Sarah Palin: ‘I refer to it as being Joe McGinnessed’

Gov. Palin called in to Sean Hannity's radio show today:


h/t: SarahNET

- JP

Whittington: Giffords Special Ruined by Gratuitous Attack on Sarah Palin

"ABC News and Sawyer committed journalistic malpractice..."
*
Mark Whittington observes that Diane Sawyer's "20 20" special on ABC News about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was "for the most part - heart-warming and inspirational." About that "other part," however:

The documentary, which also contained the first public interview with Giffords since the shooting, was ruined by a gratuitous attack on tea party opponents of health care reform and on Sarah Palin toward the end of the one-hour special. A short segment showed Giffords confronting an angry crowd of constituents at a town hall meeting. Palin was shown briefly, as was the infamous cross hairs map.

The segment was shown without context or detail. As Giffords is deservedly a national heroine because of how far she has recovered, the segment gave the clear impression of tea partiers as an angry mob and Sarah Palin as the cause of the shooting.

ABC News and Sawyer committed journalistic malpractice by dredging up the old accusations without also showing evidence that debunked them. Palin and her map had nothing to do with Giffords' shooting, as was implied in the segment. Jared Loughner, Giffords' assailant, was an insane man who likely never heard of Palin and certainly was unaware of the cross hairs map. Yet ABC chose not to mention this.

[More]

It must really burn Sawyer and ABC News that Gov. Palin isn't running for president so they could use this special to try to kneecap her erstwhile campaign.

- JP

Welcome to the party, pal.

Even if you don't support the man, you should defend him.

*
While Herman Cain suffers the slings and arrows of an October surprise that was sprung on the last day day it could still be called an October surprise (Boo! Happy Halloween), the ensuing passion play on the right should not come as any surprise to conservatives, especially the Paliniste.

Cain's supporters have circled the wagons around their candidate in a tighter radius, and every bit of criticism seems to draw their blood. His conservatives critics don't believe the charges against Cain for a second, but some are expressing their disappointment in the manner the candidate and his team have dealt with the situation. And that, in turn, provokes even more outrage from the Georgia businessman's true believers.

For long-time Palin supporters, it's like we've seen this movie before, but the plot seems to have some new twists that we don't recognize from our first viewing. Cain supporters are getting something of a hint of what Palin supporters have been through. They just need to multiply the past 24 hours by three years to know how we feel.

Sarah Palin was scooped up out of the wilds of Alaska and set down upon the stage of national politics. The political limelight can be temporarily, at least, blinding to the eyes of such a candidate, even though The Alaskan had served two full terms on a city council, two as a mayor and a partial term as a governor. She had to campaign for each of those terms, plus she campaigned another time for lieutenant governor but did not win that election. Serving at the local and state tiers of government may prepare a candidate to govern at the national level, but nothing can fully prepare a candidate for campaigning nationally.

Though Mr. Cain was a senior economic advisor to the Dole/Kemp presidential campaign in 1996, briefly ran for president in 2000 and for the U.S. Senate in Georgia in 2004, he's never been in a spotlight so blinding as the one in which he now finds himself. Such an intensely focused beam exposes every loose thread, no matter how small it may be. Cain had already learned that even the most innocent of jokes told will be taken, sharpened like a knife, and then used as a weapon against him. Sarah Palin could have told him all about what one flippant answer to Katie Couric did to her standing as a candidate, and she was only running for vice president at the time. Never mind that the opposing party's vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden, was a veritable treasure trove of flippant remarks. That doesn't matter, because the way conservatives are treated by the media and the moderates in their own party isn't fair.

That's the point. You've got to expect the kind of stuff that we've seen yesterday and today when you're a conservative, and you're running for national office. That the Cain campaign didn't have its messaging worked out beforehand is painfully obvious. Anyone who tries to point this out to Mr. Cain's supporters is taking angry fire right now. Most, though not all, Palin supporters can understand this. When your candidate is under such heavy attack, you don't want to hear any further criticism, no matter how constructive may have been the intent.

Somewhere in the middle conservative ground between those who don't want to hear a discouraging word about Mr. Cain and those who believe he's fair game for attacks made by such as Politico, are those like Karol Markowicz at It's a Free Blog:

I worked on Herman Cain's U.S. Senate primary campaign in 2004 in Georgia and he remains my all-time favorite candidate. His loss in that race was the most heartbreaking political defeat of my career. I still think he's amazing, smart, genuine, and capable, I just don't think he's ready to be president. I would like to see him bone up his foreign policy credentials. I don't like his 999 plan because I don't trust the government to keep the federal income tax at the agreed-upon 9%. Most of all, I don't think someone who has never held elected office can beat Obama and that is priority #1 this election.

