'The Undefeated' to Screen at Conservative Conferences

"The center-Right is taking a closer look at Sarah Palin"
*
It's a major coup for 'The Undefeated' writer/director Stephen Bannon, and it's sure to help continue the upward trend of Gov. Palin's political stock . Three key conferences -- RightOnline, Smart Girl Summit, And The Redstate Gathering -- will feature his Sarah Palin documentary at their major events. At the RightOnline Conference, Andrew Breitbart will introduce the two-hour film in his speech, ”The Battle For The Soul Of The Conservative Movement And The Republican Party." From the press release:

Victory Film Group today announced The Undefeated, which chronicles Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to national prominence, will screen for select audiences at several upcoming events including; for bloggers at The RightOnline Conference in Minneapolis on June 17th; for conservative women activists at the Smart Girl Summit in St. Louis on July 30th , and the RedState Gathering in Charleston, SC on August 12th.

[...]

At the RightOnline Conference, Andrew Breitbart will introduce the film with a speech.

"The center-Right is taking a closer look at Sarah Palin as she is getting high profile attention for her nationwide bus tour, release of emails, and overall political positioning. This film takes an unvarnished look at a woman that leaves the mainstream media in her dust and makes no apologies," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity and president of Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

"I’m pleased to screen The Undefeated at AFP Foundation’s RightOnline conference this Friday, and allow hundreds of free-market activists to learn the real story behind Palin’s political career," he added.

“Showing The Undefeated at this year’s Smart Girl Summit is both exciting and important,” says Stacy Mott, president of Smart Girl Politics. “Sarah Palin has been a huge inspiration to a new generation of conservative women activists and we pay tribute to that by showing the film at our annual conference,” she adds. “Being a conservative woman in politics is not easy, and we are certain The Undefeated will serve to rally our attendees as we push toward electoral victory in 2012.”

"Sarah Palin connects with grassroots conservatives in a way few others do. The RedState Gathering is an annual gathering of authentic grassroots conservatives. Showing The Undefeated to this audience is a natural fit, particularly as RedState's readers continue to support and love Governor Palin,” said Erick-Woods Erickson, editor, RedState.com

“We are very excited about screening The Undefeated for these select audiences,” says Stephen K. Bannon. "There is a battle for the soul of the Conservative movement and the Republican Party and it is most important to bring this film to these influential activist audiences."

“We believe that Governor Palin’s story of rising from obscurity to national prominence and taking on both the right and the left will inspire the audiences at The RightOnline Conference, the Smart Girl Summit, the RedState Gathering, as well as audiences nationwide when the film opens July 15th,” said Glenn Bracken Evans.

[More]

Eat your heart out, John Ziegler.

- JP

Quote of the Day (May 22, 2011)

Palin Spies MSM’s Pro-Obama 2012 Plot In Gingrich Media Mess
*
William J. Kelly at Big Journalism:

“Will conservative and Republican voters continue to let themselves be manipulated by the media? Will we define the candidates or let the media set the agenda? Will we attack each other or will we focus our sight on the real target: winning the White House back in 2012? In other words, will we be the sheep or will we be the wolves? Personally, I’d settle for a lipstick-wearing pitbull.”

- JP

Jeffrey Lord: Remember Sarah Palin?

Welcome to the club, Gov. Walker
*
The American Spectator's Jeffrey Lord, on the AmSpec Blog, sees Alinsky's Rule 13 in action:

I know you can remember. She made liberals foam. Go nuts. Crazy nuts. And when some of us tried to point out that she was following a path trod by other conservatives from a young Richard Nixon to an old Ronald Reagan to a middle-aged Rush Limbaugh and George W. Bush and Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter -- the path of most hated conservative in the land -- we were told (indignantly!) that this wasn't so…that it really was all about Sarah herself. She was just…just…well…fill in the epithet of your choice.

Suddenly…Sarah Palin turns out NOT to be the most hated conservative in America. Uh-uh. The crown has been rudely snatched and jammed on someone else's head. That honor has now reverted to a white guy. This one named… Scott Walker. Shoved into the coliseum as the lions roar… he's Hitler. He's Mussolini. He's a Nazi, a Fascist, a racist, a tool of billionaires. He's so bad he makes Sarah Palin look reassuringly plain old vanilla.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but this is what happens when a conservative or even someone who is not a movement conservative but flies enough conservative colors -- becomes the focus of left-wing wrath. What we are watching in real time is the demonization of Scott Walker by the left…a process recently devoted exclusively to Sarah Palin and before that to George W., the talk radio stars, Ann Coulter, the Fox crew.

