...for a price. She quite her job for one reason: to cash in on her "celebrity." Personally, I think she'll become a Super Alan Keyes. She may run for office now and then, but it will just to make her seem legitimate and pump up her media presence . She'll be a highly paid gadfly. She'll get a tv show then bail out on that if she thinks she smelled something better around the corner. We won't be rid of her, but she'll become increasingly more of a joke (if that's possible) as the years go on. And I think as time goes on she'll be courted less and less by the Republicans as some kind of spokesperson. But she's weird enough so as to never go away. She's like the Zsa Zsa Gabor of politics.

I hate to even bring his name up, but its true. Michael Jackson's career pretty much boiled down to a freak show peddled to gain maximum attention. When he released a new music it was always attended by some freaky outage that garnered much more media buzz than the record.

Sarah Palin steps in to take his place. Her career is just wildly careening from one outrageous moment to the next to drum up as much attention as possible.

Beyond the freak show, there isn't much more to either one. We're stuck with Palin for the long haul. Politically, she'd dead, but she'll always be a story...she'll see to that. Now she's a professional curiosity.

...her tv show will be ready for fall. I bet she'll have a show on Fox.

...and she's latched onto something that will garner her alot of attention. Otherwise would anyone even know who she is? If she wants to turn herself into a professional nut-job, that's fine, but she should do it on her own dime. Her behavior is completely irresponsible and inappropriate for an acting member on Congress. If she wants to be Lady Joe the Plumber and make a public spectacle of herself, fine, but she should resign her seat.

...to buy into a strip club with money he's made from his book.

Limbaugh doesn't even try to pretend his listeners have half a brain between them. The stuff he spouts is so over the top its almost camp. Its as though he's daring his listeners to have that "Wow, I could have had a V-8" moment and realize he's playing them for patsies. But they really don't get it. They'll gladly swallow what ever he serves up no matter how foolish.

Actually there were people (Bowie was one) who were doing very creative music videos before Jackson turned the format into bloated and pedestrian schlock.

The bubble gum Motown stuff, the funkier Jacksons stuff still sounds good. His solo stuff to be frank is prime bad '80's. And post Thriller he had to work very hard to seem relevant. Every recording, every appearance had to b e bolstered by an freak show of hysterical proportions. He wasn't a great artist, he was a great self promoter. Turning child molestation allegations into a career move was far more impressive than any of his music.

I agree with the article that he certainly a lousy upbringing, but alot of people have endured far worse and have come out of it normal or even a much better person for it...without a fortune to squander.

Now that he's dead I have no doubt the real horror story of what went on at Neverland will come out.

Let's face it, creatively, artistically, he hasn't done anything in nearly 20 years. Just about everything he did post Thriller was fueled by a self created freak showvsensationalism. Every new recording or appearance was accompaniied by some puffed up self-indulgent hysteria. Even when he ran into his various legal problems he took full advantage and turned himself into an even bigger side-show attraction. And the glaring fact that no one really wants to mention is that his work has not held up very well. Has anyone actually listenend to Thriller lately? Now it just makes you wonder what all the fuss was about. Even his more recent offerings sound horribly dated.

Remember in the midst of the child abuse allegations (one of them) he produced that faux documentary and "tribute" concert to himself? The documentary showed him being chased around Germany by a throng of fans ala Beatlemania. A friend and I both noticed that whereever he went the same people were showing up in the "crowd" (which if the camera pulled back was really about 30 or 40 people). Same thing at the "tribute" concert. They would show a shot of the audience screaming and crying. There was some slip up and they showed an over head shot of the audience. Everyone was sitting except a small group in the front with cameras on them being coached. But I would find myself watching just because it was so appalling: his nose is falling off, there's Liz, there's Liza.

He was a flim flam man and the vultures will carry on and turn his death into his last spectacle.