Who hates Sarah Palin? Part 2 is up at PJTV

The PJTV series "Who Hates Sarah Palin?" continues with Part 2 of 3: The Committed Left at Pajamas TV. The first installment, which deals with media hate for the former Alaska governor is here.

Opening the second segment is Stephen Green of Vodkapundit, who says Palin hatred is just "Bush Derangement syndorme in drag." Joe Hicks and AlfonZo Rachel (Zo Nation) complete the second installment. Zo, who has Sarah's back, says liberals can't contain themselves because they are afraid they can't contain Sarah Palin. Hicks agrees with Steve Green and Nate Silver that the Left has transferred their hatred for George Bush to former Gov. Palin.

Part 3 of the series, which will deal with with Palin hatred from the Right, is forthcomeing.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 31, 2009)

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Lance Fairchok:

"Sarah Palin... is the target of a well funded, well attended (by the press) smear campaign. It is organized, focused and financed by the Democrat machine. They view her as the chief threat to Obama in 2012. We have years of Sarah smearing to look forward to."

- JP

Bill Maher wants to have his cake and eat yours too

Last Tuesday, we mentioned the latest volcanic eruption of Mount Mahr, an outburst heavily laden with the usual Bill Maher verbal sulfuric acid.

And we reported how Mark Levin dismembered Maher with a rusty knife Wednesday.

Tuesday at Big Hollywood, John Nolte ("Bill Maher Brings His Own Stupid") pointed out Mahr's weak circular thinking.

Jamie Jeffords expanded on this theme:

Maher lets his bigotry cloud his logic. He is not a stupid man, but he is a guy who lets his bias get in the way of reason. Take the above exchange with Blitzer. Maher believes the country is stupid enough to vote Sarah Palin into the White house at the same time he believe they voted Obama into the white House because she was on the GOP ticket. So he vehemently believes Americans will simultaneously vote for her and against her without the slightest awareness it is a contradiction. He cannot decide which of his resentments to abandon in order to make one argument work, so he just tries to have it both ways so he can hate everyone.

As BrianinMo said, Maher simply proved himself to be "the bomb-throwing America-hater he has been for years."

- JP

Iowa caucuses move to Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010

A heads up from our friend Andrew Malcolm:

The Iowa caucuses, those clumsy, endless exercises in evening democracy while the farmfields sleep every other January, have been moved. They will no longer be on a weekday evening with everyone having to get up early in a few hours for work in offices, factories or livestock barns.

Andrew says the D's and the R's will hold their respective caucuses on the same day in a trial run to see if the combined efforts can generate some excitement in the off-year political races. If so, Iowa will continue with the new format in 2012, when there will be a race for the presidential nomination -- at least on the GOP side.

- JP

Say It Ain't So, Mo: A Woman Obsessed

Not much Sarah Palin news this Friday, as the former governor and her family enjoy a well-deserved vacation. Let's kill some time with a Maureen Dowd Pwnapalooza... 

Randy McRoberts noticed a recent Mean Maureen trend:

"Half of her last eight columns are about Palin."

If this keeps up, Dowd may have to have a face-off with Kathleen Parker for the "Obsessively Palin-Deranged" crown.

Regarding Dowd's recent anti-Palin diatribe in a guest shot with PMSNBC's Willie Geist, BrianinMO observed;

"Maureen Dowd is the classic Eastern Liberal, who has no idea what average Americans are like, or how they think. She spends her life belittling and making fun of the very values and people that have built, protected, and preserved this nation."

Politik Ditto was a bit harsher with the criticism of the NY Times columnist:

"The venomous, foul-mouth, childless, husbandless, plagiarist that is Maureen Dowd just can't let go of her hatred towards a conservative, successful woman with a family who represents everything she's personally against"

Christine Flowers, in a Philadelphia Daily News op-ed, remarked on Mo's viciousness, as Dowd is increasingly compelled to attack now former Gov. Palin:

"When Maureen Dowd starts typing these days (her own thoughts, we hope), you can almost hear the creaking of her arthritic joints. This chick is so jealous of Palin's youth and star power that her columns - once enjoyable in a a poisonous sort of way - have become tiresome, the journalistic equivalent of Tina Fey's one-note shtick."

Posting at The Houston Conservative, Will Malven comments:

"It never ceases to amaze me what passes for intellectual commentary from those on the Left. Maureen Dowd is the definitive harridan of hatred. Hers is the voice of a shrill harpy whose talent, like her "beauty," is long since spent...if it ever existed; pathetic, pitiable and sad to say, laughable."

But Allan Willingham wins the Alliteration Award hands down with this:

"Another tumultuous tirade by the Serpent Queen and her poison pen for the frenzied fanatical masses. Maureen Dowd once again admits angst and acrimony as she arches back to the ink wretched stain she becomes when against her chosen Nemesis, Sarah Palin."

Yeah, a mud wrestling death match between Mo Dowd and Katie Parker might be fun to watch, but only after one beer too many. And if only both of them lose.

- JP

John Hawkins on Palin criticism from the Right

John Hawkins deals with the issue of criticism of Sarah Palin from the right in a Pajamas Media op-ed:

To many conservatives, those complaints didn’t seem to make sense when the people making them often seemed to give Obama a free pass for the very flaws they seemed to hate so much in Palin. Where did these strange complaints come from? Why were these “conservatives” so spiteful towards Sarah Palin? What was the real reason that John McCain’s own staff was seemingly working 24/7 behind the scenes immediately after the election to sabotage the best thing to happen to the GOP in 2008?

Hawkins explains why many Palin supporters feel betrayed by attacks on Palin from right of center:

An unspoken assumption was made by many conservatives: Palin is like me and the real problem that Palin’s enemies on the right have with her is that they’re snobs and they don’t accept common people like me in their leadership.

Given the way that conservatives are regularly betrayed and the contempt for them that some Republicans have shown over the last few years, that assessment is probably correct more often than not.

And he recalls that we've seen this before:

That’s why a lot of conservatives react to criticism of Palin from the right the same way that they react to criticism of Reagan. Granted, Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan. But one of the seldom discussed reasons conservatives love Reagan so much is because he was the personification of their principles. This was the man who put what conservatives believed in to the test in the real world and proved the worth of their ideas. An attack on Reagan from the right was not just considered to be a slap at a politician, politician, but was also treated like an assault on the value system of “Reagan conservatives.”

But in the final analysis, it's all too personal for Palin supporters:

The same principle applies to Palin except the assault is considered to be primarily on people’s identity, not their values. The thinking goes, “If the snobs on the right don’t like Palin because she’s a conservative with an accent who isn’t rich, didn’t go to an Ivy League school, and wouldn’t be welcome at their cocktail parties, then they wouldn’t like me for the exact same reasons.”

Hawkins says neither Sarah Palin nor any other conservative should be immune from legitimate criticism from the right, but her critics should remember that when their attacks on her go over the top, they are aiding and abetting their avowed political opponents on the Left:

At a time when the Republican Party has lost so many seats in Congress that it’s teetering on the brink of irrelevancy, Palin’s detractors on the right should ask themselves how much sense it makes to help the liberal media try to tear down the biggest star in the conservative movement.

Preach it, brother.

Update: Mark Noonan has written a response to this essay at Blogs for Victory.

- JP

Fear This

Collin Brendemuehl supplies us with a definition of Palinophobia here.

- JP

Ethicsgate: The video Dems don't want you to see (Updated)

"Ethicsgate" is a video which connects the dots between the people who filed ethics complaints against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a circle of Palin-hating bloggers (including those who filed ethics complaints themselves), the Democrat Party (Alaska and national) and the Obama administration.

How desperate are these "usual suspects" to keep the video from being seen?

Thanks to the filing of phony copyright claims, the anti-Palin bloggers have managed to get it removed, first from YouTube, then from Sevenload and finally from Twitvid. We posted about this Monday, but the coordinated Democrat Party operatives got the video taken down from Sevenload. We published this post you are reading Thursday night with a link to Twitvid, and now they have gotten it scrubbed from there, too. So we have updated the post and published it again, with the new link included. The whole thing is like an Orwellian nightmare!

