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Polling the Palin factor: Either way, former Alaska governor having impact in Alabama by The Anniston Star Editorial Board Anniston Star Sep 10, 2011 The Capital Survey Research Center, which does polling for the Alabama Education Association, has surveyed Alabamians about President Barack Obama and the candidates seeking the Republican nomination. First, the president. Of the 841 registered voters who were polled, a majority said they did not like Obama and the direction he was taking the country. This comes as no surprise since a majority of those polled (488) said they would vote next year in the Republican primary....

Odd how many Americans can agree with Christopher Hitchens on many issues, i.e. his rage at Henry Kissinger. I sympathize totally with such disgust. The Hitchens contempt for the Tea Party, however, is the grandest dividing line, largely due to the tea Party’s fervent belief in God and its faith in Sarah Palin whom Hitchens repeatedly heaps fear and loathing on. Hitchens, however, warns the world to not patronize Sarah Palin! He points out that his favorite film on American Presidential politics is Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. With an almost bottomless irony of ironies, he further adds that at...

After Palin gave two speeches this weekend that positioned herself on the side of reform, with a proven and demonstrable record, and squarely against big government and crony capitalism that invoked the outsider spirit of Ronald Reagan​, the GOP establishment, along with Rick Perry​'s cheerleaders, immediately saw Palin as serious threat to their plans. But this was hardly the first time where the GOP establishment and Palin's competitors saw her as a threat. Soon after the 2008 election, in which Palin was forced to basically become a press secretary for a candidate who seemed to not know anything he stood...

The Sarah Palin “Cult” I’ve been trying for awhile to get my mind wrapped around all this, and would like to offer these thoughts going into this election cycle…. I first stumbled across Free Republic when checking out Obama's eligibility issues prior to the 2008 election. I first experienced the Drudge Report after listening to Rush during the Lewinsky scandal. When I really got into FR I felt like I had found the mother lode of conservatism; an eclectic group that regularly mixed it up over issues I hadn’t thought of as issues before. For instance, I had never considered...

Sarah Palin must wonder what happened to her political glamour.

Ann Coulter​ appeared on Fox News Tuesday night to discuss the uncertainty surrounding Sarah Palin​’s presidential ambitions with Laura Ingraham. Neither of them thought much of Palin’s chances. (VIDEO AT LINK) Judging the fortunes of political candidates from polls is a tricky business, especially those who have not formally declared yet. Is it a sign of strength or weakness that non-candidate Sarah Palin shows up in third place behind Rick Perry​ and Mitt Romney? Whatever that says about Palin, it’s probably a more significant data point for the declared candidates chugging in behind her. Personally, I would not find the...

Interesting segment, not because Coulter’s advancing any new criticisms of Palin but because she’s willing to acknowledge openly the political risk on the right in criticizing her in the first place. According to Coulter, conservatives refuse to challenge Palin publicly because they don’t want to deal with the hate mail from her supporters. That’s part of it, I’m sure — by now, all columnists and bloggers know what awaits after criticizing Palin or, say, Ron Paul — but I suspect the better part is that there’s simply no faster ticket to RINOville among some grassroots conservatives than uttering a discouraging...

It’s been three years since former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made her splash onto the national stage as Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election. And since then she has acquired a very loyal following. But is that helping or hurting her? On Tuesday’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” conservative columnist and author of “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America,” Ann Coulter expressed her concern over the Palin phenomenon. She was asked by substitute host Laura Ingraham if Palin can maintain her status as a tea party favorite by stringing people along about her potential 2012 candidacy....

A coy Sarah Palin talked a lot yesterday about the type of leader this country needs, but in what is turning into an extended national tease, she stopped just short of saying she will be that leader. "I don't know yet," Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate turned best-selling author, told the Herald yesterday after her rousing midday speech at a Tea Party Express rally. A fed-up Victor Luebker of the Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots [team stats] - a group of former military men and women who support the Tea Party's platform - said he's tired of Palin's...

Republican activists in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire generally speak of Sarah Palin’s presidential prospects in encouraging terms. She’s a star, they say. If she decides to run, she’ll shake up the field. Lately, the praise has been tempered with warnings about how her time is growing short. But on Monday, the day Palin appeared before a large and very enthusiastic crowd at a Tea Party Express rally here, and two days after her much-anticipated speech to the Tea Party of America in Indianola, Iowa, a plugged-in New Hampshire Republican said he believes her window has already...

