1.) Rogue quotable — TheDC’s Matt Lewis is the editor of the new book, The Quotable Rogue: The Ideals of Sarah Palin in Her Own Words, and our own Jamie Weinstein interviewed him about it. Here’s Lewis on his reasons for publishing the book: “I was attracted to this project for two reasons: 1) Sarah Palin is arguably the most significant woman of the first decade of the 21st century, and 2) As some of her supporters have pointed out to me, she is the most ‘known, unknown’ figure in American politics. A lot of people, for example, still believe that she said, ‘I can see Russia from my house.’ She never said that. That was actually comedian Tina Fey. But people still think Palin said that. When you actually read Palin’s real quotes in context, they are quite compelling.” Maybe WaPo and the NYT can crowdsource her quotes for any evidence of scandal. That trick always works.
2.) Woman nobody cares about premieres documentary to international press — Speaking of Palin, last night was the Pella, IA premiere of the new documentary about her, The Undefeated. Let’s see what the loathsome commies at the Guardian had to say about it: “The Sarah Palin soap opera continued – this time in an real opera house – for the premiere of The Undefeated, the hagiographical documentary of the life and times of an Alaskan governor turned political rock star. Pella’s Opera House was built in 1900 but it has surely never seen a day like Tuesday, when Palin’s admirers and a media scrum descended on the rural Iowa town, with more than a few hoping that Palin would take the final step and announce that she was running for the 2012 Republican party presidential nomination. And that was just the journalists. Those hopes had been stoked earlier in the day, with the news that Palin’s daughter Bristol had appeared on Fox News and said that the former vice presidential candidate had made up her mind, saying: ‘She definitely knows.’ But speaking to the media before the debut of The Undefeated, Palin herself brushed off her daughter’s remark: ‘It’s a tough decision, it’s a big decision to decide whether to run for office or not. I’m still contemplating.'” As for the movie itself? The NY Post’s Kyle Smith, who is no liberal, did not enjoy it at all. Other than the usual Palin-haters and Palin-lovers, it sounds like the theater will be underseated.
3.) If you’re reading this, Tom Petty probably doesn’t like you — It’s official: Michele Bachmann is the GOP frontrunner. And you don’t need to look at the polls to know it. Her every utterance is intensely scrutinized for any possible flaw, George Stephanopoulos sits in his high chair and lobs non-policy-related gotcha questions at her, and now former rock stars are upset with her for playing their songs. That’s what she gets for being a threat to the Democrats! LA Times: “Michele Bachmann may be doing well in the polls in Iowa, but there’s a Floridian in Malibu who isn’t pleased that the Minnesotan is using his hit tune ‘American Girl’ without his permission. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty reportedly has had enough of Bachmann using his 1977 hit single in her campaign and has reportedly issued a cease-and-desist letter to the conservative’s camp.” This isn’t the first time Petty has run down a Republican’s dreams. In 2000, he sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Bush campaign for using “I Won’t Back Down.” But he doesn’t mind when Hillary Clinton uses his songs, or any other Dem. Why does Tom Petty want to alienate Flyover America? Who does he think buys his music? Maybe it’s no coincidence that he hasn’t had a hit in 15 years. Meanwhile, Jon Huntsman tries to get somebody to care about the music he plays at his events, or anything else about him.
4.) Obama eats food the rest of us aren’t supposed to touch because we don’t know any better — Listen up, fatties! Take that plate of crap you call lunch and… um… let the President of the United States finish it. The Hill reports: “Obama might not want to tell First Lady Michelle Obama, who runs an anti-obesity campaign, that he ate at a place best known for serving mountains of greasy food… Obama’s motorcade made an unannounced visit to Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf, Iowa, one of the quad cities on the border of Illinois and Iowa… Ross’ restaurant is known for dishes called ‘Mountains’; their signature dish is the Magic Mountain: Texas grilled toast, hamburger meat, French fries or hash browns and cheese sauce… ‘Anybody who wants one, I will buy it for you,’ Obama said, according to the report. The president bought Magic Mountains for three customers in the restaurant, and brought four Magic Mountains and two Volcanos (the Magic Mountain with the addition of chili) back to traveling companions… Obama also challenged the accompanying members of the press to eat ‘the whole thing.’ He called them ‘chickens’ for not taking them up on the challenge.” It’s like Michelle always says: Fast food is bad, unless her husband wants to look like a folksy, goodnatured man of the people. Hey, what’s he doing in Iowa, anyway? He really can’t stand it when anybody else gets any attention.
5.) Tina Brown still feeding off Princess Di’s corpse — Have you ever wondered what Princess Diana would be doing today if she were still alive? Of course you haven’t. Why would you? But Tina Brown has, and she’s so keen on the idea that she’s made it part of her plan to save Newsweek. TheDC’s Laura Donovan reports: “The latest issue of Newsweek takes a morbid approach to what would have been Princess Diana’s 50th birthday. The deceased royal, whose milestone birthday would have been this week, appears on the front cover of the magazine alongside daughter-in-law Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, also known as Kate Middleton. The cover picture shows newlywed Catherine glancing over her shoulder at Diana, whose image seems to have been photoshopped and distorted to account for the passing of time. Daily Beast founder Tina Brown paid a tribute to the late princess by writing up a ‘Diana at 50’ article, which describes what Lady Di would have been like had she not been killed in a Paris tunnel crash nearly fourteen years ago.” Apparently they’re changing the name of the magazine to Fanficweek. We get it, Tina: She was rich. She was pretty. She was breathing. Let it go.
6.) Today’s words of wisdom from Alec Baldwin’s Twitter feed — “Fear Bachman bc she is raising so much money. Anyone that inarticulate and full of s*** who is raising money that fast..is beholden to some mighty thuggish interests.” [Ed. note: Is Baldwin right? What do you think?]
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