As of this update, "Ethicsgate" can now be viewed here, but for how long we can't say. If you want to learn how the Democrats coordinated the bogus "ethics " attacks on Sarah Palin from the very top of their chain of command, you should view the video before the Alasaka Stalinists get it scrubbed yet a fourth time.

h/t: FRee Republic

Update: The video is back on YouTube again (at least for now) here, and still here at VWRC. The video is also embedded at Jawa Report in a post titled "Astroturfing Sarah Palin" here and at The ConservativeXpress here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 30, 2009)

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Dave Weinbaum:

"I can guarantee that if Sarah Palin was Steven Palin: father, mayor, governor, he wouldn’t get a tenth of the personal attacks now launched against him and his daughters."

- JP

No Simi for Sarah

Posted on Facebook:

Release Concerning Simi Valley Republican Women’s Event
Today at 4:32pm

As repeatedly stated to several in the media over the last week, former Governor Sarah Palin is not committed to attend the Simi Valley Republican Women’s event at the Reagan Library and in fact is not attending the event. Neither the Governor’s state staff nor SarahPAC has ever committed to attending this event or speaking at this event, and even requested that the Governor's name be removed from the invitation several weeks ago. The Governor has other work and commitments to take care of at that time. She looks forward to visiting her friends in California soon.

All event requests must be confirmed with Meghan Stapleton of SarahPAC. Additionally, all invitations bearing the Governor’s name must be approved by her attorney before proceeding.

Thank you.
Meghan Stapleton

Two other events are using Sarah Palin as a draw in their advertising. The Values Voter Summit here and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here. We assume she will not be attending either unless and until Meg Stapleton says otherwise.

While we fully understand that the former governor carefully picks and chooses what events she wants to associate herself with, it would be nice if her team would publicly announce what events she will and/or will not be attending early on so that event promoters would not be able to use her popularity in this manner. We know who will be blamed by the media for the confusion, and you know it will not be the promoters.

Update: The Simi Valley Republican Women have posteed this statement on their website:

"We regret to inform you that Governor Sarah Palin is unable to attend our event on August 8, 2009. As stated, we invited her to attend and we were honored by her consideration. We sincerely appreciate the support of our members and guests. We will refund ticket purchases for anyone who chooses not to attend. Contact us by end of business Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at pjselephant@aol.com with your name, address, and telephone number for refunds. We apologize for any inconvenience."

- JP

Randy Evans: Only the leak was illegal

Randy Evans, the attorney who helped create Alaska Fund Trust (AFT), the legal defense fund that was set up to help former governor Sarah Palin pay her legal bills arising from a series of bogus "ethics" complaints, says the only thing illegal about AFT was the leaking of a report which was supposed to be confidential.

In an op-ed appearing in the Fayette County News, Evans presents what he says is "the rest of the story":

"The Alaska Fund Trust, was drafted and created to mirror the language used by the John Kerry Trust fund (named the "Fund for Truth and Honor"). This was by design (although the name "The Alaska Fund Trust" was not as clever). The idea was that if it was good enough for the leading Democratic candidate for President of the United States, then it should be good enough for the Republican Vice Presidential candidate."

"Here is what the media does not report. The John Kerry Trust Fund was drafted and created by a very well respected international law firm named Perkins Coie, a huge presence in Washington, D.C. Indeed, Perkins Coie is the lead counsel for the Democratic National Committee, President Obama, and many other national Democratic leaders. Its website touts its reach and expertise in political law matters on behalf of a virtual who's who of Democratic politics."

[...]

"On July 14, 2009, eleven (11) days after Palin announced that she would resign, the Alaska Perkins Coie attorney submitted his conclusions about the Alaska Fund Trust. In a "CONFIDENTIAL" report (that was promptly leaked to the media in violation of Alaska law), the Alaska Perkins Coie attorney found that the trust fund document (which it had drafted for John Kerry) was in fact ILLEGAL."

[...]

"So how could President Obama's law firm conclude that the trust fund it drafted was illegal?"

To learn the answer to that question, read "the rest of the story" here.

- JP

Has Broadcasting & Cable never heard of short-form commentary?

As we reported Tuesday, industry pub Inside Radio said that Palin reps were making discreet inquiries to see if talk radio syndicators might be interested in Sarah Palin.

Well, it didn't take long for the Palin-hatin' drive-by media to try to shoot that buzz down and smear Palin in the process. On the website of Broadcasting & Cable, an establishment industry pub, contributing editor Paige Albiniak attempts to make us believe that syndicators have no interest at all in Sarah Palin:

"My own sources say much what they said when asked about a TV show for Palin: Don’t think so. While you might assume Palin would be a better fit for conservative radio than the less partisan world of syndicated broadcast TV, my sources say the country’s biggest radio conglomerate, Clear Channel, has already passed on her."

Ms. Albiniak's sources conveniently remain anonymous, much like those sources inside the McCain campaign who were used by the leftist media to smear the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee. It's so much easier for the state-run media to turn speculation about what Palin will do next against her than to have to explain why it got in bed with Obama in the first place. So what's the reasoning behind the alleged non-interest in Sarah Palin by radio execs?

"The main objection to Palin as radio talk-show host is that she would have to hold forth for three hours a day... It’s the rare personality who can blab extemporaneously for 15 hours a week."

Who said anything about 15 hours a week? We seriously doubt that Sarah Palin would want to tie herself down to such a rigid schedule, one which would cause conflicts with the amount of travel and campaigning for conservative candidates Palin has announced that she intends to do.

Also, has Paige Albiniak never heard of the short-form commentary? She doesn't even mention the possibility of Sarah Palin in such a format, which, at less than five minutes a shot and three times a week would be about fifteen minutes of content a week. Palin could easily meet that demand, even while travelling extensively. That Albiniak ignores even the possibility of the former governor in the the short-form format, which has been a vehicle used by both Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, leads us to pass on buying what she's selling.

Caveat emptor.

Update: Palin attorney Robert Barnett says reports that Palin's team have been "testing the waters" to determine syndicators interest are false:

"Many individuals and entities have expressed strong interest in Governor Palin. To date, she has not spoken with any of them, negotiated with any of them or made deals with any of them."

Barnett insists no talks with radio networks or syndicators, Clear Channel included, have yet taken place, adding that "All of that is in the future."

There they go, again, "makin' things up."

- JP

L.A.Times Uses Car Racing Report to...Bash Palin?

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, you are a car racing reporter and you have a big story about the news that BMW has pulled out of the Formula 1 race scene. So, what better way to start off your report by saying that BMW is the "Sarah Palin" of F1 racing?

Revealing a complete lack of understanding of politics and Palin's situation, sports writer Dan Neil has decided that BMW is "just like" Sarah Palin ostensibly because it quit the race scene in a piece headlined "BMW quits Formula 1. It is now the Sarah Palin of F1 and the future of KERS."

In his first paragraph he takes his jab at Palin, then goes on with his story without mentioning Palin again.

BMW will bug out of Formula 1 racing at the end of the 2009 season, company officials announced today, to which we say – in a collective exhalation of stunned amazement -- Wha…? Perhaps a Scooby Doo-like “Huh-hhhh?" The premium German automaker, based in Munich, attempted to put the best face on the announcement, not unlike a certain former Alaskan governor.

It appears that BMW is halting its F1 racing program for the stated purpose of reevaluating its "green" commitment but it seems more obvious that it is because of the expense of it all. But any second of thought put to BMW's actions will reveal no comparison at all to Sarah Palin's situation.

After all, did Palin step down as Alaska's governor over "green" policies? Did she do so because of the expense of racing? Did she do so over cars or sports?

No. Not at all.

What we have here is nothing but an excuse to jab at Sarah Palin and place that jab in a situation that has absolutely nothing to do with Palin or even politics, for that matter. And the fact that Neil does not mention Palin except in the first paragraph makes his inclusion of her in the headline a failure of logic. I mean, Palin is prominent in the headline, but mentioned only once in the piece? Shouldn't something that appears in a headline be featured prominently as an important part of the article?

It's obvious that this was just a sensational way for Neil to try and finally get noticed for his sports "reporting." Unfortunately for him, even if this stunt does get him noticed, few will notice his sports writing! Epic fail.

That ol' Palin Derangement Syndrome raises its ugly head again.

- WTH

Note from JP: You can read more of Warner Todd Huston at his own PubliusForum.com and also at Right Wing News, where he has recently joined the staff of contributors.

