Newsweek: Palin Plots Her Next Move

"I do believe that I can win."
*
Released a day early due to popular demand, Newsweek's cover story on Gov. Palin. A few excerpts:

I believe that I can win a national election,' Sarah Palin declared one recent evening, sitting in the private dining room of a hotel in rural Iowa. The occasion for her visit to quintessential small-town America was a gathering of the faithful that would have instantaneously erupted into a fervent campaign rally had she but given the word. Instead, it had been another day on the non–campaign trail, this one capped by a sweet victory: she had just attended the premiere of a glowingly positive documentary about her titled The Undefeated.

“The people of America are desperate for positive change, and deserving of positive change, to get us off of this wrong track,” she told me during a conversation that lasted late into the night and, inevitably, kept returning to the subject that has titillated the media and spooked Republican presidential contenders for months: her political intentions. “I’m not so egotistical as to believe that it has to be me, or it can only be me, to turn things around,” she said. “But I do believe that I can win.”

[...]

If Palin doesn’t end up running, the reason will be simple, she said. “Family. If it came down to the family just saying, ‘Please, Mom, don’t do this,’ then that would be the deal-killer for me, because your family’s gotta be in it with you.”

[...]

Yet Palin, who is 47, now hinted that her family would not try to dissuade her from entering the race. “My kids know that life isn’t supposed to be easy, and it’s certainly not fair,” she said. “And they know that, even on their end, they have to make some sacrifices for the greater good.”

Track, the eldest son, who was deployed in Iraq during the 2008 campaign, is now married and running the family’s commercial fishing business in Alaska, living quietly out of the public eye. Willow, who turned 17 last week, seems amenable (“As long as her truck’s running, she’s fine,” Palin said), and Piper, who is 10, is a seasoned campaigner. Bristol’s all in. That leaves Todd, who sat in on part of the interview. “Do I want her to run?” he said. “It’s up to her. I mean, we’ll discuss it. But she’s definitely qualified to run this country. And she’s got a fire in the belly to serve.”

[...]

She would like to revamp, or even eliminate, whole agencies—the Department of Energy, for example—as Reagan once spoke of doing. “That’s the kind of grand reform that is very, very difficult to do. But it can be done.”

Palin made it clear that she’s against any deal that raises the debt ceiling and would hold House Speaker John Boehner’s feet to the fire if he agreed to one. “No, we have to cut spending. It is imperative, and I will be very, very disappointed if Boehner and the leaders of the Republican Party cave on any kind of debt deal in the next couple of months.”

[More]

- JP

DBKP: Why No Amount of Newsweek Reporting Will Hurt Palin

*
At Death By 1000 Papercuts, Mondo Frazier deconstructs the latest Newsweek broadside fired by the troubled magazine at Gov. Palin. Excerpts:

Newsweek has an article on its website on Sarah Palin titled "Why No Amount of Reporting Can Hurt Sarah Palin." The article is extremely informative–only not in the way intended by its author, Ravi Somaiya.

[...]

Newsweek got the headline mostly right while Somaiya stumbled around what was another tired Palin hit piece from the $1 newsweekly. The headline alluded to “reporting.” But “reporting” is not what we get from the magazine and its bedfellows at Vanity Fair. It’s a mish-mash of whispers, gossip and cluelessness and third-hand anonymous sources.

Somaiya can’t come out and pen an article that argues the merits of his ideology. He’d rather try to be clever about it. The only thing is: after seeing the same trick over and over, even the most dim-witted eventually figure it out.

The answer which Ravi Somaiya couldn’t fathom?

The answer why pieces like his, as well as the two from Vanity Fair, have almost no effect is simple: we don’t believe you any longer.

Read the full DBKP debunking of the latest Newsweek anti-Palin hit piece here.

- JP

Newsweek blames Sarah Palin for sexist treatment of GOP women

*
NewsBuster Noel Sheppard catches Newsweek, which has a long record of sexist treatment of Sarah Palin, suggesting it's Gov. Palin's own fault that Republican women are being attacked for their beauty:

"There seems to be an insistent, increasingly excitable focus on the supposed hotness of Republican women in the public eye, like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, and Nikki Haley-not to mention veterans like Ann Coulter," the article now being prominently featured at the magazine's website began.

Hypocritically, Julia Baird's piece never once explained or wondered why the same thing isn't being done to Democrat women.

