Free Republic

Sarah Palin didn't retreat. She reloaded. And she proved, again, that she is a ruinously incompetent politician. Over the weekend, liberal pundits overeagerly speculated that she may have inspired the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). After learning more about alleged shooter Jared Loughner, many of those same commentators restrained their criticism of the former Alaska governor, and polls showed that Americans are skeptical of any connection. People recognized Palin had been unfairly implicated in the Arizona massacre. She didn't even have to mention it in her response to the tragedy and the resulting debate. Everyone would have been thinking...

As some like to say, the 2012 presidential campaign began the day after the 2010 midterm elections. And with the bulk of the action on the Republican side as contenders start lining up to challenger President Obama, it's not too soon to start speculating about who's most likely going to be at the top of the GOP ticket. Republican strategist Mike Murphy has worked on the campaigns of Sen. John McCain, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and others. He tells Morning Edition guest host Linda Wertheimer that Romney and current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels now...

TLC and why Palin will never be president -- part 2 Last week I wrote a piece pegged to tonight's TLC pairing of Kate Gosselin and Sarah Palin on Palin's "Alaska" reality TV series. The core of my commentary was that Palin will never be president because she has sold herself too cheap to low-rent reality-TV venues like TLC, and now she is being perceived as another one of the channel's freak moms like Kate Gosselin or the women on the series "I Didn't Know I was Pregant." As the title so coyly suggests, that shows features women who gave...

Former presidential adviser Karl Rove said Tuesday that the race for the Republican Party presidential nomination is wide open. “There is no front-runner in Iowa; there’s no front-runner in America,” Rove said on Fox News. “We should welcome that.” Since November, Mr. Rove has made similar comments during his speaking tours. He has openly criticized a number of Republican nominees, including Republican Delaware U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell. Ms. O’Donnell eventually lost to Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Coons. He noted that recent polls show four candidates who are consistently ahead. Among those included likely include former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin,...

When I see the fervor of Sarah Palin’s fans — and by no means just those who swell the adoring crowds who go to her public appearances — I am convinced that the question is not, “How can she win the GOP nomination?” but “How can she not win it?” When you have anywhere between five and fifteen GOP candidates, all expressing basically the same conservative views, how can anyone other than the only one with the passionate fan base possibly win? And yet: Reading between the lines of what conservative-movement people are saying and writing, there is a great deal...

Eliot Spitzer’s CNN co-host Kathleen Parker is so furious about Spitzer’s on-air domination that she is threatening to leave their nightly show. Parker went so far as to storm off the set of the “Parker Spitzer” show Eliot, Spitzer, CNN, Kathleen, Parkerduring a recent pre-taping, according to the New York Post. She did return to finish the segment, however.

It's no secret that [Nicolle] Wallace is no fan of Sarah Palin. But the former Bush communications director and McCain campaign aide perhaps took things to another level with her attack on Palin on today's Morning Joe. Wallace was on to comment on Joe Scarborough's astonishing claim of yesterday, noted here, that "all" conservatives and talk radio hosts with whom he's spoken are harshly critical of Palin off the record, but are afraid to express their views publicly. Wallace opined that if it ever looked as if Palin were close to copping the Republican presidential nomination, many GOP leaders who...

Eliot Spitzer's TV sidekick is so fed up with playing second fiddle to the hooker-loving ex-gov that she's threatening to walk, sources told The Post yesterday. Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker actually stormed off the set of the "Parker Spitzer" show during a pre-taping a few weeks ago -- furious that her co-host is continually allowed to take charge of their nightly CNN chat-fest, the insiders said. Although still fuming, Parker did return to wrap up the segment, they said. But she's angry that the show's producers are allegedly doing nothing to play up her strengths on the ailing show,...

Karl Rove discusses Sarah Palin's book tour and a possible presidential run. Palin will be doing three book tour events in Iowa, which Rove calls a "smart move." "She's got a problem with Independents and she has a problem with Democrats," Rove said about Palin's rating with these groups.

