Jennifer Rubin attacks Sarah Palin... again

Singing that WaPo anti-Palin tune
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For the second time in less than eight days, Jennifer Rubin, the leftist Washington Post's idea of a conservative (i.e., one who will attack Sarah Palin on demand), has gone after Gov. Palin. In a December 1 post, we noted how Rubin, who had mostly treated the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate fairly on the pages of Commentary Magazine and its Contentions blog, had started slamming Sarah for Rubin's new masters, the WaPo editors.

Rubin continues with her anti-Palin pontificating Wednesday in her "Right Turn" column. Today's attack is even more gratuitous than her first one, hyper-criticizing the governor for her tweets regarding the dealings in DC on the Bush tax cuts:

What is she talking about? It is obvious that an extension of the Bush tax cuts is wrong? Or is it obvious that Obama is adopting ideas that were once Republican positions? If the latter, it should be a good thing, one would think. This is Palin at her worst -- reflexively anti-deal making, grandstanding, imprecise and unreasoned. If she has a specific policy argument -- e.g. the payroll tax "costs" too much for too little job growth -- then you'd think she, who has been accused of being light on policy knowledge, would want to spell . . er . . . tweet that out.

For some time, liberal pundits have been taunting conservatives that they need "adult" or "mature" leadership. Right now, Obama is short on both qualities. His shoddy performance yesterday highlights the opportunity for Republicans to field a candidate in 2012 who appears more presidential than the incumbent. But Palin certainly doesn't give the impression she would be able to step into that role.

Rubin should be ashamed of herself. It's obvious to anyone who can read and looks at Gov. Palin's tweet in the context of her other Twitter messages on the subject what she means and where she stands. She obviously stands with Jim Demint, who tweeted that Republicans can do better than the current compromise they made with Obama on the cuts. Why is it so difficult for Rubin to recognize this? That's a rhetorical question; it's clear what the columnist is up to here.

We cut Rubin some slack, even after her shoddy treatment of Fred Thompson during the 2008 GOP presidential primaries. But Jennifer Rubin has crossed the line and is now spouting the same elitist nonsense that anti-Palin faux conservatives David Frum, Kathleen Parker, Karl Rove and Peggy Noonan have been cranking out, some of them for years. Sadly, Rubin has sold out to the WaPo leftists and is now doing their dirty work for them. The last ounce of respect we had for this writer has evaporated. She's fitting in very well at the Democrats' DC house organ.

- JP

Jennifer Rubin reverts to type

Rubin Version 1.0 returns
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As a writer for Commentary Magazine and its Contentions blog, Jennifer Rubin consistently defended Sarah Palin against the left's attacks. When the news broke that she had been hired by the left wing Washington Post to write about the right, many conservative bloggers and pundits hailed the hiring as a sea change. Finally, they trumpeted, WaPo had obtained the services of a real conservative to write about real Republicanism and conservatism. And hey, after the Weigel fiasco, any conservative would be an improvement.

We didn't hail that particular bandwagon and ask for a ride, preferring instead to reserve judgment until after we had a chance to read Rubin's Post postings for ourselves. Our skepticism was rooted in recent memory. The 2008 Republican primary race was not so long ago, and we recall that she was a big backer then of Rudy Giuliani, the most socially liberal of all the GOP candidates. We also recall that Rubin was especially critical of Fred Thompson, the only across-the-board Reagan conservative in the Republican presidential primaries.

After reading what she has written in her first five columns for WaPo, we see that Jennifer Rubin has downgraded to version One-Point-Oh. She's conservative on three legs of the four-legged conservative stool, but hold the social conservatism from her order, please. It didn't take Rubin long to start running down Sarah Palin now that the commentator is of the Post. In just her fifth WaPo column, she starts to pick on Palin.

According to Rubin, or at least the WaPo version of Rubin, the notion that Sarah Palin is the front runner for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination is just a liberal conspiracy because, you see, they want her to be the nominee, as she simply has no chance whatsoever of winning the general election, even against such a failed president as Barack Obama. Rubin hits all of the talking points from the elites of the left and the right - Sarah Palin has limited appeal among independents; golly, she sure did back some questionable candidates for the Senate, especially that awful Christine O'Donnell; her political judgment during a general election might be just too risky; most elected Republicans don't think Palin is a front runner, etc.

