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The Defeated

Divided into three acts, the film makes the case that despite the now cliched label, Palin was indeed a maverick who confronted the powerful forces lined up against her to achieve wide-ranging success in a short period of time. The second part of the film’s message is just as clear, if more subjective: that Sarah […]

Divided into three acts, the film makes the case that despite the now cliched label, Palin was indeed a maverick who confronted the powerful forces lined up against her to achieve wide-ranging success in a short period of time. The second part of the film’s message is just as clear, if more subjective: that Sarah Palin is the only conservative leader who can both build on the legacy of the Reagan Revolution and bring the ideals of the tea party movement to the Oval Office.

Rife with religious metaphor and unmistakable allusions to Palin as a Joan of Arc-like figure [bold mine-DL], “The Undefeated” echoes Palin’s “Going Rogue” in its tidy division of the world between the heroes who are on her side and the villains who seek to thwart her at every turn. ~Scott Conroy

Palin’s documentary is supposed to “reintroduce” her to the public. It sounds as if it takes the her most tiresome, grating themes of victimization, resentment, and grievance politics and puts them in cinematic form. Maybe this is intended as a prelude to a presidential bid, or maybe it isn’t, but if it is I don’t see how it is going to work.

A sympathetic documentary changes nothing, and it isn’t likely to persuade well-disposed Republicans to believe suddenly that she is qualified for an office when they previously assumed that she wasn’t. As for unsympathetic Republicans, of which there are more daily, the documentary will come across as the latest in the series of embarrassing cries for attention and exercises in self-promotion. The documentary will become fodder for mockery, and it will be one more piece of evidence that Palin should not be allowed anywhere near the national ticket ever again. Palin would retain her dedicated cadre of admirers and supporters, and they would be enough to have a significant impact on the primaries, but rarely would they be enough to help her win anywhere.

Obviously, a Palin candidacy would be a gift to Romney. It is exactly what he and his advisors have been wanting for months, and it would be ruinous for the candidates that are trying to position themselves as the viable alternative to Romney. GOP and movement elites will rally to Romney to stop her, and the larger part of the party that cannot stand her or simply wants to have a fighting chance in 2012 will do what they can to stop her from getting very far in the primaries. For once, there actually will be something of a conspiracy to “get” Palin, and barring something extraordinary happening it’s hard to see how she does very well. If both Bachmann and Palin run, Pawlenty may as well give up.

P.S. The Joan of Arc comparisons are strange, and for some reason people have made these comparisons ever since the 2008 campaign, and if they are intentional they are even more odd in a documentary called The Undefeated. In terms of the contemporary politics of her time, Joan of Arc wasn’t just defeated. She was put on trial and executed for heresy, and it was only five centuries later that she was formally canonized. I can’t imagine that this is the image that Palin and her fans want to project. After all, a Joan of Arc comparison implies that Palin’s cause might eventually succeed, but she will personally not be part of the final victory.

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