What Alicia Colon Doesn't Like About Sarah Palin

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The author of this Irish Examiner opinion piece eventually admits that her title was conceived to snare Palin-haters into reading her pro-Sarah article. Once lured into her clever trap, Ms. Colon hits them with both barrels:

I can't recall in my long life so many Hollywood and television celebrities opining so fiercely about a political candidate as the following did on Sarah Palin: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Maher, Chevy Chase, Lindsay Lohan, Susan Sarandon, and many, many more. Then of course there was Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live whose line, "I see Russia from my window," was falsely attributed to Palin.

Most of these intellectually challenged celebs have based their negative opinions on Palin on falsely attributed quotes that were generated by a satiric blog- www.unbearablebobness.typepad.com.

This site claimed that Palin's church believes that dinosaurs were on earth 4,000 years ago and that Palin does not believe in evolution. The blogger then wrote "Disclaimer: She didn't actually say these things - I made them up. But thanks for all the visits."

The fake stories persist along with the criticism that Palin is not very bright which is laughable. Matt Damon may have played a genius in the film, Good Will Hunting, but I doubt he's accomplished as much as Sarah Palin.

Alaskans share in the oil revenue and that state is one the richest in the nation with a huge surplus in its treasury.

Each Alaska resident gets an annual rebate from state oil revenue, and in 2008 Palin added $1,200 more to the $2,100 check each person received.

Contrast that efficiency to the state of California where most of these celebrities live and is nearing bankruptcy.

[More]

So what is it that Ms. Colon does not like about Gov. Palin? She thinks Mama Bear tends to growl a bit too loudly at Tea Party events. Otherwise, the author writes, Sarah Palin is "absolutely magnificent."

- JP

NY Times Magazine: The Palin Network (Updated)

"In truth, few are underestimating Sarah Palin anymore."
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There's a long look at Gov. Palin and inside her inner circle in the New York Times Magazine by Robert Draper. Consider the source: more attention is paid to those candidates the governor endorsed who lost than won, for example. But it doesn't sink to the level of the sort of anti-Palin agitprop we've come to expect from the Times either. At least it isn't an overt hit piece in the sense of something that would appear in Vanity Fair or on a gutter website like Gawker. Gov. Palin apparently consented to allow Draper to interview her and also to talk to her key aides, so it's worth the read, with the usual caveats about the lamestream media's warped view of all things beyond New York City and Washington, DC. Here are a few excerpts:

“I am,” Sarah Palin told me... when I asked her if she was already weighing a run for president. “I’m engaged in the internal deliberations candidly, and having that discussion with my family, because my family is the most important consideration here.” Palin went on to say that there weren’t meaningful differences in policy among the field of G.O.P. hopefuls “but that in fact there’s more to the presidency than that” and that her decision would involve evaluating whether she could bring unique qualities to the table.

“Yes, the organization would have to change,” Palin said during an hourlong phone conversation. “I’d have to bring in more people — more people who are trustworthy,” she clarified. Palin said that her experience as John McCain’s running mate was for the most part “amazing, wonderful, do it again in a heartbeat.” But she added, “What Todd and I learned was that the view inside the bus was much better than underneath it, and we knew we got thrown under it by certain aides who weren’t principled” and that “the experience taught us, yes, to be on guard and be very discerning about who we can and can’t trust in the political arena.”

[...]

It’s a curious feature of Palin World that none of its charter members knew her before 2008. (Her two longtime Alaska aides, Kris Perry and Meghan Stapleton, left amicably but wearied by the demands involved with working for an overnight celebrity.) Van Flein met Palin in the summer of 2008, recruited by Todd Palin to give legal advice on the Troopergate controversy. He now divides his time between his Anchorage legal practice and his position as one of Palin’s four lieutenants. The others are Andrew Davis, the political director who resides in Sacramento; Tim Crawford, the group’s elder statesman at 58, whose political experience extends back to Goldwater and who in early 2009 was forced out as the R.N.C.’s interim finance director, by which time John Coale had already recruited him to be the treasurer of SarahPAC; and Palin’s 36-year-old Los Angeles-based cybermessenger, Rebecca Mansour. Palin’s broader circle also includes Jason Recher and Doug McMarlin, who handle her travel logistics from, respectively, New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio; Pam Pryor, who works with Crawford at SarahPAC as the liaison to the evangelical and Christian community; and Randy Scheunemann, a prominent neoconservative and former McCain foreign-policy adviser. Crawford, Pryor, Scheunemann and two occasional speechwriters, Chriss Winston and Lindsay Hayes, all live in or around Washington. Among the D.C. consultants, however, only Crawford interacts with Palin on a regular basis. More than once in our discussions, Van Flein referred to “those people who are of the Beltway and those who aren’t” — a binary worldview to which Palin obviously adheres. (Press reports variously name Fred Malek; Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard; and Kim Daniels, a conservative lawyer, as key advisers, when in fact Daniels has not worked for Palin for several months and Malek and Kristol are seldom in contact with her. “It’s nearly every single day we learn a lesson about a person who claims to speak for us or work for us,” Palin told me. “Seems 9 times out of 10, Todd and I look at each other and say, ‘Who is this speaking for us?’ ”)

