Whatever Sarah Wants

Whatever Sarah wants...

In yet another television interview, former Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin revealed on Wednesday that while she was focused on her job as Alaska’s governor she was open to the idea of a Senate bid.

While at first saying it was “not necessarily” the kind of post she would like some day, she was open to the idea.

Sarah gets.

“I’m not going to close any doors that perhaps would be in front of me and would allow me to put to good use executive experience and a world view that I think is good for our nation,” she said in an interview with CNN’s “Larry King Live.” “I’m not going to close any door there in terms of opportunity that may be there in the future.”

Just a day ago, in an interview on NBC the 44-year-old first-term governor said she wasn’t planning on seeking a Senate seat. “I’m not planning on it because I think the people of Alaska will best be served with me as their governor,” Palin said.

Sarah's not trying to calm presidential speculation, either.

The GOP vice presidential nominee has raised the possibility of running for the top job in four years in recent television interviews. Palin was attending the Republican Governors Association meeting Wednesday and was asked about speculation about her as the future of the party.

Palin told reporters: "I don't think it's me personally, I think it's what I represent." She added: "Every day hardworking American families — a woman on the ticket perhaps represents that. It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation."

Rebirth

Sarah's got herself in rehab.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, amid speculation she'll run for president in four years, blamed Bush administration policies for the defeat last week of the GOP ticket and prayed she wouldn't miss "an open door" for her next political opportunity.

Not drug rehab. Political rehab. She's redefining herself - trying to shed the bad news of the McCain run and maximize her potential as the country's most popular Republican.

"I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open door," Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. "And if there is an open door in '12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door."

With a horrible economy setting in, Palin is wise to separate herself from Bush, and Republicans, in general.

"It's amazing that we did as well as we did," Palin, who was Sen. John McCain's running mate, said of the election in a separate interview with the Anchorage Daily News.

"I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing," Palin said in a story published Sunday.

Palin has scheduled a series of national interviews this week with Fox, NBC's "Today" show and CNN. She also plans to attend the Republican Governors Association conference in Florida this week.

Sarah's Seat?

People are asking whether Sarah Palin will appoint herself to the U.S. Senate if/when Ted Stevens steps down. She may be able to, but according to a law, or laws, passed 4 years ago, a special election must be held within a couple of months. So what exactly are the rules?

Nobody can say for sure.

That's because Alaska's law on senatorial succession was changed twice in 2004 -- once by the Legislature, and once by ballot initiative. Both laws call for a special election within 60 to 90 days of the vacancy. But they disagree on whether the governor appoints an interim senator in the meantime.

The Alaska Supreme Court would ultimately have to decide which law the state follows.

Other analysis of Alaska law makes things more clear.

Citizen reaction to former Governor Murkowski appointing his daughter, Lisa, to a vacant Senate seat in 2002 was a 2004 ballot initiative stripping the Governor of this power (56% to 44%). According to the Alaska Elections website (pdf), the 2002 initiative "repeal[s] state law by which theGovernor makes a temporary appointment of a person tofill a U.S. Senate vacancy until a special or regularelection can be held."

Ok - so no appointments. That would be a bad idea for Sarah anyway - it would make her look weak, and like the consumate insider. Anyway, she'd likely have no problem winning the seat without any unfair advantages.

Whether the senate is the best place for Palin to head as preparation for a run for the presidency is the real question. On the one hand, going to Washington would make her part of Washington - and that's usually bad. On the other hand, considering Sarah's reputation for being big on local personality but small on national policy consciousness, becoming a beltway babe could be just what the electoral college ordered.

Either way, Stevens isn't likely to stay in the senate all that long.

"The reality is that a convicted felon is not going to be able to serve in the United States Senate," (Harry) Reid said. "And as precedent shows us, Senator Stevens will face an ethics committee investigation and expulsion, regardless of his appeals process."

