Saturday, May 29, 2010
Joe "Wilson"
So, Joe McGinnis feels the need to clarify to David Weigel why he moved in next door to Sarah Palin.Uh, dude? We know why. You're writing a book and you thought the best way to come across as a serious, responsible journalist was to go paparazzi on the family. That's why. Honestly, how did you think the Palins were going to take it? The person who has written hit pieces on her administration and who has dined with Trig-Truthers moves in next door to write a book about her, and you what, thought they were going to throw a welcome-to-the-neighborhood party?
First of all, I don't begrudge Joe the chance to tell his side of the story. If he feels that he has been misrepresented, he has a right to correct that misrepresentation. For example, he feels like Palin implied that he was a pedophile. If you thought someone was calling you a pedophile, wouldn't you want to correct that?
However, Palin was not implying that he was a pedophile. Some have taken it that way, but that's not the way I saw it at all.
From her Facebook post, I took away the obvious point of, "What fascinating things will Joe uncover by being next door and observing the mundane things in our lives? What great discoveries lie in my garden, or in the swimming hole, or in Piper's bedroom? Oh, look they're mowing the lawn! Fascinating."
Others, like Glenn Beck took it a tad more seriously, but I'm glad that Joe has cleared up that he has no interest in being a Peeping Joe. (Yes, I called my previous post on Joe that, but just because I thought it was a funny play on words. Just like, Joe "Wilson.")
Joe contends that he has no interest in butting in. So why is he there? If he has no intention of gleaning tidbits from the Palin's personal lives, why be next door? He could do the job he's doing without bugging them just as well, if not better, in town.
The second part of the so-called pedophile smear was Palin's interview with Glenn Beck, in the which she told Joe that he better leave her kids alone. Now, I am the simplest of beings, but to me that means, "Leave my kids alone." As in, leave them alone. Don't talk to them, don't bother them, don't try to pump them for information, etc... There's a reason Palin feels this way. Piper was once ambushed outside of her school by reporters. This investigative author is living right next door. She doesn't want friendly neighbor Joe "Wilson" sticking his eyes up over the fence and asking her how her day at school was. And oh, by the way, do mommy and daddy fight?
Glenn did call Joe a voyeur. But Glenn, bless his heart, is protective of Sarah. He's a friend of hers. And certainly Joe had to realize how his being next door would appear. Again, if he wasn't interested in gleaning personal tidbits, then why would he be next door? Why?
"But the neighbor called and offered it to me. What would you do?"
What would I do?
First off, a simple Google search will reveal many homes for rent in Wasilla, so Joe must have been incompetent if he couldn’t find one. And the apartments I found online are cheaper than what Joe is paying.
Secondly, I might have given the Palins a heads-up beforehand, seeing as how I could imagine their reaction to the person who has written hit pieces on them in the past and who has spent time with Trig-Truthers now moving in next door as I write a book about them.
Not to mention the fact that Palin's home is the one place in the world she thought she could retreat to and get away from all of this garbage. Now it's going to be twelve feet away from her constantly.
I might call and say, “Hey, I got an offer for this house. I just wanted you to know that I’m just going to be working on my book. I’m not going to be spying on your family or anything, I will leave you alone and completely respect your privacy, this is just the best offer I could get.”
What Joe did was just simply in bad taste. Now he's just trying to cover his tail.
I feel that I should also point out the obvious hilarity that Joe is so very concerned that he's being smeared. Uh, Joe? You've been smearing people for years, including, most recently, Sarah Palin. You're just finally getting a taste of your own medicine. Don't like it? Quit doling it out to other people.
As for other things Joe told Weigel, let me get this straight: Joe says he bid on the dinner with Palin because he was bored? He thought a responsible journalist (oh, that's funny) should win the dinner, but he knew he couldn't pay the price of the dinner anyway?
People believe this garbage?
