IMPALIN’ — Stop Sarah Palin for President in 2012

The template for the perpetual Sarah Palin feud was set last Valentine’s Day. The animated series Family Guy aired an episode in which a character with Down Syndrome said her mother was the former Governor of Alaska. From her platform as a paid Fox News contributor, Palin pounced on the moment to condemn Seth McFarland. “Cruel and cold-hearted people who would do such a thing,” she said on Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor . She also used the occasion to demand then-Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel step down for using the word “retard.” When asked, Palin said Rush Limbaugh - who constantly uses the r-word - is “using satire.” Following Palin’s determination of what satire is, the actress Andrea Fay Friedman who played the character with Down Syndrome - who also fittingly has Down Syndrome - made a statement to the press : “I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor…My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.” So the mold of Sarah Palin’s taking to the airwaves to blast someone using incorrect facts solidified. If she had just done a little Google research, when asked about the episode she could have graciously said, “I would be proud for such an accomplished actress like Miss Friedman to be my daughter.” Instead Palin appeared volatile, insulting and ignorant. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Tina Dupuy: Sarah Palin: America’s Full-Time Professional Duelist

Sarah Palin raised $469,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22 bringing her total for the cycle to just under $4.5 million, Tim Crawford, SarahPAC’s treasurer, told TIME exclusively. Crawford attributed the surge of funds to energy surrounding the midterm elections, Palin’s endorsements and her TLC reality show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin Fundraising: SarahPAC Hauls In Nearly $500K In Just Over A Month

But on two of the three major political exchanges — markets in which users bet on or buy stocklike futures contracts for candidates they think will win the GOP nomination — Thune ranks third, behind only Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Investors think he’s almost twice as likely to win it as the fourth-place contender, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Read More… More on John Thune

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John Thune For President? Futures Markets Betting On Senator In 2012

Former Republican Congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is out with a vicious new post encouraging Republicans to “man up” and take Sarah Palin down a peg. As if trying to get the ball rolling, he precedes this suggestion with a few choice volleys of his own. “Republicans have a problem,” Scarborough writes at Politico . “The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected.” Scarborough’s main beef with Palin seems to be that, in his view, she just is not serious enough to be considered a viable GOP candidate for president in 2012, and despite the supposed general acceptance of this as fact, Republicans sit idly, afraid to speak out, while Palin basks in the pre-campaign limelight. Read More… More on GOP

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Joe Scarborough Hits Sarah Palin In Op-Ed

Pope Benedict XVI has further modified his stance on condoms by recommending them in extreme cases. He went on to say “these teabaggers are geisteskrank (insane).” Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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James Napoli: Pope Urges Condom Use for Tea Party, Morning Zoo DJ’s, Darren Aronofsky

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Hundreds turned out for a Sarah Palin book signing in Iowa, an event the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate insisted was not for political purposes. Palin’s stop Saturday at the Borders in West Des Moines brought her back to Iowa, which hosts the caucuses that kick off the presidential nominating season. Read More… More on Elections 2012

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Sarah Palin: Iowa Book Tour Stop Not Political

The presidential election season of 2012 will soon begin. Back in early 2007, there were quite a few candidates on both sides of the aisle seeking the presidency. Because of the unpopular incumbent, Democrats were likely headed towards a win no matter who was their nominee. But the epic primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was more than a tough, hard-fought contest. It also energized the Democratic Party across the board, forcing both candidates to run campaigns in every state and building up the Democratic coalition that won big in 2008. But this next cycle is likely to play out differently. An incumbent president is very difficult to defeat. Each of the president’s notable challengers have to overcome significant problems to even have a shot at beating Obama. The 2012 primary election cycle is not likely to be as dramatic as the last, barring some unforeseen drastic reshaping of the landscape. At least, not on the Democratic side. President Obama will easily secure the Democratic nomination, even if he is challenged for it. There don’t appear to be any Democrats who have the stature to do it, but if there were a challenge, it would likely be from the right. There is the possibility of a national conservadem like Evan Bayh using a rightward campaign to weaken the president. I have no doubt this challenge would be beat back, but a presidential primary campaign by the likes of Bayh would definitely find corporate benefactors. Of course, the media will gladly play it up as a challenge from the “center.” Obama could appoint Bayh or some of the other potential conservadems to high office in order to remove potential threats. From the left, there isn’t anyone who would be able to make a success of it. Gov. Jerry Brown of California could do it, but it is doubtful he would. Unions and minority voters are very likely to stick with the president. A challenge from the left can’t succeed without those voting blocs. So, barring a serious miscalculation from a conservadem, President Obama will coast to an uncompetitive convention. On the Republican side, the field is wide open. Of the current field of potential GOP nominees, I predict none of them will beat President Obama, and a few of them will get crushed. Gingrich, Pawlenty, Thune, Pence, Barbour, Santorum, and others would be seriously biting off more than they can chew. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, I predict the most potent of the campaigners will be Sarah Palin. If she runs, I predict she will win the GOP nomination. This brings sarcastic guffaws to political observers, of course. You’ll hear the usual listings of all her various weaknesses: She isn’t intelligent. She doesn’t have the leadership skills to run a national campaign. She isn’t disciplined. She’s erratic. All of these things are irrelevant in a Republican primary. If Sarah Palin is able to put together a campaign and win in Iowa, who is going to stop her? Mike Huckabee proved in 2008 that he could win the evangelical Republican base in the Midwest with a shoestring budget and plenty of moxie. Palin will not have a shoestring budget. In fact, her online, small-donor fundraising is likely to be as impressive as the famed Obama campaign of 2007-2008. I’m sure a potential Palin campaign saw how skillfully the Obama operation drove the narrative by posting those big, broad quarterly fundraising numbers. Palin could do just that same. If Palin can win over the Republican base and come out of Iowa strong, she could skip New Hampshire and head straight to South Carolina to put this thing in the bag. South Carolina’s new Republican governor, Nikki Haley, will play a big role if Palin comes out of Iowa with fire. All the campaign apparatus and policy speeches will certainly come later. Obama proved you can overcome the “experience” and “seriousness” hurdle with a good staff and some effort. I have no doubt she can clear those with ease. Her challenge remains with the broader electorate in a general election and this is where the tough scrutiny,  combined with the heavy pressure of an incumbent president, will begin to take its toll on her. And that brings us to Mitt Romney. Poor Mitt. Romney has got to be one of the weakest Republican frontrunners, since, well…McCain. He’s a failed candidate who lost because he didn’t convince the right he was a true believer. Now, if Romney couldn’t beat an unprincipled, untrusted McCain, or an unknown, low-budget Huckabee, how is he going to beat a well-funded, nationally known true believer like Palin? Anyone who runs against Romney is going to stamp “Obamacare” on his forehead and there is no getting out of it. Romney could try and outflank an evangelical megachurcher like Palin with culture warrior stuff, but does anyone believe they’re going to trust a Mormon over one of their own? Especially one who has been all over the place on abortion? The one thing Romney has going for him is the support of Wall Street and Big Oil. But with the neocons lining up behind Palin, the money boys are not going put up much of a fight with the necons if it is clear Palin is holding all the cards. They’ll deal before they go down for Romney. With Tea Partiers, Neocons and evangelicals naturally aligning for Palin, the path for Romney to win will have to involve tearing her down. He couldn’t do it to Huckabee after investing $50 million of his own money and years of effort in Iowa. His position hasn’t improved since then. So this brings us to the likely matchup, Obama v. Palin. Again, contrary to popular belief, Obama could lose this race. If the economy does not recover and the president does not reconnect himself to base Democratic values, the election could look much like 2010: dispirited Democratic-leaning independent voters simply stay home while the Republican base turns out in record numbers. If the economy is tough (as is likely), the voters could still be in a “throw the bums out” mood that it is tough for the incumbent to overcome. However, as Kos has pointed out, there is a model for how Obama can win an election vs. Palin even if unemployment is at 10 percent: run like Harry Reid did in Nevada . Go home to your base. Define your opponent with a relentless, withering attack. Stand by your accomplishments and do not give an inch. To sum it up, no cowering, defensive, “let me explain” moments. And no “let’s all come together” kumbayaism either. Offensive attacks from day one all the way to November. That is the way to win.

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2012 election could pit Obama vs. Palin

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Lee Camp: 11 Reasons Sarah Palin WILL Win the Presidency

Chris Matthews made an unlikely comparison between Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin on his Sunday show. After a segment in which he and his guests discussed what a 2012 presidential run by Palin might look like, Matthews said that both she and Clinton were natural politicians with the grit to weather big political storms, and who had a combative relationship with the press: “There’s one unlikely Democrat you might compare to Sarah Palin when it comes to being a natural: the generally incomparable Bill Clinton. One clear similarity: moxie. While some mortals might have gone away after that humiliating pounding that Sarah Palin took in 2008, she’s been something of a comeback kid herself…during this last campaign, it was Bill Clinton who was the Democrats’ counter to Sarah Palin.” Watch ( via Newsbusters ): Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Chris Matthews: Sarah Palin Is Like BIll Clinton (VIDEO)

This is all kinds of wrong: In what might just be the most awkward public service announcement ever taped, Bristol Palin and MTV’s “Jersey Shore” star, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, team up to discuss safe sex. Oh, where to begin? Let’s put aside for a moment the obvious fact that this is just a really bad ad. The writing is awful, the “acting” is worse, and the whole thing is just so cringe-inducingly awkward that any kid who can actually watch the whole thing should get a lifetime supply of condoms. But that’s not even the worst of it. And it isn’t that the ad is so full of mixed messages, start to finish, that it’s hard to believe anyone thinks this will convince a single American teen to abstain until marriage. Or at least use a condom. Or at least pause for a second before going ahead with it after all, without a condom, of course, because if you think you’re planning to abstain from sex until marriage, there’s no reason for you to have protection in your possession, you know, just in case. But then, the Candies Foundation, which produced the ad, is all about the mixed messages. To review : Candies is the company that purveys hooker-wear for teens with mixed messages like its “Be Sexy Tees” line. (Get it? Be a sexy tease? Funny!) The tee shirts, which come in a range of sizes, from skin-tight to super skin-tight, say, “I’m sexy enough…to keep you waiting.” (Get it? She’s sexy, but since she’s a “good girl,” she won’t give it up. Except that, statistically speaking, she probably will.) Candies wants to help fight teen pregnancy, but not in any way that might actually, you know, work. Its whole strategy is to tell teens to wait. Wear sexy clothes, but don’t have sex. Just don’t have sex. Its page of “tips” are all about sex — not safe sex, mind, you, but how most teens who end up pregnant hadn’t really considered the consequences of sex. So, you see, just don’t do it, and then you won’t have that problem. With Candies and its ambassador Bristol simultaneously trying to sell sex and abstinence, is it any wonder 88 percent of teens who, just like Bristol, promise not to have sex before marriage actually break that promise? And Bristol even knows (sort of) that she’s sending a mixed message by dancing provocatively in skimpy clothes while at the same time promoting abstinence: “I go around and I talk about abstinence, then I’m out here in my underwear,” she told Extra. Sure, she’d intended to dress modestly on the show, but just like her promise to save herself for marriage, that went out the window. The “Dancing with the Stars” cast member will steer clear of the skimpy outfits favored by many of the ABC show’s female contestants when she hits the dance floor on Sept. 20. “I think I will be the most dressed [contestant and have] the most modest outfits for sure because that’s who I am,” she told People.com. So a few months ago, she was modest, but now? Now she revels in scandalous lap dancing on national TV. But as horrible as the ad’s mixed messages are, they’re not the worst part either. The worst part of the ad is that it’s all a lie. “I know you’re all about that abstinence thing, but come on, B-Palin, are you serious? You’re not gonna hook up before you’re married? For real?” “For real.” No. Not for real. Because B-Palin didn’t refrain from hooking up before she was married. She had sex, got pregnant, and became a teen mother. Those things happened. Those are the facts. But, like her mother, Bristol doesn’t care about facts. She thinks she’s doing America’s teens a favor by repeating the instruction she herself couldn’t follow: just don’t have sex. She makes it look and sound so easy, just repeating over and over and over again that she’s not going to have sex until she’s married. But we know that’s not true. We know it’s not true because Bristol is also cashing in on speaking about the hardships of teen motherhood. And the failure of the ad is that it completely ignores the facts. Sure, Mr. Sitch offers Bristol a condom, but Bristol doesn’t take the condom, just in case. Instead, she laughs it off and says she doesn’t need it because she’s not planning to have sex. The ad could have made a relevant point. Bristol could have said, “Even though I plan to abstain, I’d rather be safe than sorry. So thanks, I’ll take this condom, and just in case I find myself in an unplanned situation, I will use it so I don’t get myself knocked up again.” Or something like that. But that’s not what the ad does. Instead, the ad offers a false choice: either be the sleazeball who is always prepared with condoms, or be the good virgin who doesn’t need them because she’s not that kind of girl. Except that Bristol is that kind of girl. Lots of American teens are. And they’d be far better served by a real and honest discussion of how to prevent pregnancy with more than an empty and already broken promise. Because most of those teens who think they don’t need protection and then find themselves pregnant don’t have rich parents to help them. They won’t be embraced by America’s rightwing Bible thumpers for their “virtue.” They won’t be able to sell their family photos for six figures. They won’t be paid to talk about how hard it is to be a teen mom. And they won’t be invited to dance on national TV. They’ll be living with the real-life consequences of what happens to teens who refuse to educate and protect themselves because Bristol Palin made it look easy to cash in on teen pregnancy and then pretend the whole thing never happened. And that’s for real.

