Sarah Palin: Hell No I Wouldn’t Raise The Debt Ceiling!

By Gary P Jackson

On Friday afternoon, Sarah Palin appeared on Special Report with Bret Baier. A wide range of topics were discussed:

Barack Obama’s complete and total lack of understanding of how the energy markets work. The debt ceiling debate.  What she thinks of the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls. [and her own plans]

Sarah is none to pleased that Obama has already launched into campaign mode instead of doing his job, and how he may have illegally raised money from foreign donors using a shadowy credit card scam, something the FEC is looking into now.

She also scolds the Republican establishment for trying to mess with the nomination process. She wants everyone to have a fair shot.

I’ve noticed a different Sarah Palin since her event in Madison. When she said “Game on!” she meant it! Of course, she always says what she means, and means what she says. That’s why she has such a large. loyal, and devoted following.

What I’ve noticed in her interviews, her Facebook notes, and even her tweets, is a very determined Sarah Palin. I’ve followed this lady since her early days as Governor of Alaska, and I’m seeing a Sarah Palin who is more forceful, more determined, and more focused when she speaks. She’s in total control of every interview. She definitely has her game face on. It’s no wonder her high school teammates gave her the nickname “Sarah Barracuda.” There is a certain steely-eyed look about her.

Though she says she’s still mulling a White House run, one can’t help but sense she’s got her mind made up. Sarah has repeatedly said there are simply far more important things to do right now, and presidential politics cause everyone to lose focus.

She’s also pointed out numerous times that while it’s way too early to start running, there is no one who excites her as a candidate, no one that she feels she could get behind, though she says it’s too early for all of this too.

This Sarah Palin means business, and doesn’t have time for any foolishness right now. This is a lady on a mission.

Video courtesy of our friends at SarahNet.

Advertisement

International Energy Dependence Vs. National Energy Independence

by Whitney Pitcher

President Obama and Governor Palin both gave interviews on Tuesday where they both discussed how to address rising gas prices. Interestingly, they both agreed– oil supplies need to be increased. In local interviews with a Virginia and a Detroit television station, President Obama called for increased supplies…from Saudi Arabia:

As the high cost of gasoline takes a toll on politics and pocket books, President Barack Obama says he is calling on major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia to increase their oil supplies to help stabilize prices, warning starkly that lack of relief would harm the global economy.

“We are in a lot of conversations with the major oil producers like Saudi Arabia to let them know that it’s not going to be good for them if our economy is hobbled because of high oil prices,” Obama told a Detroit TV station.

[…]

In interviews Tuesday with WXYZ in Detroit and in WTKR in Hampton Roads, Va., Obama said the message to major oil producers like Saudi Arabia is that an economy that buckles because of high oil prices won’t grow and won’t be good for them or for the U.S.

[…]

Obama said he has stressed the self-interest of oil producing nations, arguing that “if we’re not growing, they’re not going to be making money either.

“And so they need to increase supplies,” he told WTKR.

Of course, such a foreign-centric energy policy is nothing new for President Obama. He authorized billions of dollars for drilling in Brazil and has stated that he wants America to one of Brazil’s best customers. He has also lent nearly $3 billion to Colombia for oil refineries. He may be saying, “drill, baby, drill”, but not in English.

While he has called for increased supplies from the Middle East and has supported energy development in South America, he has been antagonistic to increasing supplies and developing energy from America. This includes moratoriums on offshore drilling and EPA over regulation, as Governor Palin discussed with Greta van Susteren on Tuesday:

I never would have done what President Obama did and that’s engage in that moratorium after the tragedy in the Gulf with the spill. He should have been more sensible in figuring out what the problem was, what the solution was to the gulf spill but not take it out on the rest of the country and prohibit drilling onshore and offshore is what he did. 97% of our offshore area locked up after that and there still is a quasi-moratorium because the EPA is making it virtually impossible for drillers to be out there extracting responsibly the God-given resources that we have domestically.

So that’s certainly a difference that I would have had with President Obama had I been in that chair. I would have said, no, we’re going to allow the domestic drilling and we’re not going to subsidize Brazil or other foreign countries and ramp up production in those countries as we promise that we’ll be their best customer if only they’ll drill more. No, I would concentrate on the domestic drilling here.

Of course, Governor Palin is right. Energy policy must be both present and future focused. That is why energy independence is key. It protects America’s economy, strengthens America monetarily, and shields America’s national security. When instability in the Middle East occurs, America would be better prepared to handle the effects of this unrest. Additionally, it would provide jobs that strengthen the American economy. Also, as Governor Palin pointed out later in that discussion, the devalued dollar also affects the increase in energy prices. Something that Governor Palin has sounded the warning bell on as early as October of 2009, when she discussed the interrelatedness of the value of the dollar, energy independence, and the national debt.

A recent regulatory decision by the EPA caused Shell to cancel plans to drill in the Arctic. Heritage reports that the EPA reached this decision because Shell did not properly account for the emissions given off by needed ice breaking vessels. This comes as a bit of a shock, as the alarmist, chicken little EPA would usually have us to believe that global warming has cause all Arctic ice to melt, and therefore, Shell would have no need for such a vessel to assist in their energy development processes.

Alaska is not the only state and the Gulf is not the only region to be affected by President Obama’s policies. His moratorium has affected the people of Virginia and the East Coast as well. A bill has been proposed to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling off of the Virginia Coast. Two of the sponsors of this bill represent the coastal area of Hampton Roads, VA, where President Obama did one of these local interviews where he discussed energy policy. I’m sure they would appreciate a moratorium to be lifted for the economic benefit of their town and the energy security of America.

H/T Doug Powers

The Truth: Gasoline Taxes vs “Evil” Exxon’s Profits, Plus Why Oil Prices Are So High

By Gary P Jackson

It’s that time. Gas prices are once again at record high levels. The usual suspects, and their media partners, are pointing fingers and blaming everyone but the right people for the situation.