And what might happen if his colleagues do kick Stevens out of the Senate, prompting a special election? Who might be in line to replace him? Hint: lipstick; $150,000 wardrobe. Yep, you betcha! Sarah Palin.

Ya Sarah

Sarah calls them jerks.

They deserve it.

An angry aide characterized the Palins as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."

Dressing Sarah

Sarah moves on.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin insisted in an interview with the Tribune on Thursday that she did not accept $150,000 worth of designer clothes from the Republican Party and "that is not who we are."

"That whole thing is just, bad!" she said. "Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are.

Chris Matthews says he thinks his job his to help the Obama administration 'crackle.' I wonder if he feels the same responsibility to Governor Palin.

"It's kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported," said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven't even left the belly of her campaign plane.

Thrust into the national spotlight as John McCain's running mate in late August from relative obscurity as governor of Alaska, Palin has found herself under the microscope ever since, accused of being inexperienced, a drag on the ticket and, most recently, the recipient of racks of expensive clothes.

Less than two weeks before Election Day, she will deliver her first major policy speech Friday, calling for full funding of special education, a subject that has suddenly become extremely personal. And that's not just because of the arrival of Trig, her 6-month-old son with Down syndrome. It's because families with children who have disabilities have been flocking to her campaign stops, looking to Palin and her family for inspiration.

Chump Change

Nearly half of American wage earners pay no federal income taxes. Barack proposes that in order to make that system more fair, those who aren't paying any taxes should get a rebate paid to them from the taxes from the 5% who pay 50% of the nation's income tax burden. Do people really believe this?


Barack's explanation for this unfairness to the top 5%?

"Right now, they are getting taxed at 36 percent. Under Bill Clinton in the 1990s, they were being taxed at 39.6 percent. You're talking about a 3.6 percent difference, and, you know, for, you know, the average person who is making half a million, a million dollars -- people like you Sway -- that's chump change, that's nothing. But it could make a big difference for that young person who is trying to figure out whether they can go to college or not, if we could give them more of a break or give them more scholarships or grants to go to college."

Chump Change?

The Tax Policy Center says a person or family making $500,000 a year would pay $3,363 in additional income tax under the Obama plan.

A person or family making $1,000,000 a year would see their tax burden increase by $28,301 under the Obama plan.

Palin Power-Singing

The liberal fear of a woman in the White House yields humorous results.

Sarah, Smile

How in love with Sarah are you?

Judy Patrick is a professional photographer. From Alaska. Wasilla, to be exact. Where she once served as deputy mayor. To the actual mayor. Sarah Palin.

Over the years Patrick's accumulated quite a collection of photographs of her friend, including a nice assortment from Palin's successful 2006 insurgent campaign for governor.

Patrick has noticed how eager the public is to follow the 44-year-old mother of five with the lifetime NRA membershp and the blue-collar union member husband who races snow machines and fishes and the Army son in Iraq and the baby with the unusual name.

As The Ticket noted yesterday with videos, even Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey came away impressed.

So at her own expense Patrick has printed up a sizeable batch of 13-month 2009 Sarah Palin calendars, using her own Palin photo archives, minus some good shots she gave to the John McCain-Palin Republican presidential campaign.

The calendars are just now becoming available here for $15.95 and will soon be in Barnes & Noble as well. Judy has her own commercial website here.

To see two more monthly photos from the 2009 Sarah Palin calendar, click on the Read more line below.

For political fans, regardless of Tuesday's outcome, the calendar they'll really be eager to see is for 2012.

Media Bias Bothering Liberals

Even liberals are complaining about the liberal media.

In a room full of television industry executives, no one seemed inclined to defend MSNBC on Monday for what some were calling its lopsidedly liberal coverage of the presidential election.

The cable news channel is "completely out of control," said writer-producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat.

Maybe she's still angry about Hillary?

She added that she would prefer a lunch date with right-leaning Fox News star Sean Hannity over left-leaning MSNBC star Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann was criticized by many who attended Monday's luncheon sponsored by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The event was dubbed "Hollywood, America and Election '08."

