PalinTracker: Oprah Chat, A Cover Shoot, Huckabee(?), 'Drill Baby, Drill' (Updated)

October 12

Seattle-based photographer John Keatley, commissioned by HarperCollins to shoot photos of Sarah Palin for her Going Rogue book cover, spent six days with Palin on location in Alaska.

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Pressed for gossip, Keatley told Politico: “I have no interest in pulling a Jill Greenberg and sabotaging anything.” Greenberg is notorious for having accepted a contract for a portrait of Senator John McCain, then using outtakes from the photo shoot to criticize her subject.

The winning shot was taken on the last day of the shoot about 13 miles from the Palin home overlooking Hatcher Pass, a scenic notch in the Talkeetna Mountains — where according to Keatley, Palin seemed more natural and relaxed.

October 13

Rush Limbaugh, appearing on the Today show responding to word association cues:

Sarah Palin: “Misunderstood and underestimated.”

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The Wall Street Journal reports:

Sarah Palin fans can expect to see a new Palin political organization surface as her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, hits the shelves next month.

“There will be an announcement about it coming up,” Palin associate Tim Crawford said Wednesday. The New York Post reported this week that Palin’s new group will be called “Stand Up For Our Nation.”

October 16

The latest Gallup survey reports:

Palin became a bit of a sensation after John McCain tapped her as his running mate last August. But over the course of the campaign, her image suffered, going from a 53 percent favorable rating immediately after the 2008 Republican National Convention to 42 percent by the end of the campaign.

Palin’s ratings have not recovered, and her current 40 percent favorable rating is the lowest for her since she became widely known after last year’s Republican convention.

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Palin’s latest op-ed — titled simply “Drill” — appears at National Review Online, arguing (again) for energy independence:

Given that we’re spending billions of stimulus dollars to rebuild our highways, it makes sense to think about what we’ll be driving on them. For years to come, most of what we drive will be powered, at least in part, by diesel fuel or gasoline. To fuel that driving, we need access to oil. The less use we make of our own reserves, the more we will have to import, which leads to a number of harmful consequences. That means we need to drill here and drill now. …

Palin reminds domestic drilling opponents/environmentalists:

Many of the countries we’re forced to import from have few if any environmental-protection laws, and those that do exist often go unenforced. In effect, American environmentalists are preventing responsible development here at home while supporting irresponsible development overseas.

My home state of Alaska shows how it’s possible to be both pro-environment and pro-resource-development. Alaskans would never support anything that endangered our pristine air, clean water, and abundant wildlife (which, among other things, provides many of us with our livelihood). The state’s government has made safeguarding resources a priority.

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Rasmussen shock poll (well, for anyone who isn’t a Huckabee fan, it’s a shocker):

GOP 2012: Huckabee 29 percent, Romney 24 percent, Palin 18 percent

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Walmart and Amazon launched a price war, with Walmart selling November’s 10 most anticipated books for $10 each. Amazon matched Walmart, and was undercut by a dollar. As of the end of the day Friday, both were taking pre-orders for Going Rogue
for $9 each.

October 17

Palin Facebook post: Good Intentions Aren’t Enough with Health Care Reform

Excerpt:

Those driving this plan no doubt have good intentions, but good intentions aren’t enough. There were good intentions behind the drive to increase home ownership for lower-income Americans, but forcing financial institutions to give loans to people who couldn’t afford them had terrible unintended consequences. We all felt those consequences during the financial collapse last year. Unintended consequences always result from top-down big government plans like the current health care proposals, and we can’t afford to ignore that fact again. …

With our country’s debt and deficits growing at an alarming rate, many of us can’t help but wonder how we can afford a new trillion dollar entitlement program. The president has promised that he won’t sign a health care bill if it “adds even one dime to our deficit over the next decade.”

But Palin points to a string of broken promises — from the stimulus plan, job creation, and unemployment to backroom politics and the rush to legislate without proper review:

All of this certainly gives the appearance of politics-as-usual in Washington with no change in sight.

Americans want health care reform because we want affordable health care. We don’t need subsidies or a public option. We don’t need a nationalized health care industry. We need to reduce health care costs. But the Senate Finance plan will dramatically increase those costs, all the while ignoring common sense cost-saving measures like tort reform. Though a Congressional Budget Office report confirmed that reforming medical malpractice and liability laws could save as much as $54 billion over the next ten years, tort reform is nowhere to be found in the Senate Finance bill.

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Palin has a plan, which she states in a real and simple way — reminiscent of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Here’s a novel idea. Instead of working contrary to the free market, let’s embrace the free market. Instead of going to war with certain private sector companies, let’s embrace real private-sector competition and allow consumers to purchase plans across state lines. Instead of taxing the so-called “Cadillac” plans that people get through their employers, let’s give individuals who purchase their own health care the same tax benefits we currently give employer-provided health care recipients. Instead of crippling Medicare, let’s reform it by providing recipients with vouchers so that they can purchase their own coverage.

Now is the time to make your voices heard before it’s too late. If we don’t fight for the market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven reform plan that we deserve, we’ll be left with the disastrous unintended consequences of the plans currently being cooked up in Washington.

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Palin posts her resume at LinkedIn, lists interest in:

• job inquiries
• business deals
• reference requests
• expertise requests

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The Chicago Tribune reports:

Palin to speak in Milwaukee area next month

MILWAUKEE — Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will speak in a Milwaukee suburb next month as part of a program presented by Wisconsin Right to Life.

Officials say no tickets will be sold at the door of the Nov. 6 event at Wisconsin Exposition Center at State Fair Park in West Allis, Wis.

General admission tickets are $30 with a limit of four per order.

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October 20

The Springfield (MO) News-Leader reports:

Sarah Palin to speak at College of the Ozarks

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will speak on patriotism, citizenship and civic engagement at College of the Ozarks at 7 p.m. Dec. 2 in the Keeter Gymnasium, a college news release said.

The prelude to the Leonard B. and Edith Gittinger Community Convocation featuring Palin will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The convocation is free and open to the public, but tickets are required.

Those seeking tickets may call 690-2240. Tickets are limited, and they will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

October 20

This just in: Sarah Palin will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show on November 16 for an “exclusive chat.”

Great day for Palin: the eve of the release of her already best-selling Going Rogue: An American Life.

Great day for Oprah: the middle of the ratings sweeps

Last September, Palin supporters blasted Winfrey for shunning Palin; Obama had appeared on Oprah’s show.

Winfrey’s reply: “I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.” See “Is Oprah Biased? Host Won’t Interview Palin”.

On April 14, 2009, the FEC ruled that that appearance did not violate campaign rules. Still, there was never a sense of fair play, as the host of the most popular daytime woman’s program actively campaigned for Obama before the election and has enjoyed many perks of her patronage since, including a trip with FLOTUS Michelle to Copenhagen to campaign for the 2012 Olympics in Chicago.

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