Instead, the numerous headlines exclusively trivialized physically attractive GOP females...

Newsweek's hypocrisy would be considered stunning were it not owned by the Washington Post Company, which has been reduced to little more than a stenographer service for the Democrat Party. What was once a glossy news magazine has been reduced in more ways than just circulation figures, advertising revenue and the number of its pages. It's just a brochure full of DNC talking points now, which may explain why Newsweek's owners are having so much trouble finding a buyer for the troubled periodical.

Read Noel Sheppard's full story here.

- JP

K-Lo: Newsweek Cover Story Is a Caricature of Christianity

*
Kathryn Jean Lopez is the latest to take on Newsweek's “Saint Sarah" cover story, which the NRO editor and nationally syndicated columnist roundly criticizes in an opinion piece for the National Catholic Register:

You’d think she were one of the mysteries of our faith, all the writing that has gone into trying to grapple with the political career and attraction to and hatred for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

In the case of the recent Newsweek cover portraying Palin as “Saint Sarah” — in a backhanded canonization not quite the same as the Vatican approach — the quandary isn’t all that mysterious. The Newsweek story, written by a writer who fashions herself as an expert on religion, once again has the magazine betraying an ignorant caricature of Christianity in its newsroom.

Take, for instance: “Many Christian women loathe Palin, of course, and many men love her, but a certain kind of conservative, Bible-believing woman worships her.”

I’m not so sure that was just a cute stylistic maneuver. The pro-life Christian conservative woman is an exotic creature in this particular venue. To the outsider, devotion to saints would be far from the strangest thing a Catholic does. Further, in a country where Barack Obama has, at times, been likened to a deity, why wouldn’t someone worship Sarah Palin too?

Newsweek recounts her honesty about her most recent pregnancy. She had a dark thought. This, in Christianity, according to this newsmagazine, is anathema. Christians as human? Dark thoughts and temptations? How can that be? Never mind that perfect people would have never been in need of redemption and salvation.

These few excerpts are just the opening stanzas. You can read the full KJL article here.

- JP

Lisa Miller, Newsweek's Religion Rebel Without a Clue (Updated)

*
Cathy Lynn Grossman at USA Today offers a short and sweet summary of Sarah Pulliam Bailey's takedown of Lisa Miller's ridiculous "Saint Sarah" feature in Newswreck:

Ow! Ow! One of the crew of media critics at Get Religion has whacked Newsweek's Saint Sarah Palin cover by Lisa Miller to smithereens.

By the time Sarah Pulliam Bailey, an editor for Christianity Today and one of the writers for Get Religion, was done laser highlighting massive holes in Miller's reporting, unfounded assumptions in the writing, and the lack of authoritative sourcing all around, you almost felt sorry for Miller.

Almost.

Update: Lisa Miller was a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday night and discussed her Newsweek piece with host Bill O'Reilly. A transcript of that segment is here.

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 11, 2010)

*
Steven Jessop:

"Whether Palin’s influence is as powerful as Newsweek claims, the female presence in Republican politics has never been stronger – there are reportedly 96 Republican women looking to claim House seats this year, and conservatives Nikki Haley and Carly Fiorina each won their respective gubernatorial and Senate primaries. With both Haley and Fiorina being blessed by a Palin endorsement before their wins, perhaps Saint Sarah really is the new patron saint that conservative women running for public office should light a candle to."

- JP

Newsweek burns "Saint Sarah" at the stake

*
Lisa Miller, Newsweek's anti-religion religion editor, has authored a profile of Sarah Palin for the leftist news magazine. Titled "Saint Sarah," the article has the elements of a hit piece:

"Palin has already overshared..."

"But while leftist critics continue to shred Palin as a cynical, shallow, ill-informed opportunist, and new polls show her unpopularity rating to be at an all-time high..."

"Many Christian women loathe Palin, of course..."

"It’s an emotional appeal, unfettered by loyalty to the broader policy agenda of traditional feminism."

"It is impossible to know what Palin really believes about God..."

"For all her apparent authenticity, though, Palin’s real motivations remain hidden. (She declined to be interviewed for this article.)"

"Palin’s lack of expertise on policy questions—and her apparent lack of curiosity—bothers not just her critics but even some of her most devoted fans."

