by Jason Daniel Baker

Created on: February 23, 2010   Last Updated: March 03, 2010

If you have seen the disaster that is the on screen persona of Governor Sarah Palin you know one thing if you know nothing else: She is much, much less of a disaster when she gets more than one take to make a soundbite, is better when reading prepared text than answering questions on the fly and at her best when she knows what the questions are before she is asked them.

The Republican Party has discovered this after a disastrous couple of years of trying to groom Palin, first to be Vice-President of the United States then to be President of the United States.

Catastrophies have followed questions about her husband's membership in the Alaska Independence Party and jokes about her daughter's indiscretions have led to Mrs.Palin becoming embroiled in feuds with smart-guy talk-show hosts who are more well-practiced in the art of making another public figure look stupid even as they grapple with scandals of their own. In other words Sarah Palin came out second best in her feud with David Letterman.

In a stage-managed environment like a well-funded news channel anyone can come up with a dramatically improved presentation. Palin, who had a brief career as a TV sportscaster in her native Alaska is well-placed to raise her stock in the years leading up to the 2012 presidential election utilizing the platform of FOX News, a place where she will likely never be thrown for a loop. No one is going to ask her if her child with Down's Syndrome was actually given birth to by her daughter Bristol sired by incest with Sarah's husband Todd, Bristol's father (This rumour, ill and in poor taste as it is, would have less life if so much else weirdness about Palin had not turned out to be true).

The producers at FOX will make her look and sound more authoritative as they do much of her thinking for her which in her case can only be a good thing. Look at what they did for Bill O'Reilly, formerly a tabloid TV journalist and Sean Hannity, host of a small radio show. Whatever you think of O'Reilly or Hannity you cannot deny that they have been very successful within the milieu of right-wing media.

This network has been building up an audience within what would become Palin's base of support when she ran for vice-president of the United States in 2008 and continues to "inform" that base through each critical day of the Barack Obama presidency. You can call it The Tea Party channel or whatever you want to call it. But its loyal base of viewers love Palin

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