SarahPAC Raises Nearly $500,000 In Just Over A Month

By Gary P Jackson

Sarah Palin’s political action committee had an exceptional month leading up to the November election and beyond. Time Magazine reports:

Sarah Palin raised $469,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22 bringing her total for the year to over $3 million, Tim Crawford, SarahPAC’s treasurer, told TIME exclusively. Crawford attributed the surge of funds to energy surrounding the midterm elections, Palin’s endorsements and her TLC reality show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Her second book, America By Heart, came out Nov. 23.

The PAC spent $64,000 buying advance copies of her books, “just as we did last year” with her first book, Going Rogue, Crawford said. “They’re a great fundraising tool for us.” Palin is in the midst of a two-week cross-country book tour.

Overall the PAC spent $581,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22. A larger percentage than normal was spent on contributions to political candidates, $244,000, as Palin tried to help her 81-endosed candidates over the Nov. 2 finish line. Fifty-five of them won.

All of the $469,000 was raised online or through direct mail. The former Alaska governor has had only two fundraisers for her PAC this year – the last one this past summer — compared to Mitt Romney’s nine. Crawford expects to file his report to the Federal Election Commission this afternoon.

This is a strong showing, and yet another sign that Sarah Palin is a political powerhouse. Time gets the endorsement/win ratio wrong though, as she endorsed ninety-four candidates in local, state, and national races. Sixty-three won.

It’s quite remarkable that Sarah only had the need for two fund raising events vs Romney’s nine.

Though we’ll have to wait for the reports, it’s known Romney is raising most of his money from big donors, corporate and special interests, while Sarah’s money, for the most part, comes in small amounts of $200 or less. Her new book, America by Heart, was used as a premium to generate funds as well, with donors who sent in $100 getting a signed copy. She did this last year with Going Rogue.

This effort tells us that Sarah is poised to make a strong effort should she run for President. It will take an incredible amount of money to compete against Barack Obama. Only two seem capable of this, Sarah and Mitt Romney. Over at HuckPAC, Mike Huckabee’s effort seems to have imploded, and others like Newt Gingrich simply aren’t raising any dollars.

This may set us up for the inevitable Palin vs Romney showdown in the primaries, and with all of Romney’s baggage he’s not going to be competitive against Sarah’s record of successful leadership.

We expect Sarah to announce her intentions early in 2011.

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Sarah Palin Speaks To The Gross Incompetence Of The Obama Regime In The Wake Of The Wikileaks Fiasco

By Gary P Jackson

Americans woke up Monday morning to another massive security breach courtesy of cyber-terrorist Julian Assange the founder of Wikileaks. This is a massive failure of security and is going to be incredibly destructive to America’s ability to collect the sort of intelligence needed to keep the nation safe and secure.

Sarah Palin has some questions for the President:

Serious Questions about the Obama Administration’s Incompetence in the Wikileaks Fiasco

We all applaud the successful thwarting of the Christmas-Tree Bomber and hope our government continues to do all it can to keep us safe. However, the latest round of publications of leaked classified U.S. documents through the shady organization called Wikileaks raises serious questions about the Obama administration’s incompetent handling of this whole fiasco.

First and foremost, what steps were taken to stop Wikileaks director Julian Assange from distributing this highly sensitive classified material especially after he had already published material not once but twice in the previous months? Assange is not a “journalist,” any more than the “editor” of al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a “journalist.” He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?

What if any diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on NATO, EU, and other allies to disrupt Wikileaks’ technical infrastructure? Did we use all the cyber tools at our disposal to permanently dismantle Wikileaks? Were individuals working for Wikileaks on these document leaks investigated? Shouldn’t they at least have had their financial assets frozen just as we do to individuals who provide material support for terrorist organizations?

Most importantly, serious questions must also be asked of the U.S. intelligence system. How was it possible that a 22-year-old Private First Class could get unrestricted access to so much highly sensitive information? And how was it possible that he could copy and distribute these files without anyone noticing that security was compromised?

The White House has now issued orders to federal departments and agencies asking them to take immediate steps to ensure that no more leaks like this happen again. It’s of course important that we do all we can to prevent similar massive document leaks in the future. But why did the White House not publish these orders after the first leak back in July? What explains this strange lack of urgency on their part?

We are at war. American soldiers are in Afghanistan fighting to protect our freedoms. They are serious about keeping America safe. It would be great if they could count on their government being equally serious about that vital task.

~ Sarah Palin

Sarah raises some valid questions.

Why hasn’t everything possible been done to hunt down Assange and either bring him to America for trial, or just take him out, as you would any other terrorist?

Why is it five months since the last attack, and Attorney General Eric Holder is just now showing signs of life?

Why is it Obama has time to tout some nonsensical federal employee pay freeze like it will actually make a dent in the budget deficit, but no time to talk about this?

And what of this lackluster response from Hillary Clinton?

Obviously, Julian Assange is a terrorist. His actions are meant to harm America and our allies, while giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Since he is not an American citizen, designating him and his Wikileaks organization officially as terrorists would make things very simple.