I note all this now to be clear that my defense of Herman Cain, against charges of sexual harassment while he was at the National Restaurant Association, is not political in nature.

[...]

Cain is the kind of guy who is exactly the same behind the scenes as he is when he's "on". He's honest and direct. There's no nonsense with him. His charm is not a flirtatious charm. He is not lecherous. He is the same towards men as he is towards women. While he has a dazzling personality, he doesn't use it to inflate his own ego. He knows his strengths, of course, but he doesn't seem like the kind of person to try to get away with things. He doesn't do things because he can. Many of his ex-staff from his U.S. Senate campaign have gone on the record saying this story does not at all represent the Herman we know.

We agree, Karol and I, even though we differ in our choices of which non-Cain presidential candidate we support. We can have that argument later. Right now all of us on the conservative side who don't back Herman Cain in his quest to be president can still defend him against the obviously false and politically-motivated charges that were leveled against him. That doesn't mean we have to support him for president, nor does it mean we cannot voice our opposition to his policy positions which we disagree with. It only means we can defend him when he is smeared. Not only can we defend him, but we should defend him. And if we want any conservative candidate to be able to fight on some semblance of a level field of political combat henceforth, we must defend Herman Cain now.

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 29, 2011)

Palin, Cain, ‘Flavor of the Week’, and the Beauty of New Media
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John Nolte, at Big Journalism:

“This isn’t Palin’s personal impression of Cain and she’s not in any way dismissing his impact on the race or his showing in recent polls... But within the context Governor Palin was speaking of, she’s absolutely right. Pretty soon the fickle media and the powers-that-be in the GOP will get excited over the next shiny object that enters their line of sight — and maybe that’s already happened with Christie...”

- 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
*
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

Quote of the Day (August 28, 2011)

Michelle Obama Spends $375,000 Of Other People’s Money On Ice Cream...
*
Sheya:

“How long before the media blames Palin?”

- JP

Jedediah Bila: What pundits should be talking about when it comes to Palin

"Sarah Palin is a woman who has been consistent, tough and principled."
*
In a Friday opinion piece for The Daily Caller, Jedediah Bila takes the media to task for its endless, inconsequential speculation about Sarah Palin, while ignoring that which is substantial about the first woman and youngest person to serve as Alaska's governor:

Whether she makes a run for the presidency or not — and I personally believe that she will — let’s take a look at some things the media and the D.C./Manhattan elite haven’t quite gotten around to mentioning.

1. As governor in 2007, Palin was responsible for the largest veto totals in state history, while investing $1 billion in forward-funding education and fulfilling public safety and infrastructure necessities.

2. Palin invested $5 billion in state savings during a time of economic surplus.

3. Palin reduced spending by 9.5% from 2007 to 2010 and slashed earmark requests by over 80% during her time as governor.

4. Under Palin, Alaska’s total liabilities were reduced by 34.6% overall.

[...]

7. Palin tossed out the corruption-ridden, structurally-flawed Petroleum Profits Tax of the Murkowski administration and put forth ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share), which incentivized development while seeing to it that Alaskans — resource owners as per the Alaska Constitution — would receive “A CLEAR and EQUITABLE SHARE (ACES) of the value of their commonly-owned oil and gas.” The result? Alaska was left with a $12 billion surplus. Also, as reported at Big Government, “The number of oil companies filing with the Alaska Department of Revenue has doubled, indicating that competition has indeed increased. Alaska has the second most business friendly tax set-up — up two spots since the passage of ACES. Additionally, a report from Governor Parnell’s Department of Revenue indicated that 2009 yielded a record high in oil jobs.”

[More]

h/t: US for Palin

- JP

John Nolte: MSM Currently Brewing Up Phony ‘Undefeated’ Narrative

"The left-wing media wants the film to flop and will grasp at any straw available..."
*
We just knew it was only a matter of time before the criminal enterprise known as the media pulled a stunt like this:

With the roaring success ”The Undefeated” has already had at changing the conversation about Sarah Palin from tanning beds and crosshair maps to, you know, her actual record as a public servant, the Left and their dishonest allies in the MSM are obviously as worried as they are desperate. As a result, this morning at ”The Atlantic” we’re greeted with a 950+ word article filled with precious NPR-esque prose and the delicate pose of a journalist just reporting the difficult truth, all under the following headline:

Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County

[...]

If you read the fine print…

“The Atlantic” writer is reporting on his experience at a midnight screening … on a Thursday night.

No.

Really.

Read the story again and you’ll see that the emptiness of a midnight screening on a work night is not only worthy of 950+ words and a wildly misleading headline, but also all these subsequent MSM stories filled with similar headlines.

