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What is is about Governor Sarah Palin and the media? Last night she was in DC to give a speech and thus could not attend the White House Correspondents Dinner. She DID go to two after parties to meet some people and catch up with her daughter Bristol who was in town for the dinner. But what is fascinating to watch is how the media (all of them!) just can't get enough of Governor Sarah Palin. They were all taking pictures of her with themselves for souvenirs and writing about her. She was prominent in the Washington Post coverage, Politico...

Donald Trump says he won't announce until June whether he'll throw his hat into the race as a Republican presidential hopeful, but an upcoming appearance in Washington could be calculated to hint that he's going for it. Trump will attend the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 30 as a guest of the Washington Post, specifically, his assistant adds, of Lally Weymouth, scion of the Post's controlling Graham family. His attendance is notable as the event gives Trump an intimate opportunity to schmooze with the thousands of members of the media and other Washington elites who flock to...

CNN tends to shy away from dripping sarcasm and heavy-handed writing, but that didn’t stop Carol Costello from calling Donald Trump “a joke” in a “Talk Back” segment dealing with Trump’s recent comments about President Obama’s birth–and his own. “In the 2012 presidential election, at least one potential candidate is shaping up to be a joke. It’s likely the economy will still be struggling and we’ll be at war in at least two countries, but what do we get? Donald Trump.” Costello, alerting viewers that “Donald Trump is not likely to become president, despite what the polls say,” asks “is...

the media manage to be consistently unfair to the former Alaska governor — gossipy and hostile in their reportage, hysterical and condescending in their commentary — even as they follow her every move with a fascination bordering on obsession. (MSNBC, in particular, should just change its name to “Palin 24/7” and get it over with.) When commentators aren’t denouncing her, they’re busy building up her legend — exaggerating her political acumen, overpraising her communications strategy, covering her every tweet as if she were the Viceroy of Red America, and spinning out outlandish scenarios in which she captures the White House...

“She is a gifted politician, just in terms of getting people to connect with her on an emotional level in person,” says Taibbi. “It’s something that if you’re an experienced campaign journalist you can just see.” Question: Will Sarah Palin run for President in 2012? Matt Taibbi: Absolutely she is going to run for president in 2012 and... I don’t think she is going to win, but I think she is a very good bet to win the nomination. I think what we saw in the last election was the Tea Party is now in this kingmaking role and the...

Is the idea that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could be America’s next president laughable? Not only to many on the left, but also to conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer. On Friday’s broadcast of “Inside Washington,” Krauthammer offered several reasons why Palin shouldn’t be considered the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. “What do you mean if not Sarah Palin in 2012?” Krauthammer said. “Who’s saying she’s going to be the presidential candidate? I don’t even hear her saying it. Her chances of being are smaller than half a dozen other people. If you talk to Republicans, I don’t...

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's visit to Haiti was over faster than you could say cholera. Palin spent less than 48 hours in the earthquake-ravaged nation that's currently facing a growing cholera epidemic that has already killed more than 2,000 people, and mounting political unrest due to a contested election. Palin was accompanied by her reality-TV-star daughter, Bristol, and her husband, Todd. And she mostly remained off-limits to media organizations except for Fox News, the network on which she serves as a news analyst. The trip to Haiti had been planned a month in advance, and was hosted by the...

Via her Facebook page, Twitter account and regular appearances on Fox News Channel, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is everywhere these days -- and regularly takes the sort of potshots at other politicians and the media that most of her colleagues shy away from. To wit: * In an appearance last night on Greta Van Susteren's show, Palin took direct aim at two Politico reporters -- by name no less! -- for a piece they wrote detailing the behind-the-scenes effort of the GOP political establishment to kill her presidential ambitions before they grow. She called the reporters "jokes" for using...

In the past week, two hit pieces have been written against Governor Palin. The first was the piece by Jonathan Martin that was been thoroughly debunked as "flat out lies" by practically every source he identified by name. This was followed yesterday by a second hit piece in the New York Daily News that, hilariously, claimed that it will be Governor Palin's fault if the GOP doesn't take back the Senate. Whitney discussed this silliness in a post last night. To Whitney's analysis I would add that the GOP establishment has no idea how thin the ice is upon which...

Robert Schulz of Fort Ann, advocate for the Constitution and leader of the We the People Foundation, says a recent Time magazine cover story mischaracterizes him and his organization and mistakenly links him to militias. The story, "Locked and Loaded, The Secret World of Extreme Militias," ran as the cover story for the magazine's Oct. 11 edition. The story, written by Barton Gellman, names Schulz as one of the philosophers of the antigovernment movement who "are edging their followers closer to violence." The story calls Schulz "an influential voice among militia groups" and says he "has reached the brink of...

