Don Surber: Curse you, Sarah Palin, for killing the death panels

Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail finds some fallout still in the air from Gov. Palin's warning about death panel back in 2009. He recalls how her remark cause heads in the liberal media to explode, including some at the sham site Politifact, which disingenuously branded it Lie Of The Year:

Calling it a lie was problematic since Obamacare had yet to pass and no one would know what was in the bill until the president signed it into law in March 2010. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi even said we have to pass the bill in order to see what is in it. Yet 8 months before its passage, the Mensas on the left knew what was in it.

But what was wrong with Sarah Palin’s statement was not that it was false but that it was true, and the truth is poison to liberals.

[...]

I want to thank Eric Kleefield who in his eagerness to demonize Sarah Palin helped bring the planned death panels to the public’s attention.

So there are death panels and they are designed to kill people in order to save money because Obamacare — like the NHS — is about saving money, not lives. Socialists want to making life optional. This is why they support abortion on demand and why they death panels.

Ezra Klein is not the first to complain that we spend “so much” on grandma before she dies. I heard the same arguments 20 years ago when liberals were preparing us for Hillarycare. The argument is simple: We spend too much on medical care knowing we are going to die eventually anyway.

Sarah Palin instead killed the death panels. Well played

[fallout]

- JP

Quote of the Day (October 27, 2011)

Palin’s endorsement is worth 5 Bidens
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Don Surber, at the Charleston Daily Mail:

“In fact, an endorsement by Sarah Palin is worth as much as an endorsement by Bill Clinton among voters.”

- JP

Quote of the Day (March 2, 2011)

Supreme Court screws up military funerals
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Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail:

"The court is almost as nutty as Fred Phelps on this one."

- JP

Don Surber: Obama hare, Palin tortoise

The death panels idea is not far-fetched
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Our out-of-touch president could lose all 50 states to Sarah Palin next year, comments the Charleston Daily Mail's Don Surber, who says Obama is the hare, and Gov. Palin is the tortoise:

Sarah Palin learned first-hand as a governor that “government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost.”

Medicaid — run by the states but funded in large part by Congress — pays as little as 70 cents on the dollar for services rendered. That unpaid 30 cents is passed on to privately insured patients, who then see their premiums soar. This then gets twisted into the government making the case for government-run health care since it saves money.

The death panels idea is not far-fetched.

Britain calls its death panel NICE. It denies drugs for sick patients saying Avastin and other medications are too expensive.

Obama already is playing NICE by revoking approval of Avastin retroactively — based on price, and not on the safety or the competence of the drug.

That is a death panel, plain and simple.

Of course, most conservatives knew this. Why credit Sarah Palin?

Because she got attention.

And she roped-a-doped the president.

[...]

So the president and his smug buddies — Rahm, Axelrod and Gibbs — went after Sarah Palin tooth and tong, rather tackle the legitimate criticisms and worries. People who have lived through the Depression and World War II know that money is not unlimited. Talk of “saving” $500 billion from Medicare comes out of their hides. Instead of reasoning with them, Obama mocked their concerns.

[ More]

- JP

Sarah's PAC ties Mitt's PAC in cash on hand

"She doesn't have to spend as much money on paid advertising"
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Via ABC News:

Although Romney's raised more money last year, both PACs are sitting on about the same amount of cash...

Mitt Romney:
PAC: Free and Strong America PAC, Inc.
Total 2010 Receipts (from Oct. report): $4,614,790.08
Cash on Hand (from Oct. report): $1,341,906.13

Sarah Palin:
PAC: SarahPac
Total 2010 Receipts (from Oct. report): $2,501,652.04
Cash on Hand (from Oct. report): $1,277,433.92

h/t: Mitch Daniels fan Don Surber

- 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

Spike Maynard on his ensorsement by Gov. Palin

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Don Surber writes that even though Spike used to be a Democrat (we're in good company), he "was conservative when conservative was not cool." In a press release issued by his campaign, Maynard commented on Sarah Palin's recent endorsement of his candidacy:

Spike Maynard said, “We are excited and grateful to have the support of Sarah Palin in our campaign against Rahall. His support of Obamacare and his commitment to the Obama and Pelsoi team are two of the top reasons we started this campaign to begin with.”

Maynard continued, “Our campaign continues to gain momentum because the voters in West Virginia’s Third Congressional District do not want to be represented by anyone on the Obama / Rahall / Pelosi team.”

Spike Maynard is the Republican running in the 3rd Congressional District of West Virginia. Maynard is a former West Virginia State Supreme Court Justice and trial judge from Mingo County. Maynard is an Air Force veteran, where he served in reconnaissance during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Following his honorable discharge, Maynard was the Managing Director of the Tug Valley Chamber of Commerce and practiced law. In 1976, Maynard was elected as a Prosecuting Attorney for Mingo County. He was appointed by Governor Rockefeller to the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit and was twice elected to that circuit. His legal experience saw him elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals, where he served as Chief Justice in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Maynard's campaign website is ILikeSpike.com.