Bloodworth-Thomason and others seemed especially critical of the way MSNBC -- and other media -- has attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin while demeaning her supporters.

And last week, Dan Rather said that Sarah Palin would have been skewered for saying what Joe Biden promised would be a testing of the new President if Obama is elected.

Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather says there is a huge double-standard in the media when it comes to coverage the Barack Obama campaign receives, which is clearly made evident in the lack of scrutiny given to comments Obama’s vice presidential running mate Sen. Joe Biden made earlier this week.

That's pretty good coming from a guy who used to say things like this in his TV newscasts.

“The new Republican majority in Congress took a big step today on its legislative agenda to demolish or damage government aid programs, many of them designed to help children and the poor.”

— Leading off the March 16, 1995 CBS Evening News.

It's funny. Every self-respecting liberal I've ever debated has insisted that media bias is an imagined, and impossible, phenomenon, a symptom of conservatism.

Palin Magic

Sarah is magic on the campaign trail.

It may be late in the campaign, but a new catch phrase for John McCain and his presidential quest may have been unveiled today in Leesburg, Va.

Sarah Palin, speaking to a characteristically enthusiastic crowd, was reciting her tried-and-true list of criticisms of Barack Obama when she was interrupted by a chant: "Use your brain, vote McCain."

The Republican vice presidential candidate seemed genuinely surprised -- and pleased -- by the slogan.

"You betcha," she responded (using her own catch phrase). "That's good."

Palin is obviously a smarter politician than the folks managing the McCain campaign, and she's working to restore her reputation, damaged by their bad advice.

A widening split has developed between Sarah Palin and key campaign aides for John McCain, with one McCain adviser saying the Republican vice presidential candidate is going "rogue," two reports say today. Some McCain sources wonder whether Palin is intentionally making public her disagreements with campaign positions, says a CNN story (read it here).

Perhaps the biggest mistake that the McCain campaign has made is having kept Palin under wraps, then releasing only to Charlie Gibson and Katy Couric.

A Different View of Sarah

Sarah Palin is not about $150,000 clothing budgets, as she makes clear in Florida Sunday.

Piling On

Scott Conroy of CBS News writes a blog entry entitled "Palin Stretches Facts In Effort To Paint Obama As Presumptuous." She's a politician - isn't she required to stretch the truth?

Following a fiery introduction by "The View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who accused the media of being "deliberately sexist" in its coverage of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor suggested that Barack Obama assumes he already has the election wrapped up.

No exaggeration on the sexism charge - many women feel this way... in fact, I think Cokie Roberts made the same accusation today on This Week.

"And you know that elections - they're not decided until the votes are counted," Palin said at a rally here.

She's got that one right - although most of the media disagrees.

"But our opponent, he sure seems, once again to be getting out a little bit ahead of himself. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that Barack Obama's inaugural address is already written."

The article Palin was referring to reported that John Podesta - who is in charge of Obama's transition team - wrote a hypothetical inaugural address for the Illinois senator in a book released last summer at a time when he was advising Obama's opponent Hillary Clinton.

Wow. He was writing the victory speech for Barack even as he was advising Hillary? No wonder Hillary ran such a bad campaign! Bill's buddies couldn't wait to throw them under the bus!

"Nine days out from the election, nine days out, and yet it's already written," Palin said.

"John McCain and I, we're out here asking for your vote so we can get to work for you, and a lot of folks are still undecided. And you know, Barack Obama and I, we both have spent quite some time on the basketball court. But where I come from, you have to win the game before you start cutting down the nets."

Ok so far.

Palin then brought up the presidential seal that the Obama campaign had made for the Democrat and the campaign's plan for Obama to speak at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin last summer - a setting that is typically reserved for heads of state.

"Or the stadium that he's already rented out for the victory party that he has planned," she said.

