Paul Kengor: Texting for Bristol Palin

Bristol had now given the left two reasons to hate her
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Political Science professor and author Paul Kengor writes at The American Spectator about Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin and the sanctity of life:

As Bristol trots to victory after victory, the pressure cooker that is liberal America rises and rises and rises, boiling over with customary ferocity.

What's really going on here? Let's cut to the chase: The roots of this indecent, unhealthy rage by liberals is -- first and foremost -- a lashing out against Bristol and her mother for the political/cultural sin of standing, unwaveringly, for unborn human life. That stance also explains why liberal women in particular despise both Bristol and the mother who gave her life. The Palins' devotion to the pro-life life infuriates pro-choice women.

I'll never forget the moment Sarah Plain first walked onto that stage with John McCain. The initial salvo had already been fired, not because of anything Palin said but because of what she had done. As far as liberal women were concerned, Palin had already drawn a line in the sand when she chose to give birth to a child pre-diagnosed with Down syndrome, choosing to do what some 90% of women don't do when given that diagnosis.

Even more galling, Palin, in one fell swoop, thereby decapitated the entire pro-choice narrative.

[...]

Their response has been pure vitriol.

The most lasting manifestation of that, in my mind, was shown by the downright mean "Retarded Republican Babies for Sarah Palin" T-shirts that compassionate liberals were selling on the web during the 2008 campaign. The shirts featured a little GOP elephant blowing a balloon. They were a slap at the face of Palin's innocent little Down's child, Trig.

What had Trig done wrong? Wasn't he deserving of sympathy? Not to the enraged and deranged. To them, Trig was Sarah Plain's child -- the product of a misbegotten choice. He merited contempt.

Alas, that's where Bristol comes in. She, too, being a child of Sarah Palin, is disliked by the left by her very birthright. But then, however, she mushroomed their resentment to nuclear levels when, she, too, committed the cardinal sin of choosing life.

[More]

- JP

How The Old Media Constantly Undermines Sarah Palin

- by Warner Todd Huston
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Most media-watching conservatives have simply been flabbergasted at how the Old Media establishment has so neatly come together to destroy Sarah Palin. The Internet has been abuzz with examples of this attack on Sarah since she was chosen by John McCain to be her number two during the campaign for the 2008 presidential election. Every day there is a new example of it and here is yet another one.

This time it was penned by a "TV critic" for the Washington Post named Lisa de Moraes. De Moraes is well known for constantly injecting left-wing asides into her work and her Nov. 19 attack on the Palins is no exception.

She misled her readers (all 20 of them, I'm sure) right off the bat with her snotty headline, "Sarah Palin tries to lure Bristol's huge 'DWTS' audience to her far less popular TLC reality series."

What is with this "her far less popular" epithet? This claim is not based in logic.

De Moraes went on with her accusatory rhetoric.

Sarah Palin hopes to lure her daughter Bristol's 20 million viewers to her own, far less popular, reality TV series this coming Sunday:

"Ah yes...Bristol-the-diva! Silly critics! See her diva-ish-ness Sunday, 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' 2 learn truth, before assuming. Thanks & enjoy!" Sarah Palin tweeted Thursday afternoon.

Of course her every word is but hatemongering, left-wing spin not based on any real truthful analysis of TV. After all, anyone with a basic grasp of the statistics of TV would understand that her sniping was simply not based in reality.

First of all the 20 million viewers that Dancing With the Stars gets are not “daughter Bristol's 20 million viewers.” They are the viewers of the show that Bristol happens to be appearing on for this one season. So, de Moraes’s first snark is not based in truth.

Secondly, Sarah’s Tweet was but a good-natured poke at her own daughter, the sort of ribbing every healthy family indulges with each other. Sure it was an advertisement for her own TLC show, but critic de Moraes is more interested in imputing a darker meaning to the good-natured Tweet: jealousy.

The simple fact of the matter is that TLC’s cable channel does not attract the sort of viewing numbers that any of the old three TV networks attract. So Palin's TLC show could never achieve the numbers that Dancing With the Stars or practically any other network TV show garners.

According to Nielson, for instance, the number of TV households across the country stood at 114.5 million for the 2008-2009 season and the big three appears on all of them. As it stands now, ABC, CBS and NBC rarely get less than an average of twenty million viewers a night of all shows combined on their network in primetime and Dancing got nearly 20 million last week all by itself.

