If PIRATE RADIO were to interview one person in real life and or fiction, it would be Sarah Palin. Who else has been introduced to the belly of the beast of media and politics and can speak as a survivor of both. PIRATE RADIO doesn't write her off as a kook. She knows her audience and critics alike. She needs them both to keep the "beast" fed. Anything that comes to harm the Palin money machine must be stopped.
To understand what she means, you must understand what she isn't saying.
Sarah Palin's teleprompter did freeze in Iowa on Saturday, the former Alaska governor claimed during a Tuesday night interview in which a Fox News Channel host asked her about her rambling and at times incoherent speech that sent her political stock plummeting.
The admission came in a freewheeling television segment with Host Sean Hannity in which she declared war on his fellow host Bill O'Reilly for not taking her and real estate tycoon Donald Trump seriously as politicians.
Palin also downplayed reports from days earlier that she was planning to run for president in the first place.
'I was asked by a testy reporter while I was promoting my Sportsman Channel show, "Amazing America with Sarah Palin",' the self-promoting pol told Fox host Sean Hannity. 'I was asked if I were to be interested at all in running for office, maybe the presidency.'
'And it's certainly not newsworthy,' she added with a shrug and an eye roll, 'for me to have answered, "Oh yeah, I'm interested, yeah. Next question?"
WHO, ME? Former VP nominee Sarah Palin insisted Tuesday night that she didn't really mean to say she's interested in the presidency – unless Fox host Bill O'Reilly is belittling her (then she's totally IN!)
REVISIONIST HISTORY: Sean Hannity (left) asked Palin if her teleprompter malfunctioned on Saturday in Iowa and she said it had, just like during her 2008 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention – but reporters who witnessed that speech said the prompter worked fine back then
'The man can only ride you when your back is bent,' Palin said during her rambling speech Saturday in Iowa after the prompter DID freeze, as audience members looked at each other quizzically
Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, made news on Saturday when she flipped through a binder of notes and strung together a series of odd one-liners after her teleprompter went on the fritz at the Iowa Freedom Summit, leaving her audience confused even as some rooted for her.
But she defended herself Tuesday night on Fox News.
'Did the teleprompter go down? Did you have trouble with the copy?' Hannity asked her. 'Was there any moment in the speech where you had any difficulty? Because people have been so critical.'
Palin insisted that 'I don't read the praise and I don't read the criticism. ... I'm used to teleprompters not working.'
'Remember the GOP acceptance speech back in '08? The teleprompter broke there too. It didn't work, and I kept on going.'
That's an exaggeration, according to journalists who were in Minneapolis, Minnesota the night she accepted the role as Arizona Sen. John McCain's running mate that would vault her onto the national stage.
'The teleprompter did not break,' reporter Jonathan Martin, then of Politico, wrote at the time. 'Sarah Palin delivered a powerful speech last night, but she did not "wing it".'
'I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the teleprompter,' he wrote. 'I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.'
US News & World Report blogger Robert Schlesinger wrote much the same thing: that he was 'was sitting in the press section, (behind Palin and off to her right side). I had a clear view of the TelePrompTer, and read along with her.'
In Saturday's Iowa speech, however, she was indeed improvising. (This reporter, sitting above her in the front row of the stage-right balcony, saw the prompter freeze – and stay frozen.)
'The man can only ride you when your back is bent,' she said at one point, as audience members looked at each other quizzically.
'So strengthen it! Then the man can't ride you, America won't get taken for a ride, because so much is at stake.'
BEWILDERED: Palin's audience often seemed unsure what to make of her as she babbled and danced from subject to subject making little sense
On Tuesday she lashed out at Bill O'Reilly for treating her and Donald Trump like long-shot candidates – insisting that a cable network perceived to lean right should back her all the way
Addressing the controversy over the virtues of the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and the 'American Sniper' film that tells his life story, she shouted: “Screw the left in Hollywood!'
And at one point she lashed out at Muslim terrorists in a style all her own.
'What we do is strengthen our military,' she said. 'We respect our troops and let them – our troops as our gatekeepers – we let them tell jihadists, "Uh-uh, this is our house! Get the hell out".'
The 35-minute performance was so uneven that Democratic National Committee Communications Director Mo Elleithee issued a two-word statement afterward: 'Thank you!'
Palin spoke at the Iowa event alongside a host of others whose names have been floated as potential GOP candidates, including Ted Cruz, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee.
Her position near the end of the lineup indicated that the event's hosts, Citizens United and Iowa Congressman Steve King, hoped the Alaskan would be a showstopper.
She nearly stopped the entire show.
Palin, a Fox News contributor, took a shot at top-rated host Bill O'Reilly on Tuesday for dismissing her as a third'tier potential candidate, even as she sought to distance herself from any expectation that she might run.
FOX & FRENEMIES: Fox host Bill O'Reilly dismissed Palin and Trump on Tuesday as third-tier politicians who merely 'liven up the proceedings'
Trump, a multibillionaire real estate tycoon, says he's serious about throwing his hat in the ring this time around, after several previous campaigns where he folded his tent before the process got properly underway
O'Reilly had handicapped the fast-moving Republican primary season two hours earlier, saying that 'Sarah Palin and Donald Trump certainly liven up the proceedings, but they need effective organizations in 50 states and that will be a major challenge for them.'
Palin wasn't amused, and lashed out at him for not siding with her and other conservatives.
'Hillary will be running,' she said, referring to Democratic former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 'and she will be, you know, the knighted candidate on the left and with the media.'
'Knowing what the media is going to do, It's gonna take more than a village to beat Hillary. There needs to be unity, understanding that we have that – conservatives have that strike against us, you know, right off the bat.'
She complained about how O'Reilly had been teasing his show all day on Fox, which she labeled 'kind of a quasi- or assumed-conservative outlet,'
'And that would be, "Oh, all these GOP contenders thinking about running for president – like Donald Trump, Sarah Palin." And he names 'em off, he says, "Oh, what a reality show that would be! Yuk, yuk!"'
'Well the left doesn't do that, okay? They, they, they take this serious, because this is war! And hopefully the media, even the quasi-right side of the media, won't be looking at this as some kind of reality show, a joke.'
