October 2-5
Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s former campaign manager — whose fractious relationship with Palin has been rumored for a year — hasn’t warmed one bit to the charismatic conservative spokesperson.
Speaking at The Atlantic’s First Draft of History Conference (whatever that is), the GOP strategist opined:
I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result.
She is someone who has a passionate base that constitutes millions of Americans, but in the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond that base into the middle of the electorate where elections are decided.
I guess that “middle of the electorate where elections are decided” were the people who put up McCain. That didn’t work out so well, though, did it?
Hot Air reports:
A spokeswoman for the former Alaska governor said Palin is holding her fire until her new book is released next month.
“The governor will write about all of this in her book,” Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said in an e-mail, referring to the internal fighting that marred the final weeks of McCain’s president bid. “There will be plenty of time to talk about it then.”
On the other hand, Charles Cooper, in “Why They’re Wild About Palin” at CBS News, writes:
For [Palin supporters], Palin is not another wishy-washy, faux conservative on the John McCain model. She speaks their language on issues that are central to their sense of who they are as Americans: gun rights, religion, abortion, patriotism, and the role of government in their lives. They also remember the insults. And each time the left and Democratic media apologists (like Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow) caricature Palin as a dumbbell hick from the sticks, that just reinforces their conviction that they must be doing something right.
After all, if it ticks off the liberals, it must be good. Right?
Don Imus — the man who lost his job after referring to black basketball players as “nappy-headed ‘hos” — during an interview with Neil Cavuto further distinguishes himself as a reliable political observer, proclaiming:
Sarah Palin? She’s a dope! Write a book? She can’t read a book.
Misogyny, anyone? Snipes by men — liberal and conservative — like Schmidt, Imus and David Brooks (David who?) may be boosting Palin’s cachet. Amy Siskind, a lifelong Democrat who voted Republican for the first time in 2008 simply because McCain chose a woman as his running mate, writes at the Daily Beast:
Maybe it’s time that women gave Sarah Palin another look. Palin, back in the headlines for rushing out a new book ahead of schedule this fall, is fresh, open-minded, a centrist, and a party noncomformist. Hey, sisters in women’s advocacy: Let’s end the decades-long cold war with Republican women candidates. If we want progress to be made on issues of importance to women, our organizations need to master a skill at which men have always been adept: negotiation.
I am a lifelong Democrat who for the first time in my life voted Republican in the 2008 elections. I did this for one reason: McCain selected a woman as his running mate. For this act, I was accused of having lost part of my mental faculty: Some circa Victorian act of “voting with my uterus.” Strange, that. The Democratic women were corralled to vote for Obama in 2008 because of one issue: reproductive rights. In other words, as my friend Cynthia Ruccia observed, “voting with their uterus.”
Sisskind notes that only 25 percent of Obama’s cabinet pics and 10 percent of his czars are women, suggesting that he may be uncomfortable with women, and notes:
Here’s what we know: Sarah Palin did not have a governor’s seat handed down to her, she earned it. She understands what it is to be a woman having to fight obstacles — some overt and others subtle — that only a woman can understand.
October 6
Palin posts at Facebook on winning the war in Afghanistan and establishing energy independence:
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 2:57pm
For two years as a candidate, Senator Obama called for more resources for the war in Afghanistan and warned about the consequences of failure. As President, he announced a comprehensive new counterinsurgency strategy and handpicked the right general to execute it. Now General McChrystal is asking for additional troops to implement the strategy announced by President Obama in March. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers in harm’s way in Afghanistan right now. We owe it to all those brave Americans serving in uniform to give them the tools they need to complete their mission.
We can win in Afghanistan by helping the Afghans build a stable representative state able to defend itself. And we must do what it takes to prevail. The stakes are very high. The 9/11 attacks were planned in Afghanistan, and if we are not successful there, al Qaeda will once again find a safe haven, the Taliban will impose its cruelty on the Afghan people, and Pakistan will be less stable.
Our allies and our adversaries are watching to see if we have the staying power to protect our interests in Afghanistan. I recently joined a group of Americans in urging President Obama to devote the resources necessary in Afghanistan and pledged to support him if he made the right decision. Now is not the time for cold feet, second thoughts, or indecision — it is the time to act as commander-in-chief and approve the troops so clearly needed in Afghanistan.
— Sarah Palin
Further Proof of the Need for Energy Independence
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 5:39pm
The British newspaper The Independent reported today that Gulf oil producers were negotiating with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the dollar in pricing oil with a basket of currencies.[1] According to the Wall Street Journal, Arab oil officials have denied the story, but even the possibility of such a talk weakens the dollar and renews fears about its continued viability as an international reserve currency.[2] In fact, today a United Nations official called for a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar and end our “privilege” to run up huge deficits.[3] We can see the effect of this in the price of gold, which hit a record high today in response to fears about the weakened dollar.[4]
All of this is a result of our out-of-control debt. This is why we need to rein in spending, and this is also why we need energy independence. A weakened dollar means higher commodity prices. This will make it more difficult to pay our bills — including the bill to import oil.
In his book Architects of Ruin, Peter Schweizer points out that the Obama administration is focusing primarily on “green energy,” while ignoring our need to develop our domestic conventional energy resources.[5] We’re ignoring the looming crisis caused by our dependence on foreign oil. Because we’re dependent on foreign nations for our oil, we’re also at their mercy if they decide to dump the dollar as their trade currency. We can’t allow ourselves to be so vulnerable to the whims of foreign nations. That’s why we must develop our own domestic supplies of oil and gas.
Though the chant of “Drill, baby, drill” was much derided, it expressed the need to confront this issue head-on before it reaches a crisis point.
Bottom line: let’s stop digging ourselves into debt and start drilling for energy independence.
— Sarah Palin
October 7
At National Review Online, Kathryn Jean Lopez reports:
Penguin emails:
Please note that THE PERSECUTION OF SARAH PALIN by Matthew Continetti is moving up from next February to November 12, 2009 to coincide with the publication of Palin’s controversial memoir.
Continetti, the associate editor of the Weekly Standard, shows that because Palin was a strong and popular conservative with traditional values, Washington Democrats and their allies in the so-called “mainstream media” decided she had to be destroyed. His book details how these elite liberals attacked her in ways that no previous candidate had ever experienced. Everything from her clothing to her parenting style to her church were fair game, and no rumor was too malicious to spread.
THE PERSECUTION OF SARAH PALIN will surprise people with its fresh details about Palin and the 2008 campaign.
For a sample of one of Continetti’s articles on Palin, please click here.
Meanwhile, In Fairbanks, Palin attended a ceremony in Fairbanks welcoming home the 1st Stryker Brigade, which recently returned from a year-long deployment in Iraq. Her son Track is a member of the brigade.
October 9
UPI (United Press International) reports that Palin’s offers to stump for GOP gubernatorial contenders Bob McDonnell (VA) and Chris Christiie (NJ) have been ignored. UPI — whose byline reads 100 Years of Journalistic Excellence — cites as its source a blog: Politico.
Among the week’s distractions: scattered reports of Palin soliciting a lipstick line (breaking news from the Huffington Post, via Stylelist.com), Levi Johnston (father of Palin’s grandson Tripp) pumping to pose for Playgirl, and Tina Fey resurrecting her virtual Palin, now hopelessly confused by many liberal media devotees with the actual Palin. Oh, and a seemingly never-ending story about an Xbox autographed by Palin now being offered on eBay for $1.1 million.
October 11
In an interview with CNN’s John King, “McCain Admits Campaign Tensions Between Palin, Aides.”
Stop the presses!
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