Indications are that Sarah Palin will sound increasingly like a presidential candidate at the Iowa tea party rally, with barbs aimed at both GOP rivals and Obama. But a formal declaration is apparently not in the offing.

While Sarah Palin continues to stoke the fires and keep people guessing about her Presidential intentions, Republican voters seem to be speaking loud and clear: All in all, most voters — 74 percent — think Palin should stay on the sidelines in 2012. Just 20 percent think she should run for president. The groups most likely to support Palin running are white evangelical Christians (30 percent) and Tea Party members (28 percent). Still, majorities of those groups do not think she should run (62 percent and 66 percent respectively). In addition, 72 percent of conservatives, 71 percent of Republicans and...

The bad news for Palin fans? If NRO’s Robert Costa and CNN’s Peter Hamby are right, tomorrow’s not “the day.” The good news? Per Hamby, “the day” may still be coming. The source said Palin is attempting to burnish her image as an outsider and a reformer, reminding the audience of her record in Alaska and specifically highlighting her battles against what she called the state’s corrupt Republican political class that was in cahoots with the oil and gas industry. Palin plans to unleash a furious criticism of “crony capitalism” and attack the “permanent political class” in both parties: thinly...

A plurality (47%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that Palin will enter the presidential race, but that includes only 13% who feel it’s Very Likely. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% think a Palin bid is unlikely, but just five percent (5%) say it’s Not At All Likely. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Only 18% of voters think it would be good for Republicans if Palin entered the race. Sixty percent (60%) say it would be bad for the party, while 11% predict...

Sarah Palin will swoop into Iowa and New Hampshire to speak at tea party rallies this Labor Day weekend, whipping up talk she will announce her candidacy for president. After all, this coming Saturday will mark the third anniversary of her acceptance speech for vice president at the Republican National Convention – a speech which established her as both a conservative icon and a magnet for criticism. Her supporters are certainly encouraging talk she will be a 2012 candidate. Peter Singleton, her Iowa political organizer, told National Review’s Robert Costa last month: “I believe she will run. Labor Day will...

Karl Rove responds to controversy over his speculation if Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin will indeed enter the GOP field. Rove said chances are she will jump in, but was not definitive in his observation. "I'm mystified," Rove said about reaction to his speculation. "Look, she is all upset about this saying how I am trying to sabatouge her in some way. How do I speculate on her future." "Look, if she doesn't want to be speculated about a potential presidential candidate there is an easy way to end the speculation. Simply say 'I'm not running.' Instead, every time she pops...

To gleam an insight as to what Sarah's intentions are now, take a brief look at this short clip from 2009 from two 'insiders' to Sarah's 2008 campaign who co-wrote the book "Sarah from Alaska": Scott Conroy writes for Real Clear Politics and is always a good source for Palin info.Shushannah Walshe is a reporter for ABC news.

The safe bet remains that Sarah Palin is simply engaged in a long and tiresome tease. Every few weeks comes some new sign of her supposedly imminent entry into the GOP presidential race, but nothing ever seems to happen. For the latest flurry of speculation, we can thank Karl Rove, who used several television appearances last weekend to argue that "I think she gets in" and to suggest that Palin's scheduled appearance at a Sept. 3 Tea Party event in Iowa might double as a campaign launch. Like each one that's come before it, chances are that this eruption will...

There is much speculation about whether or not Sarah Palin will enter the 2012 GOP presidential race. Those who admire and respect her believe she wields a tremendous amount of power with regard to the choice of the candidate who will eventually end up facing Barack Obama in what can only be the most important election of our lifetime. But that candidate should not be Palin. And the reason is blatantly obvious. She can't win. It has nothing to do with any lack of political gravitas. Despite how her critics and detractors have attempted to portray her, Palin is intelligent,...

Want to know why the Democrats in Congress are mumbling "f*** the president"?  Want to know why the Cancun mobsters are demanding world power for yesterday's climate fascism? This is Dunkirk, folks.  It's the Battles of Midway and Gettysburg rolled into one.  This is the watershed moment in history. This is where the Evil Empire gets its comeuppance. The next few years may be the most historic ones in our lives. The left is at the very peak of its power since the Evil Empire fell in 1991, with Obama occupying the White House today, surrounded by his commissars.  The...