Gov. Palin: Newt Gingrich ‘would clobber’ Barack Obama in any debate

Says "everybody could learn" from Gingrich. "He's seen it all before."
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In an appearance "On The Record" tonight, Sarah Palin told host Greta Van Susteren that what she was looking for in tonight's GOP presidential debate was candidates to actually start detailing their plans, not to simply say that they had a plan or that a plan would be forthcoming from their campaigns. She said she "didn't get a lot of that," but praised Herman Cain for at least having a plan which he has presented.

She said that Americans are still looking for a candidate to rise to the top and be the front-runner. The former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate criticized some of the candidates for bickering, comparing their exchanges tonight to what she sometimes hears from her children. She singled out Newt Gingrich, who "again did the best" on substance.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate called on debate moderators to press candidates when they avoid answering the questions that are asked of them. She praised Michelle Bachmann for her answer on foreign aid for Israel and said a format which provides only sixty seconds for answers doesn't allow candidates to detail their positions on issues, citing Rick Perry's difficulty in effectively explain his stance on illegal immigration.

h/t: SarahNET

- JP

Gov. Palin: I've been 'calling out the corruption in government' for 20 years

"Newt was right on talking about the waste," but "some of them don't want to go there."
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Monday night with Greta Van Susteren "On The Record," Sarah Palin completely exploded the notion, advanced by John Fund and other pundits, that she would endorse Rick Perry for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Commenting on the CNN/Tea Party Express debate, Gov. Palin praised Rep. Michelle Bachmann on calling Gov. Perry out for crony capitalism over his executive order mandating the Gardasil vaccine for young girls in Texas. Gov. Palin said that among the tens of thousands of her emails released from her time as Alaska's governor, are her instructions to that state's health department that her administration would not mandate such vaccines be given to teenage girls. She pointed to the situation whereby Perry's former chief of staff went to work for pharmaceutical giant Merck, maker of the Gardasil vaccine, which stood to make millions from the Perry mandate, saying, "That's crony capitalism."

The former GOP vice presidential candidate also gave kudos to Newt Gingrich for making a case for eliminating government waste. She said she was "getting a kick out of" watching the candidates bring up the same issues in debates just days after she had talked about them in her speeches. Overall, however, Gov. Palin's verdict was that the candidates performed well, and she restated her opinion than any of them would be a big improvement over President Obama. The night's big winner, in Sarah Palin's opinion, was the Tea Party, which she said received validation from a major news network by virtue of CNN's partnering with the grassroots movement for the debate.

- JP

Report: Sarah Palin turned down invitation to tonight's CNN/TPX debate

She's also third in the latest CNN poll
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According to this post title at The Other McCain, Gov. Palin has turned down the invitation that CNN had extended to her to participate in the debate being sponsored tonight by the network and Tea Party Express. We had gathered as much when no news came over the weekend that she had accepted the invitation, and Greta Van Sustern announced that Sarah Palin would be a guest on her "On The Record" program tonight.

If she had accepted the CNN invitation to debate, it would have likely been a violation of her contract with Fox News, a job the governor doesn't appear quite ready to give up -- at least not just yet.

Stacy also reports the results of CNN's latest GOP presidential poll, which has Gov. Palin in third place with 15 percent, behind Ranger Rick with 30 percent and Mitt "Unemployed" Romney with 18 percent.

- JP

David Karki: The GOP Debate and Sarah Palin

Small wonder that the media is doing everything possible to claim it’s too late for Palin
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David Karki writes at the North Star National that Wednesday night’s Republican "debate" was in reality a dog and pony show in which the Seven Dwarfs obediently jumped through the ridiculous hoops presented to the by the biased media that effectively works for Obama. Other than one protest by Newt Gingrich, they still stupidly played a game rigged by MSNBC and Politico – two of the most blatantly biased liberal outlets in all of the lamestream media. Karki must be on the same wavelength as ourselves, observing that Sarah Palin has been wise not to participate in such a farce:

She already has 100% name recognition, will have tons of cash from Tea Partiers the moment she declares, and Snow White might as well let the Seven Dwarfs form the circular firing squad the media would have them make while she stays safely above and out of the fray.

