Rogue Nation: A Chance for a Palin Makeover — If She Wants It

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: There are second chances to make first impressions — but first you have to decide you weren’t happy with your first go-around.

We don’t yet know that about Sarah Palin — a little surprisingly, since we seem to know just about everything else.

As a full week of Palin Mania begins — with Oprah Monday, the book launch Tuesday, and Barbara Walters’ interviews spread through the week, all as build-up for the most famous bus tour since, well, the Straight Talk Express — we will learn much about the GOP and its relationship with its hardly reluctant superstar.

We will also learn more about Palin herself. Among the questions: Is “going rogue” an end in itself, or a means to an end?

Palin reenters the political stage with 60 percent of Americans saying she’s not qualified to be president, per the new ABC News/Washington Post poll — not that they don’t like her, or don’t want her to be president, but that she’s not qualified.

To turn that around starts slowly, with building credibility — if that’s what she wants. And that might start with moving beyond the same kind of juicy gossip she claims to abhor when it’s about her.

The rallying cry — from Palin herself, on Facebook: “We’ll keep setting the record straight, and we’ll keep reminding some in the media that Americans are very tired of their non-objective reporting,” she writes. “And I can’t wait to see you! God bless the fight for freedom! Keep up the great work, Patriots who love this country.”

On the sniping with McCain campaign aides, Palin tells ABC’s Barbara Walters: “For some people, this is a business. And if failure in this business was going to reflect poorly on them, they had to kind of pack their own parachutes and protect themselves and their reputations, so, they wouldn’t be blamed. I’ll take the blame, though. Because I know, at the end of the day, what the truth is.”

It’s a “political brawl as a result of the book by the political force of nature,” ABC’s Diane Sawyer said on “Good Morning America” Monday.

What does Sen. John McCain think of all this? McCain convened a conference call with top former aides Friday, ABC’s Kate Snow reports. “Says one aide in the know: ‘He apologized to everyone on the call for people having to go through this. Said something like, “You are all my dear friends. This will pass. It’ll pass faster if everyone will just stay out of it.” ‘

Snow, on “GMA”: “Like her or not, Sarah Palin is the visible, most provocative Republican the party has right now… And even Hillary Clinton seemed intrigued.”

(Said Clinton, to George Stephanopoulos on “This Week”: “Well, I have never met her. And, look, I would look forward to sit down and talk with her,” Clinton said of Palin’s suggestion that they grab a cup of coffee.)

More from the new poll: “Fifty-three percent say they definitely would not vote for Palin if she were to run for president in 2012; that compares with 9 percent who say they’d definitely support her, while the rest, 37 percent, would consider it. (For comparison, in a 2006 ABC/Post poll fewer flatly ruled out Hillary Clinton, 42 percent, and fewer still wouldn’t consider John McCain, 28 percent,)” ABC’s Gary Langer reports.

Why Team McCain will have to hear the noise: “The most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the news media, but at the McCain campaign,” Michiko Kakutami writes in reviewing “Going Rogue” for The New York Times. “The very campaign that plucked her out of Alaska, anointed her the Republican vice-presidential nominee and made her one of the most talked about women on the planet — someone who could command a reported $5 million advance for writing this book…. [The memoir] is part cagey spin, part earnest autobiography, part payback hit job.”

Melanie Kirkpatrick, reviewing the book for The Wall Street Journal: “It is disappointing that Mrs. Palin devotes so little of ‘Going Rogue’ to the issues that she and Mr. McCain ran on. … As for her supporters on the right, they won’t find much new ammunition with which to counter those who say that Mrs. Palin isn’t ready for the rigors of the White House.”

But this week will be more about the media appearances than the book. What can Palin do with this chance?

Donna Brazile, in an open letter to the former governor: “Use this moment, governor, to help change the tenor of American politics and to encourage young women and girls to pursue careers in public service. Talk about the lessons you learned on the national stage and how women can confront a media bias that all too often stereotypes women candidates as not being ready for prime time by focusing on what they wear and not on where they stand on important issues,” she writes. “Governor, can I hear a ‘You betcha!’ ”

Why this is one GOP publicity burst Democrats don’t really mind: “Obama knows the long odds against a right-wing populist winning the presidency, no matter how good she looks in a skirt (or running clothes), brandishing a gun,” Evan Thomas writes for Newsweek, which put Palin on its cover. “He shouldn’t be too cocky, however, because the death of the center is ultimately a problem for him and the whole country. If the Palinistas seize the GOP, they probably cannot take the White House. But their brand of no-prisoners partisanship sure can tie up Congress.” 

“She’ll have the loudest voice on this — that’s for sure,” ABC’s Cokie Roberts said on “GMA.” “I think she’s finding out if she’s running for 2012.”