Newsweek, you see, is in Miller's mind not the shrunken shell of its former self which its owners have up for sale to cut their massive losses. No, if Sarah Palin doesn't grant the leftist magazine an interview, then she's somehow inauthentic and hides her obviously nefarious motivations. The appeal of Gov. Palin to Christians is entirely emotional, and the ungrateful wretch hasn't paid her dues to the "real" feminists. She is "loathed" by many "Christian" women for whom the grisly practice of vacuuming out the brains of unborn infants so their skulls can be crushed, reducing their once-developing heads to a size small enough to pulled out of their inconvenienced mothers' wombs. As for Sarah Palin's alleged "lack of expertise on policy questions," Miller should educate herself by reading the governor's Facebook posts, where she will find some well-argued commentary on a variety of issues. The president could use some of that Palin expertise on the matter of offshore drilling right now, as his executive inexperience is becoming painfully evident to a growing number of Americans. And if Miller actually bothered to read Going Rogue, her use of the "lack of curiosity" meme is pure intellectual dishonesty.

Miller also doles out a few morsels of begrudging admiration:

"To millions of women, Palin’s authenticity makes her a sister in arms... a beautiful, fearless, principled fighter who shares their struggles. To a smaller number, she is a prophet, ordained by God for a special role in the cosmic battle against the forces of evil."

"... her pro-woman rallying cry, articulated in the evangelical vernacular, together with the potent pro-life example of her own family, puts Palin in a position to reshape and reinvigorate the religious right, one of the most powerful forces in American politics."

"Already Palin has shown herself to be a kingmaker (as well as a queenmaker)."

"Palin refers often to Ronald Reagan in her speeches, and even critics concede there’s something Reaganesque about the way she approaches faith."

Finally, the author sprinkles in a teaspoon of leftist self-flagellation of the "woe is we for creating this monster" variety:

"With her new faith-based message, Palin gathers up the Christian women that traditional feminism has left behind."

"Palin has her faults, but the left is partially to blame for her ascent. Its native mistrust of religion, of conservative believers in particular, left the gap that Palin now fills."

The best that we say about Miller's article is that it will be read by fewer people than watch Fox News in prime time, as circulation figures for the troubled magazine have dropped to 1966 levels, according to the NY Times. Written by a religion editor who represents the "cafeteria Christian" views of the religious left, it's a homily delivered to a mostly secularist choir. To say that Miller doesn't "get it" would be a gross understatement. The appeal of Sarah Palin to people of faith is not, as one would gather from this article, limited to the evangelical right. An increasing number of Catholics, more mainstream Protestants and even religious Jews are finding themselves on the same chapter and verse as "Saint Sarah."

- JP

Erickson: Sarah Palin Outlasts Jon Meacham’s Pretentious Posterior

*
With the news that The Washington Post Co. is putting Newsweek up for sale after several years of drastic losses in revenue, RedState.com pundit-in-chief Erick Erickson observes that the weakly magazine's editor Jon Meacham has finally been successful at something -- driving Newsweek "into the ground":


“
Meacham and the rest of the Newsweek gang decided to turn Newsweek into leftwing political pornography in order to get access to Barack Obama. Increasingly, their audience has shrunk to a few blocks on the Upper West Side, various newsrooms, Democrat offices in Washington, and some college libraries.

[...]

Apparently, literary intimate acts with the Obama White House while also attacking Sarah Palin just cannot sustain traffic in the already over saturated marketplace of leftwing propaganda...

”

At least Meacham, says Erickson, has not been willing to go to the extremes of Larry Flynt "except when it comes to bashing Christians."

Daily Finance: Palin photog breached contract with sale to Newsweek

According to Jeff Bercovici at Daily Finance, the photographer who shot the photo of Sarah Palin in shorts that was on the cover of Newsweak didn't have the rights to sell the pic to the anti-Palin leftist newsmag. That photo was taken for a profile of Sarah Palin for Runners World magazine:

A spokeswoman for Runner's World confirms that Adams's contract contained a clause stipulating that his photos of Palin would be under embargo for a period of one year following publication -- meaning until August 2010. "Runner's World did not provide Newsweek with its cover image," the spokeswoman said. "It was provided to Newsweek by the photographer's stock agency, without Runner's World's knowledge or permission." The spokeswoman declined to say whether Runner's World intends to respond to Adams's breach of contract with legal action.

