The Two Most Powerful Words on the Internet (And No, I Don’t Mean Free Porn)

There are two words that are assured to make this post an Internet success. There are two words that are certain to send it viral as it gets picked up by blogs and sites across the country. I am about to write them and as I do I can already picture the hits for The Philly Post accumulating like the meter on a gas pump dispensing to an Escalade.

Ready?

The two words are SARAH PALIN.

She is America’s biggest celebrity.

Love her or hate her — it doesn’t matter, you apparently can’t get enough of her. Any show she appears on gets higher ratings, any magazine she graces enjoys more sales, any candidate she campaigns for draws large crowds and any Internet post about her gets national exposure.

Oh, I almost forgot, here is the gratuitous photo of Sarah Palin that will make this post popular for perpetuity.

If you Photoshop Sarah Palin, you get even more hits. Here is a one that is PG-13.

The ratings on her Photoshop photos go all of the way up to XXX…or so I have heard.

The popular political web site Hot Air knows the power of a Palin photos. The site has at least one image of Sarah Palin on its home page every day, even when they have no supporting stories.

It matters not if this Palin story is positive or negative; there are millions with a craving for it on each side of the media buffet. It is the name itself that draws, the content is almost irrelevant. In truth, the person has become almost irrelevant. On the left it is the idea of Sarah Palin that is repulsive. On the right it is the ideal of Sarah Palin that is alluring. And both the idea and the ideal are equally distant for reality. She is neither Joan of Arc nor Satan’s bride.

She is a charismatic mom from Wasilla, Alaska who loves the spotlight. After trying the beauty pageant circuit and then TV news, she found politics. Her charisma and drive carried election after election: council, mayor and finally governor. She rose fast, too fast. And when a faltering John McCain campaign needed a trick play to get back in the game against a new political superstar, Sarah Palin was plucked from obscurity and placed in front of the biggest spotlight of all.

The Republicans had their first superstar since Ronald Reagan.

The early attacks on Palin were ugly and sexist. Blogs and anonymous sources attacked her religion, her motherhood and her family. It got so bad that the non-partisan site FactCheck.Org, a noted referee of political campaigns, started an entire section called “Sliming Palin,” where it exposed lies about Sarah Palin. She was also sexualized and marginalized on the Internet, in rap songs and pornography. It was as if a pretty girl walked into a room and no one knew how to act.

Sarah Palin’s beauty-pageant looks were both a blessing and a curse. But, in truth, everything about her was there to love or hate. Being a hunter, the mother of a Down Syndrome baby and four other children and a graduate of a college not considered prestigious enough, put her in the middle of a class divide. She was and is the poster girl for Red State politics. It made it easy for the Blue State crowd to despise her.

Oh wait, that’s an excuse for another Photoshop Photo — I’ll post a pro-Palin poster and an anti-Palin poster to double the hits:

From the beginning, the attacks on Palin have had nothing to do with her policies and everything to do with her persona. She was historically popular as Alaska’s governor and historically polarizing as a national figure.

The only attack that proved to be true, and therefore worked, was that Sarah Palin was not ready to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. That and an historic collapse in the economy made Sarah Palin just a fascinating second act in the theater of the 2008 Presidential Election.

Then Sarah Palin did something extraordinary. She quit as governor of Alaska. The surprise move was roundly criticized as killing all hopes of any future political career. That may still be true. But on the day that Sarah Palin the politician died, Sarah Palin the celebrity was born.
Palin, dubbed as stupid, wrote the bestselling book of 2009, is giving speeches around the world for $100,000 a pop, inked a deal to make $1 million an episode for a cable show and was named host of a new show on Fox, where she is a political analyst earning another million a year.

Hey, call me stupid too!

Sarah Palin has become a media mogul.

