PJM’s PalinTracker has been on hiatus for quite a while, but your Humble Guide to All Things Palin is ready once again to hack through the jungle of media jive to reveal those gems worth your consideration.
Playing catch-up, I’ll simply refer you to the Daily Beast, where Shushannah Walshe rings out the old year:
After the 2008 campaign, it was widely believed that Sarah Palin would resume her job as governor of Alaska, disappearing again into the Last Frontier. Two years later, watching her on home turf has become a Sunday night treat, and Palin herself is uncontained. … During the past 365 days, there doesn’t seem to have been a moment without her in the headlines.
A few lingering buzzworthy items:
December 21
Hyper-interest in Palin’s literary choices serves one purpose: trap-laying. But the trappers got caught themselves recently when they pounced on Palin’s tribute to C. S. Lewis as a source of inspiration.
Joy Behar cackled: “Aren’t those children books?”
Michael Flaherty’s elegant response set the record straight: “On Palin’s Reading List, C.S. Lewis: He wasn’t a children’s writer, as the governor’s critics proclaim — not by a long shot,” giving Lewis his due as scholar and theologian and comparing Behar to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader‘s Eustace, a priggish, spiteful bully who thinks he knows it all, yet knows laughably little.
December 27
Oprah falls behind Sarah in Gallup’s Most Admired poll:
1. Hillary 17%
2. Sarah 12%
3. Oprah 11%
4. Michelle Obama 5%
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USA Today‘s Faith & Reason: “Sarah Palin is 2010 top religion voice for many.” They find Palin the top 2010 religion newsmaker among readers, ahead of the Ground Zero imam or Pope Benedict:
Palin is no pastor, priest, or imam. But the TV talk/reality star ex-governor author infuses all her speeches and her two best-sellers with references to God and a vision of the United States as exceptionally blessed.
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On the other hand, USA Today‘s Robert Schlesinger notes: “Poll: Sarah Palin Really Unpopular in Alaska.”
December 29
DeMint: Palin Has Done More For GOP Than Anyone Since Reagan
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Cal Thomas: “Palin Deserves an Apology”:
When she said that the new health-care law would lead to “death panels” deciding who gets life-saving treatment and who does not, she was roundly denounced and ridiculed.
Now we learn, courtesy of one of the ridiculers — the New York Times — that she was right. Read more at She Told Us So.
December 28
In case you missed the S’mores Heard ‘Round the World:
On her Alaska TV series, Palin’s humorous swipe at Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign prompted a Leftist call to arms in which Mike Huckabee, by virtue of his defense of Michelle’s NannyState, became the unlikely darling of the Huffington Post — at least for five minutes. Above the cacophony, one analysis rang simple and true: Caffeinated Mom’s “Mike Huckabee, Not Sarah Palin, Misunderstands Michelle Obama’s Childhood Obesity Campaign.“
December 29
Best of Facebook 2010: Politics & Government reported readers rate Palin one of the best Facebook politicians:
More than 2.5 million people have “liked” her page, which she uses to communicate directly and authentically with supporters.
December 30
Moving to Arizona?
Bristol Palin is reported to have bought a 5-bedroom house in Arizona for $172,500, with plans to attend Arizona State University next year. Is Sarah planning to move there too?
As one commenter notes: 2000 miles closer to the White House.
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As reported at WeaselZippers, Obama supporters launch PrimariesForPalin:
Mission Statement
PrimariesForPalin.com aims to nominate Sarah Palin as the Republican presidential candidate by encouraging Democrats and Independents to purposefully vote for her in state primaries, which would all but ensure President Barack Obama’s reelection. In head-to-head polls with Obama, Palin consistently fares worse than other possible Republican candidates because of her divisiveness. If Palin is nominated, Obama has a much better chance of winning reelection in November 2012.
January 1, 2011
Palin ranks second in the annual Zillow Celebrity Neighbor Survey — behind Sandra Bullock, ahead of Ellen Degeneres, Barack and Michelle Obama (26, 10 and 9, 8 and 7 percent respectively)
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2012 Palin panic hits MSNBC: “I’m just praying that Sarah Palin goes away”
January 2
Megan Fox: Top 10 Reasons to Hate Sarah Palin
Hatin’ Palin — Why Palin Provokes the Left’s Fury
When Sarah Palin first stepped onto the national stage (in the hottest red high heels anyone ever saw) this country was changed forever. It will be remembered in history as the moment conservative women stepped onto the grid in a meaningful way. In the same instant, the Left froze in terror and a seething hatred began to build until it could no longer be contained and was unleashed in the most brutal assault on a woman in politics this nation has ever seen. The most vile and disgusting remarks were made about her family, her baby’s paternity, her marriage and her motherhood. Late night comics made rape jokes about her minor daughter and degraded her by calling her a “stewardess” and “sexy secretary.”
