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Via Andrew, some real talk from David Frum: I was interviewed on PBS last week about Palin's book release. I said that Palin had an especially serious problem with women voters. This is just fact, again recorded in every survey. In October 2008, Palin's support dropped furthest and fastest among women, and especially among independents: more than two dozen points among independent women in barely 6 weeks. Consistently since the campaign, every survey has shown the former Alaska governor much more popular among men than women. And yet this attested statistical fact is shrugged off with comments like, "when I...

And you thought you were sick of Sarah Palin and her book tour blitz. Washington insiders wish she’d go back to shooting wildlife in Alaska. “I just wish she’d go away,” one GOP operative told us, echoing sentiments we’ve heard and read about from others. “I’m a conservative Republican, and I’ve had enough of her.” And while Palin has some serious star power — witness those book sales — the insider thinks mainstream Republicans should think twice before trying to tap into all that Palin enthusiasm as a money/energy source for their own races. “It’s not worth it.”

A top adviser on Hispanic issues to John McCain’s presidential campaign said Sunday that a joint interview with McCain and Sarah Palin planned for Univision last fall had to be canceled because Palin was unprepared to discuss Latin America policy. “She did not feel comfortable speaking about issues regarding Hispanics and Latin America,” GOP consultant Ana Navarro told Univision anchor Jorge Ramos in an interview. “Those are not topics that come up frequently in Alaska. So she asked to cancel the interview and, unfortunately, you were already there.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican National Committee will announce Monday that veteran political strategist Alex Castellanos will assume a senior communications role at the committee, an RNC official tells CNN. (snip) "Now the RNC has a new focus and direction - the 2010 elections," Castellanos said when reached by telephone. "And I am happy to help."

Big caveat right off the bat: PPP is the same polling firm that predicted a Hoffman landslide in NY-23. But (a) they had Mitt’s favorables comparable with Huckabee’s earlier in the year, so it’s not like their data’s historically been screwy, and (b) this isn’t just a one-month snapshot but a trend dating back to July.

In town to give a talk on civility, I was surrounded by women who wondered what I thought of Sarah Palin's Newsweek cover. "Why aren't women coming to her defense?" they asked. "Why are the media being so rough on Sarah?" Having been enjoying a self-imposed moratorium on all things Palin, declining numerous interviews to discuss her latest self-promotional tour, I was surprised by the questions. My thoughts lately have drifted toward the sense that, though Palin is very much a celebrity, she's no longer running for public office, at least officially. Ergo, radar gets a rest. As for her...

Slate magazine is just one of the countless media outlets convulsing with St. Vitus' Dance over that demonic succubus Sarah Palin. In its reader forum, The Fray, one supposed Palinophobe took dead aim at the former Alaska governor's writing chops, excerpting the following sentence from her book: "The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn't work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around...

Link only, per FR copyright rules

(snip) During the 2008 campaign, some conservatives said they were hesitant to vote for Romney because he was perceived as being liberal on some social issues. On Friday, he seemed determined to overcome that impression. In his speech, given in a room filled with more than two dozen pictures of President Ronald Reagan, Romney gave a shout-out to the tea party protesters and spoke about his new book, "No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness." (It is slated to be released by St. Martin's Press in March.) He also said the Republican Party needed to build support among young people,...

Judy Woodruff did a piece on Sarah Palin and her book. Among the interview participants was National Review Contributing Editor David Frum. Frum said that Palin "got into a position of leadership by sending very powerful sexual signals." It was a highly edited segment and there was no follow up or elaboration. (Segment has not yet been posted online.)

The whole notion there was a conversation where I tried to cajole her into a conversation with Katie [Couric] is fiction," Wallace told MSNBC. "I am not someone who throws around the word 'self-esteem.' It is a fictional description." [SNIP] "It was never made as two working gals," Wallace said. "It's either rationalization or justification or fiction." [SNIP] "She hated me from the beginning," Wallace said. "I try not to take it personally, the fact is that she wrote a book based on fabrications... This book is a bizarre fixation on things that everyone else has moved on from."

