Sarah Palin

Michael Levenson reports on Sarah Palin's visit today to Boston's Freedom Trail.

Sarah Palin helped "Today" maintain its winning streak against "GMA," even with the appearance of its own guest star Katie Couric. NBC's "Today" widened its advantage over ABC runner-up "Good Morning America" by 23,000 viewers Tuesday, compared with the day before, according to the Nielsen Co. "Good Morning America" brought Couric back to morning TV after her many years hosting "Today. " Couric, now at ABC, is filling in all week at "GMA. " Palin appeared as a "Today" guest co-host on Tuesday.

Sarah Palin may not become president, but in Boston last week she demonstrated her fitness for one of those “Jaywalking’’ segments on “The Tonight Show,’’ in which Jay Leno stumps passersby with elementary questions. During a swing through the North End as part of her “One Nation’’ tour of historic sites, Palin visited the Old North Church where two lanterns, lit on the night of April 18, 1775, spurred Paul Revere to “spread the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm’’ of British plans to capture the patriots’ military stores in Concord.

Nearly four years after they clashed in a memorable TV interview, Sarah Palin and Katie Couric face off again — this time in a morning-show battle royale. Viewers will cast their votes with their clickers Tuesday. If you're a Couric fan who misses those bygone mornings on the "Today" show, then click to "Good Morning America," where Couric, now an ABC star, is subbing all week for co-host Robin Roberts. But maybe you love the "mama grizzly" panache of Sarah Palin.

How Tina Fey destroyed the GOP Can parodies of politicians affect those politicians' popularity? You betcha! At least that seems to be what happened with Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" in the fall of 2008. Analysis of a nationwide survey of college students from the 2008 campaign reveals that approval of Palin right before the election was cut in half among students who had seen the impersonation compared to those who hadn't. You might expect this to be the case among Democrats, but it turns out that the negative effect of the impersonation was only significant...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is expected to visit South Korea next month to speak at a global business forum. Organizers said Thursday that Palin is slated to attend the 2011 World Knowledge Forum on Oct. 11-13. Palin was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and is weighing a presidential bid. Palin has said she will announce in late September whether she will run. She is expected to discuss U.S. leadership in a world struggling with financial turmoil at the Seoul conference.

(Pat Greenhouse / Globe Staff Photo) Sarah Palin, right, with celebrity look-alike impersonator Cecilia Thompson during a tour of Boston's North End neighborhood. By Michael Levenson and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff Even as she insisted that she was not trying to undermine Mitt Romney's presidential campaign announcement today, Sarah Palin sharply criticized Romney's universal health care law while touring historic sites on Romney's home turf in Massachusetts.

NBC's "Today" show is bringing Sarah Palin on board as a co-host — for one morning, this Tuesday. The announcement was posted Sunday on NBC's website. It says the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate will "reveal a different side" than viewers have seen before. The booking is clearly an attempt to blunt the impact of "Today" alumna Katie Couric's weeklong return to morning TV as a guest host on ABC's "Good Morning America. " Couric joined ABC last year and was co-host of longtime ratings leader...

Sarah Palin will be stopping by for the start of her daughter’s book tour. The former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate will appear with Bristol Palin on Wednesday in Bloomington, Minn., at the Barnes & Noble in the Mall of America. HarperCollins Publishers announced Monday that the two will sign copies of their latest books. Sarah Palin says in a statement that she is “so proud’’ of her daughter and ’’ thrilled to be joining her to kick off her book tour.’’ Bristol Palin’s memoir, “Not Afraid of Life,’’...

On the Internet, Joe McGinniss is being trashed by Sarah Palin's supporters for trashing her in his new book, "The Rogue. " In the mainstream media, he is being trashed for using innuendo and unnamed sources to trash Palin. All of this has raised the strange spectacle of the "lamestream press," as Palin calls it, defending her while deriding McGinniss, a veteran writer. McGinniss, who lives in Amherst, has been through this sort of thing before. "It's like ‘Back to the Future,' " he says in a recent telephone interview.