Mark Perry at Daily Markets gives us a look at the facts:

The map above from API shows gasoline taxes by state (combined local, state and federal), which range from a low of 26.4 cents per gallon in Alaska to a high of of 66.1 cents per gallon in California, averaging 48.1 cents per gallon across all states. How does that compare to oil company industry profits per gallon?

According to this post on Exxon Mobil’s Perspective Blog , “For every gallon of gasoline, diesel or finished products we manufactured and sold in the United States in the last three months of 2010, we earned a little more than 2 cents per gallon. That’s not a typo. Two cents.”

The chart below shows the difference graphically:

Exxon also reports that in 2010 it “made less than 8 cents for every dollar of revenue from all of our businesses around the world.“

Nice, huh?

As the data shows, state and federal per gallon sales taxes on gasoline are, on average, 20 times higher than the oil companies profit margin, per gallon. Understand, the government doesn’t have any risk involved. They aren’t risking billions to explore for the oil. They aren’t forced to shut down projects that are about to pay off, thus losing billions, on the whim of a tyranical government.

The government creates nothing. They just stand there with their hand out demanding 20 times oil company profits from each consumer, just because they can.

Oh, I know, the government is supposed to use gasoline taxes to build and maintain roads, and other infrastructure, but if that was true, why did the Obama regime need to pass a trillion dollar stimulus package to build and maintain roads? After all, while oil companies are raking the profits in, the government is raking in 20 times more, at least!

I can see it now: “But, Gary, the evil oil companies are making record profits. You’re just a shill for the man!” If only, I’m sure that pays very well!

The progressives, who hate fossil fuels anyway, always blame the oil companies when prices spike. They are an easy target because, in fact, they do make more money than just about any other business on the planet. They also have a product that everyone uses one way or the other. Stands to reason they’ll make big bucks, doesn’t it.

Of course, people seem to forget these same “evil” corporations also lose money, and they lose it by the billions.

Earlier this week we reported the Obama regime forced Shell to shut down a drilling operation in Alaska. Shell had $4 billion invested in that deal, and had yet to hit oil. That’s $4 billion they may as have well just flushed down the toilet!

Oil companies make big money, but they also have big risks. They spend their money billions at a time, and they don’t always win. High risk enterprises deserve to make good money for their risks. It’s how things work.

Something else to remember. That $4 billion Shell was screwed out of by the Obama regime wasn’t Shell’s money to lose. You see, when the radical left, the anti-capitalists, the environmental crazies, and all the rest start bashing “Big Oil” and those “evil” corporations in general, they seem to forget who actually owns these companies. The PEOPLE own these companies. People like you and I who have 401Ks, or mutual funds, or maybe just own stock in companies outright.

These aren’t “the rich” either. Most people in what we consider the middle class, and even some in what we consider lower class have a buck or two invested. So who gets hurt when the Obama regime, or anyone else does things like what was done to Shell? Everyone, that’s who.

But I digress.

So…., why are the companies making record money?

The easy thing to say would be “volume, volume, volume” but it’s more than that. People forget that gasoline, isn’t the only thing the world uses petroleum for. A significant portion of every barrel of oil produced is used to make other products such as plastics, fertilizers, nylon [and every other synthetic fabric], pharmaceuticals, and much more. Profit margins on raw materials vary, and it’s still a business based on volume, but there are more uses for petroleum than just gasoline and lubricants.

And before you start beating up on the gas station owners, they aren’t making big margins either. This I can speak to from first hand knowledge.

When I was a kid my dad owned services stations. Several locations and several brands over the years. This was back in the day when they really were service stations. The kind that checked your oil, checked your tires, wiped your windshield, all while pumping your gas for you.

In the later years, as my dad had to slow down due to health reasons, and I ran the business and kept the books. I can tell you, gasoline sales weren’t much of a factor to the bottom line. The money was made in service. Tire and battery sales, light mechanic work, and routine maintenance work paid the bills. The gasoline pump just helped you build a loyal clientel who would trust you to do all of their work.

Oh, and once the convenience stores started selling self service gasoline at break even prices, things were even worse for businesses like ours. They drove true service stations out of business. Now the convenience stores certainly make money on gasoline sales these days, but it’s all about volume sales, and the hope you’ll come inside and buy something, something usually marked up higher than you’d pay at the grocery store.

So why is the price of gasoline so high at the pump then?

There are real culprits, for sure, but they aren’t the evil oil companies, or even speculators. And while someone, somewhere, might be “price gouging” their effect is negligible, if these people even exist.

Of course, rather than go after the real culprits, Obama, like all liberals, will blame price gouging and speculators, as well as the oil companies, in order to take everyone’s focus off the real reasons why gasoline is pushing $5 a gallon at the pump.

The concept of supply and demand is as old as the existence of commodities themselves. Whether we are talking bartering how many goats or chickens for a bushel of wheat, or a bag of rice, or how many dollars for a barrel of oil, commodities have always been bought and sold, bartered and traded based on supply and demand. How much, or how little of a commodity is available, always determines it’s worth.

It’s pretty simple, but since neither Obama, nor most of the people surrounding him, have ever run a business as complicated as a lemonade stand, they are having a hard time with this centuries old concept.

It stands to reason with the Obama regime’s moratorium on drilling, insanity all over the Middle East, and developing nations like China and India devouring record amounts of oil [for them] that the demand is taxing the supply.

We know that the United States more fossil fuel reserves than any other nation on the planet, and could become totally energy independent quite easily, but that would be too much like right, wouldn’t it?

The other problem making gasoline prices skyrocket is the Fed’s insane QE2 program. The Obama regime is allowing the Fed to monetize the debt, just print money, with nothing in reserve to back it up. This is something Sarah Palin warned us about last year, and unfortunately everything she warned us about has come to pass.

Thanks to the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing, which is endorsed by Obama, everything costs more, including gasoline, simply because the value of the dollar is less than it was before the Fed went down this dangerous path.