And you can bet there will be more stories to come.

This is how the corrupt MSM works.

[More]

Related: Read the commentaries by William Collier here and Dan Riehl here.

Here's a novel concept: Instead of taking the opinion of any reviewer - be it positive or negative - as gospel, why not see the movie and judge it for yourself?

- JP

Making things up: Salon attributes phony quotes to Sarah Palin

The faked Salon quotes were picked up by other sites
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There they go again. The lamestream media is making things up by falsely attributing quotes she never uttered to Gov. Palin:

In an article published Tuesday entitled “Casey Anthony: The Candidates Respond,” Salon Magazine smeared Sarah Palin and several Republican presidential candidates with faked quotes reacting to the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial. The faked quotes, especially those falsely attributed to Michele Bachmann and Palin, made their way around the Internet this week, adding to the media-driven campaign of hatred against leading Republican women.

[...]

Palin was smeared as a separation-of-powers ditz, accusing President Barack Obama of not getting involved in the Anthony case:

“Once again we see, with our nation in crisis, President Obama stands by and does idly nothing while an injustice is committed here in this glorious nation of ours … Why the strange silence, Mr. President?”

[...]

Alex Pareene, who is described at the end of the article as “Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon,” made up the quotes in apparent frustration that Republican candidates had not waded into the Anthony murder trial controversy. The new media standard now seems to be if a Republican won’t say something outrageously foolish, the media will make up the quotes they want and destroy the candidate anyway.

The article is so poorly-written (and without further clarification) that the author’s attempt at satire is lost upon the reader. The quotes are presented as sourced quotes and transcripts.

[More]

Come to think of it, this sounds oddly familiar. Oh yes, it was just one month ago when Politico got caught red handed, so to speak, doing pretty much the same dishonorable thing. In Politico's case, the authors blamed some anonymous editor for their journalistic crime. In Salon's case, the author, though he presented the quotes as real, now claims his piece was "satire." The left wing media always has some lame excuse for their smear jobs against Sarah Palin, don't they?

- JP

Rob Cunningham: A Rogue Warrior's Strategy for Conservatives (Updated)

"This movie delivers a massive body blow to the media..."
*
Rob Cunningham of the Georgia chapter of Organize4Palin says it is vital to get people into the theater seats to see Stephen Bannon's "The Undefeated." In an American Thinker opinion piece, Cunningham makes a compelling case for getting conservatives actively involved as "rogue warriors" against the media's campaign to destroy not only our leaders such as Gov. Palin, but ourselves and our cause:

I implore every freedom loving American to see Stephen K. Bannon's documentary on the life and career of Sarah Palin. And furthermore, every conservative, Tea Party activist, free-market capitalist, persons of faith or no-faith, and all influential leaders, regardless of whom their preferred 2012 presidential candidate might actually be, should leverage all their talents, skills, resources and creativity to ensure the maximum number of people experience this movie in public theaters.

Stay with me on this, please.

Why do I make this claim? The simple clarity and raw truth offered in "The Undefeated" stands at the ready to educate tens of millions of citizens, perhaps influencing an entire generation of voters. This documentary deeply connects, on both an intellectual and emotional level, and stirs one's very soul. This film brilliantly serves as a modern-day case study, and clearly illustrates how our agenda-driven news media, entertainment industry and political power brokers brazenly operate, in plain view and with cold-blooded intentionality, in a tireless attempt to destroy a very decent fellow citizen. When presented with basic facts, Americans will recoil in disgust.

If principled republicans, tea-partiers and libertarians choose to no longer remain silent, misinformed or "neutral" while one of our strongest and most influential "movement conservatives" is repeatedly and falsely attacked, we will empower every single person and candidate within our movement.

[...]

This movie delivers a massive body blow to the media, it dilutes the effectiveness of liberal scare tactics and will vaccinate millions against infection from traditional "news" reporting. By powerfully highlighting the media's methods of distortion, one of the most powerful weapons used against all conservatives, is damaged.

"The Undefeated" will be released the week of July 15th through July 21st at AMC theatres in 10 major US cities. A positive reception at each of these theaters is critical to ensuring a much larger national audience benefits from this film. Those interested can purchase tickets online at http://theundefeated.cinedigm.com/tickets.html.

In one July week, our entire conservative movement can become enormously stronger if we work together and "get out the viewers." Invite a few friends, visit with your neighbors or organize a youth group. By making a concerted effort to better educate ourselves and our fellow citizens, the best and brightest conservative leaders across our nation will benefit.

It's easy to make a point. It is so much harder to make a difference. If conservatives in ten cities become engaged and encourage all they can to attend "The Undefeated," we'll each be making a positive difference in America. We'll be helping to bring educational value to a generation of citizens and possibly impacting their lives, forever.

