“This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about. She lies about everything.”
— Michael Joseph Gross, author of a recent Vanity Fair piece on the ex governor of Alaska
And this quote comes from someone who admits to heading into writing the Vanity Fair article, ” … with a prejudice in her favor.” So for Palin, with friends like these, who needs — well, you know the rest.
(Hat tip: the Daily Dish)
From the link:
A new Fox News survey shows that Americans remain deeply wary of the tea party movement, and strongly prefer Barack Obama to a hypothetical tea party candidate. And it’s a result Fox News chose to bury in its reporting on the poll — choosing instead to highlight “anti-Obama” voter sentiment. The poll, released by Fox News yesterday, shows that if given the choice between re-electing Barack Obama and electing a member of the tea party movement, Americans prefer Barack Obama 48% to 23%, a margin of 25 points.
Fox’s survey, conducted just over a week ago, shows that independents are still uneasy about trusting a member of the tea party movement with a position of power. Indeed, among independents, Barack Obama enjoys a 17 point lead.
Hit the link for head-to-head 2012 presidential race comparisons between Obama against Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. Rommey does best among independents with Obama ahead 43 to 28 percent. Gingrich is next with 53 to 23 percent Obama, and predictably Palin is third with 56 to 24 percent Obama. She actually gets more independent support than Gingrich, but also turns off more than she attracts. Interestingly Palin does the same among Republicans — that is she pulls a little more support than Gingrich, but gives up the same number of GOPers to Obama.
… really reads like someone — namely Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg — was working hard to meet a word count.
From the link:
In “Going Rogue: An American Life,” Sarah Palin has written six chapters that detail her life’s experiences, from her earliest days in Alaska to last year’s GOP presidential campaign to her eventual decision to resign as the state’s governor.
Palin dedicates the 413-page memoir, which The Wall Street Journal purchased from a bookstore on Friday, to “all Patriots who share my love of the United States of America. And particularly to our women and men in uniform, past and present–God bless the fight for freedom.”
In other news from the crazy world of Sarah Palin, she apparently wanted to sue Andrew Sullivan for libel for his Daily Dish blogging. Too bad she didn’t follow through. As Sullivan blogged yesterday, discovery alone would have been worth the price of that ticket.
I really don’t understand the ongoing appeal of Sarah Palin to the Republican Party.
The Daily Dish ran this year-long favorable/unfavorable poll of polls today:
Palin's favorables/unfavorables over the last year
Those numbers look decidedly bad. There’s a firm trend line at work. Of course it’s going to hit something of a Maginot Line at 20-25 percent favorables. She has that tiny rump locked up — and really it’s practically impossible for anybody or anything polled to dip below around 15 percent — so Palin fans can be pleased the current trend lines will eventually level off.
The problem is there’s no reason to expect they will significantly reverse. Certainly not before the 2012 election cycle, and maybe not ever. She’s insanely damaged goods for all but the die-hard, blinker-wearing movement “conservative” faithful.
There is no political redemption for anyone carrying her baggage. Take away every other negative, and boy there are plenty to choose from, and the fact she fled her only major elected post before serving even one term is a killer. I’m discounting mayor of Wasilla and below as “major” elected posts Palin held before the Alaskan governorship.
The fact she’s even in any sort of running for the top of the GOP presidential ticket at this point ought to have the party in a state of panic. Obama may be turning a lot of independent voters off right now, but believe me he would easily outdraw Palin under just about any conceivable set of political and economic conditions the U.S. might be facing in about two and half years.
And it takes nine slots to get to the first elected official — Jim DeMint. Sarah Palin clocks in at number two behind Rush Limbaugh.
There really is no mystery why the GOP is becoming so marginalized. Angry volume and right wing media exposure do not mean legislative or electoral success.
To illustrate the marginalization consider this:
In 1987 comedian David Brenner bombed in syndication with about 2.5 million viewers at midnight — which is roughly what Fox, the leading network for political talk shows, averages in prime time.
