Palin Goes To Hong Kong…What Will She Say?

Hong Kong, China nightline.

Yep, you heard that right: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will travel to Hong Kong for her first commercial speaking engagement, a keynote address at the CLSA Investors’ Forum September 23. Given that foreign policy was a soft spot for Palin during the 2008 campaign, this will give her a chance to boost her foreign policy cred (and she’ll be able to see Taiwan from her hotel room).

It could also boost her business cred, while she’s at it, depending on what her speech focuses on…”Our keynote speakers are notable luminaries who often address topics that go beyond traditional finance such as geopolitics,” a CLSA spokeswoman said in a statement. Past luminaries include Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Alan Greenspan.

This will be Palin’s first trip to Asia and her first major international speaking engagement. What will she say? The event will be closed to media, but we’ll almost certainly get some kind of word about what she says. Here are six things to watch for:

Sarah Palin, Inc.

The notorious, no-show Alaskan governor has signed up with Washington Speakers Bureau.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks during the Republican Governors Association conference November 13, 2008 in Miami, Florida. Palin delivered remarks about her feelings on the future of the Repulican party.

With the exception of occasional messages from her Facebook and Twitter accounts, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin hasn’t been in the public eye since she left office last month.

That’s about to change. Mike Allen of Politico.com reports that she has signed up with Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents everyone from George Bush to Bob Woodward and Colin Powell, to help sort through the nearly 1,000 requests for speeches that have poured in. The speeches Ms. Palin will give will range from paid appearances for six-figure fees to charitable and campaign events where little or no fee will be charged.

What Is Sarah Palin Doing Next? Addressing Deal Makers in Hong Kong, of Course

CLSA, the company with the 'Opening Doors' policy, will close media access during Sarah Palin's CLSA Investor Forum keynote speech on September 23, 2009.

Quick: what do Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have in common?

Quite possibly nothing right now. But come Sept. 23, if all goes according to plan, all three will have been keynote speakers at the annual CLSA Investors’ Forum in Hong Kong.

CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, a Hong Kong brokerage house, announced Monday that the former Republican candidate for the U.S. vice presidency and, until she resigned last month, governor of Alaska, will address the Sept. 21-25 event in what a news release called “her first international speaking engagement outside North America.”

Palin, who has never been to East Asia and isn’t exactly famous for her mastery of finance and international affairs, might seem an unusual choice for an event that, according to CLSA, is “Asia’s premier investment conference providing unrivaled corporate access to 1,300 global fund managers from 32 countries, representing more than $10 trillion in funds under management.” CLSA spokeswoman Simone Wheeler says orators at the forum often come from outside the securities industry. “Our keynote speakers are always notable luminaries, and they usually address subjects that go beyond finance, such as geopolitics,” she says. “Our goal is to provide investors a diversity of views.”

Sarah Palin’s Obama Obsession

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin ranting to the crowds during her speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Today [Saturday] marks the one-year anniversary of John McCain’s introduction of Sarah Palin to the international stage, in Dayton, Ohio, a political battleground that the Republicans desperately needed for another shot at the White House. They lost Ohio big (by more than 300,000 votes), and they lost the election even bigger–mostly thanks to Palin’s erratic, if not downright bizarre, performance as the vice-presidential nominee.

In many ways, it seems longer than a year. Much longer. Palin went back to Alaska, where her life turned into a nasty soap opera. There were revelations from McCain’s staff about her behavior on the campaign trail; she was hit with a myriad of ethics charges (some of which, contrary to Palin’s claims otherwise, stuck); she bailed on her relationship with the state’s legislators and played politics with the federal stimulus plan; she got into a dog fight with Levi Johnston; she began a series of odd Twitterings, replete with a six-part ramble on Mommy Bear; she resigned amid chaos and deception, only to return as a diva on Facebook.

And through it all she has been obsessed with Barack Obama.

Joe McGinness To Write Book on Sarah Palin?

