Palin, Grayson engage in war of words
ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Sarah Palin and Congressman Alan Grayson are in a "virtual war." It all began when Palin endorsed Grayson's opponent, Daniel Webster, on her Twitter account .
Apparently, Grayson didn't like this one bit and began to slam the former vice presidential candidate.
Palin wrote on Tuesday evening,"keep moving forward w/positive, strong, sharp message of truth! (As opposed to opponent who disgraced himself w/that ad)."
Grayson replied on his Twitter account , "What is it about Palin and Twitter? Is it that 140 characters represents the maximum length of Palin's attention span?"
Palin posted two other tweets, "Grayson's twisted campaign ad adds to 'media distrust' problem; he blatantly lies in vile rant, but greedy media run it anyway w/no fact check," and "Florida deserves the best! No need 2 settle 4 such an odd, troubled character 2 represent your beautiful state. Take pride in Daniel Webster."
Grayson has since responded calling Sarah a half-baked Alaskan, and said she was targeting him like she was shooting a moose from her helicopter.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
WFMZ Allentown: Restraining Order Issued; Local Teen Must Stay Away From Sarah Palin
Restraining Order Issued; Local Teen Must Stay Away From Sarah Palin
A teenager from Schuylkill County is being told to stay away from Sarah Palin.
Shawn Christy, 18, of McAdoo is accused of stalking and threatening the former vice presidential candidate.
A judge in Alaska has issued a restraining order against him.
Palin and her attorney claim Christy made implied threats through phone and written messages.
They also say he told Palin to watch her back and made references to a gun.
A teenager from Schuylkill County is being told to stay away from Sarah Palin.
Shawn Christy, 18, of McAdoo is accused of stalking and threatening the former vice presidential candidate.
A judge in Alaska has issued a restraining order against him.
Palin and her attorney claim Christy made implied threats through phone and written messages.
They also say he told Palin to watch her back and made references to a gun.
Normal schedule returns Sunday
Hi, old and new readers
I've been unable to keep up with Sarah Palin in the news for the past few days because I'm in the process of driving my mother from Yorktown, VA to Burleson, TX. When I get into a hotel room at night I'm either too tired, or, as happened last night when I deliberately stopped extremely early to get caught up, the hotel's internet was down. And this is a big chain - Best Western!
When I get to a hotel tonight, I won't even unpack until I make sure their internet works.
There's been lots of Sarah Palin in the news, and I'll be sharing it all later tonight.
Thanks for your patience.
I've been unable to keep up with Sarah Palin in the news for the past few days because I'm in the process of driving my mother from Yorktown, VA to Burleson, TX. When I get into a hotel room at night I'm either too tired, or, as happened last night when I deliberately stopped extremely early to get caught up, the hotel's internet was down. And this is a big chain - Best Western!
When I get to a hotel tonight, I won't even unpack until I make sure their internet works.
There's been lots of Sarah Palin in the news, and I'll be sharing it all later tonight.
Thanks for your patience.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Politico: In Archie: Obama vs Palin
In Archie: Obama vs Palin
It was revealed earlier this month that Archie Comics had put President Barack Obama and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the cover of 'Archie' issues #616 and #617. On the first cover we peeked, the two pols are featured looking downright friendly: Obama and Palin share a milkshake, prompting Archie to declare, "Wow, I guess *anything's* possible!" Inside, Obama and Palin get involved with Riverdale High's student government election, in which Archie is running against Reggie.
But, lest you think the comic book is all mush, POLITICO has learned that the company is set to announce two covers on a less bi-partisan theme: Palin and Obama fighting it out.
Archie Comics will announce on Tuesday variant covers on the Obama-Palin theme, with one cover showing Obama poised to clash with Palin in midair, while another — labeled "The Fight for America!" — depicting Obama and Palin sporting boxing gloves, prepped to spar with one other. Obama is dubbed "The Chicago Kid" while Palin gets named "The Thrilla from Wasilla."
Archie Comics co-CEO Jon Goldwater told POLITICO that the company had received so much positive feedback on the first Obama/Palin cover (which made the rounds last week) they decided, why ruin a good thing?
"We sat around and talked and said, 'Holy toledo!' This is something that we should take a look at and bring the president back on the cover for." (He said he just reached out to both the Palin and Obama camps and predicted that "I'm sure that we're going to hear from them" about their comics).
"At the end of the day, President Obama and Sarah Palin completely come from opposite sides, but they both want the same thing: The best interests of the United States. And we figured Riverdale High School was a place they can unite," he said.
Of course, there's a subtle statement being made here by Archie Comics: Sarah Palin is the apparent GOP leader. Why else choose her to counter Obama?
"From my view point, she does represent the Republican Party right now," said Goldwater. "She's out front and center and there is no other dynamic candidate that we can see here at Archie that basically represents the Republican Party. ... No one else occurred to us, actually."
Sunday, September 26, 2010
CBS Evening News: Did Clinton and Palin Get a Raw Deal in 2008?
Did Clinton and Palin Get a Raw Deal in 2008?
(CBS) Two years have passed since Hillary Clinton campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination and Sarah Palin campaigned for vice president as the Republican nominee.
Rebecca Traister covered both candidates for Salon.com and is out with a new book about their campaigns and the media coverage called "Big Girls Don't Cry" published by Simon and Schuster, a division of CBS. She spoke to CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell.
Russ Mitchell: Let's begin with Hillary Clinton. When it comes to her campaign, just how much how sexism was going on, not only in the campaign but in the overall tone of the nation at that time?
Rebecca Traister: Well, there was an enormous amount of sexism, some it very overt -- the Hillary "nutrackers," the "iron my shirt" bumper stickers that used the "b" word and worse about her. That stuff was very overt, and there was the more subtle stuff -- the obsession with her voice and her tone and her laugh and what she was wearing -- that was all really tied to the fact that she was a woman. And that was the stuff that we needed to talk about a little bit more in order to recognize it as sexism.
Russ Mitchell: I see. Did Sarah Palin go through the same thing in many ways?
Rebecca Traister: Yes, though it came from different angles, obviously. But sure, as far as the obsession over, for example, her large clothing budget without much thought that if you're a woman on the campaign trial you require a different kind of aesthetic maintenance, that we have different expectation about how women look in the clothes and makeup than we do for men.
There were all kinds of ways in which the fact that these were women, who've we really almost never had on a presidential stage before, was going to impact the way we think about them, the way we talk about them, the way we criticize them in all kinds of ways.
Russ Mitchell: Of course, an African-American man was running for president at the same time. Many discussions were going around this country about what's worse, racism or sexism, because he was dealing with some things as well. Any conclusions?
Rebecca Traister: I don't think the comparisons and the sort of contest of oppressions was a particularly useful road to take, though it was one that many of us couldn't help but take. One of the things that became apparent through what was sexism and racism that we heard through the campaign is that these things are really connected, and that when you talk about people who have been shut out of power, people who have never had access to presidential power or really even to serious presidential campaigns before, you're talking about different kinds of oppressions that have been connected, and in fact we saw them during 2008 uprooted together a little bit.
Russ Mitchell: Do you think America learned something from the 2008 campaign, and are women better off today, are they doing better today because of what Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin went through?
Rebecca Traister: I wouldn't suggest that things are fixed and that misogyny and sexism are gone any more than the racism is gone when we talk about Obama sometimes. But what I would suggest is that the fact that we are having these conversations and that we have vocabulary and heightened awareness about the sexism, about the prejudices, that we're talking about with these candidates means that we're moving toward a better place, where we can we talk openly about some of the unfairness the candidates
(CBS) Two years have passed since Hillary Clinton campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination and Sarah Palin campaigned for vice president as the Republican nominee.
Rebecca Traister covered both candidates for Salon.com and is out with a new book about their campaigns and the media coverage called "Big Girls Don't Cry" published by Simon and Schuster, a division of CBS. She spoke to CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell.
Russ Mitchell: Let's begin with Hillary Clinton. When it comes to her campaign, just how much how sexism was going on, not only in the campaign but in the overall tone of the nation at that time?
Rebecca Traister: Well, there was an enormous amount of sexism, some it very overt -- the Hillary "nutrackers," the "iron my shirt" bumper stickers that used the "b" word and worse about her. That stuff was very overt, and there was the more subtle stuff -- the obsession with her voice and her tone and her laugh and what she was wearing -- that was all really tied to the fact that she was a woman. And that was the stuff that we needed to talk about a little bit more in order to recognize it as sexism.
Russ Mitchell: I see. Did Sarah Palin go through the same thing in many ways?
Rebecca Traister: Yes, though it came from different angles, obviously. But sure, as far as the obsession over, for example, her large clothing budget without much thought that if you're a woman on the campaign trial you require a different kind of aesthetic maintenance, that we have different expectation about how women look in the clothes and makeup than we do for men.
There were all kinds of ways in which the fact that these were women, who've we really almost never had on a presidential stage before, was going to impact the way we think about them, the way we talk about them, the way we criticize them in all kinds of ways.
Russ Mitchell: Of course, an African-American man was running for president at the same time. Many discussions were going around this country about what's worse, racism or sexism, because he was dealing with some things as well. Any conclusions?
Rebecca Traister: I don't think the comparisons and the sort of contest of oppressions was a particularly useful road to take, though it was one that many of us couldn't help but take. One of the things that became apparent through what was sexism and racism that we heard through the campaign is that these things are really connected, and that when you talk about people who have been shut out of power, people who have never had access to presidential power or really even to serious presidential campaigns before, you're talking about different kinds of oppressions that have been connected, and in fact we saw them during 2008 uprooted together a little bit.
Russ Mitchell: Do you think America learned something from the 2008 campaign, and are women better off today, are they doing better today because of what Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin went through?
Rebecca Traister: I wouldn't suggest that things are fixed and that misogyny and sexism are gone any more than the racism is gone when we talk about Obama sometimes. But what I would suggest is that the fact that we are having these conversations and that we have vocabulary and heightened awareness about the sexism, about the prejudices, that we're talking about with these candidates means that we're moving toward a better place, where we can we talk openly about some of the unfairness the candidates
HollywoodNews.com: Bristol Palin’s dance partner meets her famous mom
Bristol Palin’s dance partner meets her famous mom
HollywoodNews.com: Bristol Palin’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ partner Mark Ballas made a special visit to Alaska which means he finally got to meet Sarah Palin.
Bristol and Mark were filming a segment for the reality TV show and showed off their dance moves at an Alaskan sports bar called Rumrunners, states People. However, while the two had fun, Sarah was not at this event.
At another time during his trip, Ballas got to check out the sights in Alaska and eventually meet Bristol’s famous mother.
HollywoodNews.com: Bristol Palin’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ partner Mark Ballas made a special visit to Alaska which means he finally got to meet Sarah Palin.
Bristol and Mark were filming a segment for the reality TV show and showed off their dance moves at an Alaskan sports bar called Rumrunners, states People. However, while the two had fun, Sarah was not at this event.
At another time during his trip, Ballas got to check out the sights in Alaska and eventually meet Bristol’s famous mother.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Daily Sentinel: Tipton wins backing of Sarah Palin in quest to unseat John Salazar
Daily Sentinel: Tipton wins backing of Sarah Palin in quest to unseat John Salazar
By Gary Harmon
Friday, September 24, 2010
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has again jumped into the race for 3rd Congressional District in Colorado, endorsing Republican challenger Scott Tipton.
Palin endorsed Tipton on her http://www.takebackthe20.com site.
The site is aimed at ginning up opposition to 20 Democrat representatives who voted for health-care legislation championed by President Barack Obama, despite hailing from districts carried by the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008.
One of those is Colorado’s 3rd, which is represented by John Salazar, a Democrat from Manassa.
“Now we can vote against them,” the website says.
The Salazar campaign said the endorsement was unimpressive.
“What else could Palin do? Especially when her first choice, Bob McConnell, didn’t win the primary,” Salazar spokeswoman Tara Trujillo said. “She had no choice but to support the next guy in line.”
In addition to Tipton, SarahPAC, Palin’s political-action committee, endorsed Cory Gardner in Colorado’s 4th District.
The Palin endorsement cited Tipton’s experience as a “small-business leader,” who “knows how government red tape strangles small businesses.”
While Palin supported McConnell, a Steamboat Springs man, in the primary, Tipton garnered the endorsement of former Clinton political adviser Dick Morris.
Tipton then was quoted in The Denver Post and on the Politico website as saying Palin’s endorsement of McConnell carried some weight, but might not have been “as dramatic as many had thought.”
For the general election, Tipton said he was honored to have Palin’s endorsement, calling her “a great inspiration to a lot of common-sense conservatives.”
By Gary Harmon
Friday, September 24, 2010
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has again jumped into the race for 3rd Congressional District in Colorado, endorsing Republican challenger Scott Tipton.
Palin endorsed Tipton on her http://www.takebackthe20.com site.
The site is aimed at ginning up opposition to 20 Democrat representatives who voted for health-care legislation championed by President Barack Obama, despite hailing from districts carried by the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008.
One of those is Colorado’s 3rd, which is represented by John Salazar, a Democrat from Manassa.
“Now we can vote against them,” the website says.
The Salazar campaign said the endorsement was unimpressive.
“What else could Palin do? Especially when her first choice, Bob McConnell, didn’t win the primary,” Salazar spokeswoman Tara Trujillo said. “She had no choice but to support the next guy in line.”
In addition to Tipton, SarahPAC, Palin’s political-action committee, endorsed Cory Gardner in Colorado’s 4th District.
The Palin endorsement cited Tipton’s experience as a “small-business leader,” who “knows how government red tape strangles small businesses.”
While Palin supported McConnell, a Steamboat Springs man, in the primary, Tipton garnered the endorsement of former Clinton political adviser Dick Morris.
Tipton then was quoted in The Denver Post and on the Politico website as saying Palin’s endorsement of McConnell carried some weight, but might not have been “as dramatic as many had thought.”
For the general election, Tipton said he was honored to have Palin’s endorsement, calling her “a great inspiration to a lot of common-sense conservatives.”
DBKP: Sarah Palin: The MSM’s Unquechable Curiosity Reserved for O’Donnell, Not Obama
Death By 1000 Papercuts: Sarah Palin: The MSM’s Unquechable Curiosity Reserved for O’Donnell, Not Obama
Sarah Palin wonders: Gee, where was the same curiosity the MSM is displaying about Christine O’Donnell during 2008? Barack Obama has still not released records all other presidents have made public and the MSM has shown a decided indifference in asking any questions. Which would be curious–except that in 2010, everyone knows that’s how the MSM rolls.
The same Mainstream Media that exhibited a decided indifference about Barack Obama’s medical, university, college and other records has been busy digging into Christine O’Donnell’s years-old views on masturbation.
Palin: Why No Probe of Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama?
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin alleges that the media has a blatant double standard, shining intense scrutiny on GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell while turning a blind eye to then-candidate Barack Obama’s personal history in the 2008 campaign.
During an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night, Palin said: “Funny . . . That we are learning more about Christine O’Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president.”
There were no questions asked during the disgraceful Mainstream Media coverage of the 2008 election because the Media was too busy digging through dumpsters in Wasilla, Alaska, for dirt on the Republican VP nominee.
Oh, and attacking any sources which did ask inconvenient questions about the MSM’s Messiah.
Palin alludes to a “double standard.” It’s not. It’s blatant content management and it no longer is very effective because it’s been so transparent for so long, Americans give the same respect to the New York Times‘ political opinions as they did the Weekly World News.
Thank heavens the Mainstream Media is dying.
May it be slow, protracted and painful.
Just like the damage they’ve inflicted on objective journalism during the last 50 years.
by Mondo Frazier
Sarah Palin wonders: Gee, where was the same curiosity the MSM is displaying about Christine O’Donnell during 2008? Barack Obama has still not released records all other presidents have made public and the MSM has shown a decided indifference in asking any questions. Which would be curious–except that in 2010, everyone knows that’s how the MSM rolls.