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Bristol Palin’s really awful abstinence ad

When Godless heathens such as yourselves gathered around the holiday table this week, there was much to be thankful for. And no, I’m not talking about the many wonderful gifts that President Obama has given us . What I’m talking about is the fact that in the most important election since the midterm elections, America chose to send a message to our North Korean allies : Nobody puts Baby in a corner!

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Sunday Talk - Thank Your Lucky Stars

GOP strategist Karl Rove doesn’t think Sarah Palin’s reality show will earn her any points for a presidential run, but said Friday that putting three of her 16 book tour stops in Iowa is “a smart thing to do.” Read More… More on Elections 2012

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Karl Rove: Sarah Palin’s Iowa Trip ‘Smart,’ But She’s ‘Got A Problem’ With Democrats & Independents

GOP strategist Karl Rove doesn’t think Sarah Palin’s reality show will earn her any points for a presidential run, but said Friday that putting three of her 16 book tour stops in Iowa is “a smart thing to do.” Read More… More on Elections 2012

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Karl Rove: Sarah Palin’s Iowa Trip ‘Smart,’ But She’s ‘Got A Problem’ With Democrats & Independents

At least on a superficial level, at first glance, there’s something satisfying about hearing Sarah Palin blast GOP “blue bloods” as (she was responding to criticism from Barbara Bush that she should stay in Alaska instead of running): I don’t want to concede that we have to get used to this kind of thing, because i don’t think the majority of Americans want to put up with the blue-bloods — and i want to say it with all due respect because I love the Bushes — the blue bloods who want to pick and chose their winners instead of allowing competition. But if you think about it for more than two seconds, you realize that Palin is full of faux-populist bullshit. Take, for example, her campaign against Lisa Murkowski. Sure, Murkowski was a “blue-blood” Republican who got her seat in the Senate thanks to nepotism. But Palin’s answer was Joe Miller, a candidate who was even less popular than the “blue-blooded” Murkowski. Palin did manage to help Miller win the nomination, but his win wasn’t the result of a populist revolt: it came thanks to support from the corporate-funded Tea Party Express and high turnout from anti-choice voters. Then, once the general election came along, voters made it clear they preferred a “blue-blood” product of nepotism to a Palin-backed product of right-wing extremism. And that raises a question: if Palin’s version of “populism” can’t beat nepotism, is it really populism?

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Palin rips "blue blood" Republicans who don’t want her to run

Should we make anything of Sarah Palin’s latest gaffe? On its own, maybe not, but it’s just one more piece of evidence, and a vivid reminder, that her public utterances are really just a string of shallow talking points. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Michael J.W. Stickings: Sarah Palin, North Korea and the Ego of Ignorance

Last Monday, Sarah Palin erroneously remarked that we had to stand by our North Korean allies. She obviously meant our South Korean allies but never mind, all of the bloggers and media whom she makes gag went into a frenzy over her gaff. As usual, Palin flipped the snickering to her advantage commenting, “It seems that they (the media) could not resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline.” And for once the Barracuda has a point. To moan that we live in an era of advocacy journalism is, of course, an understatement. Keith Olbermann and other progressive warriors on the so-called left insist that they have to stand up to the dragons like Limbaugh and Beck and fight fire with fire. But all too often, their idea of fighting fire with fire is one of spending ten minutes of air time intellectually masticating if not masturbating some utterly trivial contradiction or mistake. The hooting over Palin’s recent faux pas is just another example of commentators going hammer and tong and only managing to prove themselves to be the snobbish elitists that they are accused of being. If the left wants to continue skewering the former governor of Alaska and keep Palin’s name endlessly ringing in our ears, then they should do it by grousing about her lack of experience, of a record, and of her less than Mama Grizzly bear-sized compassion. Frank Rich has eloquently made the point that it is plain stupid to keep trying to portray Palin as stupid. To parade out Monday’s blunder as though it were something serious, as though serious intellectuals have never been guilty of the same, is a serious strategic mistake that is infinitely more knuckleheaded than Palin’s most recent slip-of-the-tongue. If certain members of the media want to take off the gloves and duke out the image wars, then they had best learn how to throw a punch that will have some impact on the brains of the people they are struggling to reach. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Gordon Marino: Sarah Palin has a Point

The real story isn’t that Palin said “North” instead of “South.” It’s that Palin was discussing a complex, precarious, highly dangerous issue as if she were an expert, even though she clearly isn’t. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Mitchell Bard: Why Sarah Palin’s North Korea Flub Matters

Clearly Sarah Palin needs to brush up on geopolitics. I might suggest some simple mnemonics. Read More… More on North Korea

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Rich Siegel: Palin Geography 101

Sarah Palin: failed half-term governor, failed vice presidential candidate, failed abstinence-only educator, failed savior of journalism : Palin went on to take aim at the news coverage disseminated by the larger media industry. She cited her own credentials as grounds for assuming the role of critic in the world of journalism. “I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism,” explains the conservative favorite. “And I have a communications degree. I studied journalism — who, what, where, when, and why — of reporting. I will speak to reporters who still understand that cornerstone of our democracy, that expectation that the public has for truth to be reported. And then we get to decide our own opinion based on the facts reported to us.” She adds, “So a journalist, a reporter who is so biased and will, no doubt, spin and gin up whatever it is that I have to say to create controversy, I swear to you, I will not waste my time with her. Or him.” So while Sarah’s five different colleges may have taught her the who, what, where, when, and why of journalism, apparently none of them offered English for dummies a remedial class that is so sorry today of English.

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Sarah Palin cleans up the sorry state of journalism

In November 2008, fresh off the campaign trail, then-Gov. Sarah Palin ventured out to Triple D Farm and Hatchery in Alaska’s Matanuska Valley. Her mission: Pardon a turkey. It was, by all accounts, the first time an Alaska governor had participated in a ceremonial turkey pardoning, but after a “rough fall,” then-Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said the governor’s office was hoping to organize a “lighthearted event.” Controversy erupted after the governor was filmed speaking to reporters about state programs on the “chopping block” — while behind her, Triple D employees butchered turkeys on camera. Palin’s people got upset about the camera angle, some animal rights activists got worked up about the slaughter, and Triple D owner Anthony Schmidt spent a few days fielding phone calls from Americans on both sides of the Great Turkey Debate. In the end, though, the kerfuffle didn’t seem to work out too badly for anyone involved — with the exception, of course, of the ill-fated gobblers who shared the spotlight with Palin. Support journalism on The Last Frontier — visit AlaskaDispatch.com Read More… More on Tea Party

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AlaskaDispatch.com: Thanksgiving Memories In Sarah Palin’s Alaska

Palin’s critical comments about Michelle Obama fail to recognize that, in too many instances, parents have become prisoners of school and community environments that restrict their child’s access to healthy food. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Dr. Maya Rockeymoore: Let’s Move! Sarah Palin

Our friends over at New Deal 2.0 have posted comments from 21 leading progressives about what they are thankful for . For instance: “I’m thankful because every new political dynamic brings its own opportunity for victories. After the Republican victory in 1994, our trouncing them on the government shutdown reminded people of the things they liked about government. After the demoralizing Bush re-election in 2004, when the GOP controlled every branch, our smashing of Social Security privatization sparked a new progressive awakening. We can beat these bastards again if we hang together and don’t wimp out.” - Mike Lux, CEO of Progressive Strategies, L.L.C. The first family’s Thanksgiving menu will include: Dinner: Turkey Ham Cornbread Stuffing Oyster Stuffing Greens Sweet Potatoes Mashed Potatoes Green Bean Casserole Macaroni and Cheese Dinner Rolls Dessert: Apple Pie Pumpkin Pie Sweet Potato Pie Banana Cream Pie Cherry Pie Huckleberry Pie Pie! Among the tips to keep your Thanksgiving stress-free, via The Onion : To keep your mother happy, seat her directly across from her one good child who actually did something with his life. Just in case your mother sits you across from the wrong relative, here is some basic prepping for Thanksgiving Day arguments from Slate , which, sad to say, contains approximately zero thinking outside the box. You seriously can’t find a single thing to be thankful for? Nothing at all? Really? OK, then, here’s something:  Look who won’t be sitting across from you at dinner. As the Arctic heats up, polar bears are likely to lose out as they migrate south into grizzly bear territory. But the Obama administration is hoping to ease some of the pressure on polar bears: The Obama administration is setting aside 187,000 square miles in Alaska as a “critical habitat” for polar bears, an action that could restrict future offshore drilling for oil and gas. The total, which includes large areas of sea ice off the Alaska coast, is about 13,000 square miles, or 8.3 million acres, less than in a preliminary plan released last year. …” This critical habitat designation enables us to work with federal partners to ensure their actions within its boundaries do not harm polar bear populations,” said [Tom Strickland, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at the Interior Department] . “We will continue to work toward comprehensive strategies for the long-term survival of this iconic species.” A new addition to the House of Lords in England was commanded to apologize for his comment about poor people “breeding” as a consequence of new welfare rules. Meanwhile, Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation blames hunger in America on the hungry. Turkey workers have a tough time from Thanksgiving to Christmas and the other 11 months of the year. While some families prepare to make their traditional holiday trek to enjoy time with family and friends, hundreds of thousands of low wage, immigrant food workers are sequestered in meatpacking, poultry processing and dairy plants, and laboring in fields in order to meet product demands for the celebrations set to commence this week. Turkey workers, primarily Latino, African American, Somali, Burmese and representatives of other immigrant and refugee communities, who come to this country to support their families, will find this increased production particularly difficult. Their experiences mirror the majority of food industry laborers who work to bring food to our tables. Know Anybody Making $250,000? : What’s amazing about the magic number of $250,000 is that, based on responses to a recent YouGov/Polimetrix poll, by and large, Americans have a very distorted view of how many people make that much money. … Don’t feel bad if you don’t know—most people don’t. The actual number, nationwide is somewhere less than 3% of families earn more than $250,000 a year. What did the survey respondents say when asked this question? The average response was close to 17%!—meaning your typical survey respondent thinks that almost 1 in 5 families in America earn that kind of money, when the answer is closer to 1 in 50! Apparently, most airline passengers opted out of National Opt-Out Day .

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Midday open thread (Gobble, gobble)

First the good news, Sarah Palin’s reprehensible, hypocritical new TV show dropped 40% in its ratings the second week. Clearly you all took my admonition not to watch it seriously. Her novelty wore off fast. And to ice the cake, her clomping spawn lost Dancing With the Republicans , and to a real dancer who is third-generation show business. (I once worked with Jennifer Grey’s grandfather on radio. No joke.) The promo described this as an “All-New Survivor .” I must look up their meaning for “all-new,” as it was new clips of old events. No game advancement tonight. Yawn. Like the deleted scenes on DVDs, you get to understand why the scenes were deleted in the first place. It’s a night of filler, because they know that half their audience is at airports, being scanned and groped. Oh, they’re not going anywhere; they just like being scanned and groped. (Who doesn’t?) “Could you scan me from the left? It’s my most-flattering angle.” One friend of mine told me he’s at the gym now everyday, because he’s flying off on a trip at Christmas, and wants to be in shape for the scanner. Jeff: “The older tribe had wisdom and experience.” Well, they had experience. Read More… More on Bristol Palin

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Tallulah Morehead: Survivor 21: Infants vs Senior Citizens: Libertards Gone Wild.