[...]

There are few spouses in politics as hard-working as 46-year-old Todd Mitchell Palin — a native of Dillingham, Alaska, who married his Wasilla High School sweetheart and dropped out of college and eventually found work in the North Slope oil fields. He handles her travel. He is at times her sole accompaniment to events. He is — with apologies to the mama grizzly — the family’s chief protector, who has been known to nix interview requests from publications that have previously, in his view, made fun of his children. It has fallen to Todd to mollify alienated aides, interview potential speechwriters and help prep his wife for an interview by Googling subject matter on his BlackBerry. Referring to the ongoing communications in Palin World, Thomas Van Flein told me, “Todd is always part of the information chain.” In the external world it is widely understood that when sending Sarah Palin an e-mail “the best idea is to copy Todd on it,” according to Malek.

[...]

Palin became testy when I asked her about the books I heard she had been reading. “I’ve been reading since I was a little girl,” she snapped. “And my mom is standing 15 feet away from me, and I should put her on the phone with you right now so she can tell you. That’s what happens when you grow up in a house full of teachers — you read; and I always have. Just because — and,” she continued, though in a less blistering tone, “I don’t want to come across sounding caustic or annoyed by this issue: because of one roll-of-the-eye answer to a question I gave, I’m still dealing with this,” she said, referring to her interview with Katie Couric. “There’s nothing different today than there was in the last 43 years of my life since I first started reading. I continue to read all that I can get my hands on — and reading biographies of, yes, Thatcher for instance, and of course Reagan and the John Adams letters, and I’m just thinking of a couple that are on my bedside, I go back to C.S. Lewis for inspiration, there’s such a variety, because books have always been important in my life.” She went on: “I’m reading [the conservative radio host] Mark Levin’s book; I’ll get ahold of Glenn Beck’s new book — and now because I’m opening up,” she finished warily, “I’m afraid I’m going to get reporters saying, Oh, she only reads books by Glenn Beck.”

[More]

Update: At TWS Blog, Matthew Continetti judges Draper's NY Times cover story to be "an excellent piece of reporting that treats Palin in a relatively sympathetic manner." The key word there is "relatively."

- JP

Blood: Sarah Palin Kicks the Leftist Ant Hill and Goes for Gaia’s Throat

Conservationsists? Well, not really.
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The premiere of TLC's "Sarah Palin’s Alaska" has provoked a psychotic reaction on the political left, which is railing against not just Gov. Palin herself, observes Loran Blood at David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog, but against what they think she represents:

The criticism has only snowballed since Nov. 14. and has begun appearing in more specific guises. The Huffington Post reports that a “local Alaskan conservationist” has criticized her for violating “wildlife guidelines” during the show’s filming. The critic, one John Toppenberg, says the brief encounter with two dueling Grizzlies may not “send an appropriate message to large numbers of people that are not experienced at fishing in bear country.” An honest, non-political criticism? Just who is John Toppenberg and what is The Alaska Wildlife Alliance, the group he represents?

Conservationsists? Well, not really. The Alaskan Wildlife Alliance is, as a working knowledge of their website and issue positions will make clear in no time, a leftist environmental activist group who’s primary concern is the ending of the culling of wolves and other predators to preserve prey species populations and to support the reintroduction of large predators to areas in which they have been long absent. There may or may not be good scientific arguments for further limitations on such culling by state biologists and private hunters, but the Alaska Wildlife Alliance claims in its mission statement that its purpose is to “protect Alaska’s natural wildlife for its intrinsic value as well as for the benefit of present and future generations.”

