A post at Fox News

[fpb]

I can't imagine what Sarah Palin thinks she's doing. If she is running for President, which I thought was certainly the case thus far, then I cannot see this as anything but a step backward; and not only because Fox News is a highly divisive outlet, but above all because I cannot remember a single case of a political commentator or journalist ever having a serious career as a politician. That is, I can think of one case, who was a professional journalist for many years, and that is not a good precedent. He was called Benito Mussolini.

Comments

[dustthouart.livejournal.com]

Al Franken and Mussolini. If Sarah Palin joins that pair, that would be really funny.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

Palin said: "I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News. It's wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news."

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

From watching Greta Van Susteren's show recently, the only difference in having Sarah Palin join the network as a pundit, is that she will be paid for her contributions. It has become very much the Sarah Palin show.

Having her on Fox news will make her appear much more 'middle of the road and noderate' than she is currently perceived to be.

Beside Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck anyone would appear moderate.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The trouble is that, even assuming she is still running, the only people who'll be watching her are those who are going to vote for her already. But at any rate, it is one thing to be a politician, and another to be a pundit. Walter Lipmann did not follow FD Roosevelt. Rush Limbaugh did not try to take over from the Bushes. There seems to me to be an inevitable difference in value and respect. And I hope she has enough to say; it's not easy for anyone to be lively and interesting once a week.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Van Susteren, it might be wishing for too much but maybe this will mark the end of Palin's association with Scientology.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

I did wonder why her husband, a lifelong and apparantly committed Democrat had become so close to Palin. I wonder do they see her as a recruit, if not to Scientology then at least to the crusade against psychology and other sciences of the mind.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That is the worst thing I ever heard about her. Creationism is not even in the same league.

[sun-stealer.livejournal.com]

Her husband is a scilon?

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Both Greta Van Susteren and her husband John Coale are Scientologists; the two of them have become especially close with the Palins. Palin seems to regard Mr. Coale as a trusted friend and advisor.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

To regard a Scientologist as a trusted friend and adviser is like giving your money to Bernie Madoff, except that your feelings and even personality can suffer equally. And it leaves me astonished that the Palins could have reached middle age without getting to hear an earful about the horrors of the "church" in question. Even those who, unlike me, have not seen in person what it can do to a man, must have read the horror stories in the newspapers - all true - and met people who know about it. It seems that even John Travolta has finally seen through them, so there is no excuse for anyone who does not.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Well, Coale is also a family friend of the Clintons (mentioned here for example), and I believe he also hangs out with the Pelosis. He's a significant force in the US Democratic Party.

I guess the main difference is in the degree of focused attention which he and his wife have been lavishing on Palin for the past few years, and that Coale crossed party lines to do it.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

(For the record, I agree with your assessment of Scientology.)

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

I have been wondering if Fox news, or elements within it, are close to abandoning the Republican party. And I have wondered the same about Sarah Palin.

Beck and Hannity, in particular, are no longer mainstream Republicans and the 'Tea Party' movement, which Fox has really been pushing, has all the hallmarks of a new political party.

Palin may prefer to be the big (only) voice in a minority party than one of many voices within a larger one. I get the feeling that the compromise required to lead a party like the Republicans, which is almost as broad a church as the Democrats, does not seem to me something Palin would be open to.

The tea party movement reminds me a little of the early days of the DUP, all it would take to turn the teaparty movement into a small, but significent party would be a charismatic leader. Palin fits that bill. Add a TV network and you have the start of something. Something that could grow quickly.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That has been discussed in conservative ranks for months if not years. Most conservatives are sick to death of the heartless and contemptous way with which they are treated by the Republican elite. But I doubt they will leave. Look, rather, for a massive effort to impose new candidates wherever possible and to pack local and grassroots Republican organizations with True Believers. The Web is extraordinarily good for that kind of organized push, as the Democrats have already found out.

P.S.: there is some sort of law of the Medes and Persians whereby so-called conservative parties harvest the Christian vote only to treat it with unmitigated contempt, in the certainty that it cannot really go to their left allies. It is so with Mr.Cameron, so with Karl Rove's Republicans, so with the so-called Christian Democrats of Germany and Holland, and so with Mr.Berlusconi's alliance. A hard-faced rebellion against being used and abused might be no bad thing.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

I do not think she is running for president. Talk show host might fit her quite well though.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, I posted at least twice on my belief that she was. Anyway, if she was, I think this will end it - not necessarily at one go, but cumulatively.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I think she might have been thinking of it at one time, but I don't think she is now. This is based partially on a long conversation with my friends from Alaska, who have a rather different view of her from what I had seen.

She does have a lot on her plate, with her large family and grandchild. Were I here, I would be looking at entering politics again ten or fifteen years from now, when her life is a bit simpler.

[marielapin.livejournal.com]

This was what I have been thinking. Why the rush? She has enough on her plate caring for her family and protecting them from all the fallout of the first election. A run for the presidency would put her family into even more tabloid hell scrutiny. She still has young children.

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

Right. She could run in 2020 or even 2024 and still be relatively youthful for a presidential candidate.

[sanscouronne.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's really not a bad option. The money is good, you have much more freedom, and arguably more career longevity.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

I watched Sarah Palin on the Glenn Beck show last night. A man who my father described as a little right-wing.... My father! Who reads the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday and is as Tory as Tory can be.

Even more convinced that this may be the start of a new right-wing group pushed by Fox News. You may be right Fabio, that it will be achieved through a takeover of the Republican party, or it may be a new party. Whatever happens the program last night was not in any way a new program.

It was polemic from start to finish.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

So this is Rupert Murdoch's latest political partnership. He built himself up with Margaret Thatcher, kept going with Tony Blair, and now he is out to buy an American party. You think we ought to warn the Americans? Mind you, if the bizarre mixture of Family Guy, pornographic reality shows, and the hysterical politics of Glenn Beck aren't enough to warn them, I doubt you or I could.

[(Anonymous)]

Mussolini was also a school teacher, or am I thinking of Salazaar, by that logic teachers should never run for president.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Did Salazar ever "run" for president? At any rate, I've never known it to happen in America.

[sun-stealer.livejournal.com]

"That is, I can think of one case, who was a professional journalist for many years, and that is not a good precedent. He was called Benito Mussolini."

Mussolini was also a school teacher, or am I thinking of Salazaar. I suppose any teacher running for office should rethink it before they launch themselves down the inevitable road to evil.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

There are enough opportunities for tyranny, bootlicking, immoral careerism and arrogant imposition of one's own politics in the teaching profession. Why would a teacher ever want to become a politician?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Mussolini was a journalist for decades, and his fondness for the job was such that he insisted on remaining editor and chief editorials writer of the newspaper he had founded, Il Popolo d'Italia, until long after he had become dictator. Journalism, especially punditry, was his "real life" outside politics, and he was widely regarded as being quite good at it. As for Salazar, he taught Economics at Portugal's top university, Coimbra, which is hardly schoolmastering, and entered the dictatorial government which he eventually mastered as what we would call a technocrat, minister of finance. Like Mussolini with journalism, he kept this post until long after he had become dictator, and clearly found more interest in it than in most of the rest of government. Neither of them is particularly concerned with schoolmastering.