Capitol Hill is effectively closed for business, meaning that representatives and senators can head home to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families, or whomever else they choose. It’s perhaps a final moment of solace for legislators, who will return to a brief and perhaps quite contentious lame duck session of congress after the holiday. Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised a vote on the hotly debated DREAM Act, a measure that would create a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who enlist in the military or enroll in college. Read More… More on Steve King

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Thanksgiving 2010: How Obama, Bachmann, Palin & More Will Celebrate

HuffPost’s Roy Sekoff was on MSNBC’s The Ed Show tonight to discuss whether the nation will tire of Sarah Palin before the 2012 elections given the intense media spotlight always shining on her. One of the points in her favor that Sekoff highlighted is that Palin is a master of political jujitsu. She is somehow able to turn her liabilities into strengths. WATCH: Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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HuffPost TV: Roy Sekoff On Palin’s Political Jujitsu: She Flips Liabilities Into Strengths (VIDEO)

I don’t believe we fully grasp the likelihood of Sarah Palin actually winning the presidency. Despite the giddy snickering at the notion, she could seriously do it. It’s happened before, and we underestimate the frivolity of the American voter at our own risk. Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of laughing off her odds — wishing for her to win the Republican nomination and therefore exponentially boosting the president’s chances for reelection. The political calculus is that Palin is hilariously unelectable, especially given the outstanding contrast between the president’s seriousness and legislative accomplishments and Palin’s awkwardly-cadenced screeching, her dissonant incomprehensible populist word salads and unserious, airheaded public flailings. And so we hubristically snark about how voters will never elect such a national punchline to the highest office in the land. The White House is reportedly relishing a Palin nomination. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Bob Cesca: The Perfect Storm That Could Elect Sarah Palin

While we admit being patted down by a uniformed officer in front of long lines of strangers is an uncomfortable experience, it is far worse for us, the TSA officials doing the full-body grope. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Emily Bracken: An Open Letter to TSA-Averse Air Travelers

An introspective Sharron Angle looks back at her failure to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Well, maybe not so much introspective as it is goofy. A few excerpts: “I would have liked to have run a more positive campaign and been able to put out a more positive message,” Angle said. “But it was not possible. He had battered me with his campaign ads and left me with no room.” Well, sure. If Harry Reid hadn’t battered Sharron Angle by quoting Sharron Angle, she wouldn’t have been forced to run racist commercials or ads that claimed Reid, “voted to use taxpayer dollars to pay for Viagra (long  pause) for convicted child molesters and sex offenders.” On her debate performance, Angle says: “My opening statement was good, and I tried to stick to what I wanted to say.” Furthermore, Angle said she felt her closing statement was strong. And in between she said, “Man up, Harry Reid,” so obviously she won it. How about all of those state Republicans that endorsed Reid? “It surprised me a little bit, having Republicans for Reid with two mayors coming out in opposition (to me),” she said. “That was the most surprising blow. I always thought in the end there is some kind of loyalty, but they shifted loyalties to the fellow who could deliver the pork.” Or it could be that they decided to go with the candidate who didn’t oppose saving 50,000 Nevada jobs, and who didn’t say job creation wouldn’t be her “job as a U.S. Senator.” This in a state where unemployment hovers around 14%. But sure, it was just a good old pig’s network. As for the rural parts of the state where Angle got the bulk of her votes: They were more issue-oriented than the two larger counties … I find the people in the rural counties more educated on the issues and seem to be more tied into their communities. The urban areas seem to have more of a disconnect from the issues that affect their communities. That’s Palin-speak for “real” Americans. And what about Angle’s future political plans? I have a lot of options next cycle. Lots of options. We can only hope.

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NV-Sen: Sharron Angle gives the postmortem on her failed senate bid

If you’re still getting used to Sarah Palin, the macroeconomist - her 700-word Facebook note on quantitative easing cited Paul Krugman, former CBO director Alice Rivlin and World Bank President Robert Zoellick - then you’re probably not ready for Sarah Palin, cinéaste. Little did you know. In the new book she’s just written (her second; putting her one ahead of Harper Lee) the former governor shares her thoughts on Jimmy Stewart, Reese Witherspoon, the Fondas - Henry and Jane, Steven Spielberg, Judd Apatow, Sam Mendes, Paul Greengrass and Jason Reitman. (She says she doesn’t care what Reitman’s faith is, which is awfully big of her.) She also explores the under-praised documentary work of John Ford, and dedicates a full half-chapter to Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington . Read More…

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Chris Kelly: Sarah Palin’s Favorite Communist Movie

Bristol Palin finished a respectable third Tuesday night. Her success on the show was marked by controversy — as weeks went by and Bristol stayed, more and more people worked themselves up into a crazy lather. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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AlaskaDispatch.com: Bristol Palin’s Dancing Run Comes to an End

In light of this … Palin says she won’t ‘waste my time’ on another interview with Katie Couric Potential 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin says she won’t do another interview with CBS “Evening News” anchor Katie Couric after their last go around led to widespread mockery of the former Alaska governor. Palin (R) believes Couric is biased as a result of the series of interviews she conducted with her during the 2008 presidential campaign when Palin was Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) vice presidential nominee. “As for doing an interview, though, with a reporter who already has such a bias against whatever it is that I would come out and say?” Palin asked during an interview with “Fox News” host Sean Hannity that will air Monday night. “Why waste my time? No.” …let us consider some things Palin can waste her time on while she’s not wasting her time on Katie Couric: Voting for Bristol on Dancing with the stars from the privacy of her very own reality TV show. Reading “anything” and “everything” and “all of the above” — including John Birch society newsletters. Actually, on second thought, now that quitting her job made her rich, hiring a staff to read for her. Soaking in the view of Russia from her porch Tending to her state’s needs as Governor. (Correction: she quit.) Per #5, making $70 gadzillion per year telling people how bad the economy is and that it’s really all Obama’s fault. Consoling Joe Miller. Writing out her 2012 Presidential platform on her palm. Thanking her lucky stars that Republicans are so afraid of her that no major elected Republican will actually challenge her. Expanding her thoughts about economic growth into a full-length tweet. Got some other ideas? Contribute them in the comments and we can help make sure she doesn’t waste a moment.

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Things Palin can waste her time on instead of Couric

WASHINGTON — Former first lady Barbara Bush doesn’t appear to think much of Sarah Palin’s White House aspirations, saying the former Alaska governor should stick to her home state. In an interview with CNN’s Larry King scheduled for airing Monday, Mrs. Bush says she sat next to Palin once and “thought she was beautiful.” Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Barbara Bush: Palin Should Just Stay In Alaska

The modern political media’s business model requires that presidential politics resemble a soap opera; and while Sara Palin’s Alaska ascends the reality show ranks, President Obama reigns as king of the political soaps. After the Obama show’s thrilling 2008 election evening premiere in Grant Park, and the ratings success of inauguration, it’s been a long slide down a slippery hill. Some of this is the President’s own doing: the master communicator and politico of 2008 became the low- key policy wonk of 2009. Our new FDR and JFK may be on the way to becoming the next Jimmy Carter. One hopes he will at least discover his inner Bill Clinton and recognize the Presidency as the 21st century contact sport it has become. The new health care plan, the economic stimulus (including the Obama tax cut!), financial regulation and averting a depression were the major accomplishments of Obama’s first two years in office. He receives little credit for these accomplishments. Given the left’s anger with him, it is amazing that some see him as a socialist. The left opposes his moves in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan. Liberals were distraught when the health bill emerged without universal coverage and without a public option. Financial regulation is far from radical. Still, President Obama has been unable to counter the message that he is a foreign-born, Islamic terrorist with communist and anti-Semitic leanings. While Obama contributed to this image by trying to stand above the political fray, I am not sure there is anything he could have done to prevent it. The story line of 2010 had to be Obama’s humiliation in order to set up the triumphant comeback that will generate high ratings on CNN, MSNBC and Fox in 2012; not to mention hits on this site, Drudge and others throughout the blogosphere. Of course there are counter-plotlines and competing shows that could interfere. This week’s NY Times Magazine features an inadvertently terrifying story by Robert Draper about Sara Palin’s political operation. The piece seems to imply that Ms. Palin is smarter and more talented than many people think; and that she will learn enough foreign policy in the next couple of years to be a serious candidate for president. Draper argues that Palin’s political moves have been so successful and her instincts are so good that she simply must be talented. Read More… More on Barack Obama

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Steven Cohen: As the Presidency Turns: Obama’s Political Soap Opera

Nate Silver points to one of the biggest problems confronting any GOP presidential hopeful not named Palin: Ms. Palin’s search traffic, since the start of 2010, is roughly 16 times that of Mitt Romney, 14 times that of Newt Gingrich, 38 times that of Mike Huckabee, and 87 times that of Mr. Pawlenty. (It is about six times greater than these other four candidates combined.) But it gets worse: Some members of Ms. Palin’s family also draw as much attention has the other Presidential contenders. Todd Palin, her husband, gets about as much search traffic as Mr. Pawlenty. Bristol Palin, her daughter (and a finalist on “Dancing With the Stars”), gets several times more than any of them (as does her former boyfriend, Levi Johnston). But another way: there’s less interest in the bottom-tier of GOP candidates combined than there is in Sarah Palin’s daughter’s Baby Daddy. And that’s a big grizzly problem.

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Levi Johnston with higher search traffic than Tim Pawlenty

A new episode of Sarah Palin’s reality show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” aired last night. It has come to light that some scenes were cut because they did not portray the Palins in a manner congruent with their image or brand. Here are the exact transcripts of those scenes. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Lee Camp: LEAKED: More Deleted Scenes From Sarah Palin’s Reality Show

Sarah Palin has dropped another hint of her intention to run for the White House in 2012, dispatching aides to scope out office space in Iowa, the first stop in the presidential race. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin Scouting Office Space In Iowa, Hints At 2012 Presidential Run

Last May, Joan McCarter wrote a fantastic story about her ancestors and their long history in the American West. She wrote about the legacy left by her kinfolk, generation after generation. Like all salt of the earth folk, that legacy was tied to the land that provided. There was one sentence in that piece that made feel like I was missing out on something: Life didn’t change appreciably when they moved back to take over the McCarter family ranch and homestead in Idaho. Joan’s great ancestor embody the American dream. I think it is something all of us can relate to. I’m not talking about venturing west and going cowboy. I’d be more feckless than Billy Crystal in City Slickers . The American dream as it relates to building things and anchoring things. Wouldn’t you like to have your great-great-grandchildren be able to return to a place that is theirs, that will always be home. That thought made me think about how we think of home and what it means for the American dream and those people who still believe it is something worth pursuing. Reading Joan’s piece wasn’t the first time thoughts of legacy have come to fore. Years ago I visited the ancestral home of a very close friend of mine who comes from a New England family that can trace its roots to 1774. There are pictures on the wall of Revolutionary War veterans, Abolitionist preachers, Suffragists…all the way up to people who stormed the beaches at Normandy. It is a moving experience seeing what people have built and assembled over the years. Their letters preserved in a place where they need not be moved. None of these people were famous or great in their time. That isn’t the point. They saved things. Then their people held onto them. Today my friend can connect her children to this place, making it something more than a shelter. Many familes in America grow up with none of this. The sort of families that move around and pay rent are quite common. My grandfather was 60 years old when he built his first home, something we all celebrated as if a child was born. That little house in Trinidad, which he built himself, is now being rented by someone. My parents brought me up in public housing projects because that was all they could afford in the beginning. Having just arrived in America in the early 1970s with nothing, housing provided by the city was the only thing better than homelessness. For 13 years of my life, I saw the 1980s crack epidemic up close. I also remember how difficult it was to pay the rent. Even project rent was hard to pay sometimes. And then, the moving. We moved to other buildings within the project several times. Then we finally moved out to a run-down apartment building. And then another. And another. Sometimes we moved up, as in our apartments got bigger or the buildings better. Sometimes we moved laterally, as in just somewhere long enough to hold us down while my dad was laid off from work. Finally, my dad was able to gain his citizenship and join a good union. We still moved though. Paying rent. Sometimes behind, sometimes ahead. The rent iss always a topic of discussion in a low income house. Rent should have had a plate on the wall next to my mother’s beloved Martin Luther King, Jr. and John and Bobby Kennedy commemorative plates, because it was certainly discussed more than they were. When my parents were jovial, I knew the god of rent was pleased. But woe unto us if the god of rent was not satisfied. In those times, meals were not as bountiful and asking for things brought swift denial and maybe a bit of cursing. More church too. When I would come home from school and hear my mother in her room praying and wailing as my ancestors had taught her to, I knew that rent had made her do it. We had one television and my father controlled it. If rent was unhappy, we had televangelism on 24/7. If rent was sated, then we were free to see The Cosby Show . “Don’t you see, boy? We have to pay the rent!” That meant I would have to do without. Things changed when, after many years of toil, my father bought his first home, a large Victorian. It took him one year of sou sou to save up the down payment. I remember what a joy it was to have a home. A room of my own. Our own little piece of the world. Something for my sister to inherit, of course. But maybe me if I ever stopped being “a bad boy.” As a teenager, it was like getting a social promotion. “I live in Ditmas Park,” I’d say, as if I always had. No longer a project kid who moved around, I had what we all really understand as a home, in the physical sense of the word. A place that is yours, your children’s, your grandchildren’s. For many today, getting that first crack at building the sort of legacy that Will McCarter or my Dad did is becoming impossible. The complexity of financial instruments has made things unstable, unsure. Buying a home is no longer thought of as a dream come true, but a risky, almost reckless endeavor. What must it be like for those millions of children who are moving from place to place all over the country? Many of them are not fortunate enough to draw on a tight-knit community of immigrants as my family could. Families are more scattered and community ties less pulled together. Chances are if you are paying rent, you probably don’t know your neighbors. If you do, how long will it last? Owning, keeping, and passing on a home is at the very foundation of the American Dream if you grow up poor. I still remember the great party that was held on the lawn of my house. My mother couldn’t hold back the tears, the many pats on the back that made my father swell with pride. His talking about how great this country was. How he was going to give this house to my sister, which he did, because I made too much mischief to be responsible. What pictures will my niece’s grandchildren see when they walk around that big old house? What are we losing when all these things become just another blip in a great game of money management? Somewhere underneath all the mortgage-backed securities, automated notarizations, etc., there is a dream. A dream of someone who believed that if they just worked hard enough, they too could get a piece of the pie. I saw that dream play out right before my eyes in my own little way. I’ve also seen it turn into a modern-day national nightmare. I’ve seen friends from my old neighborhood rent, buy, and end up renting again just in the last five or six years. We are sliding backwards into “rent for life.” For many families in 21st century America, there nothing else goin’ on.