Rudy Guiliani: Sarah Palin has what it takes

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in a CNN interview Wednesday, said that the GOP needs a strong leader who can focus the party on what he called "the most left-wing agenda - since Roosevelt." One possible such leader, Giuliani said, is former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin:

"I... took her to the Yankee game a couple of weeks ago... I was a little concerned about taking her to the Bronx -- big Democratic territory... She had a great reception... They all wanted to take a picture with her. They all wanted to get her autograph. They all wanted to talk to her. She sparks a tremendous amount of interest. So there is something unusual there."

Asked if Palin has what it takes to be president, Giuliani replied:

"I thought she did when I campaigned for her... Yes, I thought she was a really good governor. I thought she had done a really good job. There are a lot of questions because of all of the things that have been raised. She had the chance to answer them all. And I think she’s a real presence in our party."

- JP

Chris Adamo blasts GOP establishment for not embracing Palin

Christopher G. Adamo, freelance writer and staff writer for the New Media Alliance, takes the GOP establishment on in his latest posting:

The Republican Party continues to amass expertise in losing elections. Its current reticence in getting behind the momentum of Sarah Palin, now the former Governor of Alaska, unequivocally proves the point.

According to Adamo, though Palin excites the party's grassroots, the GOP's inner circle couldn't care less:

When measured against the current "ruling class," Palin's faults, or more precisely, those qualities about her which critics attempt to manufacture into faults, are trivial at worst. More pertinently, the derisive commentary is far more reflective of truly serious character defects on their own part. Sadly, many of them claim to lean to the political right.

Among the Republican Party's anti-Palin elites, Adamo cites two of the usual suspects who have been far more tolerant of opposition party figures than of Sarah Palin:

Of course, no discussion of Palin's detractors would be complete without a mention of the Republican Party's menopausal wing, as epitomized by former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and Washington Post token conservative "pundit" Kathleen Parker. In their incessant efforts to derail Palin, Noonan and Parker have descended to a level of discourse rife with shallow catcalls and jeers. In telling contrast, Noonan had heaped accolades on Barack Obama while Parker supports the elevation of judicial activist Sonya Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and excoriates the GOP for refusing to follow along.

Adamo warns the GOP hierarchy that if it wants to win another election, it had better get back in touch with its conservative roots:

A recent Rasmussen poll shows that Americans still overwhelmingly consider themselves conservative. Sarah Palin can connect with that segment of the population, motivate and inspire it to action. In such a political climate, no excuses suffice for a party that professes to be conservative, yet is devastated at the ballot box as badly as was the case last November.

But is it listening? Hello? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

- JP

No press allowed at Aug. 8 Event; Reuters miffed

Steve Gorman has a post up on Reuters' Front Row Washington blog, and his title -- "Media barred from Palin’s post-gubernatorial debut" -- indicates where Gorman's focus is. For the media, it's all about them.

Sarah Palin is expected to be the guest speaker at the 50th anniversary gala hosted by the Simi Valley Republican Women, Federated at the Ronald Reagan Library's Air Force One Pavillion, but her representatives have not yet confirmed that she will appear there. So it seems that the "no media" sanction comes from the organizers, not from the Palin camp. Perhaps the GOP women remember the way the media treated President Reagan before his death and didn't want them to dishonor his memory by their presence in the library  named for him.

Yet Gorman seems to want to blame Sarah Palin for the fact that Reuters and the rest of the state-controlled media are personna non grata at the gala by the wording of his post's title and the closing paragraph of his post:

In a reminder of her often-testy relations with the media, she took a parting shot at the press during her farewell address in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Sunday, saying: "Democracy depends on you. That’s why our troops are willing to die for you. So how about in honor of the American soldier you quit making things up?"

We wonder at what point the drive-by media became such whiney little brats. Was it before or after they got in bed with Barack Obama and Joe "The Gaffemaster" Biden?

- JP

PPP Polling: Palin turns negatives into positives

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Polling firm Public Policy Polling has conducted two national surveys and four state polls since Sarah Palin's July 3 announcement that she would resign. PPP is a Democrat polling organization, so we wouldn't expect them to spin their results any other way than to play down any improvement shown by the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate. But we must admit that this stretch gave us a good laugh:

"In national surveys we conducted in May and June Palin's favorability with American voters averaged out to 43/50. In two polls conducted since she announced her resignation it's been 47/45. So there's been a slight improvement on that front."

A slight improvement? Sarah Palin has gone from unfavorably perceived overall to viewed favorably. She has increased her positives by four points and decreased her negatives by 5 points. that's a 9-point turnaround in less than a month, and she managed it while on the receiving end of a barrage of bogus ethics complaints, assaults from the punditocracy and rotten treatment from a hostile press. We call that a major turnaround. Looks like that resigning thing is working out just fine for her.

With football season just around the corner, please forgive us a gridiron metaphor or two. It's still early in the game. And so far, all we have seen is the Palin defense. Just wait until Sarah takes the ball and starts calling the plays.

Update: Townhall.com columnist Larry Elder puts polls in perspective.

Related: In an online poll conducted by NewsMax.com, nearly 80 percent of the respondents indicated that they support a Palin run for the presidency in 2012. Two caveats - it's not a scientific poll, and NewsMax readership is very conservative overall. We already knew that Sarah Palin is the overwhelming choice of conservatives to be the GOP nominee in '12. But we have to admit that the sample size -- 600,000 plus -- is impressive.

- JP

Videos: Pundits Ponder Palin

The Wall Street Journal's John Fund and James Freeman discuss Sarah Palin's resignation and the possible GOP presidential candidates for 2012:



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From the Fox News Strategy Room, Tammy Bruce joins a roundtable and says that Sarah Palin is clearly running for president:



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Also on FNC, here's the roundtable of the Fox All Stars on the Palin resignation:



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And a PJTV roundtable discussion, "Who hates Sarah Palin and why?" The first of a three part series focuses on the media. View it here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 29, 2009)

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From Melissa Clouthier at Right Wing News:

"Bush Derangement Syndrome seems like a head cold compared to the Palin Hatred. Palin Hatred is like a full-blown mental swine flu."

- JP

Geller: Palin's Sunday speech was no farewell address

Though we've been calling it a farewell address, Pamela Geller says what Sarah Palin delivered Sunday in Fairbanks was a commencement address, because it was only the beginning:

Her speech embodied what a great American sounds like, and what a President ought to sound like. Palin made no apologies. She said nothing like Obama's inane drone of "America's best days are behind us." No tearing down of our nation. Obama ranks on us; Palin raises us up and speaks of national pride.

Geller says Palin embodies the American spirit and represents what this nation's founders had in mind for the sort of Americans who would keep alive the republic they created:

The more evil succeeds and overwhelms our foreign and domestic policy, our culture, our discourse and the very social fabric of our lives, the clearer it becomes that Palin is the antidote, the answer to fighting this morally bankrupt sewer in which we find ourselves during the Obama Administration.

It's a good piece, and you can read it in its entirety at American Thinker, a website that has been on a roll lately with one outstanding essay after another.

Related: Listen to Geller's appearance on Anchorage talker Eddie Burke's show here at Atlas Shrugs.

- JP

Two Terrific Tuesday Takedowns

What a delightful day Tuesday was. If you enjoy seeing hate-filled leftist maggots getting bit*h-slapped their just desserts, you'll love these two items:

Item: Andrew Sullivan posted on his blog about how the Obama birther nonsense is just that. It never seemed to occur to him that his Trig trooferism is made of the same stuff. At TWS's The Blog, Mary Katharine Ham slaps the mucous out of Silly Sully for unprecedented achievement in the field of hypocrisy here. Read her post. Follow every link. Enjoy. Caution: Don't scare the cat when you ROTFLYAO.

h/t: Jim Trotter

*

Item: On the Mark Levin Show  show, the best-selling author and Great American eviscerates Bill Mahr for the comic's clown's hateful comments regarding Sarah Palin and everyone in the country who doesn't share Mahr's venomous spite for her here.

It was a fine twofor Tuesday. Just like the old Doublemint gum commercials: "Double your pleasure, double your fun..."

h/t: Daniel Terrapin

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 28, 2009)

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Charles Cooper of See-BS:

Along with Barack Obama, Palin remains one of the most fascinating politicians on the scene. And like moths to a flame, the media can't resist the attraction... The media may not love her, but I don't know why that should bother Palin. One way or another, they can't get enough of her.

Gosh, Charles, if you don't know why that should bother Palin, ask her about when CNN and other MSM outlets took smear pieces about Sarah's children from nutroots websites and simply repeated them without bothering to do any fact checking.