Before yesterday I didn't know much about David Frum. I've seen his name here and there on FR, and that's about it. Yesterday he was on the Laura Ingraham show, and I've got to say I don't much care for him. He is suppose to be a conservative, but to me he sounded more like a RINO. What is the deal with this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS12S566zF4&feature=player_embedded The video link is Courics' own YouTube of her talking about the interview prior to meeting with Palin. According to Couric the interview was a two day event and Couric ask viewers for their in put on what they would like for her to ask.. However, Wallace had this to say.. "...Wallace told msnbc that this is "rationalization or justification or fiction." "We set up this interview on the day of the U.N. General Assembly, with a walk-and-talk in front of the U.N. It was never made as two working gals ... that was supposed to be to highlight...

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

That is not a smear but a documented fact. Schmidt managed the McCain for President campaign. McCain, as you will recall, lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Schmidt and his candidate bungled the campaign so badly that an untested, smooth-talking, America-bashing dilettante now occupies the White House as Commander-in-Chief. Great job, guys! Like a diligent virus, Schmidt refuses to leave the body politic. He is back again to call Sarah Palin's new book "total fiction." Interesting. The list of Schmidt's disastrous campaign decisions is too long to completely document here. But we conservatives will long remember the propping...

After the New England Patriots disasterous decision Sunday night not to punt on fourth down with the ball on the Indianapolis Colts' 28-yard line, former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney, had every right to be ticked off. Especially considering that the Pats had the lead with little more than 2 minutes left in the game. Is it possible that the team's supposedly brilliant coach, Bill Belichick, got confused and thought the Manning brother waiting patiently on the opposing sidelines was Eli and not Peyton? Whatever the case, the Colts went on to win the game with 13 seconds left in the...

Is Palin Selling Books or Settling Scores? "Going Rogue" Criticizes McCain Campaign and Aides, but Some Are Hitting Back; Country Remains Divided on Former VP Candidate (CBS) Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is coming out Tuesday with her account of the 2008 presidential campaign. And her book, "Going Rogue," is putting her at odds - again - with former officials of the McCain campaign, as CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield reports. From an appearance Oprah Monday, to Barbara Walters Tuesday, to a three-week long blitz starting with a bus tour through much of middle America, Palin is in...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Fewer than three in 10 Americans think Sarah Palin's qualified to be president, according to a new national poll - the least of any of the five potential candidates included in the survey. But another woman tops that list in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday: two-thirds of the public thinks that Secretary of State HIllary Clinton's qualified for the Oval Office. That's more than Vice President Joe Biden, who's currently next in line for the presidency. According to the poll, 28 percent of Americans say Palin is qualified to run the White House, with seven...

John McCain has asked his former campaign aides not to speak out against the charges Sarah Palin levels in her book, NBC news reports. This news comes after a number of former staffers anonymously blasted Palin's recount of the 2008 campaign. "John McCain offered her the opportunity of a lifetime, and during the campaign it seems that, for all of her mistakes, she is searching for people to blame," an aide said last week. "We don't need to go through this again." Even as NBC reported McCain's request, they included another swipe at her book from a former campaign aide....

I received an e-mail from a very reliable source here in Alaska that there may be a story about to break on Sarah Palin's son Trig. The source received a hand written letter in the mail with the following statements: Get word to S.P. Mitt R. paid off They have photos, copies + signed statement RE: Trig Now I have to question who would have such information? And would the information be manufactured? And now for my hunch if the information in the letter is true on Romney.. With Palin's book coming out in a few days and who she...

A former top adviser and spokeswoman to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign is pushing back against comments reportedly made by Sarah Palin in her new book. Nicolle Wallace tells CNN that Palin's account of an ill-fated interview with CBS's Katie Couric during the 2008 presidential campaign is not true.

