Sarah Palin Underweight, Anxious, Needed "Emergency Help" For Thinning Hair: New York Times

Update: Sarah Palin's hairdresser speaks! 9 days after the Times pondered the possible reasons for Sarah Palin's sudden withdrawal from the Alaskan governorship, at least one thing has become clear: it wasn't really a hair emergency. "It wasn't like I did an intervention,'' Jessica Steele, Palin's long time friend and hairdresser, told the Boston Globe in a phone interview from her Wasilla beauty parlor, the Beehive. "I think the combination of traveling and just being down there in the lower 48... We needed to get her back to shiny.''

***

The New York Times has a lengthy story on Sarah Palin in Monday's edition, examining the personal and political pressures that may have driven her to resign her governorship.

The article, like many others before it, describes Palin's political operation as largely dysfunctional, to the point that prominent Republican adviser Fred Malek felt the need to personally urge her to have someone "set up a mechanism so you can return calls."

"You are getting a bad rap," he recalled saying. "Important people are trying to talk to you. And she said, 'What number are they calling?' She did not know what had been happening."

The piece describes Palin as obsessed with her critics, and under severe strain from souring relationships with Alaska legislators and encounters with the national media and paparazzi. Perhaps the strangest details of the story come from accounts from Palin's friends about her physical deterioration:

Friends worried that she appeared anxious and underweight. Her hair had thinned to the point where she needed emergency help from her hairdresser and close friend, Jessica Steele.

Read the full story here.

Comments

[Steward Clinton]

Call me a bleeding heart Libral, but I truly feel sorry for her. I pray she takes the time necessary to contemplate, meditate, and research herself, her motivations, the secessionist movement, her mentors, her involvement with hate groups, pretense at being qualified, lies and smears against agendas that would preserve our nation, her daughter...etc. and allow it to change her for the better.

[MarianneEvans11]

Why feel or be sorry for someone who has the best of everything at her fingertips and doesn't know how or when to draw on them. She is headed in the wrong direction. When she was asked to be VP running mate for McCain, her answer should have been Thank You, but my family and the state of Alaska come first after me, myself and I. The three most important words in the dictionary...me, myself & I. If you cannot function well enough, the others lose you! I have learned to take care of one self first and then the rest will come easy or at least will be doable.

Sarah got too caught up in the limelight of campaigning and the "thrill of the cheers from the crowds". She needs to step back and reassess where she is going and where she is taking her family, if she cares and if they care about her well being. Money is not the answer! And yes, I agree with Levi Johnson that Sarah "wants it all"! She will pay a huge price!

[FrankenPC]

Same here. I really don't like to see anyone suffer. Even my enemy.

Wait...doesn't it say something about that in the bible? And I'm not even a religious extremist!

[ceoco]

The NEW YORK TIMES has really helped our economy. Oh i forgot there going broke!

[gatogato]

Sarah - if you can't take the heat - stay in Alaska.

[sippewissett]

Actually I think she will find it much "chillier" in the lower 48 than in Alaska. She will find that she can't get away with attending events with no press allowed as a standard modus operandi. She's great when she can control the milieu, like speaking at a friendly anti-abortion dinner, but hopeless when asked more broadly for a point of view, philosophy, platform or strategy -- and certainly can't stand the scrutiny of the skeptical.

[rhondadavis28]

ok here it is in about 5 minutes:

@msnbc_tv Video: Maddow on Palin’s bailin’ http://bit.ly/ZCsUf

the truth will set us free

[ComeNow]

So much underlying hate in all this. It actually starts to define the word "progressive". The right can learn something here about hate.

[Buddy McCue]

Are you surprised that there might be animosity for this woman? Why do you think that might be?

If your answer is "irrational hatred," then you should try a little harder to see things as they are.

[AndSoItGoes]

I'm just as glad she stepped out of politics even if it is just for the moment. Definately not a fan of hers but amid all of the speculation as to the "real" reason why she "quit" on her elected obligation, has anyone considered that she may be ill? Would not wish that on anyone but if she is, understand the need to minimize the stress.

[dimplesmile7]

Yes, she better get out of the political game before she end up a baldheaded woman with crossed eyes.

[tubette]

am patiently waiting to see this somewhere besides here.....

[sunnybunny]

Like the "entertainment" section?

[peacegurl48]

The article shows her to be immature, thin-skinned, unprofessional, reactive and vindictive. She could never handle the critcism that Obama and other Presidents have endured. I pray she gets a Talk Show on FOX.

[abmabardy]

yes, yes, but only if it takes her to the 2012 Repub presidential nomination.
We must pray for that, too.

[wayne64]

Palin! Would be a great lead in to.. Huckabee!

[abmabardy]

uh, Wayne, you did get my point, right? that Palin in'12 would be a huge gift ,,,, for DEMOCRATS!

[AllenShadow]

Palin's an amateur, plain and simple. She was way over her head when McCain tapped her for the number two spot. She's way over her head with the media and paranoid to boot. What did Harry say?: "If you can't take the heat..."

[deadcustodian]

She's attended more colleges than just about anyone so she is very smart!

[psbintl]

Ok, you are kidding about the "very smart" part, right?

[jp5472]

You have to be kidding. Attending multiple colleges just to obtain one very undemanding degree from average at best colleges does no tmake one smart. It shows an inability to get the job done.

[ChoppyBob]

LOL

[Harmony1812]

She probably couldn't find a roommate that would live with her.

[psbintl]

For all those who keep wondering why so much attention to Palin:

It is obvious you have never taken a good history class. Any good history instructor will teach his or her students this: "to forget the past is to repeat it"

It is better we keep this nutcase (Palin) in clear view at all times least we forget how close our country came to disaster had she been elected VP!

[Oilworker]

As opposed to the disaster thats happening now .

[steppenwolfsayshi]

Get well soon, Mrs. Palin.

[BIG JOHN]

I'LL TRY AGAIN, WE ALL KNOW SHE DIDN'T HAVE ISSUES...........YEA RIGHT.

[PamperedHousecat]

I am definitely no Palin fan, but I feel that God knew what He was doing when this McCain-Palin ticket was introduced. There was mercy shown to Sarah and her family (believe it or not) when they lost.
Can you imagine the pressures they would face in the White House (or where the VP's family hangs out). So many times we pray for the Merecedes, and we don't even have a driver's license, or the income to make the monthly payments.
And think about poor John M. He would be lucky to live to June, with all the stuff going on. And supposed he died!! Do you really think Sarah could handle it?
We would have 4 more years of Cheney pulling the puppet strings.