Quote of the Day (October 14, 2011)

O4P NY: We’re Aligned with Gov. Palin’s Mission
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Ron Devito, at US for Palin:

“This is a situation where slow and steady wins the race.”

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 4, 2011)

Sarah Palin 'likely to jump into race'
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Joe Miller, interviewed by Aaron Klein on WABC Radio:

“I mean, you know you see the things she is doing. She did the bus tour. She changed out her foreign-policy team several months ago to reflect more of a tea-party vision, an anti-neocon position. The things she is saying... seem to suggest that she is going to throw her hat in the ring.”

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 3, 2011)

Sights and Sounds: Leadership and Bonding Money Can’t Buy
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Ron Devito, at US for Palin:

“Following her epic speech in which she outlined her seven-point plan to revitalize our economy, Gov. Palin spent nearly 45 minutes shaking hands and hugging her supporters, signing books, posters, tee shirts, twice walking the rope line to ensure everyone had their special moment. We were not high-powered executives, major donors, corporate sponsors, or fat cats who paid thousands of dollars to pose for a picture. We were ordinary [Americans] wanting to bond with an ordinary woman on an extraordinary path.”

- JP

Quote of the Day (September 2, 2011)

As the crowd chanted, "Run, Sarah, run"
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Peter Singleton, of O4P, via The Des Moines Register:

“This is not about Sarah Palin. This is not about any candidate. This is about us as a people. But we need a leader. There is no one who has the political courage and the vision of this woman.”

- JP

Scott Conroy: Palin Backers Use Film to Spread Message Ahead of Iowa Speech

"The central issue now is crony capitalism..."
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O4P volunteers are Sarah Palin's most powerful asset in Iowa, and the documentary "The Undefeated" may be their most effective organizing tool asset as they prepare for her Saturday speech in Indianola. RealClearPolitics' Scott Conroy reports that the group has been screening the film for small audiences in churches, libraries and private homes across Iowa all summer long:

Ladd Ventling, who serves as a county coordinator for the Iowa branch of Organize4Palin, told RCP that he spoke privately with Todd Palin for over 20 minutes about the volunteer group’s efforts during the visit by Alaska’s former First Couple to the Iowa State Fair earlier this month.

Ventling said that while Todd Palin did not say his wife planned to announce her candidacy, the Webster City, Iowa, native came away from the conversation convinced that she does indeed intend to get in.

“If they weren’t going to run, he would’ve said, ‘Thank you very much for what you’re doing, but you don’t have to do that,’ ” Ventling told RCP.

Polly Doolittle, also of Webster City, is another Organize4Palin volunteer who is working in conjunction with Tea Party of America in advance of Saturday’s rally in Indianola.

[...]

“We did a bigger showing in Emmetsburg last Saturday in a theater there,” Ventling said. “Everyone applauded when it was over. And people always want to stay around and chat and give us their opinion about what the movie did for them.”

Steven K. Bannon, the filmmaker behind “The Undefeated,” agreed with several of Palin’s Iowa volunteers who suggested that her successful 2006 gubernatorial run against incumbent Frank Murkowski, which the film recounts in detail, might serve as a prototype for a 2012 presidential bid.

“Alaska in mid-decade was like America today,” Bannon said. “You had a corrupt political class in cahoots with big oil. The central issue now is crony capitalism with this collusion of big business, big government, and big finance taking care of themselves to the detriment of the middle class.”

That last statement should serve as food for thought to those who have fancied that Gov. Palin would endorse Texas Governor Rick Perry rather than jump into the presidential race herself. Crony capitalism is one of the major issues TEA Party conservatives have with Gov. Perry. In sharp contrast, Sarah Palin's record is that of a reformer who fought such corruption both as an oil & gas commissioner and a governor.

Peter Singleton, O4P's Iowa state coordinator, says the organization has “done dozens and dozens of screenings,” and plans to do many more, mostly to small audiences of 6 to 20 people. the group's plan to increase the frequency of the showings in the first-in-the nation caucus state Iowa during the weeks after Gov. Palin’s keynote address Saturday.

- JP

Quote of the Day (August 19, 2011)

Will Palin Announce Candidacy at Iowa Tea Party Event?
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Richard Rogers, of Iowa O4P:

“I don’t believe she would allow us to continue to do this if she wasn’t running.”

- JP

'The Undefeated' screening in Birmingham, AL Aug 25th

From Rainy Day Patriots:
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The Rainy Day Patriots, 101.1 WYDE The Source's Lee Davis and Dr. Gina Loudon along with The Tea Party Youth and Alabama's Organize for Palin group bring the "The Undefeated" to Birmingham. Suggested Donation $12 Each Go here,enter in amount(s) in $12 increments in "Other" field. We will hold your tickets at door for you.

~ This one time showing of the documentary on Sarah Palin "The Undefeated" is Thursday August 25th at 7 pm.

~ Limited Seating - 200 tickets will be sold one day only - Thursday the 18th from 12 noon - 7 pm at WYDE Location here.

~ Volunteers are needed to help us with the event on Thursday August the 25th, 6pm and at the end of show. (Show starts at 7pm)

~ Send an email to zan@rainydaypatriots.org with "volunteer for event" in the subject line.