For its part TLC appears in fewer homes than the big three. According to TLC the cable channel appears in 99 million American homes. For those counting that’s a difference of some 15 million fewer homes than the big three.

Another way to compare: for the week of Nov. 8 the top rated non-sports show was Dancing with the Stars with nearly 20 million viewers. Yet the top rated non-sports cable show was Nick@Nite's Spongebob Squarepants with just a bit over six million viewers. Cable simply doesn't come close to the viewers the big three networks get.

De Moraes tried to pretend she was a real critic by adding this:

While Sarah Palin's new TLC reality series attracted TLC's biggest series-debut audience ever, that amounted to only 5 million viewers -- a tiny crowd compared to the 20-million-ish who have been watching this season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" on which her daughter has made it all the way to the finals. Because, no matter what people might say about cable TV taking over the universe, there' s still nothing like a broadcast network for reaching a gigantic number of people.

Notice how de Moraess is trying to have it both ways? In one breath she is saying that Palin’s show is “far less popular” yet on the other saying that a cable show can’t possibly get the same numbers as a network TV show. So, even as she admits that trying to compare a cable audience to a broadcast TV audience is absurd, she still rests her entire snarky point on imagining that Sarah’s show is “far less popular” than Dancing With the Stars.

Still, Sarah Palin's Alaska brought 5 million viewers for its debut episode, a smashing success for TLC. Even wth that success, for de Moraes to try to compare Dancing with Palin's TLC show is idiotic. It's apples to oranges… or apples to grizzlies at least. The fact is Sarah Palin’s show could be the most popular show on cable and still not get the numbers that the big three get. “Popularity” isn’t the proper measuring stick and de Moraes knows it.

So, what do we have here? We have a supposed TV critic misleading readers into thinking that Palin's TLC show is “far less popular” than the show her daughter appears on, we get a TV critic discounting the massive numbers of 5 million viewers Palin did get by presenting that stat as somehow incidental when it is nothing short of amazing, and we get a TV critic trying to paint the momma grizzly as somehow jealous of her cub's success on Dancing.

This "TV column" is not a reporting on TV. It is a ham-handed, cynical attempt to mislead readers into thinking ill of Sarah Palin, painting her in a bad light, and misconstruing the facts in the attempt.

-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.

Benyamin Korn: Why Sarah Palin's still alive & kickin'

She's earned her clout the old-fashioned way
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Benyamin Korn, founder of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin, editor of JewsforSarah.com, and radio host of "Jewish Independent Talk" explains in a Philadelphia Daily News op-ed, why Gov. Palin is more relevant then ever, despite the efforts of her political enemies to marginalize her:

NO SOONER had the polls closed on Nov. 2 than Sarah Palin began shaping the platform of the Republican Party and the conservative movement heading into 2012. And when the chief Mama Grizzly sets her formidable mind to something, her opponents start looking a lot less electable.

In a 1,500-word manifesto in National Review two days after the historic vote, Palin outlined a strategy for her party, and the country.

"The meaning of the 2010 election was rebuke, reject, and repeal," she wrote.

"We rebuked Washington's power grab, rejected this unwanted 'fundamental transformation of America,' and began the process to repeal the dangerous policies inflicted on us. But this theme will only complement the theme of 2012, which is renew, revive, and restore. In 2012, we need to renew our optimistic, pioneering spirit, revive our free-market system, and restore constitutional limits and our standing in the world as the abiding beacon of freedom."

John Podhoretz, editor-in-chief of Commentary, bellwether for the intellectual right, called the Palin Plan "brilliant."

Last week, in yet another display of tactical savvy, Palin staked out a position on, of all things, monetary policy - specifically the plan by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to essentially print $800 billion in new currency, further devaluing the already plunging dollar.

Palin's warning that Bernanke's action would further weaken the dollar and cause inflation, and her call on him to "cease and desist," prompted the Wall Street Journal - no cheerleader for Palin - to declare in a lead editorial that Palin had "exhibited a more sophisticated knowledge of monetary policy than any major Republican this side of Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan."