Then there is our energy policy, or lack there of. We haven’t had a coherent energy policy in my lifetime. I’m not talking about some insane environmental policy based on faulty, and often made up “science,” I’m talking about a serious policy for energy exploration in order to secure not only the economy, but the nation as a whole. All economies run on energy. No energy, or overly expensive energy, and economies collapse. This isn’t rocket science.

Who’s to bear most of the blame for that pain you feel at the pump? As is usually the case, the government. Republicans and democrats alike have caused this. No one has the guts to tell the radical leftists to just sit down and shut up, and no one has the courage to take on lobbyists and other corrupt elements of the industry.

Look, we haven’t built a new refinery since the 1970s, and now it looks like we are not going to build new nuclear plants anytime soon. Oh, and forget coal, even though it’s by far our most abundant source of energy. Cheap energy.

The “green” activists have held the nation hostage for decades. They are constantly scheming for new and creative ways to destroy “evil” energy production. These Luddites, pagans who worship Mother Gaia over all else, are allowed by the left to use any method to destroy the nation’s ability to produce our own energy.

For example, when Sarah Palin was Governor, the Bush administration, under pressure from radicals, was about to put the polar bear on the endangered species list. Never mind there was no science to back this move up. In fact, there is a bit of a population explosion going on among these bears, and their numbers a steadily increasing. The species is very healthy.

Governor Palin successfully sued the Bush administration on behalf of the state of Alaska. Had the radicals prevailed, it would have all but stopped all oil and natural gas exploration in Alaska forever. Would have pretty much destroyed the state and it’s citizens.

Right now the radicals are trying to shut down the entire economy of West Texas over some sand lizard. It’s insane.

I have a serious question for any liberals who might be reading this.

Thanks to liberals, it’s almost impossible to teach children about God, or even mention his name in school, without having the ACLU, the Justice Department, and liberals in general losing their minds. HOWEVER, Darwin’s completely unproven theory of evolution is taught as fact, pretty much shoved down every school kid’s throat.

One of the major tenets of Darwinism is “Survival of the Fittest.” In other words, species that can’t hack it, don’t deserve to survive and we shouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Species were coming and going millions of years before man ever walked the earth, and we are regularly discovering hundreds of new species we never knew existed.

If Darwin is the end all be all, then who are WE to interfere? If something ceases to exist, then something will take it’s place. It’s just that simple.

As liberals worship all things Darwin, why then, do they interfere with what is his major teaching, that species evolve and the weak die off? It amazes me the amount of sleep these radicals lose over this stuff, when their “religion” teaches them that these things happen.

Maybe it’s not the animals’ health they care about at all, but the animals’ ability to serve as a useful tool to help them advance their radical agenda for the world.

Oh, and it’s not just energy these environmental loons have destroyed. These menaces to society, in their zeal to destroy anything even remotely productive, turned the entire Central Valley of California, some of the most fertile farm land in the world, into desert, millions of acres of desert, over a three inch bait fish, that is not even native to the area!

Billions of dollars have been lost, unemployment in the area is above 40 percent, and families who have owned farms for generations are either losing them, or about to. And the state and the federal government has the environmentalists’ back. They support the eco-terrorists 100 percent.

All of these things effect the price of gasoline, the lifeblood of our society.

How do we fix it? Clean house in Washington, and in the state capitols! Elect leaders who value common sense over radical ideology. Elect leaders who understand basic economics. Elect leaders who want to see America and her people prosper. Elect leaders who understand what “Dill baby, drill” really means.

We are not going to change this over night, but energy security, in an increasingly unstable and unpredictable world, equals national security. It also means economic security for the entire nation. There is no reasonable excuse for an America that isn’t 100 percent energy independent. None whatsoever.

I hate litmus tests for candidates, but if someone isn’t 100 percent on board with doing whatever it takes to make the United States energy independent and do it now, then they are not worth looking at. Especially presidential candidates.

You want our energy problem fixed, you gotta fix government. In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan:

First Look: Bristol Palin’s Book “Not Afraid Of Life”

I’m thrilled to show you the cover of my new book, “Not Afraid of Life!” You’ll notice that there’s a certain cute little boy on the cover. I love that photo!

~ Bristol Palin

By Gary P Jackson

Bristol Palin gives us a first look at the cover of her new book Bristol Palin, Not Afraid Of Life, My Journey So Far via Facebook today. Beautiful artwork. Can’t wait for the book’s release.

How The GOP Establishment And The Media Are Trying To Stop Sarah Palin From Running For President

By Gary P Jackson

The Republican Establishment has always been hostile to the Conservatives who make up the solid base of the party. Oh, they’ll take your money, and your vote, but past that, you need to sit down and shut up. They know better than us rubes.

The elites REALLY hated Ronald Reagan. To the GOP country club set, Reagan was a “B movie actor” an “amiable dunce” and someone who was not “intellectually curious.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it!

It’s the default position they take on everyone who isn’t one of them.

How often do we find the GOP establishment sounding like the far left, when they talk about solid Conservatives?

By the way, the above comments were the nice things they said about Reagan. Both the GOP and the left were screaming that if elected, Reagan would start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The fear mongering was incredible.

The establishment pretty much pushed George H.W. Bush on Reagan as his running mate, and even then, that wasn’t good enough for the liberal leaning country clubbers, who ran former congressman John Anderson as a third Party candidate.

In fact, this is why, despite an electoral college blowout, Reagan only received 50.1 percent of the popular vote in 1980. Though it wasn’t even close, one has to wonder if the GOP elites real agenda was to bleed off enough votes to give Carter a second term, rather than see Reagan, a real reformer come to power.

Nothing has changed with the establishment either. In the spring of 2009 Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney and others went on a ridiculous “listening tour.” Speaking for the group, Bush proclaimed the era of Reagan was over, that it’s time for the Republican Party to give up its “nostalgia” for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.

Clueless. Utterly clueless. They held their first meeting at a pizza joint in Arlington, Virginia. The National Council for a New America (NCNA) didn’t last long.

When you can’t even get people to show up when you have pizza and beer ….