But the Obama campaign has not, in fact, rented out a stadium for a victory party. Obama plans to hold his election night celebration at Hutchinson Field, at the southern end of Grant Park in Chicago.

Oh, that's right. He's getting the venue for free, where a fortune will be spent to built a victory site. Sorry...

"You kind of get the feeling that the Obama campaign thinks this whole election process is just a formality," Palin said. "They've overlooked though the minor detail of earning your confidence and your trust and winning your votes. And I know that judging by media coverage, it does seem that the coronation is already set, but as for John McCain and me, we don't take any vote for granted, and we are not assuming that we have your vote, we are respectfully asking for it."

That's his excuse for a column. How about some coverage on how Barack stretches the truth when he says he's not a socialist?

Spread the Socialism

Barack supporters are irate over suggestions that he is a socialist, or harbors socialist leanings. One has to suspect that this is because they don't bother reading anything about the guy.

Barack says he doesn't regret his remarks to Joe the Plumber about spreading the wealth. Why should he?

There's a lot of buzz being generated about Obama, ACORN and Obama's first political party - The New Party. How did the Oba-messiah get this far without anyone reporting he was a member of a fringe Leftist political party? Where the hell is the media anyway?

History shows that Barack shares the values of the socialists. He says so right here, with his endorsement in 2004 of Congressman Danny Davis, and with his attempt to win the endorsement of a socialist political party.

Barack Obama was a member of an extremist political party established by the Democratic Socialists for America, the Chicago New Party, and they cheered his victory in his uncontested run for his Illinois state senate seat as a step away from American values, towards socialism. ^[5] The New Party: The New Party is an unabashed Marxist "fusion" party from which Barack Obama actively sought out and received an endorsement for his state senate candidacy (in 1996). He did. ^[1] The party was a Marxist Political coalition.

Here's background from Erik Erickson at Human Events.

Two weeks ago at RedState, we documented Obama’s 1996 endorsement by the New Party. A review of the New Party establishes that not only was the party an amalgamation of far left groups, but Barack Obama knew that when he sought the party’s endorsement.

Most of the New Party’s history has been lost in the digital age. It was established in 1992 and started to die out in 1998, well before Google and the modern web were established. But through lengthy searches of the Nexis archive and microfilm at the local university library, I’ve been able to piece this together.

Sarah Talks

Today is the day.

An attorney hired by Alaska’s personnel board to investigate whether Gov. Sarah Palin violated state ethics laws when she fired her public safety commissioner will depose the governor and her husband today.

Timothy Petumenos, the attorney hired by the personnel board, will spend about six hours interviewing Palin and her husband, Todd, said Thomas Van Flein, an attorney representing the Palins.

It’s unknown whether Petunmenos will release a report prior to the Nov. 4 election.

Last week, the Alaska Legislative Council voted unanimously to share with Petumenos more than 1,000 pages of documents collected by Steve Branchflower, the independent counsel who spent six weeks investigating Palin. The documents collected by Branchflower have not been released publicly because of confidentiality concerns.

Barack's Lines

Presidential politics is like making a movie. The candidate is the actor, his job is to deliver the lines written for him by the script writers. Politicians who don't get this, or have a conscience, don't do as well.

Barack is the first candidate, perhaps, to fully embrace this requirement of the TV era. Everything is a prop, every speech a hustle. His grandmother, his preacher, his mentors, they are all props when push comes to shove.

John McCain has a problem with this. He's an old fashioned man, built on dated ideas such as values and honor. So he's uncomfortable at debates when he is forced to recite lies.

Barack spews them with relish - with utter comfort. Unburdened by a sense of responsibility, he thinks only about performance while delivering his well memorized lines. He performs without flaw.

Barack lies about Bill Ayers, his mentor. He lies about Jeremiah Wright, his mentor. He covers up his connection to Tony Rezko, his most important money man during his Chicago years. He doesn't mention his job as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, his only managment credential.