When Sarah Palin refused to be a non-moving target for the news media, she was roundly criticized for fighting back by not only that same media, but also by members of the GOP elite and even some in the conservative establishment. Such is the power of the media that the conventional wisdom has long maintained that any attempt to push back against its arrogant manipulation is nothing short of suicidal.

But in choosing not to surrender in the war the media has prosecuted against her, Gov. Palin has one key factor working in her favor. That the media is not highly regarded by the general public is a fact no amount of spin can change. Despite Gallup's best efforts to put a happy face on the way the media is regarded by noting a slight rebound in attitudes about the media, its June 29 poll still shows that among the 16 institutions tested, newspapers and television news rank 10th and 11th in confidence. Considerably less than one third of Americans put much trust in what the media tells them, which means that a substantial majority of people recognize a media smear job on Sarah Palin when they see it. The media's war on conservatives in general and Gov. Palin in particular is a campaign the media could lose.

This is why "The Undefeated" is so vitally important. In our review of the documentary, The Power of 'The Undefeated' two weeks ago we commented that the film has the power to change minds, and if enough minds can be changed, then that changes the game. It is critical to reach that 29 percent of Americans who still believe what the corrupt media tells them before we can make media either change its ways or accept its consignment to the dustbin of history. If, as Cunningham says, we can get enough of those 29 percent to sit still for two hours to view "The Undefeated," conservatives can win this game.

Update: "The Undefeated" director Stephen Bannon, via Twitter

Cunningham nails it! This is the 'raison
d'etre' I made the film http://t.co/0XiGN3z
#fightlikeagirl #gameon #undefeated #victory

- JP

Sarah Palin: 'Tears' and 'Rages' During 'The Undefeated'? Really?

"You’d think someone would have caught those tears and rages on tape, right?"
*
On her Facebook Notes page Wednesday, Gov. Palin spoke truth to the latest lies being spread around by Plain-hating bloggers and sensationalist tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic:

Media Making Things Up: “Tears”, and “Rages” During “The Undefeated”? Really?

Obviously we’ve seen our share of media lies, but the latest fabrications circulated take a big slice of the cake. The UK Daily Mail reports that I was “in tears” as Todd “rages over Hollywood stars ripping” me in the new film “The Undefeated.” Huh? Really? The beautiful town of Pella, Iowa, was flooded with an army of media covering the premiere of this film. You’d think someone would have caught those tears and rages on tape, right? Well, here’s a video of the remarks I made at the Pella Opera House right after viewing the film. The emotion clearly displayed was gratitude to the filmmakers who invested their own time and money into highlighting my team’s record in Alaska. Todd and I were overwhelmed with gratitude, and we hope everyone sees this film.

In fact, you can click here to buy tickets to see the film, which opens in theaters on July 15th. You can also vote here to bring it to a theater near you.

MSM, you should check it out too. (You’ll learn the facts many of you have failed to report for the last three years as you’ve continued to do what makes you less and less relevant in our country’s discourse: you’ve chosen to just make things up.) There’s a story there, but you’ll never find it if you continue lying and carrying water for the powers that be.

Again, we thank the sweet town of Pella, and will forever remember the amazing evening we shared together in Iowa!

- Sarah Palin

- JP

Walter Williams: Irksome Things

"All the evidence that I see is that academics and intellectuals have messed up the world."
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There are a great many things, both large and small, that irk Walter E. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University. He discusses a few of them in his syndicated newspaper column:

One of them is our tendency to evaluate a presidential candidate based on his intelligence or academic credentials. When Obama threw his hat in the ring, people thought he was articulate and smart and hailed his intellectual credentials. Just recently, when Newt Gingrich announced his candidacy, people hailed his intellectual credentials and smartness as well.

By contrast, the intellectual elite and mainstream media people see Sarah Palin as stupid, a loose cannon and not to be trusted with our nuclear arsenal. There was another presidential candidate who was also held to be stupid and not to be trusted with our nuclear arsenal who ultimately became president — Ronald Reagan. I don't put much stock into whether a political leader is smart or not because, as George Orwell explained, "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them."

All the evidence that I see is that academics and intellectuals have messed up the world. I challenge anyone to show me a major calamity that was engineered by a stupid, inarticulate person, but those caused by intelligent, articulate persons are too numerous to count, from the likes of Hitler, Stalin and Mao to Woodrow Wilson, FDR and Obama.

My vision of a good presidential candidate is a person with ordinary intelligence but great respect and love for our Constitution. Maybe Palin's and Reagan's respect and love for our Constitution qualified them as dumb in the eyes of the mainstream media, intellectuals and academics.