The irony is that this process is now becoming familiar to more and more people -- more people get the game. Which has two interesting side effects.

One, people begin to realize what the real game is -- discrediting conservatism itself by using one star as a target. The old Alinsky trick of picking the target, freezing it, personalizing it etc.

And two -- by focusing on the newest target with such fierce animosity, it makes the last target fade into… dare we say it… the comfort of a reassuringly familiar face...

We have just one minor disagreement with Jeffrey Lord. When the left is done with Scott Walker, it's not bloody likely that "someone now unknown" will be thrown into the middle of Alinsky Memorial Coliseum to face the lions. It will be "deja vu all over again," because they don't consider the demonization of Gov. Palin to be complete. As Aaron Goldstein succinctly phrased it at the IC Blog:

"Make no mistake. Sarah Palin is still in the crosshairs."

This goes double if she gets into the 2012 presidential race as expected.

- JP

Is Romney the Anti-Palin?

He's certainly no Reagan Conservative
*
That's what his supporters at CPAC are saying. We don't think so. Sarah Palin is the anti-Obama, so the anti-Palin spot is already occupied by default. But the contrasts between the two former governors could not be more sharply defined than by their relative positions on three key issues:

Abortion:

Romney says that his views on abortion have "evolved and deepened." He was for it before he was against it. His changing stances on the issue are chronicled here.

Sarah Palin has always opposed abortion. Period. As Deacon Keith Fournier wrote at Catholic Online in 2008, "Sarah Palin is a woman who lives what she proclaims. She is truly pro-life."

Second Amendment:

As on life issues, Romney's position on Second Amendment matters has evolved.

Sarah Palin has always been a strong defender of the Second Amendment. She is a lifetime NRA member who has been honored by that organization. As governor, she signed Alaska on to a multi-state amicus brief authored by the State of Texas in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller.

Reagan Conservatism:

Romney tried to distance himself from Ronald Reagan before he praised him. Byron York recalled the debate between Romney and Sen. Ted Kennedy during the 1994 Senate campaign: "In the debate, Kennedy tried to portray Romney as a turn-back-the-clock conservative, and Romney took exception, essentially disavowing Reagan." The former Massachusetts governor sings quite a different tune now.

Sarah Palin is a solid Reagan Conservative, and she has always been so. That's why the Young Americas Foundation chose her, above all others, to keynote the opening banquet of its recent Reagan 100 Celebration. Andrew Coffin, Vice President and Director of the Reagan Ranch Center, wrote of Gov. Palin on her visit to the ranch, "Everything about the Ranch reflects the great American, and, particularly, western ideals that Ronald Reagan cherished: hard work, responsibility, stewardship of the land, freedom, and opportunity. It was clear on Friday that Governor Palin is a leader cut from the same cloth—it is these great western ideals, and the way they could be seen at the Ranch in small but telling details, that she viscerally connected with. And I have to admit, it was fun to see up close how genuine that connection was."

In each of these three examples, the difference is consistency. Sarah Palin has been remarkably consistent and principled in her beliefs, whereas Mitt Romney seems to have modified his stance to appeal to different political constituencies. While it's somewhat encouraging to see him move away from the left on some key issues, we find the ease with which he has done it to be more than just a little opportunistic. We're reminded of the famous quote, first attributed to the famous Presbyterian minister (and twice Chaplain of the U.S. Senate) Peter Marshall, "You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything."

Romney many not be the anti-Palin, but it's clear that he's no Ronald Reagan... nor is he in any way the Reagan conservative that Sarah Palin has proven herself to be.

- JP

Mitch Daniels is no Sarah Palin

Not a good start for the Daniels campaign
*
We don't always see eye to eye with Rick Moran, but we're in full agreement with his latest post on the American Thinker Blog:

Governor Mitch Daniels is a great wonk, a good governor, but it appears that he isn't much of a politician.

Earth to Mitch: You don't start out a presidential campaign by alienating 1/3 of your base:

The other day on Laura Ingraham's radio show, Daniels re-iterated his call for a "truce" on social issues while America gets its economic house in order. He now says he'd like to "mute" those issues for a little while.