If you need any more clues, just let us know, Charles. We have plenty, and the first on's free.

- JP

Sarah Palin AK Gov web pages have been archived

Good news for Sarah Palin supporters, bloggers and researchers.

Using Archive-It and the manual "start on demand" feature inside the web application, the Alaska State Library crawled Governor Palin and Lt. Governor Parnell's web sites on the eve of the transition of power and was able to capture valuable information that is now offline and no longer accessible...

The foresight of the staff of the Alaska State Library and the availability of the Archive-It web archiving service made it possible to preserve the final changes to these "at risk" websites before they were taken offline.

Actually, all the pages that were available before the transition will still be available. The difference is that they are now in an archive instead of at their former locations. The old web documents for then Gov. Palin have new URLs

Gov. Palin's news releases, for example, are now in the Press Archive here.

We were hoping that this would be done. A tip of the Texas for Sarah Palin Stetson to the Alaska State Library web team.

- JP

Rumor Mill: Palin a Regular on Radio?

Inside Radio reports:

While not exactly shopping the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential candidate, sources say Palin representatives have been quietly testing the waters to see how much interest radio syndicators have for her.

It's a natural step for the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate to take. But not in a three-hour Rush Limbaugh format. Three-minute commentaries, however, would be perfect for Palin: 

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s short-form commentaries air on more than 400 stations via Citadel Media. He remains among the names circulated for a potential presidential run in 2012.

Fred Thompson did the same thing for a while on ABC Radio with "The Fred Thompson Report." The short-form commentary format allowed Teh Fred to stake out his positions on the issues, which is exactly what Gov. Palin needs to do. Indeed, Allahpundit says:

What’s to "test"? She’ll draw the entire conservative base and a goodly chunk of the left as they tune in to channel the hate. Pay her whatever she wants and sign the deal.

In this case, at least, we have to agree with Allah. Radio is the perfect vehicle for Sarah Palin to exploit to establish her cred on national and world issues. Speaking his mind on the radio certainly didn't do Ronald Reagan any harm.

h/t: FRee Republic

- JP

In her dreams: Joy Behar wants Sarah on her show

Since Sarah Palin has turned down countless offers to appear on some television programs with blockbuster ratings, we have to wonder what possessed Joy Behar to tell critics on the press tour for the new talk show she will be hosting to dare to dream of getting the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate to do a guest shot:

Why Behar would want Palin on a new show is obvious. Why Palin would want to be on Behar's show was less clear, and even Behar struggled to articulate the point... The critics seemed unmoved by her argument, so Behar joked that if Palin declined, she'd offer to interview Palin's travel agent, or her maid, or her babysitter. Crickets.

Behar so doesn't get it. Sarah Palin's travel arrangements are made by aides -- probably Kris Perry or Meghan Stapleton. Her family takes care of the babysitting duties when necessary. A maid? We would bet real money that cleaning up after themselves are regular chores for the Palin kids. In Behar World, there are chauffeurs, cooks, maids and babysitters to handle all those icky and mundane tasks. But Sarah Palin lives in the same world as us everyday people who don't have servants. In fact, two of her first actions after being becoming governor were to have the chauffeur and cook who were part of the trappings of that office reassigned to other venues.

But the Behar tour begs another question: What were HLN's decision-makers thinking when they signed off on the bright idea to give Behar a solo talk show? This nasty woman has all the warmth of a python. Who in the world would want to watch such a show? We suspect The Joy Show -- or whatever HLN will call it -- will be one of the shortest runs in showbiz since "Rosie Live" was canned by NBC the day after its preview.

- JP

Believe this: Mama Grizzy will get her payback

Doctor Zero's prognosis, "Nobody knows the Left’s game plan better than Sarah Palin, and it seems like she plans to use what she has learned":

Palin can do a lot of good by highlighting the thuggish tactics of the Left, which were all on nauseating display in the campaign to destroy her. Deranged conspiracy theories, in her case about the maternity of her son? Check. Blinding hypocrisy and manufactured “crises” pushed by political operatives masquerading as “journalists?” Absolutely. Vicious misogyny, passed along with nary a raised eyebrow from “feminists?” You betcha. Invasions of privacy and abuses of government to destroy a political target? Ten-four.

The good doctor is right. Using Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals as its strategic guide, the Left has smeared Sarah Palin with abandon, and it has not been held accountable so far:

Like the people who exploited Alaskan law to bury Palin under bogus ethics complaints, the Left is generally free to lob dirty bombs at its opponents, with few lasting repercussions. The story of David Letterman’s unforgivable attacks on the Palin children ended with Letterman still holding his job, having suffered nothing worse than being forced to issue a tortured apology… while Sarah Palin stopped being the governor of Alaska [Sunday]. Only time will tell if Letterman learned any sort of lesson from the affair, but you only need to drop by a liberal blog to see that the Left, as a whole, drew exactly the wrong lesson.

True, Sarah Palin has liberated herself from the Alaska governor's office, which in effect unties the one hand she previously had bound behind her back. She will now be able to go to battle with the Alinskyites unemcumbered. But it will be a bloody fight because the stakes are so high. As Phil Brennean observed:

They are making stuff up about Palin because telling the truth about her threatens to undo all they are trying to do to help Obama turn America into a socialist worker's paradise.

Brennan explained that it is key to the Left, its media shock troops and GOP fellow travellers that they define Sarah Palin as an ignorant and stupid snowbilly and her supporters as easily-duped fools in flyover country:

What makes Palin dangerous to the collectivists is her popularity with the great mass of ordinary Americans. They see her for what she is — one of them. When she speaks she speaks in a language they understand, and she makes sense — good common sense. She sees things as they see them and not as the media elite wants them to see them. And that makes her dangerous.

So she must be, in Brennan's words, "demonized, slandered, and crushed." The only problem with their plan is that Sarah Palin was raised by her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, to be a fighter. She has shown no small degree of grit and determination in her life, though the Left and their media and Vichy GOP allies call her a quitter. Our money's on the mama grizzly wearing the Kawasaki glasses. She has a lot of payback coming, and we have no doubt that she has a plan of her own to extract it.

- JP

Team Sarah delivers 1,000 roses for Sarah Palin

Team Sarah's campaign to gather a thousand roses for Sarah Palin was quite a success, we hear. Tracey P reports:

Gov. Sarah Palin was given a special bouquet (photos after the jump) and was aware that 1,000 roses were donated by Team Sarah and its members. A card was delivered to Gov. Palin with the flowers, and an envelope with a list of the names of all who donated was also given to her mother who was going to forward it to her. Her staff made sure that Sarah's special bouquet was retrieved and they took it with them. Again, the family was very pleased that the flowers were donated [to Basset Army Community Hospital on Ft. Wainwright], as is her tradition.

Nicely done, TS.

- JP

Part 2: They can't quit Sarah Palin

*
They call her a quitter because they just can't quit her:

I can't quit her
She's got a hold on me
She got her hand on my soul
I can't quit her
'cause I see her face everywhere I go
In the city streets, in the country fields
In the back of my mind
I know it can't be real
For a woman to possess
All the tenderness she had
But the hands of time
Keep tickin' on my back
'cause it's been so long
Since I had her back beside me,
Yeah, I know

Former Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltzman told Fox News' Martha MacCallum that Sarah Palin's farewell address Sunday "was the first speech of the 2012 primary season. That was a campaign stump speech." Looking ahead, Saltzman said that "If your're gonna put together a presidential campaign this early out, you've got to decide when's your first trip to Iowa, because once she's done that, the media whirlwind starts up again." We're wondering... when did it ever die down?

I can't quit her
'cause on my darkest night
She comes on like a light
I can't quite her
Try as I may, with all my might
She had a woman's touch
And a young girls eyes,
And in seconds flat I was pros'lytized
Turned around,
And made to feel sweet love
But the hands of time
Keep tickin' on my back
'cause it's been so long
Since I had her back beside me

MoveOn.org proved that it can't do what its name implies by launching a new ad calling Palin "the new face of Republican opposition to clean energy." Never mind that as governor of Alaska, Palin tirelessly advocated for her state's natural gas resources, and natgas burns cleaner than coal, heating oil, gasoline and -- yes, moonbats -- it even burns cleaner than ethanol or biodiesel. Also never mind that Palin called for having fully half of Alaska's electricity generated by renewable resources by the year 2020. What good are facts when lying leftist Democrats are hell bent on destroying Sarah Palin?

