If one needs proof that Sarah Palin is a force of nature, they need to look no further than this week’s goings on!
As you read here yesterday, Sarah was a huge hit on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She was engaging, charming, and surprising. Surprising in the fact she made her stand up comedy debut. Not surprising though was the fact she was good at it. Sarah is a natural at this sort of thing. Of course, ratings for the show were huge. She helped Leno beat their arch-nemesis David Letterman in a blowout.
Of course, with Sarah there is always more to the story. I’ve seen multitaskers in my life, but this woman may be the best at it. She always makes the absolute most of every trip somewhere. She is a model of efficiency. Every trip will have multiple purposes, multiple results. Some would say this model of efficiency alone would make her an idea candidate for the presidency. Sarah doesn’t waste time, or motion.
Ok, lets start this off by talking about her new book. Tommy Report over at Conservatives4Palin has this for us:
Sarah Palin is ready for the next chapter of her publishing career.
Publisher HarperCollins announced Wednesday that the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate is working on a "celebration of American virtues and strengths." The book is currently untitled and no release date has been set.
Palin's memoir, "Going Rogue," released last fall by HarperCollins, has sold more than 2 million copies. Her new work will "include selections from classic and contemporary readings that have inspired her, as well as portraits of some of the extraordinary men and women she admires and who embody her love of country, faith, and family," the publisher's statement reads.
"She will also draw from her personal experience to amplify these timely — and timeless— themes."
In an e-mail Wednesday, HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham said that "a number of ideas and concepts" were explored with Palin. "This is the idea which appealed the most to her," he said, adding that she is currently "gathering ideas and identifying favorite texts and examples."
Sarah Palin’s best selling book, Going Rogue, An American Life, has been called one of the best policy books out there, and indeed if one reads it they will understand exactly what kind of leader Sarah Palin is, and how she would lead the nation, what her philosophy on management is. Going Rogue was a look back though. A "where we have been" sort of tome. Sarah was building a foundation.
Look for the new book to be exactly what she promised at the end of Going Rogue: a look forward. Obviously we have no idea of what the finished work will look like, but judging on her previous works, and the projects she is currently involved in, you can bet the book will serve as a blueprint for the future, a positive way forward.
My guess is this will serve as her launching point for the 2012 campaign, but that is just pure speculation.
Now here comes more news and frankly nothing but complete hilarity from the left. Again, Sarah made the most of her trip to L.A. by multitasking. News came out yesterday that Sarah was shopping a "reality show" while in town.
Predictably, this made the left wing media simply loose it’s mind. Frankly, some on the right as well.
You mention reality show and people naturally conjure up images of some pretty sorry TV viewing. There are any number of time wasters out there.
Here’s the deal, Sarah is not shopping a "reality show!" Far from it. This from Reuters:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sarah Palin -- reality TV star?
The former Alaska governor is teaming with uber-producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor") to shop a reality series about her home state, network sources confirm. Palin and Burnett made the rounds at least three of the major broadcasters (NBC, ABC and Fox) while in Los Angeles for her taping of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" this week.
Palin and her family would be on-camera in the show, which one executive described as "'Planet Earth' meets Alaska meets her family," referring to Discovery's high-definition nature hit.
"There's an awful lot of interest in her," one executive said. "As a short-order series, it might work. It would depend on what kind of footage you get."
Now the left is going crazy because they are ignorant and can’t read. No where in this press release does this thing talk about a "reality show" as we know it. Of course, the usual suspects in the media tried to spin it as such. Even Reuters tried to give off that vibe with their headline.
What disturbed me when the news broke was the reaction from some of the folks on our side of the fence. I guess we should be used to the eeyores by now, those that see a catastrophe in everything Sarah announces. Time and time again, some of the weaker among us just go into full panic mode when Sarah does something that doesn’t fit the mold, doesn’t adhere to their preconceived notions of how a politician should act. Or more to the point how she should act.
Funny thing, it’s Sarah’s free spirit and willingness to do things her way, on her terms, that attracted everyone to her in the first place!
Regular readers know I have been following Sarah’s career for years. I first learned of her when she became Governor of Alaska. She has pulled off a lot of big accomplishments, including her signature accomplishment, the natural gas pipeline.
