Roland Martin brought his full-blown Palin Derangement Syndrome to Friday's Anderson Cooper 360, labeling the former Alaska governor "the Kim Kardashian of politics." Martin continued that Palin is "making a ton of money. We're trying to figure out why. It's the same as Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton....She quit her job because she wanted to go out and be a celebrity."
The CNN contributor actually first tried out his questionable label of the Tea Party favorite on his Twitter account. At 5:12 pm on November 9 [1], Martin posted the following Tweet: "Palin slammed then-Sen. Obama as a celebrity in 2008 campaign, and she's more of a celebrity because she doesn't hold office." Mind you, at that time, Palin was Alaska's governor and the Republican vice presidential candidate, but the liberal continued by complaining in a second Tweet [2] that "the media goes ga ga over whatever she says. Palin is often wrong. She's a former governor who quit her job rather than tough it out." During his third Tweet [3], Martin added, "She holds no position; wants no accountability; and wants to sling arrows and then gets angry when called on the carpet 4 her nonsense." The CNN personality completed his rant [4] by comparing the Republican to the curvy celebrity most infamous for making a pornographic video [5]: "At the end of the day, Sarah Palin is the Kim Kardashian of Politics. She's a celebrity with no real purpose other than picking up a check."
No real purpose, Roland? The morning after the midterm election earlier this month, your network's own John Roberts pointed out [6]
that Palin "had a lot of candidates that she backed and a lot of them
won....five in the Senate, 14 in Congress, six governors, three other.
She's a force...in politics." Just before he went on AC360, the CNN
contributor posted another Tweet [7]where he gave a hint about his intentions: "Up next on CNN. Bringing the fiya (sic) on Sarah Palin!"
Before introducing Martin and his other panelist, Republican Alex
Castellanos, just after the bottom of the 10 pm Eastern hour, Cooper
played an excerpt from Palin's upcoming TLC series and noted that
"Palin's camp, TLC called [it] a 'docudrama.' Karl Rove dismissed it as a
reality show, saying it hurts her chances for the White House- it's
basically beneath a serious candidate for the White House. But it could
actually help her." He turned to Castellanos and asked, "Alex, I mean,
it seems like a great advantage for an undeclared candidate, or for
anyone, to have this kind of a platform to basically define their
image."
The Republican strategist actually agreed with Martin to a point about the former governor's celebrity:
CASTELLANOS: In some ways, it may, but- you know, there was just a recent CNN survey, Anderson, that had Sarah Palin running nearly ten points behind Barack Obama, while Mitt Romney was running nearly double digits ahead, while Huckabee was running ahead, and this is Barack Obama at his weakest point. He's just lost 60 seats and lost independents in an election. If you can't pull ahead of Obama now, he's only going to get stronger and tougher over the next year. Why is that? One reason may be that she's becoming- Sarah Palin's becoming more of a celebrity than a leader.
COOPER: And that's something she attacked candidate Obama for during the campaign, as I recall....
CASTELLANOS: Isn't that stunning? Remember the McCain ad where- you know, Barack Obama's as big a celebrity is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, but is he ready to lead? You could make that same ad today against Sarah Palin.
Martin then chimed in with his Kim Kardashian label of Palin. Cooper
actually rebuked him for it, while Castellanos came to the former
governor's defense:
MARTIN: Absolutely, Anderson. It's hilarious. She is the Kim Kardashian of politics, okay? (Castellanos laughs)
COOPER: Oh, come on now!
MARTIN: It is- no, seriously! Okay?
CASTELLANOS: Better figure-
MARTIN: She's makes a ton of money. We're trying to- she making a ton of money. We're trying to figure out why. It's the same as Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton-
COOPER: She has held public office. Kim Kardashian- I don't know- has ever- has she ever held a job? I mean, Sarah Palin has.
MARTIN: No, right- she's held- Anderson, she's held public office, and she quit. She quit her job because she wanted to go out and be a celebrity. Let's just go ahead and put it out there. Look, the Gallup-
COOPER: I think it's a little unfair to call- to compare her to Kim Kardashian, but- go ahead.
