"She wants to rehabilitate her image and get everyone to love her again," says Larry Persily, a former Palin aide. "If I were advising her, say it once and then stop. You protest too much. You start to look a little foolish."
But Dan Schnur, who runs the University of Southern California's Institute of Politics, says the challenge is simple: "Feed the media beast or it's going to feed on you."
Who is Larry Persily? Kurtz added a little detail when he forwarded another Persily insult at article’s end:
With the campaign over, Palin seems more than happy to fill the media void. "Being in the limelight is good," says Persily, a former Anchorage Daily News editor. "She's smitten by it, just like McCain was smitten by her. She loves the attention."
Persily showed up on The Huffington Post during the fall campaign, most notably questioning her vice-presidential debate facts. Another item, cross-posted on the site Alaska Dispatch, mocked Palin as an airhead:
Will Palin continue her tactics of "ask, but don’t expect an answer"? Will she avoid specifics as much as possible? Or will she stumble through multiple commas for want of a period to end her sentence, as she did in her CBS interview with Katie Couric?
Garrison Keillor made light of the governor’s Couric interview during a presentation Monday evening in Washington, D.C., when he was asked if he had any advice for the candidates. Yes, he said, "think in complete sentences."
Persily worked in Alaska's lobbying office in D.C. for about a year in 2007-08, but he also worked for four years in the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles (who served from 1995 to 2003), as noted in the State of Alaska press release on his hiring in 2007:
Persily has an extensive background in public service and with the press. Among other positions, from June of 1999 to June of 2003, Persily served Alaska as Deputy Commissioner for the Department of Revenue.
The Post also used Persily to knock Palin on September 19:
Nor has she proven particularly attentive to the details of public policy. "She's not known for burning the midnight oil on in-depth policy issues," said Larry Persily, a former journalist who was associate director of the governor's Washington office until the spring.
He also trashed her on Hardball, delighting Chris Matthews on October 10 as he agreed she was an ignorant, immature demagogue:
MATTHEWS: Do you think she should be vice president?
PERSILY: No, I don't think she should be vice president. She's not qualified. She doesn't know what she thinks she knows. She's too immature politically and just doesn't bring anything to the ticket other than this cheerleader....
PERSILY: But, as she talked, she can really get people behind her without dealing with the facts.
MATTHEWS: You're talking about a demagogue?
PERSILY: Yes, maybe a small 'd' on demagogue.
A Washington Post reader might only suspect this degree of hostility from the dishy quotes, not from Kurtz, who failed to describe adequately the depths of Persily's pique.