Joe says he's got a whole new angle now. Well, I'm sure he does. He just wants to sell his work. This kind of thing just gives him more material and more publicity. So be it. Just another guy making a buck off of Sarah Palin. Given that he's already written hilariously twisted pieces on Palin and that the man has already dined with Trig-Truthers (yes, I am going to keep repeating that), I can say with a pretty good degree of certainty that the book was a smear piece anyway. If it's even more of a smear piece now, whatever.
"She should have been gracious."
Why? Palin has tried that numerous times before with reporters, etc... in an attempt to break them out of their Palin Derangement Syndrome. It hasn't worked. They go right out and write another hit piece on her. Why should she cast her pearls before swine? They just turn again and rend her.
As for the "hatred she inspires," um, anybody remember the 2008 election? Anybody remember the attacks on her kids and the ridiculous smears on Sarah Palin that were, if not just left uncorrected, actively promoted by the media? This wasn't seen in coverage of Palin before August 29th of 2008, so why did they do this?
Because Sarah Palin was a threat to Obama. They liked Obama. This woman threatened his status. Therefore, they abandoned nearly every last shred of journalistic integrity to bring her down. To this day lefties of all stripes misreport and flat-out lie about the Governor because they like Obama and they see her as a threat to him.
So how come nobody ever talks about the hatred that Barack Obama inspires?
My advice to Palin if she is asked about this is to just say, "Well, I'm glad he clarified. Sounds like we're on the same page with him agreeing to respect our privacy. The fence is up now. Good fences make good neighbors, so, we're good."
Done.
Two more thoughts:
1. Palin could write a 500 page book on policy and nobody would touch it. She writes about her new neighbor, and the media sends reporters up to get pictures of her fence. Priorities, priorities.
2. Palin has moved on already. The fence is up, she's good. The rest is Joe whining.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Beck - African American Founding Fathers
Finally. Finally, somebody's talking about this:
You can watch the question and answer session that took place after the broadcast here.
You can watch the question and answer session that took place after the broadcast here.
Bristol's Solo Act
My first reaction to some of the pictures (not this one) was, "That's kinda weird." It must be the type of magazine... It could also be my taste, which runs strictly in the t-shirt and jeans department. Oh, and we've got those same bumper stickers on our cars. :)Anyway, the Palin teens go glam in this piece by the Harper's Bazaar on Bristol. There's a video on the article, so check it out:
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It's a Saturday afternoon in Anchorage, and the only sign of spring is the gentle drip of melting snowdrifts. Parked under leafless trees behind Bristol Palin's three-story gray townhouse is a cluster of giant SUVs and pickup trucks. I didn't vote for this Obamanation, reads one bumper sticker. Another features a photo of the former Alaskan governor: Don't blame me, I voted for Sarah Palin.
Inside, the real live Sarah Palin is taking a break from her Tea Partying tour of the country to celebrate the second birthday of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome, with the entire extended Palin clan. She's just jetted in from Minnesota and is wearing an ensemble that reads off-duty celebrity — all black with an army-green newsboy cap pulled low over her eyes. Under her makeup, she looks a little tired, but her Alaskan charm is in full effect.
"Have some cake," she trills, standing next to a happy-birthday sign hand-lettered by Bristol, who is watching her 15-month-old son, Tripp, play with Trig, his two-year-old uncle. We have entrée into this cozy family scene because Bristol herself texted an invite. No flacks, no lawyers, no managers — it's a world away from the media glare of the 2008 presidential campaign, when the McCain-Palin ticket dropped the bombshell that the then high school senior was five months pregnant.
Later, the rosy-cheeked 19-year-old, dressed down in cropped cargo pants and a maroon pullover, says she remembers that moment all too clearly. "It was kind of humiliating," she sighs as she clears boxes of pizza and bowls of Doritos and Skittles. "Great, I'm 17 years old, I'm 40 pounds overweight with a big belly on me, all my friends are at school watching this on the news. This kind of sucks."
