Free Republic

Sarah Palin's dad wrote a letter backing little Tark and the campaign sent out an email with a picture of the entire Palin clan (alas, no Levi) and a pitch to contribute. Here's Chuck Heath's letter to Nevadans: FROM THE DESK OF CHUCK HEATH Hello Nevadans, My family and I would like to thank all of you who welcomed us to your beautiful state and made us feel so at home. Everywhere we went, from Las Vegas, to Reno, to the smaller towns in between, the people there made us feel like family.

David Plouffe slammed Sarah Palin on Sunday for her role in the Republican Party and the NY-23 race, saying the GOP was hanging up a sign, “No moderates need apply,” that will marginalize the party for years to come. Plouffe, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, said of Palin on NBC's “Meet the Press,” “I think we should thank John McCain for picking her.” “What’s going on in the special election in N.Y. 23, I think, is a remarkable phenomenon that could affect our politics for years to come," Plouffe said. He added that Palin, who endorsed the conservative candidate over...

On the dirt he has on Sarah Palin: "There are some things that I have that are huge. And I haven't said them because I'm not gonna hurt her that way... I have things that can, you know -- that would get her in trouble, and could hurt her. Will hurt her. But I'm not gonna go that far. You know, I mean, if I really wanted to hurt her, I could, very easily. But there's -- i'm not gonna do it. I'm not going that far." Says he's referring to things Palin did while she was governor of Alaska....

Levi Johnston, the estranged father of Sarah Palin's grandson, told CBS in an interview that -- among other things -- Palin had joked about her son Trig, who has Down's Syndrome. Palin has released this statement through her spokesperson Meg Stapleton, which appears to refer to Levi's agreement to pose for Playgirl magazine: We have purposefully ignored the mean spirited, malicious and untrue attacks on our family. We, like many, are appalled at the inflammatory statements being made or implied. Trig is our 'blessed little angel' who knows it and is lovingly called that every day of his life. Even...

We know that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can hunt, and even field-dress a moose, but how will she take to poachers on her book sales? Start-up publisher OR Books has announced plans to publish Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare, a collection of essays about the maverick Republican with a title — and cover design — remarkably similar to Palin’s upcoming memoir. What’s more, OR’s paperback tome will be released on Nov. 17, the same day that Palin’s own Going Rogue: An American Life hits shelves — and one day after Palin’s just-announced, first-ever appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s...

Levi Johnston’s shameless exploitation by the liberal media is more than just a convenient cudgel for bashing Sarah Palin. It’s a modern minstrel show, with “Middle American” substituted for “African-American” as Levi capers for his condescending media “friends” wearing figurative blackface. And just as the minstrel shows of the past were tools to reinforce prejudice, the Levi Johnston show is meant to reinforce the prejudices and smug sense of superiority of its elitist liberal audience.

I have, over the past year or so, expressed occasional dismay over Sarah Palin. I think she has the issue understanding of a Kodiak bear and an Arctic wolf’s eye for the main chance, and I think the idea of her being president, devising a national budget and having access to nuclear weapons is the kind of horrific vision that might come to you after weeks alone in the Alaskan wilderness. But I don’t know what she did to deserve Levi Johnston. Johnston, if you miss both the political news and the supermarket tabloids, is the former high school classmate,...

Have you noticed that Governor Palin has not been removed from the hit list of the far left? I mean besides the left over jokes and reruns from the 2008 Presidential campaign…during which she did a damn good job…for someone never on the national scene before…but even now when she has resigned as Governor of Alaska, and is just plain old “Sarah Palin Citizen of the United States of America.” Why is the left so afraid of a staunch Christian Republican who is articulate, a fast learner, who happens to be a women, married with children, and damn good looking...

Apparently Governor Palin's timely entry into the debate offended the sensibilities of Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. In an article in the Financial Times, Ornstein was asked to comment: “The dollar has always been a testosterone issue among America’s political classes,” says Norm Ornstein, a veteran analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “This time there may be a legitimate debate to be had over the dollar’s reserve status, but Sarah Palin is not qualified to participate in it.”

WASHINGTON - She's poised to become the best-selling author in the United States, has a devoted base of conservative supporters and is considered a front-runner to lead the Republicans into the next election in 2012 - and yet key party strategists are tormented by the popularity of Sarah Palin. The very notion of a Palin candidacy has been derided in recent days by some of the brightest minds in the Republican party even as the former governor of Alaska outlines her policies on Afghanistan, energy and other issues of national importance. "Were she to be the nominee, we could have...