[...]

Sarah Palin is accused of fomenting a “massacre” of wolves and their pups while in thrall to “the corporation and special interests”. Palin, Pablo Escobar-like, runs a “wildlife cartel” that represents the “greatest circumnavigation of ethics, truth, science and morality ever perpetrated on the people of Alaska by their government”.

Not to be outdone, the AWA newsletter Echos speaks of a “war on wolves and bears” in which “barbaric cruelty” describes the motives and methods of those with whom the group disagrees. Field Marshal Palin is responsible, we learn in an Audubon Magazine.org article for “surprise air strikes” against wolves (no doubt John Kerry was in the area at the time, and now has this incident “seared — seared — in me.” Toppenberg himself is quoted in the same article in reference to Palin’s “war”.

Wolves are described in one article as “one of Earth’s pinnacles of intelligence, sentience, and sociality” Perhaps so, but one suspects that local moose, who have little symbolic political value, were not consulted regarding this observation.

[More]

Blood will get no argument from us. We've expressed similar opinions on this subject a number of times, including here, here, here, here and here.

- JP

S.E. Cupp: Sarah Palin is happy, and her enemies know it

Liberalism needs to imagine an unhappy populace.
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We've lost count of the number of op-eds and blog posts written on the subject of why liberals hate Sarah Palin. Many of the authors of those pieces say it is because she is pro-life. Some contend that it is simply because she's a conservative woman. Still others cite the way she relates to ordinary Americans as the reason why elites on the left (and the right) spit their venom at her. In her latest column, S.E. Cupp offers a novel explanation for the left's anti-Palin hysteria:

It seems everyone wants a piece of Palin these days. Some are fans, some are hostile foes. But regardless, we just can't stop talking about her. Will there ever be a time when we decide that we've figured her out and there's nothing else to say?

And then it hit me. The reason Palin has become such a lightening rod, a kingmaker and a punching bag, a celebrity and a power player, is simple. It's because she's so gosh darn happy.

For her fans, like the ones I had the pleasure of meeting in Chicago [at a C4P meetup], she's refreshingly upbeat and resilient, the bubbly friend from childhood who was always great at cheering you up and cheerleading you on.

But for her detractors, nothing raises the ire of cynical liberals more than a happy-go-lucky, totally unburdened, freethinking and self-assured conservative woman who has everything she wants and then some.

[...]

Liberalism, after all, needs to imagine an unhappy populace. Passing sweeping entitlement programs and convincing voters that big government is the answer only works if people are frustrated with their stations in life.

Thus Palin is a real threat to front-office operations.

And Sarah Palin, more than almost any other public political figure, represents the "can do" rugged individualism and self-reliance that liberals fear most. She's not just running her household. She ran her state! And in her new documentary series, we see that independent streak clear as glacier water. Whether she's casting for salmon or scaling the rockface at Denali, she's smiling - and just won't quit.

[More]

Cupp may be on to something here. After all, it was Sarah Palin herself who said, in reply to Jeff Jenkins' request for a response to one of NY Times character assassin Maureen Dowd's many attacks on her:

"I encourage the other momma grizzlies to keep smiling as we work hard to put America back on the right track. We are going to stay happy and may we always be happy and may our enemies know it."

Oh, they know it all right. And that, says Cupp, is what drives the left right up the wall.

- JP

Day By Day (November 17, 2010)

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Good Morning! It's a wonderful life if we just take it Day By Day.



Support Pro-Palin Day By Day

- JP

Quote of the Day (November 16, 2010)

Why should the GOP choose between heart and mind?
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Paul Greenberg at Townhall.com:

"New York Times... columnist... Matt Bai... wasted no time asking what approach the newly empowered GOP should take: 'One could argue that the most fundamental choice facing the new Republican House majority, in particular, is whether to stand on cultural or intellectual dissent -- or, to put it another way, whether they want to cast themselves principally as the party of Sarah Palin or the party of Rep. Paul D. Ryan.' Or as the equally simplistic headline above his column summed up his message: 'Emotional or Cerebral: Republicans Face a Choice in How to Oppose.' Mr. Bai... failed to raise a second, much more obvious question: Why choose between heart and mind? Together, they're said to make a powerful combination. As an early Republican named Abraham Lincoln well knew."