- JP

Surber: Sarah Palin is the most important person in the 2010 election

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In his Friday Charleston Daily Mail column, Don Surber comments on Arianna Huffington's admission earlier this week that the left should take Sarah Palin seriously:

Sarah Palin is the most important person in this election — eclipsing the president, who is forced to sit on the sidelines and hope the voters don’t beat his party too badly.

This is her test. Her surrogates are on the ballot everywhere and their victories — or losses — will reflect on her viability as a presidential candidate.

[...]

The Left sensed from Day One that Sarah Palin is the biggest threat to their stealth socialism.

This was why they targeted her early and made it hip to knock her.

This is proving to be their biggest mistake as she bounces off the canvas and hits back. Harder. The Left just made her the biggest underdog in American political history.

Sarah Palin should thank Tina Fey because in the long run, Sarah Palin is getting the last laugh.

The Left cannot refudiate her with ridicule because the American people see snark for what it is. (Which is why Robert Gibbs is such a terrible press secretary; Americans love humor but hate mocking.)

[...]

Republicans, our leader is alive and living in Wasilla, Alaska.

Deal with it.

Surber says that Arianna "gets it." As we have pointed out, however, though she may get the "what" of Palin Power, Huffinton is clueless on the "why." Surber trumps Arianna's charge that Gov. Palin is light on policy, with Obama Girl and the Obama campaign's reliance on the slogan of "Hope and Change." In fact, Obama's campaign was always more about feelgood sloganism than it ever was about policy. What little mention of policy there was from the Democrat was mostly blaming Bush and making a long string of promises as a candidate that he would break as president.

Read the full Surber column here.

- JP

ADN: Say... maybe Sarah Palin WAS right about that 'largest island' thing

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It's not called the lamestream media without reason. Don Surber explains how the Associated Press contradicted itself:

Oddly enough, Mike Dunham of the Anchorage Daily News fact-checked the Associated Press and found that yes, Kodiak Island is bigger than the main island of Hawaii, which AP listed at 4,028 square miles...

“I thought Daily News readers deserved something a little more authoritative. So I went to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition, ‘The Official Dictionary of The Associated Press.’ There on page 794, it gave the area of Kodiak Island — not the archipelago or islands, plural — as 5,363 square miles.”

Yes, that’s right. No one in the world’s largest news-gathering organization bothered to read its own dictionary.

Perhaps AP should assign 11 reporters to fact-check itself.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 31, 2010)

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Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail:

"Greg Sargent and Politico waste a lot of time mocking Sarah Palin because that is what they like to do — and they blame readers for it. Once again, a liberal refuses to take personal responsibility. What degrades our discourse is a lack of candor. One more thing, is it not telling that 2 years after she burst on the world scene, people still cannot get enough of Sarah Palin? I don’t seem to recall John Edwards, Joe Lieberman or Jack Kemp working up that much excitement 2 years after their failed VP candidacies."

- JP

Don Surber: Hope for Palinistas

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Charleston Daily Mail columnist Don Surber finds encouragement for supporters of Sarah Palin in a recent Rassmussen survey which found that a whopping 87 percent of likely voters believe that it is at least somewhat likely that a woman will be elected president in the next 25 years. A clear majority (58 percent) say such an event is very kikely:

Scott Rasmussen had some fun with the poll: “If the choice was between a Republican woman and a Democratic man, 45% of all voters would vote for the female candidate, and 35% would support the male. 20% are undecided.”

A Republican woman would beat a Democratic man by 10 points.

Who could that Republican woman be?

Surber then goes down the list, naming names, here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (July 30, 2010)

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Don Surber at the Charleston Daily Mail:

"As Sarah Palin continues her campaign for president, she seems to be winning the 2010 primary, which consists of backing the most candidates who win. Rare are her incumbent picks. Even rarer are her picks who lose. The New York Times posted her record at 24-5. That’s a won-loss record at the Sandy Koufax-level... The nation is making a hard sharp turn to the right. Sarah Palin is leading the way."

- JP

Don Surber: Sarah Palin is in their heads

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Charleston Daily Mail columnist Don Surber says that San Francisco Chronicle political writer Carla Marinucci has it wrong. Marinucci had written about Sarah Palin’s appearance at the Friday fundraiser which generated a record $200,000 and change for the Cal State University Stanislaus Foundation. Surber points out that is money desperately needed by a campus which is feeling the effects of the recession, as are the usual donors to that institution. That's why it is significant the a majority (63 percent) of those who purchased tickets to the fundraiser at $500 each had never before donated to the CSUS foundation.

But Marinucci wrote that Gov. Palin's weekend visit to the University "proved beyond a doubt that she delivers — for Republicans and Democrats."

