Author of Us Weekly cover story on Palin: I’m voting McCain!
posted at 4:51 pm on September 4, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Awesome! And?
I am the Elisabeth Hasselbeck of Us Weekly. During our spirited office debates, it’s up to me (along with the office’s outnumbered Republicans — hey, it’s New York City) to defend the old man from Arizona, while the Democrats cheer for Barack Obama like he’s a Jonas Brother. For months, I’ve touted McCain’s vast experience and his economic policies without a trace of postmodern irony…
A few hours later, Palin announced that her 17-year-old daughter was knocked up. All I could do was shake my head and sigh at the realization that the original “mom under attack” angle was going to change into a far-more tantalizing story — and rightfully so. Rule No. 1 when running for the second-most important position in the free world: Never allow yourself to draw comparisons to the Spears family. The day only grew more frustrating as the revelations trickled into my inbox: The vetting process was rushed… Palin got her passport last year… wait, she called her former opponent what?! Oy.
The facts were out there, and there was no way to sugar-coat them. All I could do was address the relevant issues — and, most importantly, remember the readers’ needs.
Is the cover story even online? I’d rather read it myself than rely on Megyn Kelly’s humiliation of that tool yesterday for a rundown of what Us considers “relevant issues” that were essential to the “readers’ needs,” but I can’t find it on the front page of the mag’s website. If you search “Palin” there, you get what appear to be nothing but blog items. Regardless, the point isn’t that the cover story is so awful so much as that Obama got this absurd greeting-card treatment by comparison. When’s the big “Todd and Sarah: An Eternal Love” cover splash planned? Or do we bump that for a hard-hitting feature on Obama taking his kids to the amusement park while a photographer follows them around?
Exit question: How much should we read into the comparison to the Spears family? That’s really the killer undertone of the breathless dysfunction in the Us cover, after all — that the Palin clan’s some sort of low-class Springer-esque sideshow whose matriarch should never seriously be considered for high office. Unfair to impute that to an author who’s an admitted McCain fan? Eh, probably. Chalk it up to me being in a bad mood from having a “progressive” rhetorically ask Palin this morning, “Don’t they have any birth control in Alaska?”
Update: One bright spot: The Us online poll about Palin has been well and truly freeped.
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Megyn Kelly, Attorney General.
joepub on September 4, 2008 at 4:56 PM
Weak, elitist Republicans like him with his “Palin got her passport last year” are so depressing. This guy is in the same category as Peggy Noonan. Only she’s actually a talented writer.
D0WNT0WN on September 4, 2008 at 4:56 PM
It’s a woman.
Allahpundit on September 4, 2008 at 4:57 PM
Yeah, but you’re missing the larger picture AP. Secondly, we just don’t have time to cover every possible angle….
BobMbx on September 4, 2008 at 4:58 PM
AP: have you seen any new head to head polls that take last night into account?
joepub on September 4, 2008 at 4:59 PM
My bad. Note to self: Don’t type angry.
D0WNT0WN on September 4, 2008 at 4:59 PM
Sure. We can go to the voting booth together and you can allow me to see you pull the lever for McCain.
Bishop on September 4, 2008 at 4:59 PM
uh, what?
lodge on September 4, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Outstanding so you do a bigger hatchet job with more under the fingernail digging on the people you vote for?
Pity that ALL the newsies don’t follow your “high jounalistic integrity” then….
sven10077 on September 4, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Next cover: The Obama Ayers Connection – The Terror Behind The One.
Then you get redemption, ass-clown.
J.J. Sefton on September 4, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Megyn Kelly must have made a great impression through her drilling of that editor idiot yesterday.
Good for the US Weekly gal.
carbon_footprint on September 4, 2008 at 5:01 PM
The poll numbers are something like:
“Obama (Dem. Pres candidate) leads Palin (Rep. VP candidate) by 7 points”.
BobMbx on September 4, 2008 at 5:01 PM
LOL. Can’t say I’m not helpful.
Dusty on September 4, 2008 at 5:02 PM
woooooow
Actually… booooooooooooo
upinak on September 4, 2008 at 5:02 PM
My question is, what the hell is a Republican doing working for Us Weekly?
I mean, I work in reality TV but at least it’s not tabloid fodder.
The Ugly American on September 4, 2008 at 5:02 PM
Yes 84.6% 156967 votes
No 15.4% 28569 votes
Mojack420 on September 4, 2008 at 5:02 PM
I don’t think writers have any control over cover content. Correct me if I’m wrong.
RushBaby on September 4, 2008 at 5:03 PM
That’s the second time ever that I’ve clicked on a link to HuffPo.
The author may be voting for McCain, but she should feel shame. Maybe it’s the US culture that inures her to it.
Thanks for helping, AP. Really.
Connie on September 4, 2008 at 5:04 PM
Us, not US.
Connie on September 4, 2008 at 5:04 PM
Nevermind.
The Ugly American on September 4, 2008 at 5:05 PM
Sorry Mara, I ain’t buyin’ it.
Matticus Finch on September 4, 2008 at 5:06 PM
Libs dominate media, universities, media, libraries, gov’t bureaucracies, you name it. I’m cheering that she’s there.
RushBaby on September 4, 2008 at 5:06 PM
I emailed this “magazine” last night and called them a bunch of bottom feeding tabloid idiots who should probably go back to breathlessly reporting about how George Clooney buys toilet paper like the rest of us and about every single move of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and their United Colors of Benetton family. I even threw in a couple of cracks about how they were vultures for publishing photos of Britney Spears’ descent into mental illness and of Heath Ledger being placed in the coroner’s van.
