Palin in Grand Rapids: Newsweek photo was 'quite cheesy'

The Detroit Free Press had a reporter blogging on the scene when the governor arrived for the first stop of the Going Rogue tour:

Palin comes out of the bus, clad in a red and black jacket and black skirt and carrying her son Trig. She tells the people gathered outside that she was thrilled to be back in Michigan.
"Alaska and Michigan have so much in common with the huntin' and the fishin' and the hockey moms," she said "This is the heart of industry in America."
She also answered random questions from the media as she made her way from the outside stage to the bookstore. She said she thought the new mammogram guidelines set a dangerous precedent.
And she also said that the Newsweek cover photo of her in a pair of shorts was "quite cheesy. I never would have posed for Newsweek like that."

Notice that Palin is actually good at handling "random questions from the media," which goes back to the idiotic decision of Team Maverick to seal her inside a bubble during the campaign. When I first went to see her on the campaign trail in Ohio ("Sweetheart of the Heartland," American Spectator, Sept. 10, 2008) everybody in the press corps was asking, "Will there be an availability?" -- which is campaign lingo for a candidate press conference -- and we were told no.

That decision made no sense whatsoever. I went out three times to cover Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, and on two of those occasions -- Greensburgh, Pa., and Shepherdstown, W.Va., there was a press availability.

Why GOP operatives try that stupid "hide the candidate" game, I don't know. It's supposed to be about "message discipline," but it always seems to backfire by turning the media against the candidate. My theory: Most GOP "media strategists" have never worked a day as a reporter, and thus can't see things from the reporter's perspective.

It's very difficult for reporters to cover a campaign if all they get are press releases, scripted speeches and statements from campaign staffers. If they never have a chance to get spontaneous fresh quotes from the candidate, reporters begin to resent the campaign they're covering and that resentment will inevitably come out in their coverage.

At any rate, if and when Palin next goes on the campaign trail, I hope she'll make sure to avoid the "bubble" approach.

Michigan gets Palin-mania!

Sarah Palin's Going Rogue book tour brings her to Grand Rapids today. Her book-signing begins at 6 p.m., but WWMT reports that people are already lining up:

People were lining up early in Grand Rapids for their chance to meet former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. . . .
She's kicking off her book signing tour Wednesday at Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids.
It is expected to be a packed house at Barnes and Noble in Grand Rapids and if you want in on the action workers say you'll want to be there early.

People lining up hours before the book signing? "Packed house"? Gee, you'd almost get the idea that Palin was popular or something.

Meanwhile, William Jacobson notes that flying pigs have been spotted near the offices of Media Matters.

Palin fans in Indiana and Ohio might want to grab your sleeping bags and start camping out now in front of bookstores. Hoosiers will get their dose of Palin-mania Thursday when Sarah comes to in Fort Wayne (noon) and Noblesville (6 p.m.), while Buckeyes can catch the fever Friday in Cincinnati (noon) and Columbus (6 p.m.).

UPDATE: Detroit Free Press reports that 500 camped out overnight in the freezing cold, and there were 1,500 in line at 7 a.m. when the Barnes & Noble staff started handing out wrist bands. ("What is this, a Phish concert?") Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Most authors would be pleased to get 1500 people in total to show up for a book tour. (Heck, most authors would kill to sell 1500 books.) Even the Lord of the Rings openings didn’t attract 1500 fans for a 7 am show. Star Wars didn’t get this kind of response.

Her popularity drives the media crazy.

UPDATE II: The Blogprof observes that the MSM seem reluctant to show photos of the crowd in Grand Rapids. Fortunately, my Twitter friend Insider7 is on the scene:

But . . . Palin is so unpopular! The MSM have polls that say so! In related news, Dan Riehl says he wouldn't camp out all night to date an 18-year-old cheerleader. (But they'd camp out for a date with Dan.)

Jennifer Granholm . . . nude?

Erick says somebody e-mailed him nude pictures of the Michigan governor and he can't tell if they're PhotoShop fakes or not:

I’m willing to call them fake because there are no indecent acts with union bosses in any of the photos.

Racketeering?

Palin on Michigan: 'I wanna try!'

Blown out by Obama's attack ads in Michigan -- see here and here -- the McCain campaign hoisted the white flag Thursday, a move that I argued amounts to concession of Republican defeat nationwide Nov. 4. Sarah Palin offers to fight it out in Michigan:

Sarah's a gamer, but McCain's high-profile support of the unpopular bailout bill has doomed him. He performed poorly in the Sept. 26 debate, and even if he were to perform better in Tuesday's debate, his bailout stance turned independents decisively against him.