She still has political influence. Her SarahPac has over a million dollars to dole out to conservative candidates in the upcoming elections. And she is expected to be the most sought-after endorsement for conservative candidates in 2010 as she still draws huge crowds and huge dollars. Recently, John McCain found himself in the uncomfortable position of calling on Sarah Palin once again to help him in a tough primary campaign against conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth. Sarah Palin again drew large crowds and national media coverage for McCain. But many of the people at the rallies were there to see Sarah and left when McCain started to speak.

McCain wasn’t the first to tap the power of Palin for attention. Jay Leno saw a 33 percent jump in ratings when he asked Palin to be there for his return to the Tonight show. Oprah had her biggest ratings in two years when she asked Sarah Palin to be her guest for the first day of sweeps.

And McCain won’t be the last. If he defeats Hayworth by a comfortable margin, Sarah Palin will get much of the credit. She will then become even a hotter commodity on the mid-term election circuit, especially in traditionally conservative districts.

And I am tapping the power of Palin right now to get more hits for The Philly Post.

There was something about the campaign rally for McCain in Tucson that made me finally realize that Sarah Palin the politician is dead and that she is not running for President. And it wasn’t just the politically incorrect leather motorcycle jacket she was wearing, although that does give the excuse for another gratuitous Sarah Palin photograph.

Now anyone who Googles an image of Sarah Palin in leather will end up at this blog. Sweet!

But it wasn’t the jacket. It was Sarah Palin. She was at home, happy and control on stage. As Marshall McLuhan once said, “The media is the message.” And that is never truer than in the phenomena called Palin.
She has found power without the baggage of politics. She can post on her Facebook page to a million-and-a-half loyal followers and change the health-care debate to the point that the President of the United States has to answer her “death panel” claim to a joint session of Congress. She can meet thousands of adoring Americans on a record-setting book tour and not once speak with a pesky reporter. She can walk into the studio that Fox built for her in her home to talk with her friends at Fox News and never have to do one hard hitting interview with the likes of Katie Couric or Charlie Gibson.

It is interesting to note here that the Power of Palin affects almost everyone who crosses her path. There are many who believe that Charles Gibson ultimately lost his job at ABC after the backlash to his condescending attitude towards Palin. Even more people believe that Katie Couric’s interview with Palin saved her job, as she got the same results without the attitude.

In the end, Palin, the Queen of all media, gets the same attention and polarizing reaction as Vice Presidential candidate Palin. And again, none of it is based in the person of Palin, but the persona of Palin.

Which is why I’m convinced she’s not running for anything ever again. The young girl who was on the basketball team, but not the star, who was runner-up for Miss Alaska and whose career as a sports anchor never took off, now has the stage and the spotlight all to herself, and she can keep competition and critics at arm’s length.

And the greatest irony to all of this is that those initial attacks after her convention speech helped to create the powerful persona of Palin. The Red Staters saw her as one of them. And when she was attacked, they felt attacked. Their passion in defense of Palin against “The Elite” and the “Mainstream Media” is really a defense of their own existence. Sarah Palin gives them an emotional outlet to combat their own insecurities and fears.

Sarah Palin has become rich and more powerful than ever because of it. And now she cannot be ignored. Even those in the media who loathe her understand her draw, and they talk about her whenever they can. David Letterman and Chris Matthew, two of her well known critics, both have practically begged for her to appear on their shows. Sarah Palin declined — because the biggest celebrity in America doesn’t need either of them.

Stupid? I think not. Sarah Barracuda saw an opportunity and grabbed it with both hands. When she quit as governor, she kept the perks of power sans responsibility. She gets to work a little less and make a lot more.

Sarah Palin is brilliant.

There, that should get me about 10 times more hits than my articles normally get. Now don’t judge me. If it’s good enough for John McCain, Jay Leno and Katie Couric, it’s good enough for me.

Maybe just one more picture to seal the deal. I’ll use the same one Newsweek lifted from Runner’s World for a Sarah Palin cover story. It worked. Sales of the magazine were way up.

LARRY MENDTE writes for The Philly Post on Mondays and Thursdays. His video commentaries are seen on Tribune television stations across the country. You can view them at www.wpix.com.