[...]

If Daniels gets in the race you can be sure that some other candidate is going to call him out on this. Whoever does it first will immediately endear himself or herself to social conservatives nationwide. Who's going to do it?

OK - we get it. Fixing the deficit is titanically important. But you don't ask voters - especially when it comes to issues that touch their conscience in very personal ways - to turn off their emotions and engagement just to achieve some nebulous "peace" on social issues. First of all, it takes two to make peace and it is doubtful that the other side would be quite so accommodating. Secondly, it would be like ripping the heart out of the Republican party.

[More]

Moran points out that despite his lackluster campaign, John McCain would have made the 2008 presidential race a much closer contest had he only sharply defined the difference between himself and Barack Obama on social right issues. And despite naming Sarah Palin on his ticket, millions of conservatives still stayed away from the polls on election day -- far fewer than those who turned out to vote for Bush.

There has been a pro-life plank in every Republican Party platform since at least Ronald Reagan, but prior to 2009, there was not a pro-life majority to support it. But all that changed in May of 2009, when Gallup polling began to reflect a shift in the attitudes of Americans in favor of the protection of innocent life. Why should Republicans abandon this principle when they finally have the majority of their countrymen on their side on the issue? But Daniels wants to turn his back on that majority and on the conservative base.

Sarah Palin would never even consider abandoning social conservatives on the issue of life. It is part and parcel of the Declaration of Independence, which defines life as the first of three "unalienable Rights" with which the Creator has endowed us. Without life, there is no liberty nor the pursuit of happiness. Gov. Palin has been a consistent and tireless defender of the innocent unborn. And she has lived by what she advocates, giving birth to child which she knew before his birth would be a Down Syndrome baby.

Mitch Daniels is no Sarah Palin, and by giving short shrift to what has been one of the most important planks in the GOP platform for decades, not much of a conservative nor a Republican.

- JP

PPP: Romney hurting in 8 states where Palin is strong with conservatives

"He has a major problem with conservatives..."
*
A survey of eight states by Democrat polling firm PPP reveals that Sarah Palin's favorability ratings with conservatives are higher than the other three most likely GOP presidential candidates in six of them, while she is the runner up in the remaining two. Gov. Palin is the leader in Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Montana and Virginia, and she's a strong second in Missouri and North Carolina. Her average favorability ratings across all eight states also leads the pack at 77 percent, followed by Mike Huckabee at 73 percent, Newt Gingrich with 64 percent and Mitt Romney at 58 percent.

Romney, though long promoted by the corrupt media as the leading Republican in the field for 2012, has been looking weaker and weaker in PPP's presidential recent polling, according to the company's blogger Tom Jensen. The reason for the former Massachusetts governor's increasing weakness, says Jensen, is that conservatives just don't view him favorably, and that's not likely to change:

We've polled eight states, not including Massachusetts, since the 2010 election ended. Romney has the lowest favorability rating of the Republican top 4 with conservatives in every single one of those states except Michigan, where he probably benefits from his dad having been the Governor. And it's not like Romney is just slightly less well liked than the others with conservatives- it's a large gap, particularly when you compare him with Palin or Huckabee.

[More]

Even in Michigan, where Gov. Romney makes his strongest showing with conservatives, he's third behind Governors Palin and Huckabee.

- JP

John Hawkins: The 10 Biggest Conservative Stand-Outs of 2010

"Nobody in American politics had a bigger and better year" than Gov. Palin
*
Listmeister John Hawkins is out with a new list, The 10 Biggest Conservative Stand-Outs of 2010, at Townhall.com, and Gov. Palin is at the top:

There are 10 conservative stand-outs, some of them big names, some of them not as well known, who made a particularly big impact this year. This column is just a way, on behalf of millions of conservatives out there, to say, "We noticed what you did and just want to let you know we appreciate it."

[...]

1) Sarah Palin: It might be easier to ask: What has Sarah Palin not done this year? She was one of the most effective voices in the fight against Obamacare, she became a popular Fox News contributor, she just released a new book, she has her own TV show Sarah Palin's Alaska, and she was a force of nature in the 2010 elections where she raised millions, swung primaries with her endorsements, and did more to get women candidates elected this cycle than anyone else in history. Say what you want about Sarah Palin, but nobody in American politics had a bigger and better year than she did in 2010.