Harry Smith: The rancorous tone of this campaign - I was with John McCain on Monday, and I said, 'Our poll data shows that it's actually hurting you.' He says, 'I wouldn't be doing it if he weren't doing it.'

He lied about his policy on the war. He lied about his commitment to public financing. He lied about FISA. The list goes on an on.

Barack Obama (laughing): Well, look. I - I mean - politics is tough. ... But I will say this: I don't think there's any equivalence between what we've been doing and what John McCain's been doing. ... Witness some of the comments that have been made just over the last several months, his last several weeks, 'Socialistic.' You know, 'Pals around with terrorists.' I mean, just - the kinds of stuff that - that I can't imagine saying about an opponent of mine.

Isn't that funny? Barack's political and spiritual mentors are Marxists, socialists, criminals and anarchists, but he just can't imagine talking about anyone the way the GOP talks about him. Poor Barack.

Barack may be the best political candidate ever. Because he doesn't let the truth get in the way.

Compassion

You recall how the media blew things completely out of proportion a couple of weeks ago when the crowds at some McCain events got a little rowdy. It played into the "conservatives are mean" storyline that the liberal media feeds.

You're full of shit, pal.

Would you be shocked to learn that liberals also get a bit emotional - and ugly - over politics?

McCain is a tratorous rat

An LA Times writer was a little surprised by the response when, in contrast to his many columns taking McCain to task, he wrote something good about the Republican nominee.

IT WAS THE BUSH CAMPAIGN IN 2000 WHO REPEATED CALLED MCCAIN A "FAKE HERO" A "TRAITOR" A "FAGGOT" AND MANY OTHER INCREDIBLY VILE THINGS.

WHY NOT WRITE ABOUT THAT?

From the hearts of the compassionate left!

McC is no hero. He lost three planes before getting shot down in Hanoi. With all the practice ejecting, he still did it wrong.

That's just a small sampling of the wrath heaped upon Matt Welch for challenging the liberal hate spin that McCain is not a war hero.

Sarah's Smile

While voters like Sarah Palin, her performance in last week's debate didn't seem to impress as being presidential.

While most voters surveyed hold a favorable view of Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, most also say that she is not qualified to serve as president, should that situation present itself - 52 percent said no in a Pew Research Center survey conducted over the weekend among people who had been surveyed before the debate. Basically the same number that said so before the debate.

Is this the sexism that Democrats keep talking about?

Joe Biden, on the other hand, apparently did himself some good in the one vice presidential debate. The numbers holding a favorable view of the Democratic vice presidential nominee climbed from 54 to 63 percent after the debate - and the percentage of those surveyed saying that Biden is qualified to serve as president rose from 69 to 77 percent.

Sarah sure can attract a crowd.

Forty-one percent of all households tuned into the vice presidential debate, Nielsen has found - the second-most-watched of any presidential or vice presidential debate. And today, Nielsen reports that 61 percent of all households have watched at least one of the debates so far - the first one between presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain or the only one between Palin and Biden. Nielsen also has found that 30 percent tuned in to both debates.

Anyone Understand Women? Not NOW!

There is actually a feminist in America today who has noticed that Sarah Palin is a woman.

Shelly Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women introduced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin over the weekend in California, speaking not on behalf of NOW but "as an individual, as a woman's rights activist for 30 years who has worked for all those years to see this day."

How upsetting for Democrats that one of them is supporting a woman who doesn't pass the liberal litmus test.

“America," Mandell said, "this is what a feminist looks like."

How about that - Mandell is supporting Sarah's candidacy because she's committed to seeing women empowered. Why is it that other women, other activist women, don't share this goal?

"It is an honor to call her sister," Mandell said as she handed the microphone over to Palin, who would accuse Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., of "palling around with terrorists."

Sarah Palin is proof of the success of the women's movement. Their reluctance to claim victory, and to embrace the new kinda politics, shows just how old school and politics as usual the women's movement has become.