The same Mainstream Media that exhibited a decided indifference about Barack Obama’s medical, university, college and other records has been busy digging into Christine O’Donnell’s years-old views on masturbation.
Palin: Why No Probe of Barack ‘Hussein’ Obama?
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin alleges that the media has a blatant double standard, shining intense scrutiny on GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell while turning a blind eye to then-candidate Barack Obama’s personal history in the 2008 campaign.
During an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night, Palin said: “Funny . . . That we are learning more about Christine O’Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president.”
There were no questions asked during the disgraceful Mainstream Media coverage of the 2008 election because the Media was too busy digging through dumpsters in Wasilla, Alaska, for dirt on the Republican VP nominee.
Oh, and attacking any sources which did ask inconvenient questions about the MSM’s Messiah.
Palin alludes to a “double standard.” It’s not. It’s blatant content management and it no longer is very effective because it’s been so transparent for so long, Americans give the same respect to the New York Times‘ political opinions as they did the Weekly World News.
Thank heavens the Mainstream Media is dying.
May it be slow, protracted and painful.
Just like the damage they’ve inflicted on objective journalism during the last 50 years.
by Mondo Frazier
Friday, September 24, 2010
Vanity Fair, In the News: Sarah Palin Sure Isn’t Making Up Words Like She Used To
VF Daily: Culture-Society-Politics: Sarah Palin Sure Isn’t Making Up Words Like She Used To
Sarah Palin, writing for noted medical quarterly Facebook.com, has published a piece about the state of the health-care system. Titled “Lies, Damned Lies,” the note makes considerable use of scare quotes, rhetorical questions, and the threat of death panels, a phrase invented, coined, and popularized by Sarah Palin in August of 2009. Regarding death panels, Palin writes that health-care law enables the goverment “to say no to your request for treatment of the people you love.” Certainly, one could also argue the same was true of insurance companies declining to accept patients with pre-existing conditions—a practice that’s now significantly decreased with Obamacare. In any event, the resurrection of the phrase is the second instance of Palin’s recent attempt at re-popularizing discarded scare-terms.
In an interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday, the America by Heart author said that it was “funny” that “we are learning more about” Delaware senatorial hopeful Christine O’Donnell “than anybody even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president.” While “Hussein” is not an imaginary word or phrase, it is an appellation that has, in recent months, faded from popularity and is used mainly by Birthers. Palin’s re-appropriation of the term heralds its re-introduction to mainstream discourse. As it happens, as CNN points out, when this Barack Hussein Obama was allegedly a candidate for the 2008 presidency, the Palin-McCain camp chastised their own supporters for invoking the “Hussein” appellation. “We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November,” a Palin spokesperson said at the time.
Is Palin’s gift for neologism depleting? Her most recent noteworthy contribution to the vernacular was “refudiate,” an artless blend of “repudiate” and “refute.” On the Internet, the word inspired farce, not fear, and has hardly had the same effect on political discourse as “Hussein” and “death panels.” That said, “refudiate” was crowned Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Summer,” as the term “sparked more searches in the publisher’s online dictionary than most real words did,” according to the Associated Press. If only the “Word of the Summer” designation came with money or power, Palin might be content to carry out her career as a wordsmith.
Sarah Palin, writing for noted medical quarterly Facebook.com, has published a piece about the state of the health-care system. Titled “Lies, Damned Lies,” the note makes considerable use of scare quotes, rhetorical questions, and the threat of death panels, a phrase invented, coined, and popularized by Sarah Palin in August of 2009. Regarding death panels, Palin writes that health-care law enables the goverment “to say no to your request for treatment of the people you love.” Certainly, one could also argue the same was true of insurance companies declining to accept patients with pre-existing conditions—a practice that’s now significantly decreased with Obamacare. In any event, the resurrection of the phrase is the second instance of Palin’s recent attempt at re-popularizing discarded scare-terms.
In an interview with Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren on Wednesday, the America by Heart author said that it was “funny” that “we are learning more about” Delaware senatorial hopeful Christine O’Donnell “than anybody even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president.” While “Hussein” is not an imaginary word or phrase, it is an appellation that has, in recent months, faded from popularity and is used mainly by Birthers. Palin’s re-appropriation of the term heralds its re-introduction to mainstream discourse. As it happens, as CNN points out, when this Barack Hussein Obama was allegedly a candidate for the 2008 presidency, the Palin-McCain camp chastised their own supporters for invoking the “Hussein” appellation. “We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November,” a Palin spokesperson said at the time.
Is Palin’s gift for neologism depleting? Her most recent noteworthy contribution to the vernacular was “refudiate,” an artless blend of “repudiate” and “refute.” On the Internet, the word inspired farce, not fear, and has hardly had the same effect on political discourse as “Hussein” and “death panels.” That said, “refudiate” was crowned Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Summer,” as the term “sparked more searches in the publisher’s online dictionary than most real words did,” according to the Associated Press. If only the “Word of the Summer” designation came with money or power, Palin might be content to carry out her career as a wordsmith.
AP (Associated Press): Site to rally Palin supporters goes up
Site to rally Palin supporters goes up
JUNEAU, Alaska — A website has gone up that is dedicated to rallying voters behind candidates Sarah Palin has endorsed.
The site, http://www.organize4palin.com, includes a disclaimer saying it's not authorized or affiliated with Palin or with her PAC and is not a Palin fan site.
But it bills itself as the site many Palin supporters have been waiting for — a place where they can rally behind Palin's leadership and support her favored candidates.
The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee promoted the site, via a tweet, Friday.
Since resigning as governor last year, Palin has promoted what she considers "commonsense conservative" candidates and positions. She's been coy about a possible 2012 presidential run, with aides saying she's focused on the November elections.
JUNEAU, Alaska — A website has gone up that is dedicated to rallying voters behind candidates Sarah Palin has endorsed.
The site, http://www.organize4palin.com, includes a disclaimer saying it's not authorized or affiliated with Palin or with her PAC and is not a Palin fan site.
But it bills itself as the site many Palin supporters have been waiting for — a place where they can rally behind Palin's leadership and support her favored candidates.
The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee promoted the site, via a tweet, Friday.
Since resigning as governor last year, Palin has promoted what she considers "commonsense conservative" candidates and positions. She's been coy about a possible 2012 presidential run, with aides saying she's focused on the November elections.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
23 Sep, 2010, Thursday, CBS News, Political Hotsheet
Sarah Palin Inches Toward Presidential Run
Sarah Palin has now tiptoed a bit closer to a presidential candidacy, telling Fox News' Greta Van Susteren she could indeed see a way to make the race.
"If nobody else wanted to step up I would offer myself in the name of service to the public," she said. The fact that several others are clearly contemplating stepping up has apparently not diminished Palin's interest.
Basically, she is saying that if none of the hopefuls is sufficiently conservative for her, then she would - in the interest of the nation - throw her hat into the ring.
But Palin was quick to back away lest people get the wrong impression. She said she is in a good place now and will decide what's best for her family and the conservative movement.
"I don't need the title," she said in the interview. "I don't need for any kind of self-gratification or for personal power-seeking of my own to run for office."
The questions on Fox were friendly, as they almost always are. Presumably it's one reason Palin told an audience in Kentucky last week, "What would we do without Fox News, America? Gotta love Fox News." Other outlets - those who make up what she calls the "lamestream media" are apparently unfair.
Palin cited the case of Christine O'Donnell, the newly minted GOP senate nominee in Delaware, to prove her point. O'Donnell's past comments about hanging out with witches, opposing masturbation and decrying the "disproportionate" funding that AIDS gets over other diseases, has, along with questions about her finances, landed O'Donnell on the front pages in an unflattering way.
Palin endorsed O'Donnell, who defeated an establishment GOP candidate, Rep. Mike Castle. She says O'Donnell has been victimized by the press.
"We are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years and her teenage years and her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president," she said.
This means that in Palin's view the countless stories about Obama's real estate dealings in Chicago, his fire-breathing minister, his ancestry, his travels as a youth, his college years and, of course, his citizenship were somehow under-covered by reporters.
Palin has been raising her profile by the week.
A few days ago, she unveiled a new commercial extolling the virtues of the Tea Party movement - a video which featured her prominently but did not contain the word "Republican" anywhere in the narration.
Friday night, it was a big speech to the Iowa GOP in Des Moines. This week, in addition to her interview, it's a new campaign targeting 20 Democratic congressmen she deems vulnerable because they were elected in 2008 from districts the McCain/Palin ticket carried.
As for the Tea Party, she has endorsed a raft of candidates who carry that banner, but not all of them. Two races are instructive.
In Iowa, Palin is supporting Terry Branstad for governor. He was governor for 16 years, left office, and now is running again. He defeated a Tea Party hopeful.
And in New Hampshire, Palin backed Kelly Ayotte for the GOP Senate nomination over a Tea Party rival.
What makes these two endorsements stand out is that Iowa and New Hampshire are the first two contests in the 2012 presidential nominating sweepstakes - contests where who you know - especially in high places - could be very useful to anyone with their eyes on the White House.
Sarah Palin has now tiptoed a bit closer to a presidential candidacy, telling Fox News' Greta Van Susteren she could indeed see a way to make the race.
"If nobody else wanted to step up I would offer myself in the name of service to the public," she said. The fact that several others are clearly contemplating stepping up has apparently not diminished Palin's interest.
Basically, she is saying that if none of the hopefuls is sufficiently conservative for her, then she would - in the interest of the nation - throw her hat into the ring.
But Palin was quick to back away lest people get the wrong impression. She said she is in a good place now and will decide what's best for her family and the conservative movement.
"I don't need the title," she said in the interview. "I don't need for any kind of self-gratification or for personal power-seeking of my own to run for office."
The questions on Fox were friendly, as they almost always are. Presumably it's one reason Palin told an audience in Kentucky last week, "What would we do without Fox News, America? Gotta love Fox News." Other outlets - those who make up what she calls the "lamestream media" are apparently unfair.
Palin cited the case of Christine O'Donnell, the newly minted GOP senate nominee in Delaware, to prove her point. O'Donnell's past comments about hanging out with witches, opposing masturbation and decrying the "disproportionate" funding that AIDS gets over other diseases, has, along with questions about her finances, landed O'Donnell on the front pages in an unflattering way.
Palin endorsed O'Donnell, who defeated an establishment GOP candidate, Rep. Mike Castle. She says O'Donnell has been victimized by the press.
"We are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years and her teenage years and her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president," she said.
This means that in Palin's view the countless stories about Obama's real estate dealings in Chicago, his fire-breathing minister, his ancestry, his travels as a youth, his college years and, of course, his citizenship were somehow under-covered by reporters.
Palin has been raising her profile by the week.
A few days ago, she unveiled a new commercial extolling the virtues of the Tea Party movement - a video which featured her prominently but did not contain the word "Republican" anywhere in the narration.
Friday night, it was a big speech to the Iowa GOP in Des Moines. This week, in addition to her interview, it's a new campaign targeting 20 Democratic congressmen she deems vulnerable because they were elected in 2008 from districts the McCain/Palin ticket carried.
As for the Tea Party, she has endorsed a raft of candidates who carry that banner, but not all of them. Two races are instructive.
In Iowa, Palin is supporting Terry Branstad for governor. He was governor for 16 years, left office, and now is running again. He defeated a Tea Party hopeful.
And in New Hampshire, Palin backed Kelly Ayotte for the GOP Senate nomination over a Tea Party rival.
What makes these two endorsements stand out is that Iowa and New Hampshire are the first two contests in the 2012 presidential nominating sweepstakes - contests where who you know - especially in high places - could be very useful to anyone with their eyes on the White House.
23 Sep, 2010, Thursday, New York Magazine: Sarah Palin Wonders What We Don't Know About This Barack Hussein Obama
Sarah Palin Wonders What We Don't Know About This Barack Hussein Obama
During the presidential campaign, political opponents of Barack Obama who went out of their way to use his middle name — Hussein — were often chastised for their implicit anti-Islamic fearmongering, even by allies. After talk-radio host Bill Cunningham repeatedly mentioned Obama's middle name at a rally for John McCain, McCain himself said it was "totally inappropriate. "When the Tennessee Republican Party issued a press release that mentioned concern 'about the future of the nation of Israel … if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States,' Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan said the "RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics." And after Florida sheriff Mike Scott used Obama's middle name when introducing Sarah Palin at a rally, Palin's spokeswoman said the campaign does "not condone this inappropriate rhetoric." It's curious then, that Palin dropped the H-bomb last night on Fox News, and curiouser still when you consider the context in which she used it.
Here's what Palin said to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren:
In an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Wednesday, Palin said the "lamestream media" is asking more questions about Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's background than it ever did about "Barack Hussein Obama."
"Funny … that we are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, and her financial dealings than anybody even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president," Palin said.
The argument in itself is rich, coming from someone who was vetted by the McCain campaign for all of eight minutes before she was selected to be next in line for the presidency. This myth that the media has "never asked questions" about Obama is, of course, absurd. There probably hasn't been a single person in the history of the human race whose life has been more scrutinized, save for possibly Jesus Christ. The purpose, though, in pretending that we just don't know much about Obama is to feed the doubts some people have about this biracial, exotically-named man's mysterious, and possibly un-American, "otherness."
It's the same reason that Palin, who 99 percent of the time is satisfied with referring simply to "Barack Obama," decided to use his middle name last night. In the context of discussing how allegedly little we know about Obama, referencing "Hussein" implies that Obama's Muslim-sounding middle name may be related to such unknowns. Specifically, that he might be a Muslim. It was not a mistake.
It's an outrageous tactic for Palin, knowing the influence she still somehow wields, to nourish this false belief of so many Americans. Are there any Republicans left who will condemn her, the same way she once condemned others for the same offense, or is this type of underhandedness now acceptable in the ever-rightward GOP?
During the presidential campaign, political opponents of Barack Obama who went out of their way to use his middle name — Hussein — were often chastised for their implicit anti-Islamic fearmongering, even by allies. After talk-radio host Bill Cunningham repeatedly mentioned Obama's middle name at a rally for John McCain, McCain himself said it was "totally inappropriate. "When the Tennessee Republican Party issued a press release that mentioned concern 'about the future of the nation of Israel … if Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is elected president of the United States,' Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan said the "RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics." And after Florida sheriff Mike Scott used Obama's middle name when introducing Sarah Palin at a rally, Palin's spokeswoman said the campaign does "not condone this inappropriate rhetoric." It's curious then, that Palin dropped the H-bomb last night on Fox News, and curiouser still when you consider the context in which she used it.
Here's what Palin said to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren:
In an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Wednesday, Palin said the "lamestream media" is asking more questions about Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's background than it ever did about "Barack Hussein Obama."
"Funny … that we are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, and her financial dealings than anybody even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president," Palin said.
The argument in itself is rich, coming from someone who was vetted by the McCain campaign for all of eight minutes before she was selected to be next in line for the presidency. This myth that the media has "never asked questions" about Obama is, of course, absurd. There probably hasn't been a single person in the history of the human race whose life has been more scrutinized, save for possibly Jesus Christ. The purpose, though, in pretending that we just don't know much about Obama is to feed the doubts some people have about this biracial, exotically-named man's mysterious, and possibly un-American, "otherness."
It's the same reason that Palin, who 99 percent of the time is satisfied with referring simply to "Barack Obama," decided to use his middle name last night. In the context of discussing how allegedly little we know about Obama, referencing "Hussein" implies that Obama's Muslim-sounding middle name may be related to such unknowns. Specifically, that he might be a Muslim. It was not a mistake.