Others in the top five are 5) Pamela Geller ("she, more than any other person, was on point in the fight against the mosque at Ground Zero"), 4) Gov. Jan Brewer ("conservative boldness in the face of a tidal wave of dishonest criticism"), 3) Sen. Jim DeMint ("no politician in D.C. does more to look out for conservative interests") and 2) Gov. Chris Christie ("one man with courage can make a real difference"). The full list with Hawkins' commentary, is here.

- JP

The Palin - DeMint Conspiracy

*
Both Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) have endorsed a number of conservative candidates throughout the recently-concluded primary season, but the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate said Wednesday that there is no rivalry between the two:

Asked about talk that she and the Senator are building competing conservative power structures during an interview with Fox News this week, Sarah Palin dismissed such speculation and offered high praise for DeMint:

“Jim DeMint is brilliant, and I have a great respect for him, and I am not in this for any kind of personal gain or power grab, at all,” Palin said. “I don't even know how to play those type of games, and I don't have the people, the machines, the whatever-it-takes to be in a position like that.

“I am thankful that Jim DeMint is so bold and courageous that he is getting out there and making these endorsements, too,” Palin added. “No competition there, at all.”

The beltway rumor machine seems to be working overtime, what with the media types trying to brew up a pot of manufactured conflict. We think it would be worth a few grins to print up a bunch of these...


... and spread 'em around DC. Then sit back and watch the media magpies go nuts trying to uncover the "vast right wing conspiracy" that surely must be at work.

- JP

Sheppard: Gov. Palin Donates $3,500 Of Her Own Money To Teen Charity

*
At Recovering Liberal, M. Joseph Sheppard comments on how Sarah Palin is, by her actions, speaking truth to the left's Big Lie and latest meme that she is a "grifter" or something:

Just when they think they are on a roll with this bizarre rant about how Palin (and Beck) were fleecing the dupes in Anchorage at their 9/11 meeting, Palin and Beck's team announces that Palin would not take a cent from the event and Beck is donating his fee to his "Wounded Warriors" charity. Darn it.

And, adding further salt to the wound or further extinguisher to the flame, Palin, the guest speaker [Sunday] at a sold-out fundraiser for Teen Challenge... not only signed a shirt which was auctioned off immediately for $3,500 and then (does this women have no shame?) she went and matched the auction fund with a further $3,500 of her own money!

The left's pathetic lie that Gov. Palin, who has repeatedly demonstrated that she has a servant's heart, is "only in it for the money" is made more disingenuous by the fact that conservatives are by far more generous to charity with their money than "progressives":



How can you tell when a nutroots leftist blogger or liberal media puppet is lying? That's an easy one. It's when they are using their keyboards.

- JP

Murky to Castle: 'Be prepared, they'll come at you hard'

*
The most lightweight GOP Lite in the Republican party told CNN that he received a phone call from fellow RINO Lisa Murkowski after her defeat in Alaska at the hands of Joe Miller, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express. The Murky message was in the form of a warning:

"I actually received a call after the election saying, 'Mike, you need to be prepared, they'll come at you hard,'" Castle said after a campaign stop in Millsboro, Delaware. "It was part of a broader wake-up call that's been going on for several months now."

Imagine that! Those intolerant conservatives wanting to replace Vichy Republicans who collaborate with the the Democrats on their neosocialist agenda. Why, the nerve of those people!

- JP

Jedediah Bila: Challenging the GOP Establishment

*
President Obama mentioned the name of Rep. John Boehner no less than eleven times in a speech in Ohio yesterday, demonstrating that he's looking over his shoulder at the House Minority Leader as a threat to his leftist agenda. But Boehner, who is looking ahead at the prospect of being the next Speaker of the House, dare not look over his own shoulder. Nor should Senator Mitch McConnell.

The GOP's current leaders once had control of both houses of Congress. Prior to the 2006 elections, Boehner was House Speaker and McConnell was Senate Majority Leader. Their failure to reign in excessive federal spending and secure the nation's borders helped persuade voters to put the Democrats in power, with Nancy Pelosi becoming House Speaker and Harry Reid Senate Majority Leader. Boehner and McConnell are deeply entrenched members of the establishment of the Republican Party, and they represent much of what is wrong with the GOP. They are part of the problem, but conservatives hope that the "young guns," who are gaining on Boehner, McConnell and the rest of the GOP's "old boy" establishment, will be the solution. More from Jedidiah Bila:

What do Marco Rubio, Sarah Palin, and Joe Miller have in common?