She couldn’t ever win the nomination — right? “What all the discussions of Palin’s future miss is the way that Republican Party rules are made-to-order for a well-funded insurgent named Sarah to sweep the primaries before anyone figures out how to stop her. If Palin can maintain, say, 35-percent support in a multi-candidate presidential field, then she is the odds-on favorite for the GOP nomination,” Walter Shapiro writes for Politics Daily. “Palin would not be a lucky fringe candidate who won a caucus or two; she would be a universally known charismatic figure who could beat the party establishment in this conservative state.”

Setting a tone — Andrew Sullivan, at “The Daily Dish” blog: “She is a deeply disturbed individual whose grip on reality is very weak, and whose self-awareness is close to nil. This much is not a leap, let alone unfair. It is simply unavoidable if one examines her surreal invention of reality – even when she must surely know that the evidence exists out there to contradict her.”

“She’s a joke,” David Brooks said on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Added Gwen Ifill: “You cannot underestimate the degree that women will be drawn to her story.”

Sarah Palin isn’t the only one who can convene town halls. President Obama pulled it off earlier Monday — in China (but, alas, there’s no Mandarin word for “town hall”).

“At the Museum of Science and Technology Monday afternoon, President Obama took questions from a docile audience of more than 400 Chinese university students handpicked by officials of eight different Chinese universities,” ABC’s Jake Tapper, Yunji de Nies, Karen Travers, and Sunlen Miller report. “The town hall meeting was one of the few unscripted moments on the president’s trip. It was supposed to be carried live on Chinese state television but at the last moment, the Chinese government changed its mind and only local stations in Shanghai, and the White House web site, carried it live.”

Prodding, virtually or otherwise: “President Barack Obama gave China a pointed, unexpected nudge to stop censoring the Internet access of its own people, offering an animated defense of the tool that helped him win the White House — and telling his tightly controlled hosts not to be wary of a little criticism,” the AP’s Charles Hutzler reports.

Said Obama (maybe not totally sure what Twitter is?): “I have never used Twitter,” the president said. “My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone. But I am a big believer in technology and I’m a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity.”

(Does this mean that John McCain has closed the technology gap — and leaped ahead of his one-time rival?)

“The event was billed as an opportunity for Obama to reach beyond Chinese officialdom. But virtually every aspect of the meeting was scripted,” The Washington Post’s Anne E. Kornblut and Andrew Higgins report. “Obama’s audience, selected and coached by Chinese officials, was bused to the venue from eight universities. Questioned briefly as they were hustled into the hall, the students said they were mostly members of the ruling Communist Party.”

Hoping for more, per Time’s Michael Scherer and Austin Ramzy: “The official U.S. buzzword for President Obama’s visit to China this week is ‘pragmatic cooperation,’ but behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats have been aiming for something a little closer to subversion — at least when it comes to getting around China’s ‘great firewall’ of official censorship and information control.”

Also on the president’s Monday schedule — it’s Beijing. ABC’s Sunlen Miller: “In the evening Mr. Obama will sit down one-on-one with China’s President Hu Jintao in Yangyuan Hall of the Diaoyutair State Guest house. The two leaders will then have dinner in the Banquet Hall.”

For the president — another headache, both domestic and foreign: “At a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to levels not seen in decades and bailout recipient General Motors is cutting jobs in this country, the company CEO is considering using some of its $50 billion in taxpayer aid on its overseas operations, a possibility that has left critics and lawmakers outraged,” ABC’s Jake Tapper and Matthew Jaffe report.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., in Tapper’s “GMA” piece: “I don’t think most Americans believe that when the taxpayer bailouts were happening it was intended for that purpose. It was intended to protect the American economy — not take the money overseas.”

The first lady’s day: “First lady Michelle Obama will be in Denver on Monday as part of a leadership and mentoring initiative,” per TheDenverChannel.com. “She plans to meet with national and local women leaders at the governor’s mansion for a luncheon discussion. In the afternoon, they’ll all visit different schools in the area to discuss their careers and answer student questions.”

The veep’s day: Vice President Joe Biden “is finishing up a campaign swing today that will take him to fundraisers for four vulnerable incumbents in AZ and NM,” Reid Wilson writes in his new Hotline “Starting Lineup” column. “Biden has raised well over $1M for Frontline Dems, but his admin. has made them take vote after vote that the NRCC will eagerly use in ads next year. The stimulus, cap and trade, and now health care — all will find their way into independent expenditures before ’10 comes to a close.”

Still out there — Afghanistan strategy. Delay has itself become a storyline:

“Barack Obama is in danger of giving deliberation a bad name,” Doyle McManus writes in the Sunday Los Angeles Times. “When he ran for president, ‘no drama Obama’ prided himself on a campaign organization that never aired internal disputes and always closed ranks in common cause. Not in this process, which has turned into a very un-Obamalike battle of leaks and counterleaks.”