“Going Rogue,” the title of Sarah Palin’s erratic new memoir, comes from a phrase used by a disgruntled McCain aide to describe her going off-message during the campaign: among other things, for breaking with the campaign over its media strategy, its decision to pull out of Michigan and for speaking out about reports that the Republican Party had spent more than $150,000 on fancy designer duds for her and her family. In fact, the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign...

Top aides to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign hit back at Sarah Palin Friday, after news reports revealed that the former vice presidential nominee’s soon-to-be-released book extensively criticizes the campaign’s press strategy – with many of its hardest shots aimed squarely at campaign manager Steve Schmidt. Schmidt, she writes, was “grim-faced” and “cool,” and tried to pin the campaign’s troubles on what he claimed was Palin’s post-partum depression, and even went to so far as to try and dictate her diet. According to excerpts published on the Huffington Post, Palin “took in his rotund physique and noted that he used...

The Associated Press got an advance copy of Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, and assigned eleven reporters, apparently, to try to find errors in it. The eleven collaborated on an article titled "FACT CHECK: Palin's book goes rogue on some facts." In fact, though, the AP's catalogue of alleged errors--six in total--is thin at best. The AP starts with this one: PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels. THE FACTS: Although she usually opted for less-pricey hotels...

Sarah Palin says she was blindsided by Katie Couric's devastating interviews last year because John McCain's aides lulled her into thinking the CBS anchorwoman was a fan. In Palin's new book, "Going Rogue," the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee reveals that her handlers talked up Couric as a working mom - just like her - who was struggling with low self-esteem and even lower ratings. Couric liked and admired her, advised campaign media honcho Nicolle Wallace. The interviews would be a nice favor. The scouting reports were so sympathetic, Palin writes, that that she almost began to "feel sorry" for...

Palin: McCain Aides Kept Me ‘Bottled Up’ In ‘Going Rogue,’ former Alaska governor also criticizes Katie Couric NEW YORK - The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin. The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family. In Palin's "Going Rogue," Palin confirms reports of tension between her aides and those of the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain. The vice presidential candidate confirms that she had wanted to speak on election night, but was denied the chance and says she was kept "bottled up" from reporters during the campaign. Palin also writes harshly of CBS anchor Katie Couric, whom...

You’ll be pleased to know that this comes on the same day that Maverick revealed he received a signed copy of “Going Rogue” in the mail. The inscription: “J– It’s my turn. –S.” I’m kidding about that last part. Maybe. Reflecting on the first set of interviews Palin did as the GOP vice presidential nominee, [Mark] Salter said that the sit downs were “discussed and agreed to by senior members of the campaign staff in consultation with the candidate” and that Wallace did not choose either the journalists or the outlets Palin spoke to.

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257 By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as it always is with a major party candidate. From the beginning, Nicolle [Wallace] pushed for Kattie Couric and the CBS Evening News. The campaign’s general strategy...

Nicolle Wallace: She is who we thought she was. Nicolle Wallace: She is who we thought she was. HER TURN! Fri Nov 13 2009 07:27:12 ET Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin Chapter Four; Section 8, pages 255-257 By the third week in September, a “Free Sarah” campaign was under way and the press at large was growing increasingly critical of the McCain camp’s decision to keep me, my family and friends back home, and my governor’s staff all bottled up. Meanwhile, the question of which news outlet would land the first interview was a big deal, as...

The rumors are true, according to Sarah Palin: The McCain-Palin campaign was not a happy family. And she says that most of her legal bills were generated defending what she called frivolous ethics complaints, but she reveals that about $500,000 was a bill she received to pay for the McCain campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She said when she asked the McCain campaign if it would help her financially, she was told McCain's camp would have paid all the bills if he'd won; since he lost, the vetting legal bills were her responsibility.

<p>In her new book, according to the Associated Press, Sarah Palin alleges that the McCain campaign gave her a $500,000 bill to pay for the campaign vetting her for the VP nod. She also makes the charge that the McCain camp said they would have paid all the bills had they won, but since they lost, the bills were her responsibility.</p>

Mitt Romney is heading to Reagan country. The former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to speak this Friday to the Young America's Foundation at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California. Romney is expected to be the dinner banquet speaker for the foundation's West Coast Leadership Conference, which consists of young conservatives from 44 colleges and universities across 12 states. "Young people provide much of the energy in the conservative movement, and if we are going to be successful as a party we need to harness that energy and put it work on behalf of the principles we all...

