COMMENTARY: The Polarizing "Palin Effect" in Politics

Former Alaska Governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will visit Columbia tomorrow as she continues to promote her latest book, America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag.  Books-A-Million is hosting a book signing for Palin at its Village at Sandhill store.  The event starts at 6:00 pm.

I'm no Palin fan so I was not among the people standing in line last night to get one of the 500 wristbands Books-A-Million distributed for Friday's event.  As I posted on my personal Facebook and Twitter pages, I drove past the book store on my way to a nearby Starbucks Coffee store and was amazed to see the ticket line stretching halfway around the store at 4:45 pm.  I'm not sure what time Books-A-Million started passing out the wristbands, but The State newspaper reported that by 5:30 pm, most of them had been distributed. I was SMH (Shaking My Head in Twitter language).   Even crazier, in my mind, was the fact that the newspaper r article also included this little tidbit:

"Sarah Palin fans began lining up Tuesday night about 10 p.m. at the Books-A-Million in Northeast Richland for the chance to meet the Republican star." Read the entire article.

I went from SMH to LMBO (Laughing My Butt Off)!!! Those folks need help and if they don't get it at Charter, I hope they get it somewhere. I would not spend a warm night-- let alone a cold one-- outside anyplace trying to get anything.

The discussion on my Facebook page was fairly quiet with all but one person choosing to comment agreeing with me.  The one dissenting comment came from Sonny Young-- who I do not know personally but, in the world of Facebook, is a "friend."

"A lot of you are still upset that you got your butts beat in the last election, wrote Young. "Wait until 2012."

CNN's New Odd Couple

Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer

Photo Credit: Art Streiber/CNN

Have you checked out CNN's new prime time offering, "Parker-Spitzer?"  The program wrapped up its first week on Friday night and already, some question how long the show will last.

For those of you who don't know, "Parker" is Kathleen Parker, the conservative Washington Post columnist; "Spitzer" is Eliot Spitzer, the liberal disgraced former governor of New York.

I watched half of the debut show last Monday, and was less than impressed.  Not so much because I think they don't have personalities-- they do.  But, they didn't appear to have mastery the TelePrompter, their crosstalk was often awkward and I didn't like the small table they sit at, almost on top of each other.  I also wasn't very interested in what they were discussing. Here are the "Opening Arguments" from Monday's show.