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate had criticized Attorney General and candidate for governor Jerry Brown in her speech for launching an investigation to try to uncover the amount of her speaking fee. "This is California," she pointed out. "Do you really not have anything better to do?"

Brown pretty much proved Gov. Palin's point by responding, "I don’t think she understands the process. It’s about the operation of the foundation to see if they handled things professionally." Marinucci expressed the opinion that in blue California, this helps Democrats.

Surber is not so sure:

The state is in a recession, right?

And Brown is running for governor, right?

Doesn’t he have anything better to do?

As long as Democrats keep talking about her, Sarah Palin grows in stature and Democrats diminish.

She is buried inside their heads. Liberals at times can think of nothing but her. It was the the same thing with Reagan.

California has real financial problems. Sarah Palin went there and eased them by more than $200,000.

What has Jerry Brown done?

Surber makes an excellent point, and we agree with him that making the 2010 elections in The Golden State a referendum on Sarah Palin is not a good strategy. As the conservative columnist says, she's not George Bush and she's not on the California ballot. But Brown is.

In blue Massachusetts, voters unhappy with the direction of the country elected Republican Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate. Blue California is in even worse financial straits than Massachusetts. Companies which provide jobs and much needed tax revenues are leaving the state in droves. California Democrats should be telling the voters how they intend to solve the troubled state's problems rather than trying to demonize Sarah Palin.

Read Don Surber's column unabridged here.

- JP

Don Surber on The arrogance of Sarah Palin's critics

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As we reported here the left and its media puppets have again made fools out of themselves mocking Gov. Palin when she was right all the time. Arrogance + Ignorance = Hubris. Don Surber observes:

Royal Dutch Shell has oil rigs in the North Sea.

And 20% of the land in the Netherlands is below sea level, protected by dikes. Unless you live in New Orleans, you try to make sure your dikes are maintained.

In a Fox News interview, Sarah Palin alluded to this turn down of the Dutch offer.

From Tod Robberson of the Dallas Morning News: Bill O’Reilly “asks her how she would stop the leak. After a bit of hesitation, she blurts out: ‘The Dutch and the Norwegian. They are known for dikes and for cleaning up water and for dealing with spills.’ Hmmm, I do seem to remember that childhood story.”

Once again, a critic of Palin does not realize the joke is on him.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post fell into the same well of ignorance.

We went through this drill with Reagan.

Surber has the links and more in his Charleston Daily Mail column.

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 2, 2010)

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Don Surber:

"Jake Tapper has... launched a Twitter campaign to get Sarah Palin on [ABC's 'This Week']... In the end, I think she goes on ABC and gives him an exclusive. After making him beg for it. String him out. Get the buzz going. Then appear. The Fourth of July falls on Sunday this year. Just saying."

- JP

The Influential Sarah Palin

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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

Don Surber: 10 more reasons why Sarah Palin will make a good president

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U.S. News and World Report recently published: “10 Reasons Sarah Palin Would Make a Good President.”

Don Surber adds 10 more reasons of his own:

11. Put up with a lot of crap from a media that gave Barack Obama a pass on his association with terrorists, racists and crooks.

12. Took on Exxon and won.

13. Took on Frank Murkowski and won.

14. Was cleared of 26 ethics charges making her the cleanest politician in the land.

15. Actually leads people.

16. Actually leads people by example.

17. Todd Palin. He is the husband I would want if I were a woman.

18. Has balanced a budget.

19. Has cut taxes.

20. Not an Ivy Leaguer. The last non-Ivy Leaguer president we had was Ronald Reagan.

- JP

Don Surber: Will Obama get the Palin treatment?

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Don Surber is confident that his readers know the answer to the question in this post's title:

On Tuesday, Matthew Mosk of ABC News had a 908-word opus on Sarah Palin’s fortune since leaving the governor’s office has made — he guessed — $12 million.

[...]

He went on to gin up the “controversy” over her being paid to speak at a college fund-raiser.

Hmm. She is popular and makes money — almost as much money as Katie Couric.

[Thursday] the Associated Press reported: “The White House says President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle made $5.5 million last year and paid nearly $1.8 million in federal income tax.”

Does anyone expect a 908-word opus by anyone at ABC News on the presidential income?

Me neither.

As the lamestream media hasn't shown any "intellectual curiosity" about Obama's past (and no, we don't mean his birth certificate, which isn't an issue for us), why would it have any interest at all in his personal finances? Obama's not "the one" the media is trying to destroy. Sarah Palin is.

- JP

Don Surber: Obama admits Palin was right

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Don Surber comments on the president's new drilling proposal:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

This will never happen. The permitting will take 8 years. Obama is just trying to provide cover to Democratic senators who vote for taxing the air that we breathe.

Still, it is an admission by Obama that Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right, Sarah Palin was right…

- JP

Quote of the Day (January 8, 2010)

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Don Surber:

"A message was sent to conservatives in Washington: Clean up your act. CPAC needs Palin more than she needs CPAC."

- JP