True love is somethin'
Ev'ry young boy knows about
And he fights his whole soul all the best to find some

On Fox's Cavuto program, author and former Bush webmaster Jane Hampton Cook answered host Neil Cavuto's question by saying that Sarah Palin could indeed "pull off another Reagan" to get to the White House if she will "put forward her ideas on energy policy, on taxes, on health care."

I was a young boy
'till I held her in my arms
Now I find that I'm strung out behind some

Focus group guru Frank Lutz told Sean Hannity on FNC, "Whenever you go after the media it means that you're not going away... I think it's pretty clear that she's going to be a candidate for 2012." Luntz said Palin's farewell address was "a perfect stump speech for someone's who's looking at what's going to happen three years from now."

I can't quit her
She got her hand on me
She got a hold on my soul
'cause I see your face everywhere I go
I can't quit her, woo ooo yeah
I know
You know I see your face
Everywhere I go!
I need her... I need the little girl

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty twice refused to take Geraldo Rivera's bait to diss Palin on FNC, calling her "a friend and a colleague and somebody I've worked with on a number of issues." T-Paw graciously said, "I don't think she's been ruled out or should be ruled out of future government service."

h/t: "I Can't Quit Her" -- written by Al Kooper and Irwin Levine -- appeared on the debut album "Child is Father to the Man" by Blood, Sweat & Tears released in 1968.

- JP

Part 1: They can't stop talking about Sarah Palin

*
She's no longer the governor of Alaska, but they can't stop talking about her:

My friends think I'm an awful bore
Ever since I fell in love with you
I'm not well rounded anymore
There's just one thing I like to do

Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean said on MSNBC that he has some sympathy for Palin whom, the doctor said, was "not prepared" for the attacks on her family.

I just can't stop talking about you
Can't stop saying I love you
Can't stop telling the
World you're mine

On the Fox News Channel, Britt Hume told Martha MacCallum that private citizen Palin doesn't need to be Governor to be elected president.

I give lectures on your lips
Go on for hours on the way we met
I talk pages on your smile
And still I haven't scratched
The surface yet

Leftist tool Bill Mahr went on CNN to voice his opinion to Wolf Blitzer that even Sarah Palin could have a future in politics "in this stupid country" -- which angered even CNN's mostly Democrat Obama-loving viewers, many of whom called or e-mailed in protest.

Somehow, I can't
Stop talking about you
Can't stop saying I love you
Can't stop telling the
World you're mine

Sustitute hosting on MSNBC, sexist clown Donny Deutsch opined that the media's fascination with Palin is due to her sex appeal. Double-D probably blew the guest shot, but with MSogynist-NBC, you can never be sure. Especially considering all the sexist tripe Chris Matthews and his good buddy Howard Fineman have gotten away with there.

I can't stop all this crowing
There's nothing I can do
My heart just keeps overflowing
With new things to say about you

CNN invited Mitt's consultant Alex Castellanos on to take some gratuitous shots at Sarah Palin, and that he did. The Romney surrogate parroted the DNC talking point that Palin "abandoned her state" and likened her to Mike Huckabee as a dreaded socon who would win the GOP nomination, but not the general election.

I guess there's no relief in sight
Everybody better be resigned

Speaking of Huckleberry Spinn, the former Aransas governor, pinch hitting for regular host Bill O'Reilly on the Factor, moderated a round between Democratic strategist Matthew Littman and GOP Strategist Amanda Carpenter, who put up a weak defense of the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee against Littman's rabbit punches and below the belt blows. After Littman called Palin "an incredibly dishonest politician -- perhaps the most dishonest politician on the national stage since Nixon," Carpenter didn't even take the wide open opportunity to point out that Barack Obama has turned the lion's share of his campaign promises into lies. Huckabee did a better job of defending Palin than Carpenter, who should stick to the printed word. It's a shame that Judy Silver wasn't  in Carpenter's chair for that segment.

Cause I just can't
Stop talking about you
Can't stop saying I love you
Can't stop telling the
World you're mine

Back at PMSNBC, Nora Odonnell was all snark as she slammed Sarah, saying Palin's farewell address was just a platform for the former governor "to yell at" O'Donnell's beloved in-the-tank-for-Obama media. O'Donnell was sarcastic all through her attack, which is Nora's norm when she's commenting on Sarah.

La la la la...

Sarah Palin finally got a little media love from Fox News' Andrea Tantaros and Julia Banderas, who agreed that the now former governor knows how to fight back against the media.

Cause I just can't
Stop talking about you
Can't stop saying I love you
Can't stop telling the
World you're mine

Bill O'Reilly explained Sarah Palin's appeal as something so down to earth the media moonbats just can't figure it out: "Regular folks like regular folks." The elite media, said O'Reilly, "just can't let go of her."

Yes, I just can't
Stop talking about you
Can't stop saying I love you...

h/t: "I Can't Stop Talking About You" -- written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin -- was a Top-40 hit for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme in 1964, the same year Sarah Heath Palin was born. 

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 27, 2009)

The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register, from a July 27 editorial on the partisan attacks against Sarah Palin:

"We think most Americans will recognize the assaults for what they are - more of the vicious, unfair politics we recall being assured were about to change."

- JP

Frum's ignorance of Alaska constitution is obvious

Sister Toldjah, in what would be a "teachable moment" if only David Frum would be willing to learn, puts the dunce cap on the Vichy Republican in her latest blog post.

Frum showed his ignorance by trying to equate Sarah Palin's action as governor to increase the amount Alaska citizens receive from the state’s Permanent Fund with her warning about the dangers of federal government largesse. The liberal Republican columnist obviously doesn't understand the difference between the state and federal forms of government. Sister Toljah takes him to task for not realizing that Alaska's constitution defines the states resources both renewable and non-renewable as public trusts to be developed for the benefit of its citizens. To rub it in, she uses an excellent argument made by Nate Silver, who is hardly what anyone would call a right-wing idealogue:

"But apparently to David Frum, the Governor should have ignored her own State Constitution – which he also would have criticized her for had she done. That is, had he taken the time to read it in the first place, which he obviously did not – but probably would have eventually, or something."

Or perhaps ignorance isn't really the problem with liberal GOP elites like Frum. As Ronald Reagan observed:

"Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so."

Update 1: Silly Sully appears to buy into Frum's argument, again proving Reagan's point. But in Andrew's case, we're willing to bet real money that he knows even more that isn't so than David does. As wrong as Frum may be about a great many things, we've never seen him advance the Trig Troofer delusion. But perhaps that's next, as Frum continues to drift, without benefit of rudder, hard to port.

Update 2: Ben Cohen also buys into David Frum's flawed POV. So is Frum writing talking points for leftist Democrats now? Honest work must be hard to come by since he left National Review.

- JP

This is the first day of the rest of Sarah Palin's life

Mike Volpe, posting at The Provacateur Saturday, looked forward to this day, saying that from here on out, it's going to be very good to be Sarah Palin:

As for Palin's future, she has the opportunity to do just about anything that she wants to do. It's possible she'll retire quietly to Wasilla and simply spend time with her family. It's also possible that one day she'll run for President. Liberals will mock this idea, but Sarah Palin has defied odds most of her life. She won a state championship on a bad ankle. She became a major almost by accident. She was forced into blowing the whistle on corruption within her own party and then she beat a long term incumbent to become Governor of Alaska.

The idea that she can't be president is held only by those that fail to recognize all that she has already accomplished.

While there are indeed many benefits that Gov. Palin will enjoy through the act of unchaining herself from the Alaska's governor's office, we believe that it's going to be anything but a cake walk for her. She will continue to be savagely attacked by the Left, the media and the Vichy Republican elites. The major difference is that she is now finally free to fight back unemcumbered. The Democrat Party operatives and "Republican" sore loser who filed their baseless "ethics" complaints against her will still be gunning for Sarah palin. They will simply change their strategy to Plan B.

Still, Gov. Palin can now have some fun:

With Palin now out of the Governor’s office she has regained her rights to speak to all Americans yearning to be free from the yoke of extortionate taxation and ridiculously over-bloated government.

Palin can now concentrate on exposing the false promises of the Obama communists of a free ride on the backs of the so-called rich and working class taxpayers.

Sarah Palin understands what made America great and seems unyielding in her zeal and energy to secure this nation from our enemies without and within America. Palin can bring out the voters who sat out the last election.