Moreover, in her speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire ripping both parties for “crony capitalism” and Facebook post on the Obama-approved call for union violence against Tea Partiers by Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., she laid out more detailed plans and laid into Obama with a ferocity none of the other candidates would dare – or be allowed to by the Obamedia running the debates.

Palin simply isn’t going to play the usual game by the establishment’s rules. As Dr. Phil says, if you’re going to do what you’ve always done, you’re going to get what you’ve always gotten. In that case, it’s the media trying to produce the most liberal GOP “opponent” possible for the Democrat, which the conservative Tea Party base will hate. This will help an otherwise doomed Democrat have a chance to win, even if it must be alá Clinton 1992: a slim plurality in a three-way race. And if even that isn’t enough, then at least the GOP winner will be the most leftist of the group, ensuring that nothing the Democrat has created will be touched, much less dismantled.

In other words, the game is to create a completely phony “choice” between a hardcore and a watered-down leftist come Election Day, so that the entire exercise is rigged, pointless and the establishment stays, well, established for another four years.

The Seven Dwarfs are mindlessly playing this silly game with the crooked dealer and entirely pre-determined outcome to benefit the house, and even when they occasionally realize the con job, none of them has the spine to fold their hand and cash out to save what chips they have left. Palin, on the other hand, was smart enough never to sit at the table in the first place.

And that, Karki reminds us, is why Gov. Palin is so hated by the leftist media. Mama Grizzly is too smart to step into their bear traps. Meanwhile, she fearlessly calls out the crony corporatists in both major political parties, making her Existential Threat #1 to the business-as-usual establishment.

Small wonder then, that the media is doing everything possible to claim it’s too late for Palin and that she polls horribly – the simplest way to beat her is for her to never get in the race and the next simplest is to get her in too early so they can beat up on her as long as possible.

Yes, Sarah will have to officially get in soon in order to be on the ballot in IA and NH, but why on earth should she expose herself to enemy fire any sooner than absolutely necessary? And if the point of such an unconventional campaign is to break the establishment’s hold, then the first step is to refuse to kowtow to their unwritten rules.

Any reasonable person would think that pundits as smart as Erick Erickson, Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter would have figured all this out prior to slamming her this week for not jumping into the race. Or perhaps it is because they have thought of all this that they are attacking her. Each one of this unholy trinity, after all, is trying to protect the Conservative Lite® establishment that has become their bread and butter. After all, they are crony conservatives. Sarah Palin is a Reagan Conservative.

h/t: M. Joseph Sheppard

- JP

Citing no evidence, Christian Post claims Palin accepted debate invitation (Updated)

What announcement?
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The Christian Post has published an article on its website which claims that:

Amid much speculation about whether or not Sarah Palin will choose to run in the 2012 presidential election, the former Alaskan governor has announced she will participate in a nationally televised Tea Party Republican Debate.

That would be the Sept 12 debate co-sponsored by CNN, and we reported Thursday night that an invitation to participate in the event has indeed been extended to Gov. Palin. But we know of no announcement by Sarah Palin or SarahPAC, her political action committee, indicating that she has accepted the invitation. Nor or we aware of any CNN report or TEA Party Express news release indicating that she intends to take part in the debate.

The Christian Post cites no source, nor does it provide any link to back up its claim. Is the magazine just making things up? You don't have to be from Missouri to to demand, "Show me." Yes, it is possible that that the Post and Christine Thomasos, who wrote the article, are privy to some exclusive information that the Palin team has chosen not to make public. It is also possible that neither CNN nor TEA Party Express have moved to break what would be an important story, perhaps due to some embargo. By what means, then, would The Christian Post get hold of such a story and fail to back it up in any way in its article?