Not only is she "way ahead of her potential Presidential competitors on this policy point," the Journal editorial said, but Palin "shows a talent for putting a technical subject in language that average Americans can understand."

[More]

- JP

Day By Day (November 22, 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 21, 2010)

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Ann Althouse:

"Palin had the audacity to remind us about Jeremiah Wright's highly racial tirades? She doesn't even call Wright racist! She refers to the statements he made 'against... white people.' That's an astoundingly tame reference to the outrageously inflammatory sermons by Wright that surfaced during the 2008 campaign and amazingly didn't sink the Obama candidacy. Watch the video at that link. Wright is yelling at the congregation to reject Hillary Clinton because she's white. Shamefully lame, Mr. Dunn. Even as an effort to prop up President Obama, it's lame."

- JP

Guardian: Palin aides scouting for office space in Iowa (Updated)

'Pain aide' says the Guardian is incorrect
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The UK's Guardian reports that two of Gov. Palin's aides doing advance work for her book tour stop in Des Moines next week, have "told locals they were looking into office space and other logistical needs for the coming year."

The punditocracy has already taken the timing of the release of her second book, America by Heart, as a sure sign that the first woman to be governor of Alaska and the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate was considering a run for the White House. Now, with word that her aides are checking out office space in Iowa, the first stop in the presidential race, fresh fuel will feed the speculation that she intends to run for president:

Some of her staff now appear to be putting the pieces in place in case Palin does decide to run. One of the aides, who only eats kosher food, told a local rabbi he was looking into longer term arrangements in Iowa.

"He was looking to be able to accommodate the needs of those coming down looking to set up shop here for campaigning in the coming years," said Yossi Jacobson of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Des Moines.

Others in Des Moines suggested Palin might be seeking a base from which to solidify her power within the Republican party, after successfully campaigning for a number of conservative Tea Party candidates during the mid-term elections. "It will be more than just a book signing – I am sure," said Jacobson.

The Iowa caucuses are the first stop in the presidential primaries, and can make or break a run for the White House. Obama's win in Iowa catapulted him ahead of the early favourite Hillary Clinton, setting him up for victory in the 2008 Democratic primaries.

[More]

Gov. Palin addressed the Iowa GOP's annual Reagan Dinner in September.

Update: Turns out the person the Guardian describes as a "Palin aide" is not a Palin aide at all, but an enthusiastic Palin supporter. Read about it at Physicians4Palin.

- JP

Jedediah Bila: Sarah Palin is 'certainly qualified' for 2012 run

'Sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity,' indeed
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In a rebuttal of Mona Charen's recent rant that Gov. Palin should not make a run for the white house in 2012, Jedediah Bila makes the case that the 2008 vice presidential candidate "is certainly qualified" to throw her hat into the ring for the next presidential contest:

First and foremost, let’s address one of Charen’s opening points as to why Palin should sit 2012 out. She stated, “Americans will be looking for sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity — not sizzle and flash.” Perhaps a walk down policy lane is in order.

As Governor, Sarah Palin actualized AGIA, the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, the largest private sector infrastructure project in North American history. Palin’s administration opened up drilling for oil and gas at Point Thomson for the first time in several decades. As Governor, Palin reduced earmark requests for Alaska by 80%, established Alaska’s Petroleum Integrity Office to oversee safe energy development, placed the state checkbook online, and reduced spending for Fiscal Year 2010 by over one billion dollars from Governor Murkowski’s Fiscal Year 2007 budget. Palin signed ACES, Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share bill, into law, incentivizing development and ensuring that Alaskans would receive a “clear and equitable” share of oil profits. She cut costs by selling a private jet purchased by the previous governor and saying “no thank you” to the Executive Mansion’s personal chef. She has served as Chairperson of the AK Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Vice Chair of the National Governors Association Natural Resource Committee. Prior to her time as Governor, Palin served as Mayor of Wasilla, AK, and city council member in Wasilla. She has also been involved in running a commercial fishing business with her husband Todd.

“Sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity,” indeed.

[More]

Charen made a weak case for Gov. Palin not to run, and Jedediah Bila counters each Charen point with facts and common sense to build a more compelling opposing argument.