It's an outrageous tactic for Palin, knowing the influence she still somehow wields, to nourish this false belief of so many Americans. Are there any Republicans left who will condemn her, the same way she once condemned others for the same offense, or is this type of underhandedness now acceptable in the ever-rightward GOP?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
23 Sep: NY Times, The Opinion Pages, Ross Douthat
Sarah Palin: Still Not the Front-Runner
Here are two more data points from the weekend to back up my argument that the 2012 Republican nomination is not Sarah Palin’s to lose. First, the Values Voter Summit straw poll, a decent gauge of sentiment among the kind of activists Palin would presumably need to rally, in which the former Alaska governor racked up just 7 percent of the vote, trailing Mike Pence (who gave a barn-burner of a speech), Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Second, a new 2012 poll from Public Policy Polling, showing Romney leading with 22 percent, followed by Huckabee at 21, Gingrich at 18, and Palin at 17 percent. And note this statistic:
About a month ago, I wrote a column arguing that the most interesting pre-primary contest in the G.O.P. was arguably the battle to see if somebody (a Mitch Daniels? a Jon Thune? a Haley Barbour? a Tim Pawlenty?) would manage to unseat Romney from his perch as the safe, competent-seeming, establishment-y candidate. In response, Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin argued that I was missing the point, and that being perceived as having anything to do with the G.O.P. establishment would doubtless be the kiss of death of 2012. (“The party elders, for better or worse, are being ignored,” she wrote. “Ask [Marco] Rubio, Rand Paul, Nikki Haley, Sharon Angle, and the rest if endorsements by the establishment and big-name donors are the key to victory.”)
This is true in a sense: Obviously nobody’s going to run for president in ‘12 saying “I am the voice of the Republican establishment!”, and no candidate can hope to win the nomination if they’re perceived as a Mike Castle or Lisa Murkowski-style figure. But right now, in autumn 2010, at what seems like a moment of maximal populist outrage and anti-establishment fervor, Sarah Palin can’t crack 20 percent in primary polling, and Mitt Romney (for all his manifold weaknesses) still has the most plausible path to the nomination. Which suggests to me that concerns about stability, solidity and electability may play a bigger role in the 2012 Republican campaign than many observers seem to think.
Here are two more data points from the weekend to back up my argument that the 2012 Republican nomination is not Sarah Palin’s to lose. First, the Values Voter Summit straw poll, a decent gauge of sentiment among the kind of activists Palin would presumably need to rally, in which the former Alaska governor racked up just 7 percent of the vote, trailing Mike Pence (who gave a barn-burner of a speech), Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Second, a new 2012 poll from Public Policy Polling, showing Romney leading with 22 percent, followed by Huckabee at 21, Gingrich at 18, and Palin at 17 percent. And note this statistic:
As is the case every month Sarah Palin is the most personally popular of the Republicans, with 66 percent viewing her favorably. She is followed by Huckabee at 60 percent and Gingrich and Romney at 57 percent.
The problem for Palin is that a smaller percentage of the people who like her personally support her for President than any of the other Republicans. 37 percent of the voters who like Romney also say he’s their choice for the 2012 nomination and the same is true for 32 percent who like Gingrich and Huckabee. But just 24 percent who see Palin positively on a personal level translate that to intent to vote for her. [emphasis mine — R.D.]
About a month ago, I wrote a column arguing that the most interesting pre-primary contest in the G.O.P. was arguably the battle to see if somebody (a Mitch Daniels? a Jon Thune? a Haley Barbour? a Tim Pawlenty?) would manage to unseat Romney from his perch as the safe, competent-seeming, establishment-y candidate. In response, Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin argued that I was missing the point, and that being perceived as having anything to do with the G.O.P. establishment would doubtless be the kiss of death of 2012. (“The party elders, for better or worse, are being ignored,” she wrote. “Ask [Marco] Rubio, Rand Paul, Nikki Haley, Sharon Angle, and the rest if endorsements by the establishment and big-name donors are the key to victory.”)
This is true in a sense: Obviously nobody’s going to run for president in ‘12 saying “I am the voice of the Republican establishment!”, and no candidate can hope to win the nomination if they’re perceived as a Mike Castle or Lisa Murkowski-style figure. But right now, in autumn 2010, at what seems like a moment of maximal populist outrage and anti-establishment fervor, Sarah Palin can’t crack 20 percent in primary polling, and Mitt Romney (for all his manifold weaknesses) still has the most plausible path to the nomination. Which suggests to me that concerns about stability, solidity and electability may play a bigger role in the 2012 Republican campaign than many observers seem to think.
22 Sep, 2010, Wed, E@ Online: Was There More to Sarah Palin's DWTS No-Show?
Was There More to Sarah Palin's DWTS No-Show?
That's great and all, but wasn't there a time when tons of Dancing folks thought Sarah Palin was going to come watch Bristol strut? ...
Can't share the link to this because it won't come up...either the article has been removed, or so many people are looking at it that it's locked up.
If it ever unlocks, I'll edit this post to share it.
Monday, September 20, 2010
20 Sep 2010, Monday, The Celebrity Cafe.com: Sarah Palin will be at Dancing With the Stars Premier
Celebrity CAfe: Sarah Palin will be at Dancing With the Stars Premier
Former Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin will be at the premier of Dancing with the Stars to support daughter, Bristol.
Bristol commented in an interview that she is happy her mother will be there for emotional support. She considers her mother to be someone she can lean on and go to.
Also Palin's appearance will serve to give the show much needed publicity. Bristol and her partner, Mark Ballas, will be doing the cha cha to "Mama Told Me Not to Come".
The rest of the cast will include the "Hills" star Audrina Patridge, singer Brandy, Jersey Shore's "The Situation", David Hasselhoff and singer Michael Bolton. This star studded cast is expected to boost ratings and make for a good show.
"DWTS" airs Monday at 8pm on ABC.
Former Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin will be at the premier of Dancing with the Stars to support daughter, Bristol.
Bristol commented in an interview that she is happy her mother will be there for emotional support. She considers her mother to be someone she can lean on and go to.
Also Palin's appearance will serve to give the show much needed publicity. Bristol and her partner, Mark Ballas, will be doing the cha cha to "Mama Told Me Not to Come".
The rest of the cast will include the "Hills" star Audrina Patridge, singer Brandy, Jersey Shore's "The Situation", David Hasselhoff and singer Michael Bolton. This star studded cast is expected to boost ratings and make for a good show.
"DWTS" airs Monday at 8pm on ABC.
20 Sep, 2010, Monday: The Week: Opinon Brief: Palin's Iowa visit: Testing the presidential waters?
The Week: Opinon Brief: Palin's Iowa visit: Testing the presidential waters?
The bolded sentences in the article below are links to articles. If you want to see them, go to the original article from the link above.
The bolded sentences in the article below are links to articles. If you want to see them, go to the original article from the link above.
Best Opinion: Politico, American Thinker, Politics Daily
Reigniting smoldering questions about her presidential ambitions (or lack thereof), Sarah Palin gave the headline speech at the Iowa GOP's annual Ronald Reagan Dinner last Friday. It was Palin's first visit this year to the influential state whose caucuses kick off the nomination process — and, in line with party tradition, require candidates to invest time and money selling themselves to Iowans. But among the targets in Palin's speech — President Obama, Democrats, the media — was the GOP "machine" itself. Does this tell us anything new about Palin's plans? (Watch Palin joke about running)
Palin needs Iowa to win: Palin's clearly considering a presidential run, says Ben Smith in Politico, but she "showed no sign that she plans to engage in the painstaking, humbling contest that will begin here in Iowa...." With its attacks on the "machine," her speech "made it difficult to imagine her giving up her current, comfortable platform to jump through the party’s hoops." Her path to victory in the Hawkeye state would have to be "unorthodox."
"Palin may run, but it's not clear how"
Palin's leaving her options open: "The conventional route of pressing the flesh in Iowa and other early caucus and primary states" isn't part of her plan, if she has one, says Rick Moran in The American Thinker. She seems to be playing it by ear: "If Palin-backed candidates win in November, her role of kingmaker will be solidified and even the party establishment will be somewhat at her feet" — possibly laying the ground for an atypical run at Iowa.
"If Palin runs, it will be an unconventional path to the White House"
Iowa's only the first step: Even if she could sweep the Iowa caucuses, the math still may not work for her, says Walter Shapiro in Politics Daily. A "little noticed" switch to proportional primaries (not winner-take-all) gives the GOP "establishment" an edge over "divisive" candidates like Palin. But really, all this speech told us about Palin's plans is "how much fun she intends to have toying with her decision" — and how much the media will eat up her every hint.
"Sarah Palin as Iowa GOP headliner—passionate, angry, and cryptic"
Saturday, September 18, 2010
18 Sep, 2010, Saturday: Politico Palin tells GOP to get behind insurgents
Sarah Palin tells GOP to get behind insurgents
By BEN SMITH | 9/17/10 10:30 PM EDT
DES MOINES - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin used an appearance here Friday to put herself firmly at the head of the insurgency overtaking the Republican Party and to demand that the party unite behind her candidates.
“The time for primary debate is over. It’s time for unity now,” Palin said, chiding the “unsuccessful campaigns and deflated political pundits” who – in Alaska and in Delaware – have refused to support their Palin-backed conservative rivals.
Speaking to reporters after the speech, she dismissed Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s attempt to revive her re-election bid through a write-in campaign after losing her primary – a step Murkowski announced about the time Palin spoke - as “a futile effort.”
And Palin imagined herself as the quarterback of a free-flowing Republican offense, fueled by members of Congress, conservative columnists, and even former president George W. Bush - each with an assigned role.
“I’d say ‘DeMint, you’re awesome, we need you down South,” she told the Iowa Republican Party’s annual Ronald Reagan dinner. “Mitt, go West. GW, we need you to raise funds. Kristol, Krauthammer – you gotta go East.”
Palin said former Bush adviser Karl Rove – who has criticized Palin’s Delaware protégé Christine O’Donnell – could come do his penance in Iowa, where he “will see the light and realize that these are just the normal, hardworking, patriot Americans who are saying, 'No. Enough is enough. We want to turn this around and we want to get back to those time-tested truths that are right for America.'”
Palin’s audience were members of Iowa’s Republican establishment, a group key to winning the Iowa caucuses on the path to the 2012 presidential nomination, but her speech made clear that she’s no closer to pursuing a traditional path to the presidency than she was when she stopped taking orders from John McCain’s campaign manager at the end of the 2008 campaign.
Instead, Palin spoke dismissively of "that political playbook to be handed to us from on high from the political elites" to a friendly, but not rapturous, audience of about 1,500 activists who will be at the core of the caucus campaign that begins in earnest next year, and who view the prospect of a Palin presidential bid with equal measures of excitement and skepticism.
Her speech, in which she joked about running for president before counseling an exclusive focus on this year’s midterms, didn’t discourage speculation about her plans. And the White House helped turn the spotlight on her appearance here when White House press secretary Robert Gibbs mused publicly on her Iowa visit.
“It’s normally around this time of year you go to tip your toe in the water, and my guess is, President Obama about this time in 2006 did I think what would be considered a somewhat analogous event,” Gibbs said in his Friday briefing. “My guess is, she's going to dip that toe.”
In an interview with Fox News that aired Friday, Palin made clear she’s considering a run.
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"If the American people were to be ready for someone who is willing to shake it up, and willing to get back to time-tested truths, and help lead our country towards a more prosperous and safe future and if they happen to think I was the one, if it were best for my family and for our country, of course I would give it a shot," she said.
"But I'm not saying that it's me. I know I can certainly make a difference without having a title. I'm having a good time doing exactly that right now."
Palin did not – as some Iowa Republicans had hoped – make much reference to the state’s specific issues or its painstaking caucus process, though she opened with a reference to the state’s beauty and the birthday of its senior senator, Chuck Grassley.
The thrust of her speech, however, was a broad and confrontational rallying call to Republicans across the country.
The media came in for particular scorn, and Palin suggested repeatedly that reporters whose anonymous sources have characterized her falsely were betraying not just her, but also American soldiers who fight to protect the First Amendment.
That is why, Palin said, “I’m so hot on this lamestream media issue.”
“It’s not fair to our troops willing to sacrifice all for your freedom, journalists,” she said.
Palin praised her party for its common sense values, but made few forays into policy, saying only that she would support candidates who are faithful to the Tenth Amendment and to the cause of states’ rights.
And she made clear that she sees her own brand of politics as central to the what she described as “the great Awakening of America.”
“it may take some renegades going rogue to get us there,” she said.
By BEN SMITH | 9/17/10 10:30 PM EDT
DES MOINES - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin used an appearance here Friday to put herself firmly at the head of the insurgency overtaking the Republican Party and to demand that the party unite behind her candidates.
“The time for primary debate is over. It’s time for unity now,” Palin said, chiding the “unsuccessful campaigns and deflated political pundits” who – in Alaska and in Delaware – have refused to support their Palin-backed conservative rivals.
Speaking to reporters after the speech, she dismissed Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s attempt to revive her re-election bid through a write-in campaign after losing her primary – a step Murkowski announced about the time Palin spoke - as “a futile effort.”
And Palin imagined herself as the quarterback of a free-flowing Republican offense, fueled by members of Congress, conservative columnists, and even former president George W. Bush - each with an assigned role.
“I’d say ‘DeMint, you’re awesome, we need you down South,” she told the Iowa Republican Party’s annual Ronald Reagan dinner. “Mitt, go West. GW, we need you to raise funds. Kristol, Krauthammer – you gotta go East.”
Palin said former Bush adviser Karl Rove – who has criticized Palin’s Delaware protégé Christine O’Donnell – could come do his penance in Iowa, where he “will see the light and realize that these are just the normal, hardworking, patriot Americans who are saying, 'No. Enough is enough. We want to turn this around and we want to get back to those time-tested truths that are right for America.'”
Palin’s audience were members of Iowa’s Republican establishment, a group key to winning the Iowa caucuses on the path to the 2012 presidential nomination, but her speech made clear that she’s no closer to pursuing a traditional path to the presidency than she was when she stopped taking orders from John McCain’s campaign manager at the end of the 2008 campaign.
Instead, Palin spoke dismissively of "that political playbook to be handed to us from on high from the political elites" to a friendly, but not rapturous, audience of about 1,500 activists who will be at the core of the caucus campaign that begins in earnest next year, and who view the prospect of a Palin presidential bid with equal measures of excitement and skepticism.
Her speech, in which she joked about running for president before counseling an exclusive focus on this year’s midterms, didn’t discourage speculation about her plans. And the White House helped turn the spotlight on her appearance here when White House press secretary Robert Gibbs mused publicly on her Iowa visit.
“It’s normally around this time of year you go to tip your toe in the water, and my guess is, President Obama about this time in 2006 did I think what would be considered a somewhat analogous event,” Gibbs said in his Friday briefing. “My guess is, she's going to dip that toe.”
In an interview with Fox News that aired Friday, Palin made clear she’s considering a run.
Continue Reading Text Size
- + reset Listen
"If the American people were to be ready for someone who is willing to shake it up, and willing to get back to time-tested truths, and help lead our country towards a more prosperous and safe future and if they happen to think I was the one, if it were best for my family and for our country, of course I would give it a shot," she said.
"But I'm not saying that it's me. I know I can certainly make a difference without having a title. I'm having a good time doing exactly that right now."
Palin did not – as some Iowa Republicans had hoped – make much reference to the state’s specific issues or its painstaking caucus process, though she opened with a reference to the state’s beauty and the birthday of its senior senator, Chuck Grassley.
The thrust of her speech, however, was a broad and confrontational rallying call to Republicans across the country.
The media came in for particular scorn, and Palin suggested repeatedly that reporters whose anonymous sources have characterized her falsely were betraying not just her, but also American soldiers who fight to protect the First Amendment.
That is why, Palin said, “I’m so hot on this lamestream media issue.”
“It’s not fair to our troops willing to sacrifice all for your freedom, journalists,” she said.
Palin praised her party for its common sense values, but made few forays into policy, saying only that she would support candidates who are faithful to the Tenth Amendment and to the cause of states’ rights.
And she made clear that she sees her own brand of politics as central to the what she described as “the great Awakening of America.”
“it may take some renegades going rogue to get us there,” she said.
