(Click the screencap for an enlargement)
In another Sarah Palin story, Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer has written "All-things-Palin still reigns in Alaska:"Anyone who doubts Sarah Palin's celebrity need only talk to Lyn Carden.
As head of the Chamber of Commerce in Wasilla, Alaska, Carden tends to be the front line for tourists wanting to see Palin, perhaps even grab a cup of coffee at her house. And she has heard it all.
When Palin makes news, or carries a snazzy purse women want to buy, Carden invariably gets a call, or a flurry of calls. Some callers have left credit card information, hoping to get that purse. Others send fan mail or money for Palin's political action committee.
There are those too who just stop in, hoping for directions to her house, which they do not get, or eager to learn as much as they can about Wasilla's most famous resident. Many snap photos of themselves with Palin's cardboard cutout. ...
... She also is among the most well-known but polarizing political figures in America, revered by supporters as a God-fearing Everywoman who fights for what she believes in, and derided by critics as a political lightweight and quitter.
"There's no gray area," Carden said. ...
The story continues with a description of John Coale's trip with Sarah and Todd Palin to a Boston pastry shop. John Coale is Greta Van Susteren's husband.
At the end of the story, we're told, "Associated Press reporter Mark Thiessen contributed to this report from Wasilla, Alaska." This post's photo was found at another version of Bohrer's story.
Here, we see Sarah Palin thinking, fleetingly, just for a moment, "Darn! We can't have it both ways!"Ryan DonmoyerAnd ending:Aug 30, 2008, 12:07am
I actually hesitate to bring this up…
But is anyone following this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/17933/7330/417/579267 [that story has been deleted]
Katha PollittIn between those two posts, there are many more by well-known members of the media. The consensus that seems to have emerged was that it was a story that should not be covered. The posts are interesting and may provide some insight into why the mainstream media "ignored" the story, as some have claimed; however, the NY Times did mention how the story was received inside the Republican convention hall in 2008 in its story "Palin Daughter's Pregnancy Interrupts Convention Script," which tells why the McCain campaign released news of Bristol's pregnancy, and the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) did describe the "Wild Ride" as well as the scene inside the convention.Sept 1, 2008, 12:02pm
I think people are making very narrow harsh judgments about behavior and decisions while pregnant that are not all that unusual. A lot of things look worse on paper than they do in real life. Sarah Palin had been pregnant and delivered four times before Trig. What looks to some j-listers like wild irresponsibility bordering on criminal insanity may have just been her belief that she knew how her body worked and how much time she had before going into full delivery mode. And, if it was her baby, she was right! she didn’t give birth on the plane etc.
This is your liberal media, ladies and gentlemen: totally partisan, interested in the truth only if it advances their agenda, and devoid of any balls whatsoever. ...But, Andrew, why didn't they run with the story? Wouldn't a "liberal media" have been delighted to "advance their agenda" and derail McCain's campaign with a story about how Sarah Palin had faked a pregnancy?
How ironic that on a day when we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The Daily Caller released 15 pages of JournoListers’ email exchanges about a dark and demented conspiracy regarding my son, Trig.Did she read the posts? Does she know that none of those JournoList members published a story about the "dark and demented conspiracy?" That they saved her bacon?
It’s tough to fittingly describe these numerous members of the mainstream media who actively engaged in the debate about this conspiracy back when I was first introduced as John McCain’s running mate, ...
This JournoList exchange exposes the warped nature of today's media, thus explaining why many of us are forced, in fairness to the public, to utilize other mediums to communicate until the mainstream media wakes up and begins respecting the public's intelligence and desire for truth in reporting.By substituting ignorance for intelligence and common-sense for truth in her last sentence, you may understand part of Sarah Palin's problem with the media. "The public" must be Sarah Palin's fans. Sarah Palin's found an excuse to continue to hide-out on Facebook and pontificate on Fox!
The White House e-mailed the following statement with the subject line “Thoughts on Wikileaks” to reporters on Sunday evening. In the memo, the White House advised journalists on possible reporting tacks to take on the documents and pointed them to an excerpt from The Guardian newspaper’s report:You all should have received a written statement from General Jones [see update below] about the wikileaks release. Please let me know if you didn’t.
A few thoughts about these stories on background: (emphasis added)
1) I don’t think anyone who follows this issue will find it surprising that there are concerns about ISI and safe havens in Pakistan. In fact, we’ve said as much repeatedly and on the record. Attached please find a document with some relevant quotes from senior USG officials.
2) The period of time covered in these documents (January 2004-December 2009) is before the President announced his new strategy. Some of the disconcerting things reported are exactly why the President ordered a three month policy review and a change in strategy.
3) Note the interesting graphs (pasted below) from the Guardian’s wikileaks story. I think they help put these documents in context.