- JP

Day By Day (November 21, 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 20, 2010)

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Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO's "The Corner":

"Sarah Palin’s new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, is a well-done, well-written book that does what Governor Palin does best — highlights good things: good people, good principles, good institutions... It is a good read, with some fascinating inclusions."

- JP

More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention, Part 158

"Dancing With the Czars" Edition
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Sissy Willis at sisu.com:

"'And this is supposed to be a conservative culture warrior?' sniffs Mona Charen, adding her voice to the chorus of fuddy duddies convinced that Bristol Palin's controversial 'Dancing with the Stars' adventure is yet more proof, were it needed, that Sarah Palin lacks presidential gravitas... It's the ratings, stupid. But for some a chance to pick at the scabs of Palin Derangement Syndrome trumps all. Then comes the show's executive producer, Conrad Green, to put things into proper perspective. 'I’m kind of mystified about why everyone is finding this such a bizarre thing to happen,' he told Inside TV... As Bristol's partner Mark told Greta on Fox... 'If you've got a favorite couple, you've gotta pick up the phone.' And we did."

Tony Katz at PJTV:

"A man shot his TV after watching Gov. Palin's daughter Bristol on DWTS. Why can't the liberals and the crazies stop wailing about Sarah Palin?"

Kate O'Hare at Hot Cuppa TV:

"In a story in the New York Daily News, 'Dancing' executive producer Conrad Green explained some of how the voting, particularly the online voting, is managed. According to Green, there are internal controls that prevent multiple voting from the same computer, no matter how many e-mail addresses the user registers at ABC.com. Green told the Daily News: 'It is possible to register lots of email addresses, but the IP address identifies which computer sent it. If that does happen, we wipe out [those votes].' ... So, however many votes Bristol Palin is getting, 'Dancing' believes she's coming by them the usual way."

Jennifer at Cubachi.com:

"Popeater claims if Bristol wins the show it’ll ruin it forever. Oh please... Is the liberal media that worried that Bristol is winning the hearts of America, while they tried to systematically destroy her and her mother?"

Monica Rizzo at People.com:

"On one conservative Web site, FreeRepublic.com, some of the site's 300,000 registered users have recently used discussion threads to encourage votes for Bristol. One asked users to 'make liberal heads explode and vote for Bristol' on Nov. 8 to advance her to the semi-finals. But Jim Robinson, who founded the site, says there is no larger plan at work. 'An organized conspiracy? I sincerely doubt that,' he told PEOPLE. 'The Tea Party's not that organized!'"

Jeannie DeAngelis at American Thinker Blog:

"How ironic, liberals blaming excessive voting for an 'undeserving' contestant being in contention to win... Wasn't it two just years ago that... an unqualified, 'ubiquitous' candidate... ended up walking away with the ultimate prize?"

Moe Lane:

"And I had a nice, snarky comment all lined about the Left’s bizarre mass-stalking of Bristol Palin, too. Little did I realize that somebody actually is stalking the woman. '...the powder was contained in a piece of fan mail addressed to Bristol Palin.' Marvelous. And you realize, of course, that the instigators of whoever did that will refuse to accept that they may be just a little too publicly unhinged about their objections to THAT WOMAN and her family... Yes, yes, yes, Bristol might not have been the target. And some random person or persons just HAPPENED to try to burn down Sarah Palin’s old church back in 2008 (with women and children inside)."

theblogprof:

"Palin Derangement Syndrome has not subsided in the liberal mind since they were inflicted with it in 2008. It manifests itself many times in... sexualizing situations that are non-sexual. This one is far beyond innuendo..."

TheRightScoop:

"ED Show has his panties in a wad over illegally leaked excerpts from Sarah Palin’s new book. In one excerpt Sarah Palin explains that the Obamas believe that America is fundamentally unjust and unequal. She cites where Michelle Obama made her infamous ‘I’ve never been proud of my country…blah blah’ remark in 2008 and also referred to how the Obamas sat in Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years listening to ‘his rants against America and white people’. Sounds about right to me."

Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail:

"So Tina Fey won another award for not being Sarah Palin. Good for Tina Fey. Maybe it will help with her self-esteem issues. I am not saying she is not talented. Just lazy."

