Here’s a very long soft-focus profile of Sarah Huckabee Sanders from Jason Schwartz in Politico. It’s called “The Puzzle of Sarah Sanders: How a bright, competent and likable young operative became the face of the most duplicitous press operation in White House history.”
If you don’t feel like reading this article, I’ll give away the answer: There is no puzzle. She’s an apparatchik. Her job is to speak untruths from power. Actually being effective at delivering propaganda generally requires being bright, competent, and likable. And like many bright, competent, and likable people, she enjoys being close to power. This is a boring thesis, but I think I’ve cracked the code.
Politico needs to flesh things out, so we get the hackneyed explanation that to truly understand Sanders you have to understand where she comes from. One good thing about this approach is it allows them to use an important photo of her father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, in very short shorts and a headband.
There are tales of young Sarah tagging along with her pop to campaign at county fairs and eavesdropping at the kitchen table while the foul Dick Morris explained crosstabs. Spending even a few minutes in the family kitchen with Morris would ruin most human beings forever but Sarah was a hearty soul and soldiered on to become a deeply cynical political operative. It’s just like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
Schwartz laughably suggests that the stain to Sanders’ credibility from lying constantly for Trump will interfere with getting big-money book deals or TV roles after she leaves her current gig. LOL. Meanwhile, Leslie Rutledge pops up and says that the chattering classes back home are wondering whether Sanders will come back to Arkansas and run for office.
Schwartz notes that Sanders seems rather indifferent to ideology and concludes that she is motivated by a loyalty to Trump in the same manner that she was once loyal to her daddy. This is a mildly creepy conclusion to reach, and unnecessarily complex. The simple explanation will suffice: She is a cynical political operative doing her job.
The Huckster sneaks in this vintage whine: “The print press in Arkansas