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?"
Sunday, September 12, 2010
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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