Donald Douglas at American Power:

"My sense is that Palin's attuned to popular sensibilities in a way the Barack Obama has never been. She's anti-elitist. She stands against the elite-arugula entitlement that is the essence of the Democrat-Socialist hegemonic power agenda. And Sarah Palin learns. She's open to ideas and feedback. If President Obama had even an ounce of those qualities he'd have a much better chance of avoiding early retirement in 2012 --- quite possible at the hands of Sarah Palin herself."

Dan Riehl at Riehl World View:

"If Sarah Palin has a secret weapon, it's how distasteful and classless are so many of the GOP establishment types lined-up against her. If they were nearly as smart as they fancy themselves to be, they'd probably just shut-up and let the chips fall where they may."

Ari Fine at Strictly Right:

"Sarah Palin is the only serious presidential candidate taking the Federal reserve to task. Restoring integrity to the dollar and combating inflation was a key tenet of President Reagan’s. Reagan called inflation 'as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hit man.' Inflation is a backdoor tax on Americans... On another note, Palin’s admonition that the government does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem is Reaganesque... Governor Palin’s statement, almost a throwaway line, demonstrates a different understanding of the role of government. Palin’s instinctual reflex is that earners, not the government, are the rightful owners of the fruits of their labor. This is sadly a rarity in government. All in all, this was a very encouraging interview from the woman that will lead the GOP to the White House in 2012."

Jim Treacher at The DC Trawler:

"Because HuffPo’s all about the hard news! Silly Palin, a woman’s not supposed to show off her arms unless she’s married to Barack Obama. I mean, how can she run for president now?"

iusbvision at The IUSB Vision Weblog:

"That random MSNBC talker... states that when Sarah Palin was asked who her favorite Founder was that she could not name one. This is a lie that many of the far left web sites have embraced... They post the video and leave off her answer so it looks like she could not name one. Others just posted a long video of the interview while claiming she was 'stumped' and simply counted on people not hanging around to watch her complete answer. This is the level of dishonesty that the far left engages in regularly... Even though I am much more familiar with the Founders than the vast majority of Americans, I had trouble answering. The thought of trying to decide who was 'better' between Patrick Henry, George Washington, Ben Rush, Sam Adams, Noah Webster and the rest actually left me in horror for a few moments. I know full well that the Founders were truly great men with a special blessing; they are men that I am not qualified to judge. At the first moment the idea of ME picking one Founder over another left me feeling unworthy; among these great men who am I to chose who is best?"

- JP

Federal judge to Gawker: Take down the Palin pages (Updated)

Maybe their lawyers will "walk them through it"
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The Associated Press reports that a federal judge in New York today ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin's new book America by Heart from its leftist moonbat blog:

The injunction prohibits Gawker from "continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book" pending a hearing on Nov. 30.

HarperCollins Publishers had sued Gawker after it published images on Nov. 17 from Palin's book before its release next week.

[...]

Gawker defended its action in a post Thursday titled "Sarah Palin is Mad at Us for Leaking Pages From Her Book" and addressed a message to "Sarah" telling her to read pages about fair use under copyright law. "Or skip the totally boring reading and call one of your lawyers," the post said. "They'll walk you through it."

HarperCollins filed its legal complaint Friday in federal court, arguing that the wacko website not be allowed to engage in what it termed "further copyright infringement." The AP says it couldn't immediately reach Gawker Media LLC to get a comment from the Soros-funded leftists Saturday, but they appeared to have pulled the embargoed pages from their sewer of a blog.

Perhaps the PDS-deranged "progressives" at Gawker should "read some pages about" infringement under copyright law. Or, they can "skip the totally boring reading" and call one of their lawyers who will "walk them through it."

Update: Stacy has a copy of the restraining order up at The Other McCain.

- JP

Video: Don Surber's take on Tina Fey

Imagine a different Mark Twain Award acceptance speech...
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Don's full script and comments here.

- JP

Mama Frizzly wants Gov. Palin to stay out of the lower 48

It's Jeb's turn
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Bless her heart, we can't get fightin' mad at Mama Frizzly. She's probably just looking out for her young cub Jeb here:

"I sat next to her once. Thought she was beautiful," Barbara Bush said. "And she's very happy in Alaska, and I hope she'll stay there."

After all, Poppa and Dubya lived in the White House. Darn it, it's Jeb's turn, and the matriarch of Clan Bush doesn't want that woman getting in the race and spoiling her boy's chances.