As Investor’s Business Daily reported, Sarah was very unconventional in her approach to this $26 billion dollar deal, the largest construction project in North American history. Where others had been failing at getting this project off the ground, Alaska had been trying to do this for 50 years, Sarah made it a centerpiece of her administration. On her first day in office, Sarah went to work on turning this 50 year old dream into reality. It only took her two years to get it all together. You can read more here.
My point? Don’t ever bet against Sarah Palin. Chances are she will not do things the way you would, but this woman gets results! Time and time again Sarah Palin has achieved things deemed impossible by the eeyores of the world, the naysayers.
Now, back to her "reality show." The worry warts have all kinds of "concerns." Well, for one thing, this won’t be reality TV! This will be real TV. Alaska is beautiful country and Sarah is very much in love with her state. Look for this to be a high quality look at Alaska’s beauty, and the folks that make it that way.
This won’t be something cheesy. This will be quality viewing. Mark Burnett has a reputation of doing solid work. No schlock from this guy.
From what we understand, Sarah will be more like a producer on the show and will control the content, the finished product. Also Alaska will be the star, not Sarah, though she will appear on camera.
What we are hearing is this will be very much like something one would find on National Geographic or Discovery HD. Beautiful scenery and quality production. This won’t be "Jersey Shore Meets the Palins!"
Our friends over at HillBuzz have the right idea and posted this on their website yesterday:
You know something, we keep saying how we are going to do everything we can to make sure the MSM, DNC, and RNC don’t do to Sarah Palin what they did to Hillary Clinton…and that we’re going to do everything we can to help Palin. That remains 100% true and will not change.
But, honestly, every day we see clearly this woman might not need our help.
She is doing a REMARKABLE job all her own of beating the MSM, DNC, RNC, and White House at their own games.
Word is Palin is negotiating to get a Reality Adventure Series about Alaska, which would feature her family, traveling around the state, teaching America about our Last Frontier and the Palins themselves.
Palin would control the content, the editing, the production, and the broadcast.
In essense, these would be hourlong campaign commercials where Palin would get to present her brand: Alaska, Family, Nature, Independence, Going Rogue, Loving America.
It is an absolute stroke of pure unadulterated genius that only Sarah Palin could pull off.
A travelogue that’s not really a travelogue, but a free campaign commercial for a candidate who will have an hour a week to show America the sides of herself and her family she wants shown, while captivating the country with the gorgeous scenery of a state most find pure magic.
Genius.
She’s going to define how America sees her.
The show will air in 2011 sometime. Maybe Fall of 2010, so Palin can still be on track to declare her candidacy on February 6th, 2011 as we think she will — which is Ronald Reagan’s birthday.
In other news, there is no interest at all in a Reality Series starring Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, traveling in Minnesota, Utah, Michigan, and Massachusetts, eating cucumber and mayonnaise sandwiches dipped in paste, dunked in skim milk. Pawlenty apparently pitched the idea, or started to, but everyone in the room fell asleep before he could get past his opening joke, which was, of course, about the OJ Simpson trial (since Pawlenty’s humor is always so dated, unfunny, and not relevant to anything that’s currently in the news).
If this deal goes through, wow, it’s incredible.
It blows away anything the MSM did for Dr. Utopia in the leadup to his run. Palin will well-known and well-loved by hundreds of millions once this show hits the air.
Oh, wait, she’s already loved by hundreds of millions now, and she doesn’t even have a show yet.
I love those guys!
Anyhow, we don’t really know if her show will be a weekly deal or some sort of special series, airing from time to time. Interestingly, when Sarah’s deal with Fox News was mentioned, this sort of programing was announced as part of the deal. Putting her with Mark Burnett may have been Newscorp’s contribution to the effort.
One thing is perfectly clear though: Sarah Palin loves Alaska and loves her country deeply. When she stepped down as Governor, she promised her fellow Alaskans that she would continue to promote her great state. This is something she has done with gusto.
Now I know there are still a bunch out there who are saying that this quality programming, this infomercial for American greatness will somehow destroy her and destroy her chances for the presidency. All I can say, o ye of little faith, is you need to go back and learn a little history!