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Nothin’ goin’ on but the rent

In the aftermath of the historic defeat he suffered in the midterm elections, it seems that everyone and their mother has advice for President Obama. Former House Speaker and current White House aspirant Newt Gingrich thinks the President ought to take the rest of the year off . Meanwhile, “Democratic” pollsters Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell believe that Obama would be smart to quit now while he’s behind . Taking a different tack, law professor Ronald Rychlak argued in the Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog that he should pretend to be a Christian . And as for me, well, I’d suggest that President Obama just needs to keep his eyes on the ball .

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Sunday Talk - For What It’s Worth

Barbara Bush has shared her thoughts on Sarah Palin, and it sounds as if she hopes the former Alaska governor decides against running for president. “I sat next to her once, thought she was beautiful, and I think she’s very happy in Alaska,” Bush said, before adding, “and I hope she’ll stay there.” The former first lady made the comments in an interview with Larry King, which will air Monday night on “Larry King Live.” Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Barbara Bush Jabs Sarah Palin: ‘I Hope She Stays’ In Alaska (VIDEO)

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Saturday ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” from its blog. The injunction prohibits Gawker from “continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book” pending a hearing on Nov. 30. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin Book Excerpts Must Be Removed From Gawker, Judge Rules

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Saturday ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” from its blog. The injunction prohibits Gawker from “continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book” pending a hearing on Nov. 30. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin Book Excerpts Must Be Removed From Gawker, Judge Rules

A conservative columnist whose bonafides include a stint at the National Review and a speechwriting gig for former first lady Nancy Reagan has slammed Sarah Palin , calling the former half-term governor “consumed and obsessed by the media.” Writing on the self-described “conservative” Townhall.com, columnist Mona Charen blasted Palin for her lack of experience: Palin was advised by those who admire her natural gifts to bone up on policy and devote herself to governing Alaska successfully. Instead, she quit her job as governor after two and a half years, published a book (another is due next week), and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Conservative, Mona Charen, Blasts Sarah Palin’s Possible 2012 Presidential Run

NEW YORK — The publisher of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book filed a lawsuit against Gawker Media on Friday for leaking pages of “America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” before its release next week. The legal complaint was filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan, said a spokeswoman for HarperCollins Publishers. The filing came two days after Gawker published images of 21 of the book’s pages and its dedication page. In response, Palin tweeted, “Isn’t that illegal?” Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Palin’s Publisher Sues Gawker Over Leaked Book Excerpts

To the man in Wisconsin who shot his TV when he saw Bristol Palin on Dancing With The Stars , I have one word to say: respect. I imagine that he, like me, usually only watches adaptations of works by 19th-century novelists, adaptations that involve crinolines and bonnets, but definitely not sequins, and was disappointed that there were sequins, but no bonnets. I imagine that he, like me, also found it a little bit depressing that you can’t switch on the telly now without seeing a politician, or a politician’s child, wiggling their hips in moves that are clearly meant to emulate sexual intercourse, even if they’ve never had it, or even if they are members of a religion that says you mustn’t have it unless you’re married, which you aren’t. I imagine that he thinks that if you liked dancing you would be dancing, instead of slumped on a sofa eating a family pack of Doritos and watching people dancing, just as if you liked football, you would be kicking a ball and not a telly. I imagine that he was just feeling a bit fed up. He may, for example, have been watching the programme about Bristol’s mother, who is also a hockey mom and a mama grizzly, which is a special kind of mother from which key parts of the brain have been surgically removed, and he may have watched her climbing mountains and leaping across crevasses and catching bears and fishing for salmon, and he may have thought that the woman who, two years ago, ran to be Vice-President of the world’s only superpower, and who is now planning to run as President, was beginning to look a bit like Vladimir Putin. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Christina Patterson: Politicians on Reality TV are a Good Reason to Get Out Your Gun

Vice President Joe Biden appeared to respect the clout of Sarah Palin on Thursday, calling his former vice presidential opponent “appealing” and refusing to downplay her as a potential threat to his anticipated Democratic ticket in 2012. The vice president made the remarks on “Larry King Live,” during an interview in which he also discussed Afghanistan, airport security and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Speaking about Palin, Biden said: JOE BIDEN: Look, I think Sarah Palin has turned out to be and she is a real force in the Republican Party. And I think Sarah Palin is — I, were I a Republican senator or a Republican political leader, I would look and say, wait, she’s got a good chance of getting the nomination. But look, it’s hard enough for us to figure our side of the aisle let alone go over and sort of handicap whether she can win or lose. Read More… More on Elections 2012

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Joe Biden On Larry King: Sarah Palin As GOP Nominee Would Leave Obama In ‘Good Shape’

While elsewhere a prince and a well-educated commoner have captured the world’s attention, the Sarah Palin clan will not let the posh have their moment. In a rare interview with the “lamestream media” for this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, the will she or won’t she? 2012 presidential contender tells reporter Robert Draper that she is indeed exploring a run for the country’s highest elected office. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Palin Keeps Tight Rein On Staff, Not Daughters

In passages leaked from her forthcoming book America by Heart , Sarah Palin has taken another cheap shot at First Lady Michelle Obama. Read More… More on Barack Obama

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Geoffrey Dunn: Sarah Palin Slams Michelle Obama in Racially Charged Passage From New Book

“President Palin.” Rupert Murdoch’s masturbatory mantra, and the rest of the country’s nightmare. The polls say it can’t happen. That she’s a joke as a national candidate, with no support outside the Tea Party. But there hasn’t been a major news broadcast in the last two years that hasn’t touched on the question: “Will she or won’t she run for president?” Unfortunately, not one seems to touch on the question: “Is she smart enough to be president?” The simple answer is no. The more subtle answer is: It may not matter. Republicans have no problem with stupid. The previous “not smart enough to be president” is presently on his revisionist history book tour. For several election cycles in the 70s, most people were in disbelief that “that idiot Ronald Reagan” was running again. In a reality show world, where talent is no longer a prerequisite for fame, intelligence is no longer a prerequisite for elected office. It has been trumped by raw ambition. And Palin is a person whose intelligence is inversely proportional to her ambition. Despite the fact that she’s yet to make a speech that wasn’t a litany of stock phrases and belligerent taunts delivered in a voice so shrill it sounds like a dolphin that got its dick slammed in a car door, she has touched a nerve with the great unwashed. Republican women wish they looked like her. Republican men wished their wives looked like her. It seems a wink is as good as a nod to a blind electorate. But her limitations haven’t stopped her. Humility has no place in her world. You can see it in her eyes: She wants it. But that’s OK, because Republicans also have no problem with lust for power. Palin was delivered to us by a man who wanted the presidency so bad, he sold his soul more often than Max Bialystock sold shares in Springtime for Hitler. And Palin’s lust for power goes beyond McCain’s mere ambition. Hers touches on megalomania. She thinks her creator is opening doors for her. She thinks she’s the anointed one. Consider her near incomprehensible resignation speech, in which she told the people of Alaska that she could work for them more effectively out of office. To most people it just seemed like a self-serving line of bullshit. But, in her mind, she was telling the truth. In her mind, she needed to free herself from the limitations of state office to set the stage for her run at national office. Once elected, she would be serving the entire country — including Alaska. See? She can better serve them out of the governor’s office. Read More…

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Ian Gurvitz: Springtime for Palin?

JUNEAU, Alaska — History, the GOP, the tea party, Sarah Palin and her own mouthful of a name worked against her. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski conquered them all Wednesday, becoming the first Senate candidate in more than 50 years to win a write-in campaign. The victory is a remarkable comeback for Murkowski, who lost to political newcomer Joe Miller in the GOP primary, and a humbling moment for Palin, the former Alaska governor, 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate and Murkowski nemesis whose support was not enough to get Miller through an election in her own backyard. Read More… More on Elections 2010

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Joe Miller Asked To Concede To Lisa Murkowski By Alaska GOP

PPP . 11/10-13. Registered voters. MoE 4.2% (No trend lines) Jim Webb (D) 49 George Allen (R) 45 Webb is under 50 percent, but the usual rules don’t apply — Allen is a pseudo incumbent himself, the guy Webb took out in 2006 and a former governor as well. What makes these numbers surprising is that Virginia was rough territory for Democrats this year, losing several House seats. Democrats also lost the governorship last year. And given the current climate, well, it wouldn’t be a stretch to expect Webb to be suffering against a high-profile Republican. But he’s holding his own. Webb hasn’t been doing much fundraising (not that he ever did), thus sparking rumors that he may not run for reelection. In that case, our useless DNC chairman might be able to do something more useful — hold the seat for us. Tim Kaine (D) 50 George Allen (R) 44 Now here’s the big caveat — these are REGISTERED voters, not likely votes. However, Tom Jensen at PPP says that in presidential years, the registered and likely voter models are extremely similar. While Virginia Democrats suffered under this year’s intensity gap, presidential elections bring out far more people, and in that case, Virginia looks much, much better. This is good news not just for Senate Democrats, who face a brutal map in 2012, but for Barack Obama, who will face a much tougher reelection map unless the GOP gifts us with Sarah Palin.

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VA-Sen:  Jim Webb looks strong heading into 2012

The Bristol Palin story is like that of a modern day Cinderella as she debuts before millions of viewers on prime time television. Her mother, former Governor Sarah Palin and her advisors are completely brilliant. Thank you very much Frank and Company . This is a media doctor’s wet dream. Using Bristol as Cinderella, they have successfully reached into the hearts and minds of everyday folks across the country. Think about it. Is there a better way to seep into the mainstream than reality television ? This move is one of the most brilliant tactics of twentieth century political messaging. Sarah Palin becomes the archetype of everyone’s mom, and paradoxically her daughter is the modern day rags to riches and success story. Here was a chubby, single mom lifted out of the obscurity of her receptionist job in a strip mall in godforsaken Alaska. It does not get better! Consider that after the debacle of former Republican leader Tom Delay on the same show, these spin masters were smart. They knew it probably would not have worked out to use Sarah herself. But who could resist her kid? She’s likeable, and works very hard for herself and her adorable child. Bristol is the single mom personified. They even show the footage of the storefront from which she was plucked. Oh my, this is every girl’s cherished dream sans the out-of-wedlock pregnancy. And momma Palin can just stand back, and watch it unfold. Who could accuse her of manipulation? She was just the proud momma. What better image could there be? Not much and it is working. No wonder her daughter has been voted back each and every week by viewer support - not the judges until one of the final evenings when she showed real talent. There is something going on here, and we didn’t even see it coming. Oh woe is me; I think we have been duped yet again. Somehow, the American public perceives that the Democrats are unfeeling, out of touch with Middle America, and arrogant. How did this happen? We are Middle America! Yet somehow, Sister Palin has her thumb on the pulse. We need to look carefully at the subliminal messaging that is going on, and wonder how and why we could have missed it. Call it what you may, but Sarah Palin and her movement - the Tea Party and their advisors are running circles around us. We are losing the game of public opinion. So it is not proposed that we put the Vice President’s son, Beau Biden on Survivor ; but rather that we look hard and long at the messaging and how it is being delivered. Further, we need to embrace what it will take for us to reach back out and connect. This is the teachable moment. May we reach out and own it. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Michelle Kraus: Bristol Goes Dancing and Has a Tea Party!

Sarah Palin’s new reality show premiered this week. It has now come to light that some scenes were cut because they did not portray the Palins in a manner congruent with their image or brand. Here are the exact transcripts of those scenes. Read More…

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Lee Camp: LEAKED: Deleted Scenes From Sarah Palin’s Reality Show

Something  in Alaska stinks. Again. Not just an ordinary low tide smell. Not like something you’d blame on the dog. It smells like an infection. For me to plug my nose, I’d have to overlook some curious facts. I’ve written another piece like this. It was after the last election. I said it the three elections before that. In the words of baseball great Yogi Berra, it’s Déjà vu all over again! I’m writing and talking about the same thing, in what has become an even-year ritual: Alaska doesn’t count votes properly and hasn’t for years .  Alaska still uses the Diebold Accuvote Optical Scanners. The same Diebold machines California ” decertified ” because of the “Deck Zero” anomaly-a software error that can delete the first batch of optically scanned ballots under certain circumstances without alerting elections officials to the deletion. I’m not a Joe Miller fan. My “horse” is out of the US Senate race in Alaska. It’s not about any candidate. But has everything to do with my candidate, Scott McAdams’ slogan: “It’s about Alaska!” Specifically, it’s about the bedrock of election integrity. If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament. It’s poisoned. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Shannyn Moore: What’s The Matter With Alaska?