By the way, as if to put an exclamation point on the Bush/Romney lunacy, it was the return of Reagan ideals, and Reagan principles, that saw Conservative Republicans win a historic election in November of 2010. They took back the House in a big way, gained in the Senate, moved into Governor’s mansions nationwide, and saw an unprecedented shift in state legislatures, as over 650 democrats lost their jobs to Republicans. Some states went Republican for the first time since Reconstruction. [after the Civil War]

It seems the country clubbers’ reports of Reagan’s demise were greatly exaggerated.

So …. what we see happening to Sarah Palin is nothing new. It’s just the “good old boys” doing what they always do.

With that said, the GOP elites fear Sarah Palin as much, if not more than the left does. They certainly fear her more than they did Reagan, something I once thought impossible.

Sarah Palin has proven she has no patience for corrupt, go along, get along, business as usual Republicans.

In Alaska she took on the entire Republican Party, which was swimming in corruption. Serious corruption. The FBI was marching politicians off to prison months after Sarah took office as Governor. Even GOP party chair Randy Ruedrich was hammered, and paid the largest fine in Alaska’s history. As a result, the Alaska GOP refused to put Governor Palin’s photo on their website. Childish and petty, but that’s the elite mindset.

Despite the sniping and nonsensically attacks, both the GOP and the media know that Sarah Palin is a strong, capable leader, and if elected would shake things up, and change Washington forever. She will mess up the elites’ little playhouse.

In a follow up to his Top Ten Signs Sarah Pain Is Running, Tony Lee has the Top Ten Ways GOP Establishment and Mainstream Media Try to Dissuade Sarah Palin From Running For President.

Now if you follow these things closely, none of this is new to you, as you see it all the time in the news. And if you read the comments sections on many websites, you’ll see this sort of nonsense parroted by fans of the RINO crowd.

It’s really interesting to watch. You’ll never hear Sarah Palin, or any of her supporters say a candidate shouldn’t run for office.

Well, except for Trump, but that’s just me.

Oh, we may think they are unqualified, or a disaster waiting to happen, but no one will tell them not to run. Competition is good. It makes the best candidates better. Keeps them sharp.

On the other hand, the Republican establishment is flat out saying Sarah Palin shouldn’t even run. As former Carter and Mondale staffer, and faux conservative Charles Krauthammer once said: “She needs to leave the room.”

This was during the debate on ObamaCare, right after she coined the term “death panels.” That was only the turning point in the entire debate, and she has been proven right a thousand times over, but since she’s not from the right side of the tracks, little elites like Charles dismiss her, just as he did Ronald Reagan during his time.

Let’s look at just a few of these:

1. Be a kingmaker (or queenmaker)

As noted by the likes of Grover Norquist and many other pundits and establishment Republicans, Palin, their reasoning goes, would best serve the party as a kingmaker. What they are essentially saying (try to follow the logic) is that Palin’s endorsement should be the gold standard but her candidacy would not be appreciated. Even more ironic is that should Palin run, it diminishes the kingmaking capabilities of the traditional and spoiled cast of characters who are used to getting their brass rings kissed every four years.

This one probably pisses me off the most, though there are several more running for that “honor.”

As pointed out, the logic behind this one is insane. In 2010 Sarah Palin’s endorsement was the only one actively sought, and the one that brought great success. She endorsed over 100 candidates in local, state, and national races, over 60 of them won.

Most notably were candidates like South Carolina’s new Governor, Nikki Haley. Haley was stuck in dead last, fourth place, even after establishment candidate Mitt Romney endorsed her. Sarah came in, made her endorsement in person, and Nikki was immediately the front runner, and of course won big. Plenty more stories like that from 2010.

So how is it that someone, who’s endorsement is the gold standard, isn’t worthy of endorsing herself, and making a run?

Here’s how I look at it: Anyone who NEEDS a kingmaker is not fit to be king, and anyone who can BE a kingmaker CAN be king him or herself. In Sarah Palin’s case that goes double.

There was a variation of this when the GOP was throwing Michael Steele under the bus. All of a sudden the elites thought they had found the “perfect” job for Sarah! A way to use her significant managerial talents, and fund raising ability, and keep her tied up so she couldn’t run for President. There was column after column written proclaiming Sarah was the absolute perfect person to become RNC chairman. We had a different idea.

It’s pretty insulting, when you really think about it. The elites want Sarah to do all the heavy lifting, then get out of the way so they can reap the benefits. They are just too cowardly to say what they are thinking: They’d rather she be barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen makin’ sandwiches!

After she’s done all of their work for them, of course.

3. You’re too divisive

Another argument is that Palin would be too divisive to win a general election. And the only thing those who say this cite are polls released over a year before any voter of importance started paying attention to the election. In these early polls, there is probably some type of Palin effect (or a reverse-Bradley/Wilder effect), as Sheya at Conservatives4Palin noted, where voters either do not want to tell pollsters they support Palin for fear they would sound stupid or are withholding their potential support until she announces her candidacy, if she indeed does.

Further, as Pollinsider noted, Palin always has a strong floor, which potentially helps her in the primary (if the GOP primary has many entrants) and the general election (2012 may be a “base” election like 2004 where turnout matters, so the floor that Palin starts off with would give her significant advantages over other candidates who do not have that built in floor).

Ronald Reagan was “divisive” too. He was so divisive he won two landslide elections! In fact, Reagan was a mere 0.18 percent away from winning all 50 states in 1984.

Polarizing is another word they use. Like Barack Obama isn’t polarizing?

We live in a polarized nation. You have the extreme left, and Conservatives. The mushy middle, those sainted, sacred moderates, that we are constantly told we must pander to, are almost non-existent these days. At this point you either want to return to First Principals and the constitutional republican form of government created by our founders, or be part of the “Glorious Communist Revolution” the democrat party is selling. There simply is no other choice. No middle ground.

