightening of all situations, in that, when the 'right, perfect' person comes along, we will be lead to slaughter and gladly follow to our demise. How did we get here? A million reasons or more, tell the tale and we will only recognize the the err's of our way, but by then it will be too late. Like all the sheep around me I 'BAH' with/at the crowd around me, as I am pushed along with everyone else. My helplessness is profound and I 'Baaah', as I am doing now, waiting to be sheered or worse. Maybe, I need a day in "mamby pamby land" to recover my American dream that appears to belong to others now and I don't know who they are."Bah, bah, bah, help help, help", I don't know where I am, I will go along and my own demise, just watch. That is the problem, not Sarah Palin, she is just a pawn of the demands we expound upon our leaderless society. So shall we plant, so shall we reap.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:10:02am
by media_mad
This is a beautifully written article. Thanks for your work, your research and your talent that has brought a sort of order to a most chaotic subject.
Posted 9/1/2010 8:01:46am
by QuietType
Sarah Palin didn't quit; she "reloaded" in order to fight for what is right on a fairer battlefield. She promised to keep the frivolous anti-Palin law suits away from the Alaskan people ( saving the state tax money and time) and to be more effective on the stump ( supporting candidates , fund raising, etc) Sarah Palin was truthful on both accounts. Sarah Palin resigned because she recognized the cost that the frivolous ethics complaints were having on her state , and she saw how much of her staff's time and her own time were forced to deal with those issues. She wasn't able to effectively fulfill her role as Governor, so she passed the reins onto someone who didn't have to be concerned that if he sneezed in the Lower 48, an ethics complaint would be thrown at him. Palin's entire administration was paralyzed by those frivolous complaints. She saw that if she stayed on as Governor it would continue to cost the state millions of dollars in wasted time and resources to defend against false and maliciously ethics complaints and doom the state to gridlock. The bottom line is that Sarah Palin hates to waste time and money, and this would have been the inevitable result of her remaining in office and fighting these political attacks disguised as "ethics" complaints. Sarah Palin had to step down for the better of her state and it was the honorable thing to do. She instead knew she could fight for Alaskans and Americans outside of office and she has most definitely done that.
Posted 9/1/2010 7:12:31am
by Jim2
Read Jerome Bixby's classic short story "It's a good life" and you'll see, it fits Sarah to a T. This chick has a narcissistic personality disorder and I'm proud to have been kicked off of her facebook page for calling her a pentecostalist nutball.
Posted 9/1/2010 5:19:54am
by prick_pricker
Sarah is a classic case of delusions of grandeur. She leads a cult of equally deluded followers. They're "going to take the country back" are they? That's what we did to them. We took it back from them and they have been nothing but the sorest of losers and they will remain losers. The Tea Party is fake grass roots, a deluded 33%, the losing 33%. Let them pray. Let them rally. Let them madly tweet. God hates Sarah Palin because he knows the truth of her.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:42:15am
by prick_pricker
Palin's interviews are all scripted, just watch O'Reilly feed her the answers. When she does a speech, all questions must be prescreened. As for President Obama, he uses a teleprompter as every President did before him but for some reason, the right wing fringe wants him to be unable to use one. When he spoke at a gathering of the Republican Congressional members in March of this year, he spent two hours answering them without a teleprompter. He spoke at length, without ANY difficulty, answering their questions in depth. There's your answer to that accusation. Now, tell me why it was OK for Bush I & II, Reagan, Nixon, Clinton, and all other Presidents to use a teleprompter but it's not OK for President Obama? Or is it that you just have to pick on the most inconsequential items because you're delusional when it comes to President Obama? You, along with Palin, and her followers must thrive on the divisiveness that she has brought on this country, drumming up fear without facts.
Posted 9/1/2010 4:38:46am
by Katie1230
I know that Palin's followers will scream that the above story is all lies but if they actually read it, they will see that there is a trail of bodies left behind by $arah. She can't retain her staff for any extended length of time and then she used her book to try to ruin those that were no longer with her. There is a great amount of vetting that was done on Sarah PRIOR to the Governor's election. It was 63 pages and this is for a woman who was the mayor of a small town for six years and a council person for four years. That, in itself, ought to tell you something. I've read quite a bit of it and almost all of it is NOT anonymous figures speaking about Palin. There are facts that are indisputable. If McCain's camp had actually read this, they would have looked elsewhere. If you read Game Change, you'll see that Palin did not tell them Bristol was pregnant, she waited until after McCain offered her the position. I gave her the benefit of the doubt until I did my own research, found the vetting report and realized that she put her own ambitions prior to the welfare of her children. She could have easily declined and no one would have thought less of her, in fact, they probably would have admired her for doing so. She took a very trying time in her daughter's life and made it public knowledge knowing full well the media would not ignore it. Also, as the mother of a special needs child, she needed to spend more time with her son, not less. It's all well and good to have a special needs child despite having the ability to abort him, but if you're not going to follow through with providing him with all the attention that he needs from BOTH parents, you certainly don't belong on your self-appointed pedestal. Last, but not least, Sarah. If you're going to be using the services of blue collar workers around the country, remember they work hard for their tips. They depend on them. Open up you tight little fists and share your good fortune with them. After all, you keep saying you're a "real American", just like everyone else. Then act like it! You are NO better than anyone else. You do not have a title any longer and despite saying you didn't need a title, you demand to be addressed by that title that you no longer deserve. You lost that respect when you quit on the people of Alaska. We all know you didn't do it for anyone but for yourself and your bank account, but please stop pretending it was for any other reason. By the time you resigned, the Alaska Fund Trust had more than enough money to pay your legal bills and then some and the state of Alaska did NOT spend millions, instead it was $270k with the majority of it being attributed to the claim you filed against yourself. Your lies about the ethics charges don't hold now that the truth has been told. If the charges were so "frivolous", your wording, and there were so many attorneys and state legal staff working on them, why would you need to concern yourself with them at the time? What were you paying your attorneys for and what was the state staff doing if you and your staff had to deal with these complaints as you said? Somebody is lying and considering your past and your penchant for telling lies, from how the children found out about your V.P. campaign to the clothing purchases to the AFT, that somebody is YOU! By the way, you are no North star, your ego is overwhelming!
