Heart-ache: Palin snubs Washington insiders after GOP dinner

Golly, I wonder why. Might it be because they dump on her at every opportunity, from lowballing her in insider polls of presidential prospects to sneering at her anonymously about her lack of gravitas? To wit:

Gingrich held forth for nearly an hour, delivering a policy-heavy address that few Republicans, and surely fewer Democrats, think Palin could match…

It was a bad scene for Palin, according to GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak.

“She has to sit there and agree with him, knowing it’s a speech she cannot give, that she is not equipped to give,” Mackowiak said.

I.e. she’s a moron. How come they all want their picture taken with her, then?

Several Washington Republicans contacted by Whispers said that Palin was quick to leave the Senate-House Dinner, apparently ignoring a line of those who wanted to meet her. (Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in contrast, stayed late to shake hands.) “She came, she stayed the entire event, then at the end, a buddy and I headed to her table—my buddy actually set eyes on her—and then, poof, she was gone,” said a GOP source with ties to House and Senate conservatives. “There were 40 people standing around her, just wanting to say hello and wish her well, and she just ran out the back door.”

A big deal? Yes, for the Washington crowd that likes to control the party. “For a ‘woman of the people,’ she has got some learning to do,” sneered the insider. “Heck, she has a whole lot to learn. And get some decent staff around her. Most of the mistakes since November are not people out to get her. They are 99 percent self-inflicted by her own staff who are simply not up to the job of effectively serving a national political figure, which is what she has become.”

As much as grassroots conservatives will thrill to the thought of her cold-shouldering D.C. double-dealers, she really will need some of these people for money and policy help down the line if she’s thinking about higher office. There are two ways she can get them: Either make nice, which is probably pointless since they seem to think of her as a hick who’s not worth taking seriously, or put on a show of fundraising prowess so spectacular that they’ll beat a path to her door. SarahPAC is the obvious vehicle but I’m disappointed with how low-key she’s been about it so far; compare the quality of her site, for example, to Mitt’s. Granted, Romney and Huckabee don’t have day jobs as governors now and can devote more time to their PACs than she can, but she’s far more the darling of the base than either of them. She should find some cause she wants to raise money for and then start pushing the site to talk radio in hopes of drawing the sort of repeated small donations that made Obama’s fundraising so mind-blowing. If she can do that, the Beltway will take her seriously whether they want to or not. Can she do it? Does she want to?

FYI, here’s the extended web clip of her interview with Hannity. The most eventful bit is the one Drudge quoted, but the last two minutes are worth watching just to see how chummy Hannity is with her. Say this for him: Unlike the modern-day Murrow at MSNBC, at least he makes no pretense whatsoever of objectivity.

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