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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...

When I was a Senate staffer more than a decade ago, Republicans hit on a tactic to advance school choice. They kept narrowing the eligibility standard to cover poorer and poorer families with children in only the most spectacularly failing schools, daring Democrats to vote against the most sympathetic possible group of students. I remember one liberal senator saying in exasperation, "Someday, you are going to make this impossible to oppose." . . .

Was it all a heist? A candidate who had persistent financial problems pulls off a surprise upset in the primary, and the conservative grassroots open their wallets wide and often in order to help ensure the campaign’s competitiveness – only to see the candidate end the campaign with nearly $1 million in unspent funds. Is this how Christine O’Donnell wanted it? Politico reported, “O’Donnell reported having $924,800 in the bank after the election was over, according to her post-general election campaign fundraising report, filed Thursday.” The explanation from O’Donnell spokesman Matthew Moran is that O’Donnell was advised by her attorney...

The Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips has sent a letter to former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin asking her to run for chairman of the Republican National Committee. "In order for the Tea Party/Conservative movement to be successful, we have to have someone conservative running the GOP," Phillips told POLITICO. "She is the perfect candidate. If she does not try, I am afraid we will end up with just another establishment flunky running the party and the [Republicans in name only] will control the party again."

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...

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...

It seems almost unfair for an intellectual lightweight like Meghan McCain to take Palin on. While I personally find the Palin-Reagan comparisons a little insulting to the Gipper, Palin is still vastly more intelligent than the majority of PDS-sufferers and is certainly smarter than Meggie-Poo. If this was a boxing match, Sarah would be Mike Tyson facing off against Meggie Mac as Screech. While McCain’s rambling, nonsensical columns are usually full of schadenfreude-y goodness, the columns where she attempts to attack Sarah Palin are simultaneously the most groan-worthy and the most entertaining. In her latest pathetic excuse for a column,...

Saying that a woman engaged in feline fisticuffs might be called sexist. But when that woman actually accuses another of seeking to "claw" critics, illustrating her assertion with a cat-like hand gesture, well . . . 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. [snip] Wallace unleashed a hail of criticism of her own: * "Mistakes were made [by McCain in choosing Palin]." * "Her troubling deficiencies." * "Her incredible cynicism,...

Heavy spending for the 2008 national convention did not start until the summer and fall of 2007. By end of September 2006, the party had spent $35,500 on convention arrangements. That compares with the more than $636,000 spent to date. The total spent on preparations prior to July 2007 was $411,000. The arrangements committee is on pace to spend $2 million to $3 million by summer. "They're hamstringing the next presidential nominee," said an official familiar with past convention arrangements. He said money spent now cannot be replaced, potentially limiting the choices the next nominee will have in staging the...

GOP strategist Karl Rove doesn't think Sarah Palin's reality show will earn her any points for a presidential run, but said Friday that putting three of her 16 book tour stops in Iowa is "a smart thing to do." Palin is hitting the road, including in the early presidential state, to promote her new book "America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag." "It gives her an excuse to be there as something other than a candidate, which is really important," Rove said on Fox News. "That's a pretty smart move if you're thinking about running for president," he...

I spent only a few hours with the former governor, helping to prepare her for the vice presidential debate in October 2008. And during that brief window, I saw Palin at one of her most vulnerable moments, when any result other than a complete train wreck seemed impossible. And yet I also saw a determined woman buckle down, recover her confidence and then storm the national stage where she more than held her own against a seven-term senator. Did she face some tough slogging to reach her remarkable perch? Sure, you betcha. I admire her tenacity, her verve, her moxie,...

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...

Biden, Scarborough and Brzezinski all laugh at Palin for saying she can beat Obama in 2012. During yesterday’ s usually pitiful edition of Morning Joe on MSNBC, the insane bias on that little-watched cable network was taken to new heights (or is that lows?) when guest Joe Biden was asked about Sarah Palin’s comments in a recent interview with Barbara Walters. In said interview, Palin stated that she thought she could beat Obama in 2012. Now, while it is understandable for Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough (failed Republican) and Mika Brzezinski (hardcore Democrat) to get the sitting vice-president’s opinion on...

On Thursday's Parker-Spitzer, CNN's Kathleen Parker bizarrely and inaccurately claimed that Alexander Hamilton came to the United States illegally and drafted the Constitution: "Let's remember...a lot of Americans did come through the back door such as Alexander Hamilton. He got off the boat from the West Indies, and all he did was write the Constitution and become the first Secretary of the Treasury." Parker raised this false history during a discussion of Pedro Ramirez, Fresno State University's student body president, who was outed as an illegal immigrant by a student newspaper. After playing clips from Ramirez and his opponent during...

Massachusetts retained its status as the most violent state in the Northeast, according to a report released Tuesday morning by public health advocates and based on statistics compiled by the FBI. In its biennial report that studies health care trends in the state, the Massachusetts Health Council said approximately 30,000 violent crimes were committed in Massachusetts in 2009 or 456 violent crimes per 100,000 people, making it the highest per capita crime rate in the Northeast. The report looked at the six New England states, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The violent crimes include murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery,...

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...

Embarrassingly for CNN host and liberal commentator Kathleen Parker, not only does she suffer from a severe case of SPDS (Sarah Palin Derangement Syndrome), but -- like a smitten tween trying to emulate her favorite actress in the Twilight series -- obvious envy and jealousy have prompted her to try and steal Palin's look based on the leather jackets Parker has been sporting of late on the air. Ironic behavior to say the least when you consider that just last week, Parker loudly, proudly, and with a finger wagging, proclaimed on CNN that "I led..." the media assassination of Sarah...

Sarah Palin has officially “jumped the shark.” Last night’s premier of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” will be remembered as the moment the once-promising, conservative darling crossed over into the absurd. Part Alaska tourism promo, part window into the family Palin, TLC’s eight-part series features clips of the former governor at home in gym shorts and shots of the family enjoying the great outdoors while she calls out folksy comments like, “this is flippin’ fun!” If that’s not enough, Palin takes Kate Gosselin (of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” fame) camping in the Alaska wilderness - the two women reportedly didn’t get...

In the promo fluff for its future flop, CNN calls Kathleen Parker a "conservative" commentator. So what's a "conservative" in CNN's book? Someone who, when accused of taking part in the media assassination of Sarah Palin, brags that she didn't merely take part—she "led it." Supposed conservative Kathleen Parker made her bizarre boast on this evening's Parker Spitzer. It came in the course of her interview of John Ziegler, creator of the documentary "Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted.” While denying she had been "duped" by Obama, Parker admitted that during the campaign she "bought into...

I’m not going to go on at length about David Frum. We all know who he is; we all know what he is and what he represents. He’s a “conservative” who gets his jollies and press gigs railing at actual conservatives, along the lines of Kathleen Parker and, during the 2008 campaign, Peggy Noonan. Parker has gone on to CNN infamy alongside Eliot Spitzer, while Noonan has tried to rehab herself by claiming that the Tea Party saved the GOP. She’s right about that, but only from a rearview mirror perspective. It’s easy to get stuff right after it’s already...