The Week: Most Recent Sarah Palin

WATCH: Sarah Palin's 5 most memorable Fox News moments

The Week — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:00:00 -0500

1. Sarah Palin vs. Family Guy
The animated sitcom included a joke about the former governor in an episode featuring a character played by Andrea Friedman, an actress with Down's Syndrome. Friedman's character says her mother is the "former governor of Alaska." Fox News host Bill O'Reilly gave Palin the chance to respond, and both tore into the show and its creator, Seth MacFarlane, for making a joke about the special needs community. In response, Friedman accused Palin of not having a sense of humor.

2. Sarah Palin vs. Dick Cheney
The former vice president had some relatively kind words for...

Sarah Palin's Fox News career: By the numbers

The Week — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 07:09:00 -0500

Sarah Palin's lucrative contract to provide political analysis for Fox News expired and, as was reported last week, wasn't renewed. Palin sources say Fox offered her a new contract and she declined; Howard Kurtz at CNN says that Fox made her a "lowball offer, and both sides agreed to an amicable separation." Kurtz and others in the media treated Palin's departure as the perfect occasion to write her political post-mortem, reflecting on what she meant and why her influence has declined from the boldest of boldface names to near-irrelevance. Palin fans dispute that — despite all the "phony...

Was Sarah Palin just a fad?

The Week — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 09:40:00 -0500

On Friday evening, Real Clear Politics broke the story that Sarah Palin would not be renewing her contract with Fox News. On Saturday, Howard Kurtz reported that the network made a "limited effort" to keep her, and offered her a less-generous contract than it had the first time around.

Kurtz concludes that "Palin's star had faded." Palin was undoubtedly a hotter commodity a few years ago than she is today. Still, I think the issue isn't so much that Palin's star has faded as it is that there are so many new GOP stars on the rise.

Before 2010, almost no one knew who Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley...

Sarah Palin and Fox News break up

The Week — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:25:00 -0500

Sarah Palin — the former governor of Alaska and 2008 vice presidential candidate — is leaving her perch at Fox News after a three-year run, reports Real Clear Politics. According to a source close to Palin, the one-time GOP star was offered a new contract, but turned it down. "She remains focused on broadening her message of common-sense conservatism across the country and will be expanding her voice in the national discussion," the source told RCP.

The news has already sparked much speculation (and joking) on where Palin will go from here:

Sarah Palin to host own show at Al...

12 potential titles for Sarah Palin's fitness book

The Week — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:45:00 -0400

Sarah Palin, the former 2008 vice presidential candidate and author of Going Rogue: An American Life, is reportedly authoring a new book. "Our family is writing a book on fitness and self-discipline focusing on where we get our energy and balance as we still eat our beloved homemade comfort foods!," she recently told People magazine. "We promise you what we do works." What should the new book be called? We asked readers to come up with some potential titles. Here are the best:

Why Fox News is souring on Sarah Palin: 3 theories

The Week — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:40:00 -0400

Sarah Palin's increasingly testy relationship with Fox News took a turn for the worse this week, when she wrote on her Facebook page that the cable news channel had canceled interviews she had been scheduled to give during the network's coverage of the Republican convention. Palin was supposed to appear on Fox on Wednesday, the same night that Paul Ryan, her successor as the GOP's vice-presidential candidate, was speaking. Fox executives say Palin got cut simply because time was tight after the convention was condensed from four days to three in the wake of Hurricane Isaac. But this is far...

Should the GOP let Sarah Palin speak at Mitt Romney's convention?

The Week — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 06:35:00 -0400

Mitt Romney has a Sarah Palin problem, says Peter J. Boyer in Newsweek. Just over a month before Republicans gather in Tampa, Fla., for their presidential nominating convention, Team Romney and the Republican National Committee haven't given a coveted speaking slot to the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee, or even invited her to the event. Palin and her sizable base of supporters are apparently miffed at the perceived slight, but featuring the former Alaska governor carries the risk that she'll go rogue on national TV — a discomfiting thought for the famously stick-to-the-script Romney...

Just how dull is Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp?

The Week — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 15:15:00 -0400

Bristol is back. Following on the heels of last year's polarizing stint on Dancing With the Stars, Bristol Palin returns to reality TV Tuesday night, this time on her own show, Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp. The series, which airs on Lifetime, follows the eldest Palin daughter's move from Alaska to Los Angeles. In tow are her toddler son Tripp and sister/babysitter Willow. The premiere finds Bristol starting work at a charity called Help the Children and arguing with a heckler at a bar. Among the choice adjectives critics are hurling at the show: "Inept," "just plain sad," "dull," and...