That last one is a real gem. Has Rubin asked "most" elected GOP officials or conducted a survey? We don't think so. Oh well, "when in Rome..." or perhaps better said, "while at the Post..." Are we accusing Jennifer Rubin of changing her own narrative to try to get the "progressives" who account for most of its readership to read her column? Not substantially, no. Only just a little. Actually, for Jennifer Rubin its more a case of her reverting to type rather than making a compromise. She's a Rudy Guiliani conservative again. Apparently that's not too conservative for either the people who buy and read the Washington Post or those who run it. And since being negative on Sarah Palin is part of the Post's program, it's good for Rubin that she has no problem with that. It didn't seem to bother her to go negative on Fred Thompson three years ago, so this Palin-marginalizing should be a piece of cake.

- JP

WaPo: Palin privacy fence too ugly, or something

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When it comes to finding excuses for criticizing Sarah Palin, the Washington Post proves that's there's no pretext too trivial for the leftist rag to bash her. At a time when the nation is saddled with an unprecedented debt burden, chronic unemployment, people walking away from their home mortgages while sales of existing homes tank, and the worst environmental disaster in the country's history, the Post's progressives are focused on... the aesthetics of the privacy fence hastily constructed by Todd Palin to protect his family from the stalker next door:

"I've seen a few fences in my time, but none quite as defiantly ugly as the one now shielding Sarah Palin and her family from what she suggests are the prying eyes of her new neighbor, an author named Joe McGinniss."

[...]

"However genuine the motives behind the fence, from a design, horticultural and sheer aesthetic standpoint, it looks like a disaster."

Few would dispute that the Post is little more than a stenographer service for the DNC's talking points department, but really, using the gardening editor to slam the Palins is a desperate move. When it comes to railing against Sarah Palin and her family, WaPo always stoops a little lower to scrape the trite from the bottom of the barrel marked "Who cares?" in stenciled letters. You can't make this stuff up, but the Post does, and shamelessly so.

- JP

How to cook a political poll

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Cool Myspace Generators

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"Palin Favorability Rating Dips As She Nears Exit, Poll Finds"

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Sample composition:

Democrat........ 33%
Republican...... 22%
Independent..... 41%
Other.................. 4%

Washington Post-ABC News Poll, July 15 - 18, 2009

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The top 23 polling organizations ranked by accuracy:

1. Rasmussen (Tie)
1. Pew Research (Tie)
2. YouGov/Polimetrix
3. Harris Interactive
4. GWU (Lake/Tarrance)
5. Diageo/Hotline (Tie)
5. ARG (Tie)
6. CNN (Tie)
6. Ipsos/McClatchy (Tie)
7. DailyKos.com (D)/Research 2000
8. AP/Yahoo/KN
9. Democracy Corps (D)
10. FOX
11. Economist/YouGov
12. IBD/TIPP
13. NBC/WSJ
14. ABC/Post
15. Marist College
16. CBS
17. Gallup
18. Reuters/ C-SPAN/ Zogby
19. CBS/Times
20. Newsweek

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- JP

In other Sarah Palin news...

Given the massive fallout over Dave Lecherman, some other news about our favorite governor may have been obscured by the blinding nuclear flash. Here's the Readers Digest version:

The News-Miner is reporting that ExxonMobil and TransCanada, the company chosen to manage Gov. Palin's natural gas pipeline project to bring the clean-burning energy resource from the North Slope to the lower 48, have reached an agreement to cooperate on the project. With ExxonMobil on board, it's a big positive for Gov. Palin. h/t: Governor Palin 4 President

Gov. Palin's message of thanks to the troops is on YouTube, thanks to the efforts of ugafish. h/t: FRee Republic

Sarah Palin was right. Just as she warned in her RNC acceptance speech, Emperor Barack The First has decreed that terrorists deserve to be read their Miranda Rights ("You have the right to gourmet meals, you have the right to big screen cable TV", etc.). h/t: Gateway Pundit

The Washington Post has finally corrected Dan Balz' major misquote in his hit piece on Sarah Palin. But it was like pulling teeth getting the semi-official Democrat party newspaper to do it. Kudos to VO, JR and Mel at Conservatives 4 Palin for yanking on the WaPo teeth like good dentists. From what I could see, no laughing gas was used. ;-)  

- JP