Older Americans remember another great leader who took the same path Sarah is following. That’s right, I’m talking about Renaldus Magnus here. Us old guys (and gals) remember Ronald Reagan’s career quite well.
Before jumping into politics with both feet, Reagan was a solid movie star. His portrayal of George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American is one of the most endearing performances in American cinematic history. Reagan would be forever known as "The Gipper" after that.
Folks my age though, remember that Reagan was also a star of radio and television. Of course, like Sarah, Reagan’s earliest broadcast experience was as a sportscaster. There was no TV then, so Reagan was on the radio. Sarah, of course, was on TV. In fact, her dream was to be a sportscaster for ESPN and work with Howard Cosell.
Here’s video of a young Sarah Heath doing her thing:
Starting in the late 1940's early 1950's Reagan was a regular on television in both dramatic roles as well as comedic. He was a favorite on the live variety shows that dominated the networks back then, the "Tonight Shows" of their day. Of course this was due in part to Reagan’s sharp wit, and in turn, Reagan honed his speaking skills and his ability to throw out one liners during this time.
Here's a photo of Reagan from his days as host of General Electric Theater:
Again, Sarah is known for her quick wit and great sense of humor. And as anyone who watched her with Conan O’Brien and William Shatner, or her latest with Leno, can attest, Sarah is getting very good at this.
Ronald Reagan was continually featured in commercials for all sorts of major products throughout his career. Of course, back in the day, major stars were all to happy too help sell stuff, it wasn’t like it is today.
Reagan also hosted several radio and TV shows his last being "Death Valley Days" a half hour western, that he hosted up until the time he became Governor of California in 1967. Reagan also did commercials for the show’s sponsor U.S. Borax.
I was pretty young back then, so my real exposure to Reagan on television came in the 1970's when he appeared on all of the most popular shows of the day, like the Carol Burnett Show and the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. Reagan was pretty hip.
The shows I remember the most though were the famous Dean Martin Roasts. These things were legendary and had the biggest stars of the day. They were hilarious and many times outrageous. These shows serve as the blueprint for the roasts we now see on Comedy Central.
Anyhow, Reagan was a popular guest on these specials. Here we have The Gipper roasting one Frank Sinatra:
In this clip, Don Rickles wears out Man of the Week, Ronald Reagan at a roast in his honor:
Reagan turned up to roast his friend Bob Hope where he quipped: "Bob would do well in politics. He has entertained over 10 million troops and been seen by more than 100 million TV viewers. If you throw in the 27 people who have seen his movies, you have a pretty sizable constituency."
You can learn more about Ronald Reagan’s television career here.
What does all of this reminiscing about our greatest President have to do with Sarah Palin? Not a lot, except it serves to remind readers just how much these two great leaders have in common.
If Ronald Reagan was a one man revolution, Sarah Palin is a one girl revolution!
Frankly, no one knows what Sarah Palin’s plans are. We do know that she has set herself on a path very similar to the one Ronald Reagan chose to the White house. Just like Reagan, Sarah is writing books, and looking at TV. But even more importantly, Sarah is crisscrossing the nation talking to diverse groups of Americans, carrying the message of American exceptionalism and real hope.
We also know that Sarah has assembled a "kitchen cabinet," a group of highly skilled and knowledgeable advisors who brief her on a daily basis. This is exactly the sort of thing a potential candidate would do. What a successful CEO would do. Sarah is preparing herself for a leadership role, a role she was made for.
Don’t sweat the small stuff folks, Sarah has proven time and time again that she is one of the most brilliant strategists out there and is incredibly savvy. Simply put, she knows exactly what she is doing. No need to worry about this woman, she has it handled!
I think Sheya over at PalinTV said it best:
Following Governor Palin is like watching 24, its real time, tense and can sometimes be torture, But at the end of the season everything falls into place. Except with Palin we just don’t know when the next episode is going to air, yet it’s so much fun.
Again, my best advice to Sarah’s supporters is: Trust her, she knows what she is doing. Sarah is a rock solid leader who knows where she is going and has a plan. We may not always see the whole picture at first, but in the end, her actions always prove to be right. She always gets results!
Many thanks to Karen Allen for the art and the inspiration.
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