18 Sep, 2010, Examnier.com Washington DC:
The Sarah Palin-Lisa Murkowski Feud
Sarah Palin and the Murkowski family have a long history of political rivalry in Alaska.
Frank Murkowski was the state's long-standing senator until he decided to run for governor in 2002. Palin, who that year failed in her bid to be the Republican's vice-gubernatorial candidate, campaigned around the state for Murkowski. After his election, Palin was rumored to be on the short list of likely appointees to Murkowski's resigned senate seat, an appointment he would now make since Alaskan law allows the governor to fill senate seats.
But Palin was passed over and Murkowski instead settled for his daughter, a state representative, Lisa Murkowski. It was been reported that Palin resented this act. Palin had campaigned for Frank Murkowski, but in an act of nepotism he rewarded his daughter and instead gave Palin the job of heading the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Palin accepted that position, but in 2006 ran for governor and challenged Murkowski in a Republican primary. Palin won the intra-party battle and later went on to become Alaska's first female and youngest governor. If Palin held a grudge against Murkowski for failing to promote her political career to the senate, she had effectively gotten back by dethroning him.
Palin's individual climb to governorship did not endear her to the Murkowski family. It is unorthodox to launch primary challenges against the party's governor, and even more so when the challenger personally campaigned for the governor four years prior.
Lisa Murkowski was elected on her own terms in 2004, but this year she faced a Tea Party challenger. Palin, who otherwise has been endorsing Republican women as part of her "Mama Grizzles', endorsed the primary challenger who went on to defeat Murkowski in a very close race. Palin initially supported Murkowski prior to the primary challenger, and even donated to her reelection fund, but as soon as Murkowski lost the primary Palin has been Tweeting that Murkowski should not go ahead with her independent campaign.
"My advice for Lisa is the same for anyone who sees a grizzly in the woods. DON'T RUN," wrote Palin in one Tweet. And in another: "Primary voters spoke. Listen to the people, respect their will; w/a 40-pt incumbent lead & $2.8million war cheast, voters chose Joe instead."
Many in Alaska and in the press have interrupted Palin's initial endorsement of Murkowski as insincere. Palin only supported Murkowski when she was dismissing rumors that she intended to run for senator and her endorsement of Murkowski was simply a matter of saying that she, Palin, did not seek the Senate and supported by the current Republican senator. But as soon as Murkowski was challenged, Palin endorsed Joe Miller writing on Twitter that "competition's good". And that her opposition to Murkowski is due to continuing resentment of Palin's overlooked status back in 2002 and Murkowski's seemingly undeserved road to the Senate.
Recently, Palin told Iowa Republicans that Murkowski's efforts to run as an independent would be "futile". Murkowski announced yesterday that she is indeed committed to running as a write-in candidate and in her speech to gathered supporters she took a veiled aim at the woman who has been dismissing her and urging her to cut short her political career. Murkowski said her campaign was necessary because Alaska needed "one Republican woman who won't quit on Alaska." It was a clear dig at Palin who prematurely resigned as governor more than a year before her term expired.
No word from Palin yet in this Palin-Murkowski feud.
Sarah Palin and the Murkowski family have a long history of political rivalry in Alaska.
Frank Murkowski was the state's long-standing senator until he decided to run for governor in 2002. Palin, who that year failed in her bid to be the Republican's vice-gubernatorial candidate, campaigned around the state for Murkowski. After his election, Palin was rumored to be on the short list of likely appointees to Murkowski's resigned senate seat, an appointment he would now make since Alaskan law allows the governor to fill senate seats.
But Palin was passed over and Murkowski instead settled for his daughter, a state representative, Lisa Murkowski. It was been reported that Palin resented this act. Palin had campaigned for Frank Murkowski, but in an act of nepotism he rewarded his daughter and instead gave Palin the job of heading the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Palin accepted that position, but in 2006 ran for governor and challenged Murkowski in a Republican primary. Palin won the intra-party battle and later went on to become Alaska's first female and youngest governor. If Palin held a grudge against Murkowski for failing to promote her political career to the senate, she had effectively gotten back by dethroning him.
Palin's individual climb to governorship did not endear her to the Murkowski family. It is unorthodox to launch primary challenges against the party's governor, and even more so when the challenger personally campaigned for the governor four years prior.
Lisa Murkowski was elected on her own terms in 2004, but this year she faced a Tea Party challenger. Palin, who otherwise has been endorsing Republican women as part of her "Mama Grizzles', endorsed the primary challenger who went on to defeat Murkowski in a very close race. Palin initially supported Murkowski prior to the primary challenger, and even donated to her reelection fund, but as soon as Murkowski lost the primary Palin has been Tweeting that Murkowski should not go ahead with her independent campaign.
"My advice for Lisa is the same for anyone who sees a grizzly in the woods. DON'T RUN," wrote Palin in one Tweet. And in another: "Primary voters spoke. Listen to the people, respect their will; w/a 40-pt incumbent lead & $2.8million war cheast, voters chose Joe instead."
Many in Alaska and in the press have interrupted Palin's initial endorsement of Murkowski as insincere. Palin only supported Murkowski when she was dismissing rumors that she intended to run for senator and her endorsement of Murkowski was simply a matter of saying that she, Palin, did not seek the Senate and supported by the current Republican senator. But as soon as Murkowski was challenged, Palin endorsed Joe Miller writing on Twitter that "competition's good". And that her opposition to Murkowski is due to continuing resentment of Palin's overlooked status back in 2002 and Murkowski's seemingly undeserved road to the Senate.
Recently, Palin told Iowa Republicans that Murkowski's efforts to run as an independent would be "futile". Murkowski announced yesterday that she is indeed committed to running as a write-in candidate and in her speech to gathered supporters she took a veiled aim at the woman who has been dismissing her and urging her to cut short her political career. Murkowski said her campaign was necessary because Alaska needed "one Republican woman who won't quit on Alaska." It was a clear dig at Palin who prematurely resigned as governor more than a year before her term expired.
No word from Palin yet in this Palin-Murkowski feud.
18 Sep 2010, Saturday, Caffeinated Thoughts
From Caffeinated Thoughts: Stimulating Musings on Culture, Current Events and Politics
Sarah Palin in Iowa: Protect Every Innocent Life
There is still a lot of debate on whether or not Governor Sarah Palin will run, and last night’s speech at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Reagan Dinner didn’t really help clarify. She did go after Obama pretty fast and hard, and gave a lot of red meat to the base. She didn’t say her intentions, but she didn’t close the door to 2012 either. It sounded like a rally speech for 2010, but it had a campaign feel as well…
We can analyze that to no end I’m sure… remember when Presidential campaigns only lasted 18 months?
I do want to point out something that I haven’t seen reported in the press about this speech. Many of the party leadership are calling for a truce on abortion like Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels or believing it won’t make a difference this election year like Alabama Governor Haley Barbour. Some of the up and coming Republicans in the House aren’t particularly concerned about abortion either.
Governor Sarah Palin dissents last night in Des Moines saying one of our “time-tested truths that make our country great” and part of the commonsense conservatism we should dear is the sanctity of life.
And that every innocent life has purpose, has destiny. Every innocent life deserves to be in that circle of protection and respect.
While the rhetoric and focus is pointed toward fiscal matters we must uphold the sanctity of life. It is an American principle that reflective of higher moral law. If this issue and other social issues don’t matter, then somebody forgot to tell the voters or Sarah Palin for that matter.
Sarah Palin in Iowa: Protect Every Innocent Life
There is still a lot of debate on whether or not Governor Sarah Palin will run, and last night’s speech at the Republican Party of Iowa’s Reagan Dinner didn’t really help clarify. She did go after Obama pretty fast and hard, and gave a lot of red meat to the base. She didn’t say her intentions, but she didn’t close the door to 2012 either. It sounded like a rally speech for 2010, but it had a campaign feel as well…
We can analyze that to no end I’m sure… remember when Presidential campaigns only lasted 18 months?
I do want to point out something that I haven’t seen reported in the press about this speech. Many of the party leadership are calling for a truce on abortion like Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels or believing it won’t make a difference this election year like Alabama Governor Haley Barbour. Some of the up and coming Republicans in the House aren’t particularly concerned about abortion either.
Governor Sarah Palin dissents last night in Des Moines saying one of our “time-tested truths that make our country great” and part of the commonsense conservatism we should dear is the sanctity of life.
And that every innocent life has purpose, has destiny. Every innocent life deserves to be in that circle of protection and respect.
While the rhetoric and focus is pointed toward fiscal matters we must uphold the sanctity of life. It is an American principle that reflective of higher moral law. If this issue and other social issues don’t matter, then somebody forgot to tell the voters or Sarah Palin for that matter.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sep 15, 2010, Wedn, Media Matters for America, County Fair, Palin and Beck's AK event
From Sep 13
BTW, Palin and Beck's 9/11 event failed to sell out
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck’s much-ballyhooed 9/11 rally staged in Alaska at an Anchorage convention center that holds 4,500 people failed to sell out, according to a report in the Associated press.
This seems rather remarkable to me in that Palin and Beck are supposed to represent the most famous and popular media leaders of the right-wing Tea Party movement. (“The Dream Team,” as the NYT called them.) Yet appearing in Palin’s backyard they couldn’t even sell 4,000 tickets? This continues Palin’s poor track record this year in terms of drawing large crowds.
It’s true, as the AP points out, that tickets to the Palin/Beck event were expensive (between $73 and $225), which may have curtailed attendance. But the mediocre turnout begs the question of why the dynamic duo set ticket prices so high in the first place. According to the AP, Beck is donating his speaking fee to charity and Palin wasn’t paid. So if, as they claim, the 9/11 event wasn’t a money-maker for them, why charge people nearly $100 to get in the door.
Or was the event actually first designed to be a money-maker but that plan was changed last minute when Palin and Back were criticized for trying to cash-in the Sept. 11 terror attacks?
Either way, it’s amazing that together on the same bill, Palin and Beck could not attract 4,000 fans.
BTW, Palin and Beck's 9/11 event failed to sell out
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck’s much-ballyhooed 9/11 rally staged in Alaska at an Anchorage convention center that holds 4,500 people failed to sell out, according to a report in the Associated press.
This seems rather remarkable to me in that Palin and Beck are supposed to represent the most famous and popular media leaders of the right-wing Tea Party movement. (“The Dream Team,” as the NYT called them.) Yet appearing in Palin’s backyard they couldn’t even sell 4,000 tickets? This continues Palin’s poor track record this year in terms of drawing large crowds.
It’s true, as the AP points out, that tickets to the Palin/Beck event were expensive (between $73 and $225), which may have curtailed attendance. But the mediocre turnout begs the question of why the dynamic duo set ticket prices so high in the first place. According to the AP, Beck is donating his speaking fee to charity and Palin wasn’t paid. So if, as they claim, the 9/11 event wasn’t a money-maker for them, why charge people nearly $100 to get in the door.
Or was the event actually first designed to be a money-maker but that plan was changed last minute when Palin and Back were criticized for trying to cash-in the Sept. 11 terror attacks?
Either way, it’s amazing that together on the same bill, Palin and Beck could not attract 4,000 fans.
Sep 15, 2010, AL.com Sarah Palin to visit Montgomery's Faulkner University Oct. 7
Sarah Palin to visit Montgomery's Faulkner University Oct. 7
Sarah Palin will visit Faulkner University in Montgomery Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. for the school's 2010 Annual Benefit Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa and Convention Center.
The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate will serve as the keynote speaker for the event.
The visit will be just her second visit to Alabama and her first to Montgomery.
Proceeds from the dinner will go towards student scholarships. Those who wish to attend are encouraged to purchase tickets early. They goal on sale Feb. 15. For ticket information, call (334) 386-7257.
Sarah Palin will visit Faulkner University in Montgomery Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. for the school's 2010 Annual Benefit Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa and Convention Center.
The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate will serve as the keynote speaker for the event.
The visit will be just her second visit to Alabama and her first to Montgomery.
Proceeds from the dinner will go towards student scholarships. Those who wish to attend are encouraged to purchase tickets early. They goal on sale Feb. 15. For ticket information, call (334) 386-7257.
Sep 15, 2010, Wed, Huffington Post, Bob Cesca: Thanks, Sarah Palin, for the Extra Senate Seat!
Thanks, Sarah Palin, for the Extra Senate Seat!
It's difficult to pinpoint a more obvious example of Sarah Palin's narcissistic political flailing than Christine O'Donnell's victory over Congressman Mike Castle in the Delaware primary yesterday. Palin's endorsement of O'Donnell was arguably one of the dumbest and most revealing stumbles of her improbable career -- not including her self-satirical word salads, of course.
Not unlike her alleged abuse-of-power as the half-term governor of Alaska, in which she apparently used her gubernatorial office to settle personal scores, the O'Donnell primary victory is, to date, the strongest indicator of how Palin might react from a position of national leadership: critical decisions would be governed by personal whimsy, vendettas, twisted ideology and entitled self-indulgence. (We've seen this before, haven't we?)
Fortunately for the, you know, whole world, it's highly doubtful that Palin will ever be elected president. But make sure to brace for impact if the stars align and she pulls it off.
Charles Pierce at Esquire spelled out the Delaware GOP nominee perfectly today: "Christine O'Donnell is a sideshow freak." She's a madcap professional candidate, running ostensibly for the attention and renown and not so much the victory -- calling into serious doubt O'Donnell's famous opposition to masturbation, by the way.
Yet Sarah Palin anointed her, practically leapfrogging the candidate over Mike Castle, and, more importantly, nullifying the near-term impact of a brutal radio talk show interview in which O'Donnell was caught red-handed in a hilarious slow-moving-train-wreck of a lie.
Christine O'Donnell has no chance of beating the Democratic candidate Chris Coons in the general election, short of some kind of earth-shattering scandal. What was going to be an easy Republican victory, with Mike Castle taking Vice President Biden's old Senate seat, is now very likely a solid Democratic win. Obviously, Sarah Palin didn't elevate O'Donnell because she's a viable candidate.
As near as I can tell, there are two specific reasons why Palin would brazenly and blindly squander one whole Republican vote in the U.S. Senate.
Before we get into it, though, it's important to note here the broiling GOP problem in Delaware: the conservative tea party gaggle hates Mike Castle because he's a moderate Republican. In fact, according to Will Bunch, it was a Mike Castle town hall meeting where we saw the first screeching, conspiratorial town hall rant by an angry tea party hoople. Also, professional troll and CNN analyst Erick Erickson once tweeted, "Sorry folks, but if we need Mike Castle for a Senate majority, we do not need a Senate majority." Fine for Erickson to toss out seats willy-nilly like that, but Sarah Palin should probably be held to a higher standard than an overindulged bomb-hurling blogger who once threatened to pull a "shotgun" on any Census workers who showed up at this front door. Palin is uniquely positioned to be able to win or lose a seat (or many seats) for the Republicans, so she probably should have thought twice before pandering to the far-right fantasy of ending Mike Castle's congressional career. She played grabass with the Erickson wing of the party instead of considering the real political consequences of her endorsement.
Back to it.
First, it was a major political gaffe. What's that Ricky Roma line from Glengarry Glenn Ross? "You never open your mouth until you know what the shot is." Palin might have risen to become the (half-term) governor of Alaska, but, then again, this O'Donnell thing proves that she doesn't exactly know what the hell she's doing. And, sometimes, outliers happen and unqualified people stumble over the finish line first. Alvin Greene, for instance. But, other than simple stupidity, what else should we call this single-handed gifting of a Senate seat to the Democrats other than, in part, a huge gaffe? I mean, she literally reduced the Republican whip count in the Senate by one whole vote simply by saying, "I endorse fruitbag Christine O'Donnell." (Palin didn't use the word "fruitbag.") One less vote. A gift to the Democrats.
Ask yourself, Republican people, what if you miss a Senate majority by just one seat? Who will you blame -- or, rather, who ought to be blamed?
