Bad Medicine?

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Back in April I suggested that Sarah Palin was little more than a modern snake oil salesman. As Joe Gandleman points out here she has largely been selling snake oil to her limited base of supporters.

It�s yet another manifestation of the fact that unlike many politicians
she is truly is unable to move beyond her immediate constituency. There
is no effort on her part to present herself as a more broadbrush
candidate and expand her voter appeal. If anything, many of her
comments seem to narrow the part of her constituency and she seems in a
perpetual campaign to consolidate voters who already like her.

So what's with this:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has made her Facebook page into a bully pulpit, issuing policy statements on such issues as nuclear proliferation and oil drilling. Now she's learning that social media can be more than a one-way system of message delivery � thanks to an avalanche of comments from tea party supporters taking issue with her Facebook endorsement of Carly Fiorina in California's upcoming GOP Senate primary.

Many of the supporters of the small-government tea party insurgency regard Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who stumped for the McCain-Palin ticket while serving as its adviser on financial issues in 2008, as a RINO, or "Republican in name only" � a term generally applied to pro-business moderates who don't always support socially conservative positions.

That was very much a dominant sentiment in the hundreds of comments weighing in on Palin's characterization of Fiorina as a "Commonsense Conservative."

The Facebook comments are not kind - they think Sarah is trying to sell them some bad medicine.  Now Palin had managed to create a 12 million dollar a year snake oil empire so the question is why would she endorse Fiorina?

I must admit that I don't have an answer to that question but neither does Daniel Larison.

This is just the latest in a string of episodes that show Palin�s �populism� to be phony and no more than an exercise in sending the right cultural signals. Having said all that, what may be most remarkable about Palin�s endorsement is that it is the sort of cautious, pro-establishment move one expects from Mitt Romney, who actually is running for President in 2012. It is not what we would expect to see from the celebrity entertainer who has done none of the things a future presidential candidate would do. This is a move that a pragmatist eager to build a political and fundraising network would make. For someone engaged in the steady building-up of a cult of personality and a profitable television career, this is extremely foolish.

One day she sells palatable snake oil to her ignorant cultists and the very next day tries to sell them what they consider a lethal potion. 

I give up!