Sarah Palin provided a brief bit of insight into her ideal Republican presidential candidate Monday, repeating her earlier claim that she’d be willing to run if nobody else possessed what she views as the proper credentials. While speaking mainly about character and the proper level of “conservatism” before, Palin added a key qualifier this week: someone who is “electable.” Here’s what she told Fox News: Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin Outlines Checklist Of Presidential Candidate Requirements (VIDEO)

Willow Palin, the 16-year-old daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, wrote multiple Facebook posts containing homophobic slurs such as “faggot” on Sunday night, according to TMZ . The web site reports that Palin’s teenage daughter wrote the comments on Sunday night, when her mother’s television show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” premiered on TLC. According to TMZ, a classmate of one of Palin’s children published a Facebook update claiming that the show “is failing so hard right now.” Willow Palin reportedly unloaded on the student, calling him “so gay” and “such a faggot.” She later demanded that the student “quit talkin shit about my family.” According to screenshots obtained by TMZ, the 16-year-old called another commenter on the Facebook thread a “low life loser” and lashed out at multiple others, writing, “Sorry that all you guys are jealous of my families success and you guys aren’t goin to go anywhere with your lives.” Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Willow Palin Facebook Posts: Homophobic Slurs, Curse Words & More (PHOTOS)

This is supposed to be a travel/celeb show, but it came off like an agenda-pushing political ad for the Tea Party. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Valerie Frankel: Sarah Palin’s Alaska: Agenda Pushing Sad Reality

The Fed’s announcement that it will buy approximately $600 billion of US Treasury securities or more in the coming months has, for the first time, provoked the ire of conservatives such as Sarah Palin. Monetary policy has not been a political concern for maybe a century, when William Jennings Bryan lost his presidential bid but made history with his “Cross of Gold” speech in 1896. It is refreshing to hear some one pick up the baton somewhere near where he left off. But now as then, neither the public nor policy makers may understand modern monetary mechanics enough to advocate a coherent solution to our economic malaise. Quantitative easing or not, we will still experience economic headwinds from the aftermath of the housing bubble, as well as from our wanton fiscal policy. 1 And it will likely continue to be expressed through foreign currency volatility, sovereign credit defaults or interventions, and high unemployment. An interesting video posted by Malekanoms on YouTube lays out the growing resistance to the Fed’s quantitative easing (QE) quite cleverly. It is well worth watching, because it shines a light upon this arcane policy matter, which has a large impact on the economy. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Bill Baker: The Real Reason for QE2

Slightly more than a year after Dean Sheremet and LeAnn Rimes separated after seven years of marriage, he is set to give marriage another go — with his new fiance, photographer Sarah Silver, a source confirms to PEOPLE. And Rimes’s reaction? “Congrats to @deansheremet and @sarah_silver on your engagement!,” the Grammy winner, 28, Tweeted Saturday. “A little birdie told me the happy news last night. Wishes for a life full of happiness.” Read More… More on LeAnn Rimes

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LeAnn Rimes Congratulates Ex-Husband Dean Sheremet On His Engagement

While the President and First Lady were busy embarrassing us with their awkward dance moves and hand gestures abroad, a sinister plan was being put into effect that would spell the end of the USA . Fortunately, the survival of America is not dependent solely on the President or his masters . Thank God, there are still some people willing to put him in his place .

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Sunday Talk - Breach of Protocol

On its face, accusing Sarah Palin of being a Nazi collaborator is absurd. But then, we live in absurd times, when people can say absurd things and get away with it. First, there’s this : Since Sarah Palin took the national stage in 2008, neocon Randy Scheunemann has been at her side as an apparent confidant and foreign policy adviser, getting $30,000 in fees from her as recently as June 30, 2010. But at the same time, Justin Elliott reports at Salon, Scheunemann’s firm Orion Strategies was taking money to lobby the U.S. government from conservative boogeyman George Soros’ Open Society Policy Center. So one of Sarah Palin’s paid advisers also works for George Soros. A little strange? Sure. But let’s continue : Today on his Fox News program, Glenn Beck again falsely accused Jewish philanthropist George Soros of being a Holocaust collaborator. Beck used this false attack to buttress his Soros conspiracies, suggesting that “the lesson he learned” from his supposed actions are what informs the shadowy tactics he is supposedly using to destroy the U.S. currency and government[.] It doesn’t really matter why Glenn Beck thinks George Soros collaborated with Nazis. It’s bullshit — like just about everything that comes out of Beck’s mouth. But, since Beck’s bullshit is gospel truth to the nuttiest nuts on the right, we’ll just accept for a moment that yeah, sure, Soros, at the age of 13, was collaborating with the Nazis. So let’s do some quick math here. Soros, the Nazi collaborator, gives money to the firm Orion Strategies, which is headed by Randy Scheunemann, who is on Sarah Palin’s payroll. Now we apply the Palin Pallin’ Around Doctrine , and here’s where it gets a little tricky. Normally, the Doctrine only applies to liberals and Democrats. For example, if Barack Obama was once in the same room with someone who decades ago committed acts of terrorism, Obama pals around with terrorists and is quite likely himself a terrorist. However, if a Republican — say, soon-to-be Speaker of the House John Boehner — campaigns for a Nazi impersonator , this does not mean that Boehner is a Nazi impersonator, or that he pals around with Nazi impersonators. It simply means he’s “rallying Republican volunteers.” While Mr. Scheunemann is technically not a liberal , it’s easy to say he is for the sake of argument, since his firm did, after all, take money from the most liberaliest liberal in the world, George “Big Fat Liberal” Soros. So then, to complete our equation: Nazi collaborator Soros gave money to Scheunemann + Scheunemann advises Sarah Palin = Sarah Palin is a Nazi collaborator.   I think I’ve got that right, but someone may want to check my math.

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Does Glenn Beck think Palin is a Nazi collaborator?

I have had enough of the experts talking about gay suicides when I caught the Dr. Phil show on bullying. The point that grabbed my attention was that Dr. Phil was probably a bully when he was in school. I mean, I wouldn’t exactly call him “friendly” on the show. And anyone that took weight advice from a fat man…. Well you get my point. I decided it was time to hear from the group going through the gay bullying themselves - other gay teens. I only had to reach out to my Sarah, my “adoptive” niece. Sarah is the daughter of a very good friend from college and came out in her early teens. I thought - wow - how far have we come since the days of my own scenes from Glee when I was getting thrown into lockers. Read More… More on Civil Rights

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Thomas DeLorenzo: Let’s Hear from the Gay Teens for a Change

Republicans are all for austerity when it means veterans and seniors tightening their belts. But they don’t like it one bit when it’s the corporations that pay for their re-election or employ people in their own districts. Politico highlights the pending GOP civil war over defense spending as heightened by the catfood commission recommendations. A proposal to slash $100 billion from the Pentagon budget threatens to spark a civil war within the GOP — pitting hard-core deficit hawks against some members who view military spending as sacrosanct and others who represent districts reliant on defense-related jobs. The chairmen of President Barack Obama’s bipartisan deficit reduction commission Wednesday proposed cutting several major weapons programs, from the Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle to the Navy’s Future Maritime Prepositioning Force. Some of the cuts will be non-starters. But the proposal exacerbates the tension already roiling Republicans who rode to victory last week on promises of smaller government. “Peace through strength can’t be accomplished through a waste of money,” Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn told POLITICO earlier this week. “We’re buying stuff we don’t need.” He’s got Rand Paul with him on that, but not too many others, including teabagger patron saint Sarah Palin, who is all for defense spending. And on the House side, it gets even dicier. And for Republicans like California Rep. Buck McKeon, who’s poised to become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, defense spending is all but sacred — especially with U.S. troops still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan…. At issue is everything from Washington, D.C., Metrorail subsidies for Pentagon employees to how many ships the Navy builds and where. But for some members, including speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, the issue that hits closest to home may be a proposed second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which would be assembled just outside of his district in southwestern Ohio. The JSF is the military’s future combat aircraft, and the Pentagon has sunk billions of dollars into the department’s most expensive aircraft acquisition program. But some members of Congress want to split the contract for its engine into two: one engine would be made by Pratt & Whitney, with a second engine built by GE and Rolls Royce. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called the second engine “costly and unnecessary,” and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has criticized the proposal to build it as just “another bite at the apple” after the Pratt & Whitney proposal won out. Killing defense programs–particularly on the weapons systems and hardware side–is next to impossible. It took years and years for the cold-war era F-22 to finally die last year when Congress, with the full support of Sec. Gates, ended spending for it. But guess what at least one GOP lawmaker wants to see resurrected. Phil Gingrey wants the plane back, because it was built in his district, of course. Meanwhile, however, he’s “really excited” over the prospect of a “three-year freeze on federal pay and a 10 percent reduction of the federal workforce” in the catfood commission chairs’ proposal.

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Deficit commission exacerbates civil war in GOP on defense spending

Nate Silver appraises the early handicapping line on the GOP’s 2012 field and takes issue with the insider infatuation with John Thune and Tim Pawlenty, pointing out that each of the other four top-tier candidates — Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee — have far better polling numbers than the lesser-known hopefuls. What is odd then is that candidates like Tim Pawlenty, the outgoing Minnesota governor, and Senator John Thune of South Dakota are being discussed so much among insiders. Hotline ranks them as the 2nd and 3rd most likely Republican nominees, respectively, but those are the candidates whom I’d bet against at the odds that Intrade is offering. The theory seems to be that all of the front-runners are flawed in some way, which is undoubtedly true. But if one of the front-runners flops in some way once the campaign actually begins, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be one of the other front-runners who would pick up their slack: if Sarah Palin’s campaign gets off to a poor start, for instance, it is probably Mr. Gingrich — not Mr. Pawlenty or Mr. Thune — who would get first dibs on her votes. The analogy is to a baseball team that is 7 games out of first place at the All-Star break: how likely is this team to come back and win its division? Nate also makes another excellent point: the notion that the “blandness” of Pawlenty and Thune would be an advantage in the primary is absurd. Primary voters, particularly in the GOP as we saw in 2010, aren’t interested in bland candidates. Maybe that plays in the general, but for the primary, GOP primary voters would rather get fired up by Sarah Palin than bored to death by John Thune.

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Handicapping the GOP presidential field

We’ve got more polling schizophrenia, this time from an AP-GfK poll of American adults conducted Nov. 3-8. The poll, which has a margin of error of 4.1%, included cell phone users. Here’s some of the results: Though they both have positive favorability ratings, Republicans are viewed slightly more favorably than Democrats. The GOP fav/unfav is 51/45 while Democrats are at 49/48. A plurality, 42%, say it’s good for the country that Republicans control the House while Democrats control the Senate and Presidency. Just 22% say it’s bad. In 2008, an identical 42% said it was good for the country that Democrats controlled all three branches, though 34% said it was bad. Nearly half of adults said they were confident Republicans could implement the policy agenda they campaigned on, but just 31% said they wanted to see the health care reform bill repealed — a central plank of the GOP’s campaign. Even though most survey respondents said they were glad the GOP won the election, 58% took an opposing view on health care reform, saying they either wanted to see the law stay the same (20%) or to see it expanded in scope (38%). 53% say they want to continue the Bush tax cuts for all income levels; 12% would allow them all to expire and 32% would allow tax cuts on income above $250,000 to expire. This 53-44 split is the mirror image of August polling by AP-GfK, which showed a 52-45 split. 39% said President Obama deserves re-election, 54% said he doesn’t. Sarah Palin’s unfavorable rating fell below 50% for the first time in at least a year. Her 46/49 fav/unfav rating was her best rating of the year, up from a mid-September low of 38/58.

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AP-GfK: GOP edges Dems in favorability, but public opposes GOP’s health care position

The viewer votes have saved Bristol in recent weeks, and there is no secret that there is a campaign of Sarah Palin fans out there saving her. Read More… More on American Idol

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Roger Catlin: Bristol Palin’s Dancing Success

From a press release distributed by NBC: Former First Lady Nancy Reagan today announced plans to invite all of the leading contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination to two debates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The Reagan Presidential Foundation plans to play host to both the first GOP presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle in spring 2011 and a second GOP debate on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries. The Reagan Foundation has confirmed NBC News as the television partner and POLITICO as the online partner of the first debate. The media partners for the second, pre-Super Tuesday debate will be announced in 2011. The exact date isn’t given, but spring 2011 suggests it will take place at some point between late March and the end of May, meaning they expect GOP presidential contenders to announce their plans within the next three or four months. During the 2008 campaign, the first Democratic presidential debate was held in April 2007 and the first GOP debate was held in May 2007 . So get ready, the 2012 campaign is about to begin at full speed. And while you’re waiting, here’s something to chew on: if Sarah Palin manages to get the GOP nomination, by the time the 2012 election rolls around she’ll have been an official candidate for either Vice President or President for as long as she was Governor of Alaska.

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GOP’s first presidential debate scheduled for spring 2011

Is the Tea Party keeping Bristol Palin alive on “Dancing With The Stars” despite her poor performance scores? The 20-year old daughter of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will perform again next week on ABC’s hit TV show even after tallying the judges’ worst rating. Luckily for her and her partner Mark Ballas, however, viewer voting also plays into the equation, and some, including the show’s producer himself, think that her mother’s avid Tea Party following might be bolstering the contestant’s otherwise unimpressive showings. Read More… More on Bristol Palin

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Bristol Palin On ‘Dancing With The Stars’: Is Tea Party Keeping Her Alive?