4) As you report on this issue, it’s worth noting that wikileaks is not an objective news outlet but rather an organization that opposes US policy in Afghanistan.
From the Guardian:
But for all their eye-popping details, the intelligence files, which are mostly collated by junior officers relying on informants and Afghan officials, fail to provide a convincing smoking gun for ISI complicity. Most of the reports are vague, filled with incongruent detail, or crudely fabricated. The same characters – famous Taliban commanders, well-known ISI officials – and scenarios repeatedly pop up. And few of the events predicted in the reports subsequently occurred.
A retired senior American officer said ground-level reports were considered to be a mixture of “rumours, bullshit and second-hand information” and were weeded out as they passed up the chain of command. “As someone who had to sift through thousands of these reports, I can say that the chances of finding any real information are pretty slim,” said the officer, who has years of experience in the region.
If anything, the jumble of allegations highlights the perils of collecting accurate intelligence in a complex arena where all sides have an interest in distorting the truth.
The memo also provided excerpts of comments that President Obama has made on issues addressed in the documents.
There is much more to this developing story: WikiLeaks Says It Seeks 'Transparency' ... A Note to Readers: Deciding What to Publish ... Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert ... Strategic Plans Spawned Bitter End for a Lonely Outpost ... Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan
This is a big story, and it should promote a lot of debate about what we're doing in Afghanistan.
JUNEAU, Alaska -- Perhaps Sean Parnell's greatest accomplishment so far as governor is that he's not Sarah Palin.In the year since inheriting the job when Palin resigned, Parnell has quietly gone about restoring a sense of calm that many Alaskans craved after the storm-that-was-Sarah. Barring any major missteps, that alone may be enough to help him carry next month's GOP primary and win the office he wasn't expecting [to] hold. ...
But isn't Parnell Palin without lipstick?
... While oil remains king, its revenue largely responsible for funding the state's operation, production is expected to keep declining. There are no firm answers for how best to stem those revenue losses.One long sought project that could help is a major natural gas pipeline.
[Ralph] Samuels and [Bill] Walker [,both challenging Parnell, this fall, for the governorship,] have aggressively gone after Parnell's approach to building the line.
Parnell remains committed to the process championed by Palin, which she said would spur competition in bringing North Slope gas to market. Two competing projects are currently seeking shipping commitments and gauging interest. Parnell cites this as proof the market will win out.
But Samuels said the state is really no further ahead than it was several years ago in realizing a line.
Walker favors an "all Alaska line" that he says would put put (sic) Alaska, not oil and gas companies, in the driver's seat. He said Parnell has shown no leadership on the gas line. ...
And perhaps most importantly: How many Palin appointees remain in office to do Sarah's bidding?
Let's have a story about how Alaska's state government has changed or remained the same since Sarah Palin quit. Is Sarah Palin still influencing government through the appointments to boards and commissions she made? Those appointees serve at the governor's pleasure. Why hasn't Parnell cleaned house?
Obama put it best earlier this year, after Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “you lie” during the president's State of the Union speech. "The easiest way to get on television right now is to be really rude,” the president told ABC News.Sargent's post followed his recent post, "Sarah Palin plays media for chumps," which recalled another Politico story, "The Sarah Palin-media co-dependency."
Indeed, at first Wilson seemed embarrassed and apologized for his outburst. But within days, Wilson and his opponent were both flooded with campaign contributions; Wilson took in more than $700,000 in the immediate aftermath of his outburst and was a guest of honor on Hannity’s show and Fox News Sunday.
It’s a well-traveled path: Flamethrowers Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) join Wilson on the list of Top 10 House fundraisers, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
At POLITICO, we have an unusual vantage point on this new reality. We are both an enabler (in the eyes of some critics) of the deterioration of political discourse, and a target of it (as we try to defend our values as neutral journalists amid constant criticism from activists who think we fail at neutrality or are disdainful of the goal in the first place).
There is some truth on both counts. Like all news sites, we are aware that conflict clicks. More traffic comes from an item on Sarah Palin’s “refudiation” faux pas than from our hundreds of stories on the complexities of health care reform or Wall Street regulation.
Here, we see Kate Gosselin arriving for a meeting with Sarah Palin. The planet's buzzing with rumors that Palin is about to give Gosselin the VP nod.Here, we see Sarah Palin thinking, "Darn!"Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Us Weekly has video of Bristol & Levi talking about it: Bristol Palin: Sarah "Doesn't Approve" of Levi EngagementHere we see Sarah thinking, "Darn! Why didn't I learn any geography? The least my PAC could do is hire someone to fact-check me before I go shootin' off my big mouth. Again!"... With a November election approaching, politicians have latched onto the issue as a high-profile platform to attack their opponents.On Tuesday, Rick A. Lazio, a Republican running for governor, urged the landmarks commission to protect the [existing] building [at the planned site of Cordoba House], constructed in the late 1850s in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style; this would effectively halt the plans for the Muslim center. The commission expects to vote on the issue in August.