- JP

Why People are voting for Bristol on DWTS

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Guess it never occurs to the leftists, drunk as they are on Haterade, that people are voting for Bristol on DWTS because they LIKE her. Watch mediacrat Steffy get schooled by the experts:


- JP

12 in 2012: Gov. Palin Could Shake Up GOP Race

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Gov. Palin was featured Tuesday on Brett Bair's "12 in 2012," a series spotlighting the top dozen potential GOP presidential candidates who may run in the next election:

"I still don't know," Palin told Fox News' Bret Baier about a possible bid. "You know, if there are others out there who are principled and hardworking and willing to make the sacrifices that you need to make as an individual, as a family, as a candidate, as an elected official, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and I'll be their biggest supporter.

"But if, Bret, there's nobody else that, I think, is willing to make the tough decisions and isn't so caught up in, in the political machine that they believe that they have to compromise, then I'd be willing to make the sacrifices, and, um, run for office," she said.

- JP

Godspeed, Smitty

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Smitty, Stacy McCain's blogging buddy at The Other McCain, is shipping out for Afghanistan. We wish him Godspeed and a safe return. Like his brothers and sisters in arms carrying out their missions all around the world, he will be in our prayers. For those who wear the uniform, words aren't enough to thank them for their service, hence the following tribute:


- JP

Gov. Palin: Media's refusal to vet Obama 'coming home to roost' (Updated)

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Gov. Palin, in one of her frequent appearances on the "Bob and Mark" morning program on Anchorage FM station KHWL, criticized the media for not vetting Barack Obama before the 2008 election and said there are important lessons to be learned in John Ziegler’s documentary Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin was Targeted:

"We know that Obama wasn’t vetted through the campaign, and now, you know, some things are coming home to roost, if you will, which is inexperience, his associations, and that ultimately harms our republic when a candidate isn’t — isn’t vetted by the media, that cornerstone of our democracy. So, you’re right, it’s not about me and whether you like my politics or not. You can push all that aside, and just pay attention to what that message is in this documentary, and that is that things have got to change for the better in the state of journalism. Otherwise, you know, it could be part of a demise of our democracy if that cornerstone erodes."

h/t: Ed Morrissey

Update: The full Bob and Mark interview with Bristol and Sarah Palin is here.

- JP

Palin-Haters of the Theocratic Right

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Those on the secular humanist left who are convinced that Sarah Palin is a "theocrat" must have never heard of John Lofton. The former Washington Times columnist has been involved in two presidential campaigns, as an advisor to Pat Buchanan's efforts in the 1990s and as Communications Director for the 2004 run by Michael Peroutka as the nominee of the Constitution Party. In Lofton's view from the extreme religious right, Gov. Palin just isn't Christian enough:

"Sarah Palin's assertion that the issue of whether moms with small children should or should not work outside the home is a 'petty, little, superficial, meaningless thing' reveals, with a vengeance, that she is a hard-core feminist, with no Christian/Biblical view whatsoever of what a wife/mom ought to be. Her referring to those who believe moms should work in the home to raise their own children as 'Neanderthals' is a slap in the face to millions of moms struggling to do this in obedience to God and His Word."

From his blog The American View, Lofton rails at Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and any other female who dares to do anything other than remain barefoot, pregnant and completely subservient to the man of the house. Lofton and his ilk are textbook examples of the dangers inherent in pridefully interpreting the scriptures without understanding them. Lofton, for example, admitted to Fr. Mitchell Pacwa (during a debate over whether we can ask the saints for their intercessions in our prayers) that he doesn't know Greek. How can one interpret scripture without having a command of not only Greek, but Hebrew and Aramaic as well? Further, if God intended for women to be little more than virtual house slaves, He never would have allowed Deborah to become a judge in Israel or the daughters of Philip to be prophetesses.

The left is so far to the left on the political spectrum that its view of the right compresses all conservatives into a monolith, much as a telephoto lens makes objects appear to be much closer to one another than they really are. Leftists fail to see that there are degrees of separation between the three general types of conservatives. For those of us in the "conservative mainstream" who consider ourselves to be Reagan conservatives, we have on our left the Vichy Republicans and Conservative Lites. That is where you will find the David Frums, Peggy Noonans and Kathleen Parkers. They are progressives who fancy themselves to be conservatives and thus the ones that liberals love to quote and the left frequently invite as guests on their media shows. On our right are the John Loftons and others who have aligned themselves with the Constitution Party. They believe in the Constitution, but their belief requires that it be interpreted strictly along Biblical lines, or at least according to their interpretation of The Bible.

