Quote of the Day (May 30, 2011)

The Sarah Palin Express Stops at Mount Vernon
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Jim Geraghty at NRO's Campaign Spot:

“From the road, Sarah Palin’s posting to a blog over at SarahPAC, and you tell me this post about visiting Mount Vernon on the Potomac River in Virginia isn’t almost a tease for those wondering if she’s running for president... Gee, who else is a busy person, who’s recently been seen on national television working in the commercial fish industry, who has, at least from some appearances, a healthy reluctance to serve as president?”

- JP

More House Numbers

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At The Campaign Spot, NRO's Jim Geraghty has been reviewing the polls of House races released since September 23, where 39 Democrats, mostly incumbents, are trailing their GOP challengers. Geraghty did not count those races where the GOP challenger is only a few points down or within the margin of error, and polls have been conducted in some districts. Coincidentally, 39 seats are exactly the number the GOP needs to win to take control of the House.

Of the 39, 18 are in districts where Gov. Palin has made endorsements. Those 18 races are:

AL-02: Public Opinion Strategies puts Martha Roby ahead by 2.

AZ-01: The Hill puts Paul Gosar ahead by 7.

CO-04: The Hill puts Cory Gardner ahead by 3.

FL-02: A National Research poll puts Steve Southerland ahead by 16.

FL-08: A Sunshine State News Poll had Daniel Webster ahead by 7 over Lunacratic Rep. Alan Grayson.

IL-11: The Hill puts Adam Kinzinger ahead by 18; a poll released by Democrat Debbie Halvorson puts him up by only 5.

MI-01: The Hill puts Dan Benishek ahead by 3.

ND-AL: Rasmussen had Rick Berg ahead by 3

NM-02: The Hill puts Steve Pearce ahead by 4.

NY-25: A McLaughlin & Associates poll puts Ann Marie Buerkle ahead by 1.

OH-15: The Hill puts Steve Stivers ahead by 9.

OH-16: The Hill puts Jim Renacci ahead by 3.

PA-03: Mercyhurst College puts Mike Kelly ahead by 7; The Hill puts him ahead by 13.

PA-10: The Times Leader puts Tom Marino ahead by 6.

TX-17: An OnMessage, Inc. poll for Bill Flores shows him ahead by 19; a poll for Democrat Chet Edwards shows Flores ahead by 4.

TX-27: An OnMessage Inc. poll for Blake Farenthold puts him up by 8.

VA-5: Survey USA puts Robert Hurt up by 11; The Hill puts him ahead by 1.

WI-7: The Hill puts Sean Duffy up by 9.

For the numbers in all 39 districts, go here.

- JP

Mainstream?

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It's not often that we find ourselves disagreeing with NRO's Jim Geraghty, but this is one of those times. Last week on his NRO blog Campaign Spot, Geraghty wrote this about the Journolistas:

I don’t think anybody begrudges liberal activists and journalists their right to free association, either in the physical world or the Internet/e-mail world. But hearing that the Marc Ambinders, Ben Smiths, Mike Allens, and other non-liberal correspondents were on the list is eye-opening and potentially troublesome.

Let’s say you’re one of these guys, and while JournoList existed, you wrote an article arguing something like, “Sarah Palin just completely mishandled this issue.” I find it likely that the JournoList crowd would respond in their chat board, “Great piece by [JournoList Participant X], he really astutely lays out how she screwed up, etc.” Now let’s say he wrote, “Palin just hit it out of the park.” The response on JournoList, I suspect, would be or was quite negative, accusations of stupidity, dishonesty, hackdom, etc. Sure, journalists are always getting feedback and criticism from all quarters. But the mainstream folks on JournoList were hanging around a crowd that pretty clearly was determined to influence the conversation about the presidential race, touting some stories as important and blocking off others as unfit for serious news attention.

Which leads us to ask, what evidence is there that Ambinder, Smith, Allen et al are "non-liberal" in any way, shape or form? These three and others like them may be in the "mainstream" of contemporary journalism, but the journalistic mainstream is liberal. What we have seen from Ambinder, Smith and Allen has been decidedly left of center and condescinding at best toward Sarah Palin. That's what led libertarian journalist Bernard Goldberg to coin the term "lamestream media" and Gov. Palin to adopt it with open arms.

Frankly, we're amazed that Jim Geraghty, whom we've always considered to be a very perceptive fellow, doesn't get this. But then again, his employer is not William F. Buckley's National Review anymore.