“This is about getting questions answered,” Mr. Lazio told reporters. “This is about transparency. This about the safety of the people of New York.”
“Religion has nothing to do with this,” he added.
Representative Peter T. King, a Republican, joined Mr. Lazio in calling for an investigation into the financing of the project. But Andrew M. Cuomo, Mr. Lazio’s Democratic opponent and the state’s attorney general, has rebuffed those requests.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has strongly endorsed the project, arguing that it is not the role of government to meddle in religious and business affairs.
“Government should never — never — be in the business of telling people how they should pray, or where they can pray,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Monday. “We want to make sure that everybody from around the world feels comfortable coming here, living here and praying the way they want to pray.”...
As though controversies were horses.
There is an interesting article by NY Times reporter Jeff Zeleny, "Palin Wades Into Republican Midterm Primaries." Don't let it scare you. Sure, there may be some scary parts like:... One year after leaving public office behind, defiantly stepping down as governor of Alaska to become a best-selling author and a television celebrity, Ms. Palin has waded deeply back into electoral politics, and she plans to increase her visibility on the campaign trail after Labor Day. ...But some common sense, too:
... That she is leaving a major footprint on the 2010 midterm elections is not disputed, but less clear is whether the endorsements are rooted in an effort to amplify her image or to create a political strategy for the future. ...
... She has delivered a few policy addresses in recent months and seemed to be moving beyond the family drama that often enveloped her.Indeed, from a recent CBS/NY Times poll of Tea Partiers we have: "Tea Party supporters were asked in the poll what they thought of a few notable figures. The most popular was Sarah Palin, who is viewed favorably by 66 percent of people in the movement. Only 40 percent, however, believe she would be an effective president, a smaller percentage than Republicans overall. (emphasis added)
That changed last week, when her daughter Bristol announced on the cover of Us Weekly that she was engaged to her former boyfriend, Levi Johnston, stirring a reminder of the circus-like atmosphere that accompanied the Palins’ arrival on the national scene two years ago. ...
... Fred Malek, a Republican fund-raiser who is a friend and supporter of Ms. Palin, said it would be incorrect to view her role in the midterm elections through the prism of the 2012 presidential race.
Mr. Malek said she does not seek his counsel — nor that of any other Republican establishment figure — in deciding whether to support a candidate. “She carefully watches what’s going on in the political world and makes decisions based on who she thinks deserves support,” he said.
Indeed, the endorsements provide little evidence that she is moving closer to a presidential run. A willingness to inject herself into so many primary fights and frustrate the supporters of the candidates she overlooks is a risky way of building establishment support.
In conversations with Republicans in recent months — including at a rally Ms. Palin held with Mr. McCain in Arizona, at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans and at campaign events here in Georgia — voters often give Ms. Palin high marks. But asked whether they believe she should run for president, few say yes.
Judy Pruitt, a 70-year-old retiree in Lawrenceville, said she came to see Ms. Handel partly because of the Palin endorsement. But she had a swift answer when asked if she would welcome a 2012 Palin campaign.
“I’m not sure she’s ready for the presidency,” she said. “I do like listening to her, and I respect her views on things. But I think she can have more of an impact if she’s not running. I really do.”
Multiple Bristol/Levi + Baby shows are being shopped, according to TMZ.Here, we see Sarah Palin thinking, "Darn! I've gotta get another picture taken."Time's Mark Halperin, co-author of the bestseller Game Change, has posted "Beyond Palin: Assessing the Rest of the GOP Presidential Field:"From People's "Bristol Palin Wants More Kids -- Just Not Right Now:"“The primary is really close. So Karen’s opponents are kind of saying those crazy things about her. Please just get the truth for yourself. Karen is a pro-life, pro-family constitutionalist – a Republican who’s going to fight for what is right.”
“Because she is taking on the status quo, well, Karen’s opponents are always telling the truth about her views on those issues that we hold dear….” [Was that a slip? The sentence not finished? Misquoted?]
During her honeymoon speech at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Sarah Palin echoed a jab at Barack Obama that had been lurking around in Republican circles for most of that year. ...Another RNC Chief, Ken Mehlman, said that the Southern Strategy was wrong, in 2005. Mike Allen of the Washington Post wrote:
... I'm referring here to the emphasis on President Obama's service as an urban community organizer. Clearly, this was a Southern Strategy-style racial dog whistle -- a way of underscoring the president's ethnicity, his race and his association with scary inner-city black people.
It's worth mentioning again the Lee Atwater quote regarding the functional language of the Southern Strategy. Suffice to say, Atwater made it perfectly clear that Republican political tactics included (and still do) exploiting race -- winning white votes by demonizing blacks. And the way to play this game in the modern age was to use code language. Dog whistles, because overt racial language would too easily "back fire."