News reports that Sarah Palin is planning a separate Christian version of her forthcoming memoir, Going Rogue, are false, according to her publisher, HarperCollins. The reports were so widely circulated that they appear to have caused confusion at Zondervan, a Christian publisher owned by HarperCollins, where the director of publicity said yesterday that a special Christian edition of the book had been planned but was scrapped because of the expedited timetable for the book's release. Reports about a special Christian edition of Palin's memoir included a long Vanity Fair profile on Palin last summer, which said that her memoir was...

From the fringe left Daily Kos to mainstream media outlets such as CNN and MSNBC learned a tough lesson on Thursday as they awoke to find Sarah Palin's Autobiography Going Rogue: An American Life atop the pre-order best sellers lists and daily sales boards for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and nearly every other book retailer websites. The announcement of Palin's release date on Wednesday caused an outbreak of attacks on the former Vice Presidential candidate that would lead you to believe that she had announced a Presidential campaign rather than a book release. Thousands of Internet and print articles attacking...

A day after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made her international debut at a Hong Kong investors conference, an Alaska newspaper apologized for a headline that ended up on the front page. Above a small photo of Palin near the bottom of Page One of Wednesday's Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the headline read, "A broad in Asia." The headline was apparently written intentionally and was not simply an error. News-Miner managing editor Rod Boyce apologized later that afternoon for the "offensive language," noting on the paper's Web site that while the News-Miner had strong disagreements with Palin, it has thus far...

Tina Fey recently won an Emmy for her uncanny resemblance and venomous impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. In accepting her award, Fey was her typical, obloquious self saying, “Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin!” 2008 marked a departure from the memorable, more cordial years of Chevy Chase as a clumsy Gerald Ford or Dana Carvey’s hilarious H.W. Bush: “wouldn’t be prudent.” Fey was downright mean.

You know, those Palin Republicans are all such racist, fearmongers, right? Well if you didn't know it, Macleans of Canada wants to make sure you do with a piece headlined "The Palin Republicans." For Macleans, writer John Parisella thinks he's discovered why the GOP can't capitalize on the distrust that more and more Americans are feeling for the Obama administration and his Social-Democratic Party. It's because Sarah Palin is a big ol' meanie that told a lie about death panels. And what could save the GOP according to this loony leftist? Why capitulating to socialist healthcare, of course. Oh, and...

Keith Olbermann is not one to pass up an opportunity to attack anything that even hints at being right of center. The repugnant MSNBC host devoted some three-quarters of his Sept. 16 show to claim criticism of President Barack Obama had to have elements of racism, no matter how you sliced it. And therefore, those critics were all despicable human beings, end of story. However, he did manage to find time to revert to old tried and true method of appeasing his angry left-wing desires - a little bashing of former Republican vice-presidential nominee and Gov. Sarah Palin, with an...

Comedy actress Tina Fey has won an Emmy Award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Fey was honoured at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys, which recognise technical and other achievements. Pop star Justin Timberlake, who did not attend, won for playing various characters on Saturday Night Live. There were also wins for Ellen Burstyn for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Michael J Fox for Rescue Me. "I always wanted one of these," Burstyn said, winning her first Emmy after being nominated five times. 'Living my dream' In winning her award,...

AP: The president was alternately bipartisan and tough on his Republican critics. He singled out Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for praise at one point. Yet, moments later, in a line apparently aimed at McCain's former running mate, Sarah Palin, Obama accused Republicans of spreading the "cynical and irresponsible" charge that the legislation would include "death panels" with the power to hasten the death of senior citizens.

A source sends on the talking points the White House is circulating to allies in advance of President Obama's speech, most of them reiterating familiar themes of momentum and security. But the White House has also chosen specifically to focus on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and evidently to make her the face of the opposition, or to respond to her ability to project herself into the debate. She is the only Republican named in the talking points. Here's that section: On Gov. Palin's Attacks Every non-partisan organization that has looked at her claims say they are false. And the...