Sarah Palin is a fighter. Long live the fighters!

- JP

Bill Whittle video: The elites' war on Sarah Palin

Bill Whittle explains why the left, the media and Vichy Republicans joined in a de facto Axis of Elites to try to destroy Sarah Palin. This is must-see PJTV made out of pure 100% awesome.

But it's about much more than Sarah Palin. It's about a political struggle the good guys won't win unless they wake up, smell the Alinsky and stop taking prisoners.

Don't just watch it. E-mail it to your political friends... and foes.

Related: Here's a must-read to compliment Bill's must-see.

- JP

Sarah Palin is the polar opposite of Barack Obama

Sarah Palin and Barack Obama could not be more different. According to DesertConservative.com:

Sarah Palin responded to each and every ’supposed’ ethics violation brought against her. Obama refuses to respond to the biggest ethics violation brouight to bear against him. He refuses to allow his birth certificate to be shown, any records of his college days and other information remains secreted at his direction.

So, who is open and honest and who is not?

Bill Dupray, commenting on Palin's Wasilla Governor's Picnic remarks (where Sarah praised our military), challenged his readers to try to imagine President Obama making that same speech:

You can't do it, because it Would. Never. Happen. Exit question: Which one, then, is the patriot?

Sarah Palin is the Anti-Obama.

- JP

The Media's Constant Palin Hyperbole

(First of all, I want to thank Josh for giving me the opportunity to add to the bog. I appreciate the invite to stop by once in a while with my contribution to the coverage on Governor Palin. Also, for those of you interested in my other work, please visit PubliusForum.com where we have a lot of talented writers -- including one Josh Painter -- commenting on the news of the day.)

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent CBS report by Scott Conroy and director of political coverage Steve Chaggaris is typical of the hyperbole to which the Old Media is prone when "reporting" (by that you can read dramatizing) Sarah Palin's political doings.

This report is not as chock full of it as some others that have utilized over-the-top phrases and rhetoric to beat down Palin, but there are a few here that ring typical of the sort of backdoor slams that the Old Media constantly over use in its Palin coverage.

We start with the opening line:

In a fiery speech that felt more like a partisan campaign rally than a formal transfer of power, outgoing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin reflected upon her administration's most significant achievements and shared her vision for the country's future. But the address was most notable for Palin's remarkably blunt swipes at her favorite nemesis: the media.

What does "felt more like a partisan campaign rally" as opposed to a "formal transfer of power" mean, anyway? It is a colorful way of intimating that Palin overstepped herself at the ceremony, of course. It's a way to slam her as gauche without directly saying so.

The last line is also a perfect example of the nonsense we get from the Old Media where it concerns Palin. The CBS pair wrote, "But the address was most notable for Palin's remarkably blunt swipes at her favorite nemesis: the media." Yet, this supposed notability of Palin’s "blunt swipes" at the press is belied further in the story where it maintains that Palin's swipes at the media have become "close to a daily ritual."

So, the question in my mind is this: how can the swipes she took at the ceremony be "notable" if, according to CBS, she's been doing this since her stint as the GOP vp nominee over six months ago? In fact, there can't be much "notable" about it if it has become so entirely ubiquitous.

Naturally, the reason they use the "notable" rhetoric is to convey to the reader that Palin's behavior is something to raise an eyebrow about. This is just one of the tactics the media uses against her, an effort that is becoming "close to a daily ritual" -- if I may steal a quote.

And speaking of the "daily ritual" business, the CBS piece says the following:

Palin's relationship with the press deteriorated further during her vice presidential campaign, and upon her return to Alaska, she has made her condemnations of the media something close to a daily ritual.

Something "close" to a daily ritual? My guess is that you won't even be able to find daily public comments on any subject from Palin since she ran for vp, much less a daily attack on the press. It may have been frequent, even common that Palin slapped the press in her public comments and statements, but a "daily ritual"? That is simply hyperbole. She has not daily swiped at the press.

The CBS report also ignores the history of the press of attacking her children and seems to imply that the only example of it was when Late Night host David Letterman recently made a sexual "joke" about her youngest daughter, Piper.

Her now several weeks old public feud with David Letterman over the late-night comedian's failed joke about one of her daughters was apparently still smarting, as she leaned forward into the microphone and added angrily, "One other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone."

This minimizes Palin's hurt feelings over the constant media attacks on her children as a mere spat with some TV show host. But Palin has over the past half year suffered constant media attacks on son Trig and daughter Bristol as well as her husband and other family members. It all serves as an understandable impetus for her suspicion and anger at the media. But did the CBS pair note this history to show why Palin's suspicions might be justified? Not at all, the better to make her seem shrill and out-of-control, naturally.

In the end, this CBS piece serves as a great example of the loaded rhetoric that the Old Media use against Palin as they report the news. It shows the sneaky language they use to minimize, belittle, pester, and scoff at Governor Palin, for sure.

(Photo credit: fitsnews.com)

- WTH

Recommended Read of the Day: Motivation Truth

Adrienne Ross has posted her Fairbanks Farewell report, complete with photos. From her post, a great money quote about the few protesters who showed up with their pitiful sign:

"They're not sick of Sarah; they're just sick!"

Click on the link and read Adrienne's unique perspective. You'll find it to be an uplifting experience.

- JP

Yet another Romney surrogate attacks Sarah Palin

When it comes down to his potential rivals inside the Republican Party, Mitt Romney lets his surrogates do his dirty work by attacking them. This allows Romney to maintain his pretense of being a nice guy. This time around, it was Alex Castellanos doing the talking for "His Man Mitt" -- and CNN was all too willing to give him a platform from which to launch his attack:

"’I’ve been a supporter of Sarah Palin — at times," Castellanos said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. "She gave the McCain campaign its best two weeks. But, you know, if we’re going to be critical of Democrats when they shirk their responsibilities, we have do the same within our own house. She abandoned her state in the middle of a term."

On the national political stage, Castellanos, who worked as a political consultant for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid, likened Palin to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The Arkansas Republican’s long shot bid for the White House in the last election cycle gained traction when he pulled out a surprise win in Iowa’s Republican caucus but then Huckabee lost steam when he could not follow through with wins in other key primaries.

"We’re going to have a division in the Right in the Republican Party," Castellanos told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, "We now have two Mike Huckabees – people who have a powerful force in the party but can’t get out of the party in a general election and win."

Castellanos is a liar. He has never been a supporter of Sarah Palin. Never.

To borrow and bend an old Alec Guinness movie line, "The Mitt Romney campaign. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

- JP

Obama/Democrats' connection to Anti-Palin bloggers exposed

Exposed "Ethicsgate" Obama and the democrats' multiple direct links to the political effort to destroy Sarah Palin.

Must-see video here, if you haven't seen it yet. This is the video the anti-Palin bloggers got scrubbed from YouTube. They don't want the public to learn of their connections to the Obama Administration and the Democrat Party.

These bloggers aren't pesky "anklebiters." They are Democrat Party operatives.

Freeper thread here.

These are the same anti-Palin bloggers who are responsible for many of the bogus "ethics" complaints that were filed against Sarah Palin. Most of the complaints have been dismissed, of course. But they did their intended dirty work for Obama and the corrupt Democrat Party.

Spread the word.

Related: See here, here, here and here at A Time for Choosing.

- JP

Brand management experts see opportunity for Palin

A number of personal brand management experts see opportunity for Sarah Palin in her step down from the Alaska governor's office:

"She's fascinating. She's a celebrity in a party that has very few celebrities," said Jenn Stark, who runs Know Your Brand in Cincinnati, Ohio. "So if she plays her cards right, it could really, really work out well for her."

The problem for the former Republican vice presidential nominee is that she's so famous, virtually everyone has already formed strong opinions about her. So far, her brand has been defined by others -- first, by the John McCain campaign and then by the media.

"I think that was one of the reasons there was this abrupt resignation," said Rex Whisman, founder of BrandED Consultants Group in Denver. "Now is the time to develop an appropriate brand platform and have Gov. Palin define and help guide what her brand is."

Because, as Stark put it, "she has already set a brand perception within the minds of many Americans," Palin can't make radical changes.

"Her brand will continue to be one that is strongly conservative, strongly for the American individual, and I think that will continue to play well in the heartland," said Stark.

