She continues to embark on a strategy that only a decade or two ago—before Fox News and the blogosphere—might have been political suicide. The Alaska governor has taken every opportunity to pounce on media misstatements, to defend even would-be rivals like Newt Gingrich when it suits her anti-media campaign, and to use Twitter, Facebook, and other untested media strategies to directly spin her own narrative to the country. It is working.
Tim Pawlenty’s press team would have exchanged high fives if more than a handful of reporters cared what he did on Memorial Day weekend. Sarah Palin went out of her way to give reporters no information as to her whereabouts at all.
Few covered Jon Huntsman’s thoughtful discussion of a real policy issue like U.S. relations with China; instead cable channels, websites and blogs were dominated with pictures of Sarah striding a Harley. Maybe Emperor Palpatine was onto something; Governor Palin’s hatred of all things media has made her strong.
But can it make her president? The fact that the question can even be asked with a straight fact shows just how far she’s come. And in a Republican primary that so far has been woefully message-challenged, “annoy the media” may not sound half bad.