The fact is, Conservatism, real conservatism, works every time it’s tried, and solid Conservatives win elections. Especially presidential elections. All one needs is an articulate candidate who can actually walk the walk.

That would be Sarah Palin.

Here’s the truth about polls, especially this early. They are at best meaningless. At this point in the 2008 race the whole world just knew the contest would be between Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton. As late as mid-1980, Ronald Reagan was 31 points down to Jimmy Carter. Reagan carried 44 states and Carter a mere 6.

What polling now is really about, is the media’s attempt to set a narrative. If one digs deep into the internals, it’s easy to spot the methodology used to get the results desired. You can manipulate samples and questions to achieve any result you want. One simply can’t take these as any sort of “snapshot” of reality. The only polling that matters is the one taken on election day.

Another thing Sarah’s detractors put out there is her approval ratings. I lived through the Reagan era, and the attacks on him were vile. Just nasty and very hateful. I remember editorials about Reagan’s age, complete with illustrations of Reagan in the morgue, implying he would die as soon as he took office, so why bother.

One could find Reagan was portrayed as an evil genius and a senile old man, in the same article! A lazy dunce who couldn’t do anything and an evil warmonger who couldn’t wait to destroy the world.

It was sickening.

They were NOTHING compared to the vitriol we see thrown at Sarah Palin though. Nothing is off limits . Sarah, her husband, and her children are all “fair game” to this bunch. The left and their media partners have thrown everything at her including the kitchen sink, so yeah, her numbers may be a tad low. As Sarah herself has said many times: “If I believed everything I read about me, I wouldn’t like me either!”

Many detractors use these sort of things to say she’s “damaged goods” and we need to pick a candidate the media will like. Problem with that is, if we pick a candidate the media will truly like, he’ll be a democrat!

Republicans were fooled in 2008, as they usually are. John McCain, bless his heart, was the media darling. He was every left wing commentators favorite Republican. “If only John McCain would run for President,” they loudly proclaimed. “He is a republican we could support!” That lasted until he got the nomination, of course, then the long knives came out.

The New York Times endorsed McCain in the Primary with glowing stories, then as soon as the nomination was secured, started running bogus reports that John had been having an affair with a lobbyist. Sickening, but that’s how they work.

The media always sets the narrative the Republicans must choose a “moderate” candidate or risk losing those precious little darlings.  Of course, the Republican establishment always buys into this nonsense, as do way too many GOP voters.

Barack Obama is the most far left radical ever to run for President, let alone be elected. Somehow I missed all of the articles from the “concerned” media warning the democrats about the need for a “moderate” candidate.

Why Republicans continue to fall for this media nonsense is beyond me.

In 2007-2008 it was common knowledge the left was holding their fire on Mike Huckabee because they knew he would be an “easy kill” in the general election. Nothing has changed by the way, Huckabee is still an “easy kill” which is why you see the left treating Huckabee nicely now, and the Daily Kos‘ official pollster, PPP, always manages to find just the right sample to make Huckabee the front runner in their polls.

If Sarah Palin was such a disaster, in the minds of the left, they wouldn’t spend every waking moment trying to destroy her! Same goes for the little elites in the Republican Party. Indeed, the left would be propping her up and hoping we’d be “dumb” enough to make her the nominee!

As for the GOP, if she was THAT bad, she’d get destroyed in the primaries and that would be the end of that.

The other problem with those who think Sarah Palin is somehow “damaged” is this: She has been absolutely hammered by the left and weasels in the GOP since September of 2008, and she’s still standing tall.

In a way it’s a good thing, as Sarah is the most vetted candidate in the history of the Republic! At this point her detractors have nothing else to attack her with. They are down to recycling old attacks from years ago, that didn’t work the first time around.

In a way, the haters have inoculated Sarah and made her all but bullet-proof to any attacks.

Put another way, Sarah’s numbers have gone as low as they can. They have no where to go but up, and that’s what a campaign is for. BTW, people should never forget that among Republicans, Sarah still has higher approval numbers than anyone else, and it’s Republicans who decide who their nominee is.

Now let’s look at a what would happen to a “media approved” candidate:

Everything would be just peachy until they got the nomination, then all hell would break lose, especially since the media would be trying to protect their messiah, Barack Obama.

They would go to any length to destroy anyone who dare try and take Obama down. But instead of having years to prove they’re not the Anti-Christ, the poor hapless Republican nominee would have six months, tops, to prove they weren’t the devil reincarnate.

Good luck with that.

This media approved candidate would also have to have a spine of steel and set of core principles to match. Of course, if they were that sort, they wouldn’t be “media approved” in the first place.

The fact is, Sarah Palin is the one leader who never panders to the media and actually seems to relish the fact she’s not in their good graces. She understands if that bunch was loving her, she’d be doing it all wrong.

Sarah has proven she can beat the media at their own game.

Read all of Tony Lee’s Top Ten, spot on assessment here.

The GOP establishment are just as much to blame for the mess this nation is in as the hard left. They have been little more than enablers to extremists. In many cases, they actually agree with them.

You got guys like Romney, who created socialized medicine in America before the left could pull it off, and Tim Pawlenty who is jealous he didn’t beat Romney to it! Oh, and don’t get me started on Pawlenty’s embrace of the global warming fairy tale.

Then there is Newt Gingrich. He’s taken being an enabler of the left to a whole ‘nuther level!

With “friends” like these, who needs enemies!

The media and the GOP establishment have been working night and day to stop Sarah Palin. They wouldn’t be putting out the effort if she wasn’t a threat, and you better believe Sarah Palin is a serious threat to business as usual in D.C.

And that’s a very good thing!

I started working on this piece before Sarah Palin gave her game changing speech in Madison, Wisconsin, interviewed with Sean Hannity,and hammered Obama on Libya …. twice.

There’s a new talking point out there now.

It seems, according to those “concerned” GOPers, that Sarah Palin isn’t making the required pilgrimage to Iowa like every good little candidate should.This is a sure sign, they point out, that she isn’t up to the task of running.