While Democrats must still expect to lose dozens of House seats and several Senate seats on November 2, the earlier trend toward a massive Republican landslide may have been arrested, according to the latest NPR Battleground Poll released today. Conducted jointly by Democratic pollster Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies, the NPR survey of voters in 96 most hotly contested districts indicates significant narrowing of the Republican lead since the public radio network’s last midterm survey in June. Still warning of a likely shift in control of the House, the NPR polling team says that while the...

CNN's Jack Cafferty may end up eating more than his words if Sarah Palin is elected the next president in 2012. After outlining how a current poll indicates "Obama's best hope of winning a second term just might be Alaska's dropout governor" on Tuesday's Situation Room, anchor Wolf Blitzer warned him that there's always the chance she may end up being elected. Cafferty replied, "If Sarah Palin is the next president, Wolf, I will eat this building I'm talking to you from one brick at a time" [audio clip available here]. The commentator devoted his regular 5 pm "Cafferty File"...

Observation of the Day Sarah Palin wonders: Gee, where was the same curiosity the MSM is displaying about Christine O’Donnell during 2008? Barack Obama has still not released records all other presidents have made public and the MSM has shown a decided indifference in asking any questions. Which would be curious–except that in 2010, everyone knows that’s how the MSM rolls. “Funny . . . That we are learning more about Christine O’Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as...

Des Moines — Former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin drew over 1,400 Iowa Republicans to the party's annual Reagan Dinner in Des Moines Friday night. This is the largest crowd the event has seen. The face of the new Republican party, after wishing everyone a happy Constitution Day and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley a happy birthday, got the excitement going early. She had fun at the media's expense, saying her husband, Todd, warned her not to put on her running shoes while staying in Des Moines. They wanted to avoid the headline of “Palin decides to run...

If you are trying to sell books or magazines or get clicks for your website, Republican Party star Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps giving. This week, two new offerings provide glimpses of the former Alaska governor who generally avoids one-on-one interviews with the national political press. Vanity Fair has just released a lengthy, critical article from its forthcoming October issue titled, “Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury."The exhaustive article appears the same week as Meghan McCain is promoting her new book, “Dirty Sexy Politics.” The first-time author offers an outspoken daughter’s view of her father’s unsuccessful 2008...

A casually-dressed Sarah Palin talked briefly with POLITICO as she walked through Reagan National Airport on her way out of town after speaking at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally on the Natonal Mall. Holding her BlackBerry up with one hand, she lamented that the Associated Press had only pegged attendance as "tens of thousands." Asked if there were more than 100,000 people there, Palin said: "Oh yeah." Smiling broadly, the former governor described the event as inspirational and good-naturedly chided a reporter for not attending. Told that there was some chatter online about the prospect of a Palin-Beck presidential ticket,...

JOHN DICKERSON, Slate: “Sarah Palin has special medicine. That’s about the only clear conclusion to be drawn from Tuesday’s primary results. She backed five candidates in Arizona, Florida and Alaska and they all won. The rest of the results from the evening defied easy matching. . . Palin now has more support for a favorite story line of hers: The pundits and so-called experts said things were going to go one way but she had faith; she knew the real deal. This is part of her larger pitch: that she understands something fundamental about conservative voters. That, in turn, is...

I was going to say that we have now officially hit rock bottom. But it's still a long way to Election Day for the desperate Dems . . . On this evening's Ed Show, trial-lawyer guest Mike Papantonio accused Glenn Beck and the Koch brothers, whom he portrayed as sponsors of the "tea-baggers," of consciously trying, via Beck's planned DC rally, to provoke race riots. In Papantonio's fevered mind, the Beck-Koch axis is attempting to recreate the race riots of 1968 . . View video here.

Yes, I realize that the above parity of SNL’s Dan Aykroyd’s and Jane Curtain’s infamous attempted at comedic verbal pratfall is not newsworthy but I am making a point. The point is Amy Sullivan cannot expect to be taken seriously if she does the same thing with her Times.com article entitled, “Are One-Quarter of Americans Freakin' Morons?” Personal insults aside Ms. Sullivan entire thesis is if 1 out of 4 Americans say they do not believe President Barry Hussein Soetoro’s confession of Christian faith that makes one-fourth of the U.S. population morons because they are choosing to ignore facts, evidence,...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) called out The Associated Press on Twitter Thursday for its decision to avoid the term "Ground Zero mosque" in its coverage. She also knocked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for suggesting Wednesday that the funding for the project's opponents merits scrutiny. "Pelosi's investigation of Harry Reid&Howard Dean&others who oppose Ground Zero Mosque will be enlightening,we're sure," Palin began, noting a comment made by Pelosi during a radio interview that just as the public should know about the mosque's backers, so should they know who is funding its opponents. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.)...