Former Alaskan Governor and last year’s Republican candidate for Vice President,Sarah Palin, is not slipping quietly away as some would have hoped.
This week Palin will consider accepting and rejecting well over the 1,000 invitations she has received for speeches and political appearances both paid and unpaid since she left office in July this year. In fact it was reported in the Atlantic this morning; Palin will be traveling to Hong Kong for her first paid speaking engagement in late September.
More than twenty speakers’ bureaux have been reported as making offers to represent her but the former Governor has decided to sign with the Washington Speakers Bureau which has clients such as former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani who is on course to be the next Governor of New York, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Colin Powell, former British PM Tony Blair, formers Secretaries of State Condi Rice and Madeline Albright and high profile journalists Katie Couric and Bob Woodward to name but a few. The irony being represented by the same firm as Couric should not be lost given the Couric/Palin interview is still being dissected – not one of Palin’s greater moments during the Presidential campaign.
Palin has received more than 950 requests to speak with the paid ones expected to go for six figures a piece. Unpaid speeches will be for various political and charitable causes, including military families, Christian organizations and support groups for families with special needs children. She is uniquely qualified to speak on these matters given her familial circumstances with a young son serving in the military and her youngest born with Down syndrome in just the past year or so. She has strong and firm Christian beliefs which went a long way to solidifying the political and cultural base of the GOP during her candidacy last year.
Both she and another former Governor, Mike Huckabee, of Arkansas, are extremely popular in the Christian community and both have pledged, via their PACs to reach out to more Christian voters and get them to the polls this November. Maybe another parallel is that Huckabee has been given his own show on the high rating Foxs News Channel and has broad crossover appeal – there has been much speculation since her resignation that Palin will be offered a similar opportunity by Roger Ailes, head honcho and veritable genius at FNC.
In addition, over 120 candidates for office have asked her to campaign for them including those running for House, Senate and state legislatures. As to Palin campaigning in the Commonwealth this year; there is nothing set in concrete but, with Virginia being only one of two states with governor’s races, it is worth pondering her resignation remarks indicating she would like to be free to campaign for other candidates..jpg)
Republican candidate for Governor,Bob McDonnell, has not heard from Palin’s aides to set up a specific event but she has made it clear that she plans to spend some time here in Virginia this fall.
Michael Steele, the full time chairman of the Republican Party who does not moonlight as a governor, said in an earlier statement that Palin is “an important and galvanizing voice” in the GOP and will help the party’s gubernatorial candidates this fall in Virginia and New Jersey.
Palin is also, according to her dad, busy writing her book which will no doubt be a best seller amongst hockey moms and thirty-something young men who think she’s ‘smokin’ hot’ as well as her political colleagues on both sides of the aisle and,of course, the insatiable cable news media who cannot get enough of Sarah. As the band The Pretenders sang “It’s a thin line between love and hate.” Maybe that should be ‘it’s a thin line between love and hate (and ratings)”.
Palin’s lawyer, Robert Barnett, has a file well over an inch and a half thick of offers for network and cable pundit gigs, documentaries and other business opportunities.
‘Sarah for 2012’ groups and PACs abound on line and in real life. Say what you want about this woman who came from virtual obscurity despite being the most popular Governor in America to household name in about 24 hours, she is not slipping into obscurity. The Right love her and the Left loathe her. There’s that thin line again. Late night ‘comics’ such as Bill Maher, Letterman et al cannot seem to let go of Palin and that for which she stands. One thing we know is: she stands for something. Her greatest crime is being conservative, female, and highly attractive, holding together by all accounts a wonderful family and going after what she believes in. She took on the corruption in her own party at a very young age and won – that takes guts.
It is too early to see who any front runner will be in 2012 – candidates can (literally) come out of left field and win; we just need to look to 1600 Penn, Ave. today to know that. Romney is out there, Pawlenty also Crist of Florida also, Jindal – all Governors. So, odds are the GOP will nominate someone with executive experience. They would be mad not to – Obama’s community organizing experience got him elected but will it get him re-elected? Doubtful even at this early stage. This is where the lessons learned at the executive level come in to play.
Virginia welcomed Ms. Palin last year with open arms when she campaigned as Senator McCain’s running mate. Even on the Left. I attended a rally in Fairfax Co. in the middle of the afternoon on a school day, it was so hot people were passing out left, right and center both literally and figuratively. Speakers included Fred Thompson, the former senator and presidential primary candidate and Senator John McCain running for the highest elected office on earth but the crowd were there to see one person: Sarah Palin.
Standing under a tree waiting for events to begin I started chatting with some women who were there with obviously school age daughters. I inquired why they were there and they said they wanted their daughters to see that it ‘could be done’ i.e. a woman running at that level. (Obviously these children were not born in time for Ferraro’s run on the Mondale ticket). I asked what a bunch of Republicans like them were doing in Democratic Fairfax Co. – where they lost perhaps?
The answer was an emphatic ‘no. 'We are all Democrats and are voting for Obama but we LOVE Sarah Palin and we want our children to know that women can reach the highest office in the land. Several of those daughters will be of voting age come the next presidential election. I wonder if the electrifying speech given by the then Governor will continue to resonate with these young ladies who were waving the flag and cheering Palin on with their Democratic mothers in tow.
They will not remember John McCain nor Fred Thompson; they will remember Sarah Palin.
Comments
She's just like us. Real Alaskan.
Herpes and all Dean Westlake.
She lends support to us black Alaskans with AIDS
Janelle Everett.
Only in America. We pay idiots to entertain us
Palin Power!
FINALLY- a pro-Palin piece!
Most everything I have read about Sarah today puts her down for accepting speaking engagements and making money.
This from the brain-washed, Socialist lib media.
Free market capitalism, freedom of speech and love of God, Country and Family.
Thank you, Karyn!
Perhaps your article will make the sheeple realize that Sarah and her family have been targets -with tactics straight out of the Alinsky playbook-rules for radicals.
Formerly the Main Stream Media- now the State Controlled Media- did it's best to marginalize, lie, smear and diminish Sarah.
She is a true American and is out of the twisted beltway- and world's away from Chicago, thug tactics.
Palin Power 2012!
You betcha!
www.HowObamaGotElected.com
Sarah will earn millions through public speaking, TV appearances, books, and movie rights to her life story. Megan Fox could play the young Sarah, and perhaps Catherine Zeta Jones the Sarah of today. Whatever, this will be a joyful and exhilirating ride for Sarah fans, so buckle up!
Catherine Zeta-Jones? REALLY? You know you have to have Tina Fey for aan acurate portrayal.
Although I WOULD consider paying $100 to hear her speak, but only is she promises to say "I can see Russia from my house." again. :P
BREAKING NEWS.......
Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee have a gigantic Fan base. Their fan base is expanding at a phenomenal speed. Every state in America, county after county after county of fans....
You've got to check this one out for sure:
>>> Google: Huckabee Fan Club
Over 1,000 invitations to speak, and campaign. Hmmm.... didn't these folks get the Axelrod memo that Palin is "unpopular, unimportant, and finished?" This story will undoubtedly drive the Palin Derangement Syndrome sufferers wild. They'll whip out their crayons, and start scribbling their latest unhinged rant on paper drenched in drool and flecked with foam.
If Palin can cause major headaches by posting her opinions on Facebook, just think of the headaches she'll cause as she travels the country making speeches.
Axelrod must regret that he didn't call off his dogs after the election was over. If he had, Sarah Palin would be quite isolated up there in Alaska being governor.
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