Did Sarah Palin really deserve that?

[ I WAS A BIG SUPPORTER OF SARAH PALIN ]

By Monica Showalter, AMERICAN THINKER

I can’t think of anything more spiteful or “mean-spirited” than the exclusion of former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin from the funeral of the late Sen. John McCain.

According to Breitbart News, not only was she asked not to come to any of the numerous McCain events where she could have been present, she was actually asked to stay away.

Who the hell did that?

Since the Breitbart report, the McCain camp has backtracked and says that Sarah would not be bounced by the security guard if she actually came. According to People Magazine, the exclusion of this woman who was so significant in the life of John McCain was all the work of Cindy McCain, not John McCain. But its sourcing was anonymous, making it sound like a possible attempt to paper over a public relations disaster, which would tell us that that is what it is. What supports this theory is that the New York Times reported earlier that McCain planned every aspect of his funeral beforehand, every single aspect, every detail, meticulously excluding President Trump and featuring his opponents for effect, all of whom would praise ‘civility‘ in contrast to Trump. The Times didn’t get around to asking about Palin, but something tells me this Palin exclusion was McCain’s doing and the family wanted to honor it, so they’re letting Cindy take the flak. Sarah Palin is the only one who really knows, and she’s not saying.

But just the fact that Palin is being excluded pretty well puts a lie to the idea that McCain was all in for civility and inclusiveness, let along gratitude. Despite his distant war heroism, which was real enough, he also comes off as spiteful, petty, and mean, the worst aspects of him out there. I can understand the exclusion of President Trump from the funeral, given that he said some things to McCain that he shouldn’t have said during campaign 2016 and was always at odds with him politically. But Palin? Who has always been so gracious and supportive of McCain? Sarah who always defended McCain as a maverick when he went off the conservative reservation and even put in some campaign appearances for him when he ran for reelection as Senator post 2008?

This I cannot fathom.

Such an exclusion can only be called the height of ingratitude.

Sarah, remember, had a very promising career in politics until she got involved with the McCain campaign as his running mate for president. First woman to be nominated to a major Republican ticket, which alone should be worth allowing her into the funeral, and which could be a point of pride for McCain to showcase his willingness to promote women, and Palin doesn’t even merit that.

Palin rally for McCain, September 2008, Carson, California

Palin campaigned her heart out for McCain, as my own pictures show, yet career went downhill when the press descended on her like a ravenous bunch of grasshoppers, falsely painting her as dumb, painting her as a rube, and painting her as a mockable outsider, a pioneer woman, which in days past, had been a designation of honor. The attacks on her family magnified the pain; somehow the exclusion of presidential children from press feeding frenzies never applied to Palin’s children.

It wasn’t just the press attacks, though, which McCain did little about. It was the investigations that followed from the increasingly ravenous left, phony things about emails and campaign violations, which forced her to have to constantly defend herself in court at a cost greater than she could bear. Her only means of getting rid of the problem was to quit politics and become a news commentator. Some ending.

McCain bore a great responsibility for this career-ruin because he had a staff that couldn’t stop sniping at her from the inside, swamp-style.

Public relations staffer Nicolle Wallace was the one who set up Palin with a humiliating interview with news anchor Katie Couric. That was the time when Couric flooded her with obscure questions of foreign-policy arcana, not designed to interest viewers for their content, but to paint Palin as stupid. (Note to self: How we got Trump). Wallace was a friend of Couric’s, see, but Palin was apparently misled about the nature of the interview, understanding it to be lighthearted fare, not an international relations final exam. Even the ideologically hostile Gawker noticed how dishonest Wallace’s defense of herself in the aftermath of that fiasco was:

“Note that Palin didn’t actually use the phrase “working gals.” Rather, Wallace combines Palin’s words with even dumber ones, heightening the sense that the Thrilla from Wasilla is totally off her rocker.”

Wallace then wrote a novel about a mentally ill character that she based on Palin.

McCain on camera defended Palin against these grotesque attacks, including a 2012 TV movie called “Game Change,” saying: “Why there continues to be such an assault on a fine and decent person, Sarah Palin … They continue to disparage and attack her person. I admire and respect her, I’m proud of our campaign and I’m humbled by the fact that I was able to give her [the Republican vice-presidential nomination].” And, Palin was steadfast in believing McCain, saying the blame was solely the work of unworthy staffers, refusing to suspect he wasn’t as loyal to her as she was to him.

But there were signs early on from him that something was not right: Recently, Judicial Watch got records released showing that McCain was behind the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups with a top aide on record as urging their financial ruin. Palin of course, was very close to the Tea Party. Then there was the McCain role in the Steele dossier to take down Trump, another outsider Palin had affinity with. When Fusion GPS couldn’t get anyone in the press to print its false and dirty dossier, they made it a topic for news coverage by having McCain go abroad to obtain it, and then present it to then-FBI director James Comey. From there, the issue was live.

I did a lot of reporting on Palin before she got famous from her association with McCain – the links are all broken, but you can see what the topics were here.

Palin, before McCain got the hooks in, was anything but dumb. She was warm, down to earth, witty and fun to talk with, a very recognizable person, what Kurt Schlichter would call a ‘normal.’ She all in for American greatness, a genuine populist who was unafraid to take on the crony capitalists of big oil, yet very much in favor of “drill, baby, drill.” That stance was the very thing that brought the Venezuelan regime and all the world’s petrotyrants to their knees. In fact, it was arguably the base economic activity that was the forerunner to the rise of Trump.

But after watching her career sink, and allowing his staff to do a sneaky number on her, McCain was the one who looked a bit tarnished. Palin still stood by him, though, and actually campaigned for him in Arizona when he ran for reelection as Senator in the aftermath.

Then came the “perpetual gut-punch.” After all that exhausting campaigning and all that loyalty, McCain got word out that he really wished he didn’t take her on as his running mate. Palin swallowed that, but made it clear she was hurt by the humiliation.

Something was going on with that one, because Palin brought him votes – apparently, just not the votes he wanted from the kind of people he wanted. And that’s sad.

One wants to honor McCain for his service and heroism, but this doesn’t cut it. In fact, it leaves a very sour note. What it leaves his funeral suggesting is that his death is the end of an era. For many Americans, this kind of ingratitude can only mean good riddance.