David Frum nails it today. A favorite target of conservatives (including myself at one point), Mr. Frum gets it right on his blog post about how our tip-toeing around the issue of racial pro-filing resulted in the Fort Hood disaster. Here are two excerpts.

Matthew Continetti has a piece in this weekend’s Weekly Standard hailing Sarah Palin as the ideal leader of a new populist uprising. One obvious objection to his thesis: The populist Sarah is in fact one of the most unpopular figures in American life. According to Gallup, 63% of Americans say they would never consider voting for her. By a margin of 62%-31% Americans rate Palin “unqualified” to serve as president – by far the worst score for any leading Republican. In comparison, only 51% of Americans say they would never consider voting for Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee – and...

(snip) Although some in the party believe that it should be tilting right in whom to support in future elections, he said, "I will be by and large supporting conservative Republicans" but would not rule out backing some moderates, referencing former President Reagan. "He was the one who coined the term 'the big tent.' He also said that you don't build something by subtraction. So we welcome people who agree with us on most issues. Some will be very conservative on some issues. Some will be less so on others. We welcome you into the party." (snip) "We have a...

According to Bill O’Reilly’s week long poll it is Governor Sarah Palin: Sarah Palin: 30% Huckabee: 29% Romney: 25% Gingrich:16% I find it odd that the numbers were only announced by Mr O’Reilly and not released. I would say the results are actually much better for Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin typically has a much larger margin of victory against the three respectable but boring Huckabee, Romney & Gingrich. But a win is still a win. I thought it was interesting what Huckabee had to say about Sarah Palin...

Writing on his website, which used to be called “New Majority” until he got tired of people laughing at him, David Frum published an essay called “The Palin Fantasy” over the weekend. Even as the House of Representatives was preparing to pass the most blatantly unconstitutional assault on America’s freedom in Congressional history, Frum found something really outrageous to write about: Matthew Continetti’s admiring essay on Sarah Palin’s populist appeal. It’s a good thing Frum has his priorities in order. We wouldn’t want Palin to get into office and drop a few trillion dollars of unsustainable debt on us. Frum...

In 2008, a charismatic right-wing populist Republican governor won the heart of the party's base despite being forced to take a backseat to a more respectable "moderate" Republican. He was Mike Huckabee, and he is sad, and mad. Ben Smith followed Mike Huckabee around for a while as he sold his new Christmas book. Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas. He used to be fat, and then he got skinny, and now he is getting fat again. He's also basically as crazy Christian as they come, but he masks this with a genuinely likable sense of humor, which is why...

What a great election yesterday! It's exhilarating to wake up to headlines of conservative victories in the battleground elections in Virginia and New Jersey. The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism is still alive and well. We worked extremely hard on behalf of Bob McDonnell and the entire Republican ticket in Virginia, and helped him close strong with a full day of campaigning in the final week; in New Jersey, we endorsed Chris Christie early and made sure he had the resources...

(snip) The GOP wins in New Jersey and Virginia are breeding a new competition among Republicans to take part of the credit. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, potential rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, both tried to bask in glow."We worked extremely hard on behalf of Bob McDonnell and the entire Republican ticket in Virginia, and helped him close strong with a full day of campaigning in the final week; in New Jersey, we endorsed Chris Christie early and made sure he had the resources to be competitive against his better-financed opponent," Romney told supporters of his Free &...

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) on Wednesday promoted a round of Republican victories in last night's elections in a letter to supporters. The 2012 presidential hopeful plugged the triumphs of Republican gubernatorial candidates Bob McDonnell (Va.) and Chris Christie (N.J.), emphasizing that his political action committee's endorsement and campaign work for the two candidates. "It's exhilarating to wake up to headlines of conservative victories in the battleground elections in Virginia and New Jersey," Romney wrote. "The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism...