Standing with us in the mainstream of conservatism is Sarah Palin. While we believe that America owes a debt to the faith of our founders, we reject the notion that we need Christian "mullahs" to define that faith for us. Our Jewish brothers and sisters would no doubt draw the short straws under such an arrangement, one which would be a complete anathema to the founders. Indeed, George Washington wrote, in his letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island:

"May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the Father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."

Based on Lofton's argument with Fr. Pacwa, we suspect that Catholics would not be considered Christians in good standing by Lofton's definition. He is also on record as saying that he "never met a Christian who readily agreed that... Mormons are Christians." Lofton must not get out much. We never cease to be amazed by Christians who evidently believe that the good Lord just can't get his job done without their indispensable and unerring assistance.

Mainstream conservatives refer to the nation's founding upon "Judeo-Christian" values, not just Christian values. Lofton rejects this view in favor of that of Jewish scholar Arthur Cohen, who wrote that the Judeo-Christian tradition "is a myth which buries under the fine silt of rhetoric the authentic, meaningful, and irrevocable distinction which exists between Jewish belief and Christian belief."

It's not yet a cliche to say that when the far left and the far right are firing all of their guns at you, you must be right over the target. The secular humanist left should turn its eyes and its wrath away from Sarah Palin and other Reagan conservatives toward the real theocrats. To find a starting place for their examination of theocrats, they need look no further than Mullah Lofton and his like-minded fellows out there on the far-flung fringes of the right.

- JP

Stuart Schwartz on She Who Must Be Stopped

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Stuart Schwartz opines at American Thinker on how, in the warped view of the media elites, Sarah Palin, despite helping elect 60 candidates in the midterm elections, is a "loser" because she refuses to play the game of politics by the political establishment's rules:

Immediately following the election, the nation's elites went on Sarah Palin Alert. They have worked hard to strip taxpayers of hard-earned dollars and make Washington, D.C. the center of wealth, with six of the ten wealthiest counties in the United States bordering the Beltway. And it was Karl Rove who slammed his foot down on the accelerator of government spending during the Bush presidency, handing Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama a government poised to careen out of control. And it has: now that great centralized motor vehicle bureau known as the federal government has twice as many $150,000-a-year bureaucrats as it did when Obama took office, all extravagantly paid to scowl, fill out forms, and say "no" to the hapless citizens underwriting their million-dollar homes.

Small wonder that Republican Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, a veteran of almost two decades inside the Beltway, looked at the Tea Party-inspired Republican sweep and saw only danger...from Sarah Palin. He said of her Herculean effort in creating a Republican wave: she cost us the U.S. Senate! Stop her! he screamed. And the media answered with a barrage of articles offering advice on how to stop Palin. For example, a former Wall Street Journal editor who had bolted when the owner of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, bought the news outlet and put an end to its leftward drift laid out a plan to "derail Palin for 2012."

The mainstream media have been only too happy to oblige, for... the media elites immediately joined the Republican political establishment to highlight the "urgent task" resulting from the midterm victory: "Stop Sarah Palin."

And over on the Upper East Side of New York City, at a favorite hangout called The Corner Bookstore ("a small treasure in a neighborhood famous for its elegant townhouses" and celebrities), Peggy Noonan takes time out from being quintessentially Manhattan and concentrates on the common enemy created by the midterm elections. Sarah Palin has again, she writes, proved herself "a nincompoop." This "empty or crazy" woman actually thinks she's capable of operating in the rarefied atmosphere of official Washington, of holding her own with the media establishment. Look at her: Palin hangs with her family and enjoys such tacky pursuits as hunting and fishing. Meanwhile, everyone who is anyone knows that a life truly worth living begins here, where Lauren Weisberger first read from The Devil Wears Prada to the applause of Peggy's friends. Prada, not Palin. There's a world of difference in those five letters beginning with "P," Noonan reminds us, as the latter has none of the cachet of the former and lacks "actual talent."