Obviously, any and all Americans involved in this effort are guilty of treason and should be treated accordingly.

The 111th Congress will never go there, but as soon as the 112th Congress is sworn in, the Republicans need to go to town, and see where all of this leads. People need to be held accountable all of the way up to the President.

If you know the definition, you know the Obama regime is the very essence of FUBAR. Unfortunately their incompetence has put America in grave danger.

John McCain Discusses Sarah Palin: “A guy named Ronald Reagan used to be viewed as divisive too.”

By Gary P Jackson

John McCain, appearing on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday morning was quizzed by the host, Candy Crowley, about all of the recent efforts by Sarah Palin and the media attention she gets.

When Crowley asked McCain if he felt Sarah might be divisive, he responded: “A guy named Ronald Reagan used to be viewed as divisive too.”

“She’s doing a great job. I think she’s motivated our base,” McCain added. “She had a positive impact on the last election, and I’m proud of her.”

You can view the video, courtesy of Mediaite, by clicking here

Stunning The Halibut … And The Democrats

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

By Gary P Jackson

So I’m catching up on my reading and find this piece by Steve Tuttle in the far left Newsweek magazine, of all places. For the first half of the article Tuttle tells the tale of a democrat party in shambles, and how they ain’t seen nothing yet. The gist of the story starts on page two, wherein Tuttle uses a recent episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska where Sarah and her daughter Bristol go commercial fishing for halibut as a metaphor for the “bonking” she is going to give the democrats in 2012:

‘Stunning the Halibut’

If the Democrats think things are bad now, wait until Sarah Palin grabs them by their bleeding hearts.

This week I stumbled upon Sarah Palin’s Alaska by looking it up in the TV directory and sitting down on the couch at the time it started so I could view it. I watched Palin take a club to a huge halibut that was flopping around on the deck of a boat, knocking it out cold so it could be thrown into the hold of a professional fishing vessel. She said in her singsong voice, which seems sometimes oddly Germanic, that she was “stunning the halibut.” Not only was I entranced by her awesomeness, but I now have a new favorite catchphrase.

As the fish story unfolded, Palin said, “I wasn’t goin’ to hesitate either, especially when the fish were pilin’ up and they’re slappin’ around. They could do some damage here. We need to calm these boys down real quick.” As the huge halibut flopped about, she cried out, “Sheesh! That hurts like crap!” She explained to the camera that she got slapped across the thigh by one of them: “I realized—yeah, they could hurtcha!” Later, she and her dancing daughter, Bristol, took the halibut’s still-beating hearts and held them in their hands. The harder the Palin gals squeezed, the faster the little panicked hearts pumped. The Democrats need look no further for symbolic harbingers of what could happen in 2012.

You can read the entire article here.

I haven’t written for a few days, instead spending a little time doing some research as well as taking the pulse of the Ruling Class.

Something funny has started to happen. It seems the left wing media has found a whole new respect for Sarah Palin, at least among many. They have obviously realized the past two years worth of vicious 24/7 attacks on the woman and her family have been a bust. Instead of bringing Sarah down, they have destroyed their own credibility and in the process made her stronger.

The left wing sees the writing on the wall.

Obama and his radical Congress overreached like no other in history. They attempted to take America all of the way to the left in one sitting. The American people are not happy, and on November 2 told Obama and Congress not no, but HELL NO, to this insanity.

The American people are fired up, and in it’s present form, the democrat party is finished.

What we are seeing is the progression on the left from ridicule, to fighting, to acceptance of the inevitable, that Sarah Palin will likely be our next President. What these writers hope to do is scare Obama and crew back to reality with the knowledge Sarah is coming for them, and will win.

What’s just as interesting to me though, is the reaction from the Republican elites in the past few weeks. Showing how out of touch they are, as well as slow to react, they are still at the ridicule stage, and moving towards all out war against Sarah.

We’ve had all of the blue bloods in the party come out and talk trash. They saw the same election results the left did, and saw the largest shift in Congress and the state houses in over 100 years. They saw a huge wave of Common Sense Conservatism sweep the land, led by Sarah Palin. This is wave has the potential to be much larger, and more durable than the Reagan Revolution. [and we all know how the blue bloods hated Reagan]

Of course, since the base of the Republican party has never liked or trusted the establishment, this isn’t exactly earning them, or whatever back bencher candidate they trot out in 2012, any friends.

The Ruling Class [in both parties] have a lot to lose when Sarah Palin becomes President. Their power will be gone, hopefully forever, and be given back to it’s rightful owners, the American people.

It’s interesting to note the GOP elites actually fear this [and Sarah] as much …. or more …. than the lefties do!

Debunking the “Rape Kit” Myth… Again

By Stacy Drake

Earlier this month, Tina Fey was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by her industry for mocking Governor Palin. During the taping of the show, Fey recycled a two year-old lie as part of her acceptance speech, saying that Governor Palin charged rape victims for evidence testing kits, during her term as Wasilla Mayor. Fey’s “joke” fell flat with the audience however. So much so that PBS edited that part in her speech out before it aired. After the word got out about what Fey had said, the left seems to have tried to give this falsehood new legs by repeating the charge all over the internet. It’s just another, in a long list of lies that the left and their media allies perpetuate against the governor. The story from the beginning was a fabrication designed to attack the governor’s character and governing priorities.