The rest of the article is here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 26, 2009)

*
Glenn Reynolds makes an interesting observation. Though one of the least accurate of all the polls, the latest ABC/WaPo survey has 53 Percent viewing Sarah Palin unfavorably. Meanwhile, the lastest from the more accurate Rasmussen shows President Obama's disapproval to be at 51%. So within the margins of error of both polls, the president is:

"...in a statistical tie with Sarah Palin."

- JP

Blogger Reaction to Sarah Palin's Farewell Address

First reactions are being posted in the blogosphere to Sarah palin's farewell address.

Noel Sheppard at NewsBusters.org says, "Brava, Sarah! Brava!" Moms for Sarah Palin goes musical with an appropriate song for the occasion.

Also, Gateway Pundit, Sarah Palin's Accomplishments, Theodore's World, Isn't It Rich, The Lonely Conservative, Logistics Monster and Inn The Basement.

- JP

Big changes at ALASKA.GOV

The official website of the Alaska governor has changed. That was to be expected. It is Gov. Sean Parnell's website now. Or rather it is his to use as long as he is Alaska's governor.

What was not expected is the manner in which news releases from the site's archives have been pruned. The only remaining press releases from former Gov. Sarah Palin's time in the office are those which proclaim "Safe Boating Week" and the like. Gone are the Palin releases which announced the dismissal of bogus ethics complaints. Also missing are her statements on missile defense, the stimulus and a host of other issues.

It will be interesting to see if ex-Governor Palin will put up a website where those releases can be accessed. We hope so.

Meanwhile, Sarah left this for her 118,575 followers on Twitter:

"Last state twitter. Thank you Alaska! I love you. God bless Alaska. God bless the U.S.A."

Also, C-SPAN will air a repeat of its cablecast of the Alaska Governor Transfer of Power Ceremony, complete with Sarah Palin's Farewell address, the swearing in of new Governor Sean Parnell and his remarks, beginning at 12:58:19 AM Texas time.

- JP

Full Video: Sarah Palin farewell adress

C-SPAN Video Library Product ID: 288034-1

Update: Transcript of Sarah Palin's address here.

- JP

Sarah Palin warns media: "Quit makin' things up"

In Sarah Palin's farewell address today in Fairbanks, AK, she warned the media to "quit makin' things up" and to leave the children of new Governor Sean Parnell alone. Here's an excerpt:



Some other memorable lines from her speech today:

"I am going to exercise my freedom of speech."
"It’s your money; you know how to better spend it than government."
"We eat, therefore we hunt."
"What I promised, we accomplished."
"Be wary of accepting government largess."
"I resisted the stimulus package, and we have championed earmark reform."
"Government can’t make you happy or healthy or wealthy or wise."

There are more than just a few good bumper sticker lines in her remarks. They may well be the opening shots fired in the next two elections.

h/t: FRee Republic

- JP

Sorry, these domain names are taken

It's no surprise that the internet domain names, sarahpalinforpresident.com and sarahpalin2012.com have both been claimed. Speculators often register many such domains hoping that the right candidate will emerge to run for high office. That canidate would need the domain for his or her official website, and the speculator hopes to rake in big profits on the sale. A web domain originally purchased for a few dollars can sometimes be sold for $75,000 or more.

The Inquisitr thinks that it is highly significant that Jay Griffin of Anchorage, Alaska now owns the two names mentioned above. Griffin is no mere domain speculator. He is a member of the Alaska Republican Party Central Committee. The Inquisitr says the fact that Griffen owns the names gives every appearance that "Sarah Palin really does have intentions of running for the U.S. Presidency in 2012":

"Even though Palin hasn’t come right out and confirmed that she is gearing up to run for President in the 2012 elections, the fact that somebody close to her geographically and politically has been taking steps to that effect surely will take some of the surprise out of it when it is announced."

While we wouldn't go quite that far, we have to admit that it could be a sign.

Update: Great minds...

- JP

C-SPAN to cablecast AK transfer of power ceremony

C-SPAN will cablecast the ceremony of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin transferring the power of her office to Lt. Governor Sean Parnell today. Since Alaska is 3 hours behind Texas, the Fairbanks event will be on the public affairs cable channel from 9:10 PM to 10:00 PM Central time.

A live web stream of the entire event will be available at KTUU.com starting at 5:45 PM Central time. Details are here.  

- JP

Alaska says Good Bye, The Nation Says Hello...

Today is a bittersweet time in Alaska’s history but for the Nation as a whole, a wonderful new chapter looms on the horizon.

Due to the alarming rates of bogus and seriously asinine "ethics" claims and FOI requests overloading the governmental machinery of the State of Alaska thanks to the Alaskan surrogates of powerful and well-funded outside liberal forces. We have now lost a pioneer who has given Alaska much more then I or many Alaskans may realize for years to come.

Though Alaska is losing our beloved Governor and her uniquely Alaskan family, the Nation is gaining a new spirit. She, whose hands are bound by the red tape of politically bastardized laws not written for the general public, will emerge from the cocoon of ice and snow and possibly explode onto the National stage of the piece of performance art America has become and bring more then just a new appreciation for life, but the aspiration of faith and freedom to us all.

Alaska will never forget Sarah, as we know Sarah -- nor will her family ever forget Alaska. But we Alaskans must now let her fly to you America, who need her just as much as we wish too keep her. Stand with her as she makes this journey, America. If Sarah stumbles, please be her rock, her support.. Citizens of America, please be patient and help Sarah find her way along whatever path she may choose. I hope your paths and hers will meet down this exciting new road.

As Sarah stood and worked hard for Alaska and Alaskans as long as she was allowed to do, she will work 10 times harder for the whole of America and Americans. The dedication of people around her, together with the inspiration of God, Family, Faith and the Foundations of America will prove that an “Everyday American” can do something more. It shall be positive force for many as well as a driving need to succeed not only for themselves but for our children and our children’s children. All you need to do, America, is stand with her! Be Sarah’s rock of support.

With this said, I thank you Sarah Palin, for giving Alaska your time and your boundless energy. You are truly appreciated by a greater majority then you know. Please take care! America,

Here is your new avatar -- Sarah Palin.

-u

(H/T to JP)

Thousands picnic with Gov. Palin in Anchorage

Thousands of people showed up for Sarah Palin's last governor's picnic in Anchorage Saturday. Officials had planned for a crowd of 8,000. Sean Cockerham's ADN report is here, and KTUU's is here.



Here's some AP raw video from the event:



Bloggers for Sarah Palin's own Shane Vander Hart has dubbed this "Palin’s Liberation Weekend" and posted this at Caffeinated Thoughts. Tom Lamb posted this at It's a Kwazy Life. Adrienne (The Dallas Adrienne, not the NY Adrienne) has some good picnic pics posted at Sarah Palin 2012.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 25, 2009)

*
The AP reported the size of the crowd at Governor Sarah Palin's Wasilla Picnic Friday as "more than 1,000 people" -- which is factually true, but misleading. Our QOTD comes from the Alaska Pride blog:

"The Anchorage Daily News, KTUU Channel 2, and KTVA Channel 11 (which leads to a Topix Forum thread) reported that event coordinators, who had planned on 5,000 attendees, roasted 4,008 hot dogs and had fixings for about 4,000 root-beer floats. By the last hour of the event, the dogs were almost gone."

- JP

An open invitation to Governor Sarah Palin

Dear Governor Palin:

There has been much speculation in both the new media and old regarding what you will do after Sunday when you have handed over the keys to the governor's mansion to Sean Parnell. On the eve of that historic event, many of us who support you are not too worried about that. That is because you have our support regardless of what you decide to do, and we trust you to do what is right for your family, Alaska and the nation.

There has been no small amount of speculation that you will move to the lower 48. The Idaho Statesman's Rocky Barker has predicted it. His reasoning is based on the fact that considerable travel time is required to get from Alaska to locations in the lower 48 where you may want to visit to talk directly to the American people and campaign for conservative candidates. Rocky also reasons that if one of those doors you have mentioned opens to national political office, you will choose some place in the West. He mentions that you already know Idaho. I think Rocky sounds rather hopeful that it will be Idaho.

Sean Scallon has also written about this in the American Conservative. He is convinced that you are running for president in 2012. Noting the logistics challenges posed by campaigning from the White House from Alaska, Sean believes it is probable that you will move to the lower 48. He suggests Evansville, Indiana, since the pro-life manifesto you delivered straight from your heart was received with such enthusiasm there.

