Sarah Palin E! True Hollywood Story: It doesn't bode well for her chances in 2012.

Sarah Palin E! True Hollywood Story: It doesn't bode well for her chances in 2012.

Sarah Palin E! True Hollywood Story: It doesn't bode well for her chances in 2012.

From Wasilla to Washington.
April 5 2011 2:26 PM

The E! True Washington Story?

Sarah Palin's getting an E! special. It doesn't bode well for her presidential chances.

Another week, another article pitting Sarah Palin's presidential chances against Michele Bachmann's; another quarter, another stunning display of Bachmann's fundraising magic. It's not a zero-sum game, sure, but every bit of press that makes Bachmann's chances for the nomination look better takes a bit of (potential!) wind out of Palin's (potential!) sails.

Meanwhile, Palin has been busy updating her Twitter feed and Facebook page: She took the Daily Caller to task for failing to place her statement prominently enough in a story on the tax credits that helped fund production of Sarah Palin's Alaska. This despite the fact that she spoke on the condition that the reporter print her statement in full, which he dutifully did, on the second page of his story. It's an odd bone to pick, and she comes across sounding like she's angling for a job as chief press officer to a dictator, not leader of the free world. "Goodness," she starts her note, "cleaning up the sloppiness of reporters could be a full time job." Palin's press criticism continued—despite her recent declaration that she was done quibbling with the media over small-stuff—when she tweaked AOL for removing Andrew Breitbart from the front page of the Huffington Post.

Palin did turn her attention to politics briefly last week, tweeting an endorsement in a Wisconsin judicial race and opining on the "squirmish" in Libya, indicating that she wants to keep an oar in, just in case no one takes her up on the full-time media watchdog offer. And just today, she directed our attention to a Wall Street Journal op-ed of hers from December  in support of Paul Ryan's budget plan. But all that earnestness was overshadoned by Monday's news that E! will air an E! True Hollywood  Story on Palin later this month. Although it's not news that Palin's as much a celebrity as a politician, when your perceived rival for votes and media attention is getting increasingly serious coverage in the New York Times while yours increasingly comes from an entertainment network that offers near-constant coverage of the Kardashian sisters and assorted Playboy bunnies, electoral momentum is not on your side. The Palin Meter heads a little lower, to 43 percent.

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Previous Palin Meter Readings

Monday, March 28, 2011: 49 percent

Wednesday, March 23, 2011: 53 percent

Friday, March 18, 2011: 55   percent

Wednesday, March 16, 2011:
55 percent

Thursday, March 10, 2011: 48 percent

Tuesday, March 8, 2011:
35 percent

Monday, March 7, 2011:
40 percent 

Friday, March 3, 2011:
45 percent

Tuesday, March 1, 2011:
51 percent

Noreen Malone is a senior editor at New York Magazine.