[More]

We can emphasize with Professor Williams. We have our pet peeves as well. Chief among them are those newspaper editors who endorsed Barack Obama for president and now complain that the man they declined to properly vet "stinks up the joint," without admitting how wrong they were to endorse him in the first place. We find it even more irksome when they have bashed Sarah Palin for more than three years and now complain about her taking her time deciding whether to jump into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

- JP

Jack Kelly on the Power of Palin

Her critics have already said every bad thing they could say about her.
*
Pittsburgh Post Gazette columnist Jack Kelly makes a compelling case against the conventional wisdom, which says it may be too late for Sarah Palin to get into the 2012 presidential contest. The conventional wise guys are quick to point out that Gov. Palin has done no fundraising (beyond her leadership PAC, but she can't use those funds for a presidential run), she hasn't built a campaign team, and some of her supporters who believe the media narrative that she will not run are turning to active candidates such as Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

But the conventional wisdom has a fatal flaw, cautions Kelly. It is "more conventional than wise." Traditionally, candidates have needed to get an early start to build name recognition, and they require a campaign organization mainly to energize supporters to get out and vote. And that's where the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee may have the conventional wisdom beat.

Sarah Palin has some 3.2 million followers on Facebook. That's 800,000 more than all the declared GOP candidates combined, Kelly points out. Palinistas are not the sort of supporters who need to be motivated either to show up at the polls or to stuff envelopes and knock on doors. All Mamma Grizzly has to do is say the word, and they will hit the ground working for her. As recent events in Pella, Iowa have demonstrated, many of them are already doing that.

Also working in Sarah Palin's favor, Kelly observes, are the RNC's new rules, which favor late entrants. He predicts that the highly touted early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are more likely to prune a crowded field than to produce a clear front runner. The fewer the candidates in the debates, Kelly argues, the more they will matter. For Sarah Palin, the debates will be crucial.

Because the media/Hollywood left and their fellow travelers in the Vichy wing of the Republican Party have been denigrating her 24/7 for the last three years, Sarah Palin needs to build her poll numbers, especially among independents, which is where the campaign against her has had the most impact. But even that factor can still be turned around:

A new documentary, "The Undefeated," opens with a montage of vicious things celebrities have said about Ms. Palin. Viewers at the premier in Pella, Iowa, Tuesday were shocked.

But efforts to portray Ms. Palin as a shrill, stupid snowbilly backfired on the journalists who sought the release of 24,000 emails from her time as Alaska governor. The emails "brought back the memory of a long-lost Palin: the popular, charismatic competent woman of the people," who "comes across as practical and not doctrinaire," and who is "far from being a knee-jerk partisan," wrote Molly Ball in Politico.

Liberals hope their sliming of her will keep Ms. Palin from running. But it may be the most important reason why she should.

[...]

Many "mainstream" journalists have abandoned all pretense of fairness, but still expect to be treated as if they were honest brokers. Most Republicans oblige them.

Sarah Palin doesn't. She uses social media to bypass news media "gatekeepers." That's one reason so many journalists hate her. They seethe even more because Ms. Palin uses their obsession with her to make them look ridiculous, as she did during her bus vacation in the Northeast last month.

[...]

But her critics have shot their bolt where Sarah Palin is concerned. They've already said every bad thing they could say about her.

"The Undefeated," strives to set the record straight. The people in Pella who saw it liked it very much. But most Americans won't see it.

Which is why debates will be so important if Ms. Palin runs. In them, she'll either conform to the caricature of her -- or demolish it.

[More]

Gov. Palin should do well in the debates. She used a strong debate performance in the 2006 GOP primary and general elections in Alaska to turn the conventional wisdom upside down and win a governor's race the conventional wise guys had said she had little chance of winning. Two years later, she surprised the pundits, as well as Joe Biden, in a vice presidential debate after which a number of observers, including a Frank Luntz focus group, judged her to be the winner.

An email dump in Alaska which showed her to be a good governor and the media to be actively working to try to destroy her, a documentary which drives those points home to all who will see it except for the hard left, an army of grassroots supporters who will -- as Kelly notes -- "crawl over ground glass" for her, new RNC rules which favor candidates willing to bide their time until many of their opponents have severely wounded themselves and their rivals, and a talent to excel in debate settings are all key elements Sarah Palin has working in her favor in this election cycle. All she has to do is say the word, and the game is on. But she has already said that, hasn't she?

h/t: M. Joseph Sheppard

- JP

Liberal Houston & Dallas 'alternative' blogs review 'The Undefeated'

"The film elevates her to... a primary fighter in a holy war... against the encroaching forces of darkness."
*
A review of "The Undefeated" appears in the Unfair Park blog of the Dallas Observer, an "alternative" weekly owned by Village Voice Media. Think of the Dallas Observer as a Metroplexed Village Voice, and you've got it pegged. Still, reviewer Anna Merlan gives the film a fairer shake than does the Houston Press, the left-wing "alternative" rag in the Bayou City, which used the opportunity to slam-pan Stephen Brannon's documentary.