Besides she’d give up all of the money she’s making. Might as well sit this out and “anoint” some feckless loser who’ll get slaughtered by Obama in the general election.

After all, it’s bound to be someone’s “turn.”

These people obviously never actually listen to the woman, or are so used to empty rhetoric from their bunch, they don’t understand Sarah Palin doesn’t do empty rhetoric.

If “Game On!” wasn’t plain enough, maybe what Sarah has said over and over since then will help. Sarah has made a point of saying it’s way too early for anyone to start running for President. In her mind, there is simply more important things to do, especially since the election is 18 months down the road.

Here’s a message to the left wing media and those GOP elites:

If Sarah Palin decides to run, and we’re almost certain she will, she will win the Republican nomination and the presidency, handily, and there isn’t anything you can do about it.

WTF? Newt Gingrich Proposes Giant Government Boondoggle To Replace Giant Government Boondoggle

By Gary P Jackson

So many phony Conservatives, so little time!

I’ll be honest, I had to read Chuck Roger’s essay in American Thinker a couple times to make sure I understood where he was going with Newt’s latest hair-brain scheme to “Win The Future™.” It’s that crazy.

It seems the establishment GOP’s “smartest guy in the room” has come up with a winner.

From Roger:

Way, way back in 1994, Newt Gingrich complained vigorously about a Democrat-controlled Congress’s fiscal irresponsibility. Representative Gingrich led a successful campaign by Republicans to takeover House and Senate in the 1994 Election. At the core of the Republican game plan was the Contract with America, a key element of which was the Fiscal Responsibility Act, in which Gingrich promised:

A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out-of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.

That was then. Republicans failed to deliver on most of the Contract’s promises.

This is now. Failure to deliver is the least of Republicans’ worries if Gingrich’s GOP nomination bid gains traction.

“We must stop the irresponsible spending,” Gingrich wrote in an email to supporters. So he is again complaining about Washington’s fiscal madness. But there’s a slimy facet of Newt Gingrich 2011-hypocrisy. Gingrich now makes it clear that he wants to continue to grow federal “investment in science and research.” The man is sounding more and more like just another big-government Republican, a progressive one to boot. Gingrich slams the reduced research subsidies in Representative Paul Ryan’s budget plan for being ….

…essentially like saying, I want to save money on your car, [so] we’re not going to change the oil. And for about a year I can get away with it. And then the engine will freeze up and we’ll have to replace your engine. But if I have a CBO that scores oil but doesn’t score engines, I can annually replace the engine for free, because it won’t count as a budget cost.

In this analogy, the federal government keeps the “engine” of scientific research from “freezing up.” But scientific breakthroughs do not depend on government subsidies. Mr. Gingrich has revealed himself to be no more fiscally responsible than the progressive Democrats whom he criticizes for fiscal irresponsibility.

Roger goes on to hammer Gingrich for the stuff conservatives always hammer Gingrich for, namely being a big fat liberal!

Frankly, Newt lost me when he was spooning with Nancy Pelosi on the now infamous couch, shilling for Al Gore’s global warming hoax. And he’s still going down that road today as he shills for the ethanol lobby, which has paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to push that “green” scam.

In the current-day version of Gingrich, Republicans are saddled with a man who goes out of his way to play nice-nice with progressives. Gingrich is prone to embrace nutty and economically destructive progressive ideas.

Then comes this:

First, irresponsible global warming spending, then irresponsible biofuel spending. Now Gingrich is making a “deliberate, fundamental argument against the entire current [health care] delivery system,” claiming that only government “investment” in research can create a better health care system.

So here we have a formerly great “conservative” pushing colossal government involvement to create a health care system to replace the Obamacare colossus.

Amazing.

Where did Gingrich make his “investment” pitch? Why, at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution, a progressive think tank.

Read more here.

The Republican establishment is always telling us Gingrich is the smartest guy we have in the party. Of course, these same people tell us Mitt Romney is a genius too, and we know what a joke that is.

We are told Newt Gingrich is an “idea man.” OK, I’ll buy into that, but what good is an “idea man” when all of his ideas are ridiculous?

The thing is “idea men,” prized creatures that they are, are mostly worthless.

For every good idea they come up with, they’ll have hundreds that are useless, and in some cases down right dangerous. You know, like creating a Big Government boondoggle to replace another Big Government boondoggle.

Idea men, big thinkers, what ever you want to call them, are dreamers. We need dreamers. They serve a great purpose to society. But the last thing you want is a big thinker, an “idea man” in a leadership position.

You put one of these cats in charge, where no one can stop them from implementing every insane idea that pops in their head, and you have a recipe for a disaster of biblical proportions!

Thinkers, dreamers, “idea men,” geniuses, wonks, whatever you want to call them are not the sort one puts in charge. They are not CEO material, or even middle management. Their place in life is to do what they do. Think up stuff. If they’re lucky, they think up something that is beneficial. Or, if not, they are Newt Gingrich.

It’s time for Americans to wake up and realize that we need real change in Washington, and looking to the same old Republican establishment hacks who got is in this mess in the first place is not the answer.

We need new, fresh leadership, that has no ties to the current mess in DC. Someone who has vast executive experience, and a solid record of accomplishment. A Governor.

“Idea men” are a dime a dozen.

Conservatives Shut Down Obama’s Facebook Town Hall Meeting

By Gary P Jackson

Last Wednesday was not a very good day to be a democrat. While the major news was happening on Twitter, as Trig’s Crew took on a vile democrat hate site, and all but put them out of business by showing their sponsors the kind of filth their ads were being displayed next to, there was also an event happening on Facebook, proving Conservatives can multi-task.

From the Los Angeles Times:

In an early social media skirmish in the 2012 campaign, a conservative political group claims to have forced Facebook to temporarily shut down the event page for President Obama’s online town hall meeting after steering hundreds of negative comments to the site.

I went over and took a look at Obama’s Facebook Town Hall page about mid-day last Wednesday. The reason the page was shut down was because every comment was either hammering the President over ObamaCare, or his seeming inability to comprehend basic mathematics, and how it applies to the nation’s economy and deficit.