- JP

'The Undefeated' will be screened in Tyler

August 28, 29 and 30
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According to the newsletter of the Texas chapter of Organize 4 Palin, Stephen Bannon's Palin documentary will be shown in Tyler at the end of the month. There will be three screenings, one each on Sunday, Aug 28 (at 4:30 pm), Monday, Aug 29 (at 7:00 pm) and Tuesday, Aug 30 (at 2:30 pm), all at Tyler's Times Square Cinema.

The newsletter has full details on the two Texas road trips, one from Dallas and the other from Houston, to see Gov. Palin in Waukee, Iowa. There are also links to join O4P, to donate to the organization, and to navigate to the group's social media websites.

- JP

Texans traveling to Iowa for 'Restoring America' TEA Party Rally

Road Trip!
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The Texas chapter of Organize4Palin has chartered a bus to travel to Waukee Iowa for the September 3 “Restoring America” rally being organized by Tea Party of America. Sarah Palin has agreed to deliver the keynote address at the event, one which many of the governor's supporters hope will be the venue at which she will announce that she will be a candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

The charter is scheduled to depart Dallas Thursday night, September 1st, and to return Sunday night, September 4th. The O4P Texans are having the bus wrapped in “Texas is Palin Country” livery.

Seats are still available at $175 per round trip ticket, which includes transfers to and from the event site. Lodging is not included but O4P has arranged for special able group rate.

If you would like to make the trip and live in or can get to the Dallas - Fort Worth area to catch the bus, September 1st, click here to contact the Texas O4P coordinator for DFW.

h/t: Jelayne Sessler

- JP

Three private screenings of 'The Undefeated' in Iowa Saturday

10AM, 2PM & 6 PM in Mason City
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O4P's Toni Hagen will host three private showings of “The Undefeated” Saturday in Mason City, Iowa. The screenings are scheduled for 10AM, 2PM and 6 PM

These will be the first screenings of the Sarah Palin documentary since the film's world premiere in Pella last month.

To RSVP to attend one of the showings and/or to learn more about Organize4Palin, contact Toni at 641-512-8101.

h/t: Ian Lazaran

- JP

NJ for Palin: Gearing Up for Palin 2012

"Make no mistake: Sarah Palin is running."
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Our friend and colleague Bill Hughes at New Jersey for Sarah Palin has no doubts:

She's not running yet. And if you listen to the "experts" in the mainstream media, you'd have to conclude that she's not going to be running. After all, she's "best friends" with Michele Bachmann and preparing to endorse Rick Perry (unless she runs merely to "run interference" for his candidacy like a loyal soldier.) She's just promoting herself, blah blah blah.

Yet any other Republican candidate mentions the word "president" in a public pronouncement and vast throngs of media talking heads begin placing them at the top of the list of nominees with 100% certainty of their getting into the race.

Make no mistake: Sarah Palin is running.

[...]

Given the opportunity to directly halt organizing being done on her behalf while she was in Pella, Iowa for the premiere of her film, Governor Palin instead thanked people for their hard work and talked about how much it meant to her.

While operating independently of Governor Palin or SarahPAC, the Organize 4 Palin higher-ups have had personal contact with Palin in the past. Palin has a very personal and special relationship with her army of grizzlies scouring the nation for additional resources, connections and venues with which to promote her candidacy. She knows exactly how much work is being done on her behalf--and how much is being sacrificed on the part of those folks who are doing it. Everything about Sarah Palin's character indicates that if a presidential run was not going to happen, her troops on the ground would have been told long before.

Read Bill's full post at NJ for Palin.

- JP

Boston Herald: Sarah Palin’s N.H. posse rallies

"She's a fighter."
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You might expect New Hampshire to be an unlikely state for an active grassroots movement for Sarah Palin to be emerging, but O4P has been quietly working behind the scenes to build support in the Granite state for the the first woman to be governor of Alaska and a Republican Party vice presidential candidate:

Warren Rasmussen, who chairs the New Hampshire chapter of Organizers 4 Palin, said the Newsweek interview confirmed what he’s long believed.

“We have a crew of volunteers, and we’re anxiously awaiting her announcement,” Rasmussen said. “Everything that she’s doing right now leads me to believe she’s in.”

Palin caused a sensation when she stopped in Seabrook, N.H., last month during a media-swamped bus tour — grabbing headlines the same day former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney officially announced his presidential candidacy. She’s said she is seriously considering running for president but has offered no timeline as to when she’d make a final decision.

She told Newsweek in an article published last weekend, “I do believe I can win.”

Sam Cataldo, a Republican state representative from Farmington, said Palin’s got an electric touch that none of the declared Republican candidates can match.

“She’s a mom, she’s a wife, and she’s a fighter,” said Cataldo, 74. “We need somebody who can bring people back together again, and she can do it.”

[...]

Rasmussen, who’s never met or spoken with Palin, said he’s got roughly 100 people committed to volunteering for her, and he’s ready to roll out a phone-bank fund-raiser in the near future. He expects her upcoming SarahPAC fund-raising report will reflect her political clout.