What's especially remarkable here is that Sarah Palin, instead of uniting the GOP in the wake of 2008, appears to be the catalyst for a major rift developing in the party. By engaging in these impulse purchases -- going rogue, if you will -- and abusing her status, she's sabotaging the efforts of the RNC, the NRSC and the NRCC, utterly deleting winnable seats and nullifying national campaign coordination efforts. But also, by pandering to the fringe tea party, she's spurring a rightward shift that could divide the party, even to the point of another Whig-like extinction.
Secondly, it's obvious that Palin's O'Donnell gaffe is another symptom of her manic, almost hyperkinetic obsession with the sound of her own voice and the power of her tween-girlish internet gabbery. She thinks she can do anything, so, well, she does. The Republican Party would do well to gut check Palin's egomaniacal abuse of this reality-show-celebrity she's attained. When GOP analysts and operatives like Karl Rove go on television and rip O'Donnell for not possessing "truthfulness and sincerity and character," they really ought to take a good look at Patient Zero in this epidemic: Sarah Palin and her ever-expanding repertoire of serial lies and unserious meddlings. It's perhaps indicative of deeper problems infecting the party that, despite mucking up the Delaware seat, it's highly conceivable that the Republicans will nominate Palin for the presidency in 2012 anyway -- the very personality who will soon cost them a vote in Senate.
By the way, I want front row seats for that one. The Republican primaries with Sarah Palin in the mix are going to be a blast to observe, but if she gets the nomination, I can only grin from ear-to-ear imagining the daily disorganized frenetic jumble of spasmodic chaos emanating from the Palin campaign -- the unplugged-Ghostbusters-Containment-Unit bursting with indecipherable tweets and a gigantic neon green plasma beam of crazy just rocketing into the stratosphere wherever the Cackle Of Rads Express sets up shop.
For what it's worth, there's also a lesson here for the progressive movement when it comes to selecting primary challengers to replace various insufferable Democrats. More than any single position or progressive agenda item, it's definitely a good idea to see if the primary candidate of choice can actually win in the general election. While it's painful to deal with some of the usual conservadem suspects, handing the seat to a Republican would be a gigantic step in the wrong direction.
Nevertheless, thank you, Sarah Palin. Thank you for an autumn of entertainment as Christine O'Donnell implodes on the national stage. And especially thank you for the freebee Senate seat. We didn't think we'd lock that one down, but now it's definitely smooth sailing. Cheers also.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Politico: Charles Krauthammer rips 'irresponsible' Palin (for endorsing O'Donnell)
Charles Krauthammer rips 'irresponsible' Palin
Castle was expected to be able to beat his Democrat opponent, O'Donnell is 28 points behind the Democrat opponent according to the latest polls. (But what are polls? 1000 people across the state share their opinion. Means nothing. Having said that...I don't really care for O'Donnell, myself! What in the world is wrong with masturbation? Better that than having sex and having an unwanted baby or getting an STD.)
By ANDY BARR | 9/14/10 8:41 AM EDT
Leading conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer has rebuked former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) for making the “irresponsible” choice of endorsing Christine O’Donnell over Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware GOP Senate primary.
“The Palin endorsement, I think, is disruptive and capricious,” Krauthammer said Monday night on Fox News’ “Special Report.” “Bill Buckley had a rule that he always supported the most conservative candidate who was electable, otherwise the vote is simply self-indulgence.”
Palin has weighed in heavily in the race, cutting robocalls for O’Donnell that have been bombarding the state’s GOP voters, who head to the polls Tuesday.
“Delaware is not Alaska,” Krauthammer said of the state’s former Republican governor. “In Alaska you can endorse a Joe Miller, whose going to win anyway though he’s more conservative. In Delaware, O’Donnell is going to lose and that could be the difference between Republican and Democratic control” of the Senate.
When Fox anchor Bret Baier pointed out the DeMint has also endorsed O’Donnell, Krauthammer branded the senator’s move “equally capricious and irresponsible.”
“I'm not sexist on this,” the conservative columnist said. “It's a big mistake. Mike Castle is a shoo-in. He wins. O’Donnell is very problematic. She probably will lose.”
Castle was expected to be able to beat his Democrat opponent, O'Donnell is 28 points behind the Democrat opponent according to the latest polls. (But what are polls? 1000 people across the state share their opinion. Means nothing. Having said that...I don't really care for O'Donnell, myself! What in the world is wrong with masturbation? Better that than having sex and having an unwanted baby or getting an STD.)
Alaska Dispatch, Palin Watch: Missoulian editor: We didn't 'sneak in' to a Palin speech
Missoulian editor: We didn't 'sneak in' to a Palin speech
We've gotten used to Sarah Palin taking swipes at the "lamestream media" and our habit of "makin' things up." But one newspaper editor in Montana took it personally this week when the former Alaska governor made an offhand remark about the press -- and swiped back.
In a post on MissoulaEditor.com, Missoulian editor Sherry Devlin takes Palin to task, reacting to a comment Palin made to the crowd assembled at a fundraiser for Teen Challenge, a Christian charity that helps women in crisis.
"Be careful. There may be some media that sneaked into the room," Palin allegedly told her audience.
Not so, Devlin retorted. There was no sneaking on the part of the Missoulian's reporters on the scene, who were there with organizers' permission.
"Last week, they picked up a credential packet from Teen Challenge," she wrote. "They showed I.D. to pick up the packet. They were given green wristbands and were told to put them on their left wrists. They checked in at the door on Sunday, showed their wristbands and were placed in one corner of the room -- and told not to move. They were very visible, very public, very respectful and professional." (And then they wrote up an account of the speech that not even Palin could honestly accuse of being critical.)
The problem, Devlin writes, is that Palin's remark about the media was "intended to create distrust of the professional journalists in this city and all across the country who take their jobs very seriously and work hard to accurately and fairly report the news."
PoliticsUSA.com is calling the post "the first flickers of a press pushback against Sarah Palin." Palin would probably argue that the press pushed first. And one MissoulaEditor.com reader suggested in the comments that "if Sarah Palin doesn't want the media to report on her actions, you might consider obliging her."
We've gotten used to Sarah Palin taking swipes at the "lamestream media" and our habit of "makin' things up." But one newspaper editor in Montana took it personally this week when the former Alaska governor made an offhand remark about the press -- and swiped back.
In a post on MissoulaEditor.com, Missoulian editor Sherry Devlin takes Palin to task, reacting to a comment Palin made to the crowd assembled at a fundraiser for Teen Challenge, a Christian charity that helps women in crisis.
"Be careful. There may be some media that sneaked into the room," Palin allegedly told her audience.
Not so, Devlin retorted. There was no sneaking on the part of the Missoulian's reporters on the scene, who were there with organizers' permission.
"Last week, they picked up a credential packet from Teen Challenge," she wrote. "They showed I.D. to pick up the packet. They were given green wristbands and were told to put them on their left wrists. They checked in at the door on Sunday, showed their wristbands and were placed in one corner of the room -- and told not to move. They were very visible, very public, very respectful and professional." (And then they wrote up an account of the speech that not even Palin could honestly accuse of being critical.)
The problem, Devlin writes, is that Palin's remark about the media was "intended to create distrust of the professional journalists in this city and all across the country who take their jobs very seriously and work hard to accurately and fairly report the news."
PoliticsUSA.com is calling the post "the first flickers of a press pushback against Sarah Palin." Palin would probably argue that the press pushed first. And one MissoulaEditor.com reader suggested in the comments that "if Sarah Palin doesn't want the media to report on her actions, you might consider obliging her."
Christine O’Donnell, Tea Party Shock GOP Establishment in Delaware
Rush Limbaugh will be happy tomorrow!
ABC News: The Note -- Christine O’Donnell, Tea Party Shock GOP Establishment in Delaware
(O'Donnell was endorsed by Sarah Palin, which is why I report it here)
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer reports: Christine O’Donnell, the Sarah Palin and Tea Party backed candidate, dealt a stunning blow to the Republican establishment Tuesday night, defeating the moderate, party-favorite veteran Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware GOP senate primary.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting as of 9:21 pm, O’Donnell had 53.2 percent of the vote to Castle’s 46.8 percent. AP projected O’Donnell the winner.
Castle’s impending loss immediately casts doubt on GOP chances of winning the senate seat, which had been held by Democrat Joe Biden for 36 years, and could close the door on a Republican effort to gain control of the Senate in November.
Unlike Alaska, where conservative lawyer Joe Miller shocked Republicans by defeating sitting Sen. Lisa Murkowski in last month's primary, Delaware is a heavily Democratic state and recent polls have shown O’Donnell would face a much more difficult race against Democrat Chris Coons than would Castle.
The question now is whether the Republican establishment, which has spent weeks trashing O’Donnell, will go to bat for her in the race against Coons and whether the intraparty attacks will hurt her candidacy in the general election.
ABC News: The Note -- Christine O’Donnell, Tea Party Shock GOP Establishment in Delaware
(O'Donnell was endorsed by Sarah Palin, which is why I report it here)
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer reports: Christine O’Donnell, the Sarah Palin and Tea Party backed candidate, dealt a stunning blow to the Republican establishment Tuesday night, defeating the moderate, party-favorite veteran Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware GOP senate primary.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting as of 9:21 pm, O’Donnell had 53.2 percent of the vote to Castle’s 46.8 percent. AP projected O’Donnell the winner.
Castle’s impending loss immediately casts doubt on GOP chances of winning the senate seat, which had been held by Democrat Joe Biden for 36 years, and could close the door on a Republican effort to gain control of the Senate in November.
Unlike Alaska, where conservative lawyer Joe Miller shocked Republicans by defeating sitting Sen. Lisa Murkowski in last month's primary, Delaware is a heavily Democratic state and recent polls have shown O’Donnell would face a much more difficult race against Democrat Chris Coons than would Castle.
The question now is whether the Republican establishment, which has spent weeks trashing O’Donnell, will go to bat for her in the race against Coons and whether the intraparty attacks will hurt her candidacy in the general election.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sep 12, 2010, Sunday. Irish Central: Palin visits Iowa
Sarah Palin visit to Iowa a clear sign she'll run for president in 2012
Some months back I wrote that Sarah Palin was likely to be the Republican candidate for president in 2012 and a number of disparaging comments were posted.
But now the Guardian newspaper in London is leading with the news that Irish American Palin will headline a dinner in Iowa on Friday.
They say it is clear that this is her opening salvo in the race for the 2012 nomination.
Can't say I'm surprised.
The Guardian quotes Kathie Obradovich, political columnist at the Des Moines Register, who says Palin's visit is highly significant.
"Palin is aware that there are flames of speculation over whether she will run for president and coming to Iowa fans that into a wildfire."says Obradovich.
Strangely I haven't seen much commentary on this Iowa visit in the American media.
Political commentators always fight the last war, not the next one and they have dismissed Palin because she did not deliver ultimately for John McCain.
Sure, they see her as a Tea Party darling and a Fox News star but they don't really take her seriously as a presidential contender.
I think they are making a huge mistake.
The Iowa diner will solidify her bond with grassroots Iowans, who remember, vote in a caucus system, not a primary.
I can very easily see her winning Iowa and heading for New Hampshire like a runaway train.
Who will stop her? Mitt Romney who has never appealed to the grassroots? Newt Gingrich with his three marriages and decades old shtick?
The Guardian interviewed Marilea David, a hard core Republican,who might well have been speaking for most conservatives.
"I think she is great. She is the only person I am excited about just now,"
"She is fiscally conservative. She married her husband for love, not money. She does not have perfect kids, which is big for me. She has been totally vetted by the liberal media and they did not come up with anything other than she is a 'hick'."
There's a bit of the Susan Boyle phenomenon for women especially in Palin.
The more the mainstream mocks Susan the more her base is bonded to her, seeing in her struggle for recognition their own.
Palin is in a similar narrative.
Larry Sabato, director of the political centre at the University of Virginia says Palin will win Iowa if she runs but thinks she will be a poor general election candidate.
" You are looking at a landslide to the Democrats. There is no one the Democrats want more. Obama would expect to win, even if the economy was bad. She is popular among Republicans but in the country as a whole she is unpopular."
I think Larry has it wrong. If Palin prevails she will be a very powerful contender. And many women will be drawn to her, for the historic nature of her run alone.
Who said after Hillary Clinton failed that we'd never see a woman president.
President Palin has a nice ring to it.
Some months back I wrote that Sarah Palin was likely to be the Republican candidate for president in 2012 and a number of disparaging comments were posted.
But now the Guardian newspaper in London is leading with the news that Irish American Palin will headline a dinner in Iowa on Friday.
They say it is clear that this is her opening salvo in the race for the 2012 nomination.
Can't say I'm surprised.
The Guardian quotes Kathie Obradovich, political columnist at the Des Moines Register, who says Palin's visit is highly significant.
"Palin is aware that there are flames of speculation over whether she will run for president and coming to Iowa fans that into a wildfire."says Obradovich.
Strangely I haven't seen much commentary on this Iowa visit in the American media.
Political commentators always fight the last war, not the next one and they have dismissed Palin because she did not deliver ultimately for John McCain.
Sure, they see her as a Tea Party darling and a Fox News star but they don't really take her seriously as a presidential contender.
I think they are making a huge mistake.
The Iowa diner will solidify her bond with grassroots Iowans, who remember, vote in a caucus system, not a primary.
I can very easily see her winning Iowa and heading for New Hampshire like a runaway train.
Who will stop her? Mitt Romney who has never appealed to the grassroots? Newt Gingrich with his three marriages and decades old shtick?
The Guardian interviewed Marilea David, a hard core Republican,who might well have been speaking for most conservatives.
"I think she is great. She is the only person I am excited about just now,"
"She is fiscally conservative. She married her husband for love, not money. She does not have perfect kids, which is big for me. She has been totally vetted by the liberal media and they did not come up with anything other than she is a 'hick'."
There's a bit of the Susan Boyle phenomenon for women especially in Palin.
The more the mainstream mocks Susan the more her base is bonded to her, seeing in her struggle for recognition their own.
Palin is in a similar narrative.
Larry Sabato, director of the political centre at the University of Virginia says Palin will win Iowa if she runs but thinks she will be a poor general election candidate.
" You are looking at a landslide to the Democrats. There is no one the Democrats want more. Obama would expect to win, even if the economy was bad. She is popular among Republicans but in the country as a whole she is unpopular."
I think Larry has it wrong. If Palin prevails she will be a very powerful contender. And many women will be drawn to her, for the historic nature of her run alone.
Who said after Hillary Clinton failed that we'd never see a woman president.
President Palin has a nice ring to it.
Sept 12, 2010, Telegraph.co.uk. Palin and "islamophobia"
Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for 'growing Islamophobia'
>"As Americans we are not – and never will be – at war with Islam," said Mr Obama. "It was not a religion that attacked us that September day – it was al-Qaeda, a sorry band of men which perverts religion."
In some circles, Obama has been criticized for calling them "a sorry band of men" instead of "a sorry band of terrorists."
The Reverend Terry Jones abandoned his "international burn a Koran day" in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday but there were isolated instances in Tennessee and New York of the Muslim holy book being set alight.
"What has happened is that..certain politicians decided that this project would be very useful for their political ambitions," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said, adding that this had prompted a "growing Islamophobia" in the US.
Imam Rauf's proposal for an Islamic Centre, containing a mosque, two blocks from the site of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, has become embroiled in controversy.
Mrs Palin was the first major national figure to get involved in what had been a localised dispute when she sent a Twitter message in July stating: "Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing."
Imam Rauf said Mrs Palin's intervention had been "disingenuous" and played a part of the issue being "hijacked by the radicals" over the summer.
In Springfield, Tennessee, the Reverend Bob Old and the Reverent Danny Allen, both evangelical pastors, burned Koran to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11th atrocities.
"It's about faith, it's about love, but you have to have the right book behind you. This is a book of hate, not a book of love," said the Rev Old as he held up a Koran.
