So, Sarah Palin is at it again. She goes and releases a "statement". I'm not going to talk about what's in the statement, only to say that she plays the victim--AGAIN--and uses a term that is causing a major media firestorm and making her the story of the day.
EXACTLY as she intended.
Tonight, the President is going to speak nationally at a memorial service for the victims of the Tucson attack. All the networks will cover it. His words will be dissected, pondered over, and from the usual suspects, criticized.
But no one's talking about the memorial now, are they?
Especially on Fox, it's all Sarah, all the time. Even as our Representatives are on the floor talking about Congresswoman Giffords, Fox is cutting away from Leader Pelosi to re-show Sarah's video.
I haven't seen one diary here, nor heard anyone either on TV or on Twitter mention the memorial or the President's speech tonight.
And that diminishes the importance of what the President will say. It makes him "secondary" to Sarah Palin and what she stands for, and what she is saying.
We aren't even hearing about the new AP poll showing the President with a 53% approval rating.
This is by design.
Why did she wait until this day to release her statement? Her writers can craft a message better than that, and she can certainly practice reading from a prompter--she was a sportscaster, after all.
Why did she use this language? We knew she would play the victim, but to use the language she did guarantees she will be the story of the day, rather than the President.
This was planned by those like her and others--Fox, maybe?--to dominate the news for the week.
We will get maybe one cycle talking about the President, but the rest of the time everyone will be talking about her.
This is exactly what she wanted.
And the propaganda machine that is Fox and RW radio will call her "presidential". Especially after tonight. No matter what the President says.
Hopefully it will backfire on her.
Hopefully.
UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me in the comments that I have fallen into the very same trap I have described--I'm writing about her instead of writing about the President's speech tonight.
And this is a time when we can ALL have a "BWD moment" about the President tonight.
May it be so.