According to Warner Todd Huston at Newsbusters, the first instance of this story showing up anywhere was on September 8th, 2008 on a left-wing blog called “Americablog.” Huston writes:

At least since September 8 the extreme left has been pushing a lie that Governor, then Mayor, Sarah Palin “charged rape victims for rape kits” performed upon them in the Alaskan town of Wasilla. The charge stems from a May 22, 2000 article in the local Wasilla paper The Frontiersman and has been spun from a comment made by the Wasilla Police Chief. This comment was somehow made into a Sarah Palin policy. Evidence of the incident, though, shows no involvement by Palin at all. Still, many Old Media outlets continue to keep illegitimately linking this rape kit billing claim to Sarah Palin, even though the truth is easily discovered.

After Palin was picked to be VP, on September 8, a blog called Americablog found the old story and brought it up as evidence of “a rather nasty window into Sarah Palin.” Americablog is run by a man named John Aravosis, a Democratic strategist, sometimes gay activist, and Washington D.C. lawyer who once worked for Alaska Senator Ted Steven before he, Aravosis, formally switching to the Democratic Party.

Later that day The Daily Kos also picked it up and from here it began to morph even further adding false claims to the story. In one of those additions to the story, Kos blogger Steven R claimed that Palin hired Police Chief Fannon because he was in favor of charging rape victims for rape kits. Steven R said he was “Pro-Charging Rape Victims for their OWN TESTS!!!” (bold in original). I cannot find this claim anywhere prior to the meme being picked up by the Old Media echoing this Kos diarist.

According to the Uniform Crime Reports for Wasilla, up until 2000 only one rape had been reported to police in Wasilla. The Kos diarist tried to claim that one rape reported equaled one rape conviction alleging that all the “other” rapes were not convicted. But the report clearly says that it was one rape reported not one rape convicted. The Daily Kos Diarist was trying to make it seem as if there were all sorts of rapes going on that weren’t being reported and, presumably, all sorts of victims being charged for rape kits.

In any case, from here the Old Media began to pick up the charge that Palin had put in place or at least agreed with this charging of victims policy. On September 12, for instance, The L.A. Times repeated the charge

After the L.A. Times repeated the false accusation from the left-wing blogosphere, other mainstream media outlets jumped on board. USA Today ran a prominent story, as did CNN and on down the line.

There is no question that the Democrat party aided the media in disseminating this disinformation to the public. Former Alaska Governor, Tony Knowles, a democrat and Obama campaign adviser, played a vital role for them at that time. The USA Today piece I just mentioned highlights that Mr. Knowles reached out to the media to help advance the lie. The article states:

Knowles told reporters, “There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla, and the — the original police chief had been fired by Mayor Palin, and her replacement for that police chief was protesting it, and even when I signed the bill.”

Jim Geraghty wrote a good take-down on the “rape kit” myth where he addressed Knowles comments and more in a 2008 article titled, “Wasilla Debunking Kit.” He wrote:

Liberal bloggers have cited the story of Wasilla charging victims for rape kits as evidence that as mayor, Sarah Palin backed cruel and insensitive policies. But just about everything we know from initial accounts of this controversy is wrong.

When the practice came to light, the state passed a law banning it, and the minutes from the state-legislature committees reveal several missing details. Among them:

1.Wasilla was not mentioned in any of the hearings. In a conference call with reporters earlier this month, Tony Knowles (the man Palin beat in her governor’s race) claimed Wasilla was the lone town with the practice. This isn’t true, but he was far from alone in saying or implying this.

Part of the blame goes to the controversy-launching article from the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, which declares, “While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.”

It makes sense for a local paper to focus on the story’s local angle, but this falsely implies Wasilla was an outlier. In fact, at a Finance Committee hearing, Representative Gail Phillips (R., Homer) “read for the record, a statement from a woman in Juneau who had experienced the charges as indicated.” Compare Juneau (population 30,711 in 2000) to Wasilla (population 5,469).

The Democratic sponsor of the legislation, Eric Croft, told USA Today recently that “the law was aimed in part at Wasilla, where now-Gov. Sarah Palin was mayor.” Yet in six committee meetings, Wasilla was never mentioned, even when the discussion turned to the specific topic of where victims were being charged. (The Matanuska-Susitna Valley, the surrounding region — the most densely populated region of the state, and roughly the size of West Virginia — is mentioned in passing.) Croft testified at the hearing where Phillips read the Juneau woman’s statement, so he must have known that it was a problem well beyond Palin’s jurisdiction, even if he chose not to tell USA Today about it.

