Sarah Palin's Alaska: Still political, still protesting too much

Last week, I noted that the web site for Sarah Palin's Alaska seems to exist primarily to argue (unconvincingly) that there's nothing political about a television show about a politician, even if that show has a web site that features a non-political “political blog” run by a Republican political operative.

Since then, Sarah Palin's Alaska's non-political political blog has featured a post claiming “The show has nothing at all to do with the 2012 Presidential campaign.” Another new post begins: “let's breakdown the game film and determine what was political and what was not political.” Wait: I thought there wasn't anything political about the show?

That's how absurd the claim that the show doesn't have anything to do with politics is: The people making it can't help accidentally debunking it. One post admits “Because of what she does for a living, Sarah Palin will make remarks during the show that will be explicitly and implicitly political.”

And sure enough, not five minutes into the first episode, Palin and family launched pre-emptive attacks on a journalist who has not yet written a book about Palin. Or, as the show put it, a “hit piece” from a “some dude” who is “out to get” Palin. Twenty minutes later: Another attack on him. Half an hour in, viewers were treated to some brief anti-tax rhetoric.

So why do Palin's people keep insisting the show doesn't have anything to do with politics, despite the obvious fact -- and their own admissions -- that it does? I suspect it's about avoiding accountability. If Sarah Palin does run for president, she'll probably want to avoid questions from legitimate journalists for as long as possible. After all, when she ventures outside the protective embrace of Fox News, she faces tough questions like “What newspapers do you read?” Insisting that she isn't doing anything political will make it easier for her to continue to avoid such challenges -- as long as people go along with the charade that a politician with a television show promoting her brand and attacking her perceived enemies and talking about politics, all while thinking of running for president, isn't doing anything political.