The self-appointed leader of the lowly opposition, a person whose greatest single summer feat was to walk away from the job the people of Alaska elected her to do, a twitchy woman who challenged President Obama to an arm wrestling match earlier year, has now gathered her credentials to speak on the moral complexities of war, media, responsibility, and family grief. Sarah Palin called the Associated Press's decision to release a battlefield photo of a dying Marine over the family's objection "an evil thing to do." Lacking a podium, a network, or a job, she again relied on her Facebook...

The magazine Vanity Fair opted to open up the fall season featuring another groundbreaking interview with Levi Johnston, a young man whose previous claims to fame included a decisive slap shot in hockey, the ability to navigate a snow machine over rough terrain, and sufficient spermatozoa to impregnate the daughter of a vice presidential candidate. The punditocracy and their associated acolytes across the web immediately fell into predictable patterns of applause and outrage. You may recall that during the Battle of Ought Eight, Levi was held up — albeit somewhat reluctantly — as a hero of traditional American values. Rather...

For the first time in my life, I feel sympathy ofr Sarah Palin.Levi Johnston — you will remember him from his featured role as the father of Bristol’s baby at the Republican convention — has written an article for the new issue of Vanity Fair. It’s his take on the Palin home life, which Johnston says was “much different from what many people expect of a normal family.”Given the fact that Johnston is a 19-year-old high school dropout whose mother was arrested last year on six felony drug counts, it is conceivable that he is not the perfect arbiter of...

The Curse of Nye Bevan usually strikes down anyone who badmouthes the health service - as Levi Johnston's claims prove

As some of the most prominent Republican women across the country gather next week in Orlando, arguably the most well-known of them will not be in attendance. Despite an invitation to speak at the conference, Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate, and until recently Alaska governor, decided not come to the National Federation of Republican Women's 35th Convention, according to the organization. An estimated 1,200 Republican women leaders will attend the three day conference, and some of those are want Palin to reconsider. "It is disappointing," says Barbara Davis, who heads the Melbourne, Fla. chapter." We were hoping that she...

Some of the most prominent Republican woman will be in Orlando for the Republican Women's 35th Convention, but arguably the most famous of them all is not making an appearance. As some of the most prominent Republican women across the country gather next week in Orlando, arguably the most well-known of them will not be in attendance. Despite an invitation to speak at the conference, Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate, and until recently Alaska governor, decided not come to the National Federation of Republican Women's 35th Convention, according to the organization. An estimated 1,200 Republican women leaders will attend...

HELLO!? Is this thing on? Good! Listen! Don't vote for Sarah Palin In 2012! America is attacked in 2013 she uses FEMA to lock up her oppenents and then takes over the world! Also they find a cure for Down syndrome and Trig becomes a brutal dictator killing billions! This helps Michelle Obama XII Become intergalactic dictator. Please don't vote for... OMG! Someones coming!

Where in the world is Sarah Barracuda Palin? Alaska's sultry superstar has once again mysteriously disappeared right before she was scheduled to speak at one of her very important fundraisers, this one so slutty teenagers who get knocked up have no choice but to have the baby unless they want to get the ol' parental approval for an abortion. Now normally Sarah's habit of shirking her duties is limited to elected terms in office, but ever since becoming an unemployed publicity hound and Facebook junkie, Palin's erratic behavior has instead metamorphosed into canceling paid speaking engagements at the very last...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been out of office over a month and there are still those working at major media outlets that just can't get over their obsessions with dissecting everything the former GOP vice-presidential nominee does. Case and point - Mark Silva, a blogger for the Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp," in an Aug. 26 post took it upon himself to try to rationalize why Palin would possibly suggest to her friends and followers on social media networks to tune in to Glenn Beck's Aug. 26 program, as NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard alluded to earlier. ...more...

Editor, At the risk of sounding sexist, how did the health care debate get hijacked by an overgrown teenage girl on Facebook? Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska to become an unpaid right-wing blogger, yet still has the power to disrupt any rational discourse. Possibly related: How did someone like Palin even rise to the spotlight in the first place? Her rise was born in the waning days of the contentious Democratic primaries between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. After the controversial Democratic National Convention Rules Committee decision to split in half the delegates from Michigan and...

Want to make a liberal crazier? Mention these names! I’ve taken to starting my radio talk show with a name assured to raise the cackles of lefties all over mid-Missouri. As the show breaks, I’m inclined to welcome my audience with two words, “Sarah Palin,” then ruminate about all the red faces, heart palpitations and coffee mugs that are dropped and shattered throughout the heartland. It’s called “pushing their buttons,” catalyzing their derangement through their brainwashed, blurred vision of the world that’s completely tainted by government-run media. I feel like a high school punk calling for a food fight, then...

