Sarah IS serious, Salena

November 8, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Conservatives, Economy/Finances, Energy, Health, Josh Painter, News | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Salena Zito has a Sunday opinion piece that left us scratching our heads after we read it. Don’t get us wrong. Ms. Zito has been more than fair to Sarah Palin in a number of her columns. And in this, her latest, it’s just the title and a single paragraph that lead us to wonder if the writer is keeping up with the Palin news. This column certainly starts off on the right foot:

First of all, Palin will not leave the Republican Party.

“As independent-minded and anti-establishment as she is,” says Villanova University political science professor Lara Brown, “she seems to understand well one of my favorite quotes from political scientist John Aldrich from Duke University: ‘The standard line that anyone can grow up to be president may be true, but it is true only if one grows up to be a major party nominee.’”

Palin is positioning herself to become the Republican presidential nominee, and getting involved in NY-23 was merely the first step. Her book and her “Oprah” interview later this month are her next major steps.

And we certainly have no disagreement with Ms. Zito and Professor Brown when they acknowledge that all politics is local, and Governor Palin’s support of Doug Hoffman in New York’s 23rd Congressional District helped the Republican running with the backing of the Conservative Party more than it hurt him.

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Vanity FAIL: No solidarity on the Left for Levi’s lies

September 5, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Family, Josh Painter, Journalism, Media Bias, Sarah Palin | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

Usually the leftist media can be counted upon to unite, seize upon an anti-Palin meme and run with it. That liberal solidarity, however, has all but vaporized in the wake of Levi Johnston’s latest round of charges against Sarah Palin and her family, as promoted by Vanity Fair magazine.

The first cracks in liberal media wall appeared when only CBS of the big three alphabet television networks bought into the myth Vanity Fair’s editor Graydon Carter had hoped to spread to take down Palin, as NewsBusters’ Kyle Drennen reported:

“Teasing an upcoming segment on Thursday’s CBS Early Show about new attacks on Sarah Palin by the father of her grandson, Levi Johnston, co-host Maggie Rodriguez exclaimed: ‘And shocking allegations that could shatter former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s conservative family image…’”

[...]

“Unlike the Early Show’s accepting coverage of Johnston’s outrageous claims, NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America raised serious questions about his credibility.”

Oops! Only one for three with the morning big three.

FAIL

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There is no joy in Mudflats…

August 16, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Health, Josh Painter, Sarah Palin, Socialism | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

Dan Riehl reports that upon hearing the news that Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said the Senate will never pass a government-funded public health insurance option, and it was futile to continue to “chase that rabbit” — President Obama…

“…was rumored to have been spotted roaming the White House in a stupor late last night searching for his faux-Greecian, paper mache columns cursing, my kingdom for a Facebook account! Woe is me, oh woe….”

Riehl says “one fast ball over the plate from Sarah Palin” and the mighty Sox Fan has fanned. Dan goes on to paraphrase Shakespeare, but we were inspired to have our way with some lines from Thayer:

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy at Mudflats — mighty Barack has struck out.

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Sarah Palin goes mano a mano with Obama over health care

August 13, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Health, Josh Painter, President, Publius Forum, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Socialism | 1 Comment

- By Josh Painter

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has maneuvered President Obama into a mano a mano virtual debate between the two on health care with a series of well-argued and fully documented Facebook essays which are essentially short-form white papers on the issues, each one properly footnoted, referenced and linked. Here’s the latest round from the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate:

Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care.

The President made light of these concerns. He said:

“Let me just be specific about some things that I’ve been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that’s been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for death panels that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we’ve decided that we don’t, it’s too expensive to let her live anymore….It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, etc. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they’re ready on their own terms. It wasn’t forcing anybody to do anything.” [1]

The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” [2] With all due respect, it’s misleading for the President to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients. The issue is the context in which that information is provided and the coercive effect these consultations will have in that context.
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The Other Shoe Never Dropped

August 6, 2009 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Josh Painter, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Sarah Palin, State Government | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

The anti-Palin hate bloggers in Alaska have attracted a great deal of attention nationally. One of those who has been watching them is Marc Ambinder, columnist for The Atlantic. His August 4 piece calls attention to a fact of political life that has been overshadowed in all of the uproar over the “Splitsville” hoax perpetrated by hate bloggers Jesse Griffin and Dennis Zaki and propagated by the rest of their “community” of bloggers.

When Sarah Palin announced on July 3 that she intended to resign her office of governor, the hate bloggers assured their readers that it was because of an impending Palin scandal. One of the members of the circle of bloggers, Shannyn Moore, is also a Huffington Post contributor, and on the day of the announcement she posted:

“For weeks the rumors of a criminal investigation against the governor have been brewing. They are rumors, but are swirling fresh again with Palin’s resignation. I’m holding my breath for the other ‘Naughty Monkey’ to drop.”

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Palin-hatin’ bloggers and the Wyle E. Coyote Effect

August 3, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Entertainment, Humor, Josh Painter, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Sarah Palin | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

We don’t subscribe to the notion recently floated by Rick Moran in “Did Sarah Palin just ‘Pwn’ the media with divorce rumors?” The theory holds that the Gryphen-Zaki meltdown over the weekend was the result of an elaborate Rovian-style setup brilliantly planned and executed by Sarah Palin:

It’s too pat, the pieces fit too nicely together (an “explanation” for why she resigned) not to raise alarms with real journalists. So I think there is at least the possibility, that either someone in the Palin camp with an ax to grind with the media - or, less likely, Palin herself - whispered a few words to a birdie they were sure would get the word to people who would publish it.

We have even seen some of Gryphen’s fellow travellers advance the same idea. But you have to remember that these are the same people who claim that Sarah Palin is the stupidest woman to come along since Lot’s wife, and she is supported by a cast of characters of such incompetence that they can’t even manage to book her solidly for speaking events. How then, can she be so dang dumb and yet manage to outfox the best liberal minds in Alaska, the Gryphenistas never bother to explain. Go figure…
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Parsing Monday’s Poll Results

July 21, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Josh Painter, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, President, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Society/Culture, Uncategorized | No Comments

- By Josh Painter

A new Rasmussen poll released Monday showing President Obama tied with Mitt Romney and six points up on Sarah Palin in a hypothetical 2012 match up is already the buzz of the blogosphere.

Groups of political animals with different interests will be posturing all week long based on this poll. Romney backers, for example, will be crowing loudly over it, and no one should be raining on their parade. After all, their guy made a good showing, and they should have some fun with it. It may not warrant a ticker tape parade, but if they are looking for an excuse to party, this should qualify.

Sarah Palin’s backers can also find some encouragement in the latest Rasmussen numbers. Being just six points back of the president is nothing to sneeze at, especially after another poll — one conducted by Democrat polling firm Public Policy Polling in mid-March — showed Obama with a 20-point lead over Palin in the same hypothetical circumstances. If one were to say the PPP poll is as accurate as the Rasmussen survey (which Democrats always do; Republicans will argue the point in Scott Rasmussen’s favor), then Governor Palin has made a 14-point improvement against Obama in just four months. An April PPP poll had Obama ahead of Palin 53 percent to 41 percent — a twelve-point spread. Today’s Rasmussen results indicate that Gov. Palin has cut that lead in half in less than three months. But the 2012 elections are still years away, and Sarah Palin has not even started to campaign actively for 2012, if indeed she intends to do so.
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