"Make no mistake," Mandell said. "I'm a life-long Democrat ... I don't agree with Gov. Palin on several issues." And yet, she said, "I know Sarah Palin cares about women’s rights, she cares about equality, she cares about equal pay, and as Vice President she will fight for it. She cares about our children and she cares about women's lives. She's an athlete and she knows what Title Nine did for girls like her."

It's not just men who can't understand women. Feminists don't either.

He's Scared?

P Diddy is scared of Sarah Palin.

This could be viewed as a parody of those who are so upset over Palin, but, considering the source, we have to assume it's meant to play to his base - kids who listen to rap - and support Barack.

Sarah Sixpack

Were you thinking that last night might be the end of John McCain's chances?

When nervous, Palin has a tendency to over-enunciate her words like a graduate of the George W. Bush School of Oratory, but Thursday night she spoke like a normal person. It took her about 15 seconds to define her persona — the straight-talking mom from regular America — and it was immediately clear that the night would be filled with tales of soccer moms, hockey moms, Joe Sixpacks, main-streeters, “you betchas” and “darn rights.” Somewhere in heaven Norman Rockwell is smiling.

David Brooks offers a great recap of GOP anxiety, and the Palin debate, in today's New York Times.

With a bemused smile and a never-ending flow of words, she laid out her place on the ticket — as the fearless neighbor for the heartland bemused by the idiocies of Washington. Her perpetual smile served as foil to Biden’s senatorial seriousness.

Where was this woman during her interview with Katie Couric?

Palin's freshness - her anti-Washington status - communicates viscerally.

On Thursday night, Palin took her inexperience and made a mansion out of it. From her first “Nice to meet you. May I call you Joe?” she made it abundantly, unstoppably and relentlessly clear that she was not of Washington, did not admire Washington and knew little about Washington. She ran not only against Washington, but the whole East Coast, just to be safe.

What I liked best was the ability that Sarah showed, and the intellect. This is a talented woman.

On matters of substance, her main accomplishment was to completely sever ties to the Bush administration. She treated Bush as some historical curiosity from the distant past. Beyond that, Palin broke no new ground, though she toured the landscape of McCain policy positions with surprising fluency. Like the last debate, this one was surprisingly wonky — a lifetime subscription to Congressional Quarterly. Palin could not match Biden when it came to policy detail, but she never obviously floundered.

The woman who has better experience than Barack but who is, in the liberal mind, unqualified to be vice president, came to play and made a guy with 35 years experience in the senate uneasy. She's uncanny in her ability to break through the veneer of television and take control of a forum she has no business controlling. Sarah's achievement was made stronger by the fact that Joe Biden did pretty well.

Still, this debate was about Sarah Palin. She held up her end of an energetic debate that gave voters a direct look at two competing philosophies. She established debating parity with Joe Biden. And in a country that is furious with Washington, she presented herself as a radical alternative.

This was very satisfying to those who are rooting for the McCain ticket, but also for millions of Americans in search of change. Palin vibrates with change energy in a way that Barack once did before he abandoned change for same old same old politics.

By the end of the debate, most Republicans were not crouching behind the couch, but standing on it. The race has not been transformed, but few could have expected as vibrant and tactically clever a performance as the one Sarah Palin turned in Thursday night.

The snobbery of liberals who are appalled that a small town, self-made girl with an accent could co-opt the Democrats' God-given right to female candidates and operate so powerfully by rejecting the status quo of Ivy League and Washington wonkism must be further tweaked today by the confident wink into the camera that Sarah Palin offered the nation last night.

The message? Real people can play this game just as well, and probably better, than the fancy folks who spew endless lists of facts and figures. It's not understanding policy that takes talent, it is the ability to resist the centripetal pull of insiderism that is the gift so rarely possessed by a political figure.

Sarah's got it, and she communicates it in a way that makes the elites very nervous.