At the time, Atwater suggested the exploitation of issues like tax cuts or states rights with the implication that the Republican Party supported the preservation of white dominance. (Not surprisingly, tax cuts and states rights dominate the 2010 political discourse.) And the demagoguing of issues like welfare, affirmative action or Medicaid would underscore, to predisposed white voters, the fallacious notion of lazy black freeloaders horking white jobs and white tax dollars and not contributing anything to society other than crime. ...
... Sarah Palin is and was a Southern Strategist.
So it's with considerable hilarity that I read her latest Facebook remarks in which she insisted there isn't a racial component to the various tea party groups."I am saddened by the NAACP's claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of America's Constitutional rights are somehow 'racists,'" Palin wrote in a Facebook note.... [T]he NAACP was specifically referencing the obviously racist elements of the tea party, whether it's the tea party's use of Southern Strategy dog whistles to rally white support, or the very overt displays of racism, beginning with the screechy Curious George-wielding freaks outside the Palin rallies during the campaign, or the Birthers, whose whole thing is about race, or the (often misspelled) signs at tea party rallies with the president Photoshopped to look like a witch doctor.
The NAACP, with its resolution this week, wasn't even going as far as I am here in suggesting the tea party is built upon Southern Strategy politics. The members were merely requesting that the tea party denounce the racially-motivated characters within its ranks. I don't think that's such a big deal. But Sarah Palin evidently believes that the people who shouted racial epithets at Congressman Lewis are "patriotic Americans" and "somehow" not racists, when, in fact, they clearly are. These are the people the NAACP asked to be denounced. Why would Sarah Palin have a problem with that? ...
... Remarkably, and despite volumes of documented evidence, including a candid admission by the chairman of the RNC, we constantly hear Sarah Palin, and many other Republicans for that matter, claiming that the Southern Strategy doesn't exist as a central component of the party. The far-right (and not-so-far-right) totally denies the existence of the Southern Strategy in the face of cold, hard historical fact while also embracing its tactics and language.
It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.Didn't Republicans get the memo? Sarah?
Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."
"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text. "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
From "Kathy Griffin reacts to 'former flame' Levi Johnston's surprise engagement to Bristol Palin:"
Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston reveal exclusively in the new Us Weekly that they are getting married. And, they tell Us Weekly, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been kept in the dark about their plans ... until now.
"We got engaged two weeks ago," Bristol, 19, tells Us Weekly. "It felt right, even though we don’t have the approval of our parents."
PHOTOS: Bristol and Levi's relationship: a look back
Bristol and Levi, 20 -- who famously called off their previous engagement two weeks after welcoming son Tripp in December 2008 -- tell Us Weekly they reconnected three months ago while working out a custody plan for their 18-month-old son.
"I really thought we were over," Levi tells Us Weekly. "So when I went, I had no hope. I think we both just started talking — and then we took Tripp for a walk."
Says Bristol, "When he left that night, we didn’t hug or kiss, but I was thinking how different it was. He texted me: 'I miss you. I love you. I want to be with you again' ... I was in shock." ...
US Weekly's story continues with Bristol telling the magazine that she's scared of Sarah's reaction.
NBC's Today has an interesting story about the engagement:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Bristol, who did not wear an engagement ring during her conversation with PEOPLE, replied to the question of if they would marry: "Yeah. I mean, I don't really want to get into detail about what's in store for our future, because who knows? But all I'd like to say about it is, hopefully we will be a family."
As for how they managed to bury the hatchet after their very public falling out, Bristol credits Levi's "just coming around. But, I don't know. It's good. It's good for all three of us [including son] Tripp Easton!"
Looking back, Bristol believes that if fame, money and her mom Sarah Palin's vice presidential campaign had not become part of her and Levi's lives, the ex-couple would already be happy living a simple life.
"I think Levi and I would be married," she says without hesitation. "He would still have his [oil] job on the North Slope, and we'd be in a one-bedroom apartment, scraping by."
Bristol, who says all of her friends have gone out of state, has no plans to follow them. "Levi and I are both Alaska based, and I don't see us moving anywhere else."
USA Today has a concise summary of the endorsement news in Georgia's gubernatorial race:Winning the GOP candidacy in 2012 will take more than stardom, and more than money. It'll take strategy, alliances, and one heckuva lot of shoe leather. Especially in Iowa and New Hampshire. I won't hazard a guess as to who will emerge victorious. I will predict it won't be be Palin or Romeny [sic], the presumptive frontrunners today. They've both tried and failed on the national stage before. Neither is a new face. And for Palin specifically, the same idiosyncratic tactics she uses to woo the far-right make her, I and others think, uniquely unlikely to be able to mount a successful party-wide candidacy. As for Mitt, Charlie Pierce has some new thoughts. Meantime, money talks.
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