In New York, an unidentified man ripped pages from a Koran and lit them near the proposed site of the Islamic centre. "If they can burn American flags, I can burn the Koran," he said.
Imam Rauf said that he would not have proposed his Islamic Centre had he anticipated the furore that has resulted. "I would never have done it."
But he was reluctant to consider a different site because of how this would be interpreted by Islamic extremists. "My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America.
This will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment, this will put our people -- our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens -- under attack in the Muslim world and we have expanded and given and fuelled terrorism."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given his backing to the mosque proposal and President Barack Obama intervened to remind critics that religious freedoms in America allow anyone to open a holy place. But several senior Democrats including Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, publicly distanced themselves from the presidents position.
Official commemorations for the attacks on the New York's Twin Towers and the Pentagon were solemn affairs but took place against a backdrop of fierce debate about the relationship between Islam and terrorism.
"As Americans we are not – and never will be – at war with Islam," said Mr Obama. "It was not a religion that attacked us that September day – it was al-Qaeda, a sorry band of men which perverts religion."
>"As Americans we are not – and never will be – at war with Islam," said Mr Obama. "It was not a religion that attacked us that September day – it was al-Qaeda, a sorry band of men which perverts religion."
In some circles, Obama has been criticized for calling them "a sorry band of men" instead of "a sorry band of terrorists."
Sept 12, 2010, Sunday. Los Angeles Times: Palin and Beck
Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin draw the faithful in Anchorage
Reporting from Anchorage —
The line to get into the Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin road show's Alaska stop on Saturday stretched around the corner and down a city block. One woman came with her hair tied back in an American flag; a bushy-haired man in a leather Jesus jacket warned of an impending 8.6 earthquake. Most, though, were ordinary-looking families, and with tickets at $73.75 to $225 each, a few even showed up with several children in tow.
"They tell the truth. Facts. Backed up by facts. Not just a bunch of hype," said Brad Heck, a retired school principal from Palin's hometown of Wasilla.
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"We have a lot of the same values," said Jeanne Perkins, who traveled 260 miles from North Pole, Alaska, and was getting her picture taken under a video screen bearing the Fox News host's name. "He's trying to restore history and bring back facts that were lost — covered up."
If ever there was a time, place and message that seemed fated to meet, it was this Sept. 11 anniversary, the two leading personalities of bring-back-America conservatism, and the remote and opinionated region that gave birth to the political phenomenon that is Sarah Palin.
"He could be anywhere on the Earth today, and he chose Alaska!" said Palin, who spoke briefly before perching on a stool next to Beck for a three-hour show that resembled a tent revival more than a political forum.
"Stop looking for leaders and start looking inside yourself. Look, if you're an Alaskan, you can do damn near anything. It's the pioneer spirit," Beck told the cheering, near-capacity crowd of more than 4,000, twice invoking an image of Palin with caribou blood under her fingernails.
"There is a need across America to have more of what there is here, out there," Palin said. "That you are to be rewarded for your work ethic, that government really shouldn't be taking from you and giving to others. …Thank God, personally speaking here, for my upbringing in Alaska, where I do know what is real."
Earlier in the day, Palin and daughter Piper made an appearance at a Sept. 11 event in Wasilla organized by Alaska's leading "tea party" organization, the Conservative Patriots Group, which also featured a slide show of the falling twin towers accompanied by "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes.
"Our theme was 'Never forget and never surrender,' " said Jennie Bettine, the group's president. "People are tired of listening to other countries' terrorist groups tell this country what to do."
Beck and Palin have become an iconic matchup in conservative hearts across the country (hand-lettered Beck-Palin yard signs have begun springing up), but the two were at pains Saturday to say there would be no big political announcements.
"We would like to announce that in 2012, we will both be — voting," Beck said, grinning.
The theme was a sequel to last month's "Restoring Honor" event projected through the incendiary political flashpoint of the Sept. 11 anniversary. (Beck's fee Saturday and proceeds from the earlier event went to his Special Operations Foundation for families of service members.)
Avoiding any talk of mosque construction or the Koran, Beck and Palin attempted to strike reflective notes, telling the crowd their recollections of the day.
"They called me and they said, 'We want you on the air,' " said Beck, who said he watched the collapse of the towers on television from Tampa, Fla. "I spent the next few days on my knees, as every American did. I was pleading for some kind of guidance. I remember in that moment realizing I knew nothing … and I remember just saying, 'Who am I to have a voice at this point? And try to guide people through it?' "
Palin, who was mayor of Wasilla, said she got a call at City Hall. "They said they were gathering people at the Lutheran church and the Baptist church," she said. "So we shut down City Hall and we all ran up to the churches and we started praying for America."
"Where were you, Obama?" shouted a woman in the crowd.
Outside the convention center in Anchorage, a few dozen protesters hoisted signs: "Sarah Palin: Joseph McCarthy in Lipstick" and "Beck 'n' Barbie Don't Speak for Me."
Desa Jacobsson, an Alaska Native who helped organize the protest and a similar rally earlier in the day at an Anchorage park, said she hoped it would be clear that not all Alaskans were welcoming the duo.
"There are Alaskans who believe that Palin and Beck are promoting hate and fear," she said.
Beck's message Saturday, delivered alternately through wisecracks and tears, was a call to Americans to invoke the principles of "faith, hope and charity" to take the nation back from an over-reaching government that he said had abandoned the ideals of the founding fathers.
"We must say, 'You know that big, fat pension I was going to get? If I demand it now, my children will be slaves. You know that Social Security that I told them wouldn't last but they forced me to pay it? If I demand it now, my children will be slaves,' " he said.
Beck called on his followers to wait patiently for other citizens to discover the truth and welcome them into the fold with solidarity.
"When they finally come over and say, 'Hey, did you guys notice the country's collapsing?' we don't say, 'We told you!' We say, 'Thank God. Help us,' " he said.
"You are the people that are building the lifeboats. If you are the person that is standing when everybody else is freaking out, you must have firm reliance. You must be able to look another American in the eye and say, 'Brother, we are going to make it … it's going to be tough, but get … in the boat, brother.' That's who you need to be."
To Beck's audience, it was the proverbial sermon to the choir. As the $225 ticket-holders filed up for a private meet-and-greet, everyone else chattered happily toward the exits.
"Obama's got to go. He's got to go!" E.J. Larrivee II, a knife carver from Anchorage wearing a large fur cap, bellowed with a wide smile.
"On his watch, we went into debt. On his watch, we got oil in the Gulf of Mexico." He thought for a moment. "Which is actually good for us," he said. "Which would you rather eat, shrimp from our gulf or theirs?"
Reporting from Anchorage —
The line to get into the Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin road show's Alaska stop on Saturday stretched around the corner and down a city block. One woman came with her hair tied back in an American flag; a bushy-haired man in a leather Jesus jacket warned of an impending 8.6 earthquake. Most, though, were ordinary-looking families, and with tickets at $73.75 to $225 each, a few even showed up with several children in tow.
"They tell the truth. Facts. Backed up by facts. Not just a bunch of hype," said Brad Heck, a retired school principal from Palin's hometown of Wasilla.
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"We have a lot of the same values," said Jeanne Perkins, who traveled 260 miles from North Pole, Alaska, and was getting her picture taken under a video screen bearing the Fox News host's name. "He's trying to restore history and bring back facts that were lost — covered up."
If ever there was a time, place and message that seemed fated to meet, it was this Sept. 11 anniversary, the two leading personalities of bring-back-America conservatism, and the remote and opinionated region that gave birth to the political phenomenon that is Sarah Palin.
"He could be anywhere on the Earth today, and he chose Alaska!" said Palin, who spoke briefly before perching on a stool next to Beck for a three-hour show that resembled a tent revival more than a political forum.
"Stop looking for leaders and start looking inside yourself. Look, if you're an Alaskan, you can do damn near anything. It's the pioneer spirit," Beck told the cheering, near-capacity crowd of more than 4,000, twice invoking an image of Palin with caribou blood under her fingernails.
"There is a need across America to have more of what there is here, out there," Palin said. "That you are to be rewarded for your work ethic, that government really shouldn't be taking from you and giving to others. …Thank God, personally speaking here, for my upbringing in Alaska, where I do know what is real."
Earlier in the day, Palin and daughter Piper made an appearance at a Sept. 11 event in Wasilla organized by Alaska's leading "tea party" organization, the Conservative Patriots Group, which also featured a slide show of the falling twin towers accompanied by "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes.
"Our theme was 'Never forget and never surrender,' " said Jennie Bettine, the group's president. "People are tired of listening to other countries' terrorist groups tell this country what to do."
Beck and Palin have become an iconic matchup in conservative hearts across the country (hand-lettered Beck-Palin yard signs have begun springing up), but the two were at pains Saturday to say there would be no big political announcements.
"We would like to announce that in 2012, we will both be — voting," Beck said, grinning.
The theme was a sequel to last month's "Restoring Honor" event projected through the incendiary political flashpoint of the Sept. 11 anniversary. (Beck's fee Saturday and proceeds from the earlier event went to his Special Operations Foundation for families of service members.)
Avoiding any talk of mosque construction or the Koran, Beck and Palin attempted to strike reflective notes, telling the crowd their recollections of the day.
"They called me and they said, 'We want you on the air,' " said Beck, who said he watched the collapse of the towers on television from Tampa, Fla. "I spent the next few days on my knees, as every American did. I was pleading for some kind of guidance. I remember in that moment realizing I knew nothing … and I remember just saying, 'Who am I to have a voice at this point? And try to guide people through it?' "
Palin, who was mayor of Wasilla, said she got a call at City Hall. "They said they were gathering people at the Lutheran church and the Baptist church," she said. "So we shut down City Hall and we all ran up to the churches and we started praying for America."
"Where were you, Obama?" shouted a woman in the crowd.
Outside the convention center in Anchorage, a few dozen protesters hoisted signs: "Sarah Palin: Joseph McCarthy in Lipstick" and "Beck 'n' Barbie Don't Speak for Me."
Desa Jacobsson, an Alaska Native who helped organize the protest and a similar rally earlier in the day at an Anchorage park, said she hoped it would be clear that not all Alaskans were welcoming the duo.
"There are Alaskans who believe that Palin and Beck are promoting hate and fear," she said.
Beck's message Saturday, delivered alternately through wisecracks and tears, was a call to Americans to invoke the principles of "faith, hope and charity" to take the nation back from an over-reaching government that he said had abandoned the ideals of the founding fathers.
"We must say, 'You know that big, fat pension I was going to get? If I demand it now, my children will be slaves. You know that Social Security that I told them wouldn't last but they forced me to pay it? If I demand it now, my children will be slaves,' " he said.
Beck called on his followers to wait patiently for other citizens to discover the truth and welcome them into the fold with solidarity.
"When they finally come over and say, 'Hey, did you guys notice the country's collapsing?' we don't say, 'We told you!' We say, 'Thank God. Help us,' " he said.
"You are the people that are building the lifeboats. If you are the person that is standing when everybody else is freaking out, you must have firm reliance. You must be able to look another American in the eye and say, 'Brother, we are going to make it … it's going to be tough, but get … in the boat, brother.' That's who you need to be."
To Beck's audience, it was the proverbial sermon to the choir. As the $225 ticket-holders filed up for a private meet-and-greet, everyone else chattered happily toward the exits.
"Obama's got to go. He's got to go!" E.J. Larrivee II, a knife carver from Anchorage wearing a large fur cap, bellowed with a wide smile.
"On his watch, we went into debt. On his watch, we got oil in the Gulf of Mexico." He thought for a moment. "Which is actually good for us," he said. "Which would you rather eat, shrimp from our gulf or theirs?"
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sep 11, 2010, Saturday: Los Angeles Times: NH Primary
In N.H. primary, 'tea party' zeal meets Yankee reserve
Reporting from Washington — The primary season in effect draws to a close Tuesday as seven states and the District of Columbia hold elections, with most of the competitive statewide races involving Republicans.
The Republican Senate primary in New Hampshire will offer an intriguing test of how the state's traditional Yankee Republicanism reconciles with the "tea party" energy that has enveloped party contests around the country this year.
The front-runner is former state Atty. Gen. Kelly Ayotte, the choice both of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington and of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who named Ayotte to her list of "mama grizzlies" in July.
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But polling shows a fluid race. Businessmen Jim Bender and Bill Binnie both used personal funds to wage aggressive television ad campaigns.
More recently, conservative attorney Ovide Lamontagne has begun surging, buoyed by the endorsement of the editorial page of the influential New Hampshire Union Leader and many fiscally conservative tea party members. "If there's a buzz candidate, it's him," said Tom Rath, a Concord lawyer and former state attorney general who is neutral in the race. "Of all the candidates, his core support is the most motivated."
Polls show that whoever emerges as the Republican nominee is well positioned against Rep. Paul W. Hodes, who faces no opposition in the Democratic primary.
In Delaware's Republican race for the Senate, Rep. Michael N. Castle is trying to withstand an unexpectedly fierce challenge from perennial candidate Christine O'Donnell, whom Palin has endorsed.
Palin has also backed an underdog, investment banker Brian Murphy, in the Republican race for Maryland governor. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is considered likely to prevail, however, as he seeks to avenge his 2006 defeat by current Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore.
Voters in New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Rhode Island also will cast ballots Tuesday. Hawaiians go to the polls next Saturday in what will be the final primary in the nation this year, more than seven months after the first ballots were cast in Illinois.
The focus then will turn to a 45-day general election campaign with majorities in the House and Senate at stake, along with control of dozens of statehouses.
Reporting from Washington — The primary season in effect draws to a close Tuesday as seven states and the District of Columbia hold elections, with most of the competitive statewide races involving Republicans.
The Republican Senate primary in New Hampshire will offer an intriguing test of how the state's traditional Yankee Republicanism reconciles with the "tea party" energy that has enveloped party contests around the country this year.
The front-runner is former state Atty. Gen. Kelly Ayotte, the choice both of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington and of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who named Ayotte to her list of "mama grizzlies" in July.
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But polling shows a fluid race. Businessmen Jim Bender and Bill Binnie both used personal funds to wage aggressive television ad campaigns.
More recently, conservative attorney Ovide Lamontagne has begun surging, buoyed by the endorsement of the editorial page of the influential New Hampshire Union Leader and many fiscally conservative tea party members. "If there's a buzz candidate, it's him," said Tom Rath, a Concord lawyer and former state attorney general who is neutral in the race. "Of all the candidates, his core support is the most motivated."
Polls show that whoever emerges as the Republican nominee is well positioned against Rep. Paul W. Hodes, who faces no opposition in the Democratic primary.
In Delaware's Republican race for the Senate, Rep. Michael N. Castle is trying to withstand an unexpectedly fierce challenge from perennial candidate Christine O'Donnell, whom Palin has endorsed.
Palin has also backed an underdog, investment banker Brian Murphy, in the Republican race for Maryland governor. Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is considered likely to prevail, however, as he seeks to avenge his 2006 defeat by current Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, the former mayor of Baltimore.
Voters in New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Rhode Island also will cast ballots Tuesday. Hawaiians go to the polls next Saturday in what will be the final primary in the nation this year, more than seven months after the first ballots were cast in Illinois.
The focus then will turn to a 45-day general election campaign with majorities in the House and Senate at stake, along with control of dozens of statehouses.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Sept 10, 2010. The Washington Post: Sarah Palin endorses Christine O'Donnell
From The Fix: Political News & Analysis by Chris Cillizza: Sarah Palin endorses Christine O'Donnell: Will it matter?
1. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's last-minute endorsement of Christine O'Donnell's Delaware Senate primary candidacy against establishment favorite and Rep. Mike Castle drew scads of press coverage Thursday.
But, will it matter in next Tuesday's primary?
Sources close to Palin offered few details about what her endorsement, which was offered by the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee during a conversation with conservative commentator Sean Hannity, would entail.