Author Joe McGinniss

Author Joe McGinniss has a new literary agent, having signed on with Dave Larabell of the David Black Agency after parting company with David Vigliano last spring.

According to several sources, Mr. Larabell has spoken with publishers about a book Mr. McGinnis has been wanting to write about former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the subject of a cover story he wrote for an issue of the now-defunct Portfolio back in March. Mr. Larabell declined to comment on what Mr. McGinniss—best known for the 1983 true-crime thriller Fatal Vision and the groundbreaking campaign book The Selling of the President 1968—is currently working on, but said that at the moment, “there is no deal in place.”

Alaskans Wonder What the Hell Were They Thinking With Sarah Palin?

The pattern is inescapable: Sarah Palin takes disagreements personally, and swiftly deals vengeance on enemies, real or perceived.

What a difference a year makes. A year ago today, after being stunned by McCain’s VP pick, I had finished writing a piece called “What Is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.” It’s hard to imagine a time when the country was asking “Sarah Who?” but it was only one short year ago.

One of the selling features of Sarah Palin was her astronomically high approval ratings in the state of Alaska. After all, how could a governor have positives in the high 80s or low 90s and be anything less than an ace in the hole? So, McCain must have thought. The answer became obvious, and embarrassing to those of us in the Last Frontier. We weren’t paying attention.

During the gubernatorial debates in Alaska in 2006, Palin said to her opponent, the infinitely smarter and more qualified Andrew Halcro, “Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you spout off facts, figures and policies and I’m amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, ‘Does any of this really matter?’ ” That may have been her shrewdest political statement. To Alaskans at that moment in time, it didn’t matter. She was cute, she was spunky, she was gonna take it to the man, she had a scrumptious family, she was an underdog, she was one of us, and she had….charisma! That’s all we needed to know.

Why Are America’s Event Planners All Out To Get Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin

Where in the world is Sarah Barracuda Palin? Alaska’s sultry superstar has once again mysteriously disappeared right before she was scheduled to speak at one of her very important fundraisers, this one so slutty teenagers who get knocked up have no choice but to have the baby unless they want to get the ol’ parental approval for an abortion.

Now normally Sarah’s habit of shirking her duties is limited to elected terms in office, but ever since becoming an unemployed publicity hound and Facebook junkie, Palin’s erratic behavior has instead metamorphosed into canceling paid speaking engagements at the very last minute while pretending she was never invited in the first place.

SarahPAC Taken To Task By Feds For Illegal Contributions

OOPS: Mistakes on political donations blamed on software.

SarahPAC must provide federal investigators with detailed financial information due to inaccuracies.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin’s political action committee gave excessive contributions to two well-known Republicans and also is facing demands from the federal government for more detailed financial information on a number of fronts.

The deficiencies are highlighted in a five-page letter sent Aug. 19 by a Federal Elections Commission staffer to SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford. The FEC wants answers by Sept. 24.

“Failure to adequately respond by the response date noted above could result in an audit or enforcement action,” FEC campaign finance analyst Allen Norfleet wrote.

Palin Misses Another Expected Public Appearance

Sarah Palin backs out once again.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not be delivering a speech at an anti-abortion rights event this evening as expected, making this the fourth time this year anticipated public comments from Palin have been scratched.

The Alaska Family Council has for weeks advertised that Sarah Palin would speak at a fundraiser and petition signing to promote an Alaska ballot measure that aims to prevent teenagers from getting an abortion without notifying their parents. Organizers only learned on Wednesday that Palin is out of the state and does not plan on attending the event, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Sarah Palin Comes Out In Support Of Fox’s Glenn Beck

Sarah Palin on the Glenn Beck show.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is jumping into the fray over Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck, whose assertion last month that President Barack Obama is “a racist” led to a boycott of the companies advertising on his show, and ultimately, led some to drop their sponsorship of his show.

Palin on Wednesday had this to say on Facebook, the social networking Web site that, since she stepped down as governor, has been the former Republican vice presidential candidate’s main platform for communicating: “FOX News’ Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House.