- JP

Quote of the Day (February 10, 2010)

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Jim Geraghty:

"Every Time Sarah Takes the Stage, Her Impact Is as Big as D.C.'s Blizzard... Sarah Palin can create headlines, and a conniption from Andrew Sullivan, just by clearing her throat. So a statement that appears to suggest she’s interested in running for president in 2012 is, of course, huge."

- JP

Quote of the Day (January 21, 2010)

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Jim Geraghty:

"So... looking back, what ultimately happened at those 'dangerous' Palin rallies? Some yahoo [allegedly] yells something inappropriate, and... what? I mean, it's not like anybody had their finger bitten off or anything."

- JP

Jim Geraghty puts the brakes on Sally Quinn's spin

On anti-Palin cable news doormat MSNBC Thursday, Sally Quinn of the Washington Post slammed Sarah Palin for what the liberal columnist charged was the governor's exploitation of her own children:

"Well, clearly, she has not put her family first...And these children have, it seems publicly, to have been exploited by her in a, I think, really unfortunate way."

The charge was nothing new. Liberals have been excusing all sorts of the most vile attacks on the governor's children from the left by trying to shift the blame back onto Sarah Palin herself. It's part of the Democrat's standard list of anti-Palin talking points. It's as if the Left's hateful hyenas would not have gone after the governor's children if she had only kept them in the shadows.

Quinn's Palin-bashing column this week is titled "Palin's Peculiar Family Values" - which is quite peculiar itself given that Quinn was "the other woman" when she was having an adulterous affair with the married man who, after he divorced the spouse he cheated on with Quinn, became Sally's own husband. As we are fond of pointing out, hypocrisy is a prerequisite to liberalism.

In her column Quinn admits that she "did not understand one word of what Sarah Palin said" in her resignation speech, but nevertheless proceeded to pontificate on it anyway. That's another thing about liberals. They like to express their opinion on matters  about which they admit that they know nothing. Quinn also makes this rather astounding statement:

"One of the reasons, Palin said, was because they were upset that their 14-month-old brother Trig, who has Down Syndrome, was 'mocked and ridiculed by some pretty mean spirited adults.' I'd like to know the names of those mean-spirited adults who mocked and ridiculed her special needs child. I don't believe it for a second."

Having set herself up *like a bowling pin, The Campaign Spot's Jim Geraghty rolled a strike:

"There's this web site called 'Google,' Ms. Quinn, and it can be quite helpful in circumstances like these. You type in 'Trig Palin mockery' and you'll find examples and discussion of photoshops of Trig Palin..."

Geraghty goes on provide the columnist with a number of links (and links to links) to just some of the mocking photoshops. Then he wraps up a perfect 300 game with this strike in the final frame:

"It's easier to 'not believe it for a second' when you also refuse to 'look for it for a minute.'"

Indeed, liberals prefer to ignore any evidence that they know will expose as lies the points they want so badly to make. But the talking points memos they receive from Democrat Central, like marching orders, must be followed.

Update: Jim O'Neil says Quinn's anti-Palin screed is a 'fascist rant.'

*Pat yourself on the back and put on that old tie-dyed t-shirt if you got this obscure Grateful Dead reference.

- JP

NRO goes positive on Palin

A trio of posts on Gov. Palin from National Review Online. Read all three in full, but here's a snippet from each:

Jay Nordlinger:

"John McCain has had about 3,000 debates on the national stage, running for president all those years. Palin has had exactly one. Who did better: the GOP presidential nominee, in his three debates last fall, or the vice-presidential nominee in her one — in her maiden effort?"

Jim Geraghty:

"In her opponents' minds, Palin's made all the wrong choices, and cannot, they insist, be very bright. Yet she's happy and successful. She is an anomaly that invalidates their worldview, and for that, they attempt to immiserate her..."

Mark Hemingway:

"It appears this is a meme that gained currency among those on the far left who actively despise Palin and posess no special insight into her. Either Purdum is far too credulous and should have investigated the claim, or Purdum deliberately wrote up baseless claims of narcissistic personality disorder to make it sound like the diagnosis came from Alaska insiders and in the process made the claim far more salacious. Either way, I don't think Purdum's reporting is to be trusted."

- JP

Quote of the Day (May 13, 2009)

I posted on this earlier today, but I didn't include Geraghty's excellent headline. It's a natural for today's Quote of the Day.

Jim Geraghty to MSNBC:

"Look, Just Scream 'I Hate Sarah Palin!' and Get It Over With"

- JP