All Sarah, all the time
Remember William E. Miller?
Chances are you don’t, even if you were alive and cognizant when he was the running mate of Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater 50 years ago. Miller served in the New York delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives and had been part of the prosecution team at Nuremberg following World War II. Miller was so obscure when Goldwater tapped him to be on the GOP ticket in 1964 that it led people to ask, with tongues planted in their cheeks, “Here’s a riddle, it’s a killer/ Who the hell is William Miller?”
After Goldwater-Miller were shellacked in November 1964, Miller sank back into the obscurity from whence he came. He became one of the first has-beens to appear in those American Express “Do You Know Me?” television ads. His death in 1983 at age 69 was mentioned only on the back pages of newspapers.
If only Sarah Palin would borrow a note from William E. Miller.
The former Alaska governor, who, you will recall, resigned the office even before her first term was completed, has announced the launch of her own online, subscription-based channel. Called, simply enough, the Sarah Palin Channel, it is being touted as an unfiltered, “direct connection” between Palin and her followers.
“Are you tired of the media filters?” asked Palin, who has been collecting hefty paychecks from Fox News since she abandoned public service, and has had her books published by media conglomerates. “Well, I am. I always have been. So we’re gonna do something about it.”
The price of “doing something about it” will be $9.95 per month, or $99.95 per year, the lion’s share of which, we presume, will go straight into Palin’s bank account and not to any of those conniving folk who control those “media filters.”
Count us skeptical about its success, particularly if you have visited a discount book outlet or thrift store lately. Palin’s 2009 tome, “Going Rogue,” is widely available for a buck or two. Using Andy Warhol’s “15 minutes of fame” formulation, Palin is at about 14 minutes and 52 seconds.
The likelihood of Palin ever being a Republican presidential nominee is extremely small, and the prospect of her being commander in chief would almost certainly spell GOP defeat. But as America’s narcissist in chief, however, she is a landslide winner.