NBC's "Today" show is bringing Sarah Palin on board as a co-host — for one morning, this Tuesday. The announcement was posted Sunday on NBC's website. It says the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate will "reveal a different side" than viewers have seen before. The booking is clearly an attempt to blunt the impact of "Today" alumna Katie Couric's weeklong return to morning TV as a guest host on ABC's "Good Morning America. " Couric joined ABC last year and was co-host of longtime ratings leader "Today" for 15 years before leaving for CBS in 2006.

The cast and creative team behind "Game Change," which premieres on HBO Saturday at 9 p.m., knew they had a challenge on their hands in translating John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's book about the historic 2008 presidential campaign into a two-hour film. Actors Julianne Moore (Sarah Palin), Ed Harris (Senator John McCain), director Jay Roach, and screenwriter Danny Strong - the latter two who previously worked together on the Emmy-winning 2008 HBO film "Recount"- met with reporters in Pasadena, Calif., at the Television Critics Association winter press...

A certain segment of the U.S. population will presumably shun "Game Change. " As a warts-and-all portrayal of the 2008 campaign of GOP presidential candidate John McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, this HBO film (premiering Saturday at 9 p.m. EST) has raised suspicions, and hackles, among Palin loyalists. Surely its mission is to trash her, they contend. Meanwhile, viewers from the other end of the political spectrum will tune in gleefully expecting the same thing: an evisceration of the world's most famous hockey mom. Maybe both...

IT'S HARD TO know, on any given day, whether this country is going through Sarah Palin fatigue or Sarah Palin withdrawal. I'm going to choose withdrawal. No one else on the current political stage is remotely as intriguing, as the 2012 GOP primary slog is showing. A biopic about the Romney campaign? Only if I have insomnia. So it's little surprise that we're still hashing over Palin - or that, this coming weekend, we're getting a veritable Palin film festival on TV. On Saturday, HBO unveils "Game Change," its dramatization of the 2008 campaign, featuring...

How Tina Fey destroyed the GOP Can parodies of politicians affect those politicians' popularity? You betcha! At least that seems to be what happened with Tina Fey's impersonation of Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live" in the fall of 2008. Analysis of a nationwide survey of college students from the 2008 campaign reveals that approval of Palin right before the election was cut in half among students who had seen the impersonation compared to those who hadn't. You might expect this to be the case among Democrats, but it turns out that the negative effect of the impersonation was only...

Bristol Palin's home life in Alaska is the subject of a reality series starring the daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Lifetime says it will air 10 episodes of "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp" later this year. The series will explore the pressures of raising her toddler son, Tripp, as she maintains her close relationship with the larger Palin clan, the network said. The former first daughter of Alaska, Palin became one of the nation's most prominent single mothers after the 2008 birth of Tripp.

NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview yesterday that "we have trade missions back and forth. " Palin has never visited Russia, and until last year the 44-year-old first-term Alaska governor had never traveled outside North America. She also had never met a foreign leader until her trip this week to New York. Palin's foreign policy experience came up when she gave her first major interview, on Sept.

Jersey Shore 10 p.m., MTV Sometimes, Sarah Palin’s Sarah Palin and Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin merge in my mind. Likewise, Snooki’s Snooki and Bobby Moynihan’s Snooki on “Saturday Night Live.’’ They blur together, in a pumpkin-colored kind of way. You know you’re seeing a funny impression when that kind of commingling happens. Anyway, you can see the real Snooki tonight in all her orange glory, as “Jersey Shore’’ returns for another season set in Seaside Heights.

JUNEAU, Alaska - Fed up with mounting legal bills and rattled by intense scrutiny of her family and work, Sarah Palin was ready to step down as Alaska's governor months before she left office in July 2009. E-mails released Thursday, most from the last 10 months of her time in office, show she told her husband in April, "I can't take it anymore" and complained to spokeswoman Sharon Leighow and aide Kris Perry in March that she had been the target of "many frivolous suits and charges since the DAY I became VP candidate.

IT SEEMS the level of vitriol rises with every election cycle, and this year's Republican nominating contest is no exception. Maybe that's simply because there is so much fodder. It's hard to resist mocking a morality-preaching candidate accused of sexual harassment, or another who denounces Washington while making millions as a lobbyist. Still, little compares to the venomous attacks that are now targeting Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital. Supporters of Newt Gingrich released "King of Bain," a 28-minute video trashing Romney for destroying jobs, businesses, and communities.