And to the west on this storied island, the width of Central Park and then some, two icons of the ruling class have gathered in the studios of CNN to reinforce the notion that Sarah Palin is now a danger to the United States. It's called "Parker Spitzer." Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and the disgraced former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, have put together a show that is mainstream media right down to its "bomb" in the ratings. Parker lets us know that she is proud to have led the "assassination" of Palin in the days following the Alaska governor's vice presidential nomination. Rove is right to slam Palin, for she has "earned her ridicule" for her outrageously extreme positions. Palin believes that abortion is wrong, that Israel is courageous and admirable, that traditional family relationships are a strength and blessing, and that God is a part of all that is good and true -- extremist positions, Parker claims, repugnant to the real heart of America...Washington, D.C. This "dangerous" woman represents a "fresh terror" for "establishment Republicans," who, like Parker and Spitzer, are professionals. This election has now put the professionals on alert: Palin must be stopped.

[More]

Parker, Spitzer, Noonan and Rove are the Bob, Ted, Carol and Alice of the media elites, an unholy media alliance of political prostitutes and johns. What a fitting metaphor for the Beltway political establishment: Democrats and Vichy Republicans crawling into bed together as they have done to stop what Schwartz describes as "the greatest threat to come out of the midterm Republican victories: Sarah Palin." She's a winner, but in the bassackwards world of the media elites, that makes her a "loser" in their Book of the Dead and Dying. And all for the simple reason that She Who Must Be Stopped will never compromise her first principles.

- JP

Day By Day (November 16, 2010)

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Good Morning! It's a wonderful life if we just take it Day By Day.



Support Pro-Palin Day By Day

- JP

Quote of the Day (November 15, 2010)

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Carrie Ann Inaba, DWTS judge, to People Magazine:

"Bristol Palin is somebody that I think most of Middle America and regular people can relate to. A lot of people come up to me and say, 'I want to be on Dancing with the Stars. Why don't they have a regular-people version?' And I feel like that's what Bristol Palin is. She's a regular girl with normal problems and normal issues, and I think a lot of people look at her and see themselves. I think the Bristol Palin phenomenon is amazing. I feel like she's very relatable to the average person. She's non-pretentious, very relaxed, and sort of non-affected by anything in this dance competition right next to all these amazing celebrities."

- JP

Gov. Palin: Ron Paul should subpoena Ben Bernacke

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Gov. Palin was Judge Andrew Napolitano's guest on "Freedom Watch" Monday night:

Segment 1 - Sarah Palin on the implication of quantitative easing and the Fed's attempts restore economic stability:


_

Segment 2 - Gov. Palin on her TV show and the intrusion of government in American lives:



- JP

More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention, Part 155

Special "I can see the reviews of 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' from my house" Edition
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h/t: Denise

Shane Vander Hart at Caffeinated Thoughts:

"I just finished watching the first part of the eight part new documentary on TLC called 'Sarah Palin’s Alaska'. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The scenery was fantastic... What I liked most about the show is that it shows the family uncut and unscripted... There didn’t seem to be any desire on the part of the Palins to put up a false image, but rather a desire to just be themselves... This show looks to provide an unprecedented transparent look into the life of a political figure which is something that I appreciate. I’m sure there will be naysayers who will point to the flaws, but most I believe will gain a new appreciation for Governor Palin, but more importantly, an appreciation for the state that she loves."

James Poniewozik at TIME:

"If Palin's red-meat Fox News commentary is the sort of media you do to position yourself for a primary, then 'Sarah Palin's Alaska', full of folksy moments and free-range metaphors, is a general-election play."

Jennifer at Cubachi:

"'Sarah Palin’s Alaska' begins with the former governor giving her mission statement for the series. Sarah Palin is one of these unique personalities that has taken the nation by storm. She is using the height of her popularity to uphold the promise she made during her farewell speech from the governorship: promote Alaska. Not only is this a showcase of Alaska, the beauty of the state with its snow-covered mountains, beautiful lakes, and rivers; it also grants viewers a chance to see the real Sarah Palin and not the character projected by the mainstream and liberal media."

Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly:

"She struggles mightily against a side of rock that would leave me quailing and ready to give up, but Palin persists and succeeds. This is Sarah at her most winning."