A journalist yesterday asked me a thought-provoking question: Why does Sarah Palin command so much media attention? By most measures, she currently stands about equal in the Republican field alongside Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and only a little ahead of Newt Gingrich. Yet the cable shows do not erupt when Mitt Romney makes a speech. Newt Gingrich is on Twitter almost every day, but his messages don’t make news. So why Palin? Five guesses. 1) She polarizes. Modern media culture favors contrast and conflict. Sarah Palin serves both up by the bucketful. Most presidential candidates present themselves as gracious and...

In a National Review Online column on November 19, Mona Charen provided an explanation of why she believes Sarah Palin shouldn’t run for President. She argued that after the 2008 campaign, Palin “quit her job as governor after two and a half years…and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity.” She asserted that “Palin seems consumed and obsessed” by the media, labeled Palin’s new TLC show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, a “cheesy entrant in the reality-show genre,” and took issue with the fact that Sarah and Todd sit in the Dancing with the Stars audience “cheering on their unwed-mother daughter.” She...

But … I thought they were friends. Well, acquaintances. Sort of: She had spent most of her time [on election day] ensconced at the Fox television studios, though she managed to squeeze in a jog in Central Park — which she promptly chronicled on Twitter: “Beautiful!” Also at the studios was her fellow Fox News contributor Karl Rove, who had recently questioned in a British newspaper whether Palin’s new reality TV series, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” made her appear Oval Office-worthy. The building was abuzz over what would ensue when the two would inevitably bump into each other. The moment came...

You know, many mediocre politicians are using the tea party as a vehicle to get elected.. It's weird. Many politicians claim they are conservative but don't have a track record we can check. Other politicians who are truly conservative, but unfortunately have this long track record, are brutally attacked for any little mistake they made in the past. This is ridiculous. Maybe the best way to get true conservatives elected is to put substance over rhetoric.

If Karl Rove were twice as smart, he'd still be stupid. Karl Rove is so ugly! When his mother dropped him off at school ... she was cited for littering. Karl Rove is so ugly, Hello Kitty said goodbye to him.

Spencer Bachus is trying to dig out out of the hole he dug when he slammed Sarah Palin this weekend. Bachus is in line to chair the powerful Financial Services Committee, but is facing a challenge from Ed Royce of California, and now from pro-Palin Tea Partiers who will watch this decision by John Boehner for signs of old boy networks trumping the new politics of grass roots activism. Most of the focus of the Tea Party activists had been on the competition between Fred Upton and John Shimkus for chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but with...

WASHINGTON — A leading House Republican says Sarah Palin cost the GOP control of the Senate. Questioned about those comments on Tuesday, a spokesman for Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama said the remarks had been taken out of context but didn't retract them. Bachus, in line to become chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, initially blamed Palin last week at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon. According to the Shelby County Reporter, he said the Senate would be in Republican hands if not for losses by tea party candidates endorsed by the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential...

Does this really surprise anyone? Currently, the liberal psuedo-news site the Huffington Post has a gigantic picture of former VP candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and a 99 font size (and all capital letters) "GOTCHA" on the front of their website: The picture, which intentionally tries to mock Palin, links to an article by the Huffington Post that states that Palin "misquoted" a story in the Wall Street Journal. However, if you wade through the article and past the liberal slant, you would realize that Mrs. Palin is telling the truth. If you read the article, Palin stated that...

For many Republicans, the bright, golden haze of Election Day is marred by a thunderhead on the horizon -- the increasingly erratic political interventions of Sarah Palin. In the past, Palin embodied the populist style of the Tea Party movement while espousing a fairly mainstream Republican ideology. On economic, social and foreign policy, Palin seldom strayed from a simplified, popularized Reaganism. The mama grizzly may have been ferocious, but her talking points came from the Heritage Foundation instead of from darker corners of the right. But this election season has called that perception into question. Palin's endorsement of Christine O'Donnell...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLb-NY4p1q0

First, she plucked little known state legislator Nikki Haley from obscurity to victory in the South Carolina GOP governor's primary. Then there was a helping hand for Susanna Martinez in New Mexico gubernatorial primary, Sharron Angle in the Nevada Senate primary, and Carly Fiorina in the California US Senate primary. Now there's an endorsement for Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. Is Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee packing the GOP with female candidates in 2010? SarahPAC made news this month, both for its fundraising prowess and its "Mama Grizzly" advertisement, which has gone viral on the internet. She's made a...