Free Republic

IF BARACK OBAMA has been the most remarkable phenomenon of the recent political scene, Sarah Palin must be second. The emotional responses to each — especially by the media and the intelligentsia — go beyond anything that can be explained by the usual political differences of opinion on issues of the day. That liberals would be thrilled by another liberal is not surprising. But there are conservative Republicans who voted for Barack Obama, and other conservatives who may not have voted for him, but who are quick to see in various pragmatic moves of his since taking office an indication...

Wolves exhibit surplus killing behavior. They kill every calf they find, even if they don't eat them.

Sarah Palin has hit back at actress Ashley Judd for her criticisms of the effort to pare back the Alaskan wolf population for the protection of caribou. Scoffing at advice from “far east coast politicians,” Palin reminded Judd and her Defense of Wildlife Action Fund that Alaskans relied on healthy caribou populations for food — especially in economically trying times. She also accused Judd of manufacturing outrage to stoke donations to her group: Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s support for aerial wolf-hunting has sparked a heated cross-country war of words between the governor and an environmental ad campaign fronted by the...

I clearly remember the day I met Sarah Palin. It was on a cold, dark midwinter’s eve in Eagle River, Alaska, in a friend’s living room. There were about a dozen people there, including two large families, one of which was mine. The event was an intimate “meet and greet,” launching Sarah’s gubernatorial run. Sarah is, of course, lovely, and she is surprisingly small, a feature that stands in contradiction to her very big personality. Her handshake is warm and her gaze personal. She is, in a word, authentic. I learned more about what it means to be a person...