Byron York: Sarah Palin stakes out policy positions

"Palin is establishing herself as a long-lasting voice in the Republican Party."
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The media has always been loathe to report on the substance of Sarah Palin. During the first first leg of her One Nation Tour their coverage has mostly been about whether the former governor and vice presidential candidate will get into the 2012 presidential race. They have also reported from the road on all sorts of other side issues, including their favorite subject -- themselves. But a very few of their number have noticed that for four days now, Gov. Palin has been reiterating her policy positions on a number of key issues. Washington Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York is one of those select few:

In fact, in recent days, weeks, and months, we've seen a lot of policy commentary from the former Alaska governor.

For example, during the bus trip, Palin took a stand on an issue that is crucial for candidates considering a run in the Iowa caucuses. "I think that all of our energy subsidies need to be re-looked at today and eliminated," Palin told RealClearPolitics. "We've got to allow the free market to dictate what's most efficient and economical for our nation's economy." What that means is Palin opposes the infamous ethanol subsidy that some presidential aspirants are afraid to question, lest they lose support in heavily agricultural Iowa.

Palin has also been speaking out in support of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan -- another question that Republicans, and certainly all Republican presidential candidates, have had to answer. Palin supports the Ryan plan and even adds that she'd like to include Social Security in the deficit-cutting mix (something Ryan left out). And when Palin criticizes President Obama's inaction on the deficit, even David Brooks, the New York Times columnist who once said Palin "represents a fatal cancer to the Republican Party," observes that, "Sarah Palin is right about that. He has no plan."

Palin has also been talking about foreign policy. In an extended on-the-bus interview with Fox News' Greta van Susteren, Palin addressed a proposal for $2 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt. "We don't have the $2 billion!" Palin said. "Where are we going to get it? We're going to go borrow it perhaps from China? We'll borrow money from foreign countries to give to foreign countries." The problem would be far worse, Palin said, if the Muslim Brotherhood plays a significant role in a new Egyptian government and "our U.S. dollars go to support a government that perhaps will not be friendly to the American government."

When van Susteren wondered whether U.S. aid would "help us rather than hurt us," Palin shot back: "We're going to buy their good will?... Hey, here's two billion bucks that we had to borrow. We'll give this to you, and you know, we'll cross our fingers and hope it does some good?" Palin also questioned the usefulness of the billions in aid that the United States has given to Pakistan.

For those interested in her positions on issues, Palin's Facebook page is filled with notes and commentary. Recent entries include titles like "New Afghanistan Development Dangerous to NATO," "Obama's Strange Strategy: Borrow Foreign Money to Give to Foreign Countries," "Barack Obama's Disregard for [Israel's] Security Begs Clarity," "Obama's Failed Energy Policy," and "Removing the Boot from the Throat of American Businesses." They're not think-tank white papers, but they are substantive statements on key issues.

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For those critics who are quick to dismiss Sarah Palin's many issue-oriented Facebook posts, because of the medium rather than the message, and those who have never even bothered to read them, York points out that the governor has more than three million Facebook followers, which he recognizes as "an important forum, especially when combined with Palin's books and television commentary." It's about time some in the media have begun to open their eyes. Yes, media circus, Sarah Palin is a woman of substance.

- JP

York: Invoking Reagan, Palin says 'this is a time for choosing again'

Gov. Palin discussed themes from Reagan's life that have resonance today
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Chief Political Correspondent Byron York covered Sarah Palin's Reagan 100 Celebration keynote address for the Washington Examiner:

Sarah Palin came here to declare that President Ronald Reagan "was one of a kind, and you're not going to find his kind again." But in a carefully-crafted speech marking Reagan's 100th birthday, the former Alaska governor drew a series of parallels -- some explicit, some implied -- between Reagan and herself, and between Reagan's time and today.

Palin was invited to speak by the Young America's Foundation, which owns and maintains Reagan's old ranch in the mountains near Santa Barbara. (The foundation is separate, and more aligned with the conservative movement, than the Reagan Presidential Library, which is also holding commemorative events this weekend.)

[...]

"This is a time for choosing again," Palin said, "and the vision we outline here is just as stark as it was in 1964."

A Palin insider says the former governor watched "A Time for Choosing" several times and was struck by Reagan's stern tone, as well as the applicability of his themes to today's events. Then, as she was working on the speech, Palin watched President Obama's state of the union and become convinced that, rather than adopt a more centrist path, Obama planned to continue pushing big-government programs. Those two thoughts, the insider says, formed the core of Palin's speech.