Meredith Jessup at The Blaze:

"It’s official. Some people will complain about anything when it comes to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The latest complaint comes from environmentalists who are criticizing Palin’s new television special, 'Sarah Palin’s Alaska,' airing this evening on TLC... For being an 'environmentalist,' Toppenberg seems blissfully unaware of how dangerous bears are. Further, if Palin hadn’t have reacted with a bit of fear (which all humans should around bears, mind you), I predict Toppenberg would then complain that the former governor was putting people in danger by not warning them of how dangerous bears are. If Toppenberg thinks wild bears are so 'habituated,' let him be the first to approach one without fear. Seriously, Palin can’t win with these people. Fortunately for the rest of us, she doesn’t seem to care."

Dale Buss at Brand Channel:

"Not surprisingly, some critics already are scoring the eight-week TLC reality show as little more than one long presidential campaign commercial. Palin has promoted it as a fun, revealing and family-friendly look at Alaska. It may, of course, be both."

Dewaine Shoulders at Palin Promotions:

"The left and the media has created a character out of Sarah Palin, and tonight, we finally got to see the real woman. This is a woman who loves her family, her home and nature. She relishes the moments that make her life in Alaska so interesting, and also relishes the mundane aspects as well... This will probably not change any minds about Sarah Palin, pro or con. But what it may do is begin to show those on the fence, those people unsure about how they feel about the woman, that she is the real deal. And there is nothing wrong with her, unlike what most of the MSM had tried to portray. She’s not the anti-environmental monster that the leftist bloggers have been droning on about, nor is she the stupid bimbo that many on the left have trumpeted time and again. Sarah Palin is a woman who loves her family, her state, her country, and her life. And in the end, there isn’t anything wrong with that. Those credentials prove that she is America… Just like the rest of us!"

Sister Toljah:

"Great stuff. Alaska is a beautiful state... What a down to earth family, and what super lady Palin is – and totally NOT a 'diva' as some on the left have painted her out to be."

Tom Gliatto at People.com:

"The first hour of the show, at least, played out as a shrewd, beautifully produced political ad intended to link the one-time vice presidential candidate in the audience's minds with an image that is homegrown, rugged and strong. There's nothing unfair or even surprising about this.... Palin and husband Todd climb the base of Mount McKinley. It's impossible to watch this footage and not see it as a metaphor for Palin's own self-propelled rise in politics. The segment was a bit hokey, but Palin deserves credit for making her way up a rock face despite an admitted fear of heights. I wouldn't have blamed her for standing on a stepladder and calling it a day."

PoliPundit:

"If Teddy Roosevelt – the outdoorsman and naturalist, not the 'progressive' ideologue – were a woman, he’d be called Sarah Palin."

Dick Rolfe, CEO of The Dove Foundation:

"'Sarah Palin’s Alaska' is chock full of the stunning, majestic landscapes at Denali Park and Mount McKinley, the highest mountain peak in North America. Nature’s beauty can also present dangerous challenges like angry momma bears and 100 ft deep ice crevices that could swallow up a careless climber. This rugged backdrop offers some insights as to how Sarah and Todd Palin acquired the skills to overcome some of their own personal adversities; from the birth of their special needs child, Trigg to the cruel jabs leveled at them by political opponents and media pundits. Sarah is seen as a typical mother with all the challenges of a parent with children from ages 2 to 18. Her husband and help-mate, Todd is not shy or quiet as he is often portrayed. Calm and secure are more appropriate adjectives that describe him. His calming demeanor helps keep the family on task and on track."

Rick Moore at HolyCoast.com:

"Amazing scenery and I'm pretty sure many lefty heads will explode as they realize that Sarah Palin is actually human... This series will do wonders for Alaska's economy and TLC's ratings, not to mention Sarah Palin's image."

Bungalow Bill at BBCW:

"Have you ever seen the documentary 'Grizzly Man'? ... Eventually a mean ol' bear he named Mr. Chocolate got very hungry and desperate to consume enough calories to survive hibernation, as the imbecile environmentalist Treadwell was soon eaten by Mr. Chocolate... Now many years later, Sarah Palin is talking a more conservative approach to showing the magnificence of bears, and guess who's complaining? The environmentalists! It never fails. Prop up an idiot like Treadwell who tampers with their environment but make Sarah Palin the villain for keeping her distance but enjoying their beauty while understanding their danger... And so it's ok when liberals with mental disorders disturb the bears at close proximity, but by golly if you are a prominent conservative, they will call you out on it."

Gio at Giovanni's World:

"This woman may be running for the Presidency in the future and I would like to see her up close and personal. I’m hoping this show allows me, and millions of other viewers [to] get that look. So far, she is exactly what I expected, and I am not disappointed."