(Hat tip: NewMajority)
A former Alaskan senator provides a Palin pre-mortem.
From the link:
The Inuit have a word, “qivit,” that you do not want to have applied to you. It means to quit or give up when the going gets rough. In traditional times, and that was very recent, if you gave up as a leader you were jeopardizing yourself and everyone around you. It takes a lot of effort to maintain life in the bitter cold of the Arctic.
And:
In short, Alaska had a governor who had the stature within the state, nationally and internationally, to deal with our problems. She could have used her position to find solutions to the high costs and financial insecurities of our far-northern state. Instead, she abandoned her role as the state’s leader in midstream, making her the only governor in our state’s history to “qivit” in the true sense of the word, at a time when we need strong leadership. Good luck, Governor Parnell — may the great Arctic spirits be with you.
And some amonst the GOP faithful still want her as the standard bearer.
Precursor to a scandal, or naked national political ambition? Could easily be either one.
She’s told enough epic lies that any one of many could be coming home to bite her. At the same time her rhetoric about how she runs Alaska — trransparency, no closed-door meetings, strong fiscal conservatism — runs almost perfectly counter to the reality on the ground. When your actual record is that of a neosocialist, obstructionist who runs regular closed-door meetings with a petty mean streak, it’s tough to counter on the national stage with opponents looking for any means to take you down.
And then again maybe she’s worried about those government checks she proudly doles out going way, way down with the price of oil severely reduced from the bulk of her time in office. That would really test her popularity in the state.
Given Sarah Palin’s track record with the truth, I’m going with Levi here.
From the second link (the first goes to a Daily Dish search for Sullivan’s comprehensive listing of Palin’s various prevarications):
Levi Johnston said during an interview on CBS’s “Early Show” that he moved into the governor’s house a few weeks before Bristol Palin gave birth to their child.
Palin’s camp has denied the claim, but Johnston insisted the governor is not telling the truth. “They said I didn’t live there,” he said. “I was like, ‘OK, well, whatever you want to call it. I had my stuff there.’”
Asked if the Palin was lying about him, Johnston simply said: “Yes.”
In a very unusual move, McCain chose Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate. The first female on a GOP ticket, 44 years-old and socially conservative.
She might still take a few hits from parts of the religious right because she has a number of young children and I’ve already read some grumbles that she ought to be more concerned about being a good parent and less concerned about the halls of power right now. Sexist attitude since men don’t face those questions? Sure, but the “traditional family values” base won’t look kindly on that fact. They might look away, but the question of propriety will linger.
My take is the McCain team hopes this will be seen as a bold move and might pull the pro-Clinton, anti-Obama — the so-called PUMAs — vote. That simply will not happen. Those women will not vote-in an administration with an agenda to overturn Roe v. Wade, and McCain/Palin would certainly do so.
The reality is more likely to be something along the lines of internal polling showing McCain losing in any set of circumstances that don’t involve Clinton’s base. If so the Palin pick is hopelessly desperate.
She’ll get her lunch eaten on the trail and she has zero gravitas or clout to be the attack dog of the campaign team, the traditional role of the vice presidential nominee. Just watch Biden over the next couple of months. Don’t even consider the veep debates. All Palin can hope for is exceeding minuscule expectations, not unlike what Bush 43 pulled off against Gore in 2000.
All in all? A shocking choice and I think a tacit admission of practically insurmountable odds against a historic candidate in Obama. I’ve been strongly leaning Obama for a while now, although I’ve always liked McCain, the politician. The tone of his campaign of late has turned me off and the Palin pick ensures McCain won’t get my vote this year.
From the link way up in the first sentence:
Ms. Palin, 44, a social conservative, former union member and mother of five who has been governor for two years, was on none of the widely discussed McCain campaign short lists for vice president. In selecting her, Mr. McCain reached far outside the Washington Beltway in an election year in which the Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, is running on a platform of change.
David Kirkpatrick 