2. The deputy commissioner of Alaska’s Department of Public Safety told the State Affairs Committee that he has never found a police agency that has billed a victim. In light of Wasilla’s low number of rapes according to available FBI statistics (one to two per year, compared to Juneau’s 30-39), and the fact that the Wasilla Finance Department cannot find any record of charging a victim for a rape kit, it is entirely possible that no victim was ever charged.

[…]

3. Three times, witnesses told the committees that hospitals were responsible for passing the bill on to victims, not police agencies. If the bill went straight from the hospital to the victim, without ever being sent to the police department, this would explain why no confirming paperwork could be found in the Wasilla Finance Department. This information also fortifies Palin’s claim that she was never aware of the policy, as it is more plausible that a mayor would not be aware of a private hospitals’ billing policy than of the police department’s billing policy.

He concludes:

From the beginning, the story didn’t seem to add up. Nothing in Sarah Palin’s background suggested a callousness to rape victims; it seemed particularly unlikely that a female mayor would support such a bad policy. Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella told USA Today in an e-mail that the governor “does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test.”

In recent days, some conservative bloggers have noted the strange coincidence of the same anti-Palin smears showing up on liberal blogs at the same time, suggesting some sort of coordination — and have wondered if it reflected the work of a p.r. firm connected to Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod. On Monday, a p.r. executive who has worked with Democratic campaigns in the past admitted he had created videos that included false charges against Palin, but claimed the Obama campaign had no official or unofficial role in the creation of the video.

Whomever they are, those who spread the lie that Wasilla alone had the rape-kit policy, and the Obama campaign itself, owe Palin an apology.

Also of note, Governor Palin’s local newspaper, the Frontiersman, did a “Q&A” with Governor Palin during the 2008 campaign where they addressed this contrived controversy. When asked about charging victims for test kits, the governor responded:

“The entire notion of making a victim of a crime pay for anything is crazy. I do not believe, nor have I ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test. As governor, I worked in a variety of ways to tackle the problem of sexual assault and rape, including making domestic violence a priority of my administration.”

You can draw a straight line from the left-wing blogs, to the Obama campaign, to the media as to how this distorted information grew legs to become a story, during a heated presidential election. Unfortunately, I don’t think the McCain camp paid enough attention to it, nor did they launch any sort of counter defense to the accusation. They ignored it and allowed it to grow.

Sadly, providing the background information about how this myth was created and grew will do little to dissuade those on the left from repeating the lies that were embedded into their minds during the 2008 campaign. To this day, the left still cites this myth as if it where fact, regardless of what the truth is. All I can hope is when rational people fallow the timeline and the facts, they will see that this was never anything more than a cheap political attack on a good public servant.

Lessons in Reactionary Mockery

By Stacy Drake

As Ian noted earlier, the left or “#p2” as they are known on Twitter, failed to understand the true meaning of the note Governor Palin posted on Facebook this evening. Mockery of one’s political opponents has become so pervasive on the left that it is the only response they have when Governor Palin says anything. This time however, they openly made fools of themselves for not understanding what the governor had written.

The Australian news site, News.com.au, posted an article tonight, that spoke about the Facebook note and the left’s reaction to it. They write:

The Twittersphere lit up after the publication of Ms Palin’s message, with critics jumping on her mention of 57 states – clearly not realising it was her joke aimed at Mr Obama.

So, I decided to check out the the “Twittersphere” to see exactly what the “critics” were saying. Here’s what I found:

I think Governor Palin’s “math” is fine, but thanks for showing us that you can at least add.

Why yes. Yes she did!

Perhaps this is one of David Frum’s relatives.

Really?

Try reading next time.

This is getting repetitive.

Wait… How did that get in there? This guy isn’t your average #p2 leftist, he’s a fascist Nazi and disgustingly proud of it. I did find it interesting that he was saying the exact same thing as the others however.

Side note: There were many more tweets but I decided to not post a lot of them due to their vulgarity.

I think there is more than one lesson to be learned from this little episode. For one, the left (Nazi’s included) react and repeat with mockery regardless of the circumstances and regardless if they really understand what they are talking about. This was a textbook example of mindless, knee-jerk, learned behavior.

Secondly, these people had no frame of reference to easily understand the message the governor was sending in her post. They were not familiar with the “57 states” gaffe the president made during the 2008 campaign because the media they watch and read never mentioned it. They covered it up leaving their base ignorant to the notion that “The One” was capable of making verbal flubs. Maybe getting one’s news from these shameless media outlets helps explain the lefts worldview, but I digress.

Governor Palin made a verbal gaffe in her interview with Glenn Beck yesterday and has said as much. She clearly didn’t mean to say “north” and anyone who listened to that interview knows that. The fact that the media blew a simple slip of the lip into a widely covered news story proves that they were just playing gotcha with a human moment. Misspeaking simple words, especially for people who have to talk a lot, is common and nobody is immune from doing it. 

Just remember when you hear or see someone calling Governor Palin “stupid” or an “idiot,” the people behind those tweets I posted above are the people saying it.

