Our Sarah

After her triumphant nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Sarah Palin's supporters, friends, and family discovered that being right isn't enough.

It wasn't enough that the vice presidential nominee had the values, character, charm, class, integrity, and record of reform in government that appealed to the majority of Americans. When the McCain campaign dumped her onto the media's doorstep like a sacrificial lamb, we got the Katie Couric interview.

It wasn't enough that Sarah "Barracuda" had mixed it up with the Alaska political establishment — and won — from Juneau to Washington, D.C. When the sudden, Cinderella-like entrance into the presidential campaign fray barely two months before Election Day forced Gov. Palin to place her reputation in the hands of the McCain campaign and the RNC (rather than with her own trusted posse), we got the six-figure public relations "wardrobe malfunction."

In contrast, it would be instructive to review a recent article in the Wall Street Journal Magazine, "Desirée Rogers’ Brand Obama" by Amy Chozick. The Obama administration, with White House social secretary Desirée Rogers firmly in control and the resources of the POTUS at her disposal, is undertaking a very sophisticated marketing campaign to shape, tailor, and polish the President's image, to reelect him in 2012 and sell his policies to the American people now.

Recreating Camelot in the White House may not be Gov. Palin's style, but she and her supporters need to learn how to best craft "our Sarah's" image and message — her brand — in today's media and cultural environment, and how to protect Palin from the inevitable relentless, barbaric attacks designed not for debate, but for destruction. Palin's inner circle must include Washington insiders and communicators who know the game and how to win. The stakes couldn't be higher politically or for the future of our country.