Just one time, just one little time, could Sarah Palin finally launch a reality-based attack? The latest: Sarah Palin used baked goods Tuesday night to attack the “nanny state.” Palin brought dozens of cookies to a speech at the Plumstead Christian School in Plumsteadville, Pa., amid news reports — since retracted — that Pennsylvania’s State Board of Education is looking at ways to limit sweets at classroom parties. Palin called the plan an example of the “nanny state run amok” and said that she brought the cookies in order to “shake things up,” according to news outlets including WPVI-TV. “I heard that there’s a debate going on in Pennsylvania over whether public schools were going to ban sweets,” Palin said. “I wanted these kids to bring home the idea to their parents for discussion. Who should be deciding what I eat? Should it be government or should it be parents? It should be the parents.” Great lines. Great visuals. And, as Politico pointed out, utter bullshit. There is no plan to ban sweets in classroom parties. The newspaper that made the claim is the right-wing Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and even they retracted the allegation. Once again, Sarah Palin has tremendous problems with the truth. It’s a disease she shares with much of the right these days. As Andrew Sullivan wrote yesterday, at the core of the right-wing movement is The Big Lie — that under Obama, America is becoming totalitarian regime. And Palin’s lie yesterday is one of the many small lies that make up that narrative. But that narrative is not true. It is a big lie, and telling it over and over doesn’t just hurt the Obama administration, it hurts the country.

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Sarah Palin attacks another strawman

It’s never easy to end a relationship—whether it’s with a hairstylist, babysitter, boss, lover or a friend. That’s because we get attached to the people who play starring roles in our lives and breaking up invokes a range of emotions—including guilt, disappointment, sadness, anger and fear of the potential consequences. This is a pretty heavy subject but in Dump ‘Em: How to Break Up with Anyone from You Best Friend to Your Hair Dresser (HarperCollins, 2009), author Jodyne L. Spyer brings her wonderfully quirky sense of humor to the gravitas of getting rid of the thorns in your life. (I wasn’t surprised to learn that Jodyne’s sister is comedienne Sarah Silverman). Dump ‘Em is a quick read—with lots of subtitles, lists, anecdotes, and insights from experts—that offers light-hearted and very practical advice on how to deal with the awkward situations that invariably arise when we have to let go. Jodyne recognizes the difficulty most of us have in saying no, saying goodbye, or setting limits and boundaries in a range of relationships and includes a chapter on each one (22 in all). Read More… More on Relationships

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Dr. Irene S. Levine: Friendship by the Book: ‘Dump ‘Em’ by Jodyne L. Spyer

Jack Abramoff was a movie guy. The swagger; the big dreams; the restaurants; the silver-tongued philanthropy–a “you talkin’ ta me” film quote machine that printed box office sums of money for the Republican party almost as fast the newspapers of the world printed stories about him. As Kevin Spacey’s Jack Abramoff puts it, in the late George Hickenlooper’s Casino Jack , Washington, DC is just “Hollywood with ugly faces,” and he behaves accordingly. It’s the same game of money and influence played out on a larger stage, so he relies on lines from movies and television shows to justify his actions or trivialize the complaints of those around him. But there are important differences between the games of money and influence played on opposite coasts. To paraphrase Nietzsche, whereas Hollywood’s products are primarily concerned with the garrison in your head–what one thinks, believes or feels–Hollywood East is actually concerned with who controls the garrison itself. People may suffer gross public humiliation or die on-screen based on the decisions of studio, television and media executives–but real people live and actually die all over the world as a consequence of the lines delivered by the actors that staff our nation’s government. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Fabio Periera: Black Jack

Sarah Palin, yesterday, complaining that the Fed’s monetary policy will drive up inflation:: All this pump priming will come at a serious price. And I mean that literally: everyone who ever goes out shopping for groceries knows that prices have risen significantly over the past year or so . Pump priming would push them even higher.” Yeah, um, except the truth is that Sarah Palin obviously hasn’t gone out shopping for groceries anytime recently because inflation is basically non-existent . But far from “rising significantly,” overall prices have moved at historically low rates in recent months — just 1.1 percent in the past year. The Wall Street Journal’s Sudeep Reddy dug deeper into the numbers and found there was even less evidence to back up Palin’s specific groceries claim — inflation for food and beverages was less than .6 percent for the first nine months of the year. That’s the slowest rate of price increases for food and drinks since the Labor Department began keeping track in 1968. So Sarah Palin says inflation on groceries has been sky-high over the last year, but the truth is that this year food inflation is at its lowest level since we started keeping track. She defended herself by pointing to an article suggesting that next year food inflation will climb from it’s near-zero levels to about 2% or 3%, but Palin was talking about the previous year, not the one ahead. And even if she had been talking about the year ahead, 2% or 3% would be far less food inflation than there was in late 2008, when it climbed over 6%.

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Palin doesn’t know the price of milk

There seems to be a constant series of examples in history that reflect what we are living through this week: from Psistratus in Athens to Caesar in Rome to the Duke of Lancaster in 15th-century England to Napoleon to Lenin and Hitler and now to Karl Rove, a multitude of fellows have harnessed populist outrage to their own carriage in order to seize power. That outrage, changing the metaphor, flows into the furious stream into which Boehner and McConnell and Palin launched their boats last night. But something there is that doesn’t love a Caesar, that turns the current to upend its own children and that brings the passionate opportunist down. Something happens to Leninism which of a sudden drowns in its own lies. Or something happens that flips the boat of Dick Cheney on his way to take Teheran. We might therefore want to speculate about what are the forces that bring about such collapse, and in my mind there are two dependable forces working in our favor. Both are built into the nature of life on earth and are not ephemeral. Both are immutable and therefore reliable. Only the timing of when these factors will come into play is unknown. Only the year of the collapse of the Soviet Union was unknown; its eventual failure was always a certainty. Only the collapse of the myths justifying the Iraq invasion or the delusion of collateralized mortgages were unknown; their ultimate failure was inevitable. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Craig Barnes: Hope in a Time of Sorrow

In another promotional spot for her TLC show, Palin says of the wilderness: “I’d rather be out here than in some dumpy old political office.” Maybe this is one time when we should take her at her word. Read More… More on John McCain

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Jonathan Weiler: Why Sarah Palin (Probably) Won’t Run for President in 2012

The Alaska elections division has decided to move up the write-in ballot canvass to this week, rather than next week, as originally planned. With write-ins leading Miller by 13,439 votes, it seems pretty likely that Murkowski will pull it off–there just won’t be that many spoiled ballots. Not that Miller won’t put up a fight. The fight would be over “voter intent,” with the Miller team questioning if a particular write-in vote was meant to be cast for Murkowski or not. The state hasn’t been clear on what’s allowed. Minor misspellings of Murkowski’s name are probably OK, but simply writing “Lisa M,” for example, could be an issue. Murkowski said she’s starting “the Alaska Voter Protection Fund” to pay for her legal work. She said she’d be soliciting contributions. Murkowski said her team will be led by Tim McKeever of Washington, D.C., who was Ted Stevens’ longtime campaign manager and attorney…. Campbell said on Tuesday night that the National Republican Senatorial Committee would be helping Miller on the ballot count. The NRSC has had staffers on the ground working in Alaska, but it’s unclear exactly what role it will have in the legal fight going forward, because the committee’s aim is electing Republicans, and Murkowski is a Republican. What’s clear at this point is that the long-simmering Murkowski/Palin-Miller feud will keep a civil war in the Alaska GOP going for at least a little while longer. Whether Democrats can capitalize on that remains to be seen. But what is clear from this vote is that rural villages that traditionally vote Democratic didn’t get the McAdams message . One-hundred and twenty-three people voted in the eroding, Southwest Alaska village of Newtok on Tuesday. Not one chose Republican senate nominee Joe Miller…. “I was kind of scared (that) Miller might win,” said Newtok tribal administrator Stanley Tom, whose job is similar to being a mayor in other towns. “We made a public announcement over the VHF radio to vote for Lisa Murkowski,” he said…. The math is striking. Five rural voting districts — all regions that voted for Tony Knowles over Murkowski in the Senate race just six years ago — gave the Republican incumbent as much as 60 percent of her apparent 13,400-vote lead over Miller. Fear of Miller overrode everything else, and McAdams just didn’t have time to overcome that. But the Alaska GOP is going to be further weakened by this split and the inevitable bruising battle over ballots, whichever Republican ultimately ends up in the Senate.

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AK-Sen: Rural vote probably gave Murkowski win

Noted economics expert Sarah Palin hates the Fed’s move last week to boost economic growth by buying $600 billion of Treasuries: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will warn Monday against the Federal Reserve’s Nov. 3 decision to pump even more money into world markets. Excerpts of Palin’s speech were leaked to the National Review and mark the first time since the end of last week’s election that Palin — a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate — has stepped away from campaign talking points and into policy critique. “Our government is pumping money into the banking system by buying up Treasury bonds,” Palin will say in the speech. “And where, you may ask, are we getting the money to pay for all this? We’re printing it out of thin air.” And guess who agrees with her? China : Unbridled printing of dollars is the biggest risk to the global economy, an adviser to the Chinese central bank said in comments published on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve unveiled a new round of monetary easing. China’s argument is that the Fed’s efforts to boost growth will unfairly boost the American economy at the expense of others. That’s bunk , but even if it weren’t, wouldn’t it still be a bit odd that Sarah Palin wants to take their side?

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Palin palling around with China on U.S. monetary policy

It was a neat trick. Republicans thought they could dress up their extremist, antiquated, anti-woman ideology in a skirt and lipstick and sell it as a new, revitalized feminist movement. But it didn’t work. Just as it didn’t work in 2008, when John McCain made his transparently cynical selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. While it may have given some conservative men starbursts, American women — even the ones who had fought hard to elect Hillary Clinton to be the first woman in the White House — loudly rejected the idea that Sarah Palin, even with her ovaries, was a true champion for women. And it didn’t work this year either. Despite all the hype and hoopla a few months ago, despite all the speculation and promises that this year would be another Year of the Woman, it didn’t work. Turns out, it was the Year of the Man. Again. Come January, the Speaker of the House will be a man. Again. The number of women serving in Congress — an already measly 17 percent — will actually drop for the first time in 30 years . And there will be fewer men who have fought for women’s rights, replaced by extremists who seek to undo the very legislation that has benefited women. This year wasn’t just the Year of the Man. It was the Year of the Anti-Woman Man. The premature claims of the Republican Party and of the breathless media that this year’s election would somehow mirror the 1992 election were always absurd. That year saw a historically high number of women run for office — and win. Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Patty Murray, and Carol Moseley Braun were all elected to the Senate that year. Twenty-four women were elected to the House of Representatives for the first time; almost all of them were Democrats. They didn’t run because they wanted to deny healthcare to their fellow Americans. They didn’t run because they wanted to cut taxes for the rich. They didn’t run because they wanted to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. American women were angry that year. They had watched the all-male Judiciary Committee viciously attack and humiliate Anita Hill for daring to accuse Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Their anger motivated them to run for office, to change a government that was dismissive, and even outright hostile, to women’s concerns. So they ran. And they won . That was not why Palin’s Mama Grizzlies ran this year. They weren’t interested in fighting for the rights of women. No matter how often they invoked the idea of crashing the “Old Boys’ Club,” in truth, they had no interest in actually changing that club. Each of the Palin-endorsed Grizzlies opposed any social services that benefit women and their children, from healthcare to welfare to education to clean air. Even as they wrapped themselves up in the “feminist” label, their campaigns rarely, if ever, acknowledged or addressed issues that are important to women. Palin used her ever-growing platform to offer her corrupted vision of a women’s movement this year by supporting candidates she claimed represented true feminist values. She supported Meg Whitman , who wanted to deport the woman who worked as her housekeeper for nearly a decade. She supported Sharron Angle , who thinks rape victims should learn to “make a lemon situation into lemonade.” She supported Christine O’Donnell , who described herself as a feminist with a “commitment to the women’s movement,” but doesn’t think women should serve in the military because it distracts men from doing their job and gets them killed. She supported Carly Fiorina , whom she laughably called an “international women’s rights champion.” She even supported Rand Paul, who kidnapped a woman as college “hoax,” and who, during his campaign, argued that businesses should not have to abide by civil rights laws — the very laws that have so benefited women. When one of Rand Paul’s volunteers physically assaulted a woman at an event — and then demanded an apology from his victim because apparently, bitch had it coming — Sarah Palin said nothing. In fact, none of these self-appointed leaders of the feminist movement had a word to say about the attack. Sure, they were quick to call the media sexist for questioning their positions, but when the opportunity arose for them to actually take a stand against a violent assault against a woman, their silence was deafening. And the election results showed that women weren’t buying what the faux feminists were selling. Men embraced the Grizzlies; women did not . They were less likely than men to support Republican women. The gender gap was evident in key races involving high-profile Republican women candidates, with women voters less likely than men to support the Republican woman. • In South Carolina, governor-elect Nikki Haley won 49% of women’s votes compared with 55% of men’s. • In the Nevada Senate race, losing Republican candidate Sharron Angle garnered 48% of men’s votes but only 42% of women’s. • In California, losing gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman won 45% of men’s votes, but only 39% of women’s. As myriad post-election analyses have demonstrated, the Democratic Party lost this year because Democrats stayed home. And that includes women, the very women who voted for Obama over McCain by double digits in 2008, a lead that was all but erased this year. It was even worse among unmarried women, who tend to favor Democrats by as much as 25 percent . This year, those women didn’t bother .   In the last midterm election in 2006, 22.72 million women voted Democratic. This year, the Democrats lost 2 million of those women . In 2008, more than 39 million women voted for Obama. Sure, it was a presidential election, and this year was a midterm, but those 40 million women are out there, still wanting a reason to bother. This year, the Democrats didn’t give them one. That’s a big up-for-grabs constituency for a savvy political party to woo. And here is the good news: they lean Democratic. And they don’t just lean Democratic. They work Democratic. Ask anyone who has ever worked or volunteered in a campaign office; they’ll tell you that those offices are filled and fueled by women. Women organize social events to raise money and awareness for candidates. They volunteer to make calls and knock on doors. They bring food to campaign offices to feed staffers and other volunteers. Women don’t just vote; they get others to vote too. But they didn’t do that this year. And even though they rejected the alternative of conservative feminism that Palin and her Grizzlies offered, they still hungered for a sign from the Democratic Party that they mattered. In an August column in the New York Times , Anna Holmes and Rebecca Traister wrote : Imagine a Democrat willing to brag about breaking the glass ceiling at the explosive beginning, not the safe end, of her campaign. A liberal politician taking to Twitter to argue that big broods and a “culture of life” are completely compatible with reproductive freedom. A female candidate on the left who speaks as angrily and forcefully about her rivals’ shortcomings as Sarah Barracuda does about the Pelosis and Obamas of the world. A smart, unrelenting female, who, unlike Ms. Palin, wants to tear down, not reinforce, traditional ways of looking at women. But that will require a party that is eager to discover, groom, promote and then cheer on such a progressive Palin. Joanne Bamberger, of the blog PunditMom, agreed : We don’t have to make ourselves out to be “mama grizzlies,” but if women want more places at the political table, we need to accept the fact that whether we agree with Palin’s politics or not, we might be able to take advantage of her populist playbook to take our rightful places at the table of political leadership. The hunger is there. Democratic women want a political party that fights for them — aggressively and unapologetically, just as Palin claimed to do for conservative women. For too long, they’ve been told that the Democratic Party is that party. But after so many years of seeing women’s issues dismissed as special interests, as bargaining chips to be traded for “more important” issues, Democratic women aren’t buying it. Thankfully, they’re not buying the snakeoil sisterhood that Palin and the Grizzlies tried to sell either. But the excitement — and envy — surrounding the Grizzlies demonstrated that women are hungry for something. And when they feel their needs and concerns are not addressed, by Republicans or Democrats, they stay home. And that costs Democrats elections. It’s a good lesson to learn, and it shows great promise for 2012 because there is a constituency out there of millions of would-be voters who want to be heard, involved, and represented. And they will work hard to elect candidates they believe in — and their work will win elections. And they want to vote for Democrats. And Democrats cannot win without them. In the last two election cycles, Republicans have tried to break through that voting bloc with lipstick and lipservice. That dirty trick hasn’t worked. Yet. But Democrats cannot afford to ignore the problem. They need to recommit themselves to the promises they make to women in election years and in party platforms. They need to promote women in the party, to give them positions of leadership. They need to keep Nancy Pelosi as their leader in the House. And they need to be courageous enough to proudly reclaim the mantle of being the only political party in America that actually fights for women. As Rebecca Traister warned before the election: If Democrats are to stay relevant and persuasively assert themselves as the party of progressive America, they must man up by admitting — and more than that, proudly promising — that their future will rest in part in the hands of women. This is the choice the Democratic Party faces for 2012: A renewed commitment to the values the party claims to espouse, or another election lost to the hype and hyperbole of conservative feminism and voter apathy? Democrats have less than two years to decide just what kind of future they want to have and to, as Abigail Adams once pleaded to her husband, remember the ladies. And the clock is ticking.