- JP

Sarah Palin: An Exclusive Sneak Peek at 'America By Heart'

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Gov. Palin posted a preview of her second book Saturday on Facebook:

An Exclusive Sneak Peek at “America By Heart”

The following is an exclusive sneak peek at my new book “America By Heart” which comes out next Tuesday. Signed editions are still available for pre-order at barnesandnoble.com. You can click here to pre-order your copy.

Enjoy the excerpt:

Americans are awakening again to the wisdom of… that sweet old lady at the Boston Tea Party rally holding up a copy of the Constitution: “When All Else Fails, Read the Instructions.”

When we take the time to actually read them, the instructions for America are pretty straightforward. They are the truths of our founding and more. They are the principles that have made our country great—keeping our government limited, our markets free, and our families strong. But the thing is, these principles, like all fundamental human truths, are not self-reinforcing. They have to be remembered, cherished, and taught to new generations of Americans.

Moms know better than most that we are all born unformed and fallen. Any parent of a two-year-old knows her child’s potential for both good and bad. And every parent of a high school graduate or a young soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine knows the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with raising a good and decent child. Molding the crooked timber of humanity requires the grace of God, the patience of caring parents, and the dedication of good teachers. Creating a great nation from the diverse peoples who make America requires a strong sense of who we are and what we believe in. We have to know this, remember it, and teach it.

We have to know what makes America exceptional today more than ever because it is under assault today more than ever.

When I was preparing for my debate with then-vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden during the 2008 campaign I came across a quote from Ronald Reagan that perfectly expresses our need to preserve and protect American values. I quickly memorized it so I could use it for my closing statement, knowing that seventy million viewers would listen and learn from Reagan’s wise words:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”

I can’t think of a sadder prospect for Todd and me than our spending our sunset years telling our grandson, Tripp, and our grandchildren yet to come about what it was like in America when we were strong and proud and free.

But maybe I can think of a sadder prospect: Tripp and our other grandchildren spending their whole lives working to pay off the irresponsible debt we have accumulated and are about to leave to them.

Neither of these futures is one I want for my grandchildren. Fortunately, I have been given a great gift, the gift of seeing this amazing country up close and personal, in a way that few Americans can. When I began writing this book, I thought carefully about the many wonderful folks I’d met over the past couple of years, and I reread the articles, books, and devotionals they’d shared with me. I also asked some of the people I love and trust to share with me the stories, the characters, and the words that form their view of America. I’ve been amazed at some of the things I’ve learned, comforted by much of it, and challenged in my views more than once.

And when I took these bits and pieces of Americana and blended them with my own experiences and views, I came up with this book. It’s my view of America and what has made her great. It’s the ideas our country was founded on. It’s the strength of our families. It’s the grit of our national character. It’s our faith in God, how it has shaped our nation and continues to fortify us as a people. President Reagan’s call for us to fight for, protect, and pass on to future generations the sources and meaning of our freedom is both a political and a personal call; it is a challenge, both for our country and for us individually. I take this challenge seriously. Passing on peace, prosperity, and liberty to the next generation requires a strong military, a free market, and a healthy constitutional order. But none of that will be sufficient if our children are not taught to have a reverence for the ideas, ideals, and traditions that are central to the American experiment.

This is my America, from my heart, and by my heart. I give it now to my children and grandchildren, and to yours, so they will always know what it was like in America when people were free.

- JP

Nate Silver: The 800-Pound Grizzly on the Web

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Political number cruncher Nate Silver theorizes that Google search traffic "may be a reasonably good proxy for how much interest the candidate generates among the public at large." So he ran Tim Pawlenty's numbers and remarked that the Minnesota governor’s traffic "somewhat lags behind that of several other potential Republican contenders." But those differences pale into insignificance, Silver observes, compared with the gap between Sarah Palin and every other Republican candidate:

Ms. Palin’s search traffic, since the start of 2010, is roughly 16 times that of Mitt Romney, 14 times that of Newt Gingrich, 38 times that of Mike Huckabee, and 87 times that of Mr. Pawlenty. (It is about six times greater than these other four candidates combined.)