There simply aren't enough undecided voters left to persuade. Of 11 national polls published since the first debate, five show Obama at 50% or better, including both the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls -- and none show him below 48%. John McCain has been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

This election is over and, despite my profound respect and deep admiration for Mark Levin, denial is not a strategy:

"If we don't engage now, four and a half weeks out, then when are we going to engage? When it's too late?"

Mr. Levin, sir, "we" are not responsible for the blunderheaded peregrinations of a candidate whose response to the mortgage crisis was to suggest that SEC Chairman Chris Cox be fired and replaced with Andrew Cuomo (who has "respect" and "prestige").

Good candidates win elections. Bad candidates lose elections. If conservatives are to be true to their rhetoric of responsibility and accountability, then we must agree that John McCain is responsible for his own campaign.

The McCain campaign has spent something like $200 million to lose this election. If you're going to insist on blaming someone other than the candidate for his defeat, why not start by blaming the advisers, consultants and top staffers who've enriched themselves as architects of this debacle?

Don't blame me for being the bearer of bad news. I'm a journalist, and it's not my job to pretend that a train wreck is anything other than a train wreck.

Team Maverick hoists the white flag

They're surrendering Michigan. And Allah is right, Pennsylvania's next. It's over. Get used to saying, "President Obama."

Earlier today, I started to do a poll roundup, then got distracted and didn't finish it. Why bother now? Crazy Cousin John has already given up.

That's why he was so bitter and sarcastic in that Associated Press interview. Last week's idiotic gesture -- "Suspend the campaign! Cancel the debate! Pass the bailout!" -- blew up in his face and destroyed all rational hope that he can win on Nov. 4. So now he's looking around for scapegoats, and any reporter (or columnist) who gets within range will do.

Pathetic. Three weeks ago, McCain led by 3 points in the Real Clear Politics average (and one poll showed him +1 in Michigan). A week later, when the polls started to slip, he freaked out and tried to blame the mortgage meltdown on SEC Chairman Chris Cox. When that didn't work, and with his poll numbers slipping even further, he decided to take ownership of the unpopular $700 billion bailout.

Look, I've been following politics since 1968 when I was (believe it or not) a staunch 9-year-old Hubert Humphrey booster. I know a losing campaign when I see one and, having more than a few friends who are political operatives, I know what goes on inside a losing campaign.

The top people inside a losing campaign know the final score long before it becomes apparent to outsiders. Ask anybody who was involved in the Bob Dole '96 campaign. After Labor Day, they were just going through the motions, playing out the season, collecting a paycheck.

The top folks at Maverick HQ -- who in early September were thinking about what their positions might be in the McCain administration's transition team -- are now on Travelocity, booking their Caribbean vacations for the second week in November. They will furiously deny this of course, but the ability to lie through one's teeth with apparent sincerity is a prerequisite to being a professional political operative.

Do not be deceived, then, by "here's-how-we-can-win" talk coming from Maverick HQ or the Republican talking heads you see on Fox News. Do not get your hopes up by letting Hugh Hewitt or Sean Hannity draw you into their miracle-comeback fantasy talk. Ain't gonna happen.

Alas, I am a sucker for miracle-comeback fantasies. So if, at any point in the next 32 days, it should appear that I'm being sucked into an optimism vortex, please remind me of this post, where I append this time-capsule note to my near-future self:

Hey, idiot, get a grip! That latest tiny bump in Maverick's poll numbers in Ohio and Colorado is a glitch, a statistical anomaly, and is insufficient cause to ignore every previous indicator of the impending Obama landslide. And why the heck should you care, anyway, since you swore a blood oath on Feb. 7 that you were going to vote Libertarian this year? Or did you forget that, too, you moron?

I feel better now. There is peace in pessimism.

Barack Kwame Kilpatrick Obama

Michigan's Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm says "it would be incredibly cynical and wrong" for the GOP to take advantage of the scandal surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has been charged with conspiracy, perjury, obstruction of justice, misconduct in office, and felony assault.

Kilpatrick is a Democratic super-delegate whom Barack Obama has praised as "doing an outstanding job":

(Via Hot Air.) The Kilpatrick scandal is apparently one reason Obama hasn't been able to pull away in Michigan -- polls show him leading, but barely outside the margin of error.

It's easy to see how Kilpatrick being front-page news would tend to heighten racial sensibilities in the state. If Obama throws Kilpatrick under the bus, it would alienate some black voters. But as long as Kilpatrick is on the bus, it tends to alienate some percentage of white voters in Michigan. Team Obama's hope is that the Kilpatrick scandal will go away without requiring Obama to take a stand.

UPDATE 9/4: Kilpatrick pleads guilty, resigns.