Instead of being angrily outraged, as was the lefty who wrote the Press' review, Ms. Merlan seems to find the grassroots conservatives who were with her at the screening to be the sort of curiosities rarely encountered in her normal circles. Some excerpts:

After the film, the woman sitting next to me -- who turned out to be Lorie Medina, the head of the Dallas Tea Party -- talked a bit about about Sarah Palin haters. Many of them, she thinks, are motivated by bitterness.

"She's what the feminists have told us to be shooting for," she said. "She has a great marriage, a huge family and an incredible career."

Does Medina think Palin would run for president?

"Well, that's the $64,000 question," she said. "Some days I wake up and I think she will, some days I think she won't." I asked if Palin would be her first choice for president. "Of course," she said, looking faintly shocked.

[...]

"There's nothing wrong in America a good ol' fashioned election can't fix!" Palin exclaims brightly near the end of the film. The audience in Grapevine clapped, cheered and whistled at that. As the movie faded to black, the clapping was replaced with earnest chants of "Run, Sarah, run!"

To her credit, Ms. Merlan eschews the usual liberal snark lathered into the Houston Press review. Still, she missed the point:

The purpose of the film, basically, is for people who currently work for her -- or have in the past, including her attorney, who looks a little depressed, and numerous people who were part of her mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns -- to talk about her achievements and bash her foes, who are part of what one talking head calls "an uprising of hatred" against Palin.

No, the purpose of the film is to tell the true story that the major media ignored, so busy was it bashing Palin and praising Obama during the campaign of 2008. It's the same story told by the tens of thousands of Gov. Palin's emails that same corrupt media couldn't wait to get its hands on, so sure it was that there was dirt to be mined there. But all the media found in the massive email release was the story of an honest and capable administrator who left office with a number of significant accomplishments on her watch. And that's also the point of "The Undefeated." Too bad the Dallas Observer failed to observe the obvious.

The hard left will never give Sarah Palin the credit she's due. That's all right; we don't expect them to. If we can get them to see "The Undefeated," and they come away from the film no longer dehumanizing her as a monster or something, that will be progress. Which would make them live up to their self-characterization as "progressives" for a change.

- JP

SarahPAC - Setting the Record Straight: Here We Go Again

"Basic fact-checking is your friend, media. Try it some time."
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SarahPAC sets the record straight one more time:

Wouldn’t it be nice if Beltway gossip magazines did some rudimentary fact-checking before they ran with stories? That is, of course, assuming that they’re not just making stories up out of thin air.

Take, for example, a Politico story out today alleging that Governor Palin’s “Team” is contacting a “list” of Iowa politicos for meetings. The story even quotes one such person who is purported to be on that list for a meeting. Only one problem: it’s not true. Real Clear Politics debunked Politico’s trumped up story:

Politico reported on Monday that Palin aides were reaching out to Iowa operatives and activists to set up meetings during her visit, citing Chuck Laudner, a former Iowa GOP executive director. But Laudner told RCP that he did not have a private meeting scheduled with Palin and that no one who works for the former governor had made contact with him.

Laudner said that he received an invitation to attend the festivities surrounding the movie premiere from Peter Singleton, a California native who moved to Iowa several months ago to help organize in the state in advance of a possible Palin presidential run. Singleton is acting on his own and is not a Palin aide but has often been confused for one as he has made his presence known across the state.

So basically we have a story that is completely bogus. Basic fact-checking is your friend, media. Try it some time.

In the meantime, Governor Palin looks forward to spending time tomorrow with the people of Pella, Iowa, and enjoying the premiere of Stephen K. Bannon’s new film, “The Undefeated.” After that, she heads to Minnesota to join her daughter Bristol at a book signing for Bristol's new book "Not Afraid of Life" at the Mall of America. Then back to Alaska for jury duty.

- JP

Robert Eugene Simmons Jr. explains why Sarah Palin can win

If Sarah Palin runs, the media has already shot all of its ammo.
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Robert Eugene Simmons Jr. argues that Sarah Palin can win. The American Thinker contributor even goes so far as to opine that if Gov. Palin does not jump into the race for the White House, "it will be a disaster for the Republican Party and quite possibly the country":

Aside from the fact that there isn't another libertarian-conservative in the race, at least not another one who isn't an international isolationist, if Palin doesn't run, it will represent an enormous victory for the Republican beltway establishment and the big players in the left-wing-dominated media. Furthermore, the leftist media will learn a fool-proof means to destroy any political opponent in a manner that will likely result in another four years of Obama.