Dumb yet fascinating. Obama’s birth certificate won’t be an issue in the primaries (let’s hope) so how the big three rank is unimportant — unless Birtherism is actually a proxy for other political dynamics, in which case this becomes an interesting little data point. But if it’s a proxy, what’s it a proxy for? Level of education? Regional identification? Something else? My hunch is that the further right you go, the more Birther-y you get, not because you’re any more credulous on the merits of the birth-certificate argument but because the more adamant your opposition to Obama’s agenda, the more...

A bizarre article from Charles Krauthammer in today's Washington Post. In the second sentence he trashes Palin: "We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I've got nothing against her. She's a remarkable political talent. But there are no "death panels" in the Democratic health-care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate." And by the third paragraph he is explaining that Obamacare will basically create a "death panel": "We also have to tell the defenders of the notorious Section 1233 of H.R. 3200 that it is not quite as benign as they...

Public Policy Polling has replicated the same result for the past five months: On the question of which Republican would do the best against President Obama in a hypothetical race for the presidency in 2012, former-Arkansas-governor-turned-talk-show-host Mike Huckabee makes the strongest showing. Here's how the latest numbers break down for each potential face-off: Barack Obama 47% Mike Huckabee 44% Barack Obama 47% Mitt Romney 40% Barack Obama 49% Newt Gingrich 41% Barack Obama 52% Sarah Palin 38%

Matthew Littman likes to use racist, incendiary, and sexist speech to attack his opposition. Do you think that Huffington Post should continue to have Littman on their staff? If not. follow this link to learn who sponsors HUFFPO. Let them know how you feel- video of the incident can be found here as well

Sarah Palin was right, the second time. We do need to turn down the rhetorical heat lest we miss important issues in the proposed House health-care bill. Unfortunately, Palin's more thoughtful comments followed a made-for-the-tabloids Facebook post suggesting that under President Obama's health-care reform, a "death panel" would kill her elderly parents and her Down syndrome baby.... A simple amendment to H.R. 3200 would do much to cool tempers. All that's needed is specific language saying that these end-of-life consultations are not mandatory -- either for physicians or patients -- and that there would be no penalty, either in coverage...

GOV. SARAH PALIN: We've got to secure the borders, and we can't be considering this broad range of amnesty that some would want. We've got to secure the borders and prove to the American people that the federal government is serious about this, and it's got to be a comprehensive approach to dealing with the immigration challenge that we have -- securing the borders, working with our border governors and mayors. They're there on the front lines, understanding what some of the solutions can be, if only they have an administration who will work with them

This is a new low. MSNBC is a disgrace, and I never expect anything remotely fair or ethical to emerge from their dealings with conservatives, Sarah Palin in particular, but their recent smearing is way over the top--and I'm just...FED UP! Why can't the Left just deal with the real issues? That would be "too much like right," so what do they do? You know what they do because you've seen it so many times before.

On Wednesday's Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews hosted a discussion with Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker and Salon's Joan Walsh as the trio discussed Parker's latest column, "A Tip for the GOP: Look Away," in which she argues that the Republican party is hurt by being centered in the South with its history of racial politics. Matthews, who would later theorize that Sarah Palin will exploit white racism by visiting "cul de sacs of whitedom," set up the segment by reading a line from Parker's column which compares Palin to a white character in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking...

According to a Facebook status update on behalf of the restaurant, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is here in New York and dined at Michael's last night. She's in town to visit with her publisher, HarperCollins, and has been doing "fun kids things" during her stay here with her family. It all sounds innocent enough, except for the Michael's part. Michael's is not only a Northeastern elite power-lunching spot, it is the very epicenter of the liberal media — the very men, women, and reporters who are out to get her.

According to her, the problem with the Republican party is that it has too many conservatives. Well, that’s not new, we knew she felt that way since she labored to diminish Sarah Palin in every column since her nomination (including her most recent column, dated Aug 5 2009). Not satisfied with attacking a single conservative person, she deftly uses a comment by Ohio Sen. George Voinovich to launch her attack on the entire southern Republican establishment. She paraphrases Voinovich’s comment to better fit her argument as, “Those ignorant, right-wing, Bible-thumping rednecks are ruining the party.” Then she proceeds to agree...