MARTIN: Fine. But the bottom line is- okay, whatever, but the bottom line is here- we do know she quit- that's factually correct- she didn't serve her whole term- but here's the other piece, okay? The Gallup poll came out today. Her unfavorable rating is 52 percent. Her favorable rating is 40 percent, the lowest it's ever been. So, yeah, there's a strong concentrated group of people on the Republican side who really love and adore Sarah Palin. But when Karl Rove and other Republicans- even Alex- he danced around it, but even he knows- at the end of the day, Sarah Palin would be absolutely a disaster for the Democratic Party (sic), and Paul Begala is at home right now saying, 'Please nominate Sarah Palin as their nominee.'
CASTELLANOS: I think Roland meant the Republican Party. I'm not sure that any show with Sarah Palin is something that you can call a reality show, because it's- you know, she's had an unreal life- you know, from third-place finisher in the Miss Alaska pageant to governor of Alaska, running for vice president, and now, a celebrity. But she-
MARTIN: That's reality show TV (laughs)-
CASTELLANOS: She does have a tremendous amount of political power. She's created, this past year, the Republican feminist movement- you know, inspiring a lot of women: 'Hey, we can't leave our children with less opportunity and more debt than we have.' She does have enough power to raise money and help get candidates through primaries, but she's the biggest fish in a small pond. Once she gets to the big pond, she loses a lot of her political leverage. I don't think she'll run for president.
COOPER: You don't think she will?
MARTIN: I agree.
COOPER: You both agree?
MARTIN: No, I agree- no, I agree. Look, she said on Fox News with Chris Wallace- she really has no accountability when it comes to making her comments on Twitter and Facebook. She can do whatever she wants. Let's be honest. We're sitting here right now talking about somebody who quit their political job and saying, 'Oh, they might run for president one day.' And so, she's feasting off of all the free publicity. I don't think for a second she runs, because the moment she runs, when she's in that first Republican debate on stage with nine or ten other candidates, she can't just say, 'You betcha.' She can't dance her way around it-
COOPER: But if she doesn't-
MARTIN: They'll pin her down on policy.
Later, Castellanos pointed out Palin's influence on the midterm election:
COOPER: If she doesn't run then and- you know, then someone else comes to the fore, what does she do? Does she just go out, continue going out doing books, campaigning, picking candidates?
CASTELLANOS: She does what she did this year. She went in and really helped John McCain get through a primary. She helped Tea Party candidates all over the country energize their campaigns. She holds the Republican Party accountable for less spending, less debt, and to reduce the size of government, and that's a tremendous amount of power within the Republican Party- no doubt about that. But- you know, you don't always have to run for president to have an influence on the direction of the country.
MARTIN: She remains a celebrity- simple as that. So, sorry for insulting Kim Kardashian- my bad, I'm sorry. (both Martin and Castellanos laugh)
COOPER: I wasn't saying you were insulting Kim Kardashian. I was saying I thought you were insulting Sarah Palin-
MARTIN: No! I'm just- come on!
COOPER: But just for clarity's sake.
MARTIN: It's late on a Friday, Anderson! (both Martin and Cooper laugh)
The contributor was so proud of bringing his well-rehearsed label of Palin to CNN that he bragged about it on Twitter after the segment [8]: "Yes, quote me correctly. I did say on CNN's Anderson Cooper that Sarah Palin is the Kim Kardashian of politics. Rebroadcast at 11 pm est!" The next morning, Martin continued his self-marveling [9]: "Sarah Palin is the Kim Kardashian of Politics. A created celebrity who makes money for no reason whatsoever!" He also continued the attack on the Republican [10]: "@sarahpalinusa needs to apologize to America for calling Obama a celebrity since she's one." Actually, one could come to the conclusion that Roland Martin owes Sarah Palin an apology for comparing her to a porn star.
- Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here [11].