Rachel Maddow is the superstar of the MSNBC stable and hero of the liberal Democratic base, called the smartest and best talk show host on television..



So what did she do Friday night in the segment about the Palin e-mails?  She highlighted an e-mail sent to Palin by someone else to which Palin did not respond, using the phrase "bring beef, tequila and condoms," and kept that phrase the screen for the entire 11 minute segment.



Real mature Rachel, but then again, you are on MSNBC:

There is a lot I could say about John Ziegler's article in The Daily Caller demanding that Sarah Palin not run for President, and insisting that Palin has become beholden to an inner circle of yes-men and yes-women.



I'll make just two points.



First, Ziegler's main argument is that Palin cannot win because she has been so unfairly damaged by mainstream media attacks and distortions.  That argument conflates two different concepts. 



I agree that Palin has been unfairly but extensively damaged, but that does not mean she should not run.  Pre-selecting our candidates based upon what the mainstream media does is a huge mistake, because whoever the nominee is, that person will be savaged by the mainstream media and entertainment industry beyond comprehension.  Palin simply has been the test case.  Perceived electability now says little about actual electability once the nominee becomes the focus of the pro-Obama media.



Let anyone who wants to run run, and let the voters sort it out in the primaries.  If Palin is unelectable in a general election, that will be an argument against nominating her; just as it is an argument against certain other candidates.



The primaries will bring out the best or the worst in the candidates, and candidates either will overcome voter concerns about electability, or the candidates will not succeed.  Let the voters decide, not the editors of The Daily Caller or National Review or even tiny inconsequential Legal Insurrection. 



Second, Ziegler is a complete narcissist.  His article is all about him, his feelings, and his imagined facts.  There is little substance, in fact almost no substance, to many of the negative conclusions he reaches.  Here is a good example, in one of the sure-to-be quoted passages from the article:

There’s also the fact that Sarah’s entire operation is increasingly managed like a CIA field office; that she’s adopted a bunker mentality; that she’s trusting the wrong people, some of whom I know are simply exploiting her.

Before I left, I felt I had to give the governor at least one piece of advice. After all, I know how politicians work. They surround themselves with yes-people. No one dares speak up. I figured I’d never get another opportunity like this again, so, with the very best of intentions, I told her: “You have to know, you can’t beat Obama in 2012. The media won’t let you. They won’t let him lose and the narrative about you is too negative to correct in three-and-a-half years.”



She said nothing. No-one else spoke, either. I looked around at my crew, and the same thing was written on everyone’s face: “What the hell are you doing, Ziegler?” It was the first of several times where it would be obvious to me that Sarah Palin does not like hearing bad news.

*     *     *     *     *

On Friday the media was in a complete frenzy to get Sarah Palin, enlisting a cast of thousands to scour the 24,000 pages of e-mails released by the State of Alaska.



As just about everyone now acknowledges, the major networks and print newspapers never devoted a fraction of the effort towards important stories like the unemployment rate and the reality that millions of people are so dejected that they have left the labor force.



Given that the Palin email story was a bust and does not help Democrats, it is not surprising to see that the media participation rate in the story has fallen dramatically, as evidenced by this graph reflecting the Palin Email Frenzy Media Participation Rate:

Instead, we get this headline from AP: Palin Slams Jane Swift In E-mails.  Catfight!



Jane Swift was the former Governor of Massachusetts.  I don't think the e-mail referenced by AP fairly could be characterized as "slamming" Swift, but Palin was critical of the fact that Swift reportedly misused state funds to help with childcare.



Here's what led AP to write the headline:

Swift was roundly criticized for using staff to babysit her children and for using a state police helicopter to get to her home in Western Massachusetts.



A few hours later, Palin followed up with another e-mail to the aide:



“What poor decisions she made there. Please, just shoot me if you ever see me travel such a road.”

"AP Maliciously Slams Sarah Palin"

A week ago The Guardian reported that Margaret Thatcher was refusing to meet with Sarah Palin, attributing a quote to an "ally" of Thatcher as follows:

Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.

I have spoken to Lady Thatcher’s Private Office regarding the story, and they confirm that the attack on Sarah Palin definitely did not come from her office, and in no way reflects her views. As a former aide to Margaret Thatcher myself, I can attest that this kind of thinking is entirely alien to her, and that such remarks would never be made by her office. She has always warmly welcomed like-minded figures in the United States, and has in the past met with numerous US presidential candidates and political dignitaries when they have visited London. But at the age of 85 she is now able to receive very few visitors at all.



There was never any snub of Sarah Palin by Lady Thatcher’s office. However, there has been a great deal of mischief-making and unpleasantness from sections of the liberal press in a vain and futile attempt to use Margaret Thatcher’s name to smear a major US politician

In the aftermath of the Palin email media frenzy debacle, various media outlets who were publicly humiliated are spinning the crowdsourcing as a new investigative reporting technique.

The analysis of Sarah Palin's emails over the past few days may end up teaching us more about the future of journalism than about the former Alaska governor's past.



Drawing on methods used by both Wikileaks and social networks, traditional news organizations such as The New York Times and The Washington Post used the Palin email dump as an experiment in new media techniques. They sought collaboration from readers and posted massive volumes of documents online before reporters even had a chance to read most of the papers.



That sort of public coordination — often called "crowdsourcing" — has drawn increasing interest from many journalists. David Lauter, chief of Tribune Co.'s Washington bureau, said he and his colleagues have wondered whether it would be a more productive way of analyzing data.



"It's a concept that we'd been looking at," Lauter said. "This seemed like a great opportunity to test to see how it might work."

Michele Bachmann should not be enjoying all the praise the Palin haters are throwing her way, for they don't really mean it, except as a tool to "shut the door" on Palin.  Example:



Doug Mataconis about last night's debate:

Bachmann is a much better public speaker [than Palin] and, say whatever one might about her ideas, she is able to present them in a much more polished manner than Palin has ever been able to.

Not From The Onion: Michelle Bachmann Mulling Presidential Bid



ABC News is reporting that one of the more bizarre members of the Republican House caucus is thinking about running for President .... Of course, “mulling” a Presidential bid is different from actually running, and even if she actually ran Bachmann would be, at best, a gadfly who got press attention for her outrageous statements. Good for entertainment value, not a serious candidate.

That's what Andrew Sullivan calls me because I pointed out facts which contradict his narrative of Sarah Palin.



Funny thing about facts, Andy.  Name calling can't change them.



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Andrew Sullivan says "my bad," but it's worse than my bad (h/t Tom Maguire):

Piper Palin As Bodyguard



Is it too outrageous to ask why this little girl is not in school, rather than acting as a media bouncer for her mother on a publicity/campaign tour? Update: because school in Alaska is now out for the summer. My bad.

In the comments to my post about the inaccurate reaction to Sarah Palin's comments about Paul Revere, Taylor Marsh posted the following:

This post is representative of what's wrong with our politics on both sides of the aisle.



The lengths some people will go to in order to offer cover to politicians, whether it's Palin or Obama, who actually deserve the ridicule they're receiving at the moment.