One: They’re principled conservatives.

Two: They aren’t part of Washington’s business-as-usual machine.

And three: They – and many like them – have caused quite a few in the GOP establishment to shake in their boots.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has backed RINOs Lisa Murkowski and Charlie Crist over conservatives Joe Miller and Marco Rubio. I’ve repeatedly heard establishment media voices speak kindly of Sarah Palin while including a disclaimer that they wouldn’t support her for president or any role of that stature.

Rubio, Palin, Miller, and others from outside the Beltway are the independent conservative voices this country needs. Their allegiance thus far has been to their principles, not to some establishment big shot who did a favor for them last year. They are likely to call it like they see it, and if that means challenging members of their own party right along with big-government Democrats, they’re up for the job.

To the establishment Republicans who have prioritized political games, phony promises, and power-grabs over constitutional integrity, American founding principles, and honest leadership, the Millers and Rubios of the world are sometimes scarier than the Reids and Pelosis.

Pelosi and Reid won’t snatch their jobs away. But Miller and Rubio just might...

Read the rest of this Jedidiah Bila op-ed here.

Related: The Tea Partiers are coming to the staid Senate

- JP

You know, maybe endorsing Carly Fiorina wasn't such a bad move after all

*
A mea culpa of sorts, from a DeVore supporter:

"During the California Senate primary, my major criticisms of Carly Fiorina were that she had no public track record to back her on the issues, and that as a novice campaigner she was liable to make mistakes and lose a winnable race. During the race I didn’t quite give her the Tom Campbell treatment, but I gave Chuck DeVore all the support I could."

[...]

"Sometimes we’re all just plain wrong about a candidate, and a person who wins a primary has more of what it takes than outsiders ever expected."

"Carly Fiorina has stayed the same person since winning the primary. Some thought that without a track record, she could shift rapidly and hard to the left on key issues, trying to make it easier on herself to win. But no, she’s stuck to her guns on life, on illegal immigration, on radical “green” regulation, and most importantly on the need to get government out of the way in order to let us get some job creation going again in California. And in fact rather than fading or falling apart, she mounted a comeback win in the primary, and has now taken leads in two polls of likely voters."

Well, give our former RS colleague Neil due credit. He's man enough to admit that Carly is not quite the RINO that the DeVore camp insisted she was.

More good conservatives continue to wake up and smell the tea, realizing that Sarah Palin has remarkable political instincts and knows exactly what she's doing, not only with her candidate endorsements, but with the overwhelming majority of her other key decisions as well. Gov. Palin took a lot of flak from many on the right for resigning as governor, taking a pass on CPAC 2010, and a number of other political moves that, in retrospect, have worked very much to her advantage. And yes, we're not above saying, "We told you so." You dang well betcha!

- JP

Quote of the Day (August 24, 2010)

*
Armstrong Williams at The Washington Times:

"The results of this summer's primary elections have political pundits declaring 2010 to be the year of the woman. This may be true, but the real story is that this is the year of the conservative woman... Of course, the conservative queen-maker and 'tea party' standard bearer was Sarah Palin. Two of the primaries biggest winners, Mrs. Fiorina and Mrs. Haley, were endorsed by Mrs. Palin. Recently, Mrs. Palin threw her support behind three more female GOP candidates, whom she called 'liberty-loving mama grizzlies.' For the first time in history, the conservative movement and the Republican Party are headlined by women rather than middle-aged white men. This marks quite a change."

- JP

The Influential Sarah Palin

*
At The Fix, Chris Cillizza's latest Friday Line, in which he ranks the 10 most influential Republicans -- be they insiders or outsiders -- who are having the greatest impact on the GOP, has Sarah Palin at the top of the list:

"Yes, she's number one again. No Republican has moved up as much on the Line as the former Alaska governor. And, even now, in conversations with Republican operatives, some suggest she should hold this top spot while others insist she should be down at number nine or ten. We think the former option is the right one at the moment as Palin has shown a practical side -- her endorsement of former HP executive Carly Fiorina in the California Senate race -- and it's clear that her support can make a difference in primaries and other nomination fights. (See Tom Emmer in Minnesota and Nikki Haley in South Carolina.) (Previous ranking: 3)"

But Don Surber disagrees:

Sarah Palin leads the conservatives.