If the Post can offer no evidence of an announcement by Gov. Palin that she will participate in this debate, then it calls into question the magazine's motives in making such a claim. If the intent was cast Gov. Palin in an unfavorable light should she later decline the invitation from CNN and the TEA Party, then it is more than irresponsible for The Christian Post to publish this article -- it is reprehensible. Then there's the matter of God's Commandment which deals with bearing false witness, which for a magazine claiming to offer "Unequivocal Vision, Voice & Veracity" to Christians, would be the height of hypocrisy.

If we're wrong, then we will apologize for our suspicions, and our presence will be required at Confession. But if we're right, then it's The Christian Post which owes Sarah Palin an apology and a full retraction.

Update: The Christian Post has now appended a rather unsatisfactory correction to its article:

An article on Friday, September 2, 2011, about an upcoming Tea Party debate incorrectly stated that 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, would be a participant. While the former governor of Alaska was invited to attend the debate, her camp has yet to confirm her participation. Instead, CNN confirmed that Palin will participate in the upcoming Tea Party Rally that will take place in Iowa on Saturday.

We still have problems with The Christian Post. It tries to shift the blame for its mistake to CNN. This is Journalism 101 stuff, folks.

- JP

CNN invites Gov. Palin to participate in September 12 debate

Palin camp has yet to RSVP
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CNN has extended an invitation to Sarah Palin to take part in its "Tea Party Republican Debate" scheduled for Sept. 12th in Tampa, Florida, the same city in the key state of Florida which will host the 2012 Republican National Convention. The debate will be cosponsored by Tea Party Express:

CNN's Wolf Blitzer will moderate the debate, which will feature questions from guests inside the hall as well as from people attending viewing parties around the country.

[...]

Last month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he would run for the GOP nomination, joining Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, businessman Herman Cain, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman on stage in Tampa.

[...]

Invitations were extended to the eight Republicans who will appear on stage in Tampa as well as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Giuliani declined the debate invitation, while a Palin representative has yet to respond to it.

[More]

- JP

Dan Calabrese: Why aren’t details of how Palin governed news?

These are the same people who tell us Gov. Palin is stupid.
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Noting that the corrupt media was only interested in emails
from Sarah Palin's past, and not those of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or any of the current crop of announced GOP presidential hopefuls, Dan Calabrese condemns the lamestreamers' "search-and-destroy mission" to find dirt on her, "and only her":

All the headlines offered by the egg-on-face media tell us that the e-mails were full of mundane, day-to-day governing stuff, but held no bombshells or major embarrassments.

Now, what does that tell us about what they consider to be news?

You’ve got 24,900 e-mails, many of which contain Palin’s correspondence in the course of governing her state. That’s not news. But if she said something idiotic, shallow or religious, that would be news?

Presumably the reason the media cared about the e-mails at all was that Palin might run for president, or at least they think she might. So why not give us a series of stories on the policies Palin implemented in Alaska? Wouldn’t that give us a lot of valuable insight about the kind of president she might be, if she decided to run? What could possibly be more relevant than that?

Oh. Right. Gaffes, bombshells and slip-ups. Certainly not the substantive details of how she governed.

This sorry exercise tells us more about the media than it does about Palin, although it appears the e-mails demonstrate a fair amount about Palin being engaged in the day-to-day details about governing, serious about budget-cutting and on top of the state’s operations.

[More]

What it tells us about the media, Calabrese points out, helps explain Monday night's circus disguised as a presidential “debate” and the stupid CNN questions “Elvis or Johnny Cash?” What was that all about? the explanation for such nonsense, says Calabrese, is that beyond the horse-race details of elections, today's media have no clue to how to cover the serious business of the governing of the nation. So the trivial and idiotic questions of candidates allow the media Obamabots to coast, as it doesn’t obligate them to investigate how these candidates would rise to the challenge of doing the job they are competing for.

"And these are the same people who tell us Palin is stupid," remarks Calabrese. Indeed, she was smart enough not to let herself be drawn into this particular sideshow, which we figure makes her smarter than anyone who was asking or answering the questions at this so-called "debate."

- JP