[More]

- JP

RCP: Devoted Volunteers Build Foundation for Palin in Iowa

Iowa Rep. Walt Rogers says that he would support Palin if she were to run.
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A nice write-up for O4P by Scott Conroy at RealClearPolitics this morning:

Last December, Michelle McCormick penned a letter to Sarah Palin, addressed it to her political action committee, and dropped it in the mail.

An unassuming 28-year-old north Texan who works in the oil and gas industry, McCormick had experienced a family crisis similar to the one that had befallen Palin's family when the former Alaska governor's daughter Bristol became pregnant in 2008. McCormick wanted to let Palin know that how the vice presidential candidate handled the situation while in the national spotlight helped guide McCormick through her own family difficulties.

McCormick didn't harbor much hope that she would get a response, but about three weeks later she received a personal reply from Palin.

Six months later, McCormick now spends every weekend (and an increasing number of weekdays) in the nation's first voting state of Iowa attending GOP Central Committee meetings, collecting names of activists in counties across the state, and doing other volunteer organizing in advance of a Palin presidential campaign that she considers inevitable.

"If she was willing to take the time to respond to somebody who is a nobody in Texas, that just shows me what kind of heart she has," McCormick told RCP. "She's a very high-profile individual, and she's got a lot of people making demands on her, and I thought this is someone I really want to help get into the White House."

McCormick is one of the more devoted members of a dedicated nationwide group called Organize4Palin, in which an all-volunteer effort is setting the groundwork for a Palin presidential launch that its members believe is only a matter of time.

[More]

Outstanding work in Iowa, O4P!

- JP

Shushannah Walshe: Sarah Palin the Undefeated

“I’ve got a mission. I want to see us elect the right leader.”
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In her Wednesday Daily Beast column, Shushannah Walshe notes that although Sarah Palin doesn't seem to be in any hurry to announce her decision about running in 2012, that's not stopping her devoted and determined supporters in Iowa from working the state for her, even if it means packing up and moving there:

Insiders continue to stress that a decision probably will not be announced before fall, but even they concede they may find out right before the rest of the world.

Palin has no paid staff on the ground in the crucial state, but that does not mean she doesn’t have people working on her behalf—quite the contrary. She has an army of volunteers, led by an attorney from California who has completely relocated to Iowa to organize for Palin.

Peter Singleton has fully committed himself to the task, even though he says he has never met Palin. Surprisingly, he didn’t even take the opportunity to meet her at the screening, although he helped the team of conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon—who put up $1 million of his own money to make the film—organize invites for the post-screening barbecue. “She doesn’t need to talk to me to have my support,” he explained.

Singleton spends his days and nights going to county GOP meetings across the state and urging caucus-goers to support Palin…all before she has made up her mind, at least according to the former governor.

“I’ve got a mission. I want to see us elect the right leader. The stakes are incredibly high and I think she is our best candidate,” Singleton told The Daily Beast.

[More]

Peter Singleton and his Iowa chapter of O4P are indeed on a mission. Their groundbreaking ground pounding in Iowa should serve as an inspiration to grassroots Palin supporters across the nation. Game on!

- JP

Toby Harnden: Sarah Palin's man in Iowa says she will run in 2012

“I can’t see her sitting this one out. The stakes are too high.”
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The Telegraph's Toby Harnden has written an in depth profile piece on O4P's main man on the ground in Iowa, who says Gov. Palin will make a grassroots campaign for president in 2012:

Speaking to me after the premiere of the film “The Undefeated” in Pella, Iowa, Peter Singleton, a California lawyer who has been assiduously courting Republicans across the state where the first contest of the 2012 election will be heard, said it was “unthinkable” she would remain on the sidelines.

“She’s the right person at this time,” he said. “If you look back at Churchill’s time, in 1938 Churchill was unelectable, in 1940 he was indispensable.

“I can’t see her sitting this one out,” he said. “The stakes are too high. It goes back to 1940. Can you see Churchill sitting it out? It’s unthinkable. Can you see George Washington in 1776 sitting it out? Unthinkable. He wanted to be back on his farm but they said we need you to be president of the republic.”

[...]

It was Mr Singleton who telephoned Beth Hill, director of the Pella Opera House, last Thursday to ask her whether “The Undefeated”, a full-throated defence of Mrs Palin and her career, could be shown there. He then visited to look at the auditorium and put Stephen Bannon, the film’s director on the phone to speak to her.

“Peter came here and he found our town reflected Sarah Palin’s small town, conservative values,” she said. Mr Singleton was also instrumental in distributing the 332 tickets for the film as well as inviting 1,000 Iowans, including many key Republican leaders in the state, for a barbecue afterwards.

When I asked about his involvement, Mr Singleton said that he was an old friend of Mr Bannon and he had been just one of ” a bunch of people” who had helped set up the screening.

[More]

Too bad we can't clone Peter Singleton, but O4P can do the next best thing by sending as many of its key people to spend some time on the ground with him. If the other 49 state can be organized for Gov. Palin as well as Peter has accomplished in Iowa, she could indeed mount a 2012 grassroots campaign for the presidency “the likes of which you’ve never seen.”

- JP