Mitt Romney leads the Republicans.

There is a difference.

The Republicans should be embracing her and turning her into a Ronald Reagan. Instead, I fear, they will allow her to wither and become Wendell Wilkie while they search for the next Thomas Dewey.

Some Republicans would rather have the Democrats in charge.

- JP

Quote of the Day (May 3, 2010)

*
x_eleven:

"Keep this in mind the next time you hear Sarah Palin damned as a 'demon queen' because she's been known to wet a fishing line, or to blow away the occasional moose:

'The Obama administration and the International Whaling Commission want to allow legal hunting again.'

It is not by coincidence that 'Conservation' and 'Conservative' have the same root word."

- JP

Another former liberal sees the light

*
It's always encouraging to witness a former liberal when he or she begins to see the light. Like proud godparents, we like to see the newly-minted conservative, not yet fully free of the emotionalism which dominated his or her liberal life, begin to think as a reasoning adult.

Kristen, who blogs at Eve's Ransom, appears to be in that early stage of political maturity:

Why? Why did I hate her so much?

I honestly don't know. Maybe because it's what everyone else was doing. All the smart people are liberal! Tina Fey, who is so intelligent and funny and cool, nailed Palin to the wall on SNL. Everybody smart thought Palin was stupid, backwards, and contrived. And I'm smart! Ergo, I should find Palin stupid. Right?

This is the kind of non-thinking I did for years as a liberal. I absorbed the default position on every issue from media and pop culture, gleaned the talking points, and let 'er rip.

[...]

The attack on Sarah Palin is rife with double standards, sexism, hypocrisy, irrationality, and the left's typically twisted "moral" posturing. And it is not over. The way it looks now, Sarah is a "definite maybe" for 2012, and it will only get worse. As Obama and his supporters, who include the entire establishment media, try desperately to save his presidency for a second term (which, at the rate he's going now, will be desperate indeed) the attacks on Palin will only worsen and increase.

This time, though, for what it's worth, they won't have me on their side.

As Sarah Palin supporters and conservatives, we should encourage and support these recent converts. Just as religious godparents are responsible for ensuring a child's or religious convert's religious education is carried out, political godparents should take an interest in the conservative convert as he or she takes their first steps out of political darkness into the light.

- JP

RWN Poll: Right of Center Bloggers Prefer Palin

*
Right Wing News recently polled more than 250 right-of-center bloggers to see which candidate they'd support if the 2012 Republican primaries were today. RWN Editor John Hawkins reports that Sarah Palin was their top choice, receiving twice as many votes as the runner-up. Here's how the top five vote-getters finished:

5) Tim Pawlenty: 9% (6 votes)
4) Mitch Daniels: 10% (7 votes)
3) Mitt Romney: 12% (8 votes)
2) Mike Pence: 14% (10 votes)
1) Sarah Palin: 29% (20 votes)

To see how the rest of the field shook out and for a list of the bloggers who voted, visit Right Wing News.

- JP

Jay Tea: Sarah's Sense Of Smell (Updated)

*
Here are a few excerpts from Jay Tea's Wizbang post on Sarah Palin's decision not to attend CPAC:

This is the one that's gotten so much attention for its open-door policy towards sponsors: they're allowing in the John Birch Society and GOProud (not "OutRight," which I said before and would be an awesome alternative name gay conservatives), which has quite a few people in a tizzy. And she's not carrying a grudge over last year's dustup, where she was announced as attending before she said no, saying she'd never confirmed it.

No, Palin has a simple explanation for skipping: she's displeased with the conduct of CPAC's leaders. More specifically, CPAC head David Keene's coupling an offer to support FedEx in a legislative battle with UPS with a request for a couple of million dollars in donations.

[...]

With CPAC, she sees the situation very simply: Keene made an offer to support FedEx while simultaneously asking for their support. Perhaps in the eyes of the law he didn't quite solicit a bribe or propose a quid pro quo arrangement with the shipping titan (their money in exchange for CPAC's political clout), but the simple perception is that he did -- and that's exactly the kind of bullshit Palin fought -- and beat -- in Alaska.

