Somebody Up There Likes Me

The Ides of March marked the end of the Palin-Be-Gone Wager with my LLWL colleague.

As I noted recently, Sarah Palin had dropped off the scene, leaving the gossip-mongers free to concentrate their efforts on her daughter Bristol and ex, Levi. See Out of the Spotlight.

Now that the deadline has passed (without declaration of a clear winner), Sarah has ascended to front stage yet again.

First off, she is the cover girl & subject of a (not very flattering) piece in next month's Portfolio (pictured above). As The Huffington Post reports:

Joe McGinniss' cover story, 'Pipe Dreams,' focuses on Palin's failure to build a gas pipeline in Alaska. The subhed reads:

Forget 'Drill, baby, drill.' Sarah Palin says she's building a $40 billion gas pipeline, which even President Obama wants. The only problem: It isn't there. And it's her fault.

And then, there's the news that Sarah has made it after all -- in the comics, at least. CNN reports the news, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin enter the world of comic books:


Move over Wonder Woman and Lois Lane - Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are breaking into the world of comic books.

Washington-based publisher Bluewater Productions released a series of comic books featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on March 11. The company says it has already sold 7,500 copies of each to distributors.

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Then they decided that Hillary Clinton's story needed to be told.

"She was the first [major] female presidential candidate, so we just started with [her], and there was so much interest in it," said Jason Schultz, executive vice president of Bluewater Productions.

The first two issues in Female Force, already released, feature Clinton and Palin. The next two will feature Caroline Kennedy and First Lady Michelle Obama.

The Michelle Obama comic is expected to be released in April, and has pre-sold 28,000 copies.

Then comes word that she's the featured speaker at a June dinner sponsored by the House and Senate Republican campaign committees. Sarah Palin, star of GOP dinner.

Or not. As noted in The Protecters of the Palin Brand:

There is no brand in Republican politics as powerful -- or as tenuous -- as that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

She is simultaneously the hottest commodity on the Republican fundraising circuit and a figure of ridicule among Democrats (and even many Independents) who believe that her status as a national figure is entirely undeserved.

Even Palin and her political team seem to be struggling somewhat with how much or little to expose her at the national level.

Witness the odd back and forth over the past 24 hours regarding her involvement in the annual Republican House-Senate fundraising dinner in June.

Yesterday afternoon the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a joint press release touting Palin as the keynote speaker at their fundraising dinner on June 8 in Washington. Then the governor's spokesman told the Anchorage Daily News that the NRSC and NRCC were mistaken in announcing Palin as the keynoter, insisting that she had agreed to no such thing.

Finally, back on the home front, things aren't looking so good for the Sarah. Her approval ratings have dropped from 55% in August of 2007 to 20% as of March 13, 2009. Palin’s Approval Index Continues to Erode in Her Home State. No wonder she's trying to make a comeback back in the lower 48. I'm just thankful that her timing was to do it right after the wager deadline passed.