Deb Fischer's Nebraska upset: Proof Sarah Palin still has the golden touch?

The Week — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:04:00 -0400

The Republican establishment was reeling in Nebraska this week, after a little-known but respected state senator, Deb Fischer, pulled off a stunning upset in the GOP Senate primary. Fischer became the instant favorite in her red state over Democrat Bob Kerrey, a former senator and governor. Until just days before the Tuesday vote, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning was expected to cruise to the GOP nomination, and his only apparent threat was from state Treasurer Don Stenberg, who was backed by conservative groups like Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund. But Fischer had something the others...

A brief history of Bristol Palin's controversies

The Week — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:49:00 -0400

When Obama endorsed legal gay marriage this week, he cited his daughters Sasha and Malia as factors in his evolving stance, noting that some of their friends have gay parents in admirably committed relationships. That was enough to provoke Bristol Palin, who fired off a blog post chiding Obama for being influenced by what "teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee." Instead, she said, the president should have explained "to Malia and Sasha that, while [their] friends' parents are no doubt lovely people, that's not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage." This...

Sarah Palin's 'oddly charming' Today show appearance

The Week — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:08:00 -0400

Sarah Palin's one-day stint as co-host of the Today show was billed as a showdown of sorts between the former vice presidential nominee and Katie Couric, the interviewer who caused Palin endless embarrassment during the '08 campaign and who was co-hosting rival morning show Good Morning America on Tuesday. Sorry, Katie: Palin may have won this round, with critics hailing her performance as "oddly charming," "magnetic," and "poised." During her Today cameo, Palin predictably blasted President Obama, interviewed Tori Spelling, and weighed in on pop culture issues like Oprah Winfrey's failing OWN...

Sarah Palin vs. Katie Couric: Morning show edition

The Week — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:07:00 -0400

How does NBC top ABC's gambit of bringing in former Today star Katie Couric to co-host Good Morning America this week? By having one of Couric's most storied interview subjects, Sarah Palin, guest host the Today show on Tuesday. After their infamous 2008 interview, in which Couric stumped the vice presidential nominee simply by asking what newspapers she reads, the irony of pitting the two against each other anew "is just too sweet," says Chris Ariens at MediaBistro. When Palin was asked how it feels to face off against Couric when Today's ratings dominance is vulnerable for the first time...

Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin: The 'uncanny' side-by-side footage

The Week — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:09:00 -0400

The video: Long before the March 10 HBO premiere of Game Change, the movie adaptation of the eponymous book, HBO released the first photo of Julianne Moore in her role as former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Did she look the part? "You kinda sorta betcha!" said James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly. As the film proved, however, Moore's ability to channel Palin went well beyond looks, says Troy Patterson at Slate. Aside from nailing the accent and the intonation, she "aced the immodest task of humanizing the media beast called Sarah Palin," and delivered a performance "so compassionate...

Game Change: Fair to Palin or an offensive cartoon?

The Week — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:18:00 -0500

Game Change, the buzzy TV movie premiering Saturday night on HBO, may be racking up strong critical notices, but a certain former Alaska governor is unlikely to tune in. The film is based on John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's 2010 bestseller about the 2008 presidential race, zeroing in on the chapters devoted to John McCain's hasty decision to add Sarah Palin to his ticket and the crash-and-burn fate that befell the duo, played by Ed Harris and Julianne Moore. (Watch the trailer below.) Palin herself maintains she won't see the film, blasting it as "Hollywood lies." And while her PAC is urging...

HBO's Game Change: The 5 most controversial scenes

The Week — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:22:00 -0500

Viewers will have to wait until Saturday to see HBO's buzzy new telefilm Game Change, an adaptation of the gossipy 2010 book chronicling John McCain and Sarah Palin's tumultuous, ill-fated White House bid. But the movie, starring Ed Harris as McCain and Julianne Moore as Palin, is already outraging conservatives, who argue that it's disrespectful to the former running mates. "I won't watch it," McCain says. "I know it's based on a book that's totally unfair and untrue, especially to Sarah Palin." (Jay Roach, the movie's director, defends his work as "an incredibly well-researched...

Why Sarah Palin wants a brokered convention: 3 theories

The Week — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:07:00 -0500

Here we go again: Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is getting supporters and detractors all riled up, telling Fox News that if the GOP goes into its August convention without a clear nominee, we "could be looking at a brokered convention" and that "all bets are off." The Alaskan polarizer referred to other dark-horse candidates "willing to offer themselves up...in service to their country," adding ambiguously, "I would do whatever I could to help." Does that mean Palin wants the primaries to end in deadlock, with none of the four remaining candidates equipped with enough delegates...