Sarah Palin’s political bandwagon is wobbling under the weight of contradictions

That, my friends, was the banner headline that greeted me as I perused my Daily Telegraph the other morning while spreading the marmalade upon my third slice of toast.

The knife slipped from my hand in terror. The toast lay recumbent and uneaten on the plate. My tea began to cool in the mug as no hand reached out to drink it.

Frightening thoughts raced through my head. Had Sullivan finally persuaded the Surgeon General to order a full scale investigation into Trig’s birth, all costs to be drawn from President Obama’s overdraft at the Bank of China?  Were there rumours that Sarah Palin was about to endorse Harry Reid in return for a bulk order for her new book from Searchlight Library? Had R A Mansour been spotted having lunch with David Frum and Geoffrey Dunn in the Washington Post restaurant?

But then I saw the byline and the tension drained out of my shoulders. No need to worry – the piece had been written by resident Telegraph hack Alex Spillius as Part XXVI of the long running saga authored jointly with Toby Harnden “The Political Extinction and Increasing Irrelevancy of Sarah Palin 2008 2009 2010….” otherwise known as “What we manage to pick up at Beltway Dinner Parties to fill a few empty lines in The Daily Telegraph”

In other words to describe it as fish wrap would be an insult to cod – it was more something handy to parcel up your used cat litter.

The basic premise – “imminent Palin car crash” – was standard recycled NYT/WaPo drivel and it’s the only picture of Sarah Palin that we in the UK ever get because, of course, most of the Brit correspondents rarely leave the NY/DC Corridor to find out for themselves what is going on. It’s loosely written, poorly researched and relies more in wishful thinking than solid facts.

As R S McCain would undoubtedly tell you – the sound that you hear is Hunter S. Thompson turning in his grave.

Sarah Palin’s political bandwagon is wobbling under the weight of contradictions

The Sarah Palin phenomenon is finally beginning to fade as contradictions mount up, says Alex Spillius in Washington

Now, as Sgt Joe Friday would say in Dragnet – “All we want are the facts….”

Well, says Spillius, it’s the Carly Fiorina endorsement that’s finally loosened the wheels

The suspicion is that Palin either didn’t do her homework on Fiorina – who favours a “cap and trade” energy reform bill and is considered insufficiently robust against abortion – or is indulging in old fashioned, Washington-style back-scratching.

(Actually, Alex, the suspicion is that it’s you who didn’t do your homework on Fiorina re cap and trade…all you had to do was to access her website to discover her position – and if she is considered insufficiently robust against abortion why has she been endorsed by the National Right To Life Committee, The California Pro Life Council and Susan B. Anthony’s List? All you had to do was a little homework there, Alex – after all that’s why the Daily Telegraph sends you those regular cheques….)

Apparently the Fiorina endorsement has caused uproar amongst her Facebook followers

Dissent is most evident among Palin’s 1.5 million Facebook friends, who have revolted against her decision to endorse Carly Fiorina, the controversial former Hewlett Packard executive, in a California Republican senate primary over the Tea Party favourite, Chuck DeVore.

Hey Alex – you are so right on the button with that one. She now has only 1,555,482 Facebook friends. Now that’s what I call a mass desertion. Or perhaps arithmetic isn’t a Spillius strong point otherwise he might have come to the same conclusion as CK MacLeod

Chuck DeVore is a solid conservative, very well-qualified to be senator or to hold other important offices or positions, but he doesn’t seem to have a prayer of both overtaking Carly Fiorina and defeating Tom Campbell in the June 8 Republican senate primary.  He should drop out and, following Sarah Palin’s lead, endorse Fiorina for the good of the conservative movement, the state, and the nation.

For hacks like Spillius Governor Palin is damned whatever she does. If she had endorsed DeVore he would have characterised her as a dim-witted small town hick playing to her right wing redneck base, while, endorsing Fiorina, she is clearly “indulging in old fashioned, Washington-style back-scratching.”

As an honest and unbiased journalist, of course, Spillius must have written about her other wide ranging endorsements but, unfortunately, the DT sub editors cut them out…..whoops..that flying pig just missed my chimney….

From where is Spillius getting his information? He doesn’t say, of course, but there are one or two clues that can be picked up from this particular dumpster. Take this

It is not just that they have doubts about a would-be president who wants all her questions pre-screened, who needs to scribble her talking points on her palm and whose favourite modes of communication are those of a 15-year-old, namely Twitter and Facebook.

Or this

She attacked “big government” healthcare reform but accepts free care for her grandson, an entitlement received only because her husband Todd is one quarter native Alaskan.

Smell Huffington? Smell Shannyn Moore? (Yes, that Shannyn Moore, who is being pressed by Alaskans to stand for US Senate according to the ultra reliable and even handed Philip Munger) The Tripp healthcare story, which came out of Bristol’s court deposition for the custody hearing was only bigged up through Moore via HuffPo – it didn’t have much traction in the MSM. It would appear, therefore, that Spillius saved a lot of shoe leather by bottom feeding with Huffington – hardly the mark of the quality journalism with which the Telegraph claims it fills its pages.

All in all this shoddy palisade of piffle constructed by Spillius is a feeble attempt to reconcile the two recurring memes of contemporary anti Palin reportage.  The original “Palin is an ignorant airhead” message (scribbles on palm, uses Twitter etc) and the more recent “Hypocrite Palin is only in it for the money” approach (sells lots of books, endorses big business candidate etc)

What Spillius and his informants seem unable to grasp is that the sharp operator meme just fails to lock up with the concept of the ignorant airhead.

But then when was Alex Spillius ever concerned with the truth as far as Sarah Palin is concerned. He could, with a little leg work, have written an interesting analysis of all her endorsements including the controversies following her decisions in Kentucky and California. He could have interviewed some of those candidates. He could even have requested an interview with Governor Palin herself.

But maybe such an approach was beyond his paygrade – that would have been a proper piece of journalism…………….