RedState's Final Four: Picking a 2012 Champion

Vote for Sarah Palin
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RedState.com is conducting a straw poll of its readers to pick a conservative Champion for 2012. A rather large field has been reduced to "the final four" through previous voting in a series of bracket eliminations.

The final two brackets pit Gov. Palin against Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and businessman/talk show host Herman Cain opposite Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

You can cast your two votes here.

- JP

Video: The Last Best Hope

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RedState.com's Ben Howe has created a fine new video:



If your inner activist is somehow still asleep, this should awaken it.

- JP

The RedState Sarah Palin Interview

Our friend and former colleague Erick Erickson interviewed former Governor Sarah Palin Tuesday afternoon. Because Erick didn't receive his copy of Going Rogue until 10:00 a.m. and had some other pressing duties on his plate, he only had time for a quick scan of the book.

In our opinion, it worked out really well, because Erick mostly asked the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate questions that were submitted by RS readers, making the RedState interview stand apart from most of the others. Here are a couple of excerpts:

I did not want to sound like Katie Couric and ask what she’s read, but I broached the subject and she went right into mentioning Thomas Sowell and Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism. She said she has read some of the foundational stuff, but she sees no need to focus on the old writings. She likes “the modern stuff too.” Her preference is policy and application, focusing on writers who are not just following up on foundational conservative ideas, but applying those ideas too.

[...]

She said China is a rising super power and we should treat it as such, but recognize there is an unbalanced trade situation right now complicated by our reliance on foreign energy sources at a time China has a voracious appetite for more and more energy of its own. “We should be selling energy to China,” Gov. Palin said.

Read Erick's full recap of his interview with Sarah Palin at RedState.com.

- JP

On a personal note...

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I have resigned, effective today, my position as a RedState Front Page contributor.

It was not an easy decision. I will miss being a part of RedState and working with my former colleagues there, many of whom have become my friends. My focus, however is on helping Sarah Palin as best I can, and I realize that I have done as much for her at RedState as I will ever be allowed to do. On the positive side, I'll have much more time available for blogging projects and personal matters.

Looking toward the future, I have been invited to contribute at Warner Todd Huston's Publius' Forum and also at Palination - a new blog which I believe has a great future ahead of it. Both websites are staffed with some impressive contributors, and I am honored to be included among their ranks.

My work at Texas for Sarah Palin, The Book of Sarah and Blogs for Palin will continue unabated. As Governor Palin prepares to write a new chapter in her political career, I believe that it will also be an exciting new era in America's political history.

A new era at Texas for Sarah Palin also begins, as we welcome upinak as a full-time contributor. Warner Todd Huston, who has been featured as a special guest contributor to this website, is now a regular member of our TX4P staff.

It's a good time to be alive.

- JP

Malek: VF never talked to McCain, Rick Davis or me

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Fred Malek's latest diary posted at RedState.com sheds a little more light on just how selective Todd Purdum was in gathering quotes for his Vainly Unfair (Vanity Fair) hit piece on Sarah Palin. Malek, the consummate GOP moderate and Beltway insider (but don't hold that against him. He's one of the good guys), said that Purdum had personally asked him if he would talk to the author about Gov. Palin, but never got back in touch with Malek before launching his Palin smear job. Malek says he knows that Purdum didn't contact Rick Davis or John McCain prior to writing the hit piece.

That tells us that Purdum was only interest in getting negative quotes about the governor for his attack article, and all of those quotes came from cowards who wanted to remain anonymous. Unfortunately for their political careers, their anonymity will prove to be fleeting. We are finding out who they are.

In his RS diary, Malek had more words of praise for Gov. Palin:

"I have known many political leaders over four decades including all Republican presidents and VPs. I have come to know Sarah Palin over the past year and can state unequivocally that she is smart, curious, hard working, charming, and effective. She also has something her detractors clearly lack – a sense of honor and loyalty."

Almost goes without saying that this is a must-read. Fred Malek is a gentleman and a stand-up guy.

- JP

Some advice for former McCain campaign staffers.

My RedState.com colleague Moe Lane lays it out for you:

"If you are a McCain staffer who did not talk to VF, I suggest that you find some way to demonstrate that you aren’t one of the people in the first paragraph. Because until we know who talked, the default assumption is going to be that you may have talked. This will not wreck your career, but it will blight it if the base has anything to say about it. On the bright side, a simple and declarative denial will do; of course, if your denial is a lie and we catch you at it, brush up on your typing skills."

Remember, RS is an activist site. So is Conservatives for Palin. I don't speak in any official capacity for either one. But believe me when I tell you that you really don't want either or both to mobilize against you.

It's time to go on the record. We're waiting to hear from you.

Update: Is it time to call up the troops for a revival of Operation Leper? Stay tuned...

- JP