Sarah Palin — Premature Product Launch?

Years ago I was involved in the Portland launch of a mobile phone company called VoiceStream Wireless (now T-Mobile). The company was determined to make a huge splash.

They opened a bunch of stores… spent an enormous amount of money on radio, TV, print, and transit advertising… rented Pioneer Square in downtown Portland for a launch party. It was beautifully orchestrated. Thousands of people bought their phones and signed up for service during the first week.

Only problem was, they didn’t have any near enough towers in place, so the phones didn’t work very well. A huge percentage of their early customers returned their phones and cancelled the service.

It took VoiceStream a long time to recover.

I’m reminded of this as more details emerge about Sarah Palin. Daughter’s pregnancy, husband’s (22 year old) drunk driving conviction, and other stories that are moving the discussion away from whether the McCain-Palin ticket is better than Obama-Biden.

Whether any of these details affect her ability to perform as VP or President is irrelevant now. What’s relevant is that the McCain camp appears unprepared to deal with their emergence.

The Republicans appear to have rushed the product launch without having all of their cell towers in place. The damage to their brand may take four years to repair.

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8 thoughts on “Sarah Palin — Premature Product Launch?

  1. But, all these questions that are being raised have nothing to do with Palin herself. Her husband’s (ancient) DUI isn’t hers. Her daughter’s pregnancy isn’t hers (we all know we don’t really have control over our children’s lives). It’s like asking questions about VoiceStream’s TV service, or internet service.

    People need to look at the *relevant* issues, instead of digging for dirt that has nothing to do with Palin’s readiness (or non-readiness) to lead.

  2. The assumption is that they aren’t prepared. I can’t imagine that their strategy would be to say, “Here are 4 things that you may not like about our candidate.”
    They may very well be prepared only time will tell.
    There seemed to be some reports that they talked to her in February. Just because the media didn’t put her name out there doesn’t mean she wasn’t on the list. And as you say the election got more interesting.

  3. what is going on at the united states media? i am from israel ,we also have all the left wing journalists who praise for “peace” but behave very dirty and unfair towards honest people who do not share their views – the power of the pen is now given to mean persons whose almighty “GOD” is the rating -something must be done to stop theses ssatans

  4. I think the whole “Sarah” thing is a bunch of bullshit. It clearly shows Republicans don’t know what their doing. Their like sand camels with their heads up their a***s! How can you vote for this woman?! She is no where near a fair orator, listen to her voice its obvious. America needs to wake up. Its obvious if she can’t take care of her home life how in the hell can she run a country? No one even looks at Alaska, period.

  5. Republicans only want to stay in office to keep the good ‘ole boys club going and continue making back door financial deals with terrorists countries.

  6. You are 100% right Phil. It is a bad marketing tactic to launch your product when it is not ready. That is why there is test marketing, but McCain thinks too highly of his judgment to indulge pollsters and others. The Republican core thinks this is a great choice–but they were voting Republican anyway. Let’s see if it plays in Peoria!

  7. Let Sarah speak.
    So far she has only read a prompt so ask some questions when she is not in earshot of a handler.

    Please don’t ask who is president of a certain country – let’s ask questions of philosophy and meaning. Q-” What really makes her mad?” “How should we deal with Russia?” “Is a mother at home to raise children important?” “What is the value of a strong dollar for imports or a weak dollar for exports – how do you balance the two views?” Do you bail out home owners with one house or a home owner that speculated on several houses?” “What is the value of assistance to one person and no assistance with a person with an income 10K over an arbitrary ‘cut off point'” ” How do you promote better care of orphans” “How do the American people address senior ‘rights'”
    There is so much more at stake than being a soccer mom.
    Let’s get down to real issues.
    Bob

  8. most responses above shun the crux of the matter: what pair do we choose, Obama + Bidden or McCain + Pailin? almost like choosing between any two similar but not-exactly products at the nearest shopping center, except that this one-shot choosing process is going to affect – adversely or otherwise – our life as well as the rest of the world’s. what pair do we have enuf substantial information about to make up our minds – and we still have time till election day itself. so till then, if we wish to help ourselves, let’s gather as much info as we can.