David Broder: “The more President Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees. But, as the old saying goes, to govern is to choose — and he has stretched the internal debate to the breaking point.”

Getting there? “A senior administration official told some reporters in Singapore that his ‘sense’ is that President Obama has ‘pretty much decided’ on which Af-Pak strategy he will pick but hasn’t yet made a firm decision and is still working out details,” ABC’s Jake Tapper reports. “The official said his sense was the President’s chosen strategy isn’t going to be everything the Pentagon wants.”

Pushback — per Politico’s Mike Allen: “White House senior adviser David Axelrod, who attends the deliberations but says he does not ‘have a seat at the table,’ told POLITICO that the impatience on the momentous decision is a symptom of today’s ‘A.D.D. political culture.’ ”

Next for Gitmo detainees: “A delegation from U.S. Bureau of Prisons is scheduled to tour and inspect the Thomson Correctional Center Monday as part of a White House proposal to buy the facility and use it to house some terror suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” Andrew L. Wang and Kristen Schorsch write in the Chicago Tribune.

Gov. Pat Quinn, D-Ill., said having the detainees in Illinois would be “good for our state, good for our economy and good for our public safety.” Countered Rep. Mark Kirk, D-Ill.: “As home to America’s tallest building, we should not invite Al Qaeda to make Illinois its number one target.”

(This is a defense? “I won’t second guess the Attorney General,” Secretary Clinton said on “This Week.”)

With the House and Senate back in session this week, it’s back to health care.

Only a little bit: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system as early as this week. The floor debate that follows is likely to divide his Democratic Party,” Bloomberg’s Kristin Jensen and Laura Litvan report.

Believe it? “Even though he doesn’t yet have an official cost estimate or promises of a filibuster-proof vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is confident he’ll be able to kick off debate on a massive health care reform measure before Thanksgiving,” Roll Call’s Emily Pierce reports.

Clipped and saved on the right: “[Democrats] far-reaching overhaul of the health-care system — which Congress is halfway toward enacting — would almost certainly make matters worse,” Robert J. Samuelson writes in his Washington Post column. “It would create new, open-ended medical entitlements that threaten higher deficits and would do little to suppress surging health costs. The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he’s doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.”

New from the abortion wars: The Center for Reproductive Rights is going up with a national cable and Washington, DC, ad (TV and online) blasting the Stupak amendment. “Don’t let Congress ban abortion coverage millions of women already have,” says the voice-over at the end.

Monday morning, in New York: “With the U.S. Senate set to begin debate on health care reform this week, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will be joined today by feminist activist icon Gloria Steinem, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and dozens of women leaders to protest Michigan Democratic Representative Bart Stupak’s amendment which passed the House of Representatives this month and would deny millions of women access to reproductive care.”

Even passing a bill doesn’t solve everything. Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown and Chris Frates: “After all the controversy over the public option, people might think that everyone can sign up right away if Congress passes health reform. Or that insurance premiums will go down. Or that they’ll be able to shop around for insurance if they don’t like what their company offers. Think again.”

In a similar vein: “Americans are worried about the fine print in the health care overhaul, an Associated Press poll says, and those concerns are creating new challenges for President Barack Obama as he tries to overcome doubts in Congress,” the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Trevor Tompson report.

Another new wrinkle: “Healthcare overhaul bills working their way through Congress could jeopardize laws in California and other states that require insurers to pay for treatments such as AIDS testing, second surgical opinions and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer patients,” the Los Angeles Times’ Lisa Girion reports. “What’s more, the federal legislation could make it virtually impossible for states to enforce other consumer protection laws, such as the right to appeal if an insurer denies coverage for a particular treatment.”

Couldn’t be clearer: Hillary Clinton is not running for governor of New York. “No, no, no. That’s another one of those stories that never will die and I hope maybe we can put it to rest today,” she told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

But Rudy Giuliani? “Leaning straight ahead,” he said, but making a decision soon. 

Money trail: “Supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba have contributed nearly $11 million to members of Congress since 2004 in a largely successful effort to block efforts to weaken sanctions against the island, a new report shows,” Lesley Clark reports for The Miami Herald. “In several cases, the report by Public Campaign says, members of Congress who had supported easing sanctions against Cuba changed their position — and got donations from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee and its donors.”

The Kicker:

“Why is the bald guy always the villain?” — Steve Schmidt, to Politico, on Sarah Palin’s new book.

“u guys are working double-triple time on this blundered-up stuff that they spin bc of my visits w press – while I apologize I say I love you guys!!!” — Palin, in an email to Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace, and Rick Davis, in October 2008.

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