Here's video of a discussion about the issue on last night's Hannity:



- JP

Sarah Palin has a few choice words for Newsweak

Writing on her Facebook Notes page, Sarah Palin has a few choice words for Newsweak:

Newsweek

The choice of photo for the cover of this week's Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this "news" magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner's World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness - a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention - even if out of context.

- Sarah Palin

- JP

Rogue Reaction

Here we go quoting things up again...

Jeffrey Trachtenberg:

"She does single out some who during the campaign offered support and encouragement, specifically Sen. Joe Lieberman, a close friend of McCain. Prior to a key debate in which the prep advice was becoming overwhelming, Lieberman urged her to 'Be yourself,' she writes. Sen. Lieberman then added: 'Don’t let these people try to change you. Don’t let them tell you what to say and how to think.'"

Lynn Vincent:

"As Sarah’s collaborative writer, I suddenly became a target (the left having running out of original ways to insult the former Alaska governor herself). Andrew Sullivan... crowned me a 'fanatical homophobe.' Others, to use Perez Hilton’s term, followed suit. Had Sullivan bothered to reach out for a reasoned dialogue, I might’ve shared with him that my sister Lori, an articulate, politically active lesbian on the progressive left, has had with me some pretty productive discussions on gay marriage. That for me, it’s about more than 'the Bible tells me so'; it’s about the collision of the First and Fourteenth Amendments."

Phil Weingart:

"I watched the full-court Press against Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and frankly, those pale before the assault on Sarah Palin. It’s just another slime piece in a year-long deluge of slime pieces, from two organizations — the Associated Press and the New York Times — that have, sadly, given themselves over to hurling slime for their political masters."

Mark Steyn:

"Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker and his vast team of researchers (17 Minneapolis-area Somali jihadists, 29 Acorn-accredited child-sex slaves, and 43 unemployed Columbia School of Journalism graduates) fact-check AP's fact-checkers."

John Hinderaker:

"It's funny how the press fact-checks some things but not others... Do you suppose the Associated Press will assign eleven reporters to fact-check John Kerry? No, I don't think so, either."

NoBamaNation:

"Here’s a question: Has anyone at the Associated Press Pravda ever bothered to fact-check a single Obama statement about how he’s 'created or saved' more than a million jobs with the implementation of his 'economic plan?'"

John Weidner:

"But what panic! I love it. I feel warm and tingly thinking about it. Can you imagine liberals even caring what Mit Romney writes? Or going into tizzies when that fellow Huckabor writes a book, if he does?"

Stromata:

"I hadn’t intended to buy Sarah Palin’s campaign memoir... Then I read the Associated Press’s 'fact check'... AP’s quasi-review suggests to me that Going Rogue is a carefully written, thoughtful book that is largely free from obvious foolishness. At least, a dozen hostile readers couldn’t find anything significant to criticize. That’s more than one can say about most writings of most politicians. And Amazon is offering it for just a bit more than the price of a mass market paperback. So I ordered a copy. I hope that the author is grateful to Calvin Woodward, Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine for my contribution to her royalties."

psburton:

"Despite blog posts and e-mails from those of us who make up the rank and file liberal base of the Democratic Party, the White House and congressional leadership continues to dismiss out of hand any possibility Sarah Palin could ever be the nominee or conservatives retake one or both chambers of congress in 2010. Cable pundits and mainstream media continue to ridicule Palin for ratings and those responsible for political tactics in the democratic party focus on races against establishment republicans and next year when establishment candidates lose in GOP primary races, I worry they will behave as they did this year. Gaining by the skin of your teeth, one congressional seat and suffering blow outs in two Governors contests should be a wakeup call, not reason to take a victory lap."

David Kopel:

"The cover of next week’s Newsweek... is one more example of the periodical’s positioning itself as the ideas journal for people who think that the New York Times’ in-house editorials are middle-of-road, but have too many big words. And of the magazine’s cultural disconnect from much of the United States... The Palin-hating media are less clever than they think, and end up inadvertently making her stronger."

Doug Powers:

"The only immediate 'bad news' is for Newsweek — and when they do gratuitiously negative pieces on a figure who is looked up to by a demographic that spends a fortune on books… not to mention magazines, Newsweek’s death spiral makes all the more sense. This is why the mainstream newspaper business is dying too — you simply can’t dismiss a huge slice of the news consuming public with your bias without ultimately suffering economically."

