The media turned Palin’s bus tour into a celebrity chase, instead of covering it as a political event.

The media keeps treating Palin like a celebrity rather than a political thinker, and they keep playing right into her hands as they do.(So being treated like Paris Hilton is all part of the master plan?)

With all of those reporters following the bus, why aren’t more of them reporting the political story rather than the celebrity story?

Because at this point she's nothing but a celebrity. Tim Pawlenty didn't commission a filmmaker to create a 2 hour movie about himself. Newt Gingrich didn't star in his own eight part reality show. Ron Paul didn't go camping with Kate Gosselin. Rick Santorum's daughter didn't go on dancing with the stars. Mitt Romney's son didn't take his (nonexistent) bastard spawn to LA to live with two women for a reality show. Jon Huntsman didn't write a book reviewing his favorite songs and movies. John Bolton doesn't start or actively participate in back and forth blood feuds with "traditional" celebrities. Michele Bachmann's daughter didn't get facial "reconstructive" surgery and take before/after photos for people magazine. None of the other GOP 2012 contender's first born daughters are trashy tabloid whores. (You want to know why Joe Biden's coke fiend has a better public image than Sarah Palin's whore? Joe Biden's coke fiend shut her fucking mouth and didn't follow daddy to work.)

Then there's the fact that she has a very large and devoted fan base that, unlike Ron Pauls, isn't made up exclusively of social outcasts and conspiracy theorists. Her fan base is made up of the slightly more main(lame-LOL-StillFunny)stream lonely housewives/sad dullard crowd. They feed off of that garbage. They will literally buy anything with her face on it.

On the other side of that coin we have the haters. Some of them loathe her, some of them fear her, and some of them just think she's a dumb puppy. All of them laugh at her.

Combine those two groups together and you have a giant niche market to push tons of shitty merchandise on.

BUY! BUY! BUY!