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Lee Edwards, a Reagan biographer and fellow at the Heritage Foundation, was in the audience and took note of the fact that Palin was speaking to a strongly conservative group at the Ranch Center. She likely wouldn't be invited to speak to a more general audience at the Reagan Library, Edwards said, "because she's not a member of the establishment, and they're not comfortable with her."

"The irony," Edwards continued, "is that neither was Reagan."

Palin ended her speech by noting that she is not calling for Republicans to unite behind any specific leader. "There isn't one replacement for Reagan, but there are millions who believe in the great ideas that he espoused," she said. But of course those millions pick a candidate to represent them. And in Santa Barbara Friday night, Palin did nothing to discourage those who believe she is laying the foundation for a future candidacy. It might not be in 2012 -- remember the years between "A Time for Choosing" and the Reagan White House -- but it could be on the way.

- JP

Quote of the Day (January 19, 2011)

CNN is aligning itself with those who blame "rhetoric" for the killings
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Byron York at the Washington Examiner:

"CNN's John King is attracting a lot of notice -- and some ridicule -- in the blogosphere for his on-air apology after a guest used the word 'crosshairs' during a report on Chicago politics Tuesday... Now, King says, CNN is 'trying to get away' from such terms, suggesting that in the wake of the Tucson shootings, such language should no longer be part of the public conversation. But if Palin is to blame for using crosshairs in her much-discussed map, then CNN, by its own use of the allegedly inflammatory term 'crosshairs,' might also share some blame for creating the atmosphere that led to the violence in Arizona. A look at transcripts of CNN programs in the month leading up to the shootings shows that the network was filled with references to 'crosshairs' -- and once even used the term to suggest the targeting of Palin herself."

- JP

York: Media urged caution after Ft. Hood, now race to blame Palin

There is no connection between Loughner and Palin
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Byron York explains how the corrupt media, tools of the leftist minority (only about 21 percent identify as liberal. 40 percent as conservative) shows its hypocrisy with very different treatments of two shooting incidents:

On November 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire at a troop readiness center in Ft. Hood, Texas, killing 13 people. Within hours of the killings, the world knew that Hasan reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before he began shooting, visited websites associated with Islamist violence, wrote Internet postings justifying Muslim suicide bombings, considered U.S. forces his enemy, opposed American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars on Islam, and told a neighbor shortly before the shootings that he was going "to do good work for God." There was ample evidence, in other words, that the Ft. Hood attack was an act of Islamist violence.

Nevertheless, public officials, journalists, and commentators were quick to caution that the public should not "jump to conclusions" about Hasan's motive. CNN, in particular, became a forum for repeated warnings that the subject should be discussed with particular care.

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Fast forward a little more than a year, to January 8, 2011. In Tucson, Arizona, a 22 year-old man named Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a political event, gravely wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, killing a federal judge and five others, and wounding 18. In the hours after the attack, little was known about Loughner beyond some bizarre and largely incomprehensible YouTube postings that, if anything, suggested he was mentally ill. Yet the network that had shown such caution in discussing the Ft. Hood shootings openly discussed the possibility that Loughner was inspired to violence by…Sarah Palin. Although there is no evidence that Loughner was in any way influenced by Palin, CNN was filled with speculation about the former Alaska governor...

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- JP

Byron York on Gallup's 'Most Admired Woman' Poll

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Washinton Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York made an appearance on FOX News' "On The Record" and discussed the results of the recent Gallup Poll with guest host Shannon Bream:



h/t: Freedom's Lighthouse

- JP

Greta discusses Sarah Palin with Byron York

The Washington Examiner's chief political correspondent Byron York was Greta van Susteren's guest on Thursday night's edition of "On The Record." Here are some quotes:

"Palin's 72 percent favorable rating is very good, and you have to remember this poll was taken about a week after she announced her resignation. So it kind of indicates, at least among Republican and those right-leaning independents, that didn't do her any damage."

"I was in South Carolina last week, talked with the former head of the state party down there, and he said they've been trying very hard in May to get her to their big fund-raising dinner, thought they had an agreement, but it just couldn't -- didn't go through because she was too tied down in Alaska. But he said, you know, That would have been huge for us. It would have been huge. And there are a lot of other state party chairmen who would love to have her come to local fund- raising dinners."

"...there were social conservatives, especially in Iowa, who thought of Romney as a late convert. Some thought of him as a phony who had changed his position on especially the issue of life. And for those people, Palin is a hugely attractive candidate."

- JP