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The Year of the Woman that wasn’t

As regular readers of Sunday Talk know, I’ve long been predicting that President Obama’s homosexual/socialist/marxist agenda would be refudiated in this week’s midterm elections. And refudiated it was. Although Republicans failed to gain the requisite number of seats to take control of the Senate, Mitch McConnell nonetheless appears set to become Majority Leader , and a Palin presidency now seems like a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, on the far side of the world , Obama continues to spend other people’s money like a drunken sailor .

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Sunday Talk - I Told You So

Conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan doesn’t like people demeaning the Gipper’s legacy, not even Sarah Palin, and not even if she’s only talking about the former president’s Hollywood career. She writes in her latest column of a recent incident in which Sarah Palin attempted to explain away a Karl Rove criticism over her “reality show” by drawing parallels to former president Ronald Reagan’s silver screen career, including his roles in movies such as “Bedtimes for Bonzo, bozo or something”: 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. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin A ‘Nincompoop’ For Reagan Reduction

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow closed her program Friday night with a segment about the suspension of her “colleague and friend Keith Olbermann, ” arguing that the suspension underscores the difference between MSNBC and Fox News. Maddow ran down a list of Fox News hosts’ and contributors’ political donations and fundraising activities, ranging from Sean Hannity’s political donations to Glenn Beck’s on-air fundraising to Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin’s political careers. Maddow argued that MSNBC’s suspension of Olbermann in light of his political donations (without prior network approval) showed that it is a real news organization, as opposed to Fox News, which allows its hosts to engage in political activity without consequence. Read More… More on Rachel Maddow

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Maddow: Keith Olbermann Suspension Proves Difference Between MSNBC & Fox News (VIDEO)

Meghan McCain, daughter of recently reelected John McCain, came out fists flying on “The Tonight Show” Wednesday, landing punches on the jaws of Christine O’Donnell, Bristol Palin and President Obama. “I was never a fan of Christine O’Donnell,” McCain said of the losing Delaware Senate candidate whom she predicted — along with three other failed political hopefuls — would win on Tuesday. “She’s out of her frickin’ mind, so I’m glad she’s not in the Senate.” It’s not the first time McCain has noticed O’Donnell’s apparent wackiness . Last month she conceded that the GOP contender was “seen as a nutjob.” Read More… More on Bristol Palin

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Meghan McCain: Christine O’Donnell Is ‘Out Of Her Frickin’ Mind’ (VIDEO)

Tina Fey tells David Letterman that those Mama Grizzlies are gonna’ flip his picnic table: And she offers this bit of political analysis: On Fox News they address her as Governor Palin. Which is like calling me a Dairy Queen employee. I was once. But I quit.

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Tina Fey breaks out her Palin (again)

The laws and policies of the legislature of the United States of America are now effectively on e-Bay, for sale to the highest bidder. Are you a Wall Street boss who wants to party like it’s 2007? Are you a Big Coal baron who wants to burn, baby, burn? Are you an insurance company that wants to be able to kick sick people off your rolls? Meet John Boehner, the most powerful Republican and soon-to-be Speaker of the House. But - of course! - you already have. Here’s an example of how you have worked together. In 1995, the House was going to finally repeal subsidies for growing tobacco, because an addictive cancer-causing drug didn’t seem like the most deserving recipient of tax-payers’ cash - until Boehner walked the floor of the House handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists to his fellow elected representatives. They changed their minds. The subsidy stayed. Explaining his check-dispensing, Boehner says: “It’s gone on here for a long time.” So get your bids in: the House is open for business. To understand what has happened in the mid-term elections, the best guide lies in an unexpected place - the dusty vaults of Hollywood. In 1957, Elia Kazan directed a film called ‘ A Face In The Crowd’ that read the tea-leaves of the Tea Party back when Sarah Palin was merely a frosty zygote. One morning a poor wandering Arkansas chancer named Larry ‘Lonesome’ Rhodes is lying passed out on a jail cell where the local sheriff has detained him overnight. A pretty young radio producer arrives and asks if he’d like to tell her a story to be played on her show where ordinary folks speak to ordinary folks. He sings and rambles and offers corn-poke homilies. The clip is a huge hit - and he is soon given his own show, filled with country music and country wisdom which then shoots off into the stratosphere. When Lonesome Rhodes becomes one of the biggest stars on US television, he starts receiving offers. Advertisers say that if he endorses their lousy products, they’ll shower him with millions. He knows how to sell to ordinary people - and he is pushed to go further. They ask him to sell the political causes that will make them richer too. He starts railing against social security and the old age pension and anything that taxes the rich to help the rest. He uses the tunes and slanguage of working class Americans to get them to emotionally identify with the people who are screwing them over. He’s brilliant at it - a gurning hyperactive huckster, saying that support and security for ordinary Americans is a betrayal of America. He makes himself rich by lying to the people he came from. Read More…

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Johann Hari: Roll Up, Roll Up! The Laws and Policies of the US Are Up For Sale!

The GOP will have its hands full in the next two years dealing with its own civil war. Long-simmering tensions within the Republican Party spilled into public view Wednesday as the pragmatic and conservative wings of the GOP blamed each other in blunt terms for the party’s failure to capture the Senate. With tea party-backed candidates going down in Delaware, Colorado and Nevada, depriving Republicans of what would have been a 50-50 Senate, a bloc of prominent senators and operatives said party purists like Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) had foolishly pushed nominees too conservative to win in politically competitive states. Movement conservatives pointed the finger right back at the establishment, accusing the National Republican Senatorial Committee of squandering millions on a California race that wasn’t close at the expense of offering additional aid in places like Colorado, Nevada and Washington state, where Democratic Sen. Patty Murray holds a narrow lead as the votes continue to be counted. They’re both right. The teabaggers certainly cost the GOP three seats in the Senate, and likely more . While we were blessed at the NRSC’s decision to dump mega millions into California. But this isn’t really a battle about campaign strategy. This is about the GOP’s ideological purity wing that wants to destroy government, versus the one that wants to funnel federal goodies to its powerful friends. We’ll see them pivot toward policy infighting when we reach the debt ceiling debate. But for now, at least we’ve learned that they’re no longer keeping their disagreements private. This will be a public show, for all of us to enjoy.

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Civil war breaks out inside Senate GOP

by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger The precarious fate of comprehensive immigration reform has fallen into the hands of staunch nativists. With Republicans now leading the House and a new crop of anti-immigrant governors stepping up to bat, the road to immigration reform just became more arduous than ever. The results of the mid-term elections are a heavy blow to immigration reform advocates who have recently contended with a DREAM Act defeat, a pandemic of state-level anti-immigrant measures, attempts to stifle Latino votes, and an allegedly disaffected Latino electorate. And, to add insult to injury, the election season was tainted by a slew of race-baiting campaign aids and sensational anti-immigrant soundbytes ( AlterNet has the rundown ). But, amid the upset, there is some hope. Despite pessimistic predictions, Latinos voters defiantly flexed their electoral muscle, effectively creating a “Latino firewall in the west” that helped save the Senate for Democrats, according to Elena Shore at New America Media. Moreover, numerous anti-immigrant measures are finally getting their day in court–though the results of those hearings may be as mixed as the outcome of this election. Immigration reform in the hands of House Republicans While Democrats retained control of the Senate, the Republican seizure of the House bodes ill for comprehensive immigration reform. As Elise Foley note at the Washington Independent , immigration legislation will now be at the mercy of John Boehner (R-OH), the new speaker of the house, and Representative Steve King (R-IA), who will now chair the immigration subcommittee. Both legislators oppose comprehensive reform and will likely project their shared anti-immigrant agenda on House legislation: King tends to be on the extreme end of anti-illegal immigration rhetoric: He favors changes to birthright citizenship to keep U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants from receiving citizenship and argues more states should pass immigration crackdowns like Arizona’s SB 1070. King has pushed for more border enforcement and an electrified fence along the border to keep illegal immigrants out. “We do that with livestock all the time,” he said . Of course, King won’t have ultimate power over the House Republicans’ priorities on immigration. Boehner will set a good deal of the agenda, and is likely to follow some of the plans hinted at in the Pledge to America , a vague but enforcement-heavy document released in September. Foley also reports that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which supports comprehensive immigration reform, lost three House members this election–Reps. John Salazar (D-CO), Solomon Ortiz (D-TX) and Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX). An influx of anti-immigrant governors State gubernatorial races proved similarly disappointing for reform advocates, as a host of anti-immigrant candidates were propelled into office on a wave of Tea Party-backed, anti-immigrant sentiment. Just before the election, Mother Jones ‘ Suzy Khimm profiled a series of anti-immigrant gubernatorial front runners, most of whom ended up winning. In Georgia, a state poised to replicate Arizona’s SB 1070, the governor’s seat went to Nathan Deal, “an early supporter of a birthright citizenship bill that would deny granting citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.” Moreover, in Nevada and New Mexico, two anti-immigrant Latino candidates prevailed: Susana Martinez (R-NM), who was endorsed by Sarah Palin and accused her opponent of defending child-molesting “criminal illegals,” and Brian Sandoval (R-NV), who supports SB-1070 and famously bragged that his children “don’t look Hispanic.” Brewer skips town to attend SB 1070 hearing Meanwhile, Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ) retained her governorship this week, in spite of some really disastrous campaigning . Fittingly, Brewer spent election day appealing the federal injunction issued against SB 1070, the harsh anti-immigrant law that made her famous, last spring. New America Media’s Valeria Fernández reports that Terry Goddard, Arizona’s current attorney general and democratic gubernatorial candidate, blasted Brewer’s decision to attend the SB 1070 hearing and suggested that her relentless defense of the anti-immigrant law has more to do with her connections to the private prison industry than her concern over public safety: Goddard pointed to Brewer’s staff–including political advisor Chuck Coughlin, president of High Ground Public Affairs, which also represents Correction Corporation of America (CCA), the country’s largest private-prison company –as evidence that she is more concerned with helping private business make a profit than with public safety. Goddard isn’t the first to make such a claim. Media outlets have reported on Arizona legislators’ suspicious connections to the private prison industry for several months. In June, Beau Hodai revealed for In These Times how SB 1070 was steered and shaped by private prison lobbyists: … the bill’s promoters are as equally dedicated to border politics as they are to promoting the fortunes of private prison companies, like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, which stand to reap substantial profits as more undocumented residents end up in jail. Hodai’s findings were further validated by a much-publicized NPR investigation last week. All of the bad press has done little to hurt Brewer, however. She retained her governorship and managed to collect $3 million in private donations to continue defending SB 1070, which she is prepared to take all the way to the Supreme Court. Of course, that may not be necessary–as Fernández notes, “longtime legal observers who watched the hearing said the judges seemed to be leaning toward partially reinstating the provisions” previously thrown out by federal Judge Susan Bolton. It’s still too soon to tell for sure, but preliminary indicators suggest that legal challenges to recently passed anti-immigrant legislation will obtain mixed results. Two lawsuits against SB 1070 have already been dismissed, while several other anti-immigrant measures have recently been overturned, blocked, or delayed by federal judges. The fight for comprehensive immigration reform has clearly taken a big hit on all fronts–not least of which, electorally. But while election results were disappointing for reform advocates, they also clearly demonstrated the undeniable electoral might of Latinos–who, in spite of low expectations, came out in strong numbers and disproportionately supported pro-immigration candidates. It’s not over till it’s over. This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium . It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter . And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit , The Mulch , and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets. Read More… More on Immigration

