"What Sarah Palin meant" (political obituary at WP)

[applegrove]

What Sarah Palin meant

Posted by Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/01/28/what-sarah-palin-meant/?tid=ts_carousel

"SNIP.............................................

Palin, in short, began to believe everything that her most ardent supporters thought about her. (It’s dangerous for any politician to believe what your biggest fan thinks of you; you need to appeal to voters who are not your biggest fans, and even to some of your enemies, to win elections.)

She became bigger than politics — in her own mind — and began to focus much more on the celebrity side of her persona (the various reality shows, her daughter, Bristol, on “Dancing with the Stars”) than on the political end. Stories of her refusing to confirm or canceling her involvement in party events became legion. Eventually, GOP fundraisers stopped asking Palin to be involved because the bang they got from her name being on an invite didn’t make up for the chaos she and her entourage guaranteed.

The net effect was that Palin’s support got deeper — those people who loved Palin wound up loving her even more — but it also narrowed significantly. She became the nichest of niche politicians — someone whose support was a mile deep and an inch wide.

And so, by the time she had to make up her mind about whether to run for president in 2012, the decision was, in many ways, already made for her. Had she run, she would have been a sideshow, not a central player. She seemed to sense that and stayed out.


..............................................SNIP"

[mokawanis]

1. She focused more on being a celebrity

and raking in the cash. I always believed that after she and grumpy lost the election she just decided to make a ton of money. She may have wanted to be VP but I doubt if she ever really wanted to be president. She knows she's not up to the task. She couldn't even finish her term in Alaska.

[MotherPetrie]

2. Once again, Chris Cillizza proves to be the hackiest of "writers"