Facebook phenom Sarah Palin's popularity continues to grow

Mike Huckabee may have won the straw poll at this weekend's Values Voters Summit, but Sarah Palin is far ahead of her fellow Republicans on Facebook. Website Common Sense 2020 notes:

With more than 875,000 fans following her political commentary closely on Facebook, Sarah Palin trails only President Barack Obama as the most popular politician on the social networking site. She has gained 60,000 new followers since we reported her soaring popularity exactly four weeks ago today. Amazingly, she is expanding her high-profile posture in political debates armed only with a notebook computer and an Internet connection.

Two very different approaches are being taken by President Obama and Citizen Sarah:

As the audience of the so-called mainstream media slips into statistical insignificance and the circulation of left-leaning printed media plummets, President Obama has pledged to do the Sunday political talk show circuit on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and even Univision.

In stark contrast, talk radio, Fox News, and Sarah Palin have been growing record audiences of fiscal conservatives (independents, libertarians, and republicans) who are concerned about big government growth. Clearly, conservative media outlets are presenting a message that resonates with the once silent majority.

Politico's Andy Barr has also taken notice, calling the former governor a "Facebook phenom":

Relying almost exclusively on social media to get her message out, Palin has managed to carve out her own high-profile place in the national health care debate, on energy policy and on tort reform.

While Palin isn’t the only major political figure to try alternative means of communication to bypass the media, her unique ability to remain in the headlines while avoiding the spotlight suggests she may be the first to pull it off successfully.

Even the pundits are at somewhat of a loss to fully explain the phenomenon:

"I can’t answer what her strategy is, but I can say that it’s working," said GOP strategist Mary Matalin. "A large issue of why this works is that she has been so demonized and made fun of by the mainstream press."

[...]

"She’s trying to cut across the grain because everyone has been saying what a dope she is and she’s going into depth on these issues," said Matalin. "This is a good strategy because it works and because it’s long form. In an ad or any visual form, you could never take the kind of deep dive on a lot of these issues."

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, now a media strategist and not a Palin supporter:

"She represents a gigantic movement in this country that is distrustful of Washington and finds her appealing for all the same reasons that the mainstream media finds her unappealing," Fleischer said. "This is where social networks are most effective. It lets you focus on your core constituents and fan bases, and few politicians can actually claim they have a fan base."

Fleischer and others politicos don't think the 2008 vice presidential candidate can Facebook her way into the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, but Sarah Palin has good reasons for going around the Democrat-Media Complex. Since the day John McCain announced that she would be his running mate, they have dug for dirt on her and have even reported unsubstantiated rumors taken from left-wing blogs as fact. But what really destroyed the relationship for Palin was when they went after her children. Despite the press' hostility toward her from the beginning, she was still willing to play along until they crossed that line. We don't blame her for not trusting them.

More: Just down the road from us a few miles in Washington, TX, PrairiePundit tends to agree that Sarah Palin's media strategy is working just fine for her.

- JP

Palin to Andrea Mitchell: 'You're not listening to me'

Gov. Sarah Palin granted interviews to the legacy media yesterday, and each outlet added its own spin to its presentation of the story. One thing is obvious from watching the various videos and reading the stories: they don't get it. Palin had to scold NBC's Andrea Mitchell, for instance. "You're not listening to me," she admonished the ditzy reporter after Mitchell asked the governor a question she had already answered.

The Palins' commercial fishing business requires them to be on the water at the peak of the salmon run, which occurs each year around the 4th of July. The media hacks were clearly out of their element, one reporter describing the experience of being with real people while they are doing real work as "surreal." From the safe cocoon of the New York studio, Diane Sawyer thanked ABC correspondent Kate Snow in Alaska, "Thanks so much for going up next to the fish," to get the interview. During the interview, Snow pointed out to Palin: "You have some fish guts on you." Yes, Kate, that tends to happen to people who work on commercial fishing boats. Flyover country is an alien planet, and those of us who live in it are extraterrestrials to the chattering class. They are still looking for their first clue and not even getting warm.

Video of the Mitchell interview is here, CNN here and ABC here. Write-ups of more interviews by Fox News here, TIME magazine here, AP here and the Anchorage Daily News here.

Update 1: Via e-mail from Jim Trotter, another example of how out of touch the chatterati are, from today's round of Palin interviews:

From the TIME Article - the set up the reporter uses to describe the scene:

"The other is a smoke shack for fish. Their catch of the day is hanging from a clothing line strung from the shack to a tree. The driveway is littered with boots, gray-and-red-tipped fishing socks, waders, scooters, tricycles and a green yoga ball with bunny ears for kids to bounce on."

Green Yoga Ball? How out of touch with America is this reporter that they have never seen this particular toy before? Are you kidding me? And how does an editor miss this?

This reporter has never seen a Hippity-Hop... that is too much!

Update 2: From FRee Repulic:

"Many commentators on Sarah Palin’s remark that 'politically speaking — if I die, I die. So be it' would not recognize the allusion or context of  'And if not' – neither its use at Dunkirk nor its Biblical reference.

By way of explanation, a FReeper posted this from a Chuck Colson commentary:

One of the most dramatic moments of the Second World War occurred when the British army was helplessly stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. It turned out to be one of England's finest hours-and, oddly enough, a telling illustration of the urgent need for Christian apologetics in our day. The time was June 1940 and the place was Dunkirk. The British Expeditionary Force, sent to stem the Nazi advance into Belgium and France, had been pushed steadily back to the sea. A pall fell over England. Hitler's armies were poised to destroy the cornered Allied army. As the British people waited anxiously, a three-word message was transmitted from the besieged army at Dunkirk: "And if not." The British recognized instantly what the message meant: "Even if we are not rescued from Hitler's army, we will stand strong and unbowed." "And if not" was found in the Book of Daniel, where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego defied Nebuchadnezzar, putting their trust in God The message galvanized the British people. Thousands of boats set out across the Channel in a gallant bid to rescue their army. And they succeeded.

But that was England, a believing nation that no longer exists. In its place we have the U.K., a tiny island lost in the wilderness of secularism. Palin supporters see the resignation as her Dunkirk. Stranded in the governor's office, she is effecting her own rescue. But they have no doubt that she will amass a much larger fighting force and hit the beaches at a time which is to her advantage.

The governor had probably looked to the example of Esther (4:16) for courage in making her decision to resign, or perhaps Ruth or Daniel or all three. But her biblical reference went right over the heads of the media types, which should come as no surprise. Our once fiercely independent Fourth Estate, like that tiny island, has lost its way.

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 1, 2009)

Jane Genova, writing on the decline and impending fall of glossy magazines:

"Oh, magazines will survive in some form. Our kids will still want their HIGHLIGHTS. We might want some Annie Leibowicz's (sic) high-quality photos of the next president - Sarah Palin - on the cover of something."

- JP