2008
I promised Piper that this time, I would keep my distance so I wouldn't disrupt the fun she has planned for herself and her friends. She's so good and accommodating. She puts up with a lot.
-- Sarah Palin. Family video. The Oprah Show.
If anyone out there still somehow entertains the notion that the Palin children aren't media props, consider the question: When is Piper next going to have a "normal" Halloween?
In the closing days of last year's presidential race, if you recall, Piper went campaign trick-or-treating in rural Pennsylvania as the star of a national media circus, the secret service in tow. (That's little Trig in the elephant suit.)
So when Halloween rolled around again this year, do you think Mom might have thought to carve the 31st out of her busy PR schedule? Quite the contrary. If you watch the video, you can see it was car trick-or-treating (and if friends were involved, I didn't see them) with the crew of the Oprah show.
And click here for our take on the Palin/Newsweek/Runners World cover.
(image 1: Todd Heisler/The New York Times. October 31, 2008. Dauphin, PA. image 2: screen grab. Harpo Productions. October 31, 2009)