Posted 9/1/2010 4:30:17am
by Katie1230
If this woman ever implodes on herself and people can talk without fear, I'm sure the above is only the tip of the iceberg. It is fun to watch her being interviewed by friendly right wing Bill O'Rielly. He seems to be suppressing great contempt towards her in his interviews. I'm surprised that this 8 page piece doesn't address legitimate questions surrounding the birth of Trig. Dated photos taken of Sarah Palin 3 weeks before the birth of Trig show her with absolutely flat abs. Any woman will show at 3-4 months when pregnant with a fifth child. I'm not saying that I know the answer but apparently the questions cannot and will not be asked. Faking a pregnancy is an absurd thing to do and to try to pull it off would be too bold. However it is something Sarah Palin is capable of doing.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:34:45am
by brbr2424
MEC, thx for reading my comment. Palin can prove me wrong tomorrow by going for an interview on CNN or CBS or NBC or ABC... don't hold your breath :-)
Posted 9/1/2010 3:24:27am
by aeshaw
"NPD well described the author of this piece and the commenter above. It's more like PDS...Palin Deranged Syndrome. This piece is full of lies and Vanity Fair should be embarrassed by it. It's sad to see what this magazine has resorted to." Welcome Rebecca Mansour or other Palinbot. Thank you for providing a great illustration of a Palin fan, unreachable by facts or logic. This fine piece has interesting new revelations about the unstable Ms. Palin. Not only will Palin supporters not be deterred by this article, they will be resolute.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:16:48am
by brbr2424
Sarah Palin is an idiot. President Obama would beat her easily in 2012. My family and I are going to vote for her in our GOP open primary so that our President Obama would crush her easily by a landslide in 2012. Let's us all make sure that the idiot will be the GOP nominee. Obama vs Palin 2012 = Johnson vs Goldwater 1964…..Yes We Can.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:12:55am
by tmbodok
Interesting article, but not too much that I had not already gleaned reading Palin- Watch blogs. IM has mentioned repeatedly that Palin has some frightening emotional problems that she terrorizes her family with. Sad really. Her whole family sounds like the walking wounded. But like most victims of long term emotional abuse by someone with a personality disorder--they soldier through and don't see the real damage done to them. But I don't feel badly for Sarah Palin---just the American people who are affronted by the crazy everyday. Cue her flying vitriolic monkeys to descend on this site to defend their queen.
Posted 9/1/2010 3:12:41am
by MarthaCZ
Conservatives4Palin, mentioned in the article as Palin's "crazy central" site, is nominated for "Worst Blog" at the Blogger's Choice Awards site. To help vote them into infamy here http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/categories/2 Palingates deserves "Best Political Blog" and is close to winning. They could use your help too http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/categories/19
Posted 9/1/2010 3:09:36am
by QuietType
The thing to bear in mind is that, contrary to what she and her supporters imagine, they are not "everyone". What's been the cumulative effect of the Tea Party? To push even vaguely moderate republicans to the left. Enjoy the woman while she's around; it's entertainment. But worry about her? These folks aren't going to create jobs. They aren't going to get rid of Obama (and that's their job plan, folks). Sadly, these folks are just a fact of life and there's not much to do for them but to wait for them to burn out under their own power. Don't worry about how unhappy they are, whatever you do, though. There isn't actually anything that WILL make them happy. And as we've learned, there's even less point in trying.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:51:36am
by MaxBell
@ aeshaw....lol..I guess you're suffering from NPD too! No, Sarah's interviews are not scripted. And no...Rove and the Rightwing operatives are not feeding her lines. The guy who currently occupies the White House is the one who cannot separate himself for his teleprompter binky. Sorry, you assertions are sooooo deranged.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:48:32am
by MEC1
Sarah Palin will never have an unscripted interview again. FOXNews is as scripted and orchestrated as Opera. When you hear her use grouptested terms (death panel, lame stream media, ground 0 mosque) or terms she has no idea about (like "Orwell"), you know the rightwing operatives, Rove and Co., have fed her that line.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:42:19am
by aeshaw
NPD well described the author of this piece and the commenter above. It's more like PDS...Palin Deranged Syndrome. This piece is full of lies and Vanity Fair should be embarrassed by it. It's sad to see what this magazine has resorted to.
Posted 9/1/2010 2:35:41am
by MEC1
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)is a very likely candidate for Ms. Palin's complex personality issues. DSM-IV and DSM-IV TR both list a clear set of diagnostic criteria that include many, if not all, of Ms. Palin's well-documented behaviours. I fear we will have her in our national life for a very long time to come - at least so long as the press continues to be as enamored as they seem now to be. Why don't we just admit that it has come to this sad pass - that America has been met by a candidate whose own disorder matches well with our own as a nation. Spoiled, pretty, vacuous and utterly lacking in intellectual capacity, we, like Ms. Palin, can't see our shortcomings because of our condition.
Posted 9/1/2010 1:23:31am
by TrueAmerican2
 

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