Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Predicting the News Coverage--Sarah Palin's Presidential Announcement


What’s going on now

The former governor-turned-media darling-turned-attention whore has done every single thing that someone who is running for president would do while finding a way to get upset that people are asking her whether or not she’s running for president. Basically she’s like a girl at a bar who gets drunk, lets you take her home, takes off her clothes and throws you a condom then gets mad that you have the audacity to assume that you’re going to have sex.

Her newest adventure includes attending events in Iowa and New Hampshire next week. You know, because she really digs corn and whatever New Hampshire is famous for. It has nothing to do with the fact that those are the first two primary states and that no Republican has ever won the nomination without winning at least one of them.

It seems pretty likely that she will announce in the next week or so. The only thing that I think would keep her from running would be if internal polls show that she is even further behind than the national polls are showing right now—tied for a distant third. I’m sure she’s nervous that running and losing (Especially if she gets trounced) would be a huge hit to her credibility, but I think that there is no way she can keep up her current status as a leader in the conservative movement for another four years (Or eight if a Republican beats Obama).

I’m saying she’s going to run.


What will happen the day she announces

I don’t know when or where she will announce, but I know that Wolf Blitzer will announce it for CNN. It just seems like the breaking news will come out of his mouth. I can just feel it.

“After a television show, a mystery bus tour around the nation’s most historic locations, and almost three years of speculation, Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and Tea Party darling, is running for president.”

It feels right, doesn’t it?

That day, every news channel will run five-minute biographies on a constant loop detailing all over her triumphs and gaffs and using a lot of still images of her waving to a crowd. If you watch the news for one hour you will hear her “Hockey mom/Pitbull” line from the 2004 GOP convention at least seven times.

The announcement itself will involve a lot of talk about how we need to reign in government spending and take a bunch of potshots at the “lamestream media” for not keeping a better eye on Obama and his crazy “spend money on infrastructure so that things keep working” ways. She will immediately tweet something about how she hates that the media is only covering her gaffs and not focusing on the real issue—that Obama is dangerous to this country and must be stopped. Then she’ll make a shotgun reference and use a winking emoticon.


One week after the announcement

After a couple days she will sit down with Sean Hannity and do a one-on-one interview that will be edited to make look like she knew the names of all the world leaders we have good relationships with and which country they represent.

CNN and MSNBC will have to hire a special reporter just to cover Palin and beg her six times a day if she’ll do an interview on their network. She will deflect the question when on camera and pass it off to her press secretary who will chide the news networks for crowding the governor and only allow an interview if the questions can be pre-screened. Rather than talk about how ridiculous that is, the news organizations will simply say that this “adds to the Palin mystique” and then go on covering her like she’s a legit candidate.


One month after the announcement

Palin will eventually have to go to a debate and try to explain why she is better than the rest of the candidates. Anytime one of the other candidates attacks her, she will invoke Ronald Reagan and say that we shouldn’t be trying to trash each other. I don’t think it will happen, but this is where Ron Paul should say “I knew Ron Regan, I was friends with Ron Regan, and Governor Palin, you’re no Ron Reagan.” If he did, it would start a war among the craziest fan bases and would present another opportunity for the media to spend 48 hours talking about Ron Paul being relevant.

What is more likely is that they will talk about how exposed Palin looked on stage. How she ducked too many questions and couldn’t seem to handle the pressure of the big stage. She will immediately fire back that she took the high road and that she stood by her principles not to bash other republican candidates in a primary because in the end the most important thing is that someone defeats Obama.

She will then go on the attack against the other republican candidates.


Six months after announcing

Sarah’s campaign is running on fumes at this point. After coming in second to Rick Perry in the Iowa Caucuses, she gets absolutely demolished in New Hampshire by Perry and Romney. After trying to tack right for much of the primaries, Romney sticks goes back to his more moderate roots and offers himself as the one candidate who can actually beat Obama and responds to everything that Perry and Palin say by just rolling his eyes and saying “you have GOT to be kidding me. We tried this with George Bush, that didn’t work. We can be conservatives without just bringing the same failed policies out and presenting them as new ideas.”

Palin immediately jumps on him, calling him a fake republican and tweets “wat wud u expect from a Massachusetts elitist? We need REAL conservatives now.”

She gets a little bit of traction when Michelle Bachman finally bows out of the race but after coming in second to Perry in South Carolina it becomes clear that she’s cooked. Before getting to the Florida primaries, she pens an essay on her Facebook account about how much she loves this country and how terrible it is that the media won’t give a woman a fair shake to become president. She brings up Hillary losing in 2004. Interviews with the Secretary of State mostly just involve her trying to hold back laughter when being compared to Palin.

Every newscast has a “Is Sarah Palin getting ready to drop out of the race” lead and Sarah figures out a way to do the same thing with quitting her race for the White House as she did with starting it. She starts cutting staff members, talking about how important it is that someone defeats Obama and that she wants to do what’s best for the party. When reporters follow up by asking if that means she’s quitting, she immediately gets upset and says that she is in this race to win it and that she wouldn’t be running if she didn’t think she had a good chance to win.

Then she will quit.


