What? No one wants to go Palin-free?

Responses to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank's idea for a Palin-free month of February continue to be written. The Post's Jonathan Capehart writes in "Sorry, Dana Milbank -- I won't quit Sarah Palin:"

Hi, I'm Jonathan, and I'm, um, a Pali-holic. But not in the way that Dana Milbank or Ross Douthat thinks. Sure, I've written at least 34 posts with "Sarah" or "Sarah Palin" in the headline. Yes, I'm fully aware of the crack-like impact her name has on the blogosphere. But I have tried to write about Palin not as a politician but as a small-screen star playing a politician, a figure with outsized influence on a very vocal wing of the Republican Party on TV (and Facebook and Twitter and Fox).

I thought Douthat nailed it with his column this month on the media's obsession with Palin. And this is where Douthat and I are in total agreement.

Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she's the most important conservative politician in America. Stop pretending that she has a plausible path to the presidency in 2012. (She doesn't.) Stop suggesting that she's the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (She isn't.) And every time you're tempted to parse her tweets for some secret code or crucial dog whistle, stop and think, this woman has fewer Twitter followers than Ben Stiller, and then go write about something else instead. ...

Capehart's columns about Palin are always like a breath of fresh air, because his is one of the few reality-based views on Palin. He knows electability matters, and he has known for some time that Palin is unelectable.

The Week has some additional responses to Milbank's plan in its article, "Forgetting Sarah Palin: Should the press stop covering her?"

The conservative Frum Forum has a response, too. Their "Time for Palin Apologists to Let Go" considers what The NY Times' Ross Douthat and The WSJ's James Taranto have written about the media's coverage of Palin.

Douthat may have started the media's discussion of Palin coverage with his "Scenes From a Marriage," which castigates "palinistas" and "palinoiacs" alike. In "Scenes From a Marriage," Douthat expresses his belief that conservatives have actually damaged Palin by praising her (excessively). I think that's true, particularly when they compare Palin with former presidents. Palin isn't like any President. She suffers from the comparison, because she isn't presidential, at all.

(Capehart is quoting, above, from Douthat's "Scenes From a Marriage.")

Palin Family Circus News - Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Sarah Palin may be trying to insinuate that she reads newspapers. The NY Times reported:

... In a post on her Facebook page Monday, Ms. Palin threw a sarcasm-laced jab at a Wall Street Journal writer who had criticized a statement she made about the rising price of groceries. The writer had accused her of “inflation hyperbole” on the Journal’s website. ...

... [S]he noted the irony that perhaps the Wall Street Journal writer criticizing her had not, in fact, read the Wall Street Journal.

“Now I realize I’m just a former governor and current housewife from Alaska, but even humble folks like me can read the newspaper,” she wrote on Facebook. “The newspaper. I’m surprised a prestigious reporter for the Wall Street Journal doesn’t.”

But it's very likely that Palin still isn't reading newspapers. Another article from the NY Times, which was written with the assistance of Palin's spokesperson Meg Stapleton, last February, noted:

She [Palin] reads daily e-mail briefings on domestic and foreign policy from a small group of advisers who remained loyal after her tumultuous vice presidential campaign in 2008.

The Wall Street Journal's account of Palin's dust-up with the paper is here.

Today, The WSJ's MarketBeat column continued the paper's interest in Palin with "Sarah Palin: Monetary Policy Wonk." The article ended, after noting how Palin is abusing the truth about what Ronald Reagan said about inflation, "If you’re gung-ho on the prospect of Madame President Palin, that’s great. Just be careful about taking investment advice from her."

Now, Gawker has confirmed what we already know: "Sarah Palin Still Can't Read or Understand a Newspaper."

There is another challenger to sure-thing Republican nominee Sarah Palin. The NY Daily News reported:

Former [New York] Gov. George Pataki hinted at a possible presidential run on Monday, noting his mayoral credentials were a lot more impressive than potential rival Sarah Palin's.

Pataki joked that Palin's former job as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was nothing compared with his one-time job as mayor of Peekskill in Westchester County.

"It was a challenging job, mayor of Peekskill, let me assure you," Pataki said during an interview on ABC News' "Top Line."

"Twice the size of Wasilla."

Pataki also managed to complete his governorship without resigning.

Bristol Palin's False Steps considers Bristol's longevity on Dancing With the Stars. Last night, Bristol made a move that judge Bruno Tonioli called “the Pencil Sharpener.”

Updated November 10: Bristol not only survived another week, she has made it to the DWTS semi-finals! CBS Predictions isn't giving her much chance of success, however:

Despite receiving the lowest scores after Monday night's performance, Bristol Palin and her dance partner Mark Ballas have made it to the semi-finals of "Dancing with the Stars." Former football star Kurt Warner was sent home on Tuesday.

Bristol's continued success in not getting voted off the "DWTS" island is due in part to fans of her mother, Sarah Palin.

She certainly hasn't wowed the judges, typically receiving among the lowest scores from the judges throughout the competition. The judges try to be kind and offer some compliments, but it is faint praise. "It's so important getting those heels and toes right. And by and large, Bristol always does that," judge Len Goodman told Bristol on Monday night's show.

Odds are that Bristol will not win. Even if she won the phone-in vote, the judges would have a major issue giving her the trophy versus Jennifer Grey or Brandy, both of whom outshine the 20-year-old teen advocate by a wide margin on the dance floor. Whatever the outcome, Bristol challenged herself on a national stage, made some good money and provided another outlet for the Palin media machine. ...

Don't you worry, Bristol. Enjoy laughing on your way to the bank.

Leading Republican opinion maker calls Sarah Palin a 'nincompoop'

Peggy Noonan, once a speechwriter for former President Reagan and now a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, takes issue with Sarah Palin for comparing herself to Ronald Reagan. From "Americans Vote for Maturity:"

Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, “an actor.” She was defending her form of political celebrity—reality show, “Dancing With the Stars,” etc. This is how she did it: “Wasn’t Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn’t he in ‘Bedtime for Bonzo,’ Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor.”

Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I’ll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president.

The point is not “He was a great man and you are a nincompoop,” though that is true. The point is that Reagan’s career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn’t in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn’t in search of fame; he’d already lived a life, he was already well known, he’d accomplished things in the world.

Here is an old tradition badly in need of return: You have to earn your way into politics. You should go have a life, build a string of accomplishments, then enter public service. And you need actual talent: You have to be able to bring people in and along. You can’t just bully them, you can’t just assert and taunt, you have to be able to persuade.

Americans don’t want, as their representatives, people who seem empty or crazy. They’ll vote no on that.

It’s not just the message, it’s the messenger.

Peggy Noonan makes her point very clearly, just as she did last year when she wrote that Sarah Palin was "out of her depth in a shallow pool." The "empty or crazy" people she refers to must be characters like Joe Miller, Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell, all of whom were rejected by the voters.

Although we may not agree that Ronald Reagan was a great man, we can understand how Noonan does think so and is incensed that an upstart like Palin would trivialize Reagan by claiming to be like him.

Noonan's "Americans Vote for Maturity" can be read in its entirety here. Her "A Farewell to Harms," written shortly after Palin quit the governorship of Alaska, can be read here.