But from our vantage point deep in the heart of Texas, we have noticed that you receive warm and enthusiastic receptions wherever you go. Based on the sole criterion of the size of the crowds you have drawn, a likely location for your base of operations could be The Villages, Florida, where a crowd of some 60,000 to 70,000 people turned out for you. Judged strictly on enthusiasm displayed for the size of the venue, Auburn, New York would have to be a strong contender as well.

Just in case you are weighing a future in some national elected office, we here at Texas for Sarah Palin would like to put our bid in for Texas. Because we Texans love our state, we understand how much you love Alaska. We would never presume to ask you to give it up. We understand that more than a few Americans have two homes. Some even have several homes in various locations around the country. Our Democrat friends tried to make a big deal about how your former running mate had so many homes he couldn't even remember where they all were. We didn't think this was quite fair, seeing as how the homes were mostly those his wife inherited from her father. Sen. McCain didn't seem to care much about them anyway, except for his ranch in Arizona, which is his. We tried to point out that John Kerry also has a lot of homes that belong to his wife. But when they get stuck on one of their memes, you know how hard it is to get through that liberal hypocrisy to try to make them see your point. One of our Texas humorists, Ron White, often comments on that very thing. He says, "You can't fix stupid." I believe General Russel Honore said something to the same effect when he complained in New Orleans about how some folks were "stuck on stupid."

Texas and Alaska are more alike than many people realize. They are both huge -- the largest two states in sheer land mass. We Texans have to grudgingly concede that Alaska beats us out in square acreage, but we do have more people per square acre. That's not a problem, however, as parts of Texas are populated so sparsely that it's not hard to "get away from it all." Both are big energy states, and most of the companies in the oil business are headquartered here. Both your state and ours have more than their fair share of folks who are... well, we prefer the term "strong-willed" to the word "stubborn." We like to believe that characteristic comes from the pioneer spirit that led people to settle down here and up there as well. Both states are blessed with a certain number of what we also like to call "rugged individualists" (folks in lesser states call us... er, them "eccentrics" -- and that's one of the nicer things they say). Some folks are just jealous, but you've run up against that yourself from the likes of Peggy Noonan, Kathleen Parker and others with issues of inadequacy. People in both Alaska and Texas are friendly, once they have decided that a stranger isn't trying to take advantage of them in some nefarious manner. In both states, many people "cling" -- as our president put it -- to their guns and bibles. Regarding the former, I think it speaks well of our respective states that both have bills in their legislatures to exempt from federal regulation firearms made and sold inside the respective states.

Both states were previously claimed by one foreign power or another -- Russia, France, Spain, Mexico, the C.S.A. -- giving each a unique heritage. Texas even claimed itself for a while, but The Republic of Texas only lasted for about a decade. Some on the left have claimed that your friend and our governor wants to start a Second Texas Republic. Nonsense. He just eggs them on with vague references to secession to watch their heads explode, which is more fun than fireworks on the 4th of July. But that's another story...

Just as there are similarities, there are also some distict differences between our two states. It gets much hotter down here than it does up there. But we're used to it, and air conditioning helps the less well-conditioned among us deal with the heat. Many of us couldn't handle the extremely cold temperatures you hardy Alaskans seem to accept with grace. We believe that it has something to do with clothing. Texans tend to believe that one layer of clothing is plenty -- two in a stretch, but only if it's really cold and there's a bone-chilling wind blowing. But what is to prevent anyone from spending most of the summer in Alaska and the winter in Texas?

You say moose; we say cattle. We don't hunt cows down here like you hunt moose in Alaska. It wouldn't be much sport, anyway. Cattle mostly just stand around in the same spot unless you make them move. We do have deer, however, and they move rather quickly. What the heck, it's all protein. Our seafood is also different. Our shrimp are bigger, but the sea crabs are smaller. You have salmon. We have redfish, snapper and dozens of other species. You don't have to worry about bears down here. We don't have very many, but we make up for it with smaller critters who can also ruin an entire day -- rattlesnakes, scorpions, etc. We have big mosquitos, but not as many as you folks have to deal with up there. We also have spiders the size of house cats called tarantula that can jump like bush kangaroo, but they aren't aggressive unless you corner them. A lot of our critters are that way. I suspect many of yours are, too.

But let's get down to the serious stuff. We believe Texas has some advantages over our 'big sister" state. For one thing, if you became a Texan, even for just part of each year, we wouldn't hold it against you if you wanted to travel outside of the state.  When our politicians leave the state, hardly anyone even notices, much less expresses their outrage over the fact. Shoot, there are some of them that we wish would get out of the state more often, if you catch our drift. And frankly, nothing against Alaskans -- we know they are good people -- we just don't feel that they appreciate you enough. If a small group of liberal bloggers tried that stuff against you here in Texas that we've seen the Alaska-based nutroots community do, we would go all John Wayne on them. We think you have a lot in common with John Wayne. Like the Duke said, the need to apologize for things that were not done wrong is a weakness. We know that there are many in Alaska who appreciate you, but there are many more who would do so in Texas. We're not bragging; it's just a fact. It has to do with the more people per square mile we have down here. And we Texans are very protective of those we love.

Our Republican Party appears to be a different political animal than the one up in Alaska. You seem to have two GOPs there -- The Grand Old Party and the Gallop Over Palin party.  Our GOP, although we do have our share of Vichy Republicans, is not like that. Our GOP problem is not so much a good ol' boy network as it is a bad ol' girl network. I'm speaking of course of our Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. By the way, she doesn't seem to like you very much. We think your endorsement of Gov. Perry has brought on a bad case of Palin Derangement Syndrome in her.  She has announced that she will not run for another term in the U.S.  Senate, as she is challenging Rick Perry for his governor's job. Should you decide to establish a residence down here and run for her Senate seat, you would have a lot of support from Texas conservatives. Your main competition would be Houston Mayor Bill White, a big-time liberal whom you should be able to beat in a walk. We think it would be a delicious irony if you won the seat KBH is vacating. Now that's what we call justice, cowboy poet style! If you have bigger fish to fry and would prefer to run for the White House, that would be all right with us, too. We wouldn't pressure you to do it in 2012. You could wait until 2016 or 2020 if you prefer. And if you would rather not run for anything, we would still love and support you. 

So please consider this an open invitation for you to establish a second residence in Texas. Don't worry about folks calling you "the cutest little carpetbagger" or anything like that. Hillary moved from Arkansas to New York to become a Senator. She may be a lot of things, but none of them are even remotely close to cute. The Kennedys move all over the country to run for office, and nobody gives them much grief about it. Heck, Arnold came all the way from Austria, and now he's governor of California. As we Texans say, "Go figure." Any place you would choose to settle down in here in Texas is fine with us, but we have heard from the Star-Telegram that you have family in Central Texas. That's a good location -- God's country. Travel to Houston, Dallas and San Antonio is a matter of routine from there, unlike trying to fly or drive into Juneau sometimes. There's some great country and bluegrass music in Austin also, and the Tex-Mex dining is superb.

We can't speak for all Texans, of course, but there are a doggone lot of us conservatives who would welcome you to the Lone Star State with open arms and a hearty "howdy." And if anybody tries to mess with your kids down here, you could shoot them and probably get away with it. "Because they needed killin'" is a legitimate defense around these parts. No jury in God's Own State would convict you.

So please consider this offer and get back to us at your convenience. If you're looking for a second home in the lower 48, there's no place like Texas. Unlike those 57 other states the president talked about, not a one of them -- save the one you need to get away from every now and then -- is big enough for your kind heart and soaring spirit. Texas loves you, Governor Palin, and we'd be much obliged if you would like to become a Texan. You're a fighter, and that already makes you a honorary Texan in our eyes. Come on down and sign the deal.

Kindest Regards,

Update: NYC blogger Lilly Loring posted on July 23 that she had learned from a "very reliable source" in real estate that the Palins were house hunting on Long Island. We would file this one away with the "Sarah Palin is counseling Jon and Kate Gosselin" nonsense. Fact-checking doesn't appear to be Lilly's strong suit, as her closing bit of snark implies:

"Just a friendly note for a potential new New Yorker: In New York State, we do not hunt animals from airplanes."

Just a friendly fact from a Texan, Lilly: Sarah Palin has never done such a thing. The willingness to accept liberal lies at face value may be the mark of a New York "intellectual," but in the real world we call that "stuck on stupid."

- JP