In watching the coverage of the announced candidates, the alarm bells should be clanging violently. The fact that the leftist media hasn't really gone after the other Republican politicians in the race should be a violent warning to all conservatives and libertarians out there. It's totally out of character for the leftist media to not bring up Newt Gingrich's infidelity every ten minutes, or to have squads of reporters interviewing every foster child of Michele Bachmann that can be found to try to dig up some dirt. The rigorous inspection that has been visited upon Sarah Palin hasn't even started on the remainder of the Republican field. However, that doesn't mean the media has tacked suddenly to the center; far from it.

Throughout the last two years the media has embarked on a vitriolic, obsessed campaign to destroy Sarah Palin, not just as a politician but also as a person. They manipulated the legal system to try to bankrupt her while in office; they hacked her personal email and forced the release of her official email. When all of that produced nothing consequential, they simply made up the stories they wished and put them out to be in every headline for two weeks until they have the majority believing their deceits. As an example, ask any ten people you know who said, "I can see Russia from my house," and probably most of them will incorrectly name Sarah Palin rather than the comedian Tina Fey who actually said it. To the media, facts are unimportant so long as the story forwards the agenda.

If Sarah Palin doesn't run for president, the operatives in the media and Beltway establishment will have learned a fool-proof method of destroying any political opponent. If they are allowed to successfully paint a politician as stupid without any facts, merely because they disagree with the "aristocracy," America will be left with a choice of RINOs or progressive socialists. If that happens then the transformation of America from a libertarian culture to one of socialism and government dependence may very well be irreparable...

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Other promising conservative candidates, Simmons concludes, have not yet had to endure the extremes of "vetting" that the Democrat/Media Complex subjected Sarah Palin to, and, as was the case with Gov. Palin, the statist media will pull out all of the stops to destroy any other conservative who would win the nomination. Would they be able to weather such a firestorm as well as has the lady from Alaska, who is still standing? Speaking for ourselves, we doubt it.

- JP

Video: That Uncontrollable Woman

Plain spoken common sense from Wild Bill for America
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A TEA party activist and former Deputy U.S. Marshall sounds off on Gov. Palin


h/t: Conservative Blogs Central

- JP

Video: AZ O4P gives media/left 'Something to talk about'

Nice new video Created The Arizona Organize 4 Palin Brigade:
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h/t: Devonia Smith

- JP

Attn. Lamestream Media: Sarah Palin says her bus tour isn't over

Only in your dreams, media clowns.
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Gov. Sarah Palin knocked down reports Wednesday in the making-things-up media (Bam! Taste her nightstck...) that her One Nation bus tour had come to an end after completing only its first leg. From The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

Palin, a potential presidential candidate, sought to put an end to speculation that her "One Nation" tour is over. The talk was sparked by a RealClearPolitics report said that it's going on hiatus. Other news organizations reported that the tour is coming to an end.

The bus tour initially prompted speculation from political observers that Palin — the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee — was preparing to enter the presidential race and was using the tour as a test run.

The tour began around the same time as an reports that a feature-length documentary about Palin was to be released in July in the early primary states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

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Gov. Palin also responded to the media hysteria on Facebook:

*Sigh* Reports of Tour Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

Imagine our surprise when reading media reports today that the “One Nation Tour” has been cancelled. Why didn’t anyone tell me? Oh, wait, that’s because it hasn’t been cancelled. (Good ol' media... you never cease to amaze!)

As I said myself at the end of the east coast leg of the tour, the summer is long, and I’m looking forward to hitting the open road again. The coming weeks are tight because civic duty calls (like most everyone else, even former governors get called up for jury duty) and I look forward to doing my part just like every other Alaskan.

I wouldn’t think it to be such a slow news day that, what with numerous wars and serious economic woes concerning Americans, a bus is driving news stories today. The next leg of the tour continues when the time comes. In the meantime, no one should jump to conclusions – certainly not the media with their long track record of getting things wrong or just making things up.

- Sarah Palin

One of the many problems with the media is that it doesn't even bother to read its own material unless, of course, it's patting itself on the back or gushing over Barack Obama, its main squeeze. As ABC News reported just three weeks ago:

Palin confirmed that... after the northeast, she'll go back to Alaska before re-launching the tour - called the "One Nation Tour," after all - on the West Coast.