Went back a few hours later and the Ron Paul folks had taken over extolling the virtues of legalizing pot.

Frankly, some group may take credit for shutting the Obamanation down, but I think it was just regular folks who have had enough. [and the RonPalulians]

Things like this though, are why I always bust out laughing when someone proclaims Barack Obama will have an easy path to re-election.

Not. Gonna. Happen

INCOMPETENCE: High Costs And Less Care: RomneyCare’s Unhappy Anniversary

By Gary P Jackson

Just how bad is Mitt Romney’s “crowning achievement“?

THIS bad: [emphasis mine]

The Massachusetts Medical Society found that 56% of physicians are not taking on new patients. Wait times for appointments are climbing. Just two years after reform took root, one clinic in Western Massachusetts had amassed a waiting list of 1,600 patients…

Of the previously uninsured individuals who have signed up, 68% are receiving free or subsidized coverage.

Many of these people aren’t even citizens of Massachusetts. A recent report from the Massachusetts Inspector General found that state agencies have failed to implement controls to prevent ineligible people from making claims. In 2010 millions of dollars were spent on medical services for individuals from 48 other states and several foreign countries.

Read more from Sally Pipes’ stunning report here.

For those still holding on to hope that ObamaCare might just work, RomneyCare is the canary in the coal mine.

This has been a failure on every level, and while it’s costing those poor devils in the Bay State millions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse, ObamaCare will cost Americans billions, if not trillions in the same manner.

People need to wake up and demand ObamaCare be repealed ASAP.

Now I know a lot of people are working desperately to excuse Mitt Romney from any responsibility from this fiasco, or rationalize it away, but that dog just won’t hunt.

One of the talking points I see people test driving now, is it’s not really RomneyCare, but “PatrickCare,” named after Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick who took Romney’s place. You see it’s all those rascally democrats fault that Mitt’s “glorious gift to mankind” is all screwed up.

Ridiculous!

Look, Massachusetts is a liberal state. The fact that Romney couldn’t foresee this happening, when he gleefully signed this horrific piece of legislation into law, speaks volumes about Mitt’s complete lack of common sense and understanding of the consequences of his actions.

In 1961 Ronald Reagan warned Americans that liberals would use socialized medicine to gain control of every facet of government, as well as control of many facets of everyone’s personal life. To impose Socialism on the people.

Now this was 50 years ago. You mean to tell me a “conservative” like Mitt Romney [snort] never heard Reagan’s Operation Coffee Cup message before?

I mean Romney once told us he was a “Reagan Conservative.” Of course that was before he teamed up with Jeb Bush to tell everyone “the era of Reagan is over“! Romney is a lot like Barack Obama. It seems, like Obama,  all of Mitt’s statements and proclamations have expiration dates.

Recently Romney has been trying to do major damage control by crying ObamaCare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, which it is. It’s also immoral. However, Romney had absolutely no problem forcing citizens of his state to buy insurance. In fact, As Jennifer Rubin points out, Mitt was all in: [emphasis mine]

Gruber tells me, “What I can tell you is that there was an active debate on the individual mandate.” He explains, “On one hand, Romney felt people were free-riding” on the health care system — that is, remaining uninsured but burdening the government health care system when they became sick or injured.

On the other hand, Gruber says, was the “freedom” argument about the mandate. He says, “What I’d like to think carried the day was that I pointed out that without the mandate you would spend the same money and cover fewer people.”

Gruber says in the one face-to-face meeting he had with Romney, it was clear Romney had made the “final call.” Gruber tells me: “He was the champion of the plan. He really was the consummate management consultant.”

And, Gruber says, the plan that passed and is now operating is not fundamentally different from the individual mandate plan that Romney “championed.” Gruber says, “The framework is basically the same.” Moreover, Romney understood that the bill would be a framework, with the details to be filled in later (e.g., the definition of “affordable” health care). “He said so at the signing ceremony,” Gruber recollects. So the notion that the plan was hijacked by the Democratic-controlled legislature is simply not so, he asserts.

It is equally true in Gruber’s mind that without the Massachusetts example, Obama’s individual mandate plan in all likelihood would not have passed.

Read more here.

Interesting huh. Gruber, who wrote the RomneyCare legislation, is calling Mitt a bald faced liar for blaming democrats for his own stupidity.

And make no mistake, that’s exactly what it is, stupidity. Stupidity with gross incompetence mixed in for good measure.

Mitt Romney, not some random democrat, is the Father of Socialized Medicine in America.

Not Nancy Pelosi.

Not Harry Reid.

Not Barack Obama.

Mitt Romney owns it.

A lot of people are still pushing Mitt Romney for President. Why I have no clue.

The man’s record as Governor was nothing to brag about. And he’s proven he doesn’t even understand basic human nature. Anyone with an ounce of common sense, and even a modest amount of working knowledge of how Big Government boondoggles always turn out, could have told Romney that his RomneyCare plan would end up exactly like it has: A complete and total disaster.

Mitt Romney simply doesn’t have the character, intelligence, or ability to comprehend the unintended consequences of his dubious actions. The man isn’t qualified to be the president of the local yacht club, let alone the President of these United States.

Confident Sarah Palin Continues To Pound Barack Obama “On The Record”

By Gary P Jackson

On the heels of her beat down via Facebook, on Tuesday morning, Sarah Palin went On The Record with Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday night, where she continued to whip Obama like a rented mule.

Right out of the gate Greta highlighted one of Sarah’s comments from the earlier Facebook post:

It’s unbelievable to me that you spent last week in campaign mode, gallivanting around the country to start raising the billion dollars for your reelection bid that is still 19 months away “while Rome burns.” Our economy is in the tank; jobs are as scarce as ever; you’re asking Congress to let you incur even more unsustainable, immoral, freedom-stealing government debt; and many of our brave men and women in uniform are shaking their heads in disbelief over your befuddled military directions.