November 3, 2009 2:30 PM Where’s Mitt Romney? Why was the once and no doubt future presidential contender missing from NY-23? By Kathryn Jean Lopez In October, everybody seemed to be doing it — getting into the campaign in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, that is. It was a three-way race among Republican Deirdre Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens, and Conservative Doug Hoffman to fill the seat that had been left vacant when President Obama tapped Republican John McHugh as secretary of the Army. Endorsements became such a popular sport for out-of-state Republicans that the special election came to seem a...

Americans are looking forward to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's memoir the most out of a slew of autobiographies from Republicans set to hit bookshelves soon. Interest in Rice's book leads interest in those by her former bosses, former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as the memoir to be published this month by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), according to a poll. Twenty-two percent of Americans said they're most likely to read Rice's book, according to a poll commissioned by the CBS news program "60 Minutes" and the magazine Vanity Fair....

Amidst all the exciting news coming out of NY-23 yesterday, there was an article in the Washington Examiner by Mark Tapscott. At the very end of Tapscott’s article, David Keene is interviewed about the Upstate New York campaign: This race will have more impact on the Republican politics than any other this year. I believe Hoffman will win on Tuesday, but regardless of the outcome, he and the conservative base of the Republican party have already won by proving that conservatives can no longer be ignored by an establishment that has all too often ignored those it is supposed to...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may have worked with Democratic candidate Stephen Pagliuca, but he’s supporting fellow Republican Scott Brown in this race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. The 2008 GOP presidential contender is headlining a fundraiser Friday night in Brown’s hometown of Wrentham.

Robert A. George: In Key New York Race, Barracuda Chews Up Mitt By Doug Brady Another Black Conservative recently lampooned establishment Republican insider Mitt Romney for "voting present" in the NY-23 race. Robert A. George, at NBC's Bay Area affiliate, has taken a further look at Romney's choice to avoid making a decision in the race: What do you find most often in the middle of the road? Road kill. Mitt Romney, who hopes to be the GOP's next presidential nominee, couldn't bring himself to endorse anyone in New York state's contentious 23rd congressional district special election. [...] The conservative...

So tell me, how do you write a “news” story about an organization paying for a speaker when you don’t even know if the organization is paying for the speaker? Ask “journalist” Jonathan Martin. He knows all about it. You see, Jonny wrote a piss poor story the other day about how the Iowa Family Policy Center will be paying a large speaker fee if Sarah Palin comes to Iowa to keynote the IFPC’s fall funderaiser. The only problem is that Jonny has no sources confirming that any exorbitant fee is being charged or paid. In fact, he had just...

Romney ducks the leadership test What do you find most often in the middle of the road? Road kill. Mitt Romney, who hopes to be the GOP's next presidential nominee, couldn't bring himself to endorse anyone in New York state's contentious 23rd congressional district special election. The contest,.....has been a flashpoint for a party in search of its identity. An all-star lineup of national party leaders has weighed in, allowing themselves to be defined by whose side they're on. But not Romney. The former Massachusetts governor passed, and this could have serious ramifications down the road. The cliche about the...

As reported here by ABC News (online), Mitt Romney "...doesn't plan to make any endorsement at all" regarding the contentious NY23 Congressional race. What does this say about Mitt? When balanced against Sarah Palin's political courage, it seems telling. Sarah is a political alpha, a leader for the future. Mitt, in spite of his genuine conservatism and mastery of issues, is almost certainly not. You have to look no further to see why conservatives are so passionate about their support for Palin. Regardless of the arguable notion that she has yet to fully mature, she commands a degree of respect...

The timing of this attack suggests that the DNC is perturbed by the fact that regardless of how American adults view Governor Palin's qualifications for the presidency at the moment, a good majority of American adults view her as "honest and trustworthy" and as "someone who cares the needs of people like you." Her strong showing in these "character traits and qualities" categories (categories with which Republicans typically struggle) provide her arguments against Obamacare extra credibility.