Palin + Bachmann = Frenemies

    Earlier this week on 2012 Voters was an article called Presi-celeb-realitics; comparing Palin's pseudo-campaign, the Trump bump, and others in the 2012 presidential race to reality television. Suddenly there is another delectably moronic episode of Real Housewives of 2012, starring Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann, both of whom love to Tea Party.

     I'll confess, sitting on the couch, clacking away on my laptop, I have caught pieces of the Real Housewives shows by which my wife is so gleefully entertained. I catch a few pieces; begin yelling at the television, at the shows' moral and intellectual erosion of popular culture, until my wife kicks me out of the room. It's true that one person's trash is another’s' treasure. However, with the bits that I've seen, I am admittedly fascinated by the melodramatic arguments that these women get into; all of whom seem to be suffering from sociopathy or a dissociative disorder of some kind. My wife says that's what makes good tv, which I suppose is true. However, to see the same imbecility play out in the mainstream just further removed some of the presidential hopefuls are from reality (the kind that exists outside of reality television).

     Ok, I'll get to the point. Michelle Bachmann has recently showed her hand as far as a presidential race is concerned, hiring Ed Rollins as a campaign manager. Rollins was recently left high and dry by Mike Huckabee, who dropped out early after a non-starter that had more to do with his own lackluster performance that Rollins’ campaign-in-waiting. It's unlikely that Rolins would sign on with Bachmann without some guarantees.

    Things get interesting, however, when Rollins goes on Brian Kilmeade's show, Kilmeade and Friends, and set the bar for the tenor of their campaign, blasting Sarah Palin. Essentially, he accused her of quitting. "Sarah has not been serious over the last couple of years...She got the Vice Presidential thing handed to her, she didn't go to work in the sense of trying to gain more substance, she gave up her governorship." This according to The Hill.

     It's obvious that, within a presidential campaign, both Palin and Bachmann would inhabit the same demographic; white, wealthy, middle-aged ultra-conservative females. It was necessary for Rollins to start differentiating his candidate immediately, which is what he did. Not only that, but what he said is realistically true; and historically Palin has not done well with either reality or truth. Not letting either of those things deter them, the Palinatics immediately demanded an apology. Rollins did step back, but not really. In a response to the Palinatic indignation, he had offered this explanation, "This was my transition from being an analyst to a political strategist, and I missed a step." (In other words, I forgot to lie.) As far as the Palin camp's demand for a retraction he said, "What? Say she's serious?"

     It's been difficult to pin down Palin as a political entity or a media entity, and many political strategists have faulted her for a great many things regarding her political persona. Leaving the governorship ostensibly to better parent and pursue her political goals (really to do her reality television show, Sarah Palin's Alaska). Making inflammatory rhetoric a part of her MO and then not scaling it back when it was politically wise to do so after th Tucson shooting. Lambasting her running mate in 2008, and then this strange mystery bus tour. It seems to me that Rollins hit it on the head. Palin is simply taking some of her media know-how and celebrity status and attempting to build a substantial political career on it. Unfortunately, it seems many people no longer know the difference between reality and reality TV, and those are the voters that are going to allow her to run.