Aug. 3, 2009 | Is Sarah Palin America's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? The two differ in many key respects, of course, but it is remarkable how similar they are. There are uncanny parallels in their biographies, their domestic politics and the way they present themselves -- even in their rocky relationships with party elders. Both are former governors of a northwest frontier state with great natural beauty (in Ahmadinejad's case, Ardabil). Both are known for saying things that produce a classic Scooby-Doo double take in their audiences. Both appeal to a sort of wounded nationalism, speaking of the sacrifice of dedicated troops...

"Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd? I may be just a renegade hockey mom, but I'm not blind!" -- SARAH PALIN, 5:35 p.m. ET PREVIOUSLY (5:08 p.m.): "Completely false," said a source close to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in response to claims by Web sites that she and husband Todd are divorcing. The rumor appears to have originated with one blogger who cites an unnamed "source" and claims a recent National Enquirer article as having led to "splitsville." "Sarah is finished with Todd and has decided to end their marriage," the blogger "Gryphen" posted on an anti-Palin blog. My...

along came Sarah Palin, whom most conservatives viewed as the lone bright spot of the 2008 campaign. Here’s a woman that many conservatives identify with not only because they believe she really shares their values, but because she is genuinely what so many other politicians pretend to be. She’s a person who got where she is based on merit and she found success without the advantage of being born in the right family, being wealthy, or being given a break because she went to an Ivy League school. Given the excitement Sarah Palin has generated it isn’t a surprise that...

The woman who was prematurely counted in is out. And the woman who was prematurely counted out is in. Goodbye, Sarah. Hello, Hillary. In their vivid twin performances Sunday — Hillary on “Meet the Press” in Washington and Sarah at her farewell picnic in Fairbanks — two of the most celebrated and polarizing women in American political history offered a fascinating contrast. Hillary, who so often in the past came across as aggrieved, paranoid and press-loathing, was confident and comfortable in her role as top diplomat, discussing the world with mastery and shrugging off suggestions that she has been disappeared...

Three Republicans are bunched within five points of each when potential GOP presidential candidates are matched up for 2012 with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney barely on top, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted July 21-22. The margin of error for the part of the survey dealing only with Republican voters is 6 points. Romney leads with 22 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 21 percent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 17 percent. Former New York City mayor (we're dealing with a lot of "formers" here) Rudi Giuliani polls 13 percent, former House...

It's the kind of astute analysis you'd expect from MSNBC - the place for the politics. CNBC regular and MSNBC fill-in anchor Donny Deutsch solved the mystery behind the media's fascination with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. According to the former advertising executive, it has nothing to do with her stance on several hot-button issues - an advocate of gun rights, a pro-life stance on abortion, pro-exploration and drilling for oil and concerned about the fiscal policies of President Barack Obama. Instead, he contended, it is her sexual appeal that held the media's attention - and not just from a...

oh, the great wizard of smart Carl Bernstein on Morning Joe with his version of Palin Derangement Syndrome

As speculation over Sarah Palin's presidential aspirations heat up now that she has stepped down as Alaska's governor, a former member of George W. Bush's staff said Palin had no chance of winning the White House. "Impossible," is how Bush's former speechwriter David Frum described the likelihood Palin would become president. Frum based his opinion on Palin's decline in approval ratings from when she was announced as John McCain's Republican presidential running mate in August termed her "divisive" within the party. Asked what she represents for the future of the GOP: "political defeat."

In this uncertain moment for the party of Lincoln, behold the jaunty, robust specimen of Republican centrism. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California strides into a conference room in his Sacramento office with a smile, having wrestled down his state’s mammoth budget deficit in a compromise with a Democratic-controlled Legislature. . . . . . Now, across the country, see the slight, dour spokesman for orthodox Republicanism. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, leader of the shrunken Republican minority, will never be mistaken for a bodybuilder or a movie star. . . . . . Mr. Schwarzenegger does not rule out an...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – It looks like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may have one less fan. On the same day that Palin is set to transfer power to her lieutenant governor, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said her prospects for national office looked grim. “’I’ve been a supporter of Sarah Palin — at times,” Castellanos said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “She gave the McCain campaign its best two weeks. But, you know, if we’re going to be critical of Democrats when they shirk their responsibilities, we have do the same within our own house. She abandoned her state in...