She told ABC News about her plans after she leaves the northeast:

"Go back to Alaska - in fact today, Willow [the middle Palin daughter] already had to get back to work so she had to leave - go back to Alaska, come back on the trail again, and take the tour west as the summer progresses."

Asked if she'll go all over the country, Palin said, "that is our plan, our tentative plan, anyway."

Ah, but the media has never let pesky things like actual facts get in the way of its wishful thinking that Sarah Palin will just go away, leaving them free to lionize Obama 24/7. Only in your dreams, media clowns. Only in your dreams.

- JP

Brent Bozell: Palin Movie vs. Media Mythology

The footage of Palin at a rally in Madison was impressive.
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As founder and president of media watchdog organization Media Research Center, Brent Bozell probably understands media bias better than anyone. That's why we were eager to read his review of "The Undefeated":

The movie is not an attempt at objectivity. It's a campaign film, a longer version of the kind Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason produced for Bill Clinton. You know, "I believe ... in a place called Hope." Or the one PBS darling Ken Burns made for Ted Kennedy in 2008. The only difference is that our media tend to greet liberal films with open arms and swooning heads, while similar conservative efforts are inevitably trashed.

Still, it would be nice if journalists would be open to considering as accurate the movie's version of Palin's life and career, since they often still confuse Palin quotes with Tina Fey satire ("I can see Russia from my house!"). The three phases of this movie are antidotes to media myth-making.

Myth 1: She's a bubblehead. The first part of the movie covers her time as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. The film shows that Palin rebuilt Wasilla's infrastructure to attract national retailers, which helped grow the local economy. (Rather than give her any credit, reporters were more concerned with false rumors about her ignorant censorship/mistreatment of the town librarian.) As mayor and as governor, Palin governed in boring detail, not with Crayola crayons.

Myth 2: She's no populist. The media want Palin's post-gubernatorial book and TV deals to cancel out her appeal to fly-over country. The second part is where Bannon's real passion shows: the story of Palin's tenure as governor, especially her management of energy issues and her advocacy of a gas pipeline into Canada. This is a story that voters either forgot or never even heard about (and it's the one that's emerging again from her vault of e-mails). She was a hands-on populist executive, not the "Caribou Barbie" cartoon.

Myth 3. She can't appeal to the middle. This section's 2011 footage of Palin at a rally in Madison, Wis., against the union-thug takeover of the state Capitol was certainly impressive. Reporters are so enthralled by government and its employee unions that they can't envision a scenario where centrists or independent voters would vote in favor of taking out the scissors to slice government budgets with "draconian" cuts. But independents voted for conservative Gov. Scott Walker and other budget-cutters in 2010, and they loved Gov. Palin. Before John McCain selected her for the GOP ticket, she had an 80 percent approval rating.

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Bozell does have a couple of nits to pick with the film. He doesn't think it is fair to other conservative candidates. What we believe he fails to grasp is that the documentary isn't about other conservative candidates. It's about Gov. Palin, and how she was singled out for special demonization by the media. He takes issue with Andrew Breitbart's characterization of Beltway conservative men as eunuchs. We suggest Bozell take that up with Mr. Breitbart. The filmmaker asked Andrew for his opinion, and he gave one of many opinions are expressed by conservative commentators over the two hour course of the film. Would Brent Bozell prefer that the makers of the documentary have edited Breitbart's comments to make them appear less confrontational? Had they done so, then the Andrew Bretbart seen on the screen would not be the real life Andrew Breitbart.

We would also ask Mr. Bozell where all these good Beltway conservatives were while their colleagues were trashing Sarah Palin over the past three years. Why did few of them, if any, stand up for her? She certainly had no problem defending conservatives, from Nikki Haley to Dr. Laura Schlessinger when they were unfairly treated. And that's the difference Bozell fails to see. That is what makes Sarah's spine stiffer than all those conservative Beltway men Bozell seems to be so concerned about.

Bozell also complains that, "The movie also implies that every other conservative in the race is 'the establishment.'" We have seen "The Undefeated," and that's not the impression we got from it at all. Implications are often in the eye of the beholder, and that seems to be the case here. while the documentary does make the point that not all who wear the mantle of a conservative are independent of the beltway establishment, to say that it implies "every other" conservative in the race is part of the establishment is simply ludicrous. But one point we'd wager even Mr. Bozell would have to agree with us on is that Sarah Palin stands further apart from the establishment than any of her peers. And this is, we believe, the point the filmmaker was trying to get across.

Still, Brent Bozell recognizes the significance of "The Undefeated." He concludes that the film is more than simply a documentary. "It's an event -- one that shows that Palin is far better prepared, at least technologically, to wage a primary campaign than any of her rivals. And she hasn't even announced." And on that we can agree with the MRC president.

- JP