Bad Branding: Sarah Palin's Reversal on the Use of the "R" Word.

Dear Friends:

Sarah Palin has aspirations of becoming the next president of the United States, although she conducts her branding campaign with all of the finesse of tightrope walker with a middle ear infection (it's a "visual") and a rectal itch.

Firstly, as a sensitive mother and an advocate of special needs children, she seizes upon a wonderful press opportunity to "right a social wrong" (and I'm inclined to agree, in principal with ceasing this informal and highly derrogatory use of the word 'retarded,' just as I greatly prefer the term 'challenged' to the older term of 'handicapped' for many reasons) demands Rahm Emanuel's firing from his staff position at the White House.

Secondly, when entertainer (using the term with a grin as I write it) and political commntator Rush Limbaugh uses the "R" word repeatedly, she drops down on him, showing conviction and something resembling consistency, strength and ideological integrity. It was, indeed, too good to last.

Thirdly, she ultimately winds up backpedaling to qualify (and excuse) Limbaugh's use of the offensive term. She is clearly demonstrating whorish ambivalence because she feels that her principles must take a back seat to her political aspirations -- she does not want to lose the voting power of Limbaugh's following, so she applied healing unguent on her potential offense to the notably delicate Rush Limbaugh.

Was this a good political move? Maybe, as the American public has a notoriously short memory and a macroscopically horizontal learning curve. But from a branding perspective, some of the worst things that you can do are to 1) appear inconsistent, 2) appear weak and subservient to the more powerful, 3) act in such a manner so as to cast doubt upon your integrity.

From a personal branding perspective, Sarah Palin took an opportunity to appeal to the sensitivities and hunger for integrity of the already-disillusioned US populace, and downgraded her brand from being a statesman and a champion of decency to being a mere, typical politician. Palin -- your best branding opportunity, your chance to define yourself as more than a simplistic, ambitious, attention-craving knucklehead in search of press coverage, book royalties and a fancy title, was scuttled. What a loss!

While I am certainly glad that you are not my client, I will not rescind my invitation to let you become a member of the National Networker Companies GICBC. I think you could learn something. It's http://twitlik.com/IN . Perhaps you should have someone click on the link for you.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. An interesting interview from MSNBC follows. Just click on:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-sarah-palin-has-d_b_451927.html