Spirited exchange between Brewer and President Obama have boosted Brewer’s book sales

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Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama an intense conversation Wednesday. | HARAZ N. GHANBARI~AP

Updated: March 1, 2012 8:40AM

A few days ago, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s book was No. 311,472 on Amazon.

Then Brewer and President Obama had a spirited exchange, with Brewer pointing her finger at the president.

Now Brewer’s book is No. 15.

Gee. Imagine the sales if she had used a different finger.

While the president laughed off the exchange as no big deal, Jesse Jackson and others have criticized Brewer for being disrespectful, and Brewer pounced on the PR opportunity, even releasing the supposedly “private” letter she handed to Obama.

As for that finger-wagging gesture, Brewer said, “I felt a little bit threatened, if you will, in the attitude that he had, because I was there to welcome him.”

To which Hilary O. Shelton of the NAACP retorted, “What were you afraid he would do, steal your purse?”

When Sarah invoked Saul

It was Bill Maher who summed up what a lot of Americans have been thinking when he said, “Who the f--- is Saul Alinsky?”

Alinsky was the Chicago activist who employed controversial, radical methods to organize and empower the voiceless. (Mayor Richard J. Daley, while deploring Alinsky’s tactics, once conceded, “Alinsky loves Chicago the same as I do.”) Alinsky’s name was often invoked by Republicans as the specter of evil in 2008 — and he’s back again, in a big way, with everyone from Newt Gingrich to Rudy Giuliani dropping his name.

Sarah Palin on Facebook: “What we saw [last week] with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt [Gingrich] was nothing short of Stalinesque rewriting of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

“We need a fair primary that is not prematurely cut short by the GOP establishment using Alinsky tactics to kneecap Governor Romney’s chief rival.”

OK, what? It’s quite possible Ms. Palin is well-versed in all things Alinsky. It’s also possible she never heard of him until two years or maybe two weeks ago. Either way, it’d be fascinating to hear her expound unscripted on her claim the GOP is using “Alinsky tactics” to target Newt Gingrich.

“The left seeks to single someone out and destroy his or her record and reputation and family using the media as a channel to dump handpicked and half-baked campaign research on the public . . . ” writes Palin.

From the GOP establishment using “Alinsky tactics” to “the left” manipulating the media, Palin alternates between a superficial (at best) grasp of history and broad accusations without concrete evidence.

Blame it on the media

One of the moms from that execrable “Toddlers & Tiaras” show has filed a $30 million libel suit against three media outlets for their allegedly “brazen attempts to sexualize” her 5-year-old daughter.

Susanna Barrett is outraged by the way TMZ, the Huffington Post and the London Daily Mail did stories about Barrett’s daughter Isabella singing LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy and I Know It” at a charity event.

In the video, the poor kid is dolled up like a mini-Kardashian and is prodded into singing her “favorite song,” which includes lyrics such as, “Aah Girl, look at that body,” and, “I got passion in my pants and I ain’t afraid to show it, show it, show it, show it.” The way Isabella’s being coached is the way people get their puppies to do tricks. The whole thing is just . . . sad.

Barrett’s lawsuit states Isabella “did not understand the concept of sex, let alone ‘sex appeal’ and could not have been singing about her own sex appeal. It is the defendants who . . . have thrust these false and vulgar characteristics onto Isabella. . . . [These stories] have placed Isabella in serious physical danger, attracting the attention of others who would seek to sexualize a child.”

A mother dresses her 5-year-old like a hooker, enters the child in pageants, puts her child on an exploitive TV show, encourages her child to sing “I’m Sexy and I Know It” at a restaurant as the cameras roll — and the MEDIA are exploiting her?

Right. Got it. Thanks.