Jay Tea at Wizbang:

"Anyone who says that Sarah's a prima donna or diva or wimp has no clue what they are talking about. Those terms simply don't apply to someone who routinely handles live fish, shoots shotguns, and does the other stuff she does on a regular basis... I am getting more and more convinced that Sarah Palin gets this country. She has a hell of a grasp on how we're changing and going societally (and not just politically), and she's riding the hell out of it... Now she's taking over reality TV, but in her own way -- family-friendly and wholesome. This is a woman who intends to make her mark on this nation. She might run for president, or she might not -- it depends on whether or not she decides if... she can achieve more by other means. And those who continue to misunderestimate her, denigrate her, dismiss her... they will do so to their regret, and their peril."

- JP

Gov. Palin on Freedom Watch Tonight

*
Judge Andrew Napolitano's "Freedom Watch" program is not just for weekends anymore. Fox Business has decided that da Judge is ready for prime time, and "Freedom Watch" will air each weeknight at 7 PM Texas Time starting tonight. Sarah Palin will help Napolitano kick off the new schedule, as she's already recorded her guest spot for tonight's show. Now she's flying to LA LA Land to be on the front row for Bristol's appearance on DWTS.

- JP

Right-Wing Conspiracies: DWTS and Now… The Dictionary?

- by Warner Todd Huston
*

The wild-eyed, conspiro-nuts of the far left have been waxing goofy over claims that there simply must be a vast right wing conspiracy because Palin moppet Bristol Palin continues to scoot by and stay on the Dancing With the Stars show. Well, now I'd guess they have a new conspiracy to launch: the New Oxford American Dictionary has just named "refudiate" its word of the year.

The left is all ready to call in Jesse Ventura and his TV crew of Conspiracy Theory on this one. After all, it must be a vast right-wing conspiracy if a real-life dictionary is to be seen giving such as Sarah Palin the benefit of its validation.

ABC News reports:

Sarah Palin has officially changed the modern lexicon, one tweet at a time. While one might expect the New Oxford American Dictionary to refudiate the former Alaska governor’s favorite verb, today they embraced it, announcing “refudiate” as the official 2010 word of the year.

The left must be at its lowest point emotionally.

First they are tossed out of office in a landslide, and then THIS!

It's an outrage, I tells ya!

-WTH

Warner Todd Huston is editor of Publius' Forum and a contributor to Texas for Sarah Palin as well as Big Government, Right Wing News, and a number of other websites.

Breaking: 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' Shatters TLC Ratings Record

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From blogger James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter:

Sarah Palin's documentary / travelogue / reality / biopic shattered TLC ratings records Sunday night.

The debut of Sarah Palin's Alaska delivered a whopping 5 million viewers.

The first episode of the eight-part series was the most-watched program launch in TLC's history.

All of those exploding liberal heads will leave a nasty mess to be cleaned up...

More details from TV Newser.

- JP

Sarah Palin was right: Krugman calls for 'Death Panels'

*
Lefty economist Paul Krugman would never overtly admit that Sarah palin has been right all along about Death Panels, but his Freudian slip on network television Sunday was tantamount to such an admission. NewsBuster Noel Sheppard reports:

Although he was likely taking a swipe at former governor Sarah Palin with the reference, Paul Krugman on Sunday recommended "death panels" as a means of helping to balance the federal budget.

In a Roundtable discussion on ABC's "This Week," the New York Times columnist said of what recently came out of the President's deficit commission, "Some years down the pike, we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes"

KRUGMAN: No. Some years down the pike, we're going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It's going to be that we're actually going to take Medicare under control, and we're going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it's not going to happen now.

After he realized what he had said, Krugman later tried to clarify his remarks:

By trying to clarify, Krugman seems to be digging himself deeper into a hole, for "how much we’re willing to spend for extreme care" was part of Sarah Palin's point when she first wrote about this at Facebook in August 2009.

[...]

In the end, Krugman's attempt at being "deliberately provocative" was really him saying in front of the cameras what Palin and others warned was the danger of allowing further government intrusion into healthcare.

If only such dangers were better explained to the public before Congress voted on this bill in March.

Rush is all over this.

We love the smell of liberal hubris in the morning. It smells like... vindication!

- JP