Another Submission from the Anti-Palin Establishment Echo Chamber

By Stacy Drake

Mona Charen wrote another anti-Palin hit-piece Thursday for the National Review titled, “Why Sarah Palin Shouldn’t Run.” Just as other establishment talking heads have done recently, she echoes the opinion that Governor Palin shouldn’t run for President. These people are all starting to sound identical to me. It’s almost as if they’re reading form the same talking points… I’ll save the conspiracy theories for the television-shooting freaks on the left. I’m sticking with the theory that these establishment pundits are really just a collective group of self-proclaimed elitists, devoid of original thought. Charen begins (emphasis mine):

By telling Barbara Walters that she thinks she can defeat President Obama, Sarah Palin has dimmed hopes cherished by sensible Republicans that she might decide against a run for the White House in 2012. Here are just some of the reasons she should not run.

The Republican nominee should be someone with a vast and impressive record in government and the private sector. Voters chose a novice with plenty of star power in 2008 and will be inclined to swing strongly in the other direction in 2012. Americans will be looking for sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity — not sizzle and flash.

I’m pleased with the thought that Mona’s “hopes” have been “dimmed” by a 24 second clip released by ABC. Last I checked, Governor Palin still has not made a decision about running in 2012. This does show you how much these establishment types are thinking about the prospect however.

Now, let me delve into what I’m sure Mona Charen considers the ‘substance’ of her article. She states that the Republican nominee “should be someone with a vast and impressive record in government and the private sector.” Mona Charen is either ignorant of the governor’s record, or she is purposely ignoring it. Governor Palin is no novice and, she is much more than “sizzle and flash.” Whatever that is supposed to mean.

Governor Palin was first elected to office in 1992. She has almost two decades of public service experience including City Council, Mayor, president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, chair and ethics officer of the Alaska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, and Governor of Alaska. She has also helped run a commercial fishing business with her husband, which they have done for many years. That may not be up to a northeast elitist’s standard for private sector experience, but I assure you the Todd and Sarah Palin kept a budget to mange their expenditures and overhead. Unlike our current president, Governor Palin has held many jobs in her life. She also runs a pretty successful little operation these days. The one the media complains she makes too much money doing.

For a handy list of the governor’s accomplishments, Whitney composed a great down-loadable document awhile back, you can find here. The piece continues:

After the 2008 campaign revealed her substantive weaknesses, Palin was advised by those who admired her natural gifts to bone up on policy and devote herself to governing Alaska successfully. Instead, she quit her job as governor after two and a half years, published a book (another is due next week), and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity. Now, rather than being able to highlight the accomplishments of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, we getSarah Palin’s Alaska, another cheesy entrant in the reality-show genre. She’d so much rather be out dog sledding than in some “dull political office,” she tells the audience. File that.

Charen writes, “after the 2008 campaign revealed her substantive weaknesses.” Excuse me, but Governor Palin was the Vice Presidential nominee on that ticket. Mona should understand that the person in that role has to be a team player. They aren’t in charge of the “substance” of a campaign, but more so in selling the ticket’s message. If you have a problem with the “substance” of the McCain 2008 campaign, take it up with those in charge of that effort.

Mona Charen then says that Governor Palin “quit her job as governor” to “chase money and empty celebrity.” For those of us who paid attention to what happened in Alaska after the election, and actually cared that someone who represented the GOP in that race was being politically and financially savaged, Mona’s implication is insulting. Governor Palin did not resign to get rich. If you truly want to understand what lead to her decision, I strongly recommend reading chapter five in the governor’s book, Going Rogue called “The Tumpin.”

Charen also seems to have a problem with Governor Palin’s show on TLC. As someone who was originally a skeptic of the show idea in the beginning (primarily because I loathe television), after watching it, I think I understand why she did it. It is not “empty celebrity.” Sarah Palin’s Alaska showcases one of the most beautiful places on earth. A place Governor Palin promotes at every given opportunity. It also gives Americans a glimpse into who Sarah Palin is as a person. The governor is aware that many Americans have a false impression of her. The media went above and beyond to distort her reputation, and that effort continues to this day. She has once again, figured out a way to communicate with the country without the use of a press agent’s microphone. The governor uses the word “unconventional” a lot for a reason. I suggest establishment Republicans obtain an understanding of the word’s definition. Charen goes on:

There is no denying that Sarah Palin has been harshly, sometimes even brutally, treated by the press and the entertainment gaggle. But any prominent Republican must expect and be able to transcend that. Palin compares herself to Reagan. But Reagan didn’t mud-wrestle with the press. Palin seems consumed and obsessed by it, as her rapid Twitter finger attests, and thus she encourages the sniping. She should be presiding over meetings on oil and gas leases in the North Slope, or devising alternatives to Obamacare. Every public spat with Dave Letterman or Politico, or the “lamestream media,” or (God help us) Levi Johnston, diminishes her.