Don Surber:

"Conservatives know why Palin is still standing — and standing taller today than those who tried to bring her down. What does not kill you makes you stronger... The people hate the public policies coming out of Washington. They want a leader. The Internet helps. The Army of Davids may indeed be led by a Joan of Arc."

TrogloPundit:

"The top ten bombshells from Sarah Palin’s new book... 9. Todd is a cyborg from the future, waiting for the name Levi Johnston to appear in the phone book."

Dan Riehl:

"It's hard to not laugh at these nitwits who ran such a dismal campaign, then spent months blaming Palin from the shadows, having suddenly discovered self-righteous anger so they can start to pop off, again... These idiots can look forward to running races for drunken Ward bosses and county sheriffs if there's any justice in the world."

Rick Moore:

"If you want to know who the Democrats are really afraid of, just look at how they react to Palin."

- JP

Newsweek escalates its war on Sarah Palin

Allah's link at Hot Air -- "Newsweek declares war on Palin" -- is over a year behind the times. Newsweek declared war on Sarah Palin quite a while ago. This is just an escalation.

Meanwhile, Erick Erickson detects a twisted irony in Newsweeks's cover story title, "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah?":

"The title comes from 'The Sound of Music' and the song 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?'" 

"Maria, you see, was the hero and protagonist of the musical and, later, the movie." 

"And Maria was pursued by the Nazis."

Which leads Erick to speculate that "perhaps Newsweeks’s red, black, and white masthead is appropriate."

And Newsweek's sub-head -- "She’s bad news for the GOP — and everyone else too" -- makes the mag a parody of its own propaganda. Dr. Goebbels would be proud.

- JP

Another leftist attack on Sarah Palin for her faith

Lisa Miller is what passes for a "religion editor" at the leftist propaganda outlet Newsweek. Newsbusters' Ken Shepherd explains:

Of course, as our archive on Lisa Miller shows, the Newsweek reporter tends to view truth as malleable and subjective, not fixed and objective, as religious conservatives tend to view God and how He reveals truth in Scripture.

Miller takes on Sarah Palin's recent comment about not being able to find anyone to pray with among the Keystone Cops that were the McCain campaign staff in this little sermonette titled "Palin's Prayer Problem":

Sarah Palin, God love her, never lets us down. At a dinner in Alaska last Friday, Palin let the crowd in on her search for a prayer partner in the moments before her vice presidential debate: "So I'm looking around for somebody to pray with, I just need maybe a little help, maybe a little extra, and the McCain campaign, love 'em, you know, there are a lot of normal people around me, but nobody I could find that I wanted to hold hands with and pray." Palin said she finally had to resort to praying with her daughter Piper.

I don't know where to begin. My prayers, which are mostly a recognition of gratitude and wonder, are mine alone, whether I'm in a crowd or by myself. Nobody to pray with? What does that mean? Isn't prayer a personal connection between you and your god, whoever or whatever that might be? Did she really need a group to help her pray for her success in the debate? She couldn't do that by herself? Should she have been praying for herself? What about praying alone over a sick child or a dying relative? Praying for those who are starving or for those who fight our wars? Was there no one there worthy enough to speak to God with her? Was her daughter a last alternative?

Someone please explain this sort of thinking to me. I don't get it. Do you?

Mollie at GetReligion.org gets it, but wonders:

How do you get to be religion editor of Newsweek and not know anything about evangelicals? I mean, does Lisa Miller believe that just because she prays in a particular way that this is the only way people — throughout time and history — should pray? Does she really not know that Christians pray individually, in groups and corporately in worship? Has she really never heard of people praying with one another? Really? What cave do you have to be in to know this little about a group you ostensibly cover?

Midwest Conservative Journal takes Miller's rant to its illogical conclusion:

"What do you mean, my sneering contempt for that airhead housewife Sarah Palin is unbecoming of a Christian? Who are you to judge me? You do remember, Bible tumbler, that Jesus said, 'Judge not unless the other guy’s stupid', don’t you? Jeez, you fundies are idiots."

MCJ is one of my favorite websites. It has become a real comfort to me and other former Episcopalians since ultralibs, with attitudes very much like Miller's, corrupted The Episcopal Church and turned it from our spiritual home into something heretical and perverse. But I do have to give these Cafeteria Christians some credit. After all, as much as Ronald Reagan or Rush Limbaugh, they helped to make a conservative out of me.

- JP