A night after NBC White House reporter Chuck Todd predicted [1]
Sarah Palin will now make fundraising appearances for GOP candidates
where she'll draw in "car-wreck watchers," Todd's colleague, NBC's Mike Viqueira [2],
after relaying how Alaska's Lieutenant Governor "says the decision was
vintage Palin," asserted over video of Ross Perot dancing: "Others
describe her performance yesterday as erratic, comparing it to Ross
Perot's on-again/off-again presidential run in 1992." Unlike Palin, Perot did leave and enter the presidential race months before the election date.
Viqueira, Capitol Hill producer for NBC News who regularly appears
on MSNBC, earned rare air time on the real network's NBC Nightly News
because of the holiday, and proceeded to highlight how "Democrats,
meanwhile, are questioning Palin's motives." So who are these "others"?
Viqueira's press corps colleagues? After all, as Rich Noyes reminded us
in "Notable Quotables Flashback: Ten Months of Media Scorn for Sarah Palin [3]," when John McCain named Palin last year Newsweek's Eleanor Clift revealed the media reaction: "It's been literally laughter...in very, very many newsrooms."
From the second half of Viqueira's piece on the Saturday, July 4 NBC Nightly News:
MIKE VIQUEIRA: ...The man who will now inherit the governor's office in three weeks says the decision was vintage Palin. ALASKA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR SEAN PARNELL: She's independent, she's bold and she looks out for Alaska. And that's what I saw happening yesterday.
VIQUEIRA: Others describe her performance yesterday as erratic, comparing it to Ross Perot's on-again/off-again presidential run in 1992. Democrats, meanwhile, are questioning Palin's motives.
JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think most people will conclude that she either can't take the heat in Alaska or that she is leaving so that she can make money.
VIQUEIRA: Sarah Palin is keeping a low profile this Fourth of July, but national Republicans are already looking forward to her help in tight governor's races next year in New Jersey and Virginia. Mike vicara, NBC News, Washington.
Of course, those two elections will be held in November of this year, not next year.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center