The key to the ultimate effectiveness of a documentary like “The Undefeated” is more than just how many people see it or even who those people are. Certainly that matters to some degree, but so does how the very existence of the documentary changes the national political conversation. Naysayers of the “The Undefeated” dismiss the film’s impact by telling us that only Palinistas are going to bother to buy tickets. In other words, since the film preaches to the choir there will be no new converts. Intentionally or not, that’s a fairly simplistic declaration that doesn’t take into account how the film will impact the political news narrative — an impact that’s already apparent to anyone paying attention.
Thanks to the overwhelming publicity the film has already generated (along with the fortuitous combination of the email dump), for the first time since Palin arrived on the national scene her impressive record as the Chief Executive of Alaska is finally getting some serious media attention. Today in the Daily Caller, Rick Manning has an excellent piece that touches on this very subject. In an editorial titled “Will the New Palin Movie Sway Voters?,” he closes with this:
Right now, most Americans are desperate for a leader who will be unfazed by the entrenched big-government culture that pervades D.C. regardless of which political party is in charge.
Most Americans look at the crowd of Republican candidates for the presidency and yearn for someone with guts, charisma and accomplishments.
Most Americans want someone who they can trust to do what is right for America regardless of the political risk to their own career.
“The Undefeated” reintroduces America to Sarah Palin, a person who has the exact combination of qualities that Americans know are needed to restore America’s greatness and primacy in the world.
Sarah Palin has already endured the worst that her opponents can throw at her, and has emerged through the fire undefeated — the face of the non-Washington, D.C. establishment Republican Party, with a proven record of breaking through political cultures that serve everyone but the American people.
It will be intriguing to see if Americans can get beyond the Tina Fey imitations to re-discover the Sarah Palin who they fell in love with as John McCain’s vice presidential candidate. For our nation’s sake, I hope they can.
The story of “The Undefeated” is the story the MSM chose to intentionally ignore as soon as Governor Palin arrived on the national scene and became a real threat to their plans to anoint Barack Obama president. Today, without the film even having been released, we’re already having the discussion the film wants us to have and the MSM doesn’t.
In that respect, I’d say “The Undefeated” is already a success.