Is Sarah Palin Porn? (Harper's)

Is Sarah Palin porn?
By Jack Hitt

Jack Hitt is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of the forthcoming book Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character (Crown).

Politics is high school with guns and more money.
—Frank Zappa

The ascension of Sarah Palin beyond the realm of mortal politician occurred sometime after her clumsy resignation as governor of Alaska and before the revelation that a recent speaking contract read like outtakes from This Is Spinal Tap, peevishly demanding that if a private jet is available then the “aircraft MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger (as defined by interior cabin space) for West Coast Events,” that if cameras are allowed then “the number of clicks as appropriate for length of photo op: 45 min/75 clicks; 60 min/100 clicks and 90 min/125 clicks,” and that onstage “Unopened bottled still water (2 bottles) and bendable straws are to be placed in or near the wooden lectern.” What, no bowls of green M&Ms?

To the Beltway huzzah of cable shows and newspaper columns, Palin is still understood as someone who might run for president. But she is a surging media phenom whose income since July 2009 is estimated at more than $12 million. Those political followers who dog her with their psychosexually fraught signs (palin = g. w. bush with lipstick; enter palin, exit obama) are now stage props about as crucial as that small crowd of audience members who awkwardly high-five Jay Leno at the beginning of each show. She no longer has supporters; she has a mass audience for whom she is a soap opera, a Horatio Alger story, trailer trash, a goddess, a lad-mag fantasy, and a glamorous star all in one. To say that Sarah Palin is a politician mistakes a splashy debut for the breathless melodrama that now constantly engulfs her. It’s like saying that Paris Hilton is a hotel heiress or that Jon Gosselin is a husband.

The marriage of politics and entertainment has long been the Republican Party’s greatest asset, but Palin’s rise is different and has changed the old rules. Her climb to celebrity is through politics (not the other way around, as it was for Ronald Reagan and Sonny Bono). She is living proof of David Frum’s recent heretical observation that “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox.” And her achievement goes a long way toward explaining why the Democrats can’t (and won’t) gain political traction even with a popular president, an easily blamed predecessor, and the control of both chambers of Congress.

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I'm not one of them though. Yes, I will admit that she is attractive. However if you did deeper there's some mighty unappealing beliefs and ideas that pretty much cancel out any surface beauty that she possesses.

The Democrats are fighting a shamelessly right-wing media, a shamelessly obstructionist opposition party, and their own tendency toward mediocrity and spinelessness. However, it is pretty bizarre to say they "can't and won't gain political traction" because of Caribou Barbie.

Plucked from obscurity by a sloppy Republican Party, Palin is a Cinderella story for losers. She is a political reality show whose ratings are artificially pumped up be the media for her small and (dare I say it) insignificant fan club.

Palin is a bad joke that won't go away. Even the GOP is getting sick of her.

Is belied by recent election results and candidates like Rand won't give the Cons any traction.

but then again I'm not a guy..

say that most men can spot a woman who wants you to believe that she is "ready for action". Gov. Palin, to me, has that kind of a look. Not that she is actually "ready for action". Its her show business "act" even though there is never any overt sexual content in her public appearances. She, herself, may well be oblivious to the kind of vibes she projects.