Ms. Palin, in fact, draws almost as much search traffic worldwide as the man she would face if she wins the Republican nomination: Barack Obama. And her name is searched for about 30 percent more often than the President’s among Google users in the United States.

[...]

Mentions of the candidates in media outlets tracked by Google News have been nearly as asymmetrical. Sarah Palin’s name has been mentioned in about 20,300 articles since the start of the year, according to Google News, versus 3,640 for Mr. Romney, 3,280 for Mr. Gingrich, 2,980 for Mr. Pawlenty, and 1,870 for Mr. Huckabee. The ratio of candidate mentions in The Times since the beginning of 2010 has largely followed the same pattern: Ms. Palin’s name has been mentioned in 870 stories, against 540 for the other four candidates combined.

This poses a problem, says Silver, for the rest of those in the GOP pack who imagine themselves behind the big desk of the former president of their choice in the Oval Office. His reasoning is that "if and when Ms. Palin declares her candidacy for the White House, it could consume much of the media oxygen literally for months." The numbers man concludes:

Ms. Palin may not be the front-runner in a traditional sense (although it’s not clear that any of the other candidates are either). But she literally commands as much of the public’s attention as the President of the United States, and the strategy for the other candidates will have to revolve around her to some significant degree. In fact, since it is uncertain whether she will run or not, they will effectively have to develop two separate sets of strategies, one contingent upon the assumption that she will enter the race and the other on the bet that she won’t.

[More]

- JP

Why Mona Charen doesn't want Sarah Palin to run in 2012 (Updated)

Too smooth...
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Syndicated columnist Mona Charen, lists several talking points as alleged reasons why she thinks that the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate should not make a 2012 run for the White House. But she omitted what may be the real reason why Charen is so opposed to a Sarah Palin presidential candidacy:

Because in MonaWorld, Mitt Romney is "near perfection" as a candidate:

"You have to admire the near perfection of Mitt Romney as a candidate. It’s no easy thing to find someone with such poise, movie-star looks, high intelligence, family stability, and record of accomplishment. He is accused of being too smooth by those of us less gifted by nature."

Riiiight, Gov. Romney is such a perfect candidate that he couldn't even beat the weak John McCain in the 2008 GOP primaries, despite having raised over $90 million in campaign cash, $35 million of it from his own personal fortune.

h/t: Commenter John Galt at NRO

Update: According to Donald Douglas, Mona has jumped bandwagons. We have to assume that storied Romney near-perfection wasn't quite perfect enough. Now she's backing Mitch Daniels. Why, the Indiana governor must be even nearer to perfection than her former fave. Go figure...

- JP

Gov. Palin's publisher sues Gawker for copyright infringement

Leftist website refuses to remove embargoed pages
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HarperCollins, the publisher of Sarah Palin's forthcoming second book, filed a federal lawsuit against Gawker Media Friday for leaking pages of America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag ahead of its November 23 release date:

Two days before the Manhattan filing, gutter website Gawker published images of more than 20 of the open book's pages. Gov. Palin tweeted Thursday, "Isn't that illegal?"

Her publisher contends it is. The lawsuit asks that Gawker be banned from what it terms "further copyright infringement" and that Gawker deliver the source material to the publisher so it can be destroyed. HarperCollins is also seeking financial damages.

Gawker did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment Friday evening, but an item published the day before and titled "Sarah Palin Is Mad at Us for Leaking Pages From Her Book" defended the blog's actions and linked to websites defining the fair use doctrine of copyright law.

The blog was not the first site to publish excerpts from the book, which has been billed as a tribute to American values, but it refused to take them down after receiving a letter demanding that it do so, the lawsuit said. The Associated Press bought a copy of the book ahead of its Nov. 23 release date.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate's first book, the memoir Going Rogue: An American Life, has sold over 2.7 million copies.

- JP

Day By Day (November 20, 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 19, 2010)

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Rep. Mike Pence via ABC's "Top Line":

"But with regards to Sarah Palin -- she's a force of nature. I just can’t help it -- I just love her. I just think she's got a bold and courageous voice for conservative values. She doesn't apologize and I like her style."

h/t: Cubachi.com

- JP

'Sarah Palin’s Alaska': Preview of second episode

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Here's another "Sarah Palin's Alaska" preview from TLC:


- JP