Palin has endorsed dozens of congressional candidates this cycle but what she has actually done for those endorsees has varied wildly.
Palin made a visit to South Carolina to endorse state Sen. Nikki Haley (R) in advance of the June 8 primary, a visit that even Palin's detractors credited with revving up Haley voters. (Haley won the GOP nomination in a June 22 runoff.)
But, there are also numerous examples -- Mississippi 1st district candidate Angela McGlowan being an obvious one -- where Palin has sent an endorsement via Twitter and Facebook and did little else to help. McGlowan finished third -- out of three -- in the June 1 primary.
One Delaware Republican not working for either Castle or O'Donnell said that the Palin endorsement could matter in the more conservative southern part of the state (Sussex County).
"It will energize the southern part of the state," predicted the source. "It will make it closer but southern Delaware is small. The key will be northern Delaware turnout."
Castle's campaign has to hope that the Palin endorsement -- and the press attention it will draw -- helps drive voters out in New Castle County (in the north) where the Republicans tend to be of a more moderate strain and almost certainly don't like the direction the former Alaska Governor is aiming to take the party.
(It's worth noting that after the Alaska upset by Joe Miller late last month, the Delaware Senate race has already drawn considerable national coverage so the Palin endorsement may not change the race as significantly in O'Donnell's favor as the instant analysis would suggest. Those with O'Donnell will be even more supportive of her now but will Palin's support sway undecideds?)
National Republicans, who clearly favor Castle, believe that he is in strong position to win the race but acknowledge that Miller's defeat of Sen. Lisa Murkowski has left them nervous about low turnout primaries in small-population states.
What is clear now is that if O'Donnell wins -- and that remains a long shot -- Palin will receive the lion's share of credit and grow even stronger among grassroots activists as 2012 gets ever closer.
2. President Barack Obama will be hitting the campaign trail in earnest over the next month, with planned visits in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada.
The first stop will be a Sept. 28 trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where Obama will headline a rally "focused on young people and the change that matters to them," according to the Democratic National Committee.
Then comes an Oct. 10 rally in Philadelphia, followed by a tele-town hall two days later. A visit to Ohio is next on Oct. 17, and the itinerary is rounded out by a rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 22.
A Democratic official noted that Obama will "have numerous other opportunities to talk to the American people about what's at stake in the elections and he will participate in fundraising and political events" beyond the events announced on Thursday.
Obama is already set to be in Connecticut for state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic Senate nominee, on Sept. 16 and four days later will travel to Pennsylvania in support of Rep. Joe Sestak's (D) Senate bid.
The announcement of additional campaign travel for Obama follows Obama's transfer of $4.5 million to Democratic campaign committees from the Obama for America account.
Watch to see which candidates are - and aren't - around when Obama comes visiting. Sen. Russ Feingold's (D-Wisc.) camp has already said that he'll be busy with votes in Washington when the president comes to town later this month.
3. A new independent poll shows former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) opening up a double-digit lead on Gov. Charlie Crist (I) in the Florida Senate race.
The Sunshine State News poll, conducted by Voter Survey Service, shows Rubio at 43 percent and Crist at 29 percent. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who won the Democratic primary last month, appears to be eating into Crist's support, and is at 23 percent. Among only Democrats, Meek has now taken a 45 percent-to-35 percent lead, according to the poll.
The poll looks like a bit of an outlier as most data has shown Rubio and Crist are neck-and-neck, with Meek way behind. A CNN/Time poll released earlier this week showed Rubio at Crist 36 percent to Crist's 34 percent. Meek received 24 percent.
Crist, despite being a Republican earlier this year, is unlikely to win many GOP votes, so he's going to need to keep Rubio from gaining independent voters, while also luring Democratic voters away from Meek.
4. Illinois Republican Rep. Mark Kirk is up with two new TV ads in his bid for President Obama's former Senate seat.
In the first commercial, Kirk, a five-term congressman, touts his independence. "In a country where too many just vote the party line, there are only a few thoughtful, independent leaders who do what's right for us -- like Mark Kirk," the narrator of the ad says. The spot highlights Kirk's support for stem cell research, education and "protecting Lake Michigan from BP's pollution."
The second new Kirk ad seeks to tie state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) to embattled Gov. Pat Quinn (D).
"Quinn and Giannoulias agree: your taxes should go up," the narrator of the spot says. The ad also hammers Giannoulias for not paying any income taxes last year.
Giannoulias, meanwhile, went up with his own new ad this week touting his endorsement by President Obama -- also something of a rarity in this year's Senate races.
Polling suggests the race is a pure toss up.
5. If it's Friday, it's time for the not one but two Fix chats.
At 10:30 a.m., join us for the live unveiling -- via video no less! -- of the winner of our "Worst Week in Washington" award.
Then, at 11, we will spend an hour taking on all comers in our weekly, hour-long "Live Fix" chat. (Remember we now chat three times a week; on Monday and Wednesday for 30 minutes -- starting at 11 a.m. -- and on Friday for the full hour.)
Come for the commentary, stay for the random pro wrestling references! See you there.
With Felicia Sonmez and Aaron Blake
1. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's last-minute endorsement of Christine O'Donnell's Delaware Senate primary candidacy against establishment favorite and Rep. Mike Castle drew scads of press coverage Thursday.
But, will it matter in next Tuesday's primary?
Sources close to Palin offered few details about what her endorsement, which was offered by the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee during a conversation with conservative commentator Sean Hannity, would entail.
Palin has endorsed dozens of congressional candidates this cycle but what she has actually done for those endorsees has varied wildly.
Palin made a visit to South Carolina to endorse state Sen. Nikki Haley (R) in advance of the June 8 primary, a visit that even Palin's detractors credited with revving up Haley voters. (Haley won the GOP nomination in a June 22 runoff.)
But, there are also numerous examples -- Mississippi 1st district candidate Angela McGlowan being an obvious one -- where Palin has sent an endorsement via Twitter and Facebook and did little else to help. McGlowan finished third -- out of three -- in the June 1 primary.
One Delaware Republican not working for either Castle or O'Donnell said that the Palin endorsement could matter in the more conservative southern part of the state (Sussex County).
"It will energize the southern part of the state," predicted the source. "It will make it closer but southern Delaware is small. The key will be northern Delaware turnout."
Castle's campaign has to hope that the Palin endorsement -- and the press attention it will draw -- helps drive voters out in New Castle County (in the north) where the Republicans tend to be of a more moderate strain and almost certainly don't like the direction the former Alaska Governor is aiming to take the party.
(It's worth noting that after the Alaska upset by Joe Miller late last month, the Delaware Senate race has already drawn considerable national coverage so the Palin endorsement may not change the race as significantly in O'Donnell's favor as the instant analysis would suggest. Those with O'Donnell will be even more supportive of her now but will Palin's support sway undecideds?)
National Republicans, who clearly favor Castle, believe that he is in strong position to win the race but acknowledge that Miller's defeat of Sen. Lisa Murkowski has left them nervous about low turnout primaries in small-population states.
What is clear now is that if O'Donnell wins -- and that remains a long shot -- Palin will receive the lion's share of credit and grow even stronger among grassroots activists as 2012 gets ever closer.
2. President Barack Obama will be hitting the campaign trail in earnest over the next month, with planned visits in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada.
The first stop will be a Sept. 28 trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where Obama will headline a rally "focused on young people and the change that matters to them," according to the Democratic National Committee.
Then comes an Oct. 10 rally in Philadelphia, followed by a tele-town hall two days later. A visit to Ohio is next on Oct. 17, and the itinerary is rounded out by a rally in Las Vegas on Oct. 22.
A Democratic official noted that Obama will "have numerous other opportunities to talk to the American people about what's at stake in the elections and he will participate in fundraising and political events" beyond the events announced on Thursday.
Obama is already set to be in Connecticut for state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic Senate nominee, on Sept. 16 and four days later will travel to Pennsylvania in support of Rep. Joe Sestak's (D) Senate bid.
The announcement of additional campaign travel for Obama follows Obama's transfer of $4.5 million to Democratic campaign committees from the Obama for America account.
Watch to see which candidates are - and aren't - around when Obama comes visiting. Sen. Russ Feingold's (D-Wisc.) camp has already said that he'll be busy with votes in Washington when the president comes to town later this month.
3. A new independent poll shows former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) opening up a double-digit lead on Gov. Charlie Crist (I) in the Florida Senate race.
The Sunshine State News poll, conducted by Voter Survey Service, shows Rubio at 43 percent and Crist at 29 percent. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who won the Democratic primary last month, appears to be eating into Crist's support, and is at 23 percent. Among only Democrats, Meek has now taken a 45 percent-to-35 percent lead, according to the poll.
The poll looks like a bit of an outlier as most data has shown Rubio and Crist are neck-and-neck, with Meek way behind. A CNN/Time poll released earlier this week showed Rubio at Crist 36 percent to Crist's 34 percent. Meek received 24 percent.
Crist, despite being a Republican earlier this year, is unlikely to win many GOP votes, so he's going to need to keep Rubio from gaining independent voters, while also luring Democratic voters away from Meek.
4. Illinois Republican Rep. Mark Kirk is up with two new TV ads in his bid for President Obama's former Senate seat.
In the first commercial, Kirk, a five-term congressman, touts his independence. "In a country where too many just vote the party line, there are only a few thoughtful, independent leaders who do what's right for us -- like Mark Kirk," the narrator of the ad says. The spot highlights Kirk's support for stem cell research, education and "protecting Lake Michigan from BP's pollution."
The second new Kirk ad seeks to tie state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) to embattled Gov. Pat Quinn (D).
"Quinn and Giannoulias agree: your taxes should go up," the narrator of the spot says. The ad also hammers Giannoulias for not paying any income taxes last year.
Giannoulias, meanwhile, went up with his own new ad this week touting his endorsement by President Obama -- also something of a rarity in this year's Senate races.
Polling suggests the race is a pure toss up.
5. If it's Friday, it's time for the not one but two Fix chats.
At 10:30 a.m., join us for the live unveiling -- via video no less! -- of the winner of our "Worst Week in Washington" award.
Then, at 11, we will spend an hour taking on all comers in our weekly, hour-long "Live Fix" chat. (Remember we now chat three times a week; on Monday and Wednesday for 30 minutes -- starting at 11 a.m. -- and on Friday for the full hour.)
Come for the commentary, stay for the random pro wrestling references! See you there.
With Felicia Sonmez and Aaron Blake
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Sept 9, 2010, Thursday, Wonkette: Vanity Fair’s Sarah Palin Story Is Totally True, Says Vanity Fair
This is a private opinion website, not a news website. Nevertheless, since they're talking about Palin, thought I'd share it.
From Wonkette: Vanity Fair’s Sarah Palin Story Is Totally True, Says Vanity Fair
A mysterious person called “Gina Loudon” who allegedly lies about everything also allegedly lied when she claimed to know the reporter who wrote the new Vanity Fair Sarah Palin story, which claims (for the first time, we’re sure!) that Sarah Palin is a paranoid fraud who savagely destroys anyone who crosses her. VF writer Michael Joseph Gross has a new article on the magazine’s website claiming this Gina Loudon just makes up stuff and then Ben Smith of the Politico just repeats it — and then, the zombie-slob army of Palin worshipers all say (in unison, on Facebook), “Librul lamestream media lies to kill Trig.” So what was actually untrue in this latest magazine article about how Palin is a monster? “In briefly describing a scene in which I saw members of the Palin family (Sarah, Todd, Piper) just before Sarah Palin spoke at an event in Independence, Missouri, I assumed that the child with Down syndrome who was among the Palins was their son Trig,” Gross writes. “This was a mistake, and I regret the error. The child turns out to be Samuel Loudon, the son of Gina Loudon, an acquaintance of Palin’s.” Whoops! This is exactly morally equivalent to doing the whole Holocaust, in the mind of Palin (who just heard about the Holocaust on the History Channel, we bet, in a program called Hitler’s UFOs: Untold Stories of the World War II). Anyway, so this Loudon lady is furious because come on so she, being an “acquaintance of Palin,” allegedly is spreading this elaborate and total fabrication about her conversations and dealings with the Vanity Fair writer, even though they’ve never met or communicated in any way at all. And this is how the next presidential election will be decided!
From Wonkette: Vanity Fair’s Sarah Palin Story Is Totally True, Says Vanity Fair
A mysterious person called “Gina Loudon” who allegedly lies about everything also allegedly lied when she claimed to know the reporter who wrote the new Vanity Fair Sarah Palin story, which claims (for the first time, we’re sure!) that Sarah Palin is a paranoid fraud who savagely destroys anyone who crosses her. VF writer Michael Joseph Gross has a new article on the magazine’s website claiming this Gina Loudon just makes up stuff and then Ben Smith of the Politico just repeats it — and then, the zombie-slob army of Palin worshipers all say (in unison, on Facebook), “Librul lamestream media lies to kill Trig.” So what was actually untrue in this latest magazine article about how Palin is a monster? “In briefly describing a scene in which I saw members of the Palin family (Sarah, Todd, Piper) just before Sarah Palin spoke at an event in Independence, Missouri, I assumed that the child with Down syndrome who was among the Palins was their son Trig,” Gross writes. “This was a mistake, and I regret the error. The child turns out to be Samuel Loudon, the son of Gina Loudon, an acquaintance of Palin’s.” Whoops! This is exactly morally equivalent to doing the whole Holocaust, in the mind of Palin (who just heard about the Holocaust on the History Channel, we bet, in a program called Hitler’s UFOs: Untold Stories of the World War II). Anyway, so this Loudon lady is furious because come on so she, being an “acquaintance of Palin,” allegedly is spreading this elaborate and total fabrication about her conversations and dealings with the Vanity Fair writer, even though they’ve never met or communicated in any way at all. And this is how the next presidential election will be decided!
Sept 9, 2010, Thursday: Politico: Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck 9/11 tickets start at $65
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck 9/11 tickets start at $65
Doesn't that last paragraph sound a wee bit sarcastic? I wonder if they make the same jokes about people who pay thousands of dollars a plate to dine with Republican or Democrat leaders?
Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are inviting supporters to join them in commemorating Sept. 11 at an event in Anchorage, Alaska — with tickets running from $65 to $115 per person and a choice of seating in a “dry section” or a “wet section” where alcohol will be available to those 21 and over.
The ticket prices don’t include an added Ticketmaster convenience charge of at least $8.25 each.
Ticketmaster is also offering a $200 VIP ticket including a “meet and greet” with Beck.
Palin urged her supporters to buy tickets to Saturday’s event at the Dena’ina Center in a post on her Facebook wall Wednesday.
“I hope my fellow Alaskans (and anyone visiting from Outside) will join me this Saturday, September 11, 2010, at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Center at 8:00 p.m. Glenn Beck will be there — you won’t want to miss it,” Palin wrote. “Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.”
Palin declared there is “no better way to commemorate 9/11 than to gather with patriots who will ‘never forget’” at the pricey event.
Doesn't that last paragraph sound a wee bit sarcastic? I wonder if they make the same jokes about people who pay thousands of dollars a plate to dine with Republican or Democrat leaders?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Sept 7, 2010, Vanity Fair: Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury
Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury
Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake.
Related: “Sarah Palin’s Shopping Spree: Yes, There’s More...,” by Michael Joseph Gross.
By Michael Joseph Gross•Illustration by Edward Sorel
October 2010
PALIN’S PALADINS
Erratic behavior and a pattern of lying matter little: “Such falsehoods never damage Palin’s credibility with her admirers, because information and ideology are incidental to this relationship.”
Backstage in the arena, a little girl in Mary Janes pushes her brother in a baby carriage, stopping a few yards shy of a heavy, 100-foot-long black curtain. The curtain splits the arena in two, shielding the children from an audience of 4,000 people clapping their hands in time to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The music accompanies a video “Salute to Military Heroes” that plays above the stage where, in a few moments, the children’s mother will appear.