I honestly couldn’t disagree more. I have been in the news business for over a decade. I am well aware of just how the media works against people outside of the left-wing spectrum. Conservatives not fighting back has always been a source agitation for me. Why let someone lie about you? Why let the irresponsible media get away with trashing their own trade? The media have a responsibility in a free society to be ethical. It is a threat to any free society when the press become agents of any political faction. Governor Palin understands that. Besides, I don’t know about you but I like a fighter. She calls out the press when they are making things up, which they do daily. Regardless of what Karl Rove says, she does not answer all the attacks leveled against her because that would literally consume all of her time. She does however, call out the most glaring, and in some cases, more distorted attacks directed at her record, her character, and her family. Keep fighting, governor!

The next segment of Charen’s article attempts to take Governor Palin to task for supporting Bristol in the audience on Dancing with the Stars. She writes:

Speaking of television, have you watched “Dancing with the Stars”? Calling the show cheesy would be too generous. Perhaps the former governor should not be blamed for the decisions of her adult daughter. Yet there in the audience we see Sarah and Todd Palin, mugging for the camera and cheering on their unwed-mother daughter as she bumps and grinds to the tune of “Mamma Told Me Not To Come.” Her parents had advised her, the 20-year-old Bristol told an interviewer, that she had to stay “in character” if she expected to win. Being “in character” evidently meant descending to the vulgarity that DWTS peddles on a weekly basis. The mama grizzly was apparently unfazed by, or — equally disturbingly — unaware of, the indignity. And she is supposed to be a conservative culture warrior?

I take it Mona isn’t a big Dancing with the Stars fan. Fine, but lambasting someone for supporting their child during a competition is slightly heartless. Governor Palin is not ashamed of her children, nor should she be. Bristol is her daughter and she is a very proud mother. To try and make the governor feel bad for attending these performances, speaks loudly to the kind of character Mona Charen is. In other words, I feel bad for Mona’s kids.

In the next paragraph, Mona Charen derides Governor Palin’s endorsements from the misterm elections. Please note that Mona left out any discussion about the very successful campaigns that Governor Palin supported. She writes:

Voters prize judgment, above all, in a presidential candidate. Some of Sarah Palin’s 2010 endorsements were sound and arguably helpful. Others betrayed flightiness and recklessness. Tom Tancredo, Palin’s choice for governor of Colorado, has ridden his anti-immigration hobby-horse in a style perfectly suited to alienate Hispanic voters (describing Miami, for example, as a “Third World city”). Her endorsement of Christine O’Donnell was irresponsible and damaging, losing a seat that would otherwise have been a Republican pick-up. Of course, O’Donnell received an absurdly disproportionate amount of ink and attention during the race (the liberal press naturally seizes upon any opportunity to make conservatives look kooky), but Palin should have anticipated that. Besides, this one cannot be laid at the feet of the biased media. O’Donnell was a thoroughly unqualified candidate.

Yes, voters do indeed prize “judgment.” The judgment to place principles above filling congressional chambers with people who may belong to your party, but do not belong to your ideals. Governor Palin did not endorse candidates just because they were Republicans. She was not going to help elect people who would sell out our liberty, or help cosponsor any of Obama’s ‘transformational change.’ She chose the candidates she chose for good reasons. Every campaign was different but the bottom line is that Governor Palin cannot take full responsibility for the losses. Charen’s establishment buddies played a pretty big role in those losses as well by publicly trashing Conservative candidates, even after the primarily were over.

Charen’s ends it by saying:

Palin has many strengths. I admire her fortitude and her principles. Her ability to connect with a crowd is something most politicians can only dream of. I will always remember her 2008 convention speech as a rollicking star turn. She would be terrific as a talk-show host — the new Oprah.

But a presidential candidate? Someone to convince critical independent voters that Republicans can govern successfully? Absolutely not.

Mona Charen admires Governor Palin’s fortitude and principles, yet wants her to be talk-show host. While I’m sure principled talk-show hosts are a good thing, I think Mona is trying to diminish the governor with the suggestion. If Governor Palin does run for President, she will run an unconventional campaign. I’m sure these establishment types won’t understand what they’re looking at when they see it, but they are probably not going to like it. It won’t fit their presidential campaign mold, just like the governor doesn’t fit their presidential candidate mold. So what?

Governor Palin said she would take some things into consideration before making a decision to run for president. She has stated she will evalute the issues, the possible GOP contenders, how her family feels about it, and after prayerful consideration, she will make up her mind. She never said she was waiting to hear from the elite of the east coast to help make this big decision. The bottom-line is that Mona’s opinion doesn’t mean a thing at the end of the day.

May all of your hopes be dimmed in 2012, Mona!

Murkowski Lacks Intellectual Fortitude Among Other Things

By Stacy Drake

Monday, in the midst of the still ongoing Alaska Senate vote count, the “perky one,” Katie Couric gave an interview to write-in candidate Lisa Murkowski. With a Senate seat at stake, and all the legal wrangling happening with this election, it makes sense that Murkowski’s opinion about Governor Palin would be the headline, right? Well, this is perky’s CBS we’re talking about folks. A network more than willing to give Princess Lisa a warm setting, I’m sure.

CBS “reports:”

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowki told CBS News’ Katie Couric today that she would not support Sarah Palin for president because Palin lacks the “leadership qualities” and “intellectual curiosity” to craft great policy.