One year after her announcement

With Rick Perry as the nominee, it becomes clear that they can’t have two crazies on the ticket and she is passed over as a nominee for VP. She goes back to her job at Fox News and begins making moves to try to take over for Mike Huckabee after he is forced to retire due to having a heart attack after putting all the weight back on.

Two months before Election Day, “One Nation Under God, with Sarah Palin” airs on Fox News as a Friday night talk show, and we’re pretty much right back where we started.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

2012: Armageddon Doesn't Sound So Bad

With just a mere 17 months until Election day 2012, the GOP Presidential nominees have already had one debate and are starting to jockey for position to take on President Obama. So who are these candidates and what are their chances?


Mitt Romney

The former businessman, Massachusetts governor and Old Navy display mannequin is banking on the idea that the economy is going to continue to be in the tank between now and election day. He has experience running for president, which is good for some reason.

How he could win:
Unemployment continues to stay close to 10%, the housing market falls into a double dip recession and Dow plunges back under 10,000, freaking out the GOP primary voters enough to hold their nose and vote for a Mormon. Once in the general election, he plays up his moderate side to win over independent voters in Ohio, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina and beats Obama.

How he could lose:
Gay marriage becomes law in New York and new provisions of Obamacare come into effect and rest of the GOP candidates successfully turn him simply link him to Obama and he becomes “just another Massachusetts liberal” before the first primary vote.


Sarah Palin

She hasn’t said whether or not she’s running, but that’s mostly because she hasn’t figured out a way to turn her campaign into a reality show called “Running with Sarah.”

How she could win:
She is a full-fledged superstar in the GOP and especially the within the Tea Party and among people who aren’t really sure what happened in history but like it when people pretend like they do. Polls show that the voters are dissatisfied with the current field, so she could show up fashionably late to the party and pick up a bunch of undecided votes before they realize she actually has to have three head-to-head debates with Obama.

How she could lose:
If you don’t love Palin, you hate her. She’s like vegemite that talks about things it doesn’t understand and then quits halfway through its term. She also is making about $650 billion a day right now, so there’s a good chance she just won’t run since it probably will only hurt her ability to make money and be an outsider who just makes comments.


Newt Gingrich

The former Speaker and current talking head is still technically in this race despite losing most of his top advisors and fundraisers just a couple weeks into his campaign.

How he could win:
It would have to be a Marshall Football team situation with all of the GOP candidates and then on Election Day eve we would have to find out Obama is actually from Kenya.

How he could lose:
He would take a two week vacation right after starting his campaign, pissing off his staffers and causing most of them to quit and eventually leading to a mass exodus of fundraisers. (I’m sorry, I couldn’t think up anything better than what he already did)


Rick Santorum

The former Senator from Pennsylvania and anti man-on-dog marriage enthusiast has gotten bored doing whatever it is that he’s doing and wants to get back into politics.

How he could win:
Gay marriage passes in New York and then is brought up in other states making in the number one issue. As the far right investigates the gay agenda they discover that it was actually the homosexuals who were behind 9/11. Santorum puts Ron Paul on his ticket to get religious nuts and fiscal nuts out to the polls they win every state except California and Massachusetts.

How he could lose:
As long as sometime between now and 2012 we don’t start referring to “The Gays” the way they refer to the aliens on “Falling Skies,” he’s going to lose.


Tim Pawlenty

The former Minnesota Governor is best known for, um, for, uh, his name coming up a lot during the Al Franken senate recount in 2008.

How he could win:
Imagine if you will: Your average GOP primary voter walks into the booth and stares at his options. He fears that Bachman, Paul and Santorum are too crazy to win in a general election and Romney is too liberal (And too Mormon-y). And he’s no racist, but he can’t bring himself to vote for Herman Cain because the idea of having the presidency come down to TWO black guys just doesn’t sit right with him. Maybe he should just not vote for anyone and walk out of the voting booth. But wait, what’s this? Tim Pawlenty? Sounds like just the kind of not-crazy-not-Mormon-not-black kind of candidate he’s looking for.

How he could lose:
Has anyone been watching politics over the last couple of years? The GOP voters are not looking for boring right now. He’d do great in 1992, though.


Michele Bachmann

The founder of the Tea Party Caucus in congress, Bachmann has made the national debt the number one issue since 2009. It’s probably in her “interests” section in her Facebook profile.

How she could win:
We would have to find out that the national debt is much worse than we thought. I don’t mean that the number is higher; I mean that national debt has sex slaves, a stash of child pornography and sold nuclear secrets to Iran.

How she could lose:
Just keep showing up to debates.


Herman Cain

The pizza chain CEO and Tea Party activist is known for being anti-healthcare reform, anti-Sharia law, and an example for Tea Party activists to use to prove they aren’t racist.

How he could win:
He has plenty of conservative credentials and no actual political experience, which if you have been following a long the last few years is a good thing now. He’s a pretty good speaker, charismatic and black. He’s everything the right hates about Obama except the political views, and they just might vote for him.

How he could lose:
Instead of talking about jobs he’s talking about Sharia law and making bills less than three pages long. Oh, and I’m not saying his skin told will hold him back, but I think there could be some racist people voting and there are white guys on the ticket, so we’ll see how that goes for him.

Ron Paul

So adorable.

How he could win:
HAHAHAHAHAHA

How he could lose:
See: 1988, 2008.