Suzi Parker's Bizarre India Today Conclave Overview

Writing in the newly Huffington Post acquired Politics Daily, Suzi Parker offered up some rather strange analysis about Governor Palin's upcoming trip to India. She began:

The jokes are already flying as Sarah Palin prepares to embark on a trip to India later this month, and more are surely to come. Will she rock a sari? Perhaps guest star in a Bollywood movie? Or bathe in the Ganges for a photo op?

What?

The link Parker provides to back up her claim that "the joke are already flying" is for one, non-funny "joke" Jimmy Falon told about the trip. That isn't any "joke" cited by Parker in the first paragraph however. No, those are all her.

Parker writes, "will she rock a sari?" I don't know, did Obama "rock" a dhoti kurta on his last trip to India? Who cares?

Then she wrote, "Perhaps guest star in a Bollywood movie?" Don't quit your day job, Suzi. There is nothing funny about your faux jokes, not to mention the fact that they don't make any sense. Has the governor ever starred in a Hollywood movie? No, she hasn't... A better guess is that Suzi Parker wants her readers to think of Governor Palin as a "celebrity" and not a serious political figure. It stands to reason, considering the governor's views are diametrically opposed to roughly 99% of Huffington Post writers. These are people who don't want Americans to hear Governor Palin's message, so they do their best to drown it out with this noise.

Finally, Parker ends her pathetic routine with "or bathe in the Ganges for a photo op?" I understand that bathing in the Ganges is something certain Indians take part in (and certain Westerners join in, usually of the celebrity variety, and usually while on vacation) but why even say that? For a "photo op" no less... Sure, Governor Palin bathing for a photo op, riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Would Suzi Parker make these kinds of jokes about Tim Pawlenty? What about Mike Huckabee who is currently on more televisions across the country, more frequently due to his show, Fox segments, and commercials. Would she ask the same of him, since theoretically one could consider him a "celebrity?" The answer is probably no, but then again, I don't see Suzi Parker pumping out two articles a week about Mike Huckabee either.

After Parker was finally done delivering lame one-liners, she gets to the actual overview of the upcoming trip. Then adding:

Representatives for India Today did not return e-mails about Palin's trip. India Today is the country's most diversified media group, with interests in magazines, newspaper, television, radio, Internet, books and music.

It is unclear if she is getting paid to appear, but Palin usually charges upwards of $100,000 for such speaking engagements, according to various news accounts.

So, because other "news" accounts exist (all pushing the same meme) Parker felt it necessary to repeat them. Suzi Parker has no idea what the arrangements of this event are, nor does anyone else outside those who actually planned it. To bring up the topic, with no facts what-so-ever, is to do the same thing she did with that opening paragraph. She's merely leading her readers by repeating false narratives. It doesn't matter what the arrangements are. The fact is that public figures get paid to speak at events. The only difference between Governor Palin and anyone else is that the media doesn't talk about those others speaking "fees."

Parker continues:

Palin has traveled outside the United States only a few times since Sen. John McCain chose her as his running mate in 2008. At that point, she had only traveled to the Middle East to visit U.S. troops. Since then, she has given a speech in Hong Kong and visited Haiti alongside Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham.

She omits the trip Governor Palin took to visit wounded troops in Germany in 2007, and the trip to Kosovo the governor took in 2009. But who cares about details when you've got memes to push?

Then she writes (emphasis mine):

An article by the magazine on the conclave website states: "Her visit to India has generated immense buzz in U.S. political circles over if she will run for president in 2012. Palin is reportedly shy of traveling abroad but her keynote address at the India Today Conclave 2011 is seen as an attempt to articulate foreign policy where she was found wanting in her 2008 bid for V-P, say some experts."

Note to Suzi Parker... Doing constructive things with one's time, versus traveling for the sake of travel, does not mean one is shy. Governor Palin's trips overseas have all been well planned, meaningful trips. No, she is not wasting her hours jet-setting with the international elite, and thank God for that.

Parker's column continues by noting some actual details of the conclave, but then she throws this in for good measure:

For a governor who served only 31 months in office, Palin is in fairly auspicious company.

There is a correction listed at the bottom of the article that says:

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated how long Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska. She was governor for 31 months, not 18 months.

It was actually 32 months (Dec 2006 - July 2009) but Suzi proved in her first version to be severely mathematically challenged, so I'll give her a break on that one month.

Perhaps she was taking the downplaying bit too far when she guesstimated that Governor Palin had only served for 18 months. But this fits into a pattern because she also neglects to mention that Governor Palin was on the 2008 Republican Presidential ticket. Such is the theme of Suzi Parker's piece.

I hate to tell anyone how to do their job but this article could have been interesting without all of the swipes and insulting "jokes." The event, India, and Governor Palin are all very interesting topics. However, if Suzi Parker were to get past her impulse to frame Governor Palin in a certain light, and deal with her on a respectable level, her readers might accidentally see who Governor Palin actually is, and they just might hear her message.