“You know, she was my governor for two years, for just about two years there, and I don’t think that she enjoyed governing,” Murkowski said. “I don’t think she liked to get down into the policy.” The Alaska senator added that she prefers a candidate who “goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning thinking about how we’re going to deal with” important issues.

As if Lisa had a clue what Governor Palin thinks about first thing in the morning. Also stunning is the fact that Lisa was handed her position of power by her father, yet still finds herself a worthy arbiter of leadership.

Then, as someone who FAILED her bar exam FOUR TIMES, Murkowski has the nerve to say that Governor Palin lacks “intellectual curiosity.” Perhaps if Murkowski had any intellectual curiosity herself, she may have realized that daddy couldn’t hand her a law license. There are still some standards to obtain that credential in Alaska.

The notion that Governor Palin lacks the intelligence to “craft great policy” is both insulting and bereft of fact. Murkowski, with no real policy accomplishments of her own, acts as though ACES and AGIA never happened. Lisa also doesn’t take into account the years Governor Palin spent as a City Council Member, a Mayor, and AOGCC Chair either. All positions which required more than just simple “curiosity” to serve her constituents.

The CBS “report” goes on to talk about the “acrimonious history” between Governor Palin and Murkowski. They repeat the past snipes from Lisa towards the governor regarding her resignation from office. Then the “report” quotes Governor Palin’s Facebook page, speaking about Murkowski, when she wrote that she had “never seen a candidate stoop as low as was seen last night in Alaska’s senatorial debate.” However, CBS omitted the reason Governor Palin wrote that. In case you forgot, Murkowski questioned Joe Miller’s honor during a debate. Joe Miller is a West Point graduate and a decorated combat veteran, so the governor was quite correct with her statement.

After talking about the history between Governor Palin and Murkowski (minus the governor’s side), the “report” continues:

In the interview with Couric, Murkowski said she did not have much of a relationship with Palin, though she said their interactions were “always professional.”

“We just don’t really have much in common – I mean, we don’t talk to one another,” she said.

“We have common interests in a shared love for our state, and I would like to think that if there were an opportunity to help do something good for Alaska, she would call me, or I could call her,” Murkowski added. “But in fairness, she is not really that keyed into the state anymore. She is looking, obviously, at a bigger pond, and so we don’t see her up north as much.” (The comment comes one day after the debut of Palin’s reality show, which is meant to showcase the state.)

I’ve got to hand it to CBS for that last part. Although it is glaring right at the readers, they still point out how foolish Murkowski looks trying to insinuate that Governor Palin wasn’t “keyed into the state [Alaska] anymore,” a day after the premier of Sarah Palin’s Alaska on TLC.

Lisa Murkowski isn’t entirely wrong in this interview talking about her relationship with Governor Palin. She said, “We just don’t really have much in common.” I couldn’t agree more. Lisa Murkowski shares none of the quality character traits of Governor Palin. She isn’t a self-made woman like the governor – instead she was handed her whole life on a platter. Governor Palin is a woman of principle versus a woman who clings to power. Governor Palin is person who respects the will of the people. Murkowski put on a clinic during this last election about ignoring the voters and holding on to power at any cost. Lisa Murkowski goes to Washington to serve her political interests and the interests of those who fund her ride, no matter the cost to the people. Governor Palin’s political backers are the people.

New Oxford American Dictionary: Sarah Palin’s “Refudiate” Named Word Of The Year

By Gary P Jackson

Sarah Palin has been racking up major accomplishments all year, including becoming the leader of the nation’s movement to regain control of our runaway government.

Sarah Palin is a wildly successful political leader, best selling author, top political pundit, and now she can add certified wordsmith to her accomplishments.

If you remember, as the debates were heating up to stop the Obama regime’s dangerous agenda, Sarah called on folks to refudiate Obama and his policies. Of course, the left went insane, because she made up a word, especially after she tweeted that Shakespeare created new words all of the time. The entertainment value of watching the left lose it’s collective mind was simply priceless.

It was made even more delicious when British MEP Daniel Hannan, a self proclaimed Shakespearean obsessive, and a member of the European Parliament came out in support of the word writing:

I am thoroughly taken with Sarah Palin’s neologism. People often incorrectly use the word “refute” to mean something like “deny” or “reject“, only stronger. We could do with a new word to fill this gap and, since both “refute” and “repudiate” are already occupied with their actual meanings, neither can be pressed into service. “Refudiate” occupies the space perfectly, and deserves to become part of every politician’s vocabulary.

The handsome Alaskan politician is quite right to say that Shakespeare came up with countless new-fangled words – including “countless” and “new-fangled“. Among his coinages, as far as we can tell, are accommodation, assassinate, denote, dislocate, equivocal, eventful, hobnob, inauspicious, lacklustre, laughable, perplex, raw-boned, submerge, time-honoured, unmitigated and zany.

Read more here.

From USA Today’s ON DEADLINE:

The staff of the New Oxford American Dictionary has named “refudiate” – former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s mashup of “refute” and “repudiate” – as the 2010 Word of the Year.