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The Media Consortium: Weekly Diaspora: Immigration Reform Falls to the GOP

Many are hoping the GOP chooses Sarah Palin to run against Obama so we can get a definitive answer to this question of national self-immolation. Well, here is another frightening notion from your friends down here in Texas: President Rick Perry. Read More… More on Rick Perry

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James Moore: Yo, America. It’s Texas. We Got Another One for Ya!

The best campaign this cycle, as many pundits are noting, was run by Senator Harry Reid. He was always confident of victory. He never once backed away from anything he did. He stood his ground and stuck with his president. Most importantly, he turned to his base the old-fashioned way and used political tactics straight out of the old-school Democratic Boss playbook. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Reid was one of the weakest incumbents in the nation, dealing with an economy that is the highest in both foreclosures and unemployment. He was a classic Washington insider in a throw-the-bums-out year. The Nevada Tea Party had its largest rally in the country with Palin. If there was anybody who was going down in a wave GOP year, it was Harry Reid. Reid first made sure he picked his opponent by doing everything he could to get Sharron Angle over Sue Lowden. Once Reid got the opponent he wanted, he began to define her. No matter what, the Reid campaign always made Angle some form of “extreme.” Crazy. Nutjob. Mental case. You name it. Angle never could get away from it as she tried to turn the subject to the economy and Reid, but Angle’s stance on jobs just kept killing her. Time after time after time, Reid was on the attack. It was unrelenting. Instead of making the election about himself or the economy, he made it all about his opponent. His barrage was unrelenting and he really began to hammer her in the final days. What really stands out is how Harry Reid turned out the Latino vote. I noted way back in August the beauty of his strategy. Anjeanette Damon of the Las Vegas Sun has a great analysis of the race I think nuts-and-bolts politics lovers will enjoy. Reid’s frontal assault on GOP racism isn’t textbook DLC “be like a Republican” stuff or even textbook Obama “let’s all get along” stuff. It is old school, hardball, walkin-around money, ward boss “whose side are you on?” kill-the-enemy Democratic politics. I love it. God help me, I love it. Reid went in with his union base, Latinos, and just enough of the white vote to pull out a win that everybody said was impossible: At the same time, Reid’s get-out-the-vote operation capitalized on Angle’s tough stand on illegal immigration to mobilize Hispanics, who turned out at a greater rate than in the 2008 presidential election and voted for Reid, 66-31. And Reid got help from organized labor, as union households voted for him 69-29. Got that? Reid turned out the Latino vote better than Obama! Reid didn’t try to play moderate. He went in for the base. He ran on jobs, Social Security and tolerance. He didn’t have a weak message of “Angle would be obstructionist, and that’s not very nice.” He said Angle was FRICKIN CRAZY, pure and simple. Reid didnt come with a ridiculous GOP reinforcing argument of “let’s go forward, not backward.” He made his opponent the subject and not himself, his time in Washington, or the economy. He didn’t try to convince people that he was doing them good either. That wouldn’t make sense with record foreclosures and unemployment. Reid kept it simple: MY OPPONENT BELONGS IN BELLEVUE, not the Senate. When he needed Obama, he didn’t run…he brought him right in. When he needed the First Lady, he brought her right in. No apologies and no avoiding pictures. Reid was right up in Angle’s face the moment she won the primary. I wish other Democrats had run with such moxie. In the end, it was Harry Reid, the insider’s insider, who bucked the national trend, coasting to victory by a convincing 50 to 45 . Congratulations to Majority Leader Harry Reid. While I may not be a fan of his leadership in the Senate, he has proved once again to be superb campaigner.

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The best campaign of the cycle

Sarah Palin is set to appear on both Fox News and Fox’s broadcast channel as an Election Night analyst. For her big night, she appears to have debuted a new hairstyle as well. The new ‘do is extra-voluminous on top and in the back, and features a highlight in front. What do you think: is Palin wearing a wig, or just using extra product? See several angles below. PHOTOS: Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin’s Hair: New Fox News ‘Do? (PHOTOS)

Unlike the levees breaking, I think everyone anticipated this : Fox 29 News spotted Tuesday a member of the New Black Panther Party standing outside of a local polling place where voter intimidation was reported two years ago. The man was seen outside the polling place in North Philadelphia was wearing a pin that indicated his party affiliation, along with a black hat, sunglasses and leather coat. The man seen at the same polling place Tuesday would not answer questions posed by Fox 29 News but was apparently working at the polls as a volunteer and greeting voters. A check with Philadelphia election officials revealed no voter intimidation reports at the polling location this time. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who couldn’t remember how many houses he owned, on the latest leg of his bitter old man tour: … John McCain, campaigning in Nevada for the Tea Partier Sharron Angle, mock her opponent, Harry Reid, for – and please, make sure you’re sitting down – residing in fancy apartments. On election day, McCain told the crowd: “We are going to kick Harry Reid out of his penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton and send him back to [his hometown of] Searchlight!” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is inviting Democrats to join his party: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Senate Republicans would “welcome” any Democrats who wish to switch parties and caucus with the GOP. Cornyn, the head of Senate Republicans’ campaign efforts, floated the possibility that the GOP might target Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, or another Democratic senator if Republicans come close to winning a majority but fall short. Cue the outrage — via Greg Sargent at The Plum Line : ABC News sends over the letter that Andrew Morse, the chief of their digital division, has sent to Andrew Breitbart, pulling the plug on their much-discussed, widely-parsed-over invitation for him to join in their election night coverage: Dear Mr. Breitbart, We have spent the past several days trying to make clear to you your limited role as a participant in our digital town hall to be streamed on ABCNews.com and Facebook. The post on your blog last Friday created a widespread impression that you would be analyzing the election on ABC News. We made it as clear as possible as quickly as possible that you had been invited along with numerous others to participate in our digital town hall. Instead of clarifying your role, you posted a blog on Sunday evening in which you continued to claim a bigger role in our coverage. As we are still unable to agree on your role, we feel it best for you not to participate. What’s happening in election news in your corner of the world?

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Random election day news

They really do deserve each other . This is change you can believe in. Just two years ago, Tom Tancredo was a veritable outcast of the Republican Party. Karl Rove was screaming at him, John McCain scoffed at him, GOP pollsters viewed him as a saboteur within their midst. Tancredo’s one issue–a near-apocalyptic warning about immigrant-driven dilution of American culture–was seen as radioactive among the Republican elite. And now, Sarah Palin, who is as big a leader in Republican politics as there is, has endorsed Tancredo as a protest candidate in the Colorado governor’s race, running on the American Constitution Party. By the way, that means she’s apparently A-Okay with the Colorado Republican Party being a minor party in the next two elections, which will happen if the actual Republican candidate, Dan Maes, doesn’t get at least 10 percent of the vote today.

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CO-Gov: Peas in the crazy pod, Palin endorses Tancredo

As everyone heads to the polls today, I’m reminded that the CBS series Blue Bloods, about a family of New York cops and lawyers, has become an unlikely balm for my frustration about America’s nasty political culture. The soothing starts with Detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg). He’s a fascinating character whose personal morality allows him to beat the crap out of suspects who seem to be withholding evidence. He also has a soft spot for “the weak”—women, children, etc.—and seems to feel it’s his duty as a detective (and a man) to protect them. He’s not a misogynist—the show has worked hard to establish a respectful relationship between Danny and his wife and Danny and his female partner—but he’s got an old-school attitude about the social order. And although it’s never been stated, I’d wager that Danny would identify himself as a political and social conservative. Almost every episode of the show features a dinner table debate among the extended Reagan clan, and Danny always comes down on the ostensibly Republican side. He gets heated when someone suggests that drugs should be legal or that criminals should have inclusive rights, and he often chastises his brother Jamie, who left Harvard Law School to become a beat cop, for being an elite, Ivy League softie who doesn’t know how the real world works. In moments like this, I almost expect Danny to quote Sarah Palin. Read More… More on Family

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Mark Blankenship: Is CBS’ "Blue Bloods" showing the way to our political future?

The 2010 midterm elections are here, and most expect Republicans to make big gains in both chambers of Congress. While prevailing opinion holds that the GOP will take over the House of Representatives, there are some dissenters among national politicians. The Senate outlook is even more messy, but it is generally accepted that Republicans face a steeper climb to take back the upper chamber. Numerous politicians and prognosticators have weighed in around the country, including President Clinton and Sarah Palin. Scroll down to see what each thinks. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Weigh in with your comments. Read More… More on Elections 2010

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Election Predictions 2010: Politicians & Pundits Weigh In

Alaska should be safely Republican, but thanks to Sarah Palin’s meddling, we have a three-way contest that could very realistically give Democrats the seat. But for the best-case scenario to happen, the 25-30 percent of Democrats planning to vote for Lisa Murkowski have to come home to the Democratic nominee, Scott McAdams. So here’s a bit of additional motivation for Dems to vote Democratic: Palin endorsed Miller, a Fairbanks attorney with a Yale law degree, back in June when he was hardly seen as a serious challenger to Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, let alone beyond. At the time some downplayed the move as just a continuation of her civil war with Murkowski, whose father Palin ousted in the 2006 GOP gubernatorial primary. But a little more than two months later, with assistance from the Tea Party Express, Miller upended the second-term senator in the Republican primary in one of the most stunning primary upsets of the cycle. Now with a string of public polls showing Miller falling behind Murkowski’s write-in effort and Democrats suddenly sensing an opportunity for Scott McAdams, their candidate, Palin has doubled-down on her support for Miller Sen. Mark Begich, who is seen as the chief strategist behind the effort of McAdams’ bid told POLITICO that a Miller loss “says that her home state has rejected her because there’s no other state that knows her like we do. That should be a message to the rest of the country.” A McAdams Republican loss would be placed SQUARELY on Palin’s lap. It’s bad enough (for Republicans) that she cost the GOP a sure-fire pickup in Delaware with Christine O’Donnell. If she squanders the Senate seat in her own state, the blowback will be epic. That should be all the motivation Alaska Democrats need to cast their ballot for McAdams.

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AK-Sen: Sarah Palin will have egg on her face if Dems come home

I don’t consider myself an intellectual. But, apparently, at least by the definition being touted by the right wing in this country, I must be one. If that means I’m one of the so-called elite, fine - though there’s a distinct difference between being elite and being an elitist. Still, I do have a website about film that I tout as ” Movies for Smart People .” Dumbing things down is an insidious force in today’s society - and certainly no more insidious than in the election Nov. 2. The right - particularly the Sarah Palin branch, whether it’s the Tea Party, teabaggers or just plain lunatic fringe-types - have spent the past decade or so (and the past two years in particular) attacking the left for promoting elite values. The press is elite. Barack Obama is part of the left-wing elite. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Marshall Fine: Act like an elite! Vote progressive!

Sarah Palin continued her frenzied blitz on the media Sunday, responding to a recent story in Politico which argues — through numerous unnamed sources — that the GOP establishment and other Republican presidential hopefuls will soon embark on a mission to dismantle the former Alaska Governor’s credibility in the lead up to 2012. “Politico, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, they’re jokes. This is a joke to have unnamed sources tearing somebody apart limb by limb,” Palin told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren Sunday. “If they would man up and if they would, you know, make these claims against me then I can debate them, I can talk about it, but to me they’re making stuff up again.” Palin continued her barrage against the unnamed sources, saying, “And these are the brave people who want to lead the nation and run the world, huh? But they’re not brave enough to put their name in an article,” Palin said. Read More… More on Sarah Palin

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Sarah Palin Blasts Politico’s ‘Crap’ Story