When the girl, Piper Palin, turns around, she sees her parents thronged by admirers, and the crowd rolling toward her and the baby, her brother Trig, born with Down syndrome in 2008. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, bend down and give a moment to the children; a woman, perhaps a nanny, whisks the boy away; and Todd hands Sarah her speech and walks her to the stage. He pokes the air with one finger. She mimes the gesture, whips around, strides on four-inch heels to stage center, and turns it on.
And how. Palin and the crowd might as well be one. She’s glad to be here with the people of Independence, Missouri, “where so many of you proudly cling to your guns and your religion”—the first laughline in a 40-minute stump speech that alludes to many of the perceived insults she and her audience have suffered together, and that transforms their resentments into badges of honor. Palin waves her scribbled-on palm to the crowd, proclaiming that she’s using “the poor man’s teleprompter.” Of the Obama administration, she says, “They talk down to us. Especially here in the heartland. Oh, man. They think that, if we were just smart enough, we’d be able to understand their policies. And I so want to tell ’em, and I do tell ’em, Oh, we’re plenty smart, oh yeah—we know what’s goin’ on. And we don’t like what’s goin’ on. And we’re not gonna let them tell us to sit down and shut up.”
“Sarah Palin’s Shopping Spree: Yes, There’s More...,” by Michael Joseph Gross.
The crowd’s ample applause at these lines swells to something vastly bigger when Palin vows defiantly that “come November, we’re taking our country back!” The phrase plays on the name of this event, “Winning America Back,” which has been billed as a Tea Party rally organized by a grassroots Missouri political-action committee that no one had heard of until a few months ago, when the event was announced.
Behind the curtain, Piper plays with other children, oblivious to the speech. She runs in circles, plays hide-and-seek, poses for snapshots, and generally acts as if she were in another world—until she gets the signal to do her job: march to the podium, pick up Palin’s speech, and allow Palin to make a public display of maternal affection.
On cue, Piper parts the curtain. As the child appears, a loud and doting “Awww” melts through the crowd.
Sarah Palin’s connection with her audience is complete. People who admire her believe she is just like them, and this conviction seems to satisfy their curiosity about the objective facts of her life. Those whose curiosity has not been satisfied have their work cut out for them. Palin has been a national figure for barely two years—John McCain selected her as his running mate in August 2008. Her on-the-record statements about herself amount to a litany of untruths and half-truths. With few exceptions—mostly Palin antagonists in journalism and politics whose beefs with her have long been out in the open—virtually no one who knows Palin well is willing to talk about her on the record, whether because they are loyal and want to protect her (a small and shrinking number), or because they expect her prominence to grow and intend to keep their options open, or because they fear she will exact revenge, as she has been known to do. It is an astonishing phenomenon. Colleagues and acquaintances by the hundreds went on the record to reveal what they knew, for good or ill, about prospective national candidates as diverse as Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Barack Obama. When it comes to Palin, people button their lips and slink away.
She manages to be at once a closed book and a constant noisemaker. Her press spokesperson, Pam Pryor, barely speaks to the press, and Palin shrewdly cultivates a real and rhetorical antagonism toward what she calls “the lamestream media.” The Palin machine is supported by organizations that do much of their business under the cover of pseudonyms and shell companies. In accordance with the terms of a reported $1 million annual contract with Fox News, Palin regularly delivers canned commentary on that network. But in the year since she abruptly resigned the governorship of Alaska, in order to market herself full-time—earning an estimated $13 million in the process—she has submitted to authentic, unpaid interviews with only a handful of journalists, none of whom have posed notably challenging questions. She keeps tight control of her pronouncements, speaking only in settings of her own choosing, with audiences of her own selection, and with reporters kept at bay. (Despite many requests, neither Palin nor her current staff would comment for this article.) She injects herself into the news almost every day, but on a strictly one-way basis, through a steady stream of messages on Twitter and Facebook. The press plays along. Palin is the only politician whose tweets are regularly reported as news by TV networks. She is the only one who has been able to significantly change the course of debate on a major national issue (health-care reform) with a single Facebook posting (in which she accused the Obama administration, falsely, of wanting to set up a “death panel”).
Palin makes speeches before large audiences at least a few times a week, on a grueling schedule that has taken her to as many as four locations in three states in one day. She’s choosy, restricting herself to Tea Party gatherings; fund-raisers for charities and Republican organizations and candidates; and moneymakers for herself, mainly business conventions and “Get Motivated!” seminars. Judging from the bootleg videos that sometimes turn up, her basic speech varies little from venue to venue. She presents herself as the straight-shooting, plainspoken, salt-of-the-earth advocate for “hardworking, patriotic, liberty-loving Americans” and as the anti-Obama, the lone Republican standing up to a federal government gone “out of control.” Last July, the quarterly filing by Palin’s political-action committee, SarahPAC, revealed a formidable war chest and hefty investments in fund-raising and direct mail, the clearest signs yet that she may indeed run for president. Republican leaders privately dismiss her as too unpredictable and too undisciplined to run a serious campaign. But on she flies, carpet-bombing the 24-hour news cycle: now announcing her desire to meet with her “political heroine” Margaret Thatcher (the better to look like Ronald Reagan, presumably, though Palin seemed unaware that Thatcher is suffering from dementia); now yelping in theatrical complaint (“I want my straws! I want ’em bent!”), to shrug off revelations that her speaking contract demands deluxe hotel rooms, first-class air travel, and bottles of water with bendable straws; now responding (in a statement read on the Today show) to reports of her daughter Bristol’s re-engagement to Levi Johnston; and all the while issuing scores of political endorsements and preparing a fall media blitz. A TV show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, for which Palin is being paid $2 million, will have its premiere on the TLC network in November. A new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, will be published the following week.
This spring and summer I traveled to Alaska and followed Palin’s road show through four midwestern states, speaking with whomever I could induce to talk under whatever conditions of anonymity they imposed—political strategists, longtime Palin friends and political associates, hotel staff, shopkeepers and hairstylists, and high-school friends of the Palin children. There’s a long and detailed version of what they had to say, but there’s also a short and simple one: anywhere you peel back the skin of Sarah Palin’s life, a sad and moldering strangeness lies beneath.
Even as Sarah Palin’s public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her. Following the former Alaska governor’s road show, the author delves into the surreal new world Palin now inhabits—a place of fear, anger, and illusion, which has swallowed up the engaging, small-town hockey mom and her family—and the sadness she has left in her wake.
Related: “Sarah Palin’s Shopping Spree: Yes, There’s More...,” by Michael Joseph Gross.
By Michael Joseph Gross•Illustration by Edward Sorel
October 2010
PALIN’S PALADINS
Erratic behavior and a pattern of lying matter little: “Such falsehoods never damage Palin’s credibility with her admirers, because information and ideology are incidental to this relationship.”
Backstage in the arena, a little girl in Mary Janes pushes her brother in a baby carriage, stopping a few yards shy of a heavy, 100-foot-long black curtain. The curtain splits the arena in two, shielding the children from an audience of 4,000 people clapping their hands in time to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The music accompanies a video “Salute to Military Heroes” that plays above the stage where, in a few moments, the children’s mother will appear.
When the girl, Piper Palin, turns around, she sees her parents thronged by admirers, and the crowd rolling toward her and the baby, her brother Trig, born with Down syndrome in 2008. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, bend down and give a moment to the children; a woman, perhaps a nanny, whisks the boy away; and Todd hands Sarah her speech and walks her to the stage. He pokes the air with one finger. She mimes the gesture, whips around, strides on four-inch heels to stage center, and turns it on.
And how. Palin and the crowd might as well be one. She’s glad to be here with the people of Independence, Missouri, “where so many of you proudly cling to your guns and your religion”—the first laughline in a 40-minute stump speech that alludes to many of the perceived insults she and her audience have suffered together, and that transforms their resentments into badges of honor. Palin waves her scribbled-on palm to the crowd, proclaiming that she’s using “the poor man’s teleprompter.” Of the Obama administration, she says, “They talk down to us. Especially here in the heartland. Oh, man. They think that, if we were just smart enough, we’d be able to understand their policies. And I so want to tell ’em, and I do tell ’em, Oh, we’re plenty smart, oh yeah—we know what’s goin’ on. And we don’t like what’s goin’ on. And we’re not gonna let them tell us to sit down and shut up.”
“Sarah Palin’s Shopping Spree: Yes, There’s More...,” by Michael Joseph Gross.
The crowd’s ample applause at these lines swells to something vastly bigger when Palin vows defiantly that “come November, we’re taking our country back!” The phrase plays on the name of this event, “Winning America Back,” which has been billed as a Tea Party rally organized by a grassroots Missouri political-action committee that no one had heard of until a few months ago, when the event was announced.
Behind the curtain, Piper plays with other children, oblivious to the speech. She runs in circles, plays hide-and-seek, poses for snapshots, and generally acts as if she were in another world—until she gets the signal to do her job: march to the podium, pick up Palin’s speech, and allow Palin to make a public display of maternal affection.
On cue, Piper parts the curtain. As the child appears, a loud and doting “Awww” melts through the crowd.
Sarah Palin’s connection with her audience is complete. People who admire her believe she is just like them, and this conviction seems to satisfy their curiosity about the objective facts of her life. Those whose curiosity has not been satisfied have their work cut out for them. Palin has been a national figure for barely two years—John McCain selected her as his running mate in August 2008. Her on-the-record statements about herself amount to a litany of untruths and half-truths. With few exceptions—mostly Palin antagonists in journalism and politics whose beefs with her have long been out in the open—virtually no one who knows Palin well is willing to talk about her on the record, whether because they are loyal and want to protect her (a small and shrinking number), or because they expect her prominence to grow and intend to keep their options open, or because they fear she will exact revenge, as she has been known to do. It is an astonishing phenomenon. Colleagues and acquaintances by the hundreds went on the record to reveal what they knew, for good or ill, about prospective national candidates as diverse as Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Barack Obama. When it comes to Palin, people button their lips and slink away.
She manages to be at once a closed book and a constant noisemaker. Her press spokesperson, Pam Pryor, barely speaks to the press, and Palin shrewdly cultivates a real and rhetorical antagonism toward what she calls “the lamestream media.” The Palin machine is supported by organizations that do much of their business under the cover of pseudonyms and shell companies. In accordance with the terms of a reported $1 million annual contract with Fox News, Palin regularly delivers canned commentary on that network. But in the year since she abruptly resigned the governorship of Alaska, in order to market herself full-time—earning an estimated $13 million in the process—she has submitted to authentic, unpaid interviews with only a handful of journalists, none of whom have posed notably challenging questions. She keeps tight control of her pronouncements, speaking only in settings of her own choosing, with audiences of her own selection, and with reporters kept at bay. (Despite many requests, neither Palin nor her current staff would comment for this article.) She injects herself into the news almost every day, but on a strictly one-way basis, through a steady stream of messages on Twitter and Facebook. The press plays along. Palin is the only politician whose tweets are regularly reported as news by TV networks. She is the only one who has been able to significantly change the course of debate on a major national issue (health-care reform) with a single Facebook posting (in which she accused the Obama administration, falsely, of wanting to set up a “death panel”).
Palin makes speeches before large audiences at least a few times a week, on a grueling schedule that has taken her to as many as four locations in three states in one day. She’s choosy, restricting herself to Tea Party gatherings; fund-raisers for charities and Republican organizations and candidates; and moneymakers for herself, mainly business conventions and “Get Motivated!” seminars. Judging from the bootleg videos that sometimes turn up, her basic speech varies little from venue to venue. She presents herself as the straight-shooting, plainspoken, salt-of-the-earth advocate for “hardworking, patriotic, liberty-loving Americans” and as the anti-Obama, the lone Republican standing up to a federal government gone “out of control.” Last July, the quarterly filing by Palin’s political-action committee, SarahPAC, revealed a formidable war chest and hefty investments in fund-raising and direct mail, the clearest signs yet that she may indeed run for president. Republican leaders privately dismiss her as too unpredictable and too undisciplined to run a serious campaign. But on she flies, carpet-bombing the 24-hour news cycle: now announcing her desire to meet with her “political heroine” Margaret Thatcher (the better to look like Ronald Reagan, presumably, though Palin seemed unaware that Thatcher is suffering from dementia); now yelping in theatrical complaint (“I want my straws! I want ’em bent!”), to shrug off revelations that her speaking contract demands deluxe hotel rooms, first-class air travel, and bottles of water with bendable straws; now responding (in a statement read on the Today show) to reports of her daughter Bristol’s re-engagement to Levi Johnston; and all the while issuing scores of political endorsements and preparing a fall media blitz. A TV show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, for which Palin is being paid $2 million, will have its premiere on the TLC network in November. A new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, will be published the following week.
This spring and summer I traveled to Alaska and followed Palin’s road show through four midwestern states, speaking with whomever I could induce to talk under whatever conditions of anonymity they imposed—political strategists, longtime Palin friends and political associates, hotel staff, shopkeepers and hairstylists, and high-school friends of the Palin children. There’s a long and detailed version of what they had to say, but there’s also a short and simple one: anywhere you peel back the skin of Sarah Palin’s life, a sad and moldering strangeness lies beneath.
Sept 7, 2010: Examiner.com (Boston): Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair -- "she lies about everything"
Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair -- "she lies about everything"
Sarah Palin can lie about everything. That's the word from the author of the scathing profile piece on Sarah Palin, according to the Huffington Post.
On the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" Thursday, Michael Joseph Gross admitted he wanted to wanting to write a positive piece on the former Alaskan governor and vice-presidential candidate but instead, his research led him in the other direction.
"The worst stuff isn't even in there," Gross told 'Morning Joe. couldn't believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman. I'm a small-town person, I'm a Christian, I think that a lot of her criticisms of the media actually have something to them. And I think she got a bum ride, but everybody close to her tells the same story."
And it's that same story that once you pick up this issue of Vanity Fair at say, Harvard Square, or if it's already been delivered by the postman and you haven't read it yet, you may just be in for a very big surprise.
The piece paints a picture of Sarah Palin as an abusive, retaliatory woman who knows one thing all too well, Gross says. And that is how to lie.
"This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about," he said. "She lies about everything."
When asked what he thought Palin's political future might entail especially with word spreading around Washington that Palin could, in fact, make a presidential run in 2012, Gross said it all boils down to how the media portrays her.
"If we decide to let her keep lying and getting away with it, she's gonna still be around," he said. "But if we start returning to the standard that a politician has to talk with people, and a politician has to tell the truth, then she's outta here, because she can't stand up to that."
Critics argue Gross has a grudge against Palin. He said that's simply not true.
Sarah Palin can lie about everything. That's the word from the author of the scathing profile piece on Sarah Palin, according to the Huffington Post.
On the MSNBC show "Morning Joe" Thursday, Michael Joseph Gross admitted he wanted to wanting to write a positive piece on the former Alaskan governor and vice-presidential candidate but instead, his research led him in the other direction.
"The worst stuff isn't even in there," Gross told 'Morning Joe. couldn't believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman. I'm a small-town person, I'm a Christian, I think that a lot of her criticisms of the media actually have something to them. And I think she got a bum ride, but everybody close to her tells the same story."
And it's that same story that once you pick up this issue of Vanity Fair at say, Harvard Square, or if it's already been delivered by the postman and you haven't read it yet, you may just be in for a very big surprise.
The piece paints a picture of Sarah Palin as an abusive, retaliatory woman who knows one thing all too well, Gross says. And that is how to lie.
"This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about," he said. "She lies about everything."
When asked what he thought Palin's political future might entail especially with word spreading around Washington that Palin could, in fact, make a presidential run in 2012, Gross said it all boils down to how the media portrays her.
"If we decide to let her keep lying and getting away with it, she's gonna still be around," he said. "But if we start returning to the standard that a politician has to talk with people, and a politician has to tell the truth, then she's outta here, because she can't stand up to that."
Critics argue Gross has a grudge against Palin. He said that's simply not true.
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