From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used ‘refudiate,’ we have concluded that neither ‘refute‘ nor ‘repudiate‘ seems consistently precise, and that ‘refudiate‘ more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of ‘reject.’ “

Palin, also a Republican former vice presidential candidate, generated lots of conversation when she used the word on Twitter. Slate calls Palin’s use of the word “an unquestionable buzzmaker.”

We wrote at the time that Sarah Palin, with all of her many skills, was a real renaissance woman. I’m sure anyone who watched her brand new TLC travelogue will agree. This is a woman who can successfully govern a city and a state, inspire a nation, write best selling books, hunt, fish, climb mountains, and create new words with the proficiency and staying power of the Bard of Avon himself

They Say Governor Palin is “Polarizing” in Order to Marginalize Her

By Stacy Drake

In an effort to frame the narrative, the word “polarizing” has been used by Governor Palin’s detractors, political foes, and people who just repeat what they hear, at an ever increasing level since the midterm elections. Wikipedia describes political polarization as such (emphasis mine):

In politics, polarization (or polarisation) is the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes. It can also refer to when the extreme factions of a political party gain dominance in a party. In either case moderate voices often lose power and influence as a consequence.

The word is being applied to Governor Palin in an effort to marginalize her by people who don’t really have her best interests in mind. I’ve read it more than once from so-called “moderate Republicans,” whose main purpose in life seems to be convincing the left that they’re not all those nasty things leftists calls conservatives. I have a newsflash for those “moderates”… Leftists still hate you, and I have no idea why you care.

Moderation has nothing to do with kissing the behind of the extreme left. You can be civil with them. Work with them when possible, but when their worldview approaches the territory where their actions (based in good nature or not) hurt the nation, you have to put your foot down. That is not “extreme,” that’s commonsense for anyone who cares about this nation. If you look at the national debt, health care, economic uncertainty, and a host of other fine examples the Obama administration has provided for us, you can see that my comments pertaining to their worldview are not hyperbole.

Then there is the irony of the Lamestream media placing to word “polarizing” in the headlines of stories they write about Governor Palin. They do this for the same reason you see left-wing pundits touting the “polarizing” meme. It’s politics, plain and simple. Marginalizing Governor Palin in a way to make people who consider themselves “middle of the road” want to stay away from her. They want those people to ignore what she has to say, because she’s not selling the lefts agenda. It’s a play for the middle – the independents. Instead of telling those ‘middle of he road’ people why they think leftist views are correct, they just tear down their ideological opposition.

How is it possible that this former governor, the subject of the second entry on Google when searching the word “polarizing” (Pelosi in number one), had an 80% approval rating in Alaska, nineteen months after being sworn in? How did someone so ‘extreme’ manage to gain such high approval numbers and keep them for so long? Is Alaska full of ‘extremists?’ … Ah, no it’s not. To me, this shows that there is a disconnect between a perception of how “polarizing” Governor Palin is and how non-polarizing a public servant she actually was.

Sheya posted an excellent piece in August titled “The Polarization of Sarah Palin,” where he wrote extensively on false perceptions versus reality. You can read that piece here, I highly recommend it.

More proof of the disconnect between perception and reality was the Rasmussen poll that came out back in September that said, “Voters feel closer to Palin than Obama, 52/40.” It states:

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Just 40% say their views are closer to the president’s than to those of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate.

Among the Political Class, however, 68% say their views are more like Obama’s, while 63% of Mainstream voters describe their views as more like Palin’s.

That poll was taken to determine the amount of people who agreed with Governor Palin versus Obama on the issues as opposed to perceptions of each political figure. Clearly the American people are more polarized by government takeover of industry and medicine than say… asking the federal government to live up to it’s end of the contract it has with the people. That being the Constitution. You see, commonsense, Constitutional Conservatism really isn’t that controversial.

It appears that Governor Palin agrees. When Mary Hart from ET interviewed her last month, the governor spoke about being labeled “polarizing.” She said:

“That is a bit perplexing because I think, what is polarizing or extreme about believing, politically speaking, in the United States Constitution? And our Declaration of Independence, and all those things that it stands for? And what our founding mothers and fathers in this country meant for America to keep building upon? Those are the things that I believe in. What’s extreme about that? How is that polarizing? So I’m still perplexed by that, that characterization of the polarization.”

It’s clear that Governor Palin rallies Conservatives, and it is well documented that the far left fear and loathe her. However, I find no reason given the governor’s standing on the issues and constitutional beliefs, that people in the middle can’t also rally behind her. What matter of substance would keep those people away?

The “polarizing” meme is just another weapon the left uses to try to damage Governor Palin. Hopefully the American people can start to see that the people giving this label to her have a motive to do so. In other words, consider the source. As far as the people who mindlessly repeat the meme go… I can only ask that they look at the issues, the records before you speak. Then you tell me who are the real “polarizing” figures on America’s political stage today. Do you call Barack Obama polarizing? If not, why not because his record easily proves that he is.