I suspect they got a few of these which is of course why they’re trying to cover their own a**es with this pathetic excuse-making crap.
mjk on September 4, 2008 at 5:07 PM
*standing ovation*
Damiano on September 4, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Jenn Weiner-head
kirkill on September 4, 2008 at 5:08 PM
check this out, LP Vice President Candidate praises Sarah Palin
Hockey Mom and Hunter Leaves Two US Senators as Road kill!
jp on September 4, 2008 at 5:08 PM
:D so he posts her justification for it on HuffingtonPost.
Sorry sweetie, I don’t think anyone doubts who you’re pulling the lever for.
YellowDawg on September 4, 2008 at 5:10 PM
Megan Kelly bio;
Kelly eviscerates Hollywood empty suits like a barracuda on steroids.
Terp Mole on September 4, 2008 at 5:10 PM
Yep! And keep Perino. And give about 4-6 more FoxBabes cabinet positions.
Viola! Hotness and Change!
FiveWays on September 4, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Megyn Kelly is at it again on FoxNews right now!
JoeBrooks on September 4, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Pardon my naivete – what’s freeped?
tru2tx on September 4, 2008 at 5:12 PM
So wait…she reports schlock that, to the average person, would hurt Palin…and she’s voting for her?
Ohhh, she’s from New York City. That explains it.
*glances around for AllahPundit to come out swinging*
MadisonConservative on September 4, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Not lower on the pole types. No.
Higher ones are usually made to do the work even if they disagree.
upinak on September 4, 2008 at 5:13 PM
Is that Elizabeth Hasselbeck from the View? You would think there might have been someone somewhere who said, “How could this effect the poor daughter.” Maybe we should wait until we get more information… It is a canidates child. Not the canidate.
petunia on September 4, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Hockey Mom and Hunter Leaves Two US Senators as Road kill!
jp on September 4, 2008 at 5:08 PM
Excellent!
Disturb the Universe on September 4, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Redemption? Hardly!
First of all, I don’t ‘trust’ the promised McCain vote.
Secondly, he/she only said that so the mag could sell even more copies.
Fergit it.
Sir Napsalot on September 4, 2008 at 5:16 PM
Buchanan and Matthews had a shouting match in the first segment on Hardball. Matthews seems to feel that Palin is going to try to go to November without answering a question.
Didn’t she just get nominated last night? Officially, she’s not on the ticket until a procedural tonight.
Matthews is a tool. He’s a child. Just saw a weak Obama ad in Ohio–all bias aside. Rudy’s up next on Hardball.
BuckeyeSam on September 4, 2008 at 5:17 PM
… or writing for the Huffington Post, for that matter.
yo on September 4, 2008 at 5:17 PM
Froma Harrop?
She’s being snarky about birth control, but what she really means is abortion. She’s just too scared to come right out and say it in this case.
And why is the Left abandoning equal rights for women? Do they really think that the way to garner more votes is to say that women with children must stay at home? I guess a few more abortions would have qualified Sarah in her eyes.
And invoking Schiavo? I hate to draw a solid conclusion from a few columns, but she sure seems comfortable with death. It’s downright creepy, in fact.
Asher on September 4, 2008 at 5:18 PM
US tool is pulling a moby;
I’ll believe he’s voting McCain on the day he lets Megan Kelly hold him down and shave his head.
Terp Mole on September 4, 2008 at 5:19 PM
“Allow yourself.” Somehow I think if Sarah Palin kept her oldest daughter locked up in the basement or forced her to get an abortion, people would have a problem with that too.
Jim Treacher on September 4, 2008 at 5:23 PM
Wooops! Guess I meant she’s a moby.
Guess I thought this was the US weekly editor.
Offer to hold her down and have Megan Kelly shave her head stands.
Terp Mole on September 4, 2008 at 5:25 PM
Freeped.
In this case, I believe it means: To slew or cheat an online poll by repeatedly voting (clearing cookies, using proxies) or to make a blog appear to be commented by numerous posters by the same means. (From the practices of the Free Republic or “freepers”)
PS: Try UrbanDictionary.com in the future; at 57, it helps me a lot.
Mr_Magoo on September 4, 2008 at 5:28 PM
There are so many publications that I refuse to look at these days that I am saving scads of money and time! Not that I ever read rags like US to begin with. Aren’t they just stuff you see at the hairdresser?
clnurnberg on September 4, 2008 at 5:34 PM
So, every wannabee has their angle. It’s all too gamey and twee for me.
Waste of energy, imho.
Cody1991 on September 4, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Then why didn’t you report the fact that Todd Palin’s DUI occured 20 plus years ago, rather than just mentioned that he had a DUI in the past? All we got were half-truths.
I’ve watched Megyn Kelly for a long time now and have no problem giving her the benefit of the doubt, based on her history. Besides, the a$$clown of the editor-in-chief never denied Kelly’s quotes from the article.
A lame explanation. And the article was only half the problem. The mag cover was the other half.
RMCS_USN on September 4, 2008 at 5:48 PM
US mag is bathroom reading and also functional when the Sharmin is missing.
RobCon on September 4, 2008 at 6:02 PM
The problem isn’t the story. It’s the cover. Far more people will see it, and it’s a total smear. Megyn Kelly made that very clear, of course.
Splunge on September 4, 2008 at 6:12 PM
You are correct. Writers also don’t have any control over the headlines attached to their stories.
I haven’t read the story so I can’t attest to it’s content, but she didn’t have anything to do with anything that appeared on the cover. It’s the jackass editor who is to be blamed for making it appear that the Palins, not the KOS Kids, are lying liars, and clearly that was done intentionally.
Buy Danish on September 4, 2008 at 6:23 PM
Are you calling Governor Palin a Road Hunter? I resent that.
Lily on September 4, 2008 at 7:31 PM
A liberal wouldn’t lie to us would she?
Hopefully there aren’t any more Palin and McCain supporters at Us.
RJL on September 4, 2008 at 7:35 PM
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