'Disorganized' Sarah Palin Draws Republican Grumbling

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While Sarah Palin seems omnipresent on the campaign trail, more than a few Republicans are reportedly grumbling about how little help she's given. Politico's Jonathan Martin pens a lengthy article about these anonymous GOP staffers' gripes, stringing together an account of how they sought Palin's help but were spurned because of scheduling reasons. Palin, the article alleges, constantly rescheduled or skipped interviews with conservative hosts Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Glenn Beck, which didn't endear her to the influential pundits. And while she is reportedly "courteous" when she does make an event appearance, the grumblers contend that Palin's "disorganization and restrictions are viewed as rude." Since the article appears so close to election day (and because it's about Sarah Palin), Politico has seen a fair amount of blowback.

• All This Because She's 'Not Organized'? Glynnis MacNichols at Mediaite points out several problems with the Politico article. For one, if Glenn Beck had said that he wasn't going to have her on his show any more than why did he invite her to co-headline his rally at the National Mall? "It's hard to read a litany of complaints directed at her apparent inability to organize and not wonder if the same criticism would be lobbed at a male candidate," MacNichols writes. "So she’s badly organized — this perhaps is not a surprise considering we are talking about a woman who essentially shifted her communications HQ to her Facebook page — is this really the worst thing about her?"

• Palin Makes Her Own Rules sighs Kevin Drum at Mother Jones. "Martin's conclusion from all this is that it's a bad sign for a potential presidential run, since she's pissing off important people and demonstrating an inability to do logistics that no presidential campaign can afford. Maybe so. But Sarah always writes her own rules, and maybe the lesson of 2012 is going to be that logistics don't matter anymore. Maybe star power is everything."

• The Article Reinforces All Opinions About Palin  Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway notes that "campaigns seeking the endorsement and support of a high-value Republican like Palin shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and should be happy with whatever they get. At the same time, though, these anecdotes seem to be a fairly good example of the secretive, insular nature of the inner circle that Palin has gathered around her....So, yea, Sarah Palin may not be operating out of the political version of 'How To Win Friends And Influence People' when she deals with other Republican politicians, but I don’t think she really cares."

• Why Is the GOP Feeding Negative Stories About Palin To Politico So Close to the Election? asks blogger Jonathan Bernstein. "As with questions about sources, I don't really have answers to the questions about the reporter or Politico itself, other than just to remind myself as I read it that there's a serious, heavy, media bias in favor of seeking out and running stories about Sarah Palin. Every gaffe, every mix-up, every good line, has a good chance of being reported. As observers, we need to remember that, and be aware of what it does to our perceptions of her compared to our perceptions of the other candidates."

• Let Me Clarify tweets Politico's Jonathan Martin
  
  

  I would add that i make clear in the piece it's NOT just Palin haters who are unhappy.  She's turned off admirers, too.less than a minute ago via webjmartpolitico
  jmartpolitico

• I Never Said That Sarah Palin Backed Out Of An Interview fumes hard-right talk show host Mark Levin

• Here's My Response, Politico tweets Sarah Palin

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