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John Ziegler: Palin’s resignation only demonstrates her selflessness
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Life is gonna get a lot easier for everybody, now that quitting is the new successful.
While most of the world – Republicans and Democrats alike – are watching Palin’s crash to earth with combinations of amazement, glee and dismay, on Monday night, I was subjected to an unhinged John Ziegler -- forever champion of Sarah Palin, radio talk show host and producer of the Sarah Palin documentary (or, the Palin Lovefest), who appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to attempt to right all of Palin’s wrongs and put the proper spin on her political career’s death knell. In case you don’t know Ziegler, he’s a little . . . crazed when it comes to his fair Sarah.
While even many Republicans and Palin fans (such as Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer) are now bluntly assessing Palin to be driving a stake into the heart of her political career, Ziegler, in his rabidly pro-Palin fashion, worked hard to turn all of her negatives into positives. In essence, according to Ziegler, it’s perfectly okay to quit something in the middle if you’re doing a really rotten job of it and are gonna screw it up anyway. It’s, like, a qualification. Work a little harder? Spend a little more time? Dig your heels in and tough it out? Pish posh. Just quit. It’s noble.
Now, cynics might say Palin quit because she wasn’t the Alaska darling any more, or maybe she saw the mother of all ethics violations heading her way, or she figured, why waste time as Governor when I want to be President, or she just wanted to chase the almighty buck with book deals and speeches. But, according to Ziegler, Palin isn’t doing this whole quitting thing for money, or to be President. It’s just that she has a history of quitting stuff. Whenever the job gets too tough, or maybe when she sees a brighter star on the horizon, she quits. Changing horses in the middle of the parade, bailing on the Alaskans who voted her in for four years, is a selfless, courageous and noble act – just ask Ziegler. (Like the multiple colleges she quit before finally graduating - she didn’t like the weather in one instance, so can we just call it an act of God?)
When O’Reilly pointed out that Palin will make “millions and millions of dollars” in the private sector, Ziegler said, “I don’t know if she’s gonna make millions of dollars or not – she deserves to make whatever she can get. Probably so, Bill, but that was not her motivation, and I can prove this with a couple things. This is not the first time she’s done this, Bill! Most of the media doesn’t understand and has not reported that she set up her run for Governor by resigning from the Oil and Gas Commission in Alaska because she could not do her job. This is her MO, she puts the public good above her own short-term political goals . . . .” (Emphasis mine). Oh my God, we’ve finally found something Palin has consistently done well – quitting stuff. So, according to Ziegler, it can’t be about money – ‘cause she’s been totally unreliable and a failure in the past! Just look at her record of quitting stuff! It’s impeccable! That’s how we know she’s being totally selfless -- it’s just what she does. (So, if size 4 is the new 6, is quitting the new successful?)
Ziegler went on to say, “First of all, people need proper context for this decision, there’s so much media misinformation it’s astonishing . . . par for the course when it comes to Governor Palin. The reality is that this decision has been in the works for a very long time . . . and what is transpiring here is that the . . . media is not providing the proper context for just how difficult her job has become, how impossible it has been for her to do simple tasks, how much money it has cost the State of Alaska, how much money it has cost her, how much it has put her family through unprecedented attacks – I would ask each of your viewers to think for themselves, what would you do if you were under those circumstances . . . .” Gosh, it’s so simple when you just use the passive voice. “It” has cost Alaska. “It” has cost her. “It” has put her family through “unprecedented attacks.” Palin’s half-hearted job performance and laughable communication skills and and lack of commitment to her job and plummeting popularity and petty vindictiveness with comedians and bloggers had nothing to do with it. It was “It.”
And what’s this “in the works for a very long time?” It was just eight months ago that she lost the election. Is eight months a very long time ago? It sounds almost like . . . well, she decided right then and there to quit governing -- or maybe before. You know, as a selfless act for the people of Alaska -- even before she started really screwing up.
O’Reilly likened Palin’s situation to his own, noting that, “I’ve been smeared every day for the past 13 years . . . I know what she’s going through. I didn’t walk away, because I feel . . . that what I do here is important, that it helps people, that it’s necessary and it’s part of my job to take the garbage . . . Governor Palin also is in a position where she can do a lot of good for the people of Alaska, who put their confidence in her and elected her for four years, not two and a half. So to me, I would say, why didn’t she tough it out?”
Ziegler argued that O’Reilly is still capable of “doing [his] job and doing it very well,” implying that Palin, on the other hand, is incapable of doing her job or doing it well. What Ziegler didn’t explain is how this absolves her of the tag of “failure,” or demonstrates her worth.
“You are in control of your own destiny,” argued Ziegler, “You have control over the content of your show, she was not in control of her own destiny, it was costing the State a lot of money. You’re making money for Fox News Channel . . . It was costing her a lot of money . . . your family has not been under the attacks that Governor Palin’s family has been under that have been unprecedented and have been well-documented, including in my film . . . the situations are apples and oranges and this is not a cowardly decision, this is a courageous decision . . . it was made for the very reasons she said they were made for, because she cares more the State and her family than her own short-term political . . . it was an act of courage.” Just look at her – she recognized herself as the failure she was, and quit as a charitable gesture to Alaskans. This doesn’t make her unreliable and erratic – it makes her selfless and courageous!
Ziegler concluded vehemently, “I do not believe that this is a setup for 2012, in fact I know it was not. She wants to spread her message, she wants to do the right thing, and she wants to fight for Americans, she will continue to do so and the fact that the pundits are against her show how right she really is.”
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