Yet instead of working with Congress and a wise multitude of advisers to fix some problems, you choose all this campaigning, already? As was recently asked: When do you ever just “roll up your sleeves, unplug the teleprompter” and do the job of governing and administrating for which voters hired you?

After hammering Obama for being in campaign mode, and trying to raise $1 billion for an election that is [gulp] 19 months away, instead of focusing on the nation’s challenges, she starts in on high gasoline prices, Libya [and Obama’s incoherent foreign policy in general] and more.

Sarah reminds us we can’t afford to have the nation’s Commander-in-Chief, our CEO, in campaign mode while “Rome burns“!

Sarah goes on to say it’s almost like Obama can’t be bothered by all of these issues of the day because he’s too busy either running for re-election, playing golf, or going on holiday!

She goes on to say, if that’s the case, the best thing is for government to just get out of the way! Stop with the insane regulations, quantitative easing [printing money, monetizing the debt], coming up with more “stimulus plans” and other nonsense, and just let private businesses and the free market do it’s thing!

Sarah bluntly states nothing is going to change until Obama is out of office.

This is a wonderful interview. Sarah Palin is proving she is a confident stateswoman, and very much at ease talking about issues and policy. This folks, is what a leader looks and sounds like. I know it’s been a while since most have seen or heard one, which is why I point this out.

There is also a twinkle in Sarah’s eyes. She’s a warrior, but a happy one. She reminds me so much of the great Ronald Reagan. He was one tough hombre, but he was always happy and optimistic as well.

Sarah comes off the exact same way. Both in this interview, as well as her Facebook smack-down. She’s tough, but not mean, and uses a fair bit of sarcasm and wit to go along with the beating she’s giving Obama.

The entire interview is powerful, insightful, and even a bit of fun.

At one point she off-handedly mentions Bill Ayers and the fact that he “allegedly” wrote Obama’s first book. She did this as she was taking a shot at Trump and others who were wasting time on nonsensical issues, while REAL issues were being ignored.

She points out the media is loving these distractions, as is the Obama regime.

As we have noted before, the “birther” issue helps Obama more than it hurts him.  What she’s saying is: Now that Trump has everyone’s attention, he needs to be talking about substantive issues, something he is not doing.

This all gets back to what she told Sean Hannity last week, when she said it was way too early for her, or anyone else to be running for President. Too many more important issues to be focused on, rather than wasting time gearing up for 2012 and an election that is still almost 2 years away.

Leadership vs politics.

Sarah also gets a nice little shot in at Katie Couric at the end of the interview. Dee-licious!

Enjoy.

Video Courtesy of SarahNet

The Unhinging of the Left and the Prescience of Palin

by Whitney Pitcher

On Monday, Politico published a piece that Legal Insurrection characterized as their “cheapest shot yet”. With Politico’s credibility bar already set so low that only an ant could limbo underneath, this is quite an accomplishment. The subject matter of the false allegations discussed by Politico and the individuals they interviewed belong right along side “Palin Willingly Abducted by Aliens: ‘I Can See Russia from Space'” or “Rudolph Found in the Palin’s Freezer” and other actual tabloid “stories” I’ve seen at the supermarket check out over the past two and a half years. Rush Limbaugh says that the media and the Left (but I repeat myself) will always tell you who they fear. But why do they fear her?

Two blog pieces also posted Monday at Datechguy and at the PJ Tatler highlight how Governor Palin has been prescient on nearly every major policy issue over the past few years, and this is why they fear her and are out to destroy her. Datechguy writes on how Governor Palin has been right on monetary policy, “death panels”, climate gate, Libya, drilling, supporting what now is the GOP majority House etc, writing in part following an excerpt from a Facebook post on drilling:

Sounds pretty topical, When did Palin say this? AUGUST OF 2009 when gas was still in the low $2 per gallon. Bloggers covered it. The MSM didn’t. Where would gas prices and the economy be today if the MSM reported this and the president listened to her 2 years ago?

[…]

This is why on an Easter Sunday people on the left were spending their time trying to co-opt a hash tag. This is why when Sarah Palin gives a key speech in Wisconsin on budget matters the media reports she is trying to get attention, but will play her mispronouncing “skirmish” in a loop. This is why from Day one the MSM has done their best to try to destroy her.

The PJ Tattler’s piece mentions some of the same policy issues, additionally mentioning that Governor Palin has been right on cautiousness in Egypt and warning of China’s military buildup:

Sarah Palin was cautious on Egypt, wanting to know who was likely to take power before the US insisted that Mubarak leave. She has been forceful on China, warning that its military buildup is a threat.

Meanwhile, the cerebral president with the fancy pants creases just keeps getting everything wrong. Everything he touches turns to crap. Even her website is now better than his.

Whodathunkit?

Governor Palin has, of course, been right on many issues over the past two years. In addition to what was mentioned by these two writers, Governor Palin was right on coming food inflation on the heels of QE2, the threat of the possible need to tap into our Strategic Petroleum Reserve if we didn’t become more energy independent, state financial woes if they don’t address unfunded pensions, the threat of nuclear Iran, distrust of Russia on the START treaty etc.

Her prescience isn’t new. Governor Palin has been right all along, since the early days of the 2008 presidential campaign. Stacy and I wrote a post last Fall that highlighted several aspects of Governor Palin’s 2008 RNC convention speech where she correctly predicted several things that would happen if candidate Obama became President Obama. Stacy edited this video that accompanied our post, and this still rings true today:

These are all reasons why Politico gives free advertising to “authors” peddling scurrilous books about Governor Palin. Governor Palin’s foresight is why media outlets like Politico give free publicity to those involved in character assassination attempts. This is why likely boilerplate speech contracts that include bendable drinking straws become headline news if the sipping speaker is Governor Palin. This is why the media feigns ignorance when Governor Palin brings along a “hair stylist” (aka Bristol Palin) on a humanitarian trip to Haiti.

Their greatest fear? The potential for a prescient Palin to become President Palin.