Read more at NewsRealBlog.
January 4
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Palin’s Retweet of Tammy Bruce tweet on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:
RT @HeyTammyBruce But this hypocrisy is just truly too much. Enuf already — the more someone complains about the homos the more we should look under their bed.
This stirs an avalanche of “news” (Google results for tammy bruce tweet palin + hit 21,400 and climbing), leading Slate’s Dave Weigel to propose a new journalistic gauge: The Palin Tweet Index.
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Standard-Examiner’s opinion editor Doug Gibson asks: “Why do conservative elites go out of their way to trash Palin? ”
January 5
Christian Science Monitor asks: “How Well Do You Know Sarah Palin? A quiz ”
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Palin wins again — Robert Pear reports that end-of-life planning has, again, been dropped from health care regulations.
January 6
All five RNC chair candidates: Palin Can Beat Obama in 2012 — as reported by JewsforSarah and Palin TV.
Fifty-Year-Old Kathy Griffin Dedicates 2011 to Attacking 16-Year-Old Willow Palin
January 7, 2011
Sarah Palin, on Laura Ingraham’s show this morning, says Obama’s willingness to raise the debt ceiling could only be interpreted as a sign that he was “hell-bent on weakening America,” because he had before noted that such actions should be avoided because they — well, because they weaken America:
“He has told us back in March of ’06 that it weakens America domestically and internationally to raise debt, right, to raise the debt ceiling,” Palin told Laura Ingraham on her radio show. “And he said it is a sign of failed leadership to support raising the debt ceiling.”
Politico reports Friday about Obama’s earlier comment:
Ironically, an Illinois senator named Barack Obama seemed to understand the political calculus of the debt ceiling in 2006; he voted against just such an increase that year, saying that it was “a sign of leadership failure” and that “Americans deserve better.” That measure passed narrowly in the Senate, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that Obama voted against it, knowing it would be approved without his vote.
Geek Politics has resurrected the actual speech, in which Obama says: “This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy.”
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Roseanne Barr, in her recent inexplicable media blitz, appears on Anderson Cooper, famous for his sexual slur on Tea Party patriots as teabaggers. Roseanne Barr: “Sarah Palin Is “Kind of a Traitor” … “Her Followers Are the Dumbest People on Earth.”
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Weighing In On Palin: Conservative White Guy Edition
Krauthammer: “No Chance” Palin Can Win in 2012″
George Will: Sarah Palin “Cannot Be Elected”
Ted Nugent “Loves” Sarah Palin, but couldn’t Vote for Her for President
Senator Tom Graham: Palin could carry PA
Sen. Pat Toomey: Palin could carry Pennsylvania
Erick Erickson at RedState agonizes:
Let me be clear: I will support the nominee, whoever she or he may be.
But right now I am not excited by or inspired by any of them save Sarah Palin and, as much as I love Sarah Palin, I am adamantly convinced that she cannot win given the ridiculous smears and hate thrown her way by Democrats and, frankly, by a lot of Republicans. She has been made radioactive.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty: Sarah Palin Is a “Force of Nature”
I’ll say!
January 8
Within hours (minutes?) of the Tucson shooting, leftist opportunists began their mantra of blame (e.g.: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ blood is on Sarah Palin’s hands after putting crosshair over district), trying desperately to connect Palin — because of her map of TeaParty-targeted districts — to a young psycho who’d actually been stalking Gabrielle Giffords since 2007, long before the Tea Party or Palin was a gleam in anyone’s eye.
Palin issued a simple statement on her Facebook page:
On the tragedy in Arizona
by Sarah Palin on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 12:02pmMy sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.
On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.
– Sarah Palin
As voices of reason came to her defense, the Tired Old Media seemed to finally get that the story was not the one they were looking for — that Jared Loughner was not an overwrought conservative, but an occult-leaning pothead who’d been fixated on his victim for many years. Next stop: The Fairness Doctrine? Gun control?
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