[...]

So, instead of CPAC, Palin will be attending the first national convention of the Tea Party folks. A gathering of people who, quite frankly, have no use whatsoever for the national leadership of the GOP (or the Democrats, for that matter) and are looking for others who aren't so enamored of the Inner Circles that they have forgotten simple principles and common decency and common sense.

The full blog post is here.

Update: Doug Brady's commentary is here.

- JP

Lessons in Blogging

*
There are lessons in blogging here and here. Some of the lessons may not be quite the same ones as the instructor had in mind:  
 
When you stand up for Sarah Palin and respond to unfair attacks on her with a point-by-point discussion of issues, don't expect a rebuttal in kind. Rather, expect an attack on your character, just like Sarah Palin's character has been attacked. Also expect the attacker to cloak the attack with words to the effect of, "now I'm not suggesting you are any of these things, but I've been told these things about you."

Your attacker will also attack your blog, call it a "fan" blog and hold you accountable for all of the comments your readers make on your site. Just because you support a particular candidate or potential candidate, you are a fan, not a supporter who made the decision to support a political figure based on that person's record and good character, as well as his or her stated and demonstrated positions on the issues.

Call us whatever names you wish to. Attack our character, and attack our blogs. It will not deter us from responding to attacks on Sarah Palin which we consider to be unfair. When we see them, if we have the time and resources to do so, we will call out those who make such attacks.

Sometimes a little good can come from a bad situation. In times past, Texas for Sarah Palin and Conservatives 4 Palin haven't always been on the same chapter and verse. While we share many of the same goals, we have taken different paths to try to accomplish them. There have been some arguments and strained relations between the two blogs.

But over the more recent months, the two blogs have been moving closer to one another. It began when we put our differences aside and cooperated in a common fundraising effort for Gov. Palin's defense fund. More recently, we have exchanged links and each website has begun to acknowledge some of the posts which have been published on the other.

With the recent attacks on both TX4P and C4P, I stand in solidarity with my colleagues at C4P. Both blogs have been fierce defenders and supporters of Sarah Palin. From now on, when C4P or any other Palin support blog is attacked in an unfair manner, I will rise in support of that blog, blogger and contributors.

Perhaps the best thing to come out of this entire dustup is that it serves as a reminder that Palin and Palin-friendly bloggers have a golden opportunity to at last become a true community of websites which will focus on those things that unite us rather than those which divide us.

We don't enjoy engaging in blogwar with any bloggers with whom we share common beliefs, common principles. So this will be my final words on the latest dustup. I agree that we all have more productive things to do with our time and our websites. As a step in that direction, I will accept that responsibility for the comments readers make on my blog. I am removing all comments from recent posts which only served to escalate the war of words. Perhaps other steps can be taken, and perhaps we can all ratchet down the hostility. I hope that we can all move on to what should be our common purpose -- defeating the radical leftists who have taken over one major political party, are working to manipulate the other major party and to transform this nation we all love into what is the antithesis of the republic the founders sacrificed all they had to establish.

- JP

Sarah Palin Named a Top Conservative on Hawkins List

*
At Townhall.com, John Hawkins pronounces Sarah Palin one of the Top 10 conservatives of 2009:

"Her book tour was a tremendous success, not only in the book-selling department, but in repairing her image. Moreover, she was one of the most effective Republican voices in the health care debate and in an innovative move, she did it from her Facebook page. If Sarah Palin can be as successful in 2010 and 2011 as she was in 2009, we may be calling her President Palin in 2012."

The former governor was #4 on Hawkins' list, after talker Glenn Beck (#3), AcornBusters James O'Keefe & Hannah Giles (#2) and The Tea Party Movement (#1).

Hawkins is well known in conservative circles for his list-making. This one is, of course, just one man's opinion. We have no doubt, for example, that Sarah Palin supporters will agree with us that she should have been ranked higher. And Mark Levin fans have good reason to complain as well. His name is not on the list, despite the fact that his top selling book Liberty and Tyranny was one of the major conservative releases which had a significant impact in 2009. And God bless the courageous Carrie Prejean, but should she really be ranked ahead of Jim Demint, Rush Limbaugh, Marco Rubio and Andrew Breitbart on a list of the top conservatives of the year?

The complete list, with Hawkins' commentary, is here.

- JP