Bristol never expected to find herself here: waking up at 5:00 a.m. to fix Tripp's breakfast (usually eggs), get herself ready — "It takes me so much longer with a baby, it's not even funny" — then head to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. as a medical assistant in a dermatologist's office. "I thought I would be somewhere warm at college with my friends," she says. "But that was definitely not possible with having Tripp."
This workaday life is interrupted when Bristol steps into her other shoes, as an ambassador for the Candie's Foundation, which combats teenage pregnancy. (She has been compensated for some appearances.) One day she might be shopping at Costco, and the next marketing abstinence on Oprah, Good Morning America, or the Today show.
But Bristol is hardly unhappy, despite her hectic schedule and lack of sleep. "I love my baby more than anything," she says, which is obvious from the cuddles he gets. "He's like a Gerber baby. He's the cutest baby in the whole world."
She's also fiercely proud of her newly purchased condo. (Before she bought it, she and Tripp were living at home in Wasilla, an hour and a half away.) Though her mother's earnings have been widely reported at $12 million since she stepped down as governor last July, largely due to her book, Going Rogue, and her TV deals, it's Bristol who has picked out and paid for everything: the big leather couches, the flat-screen TVs, Tripp's toddler-size bed (though he sleeps with his mother), and the Subaru wagon in the garage. "I'm on my own," she says, in between constant texting on her BlackBerry. "I'm really proud of it. I'm a hard worker."
Her older brother Track's girlfriend, Britta, currently lives in the third bedroom, and her 15-year-old sister, Willow, often sleeps over. "I was scared to live by myself," Bristol explains. She has a point. Her neighborhood is not the picturesque wilderness many associate with Alaska; it's a modest cluster of homes halfway between Ted Stevens International Airport and the Great Alaskan Bush Company, where the wildlife accepts tips.
Not that Bristol goes out much, besides taking Tripp for walks. "I don't ever have time for friends or anything like that," she sighs. "It's just like, Right, crap, there is a hockey game tonight that I want to go to but I can't. Or, I do have to go to work today, because I've got bills to pay."
Despite her grown-up responsibilities, evidence of teenagerdom abounds. She and Willow giggle over Willow's prom pics. (To one prom she wore a minidress that some mothers would block at the front door. "Mom wasn't there!" laughs Willow. "She saw pictures, though.") Bristol's bathroom is strewn with makeup, earrings, and a hair iron; her closet is filled with more than 30 pairs of jeans; and she has pink kitchen utensils and a pink KitchenAid mixer that was a 19th-birthday present from her mother.
The townhouse's decor is similarly youthful. There is a leopard-print carpet in the upstairs hallway, and the living-room rug features purple and black swirls. Both choices seem to bemuse her mother.
"You don't like it," Bristol teases.
"Noooooooo, I love your carpet," Sarah protests, announcing, "This is so Bristol. She is a free spirit, a fun spirit."
Absent, of course, is Tripp's father, 20-year-old Levi Johnston, whose engagement to Bristol was announced to much fanfare. But two months after Tripp's birth in December 2008, she and Johnston split, and he's spent his time posing for Playgirl, battling Bristol over custody, and denouncing her mother to anyone who will listen.
"I just ignore it. He is a stranger to me," she says, visibly rattled by the mention of Johnston's name, though she refrains from saying more. "I don't want to get into it. It's just dirty laundry." She is not seeing anyone at the moment: "I'm in no rush. One day I'll find a nice guy."
At the time Bristol discovered she was pregnant, she had been dating Johnston since she was a freshman. Prompted by an aching back and a missed period, she took a pregnancy test. It came out positive. "I was like, What am I going to do?" she says quietly. They decided to tell her parents when she was six weeks along.
"I remember sitting on the couch with one of my best friends and Levi, and I just couldn't spit it out. I was like, 'Mom, Mom.' I was bawling my eyes out. She was like, 'What's wrong?' And I was like, 'I'm pregnant.' And she was like" — Bristol stops and mimics a gasp — "Oh my God. Holy crap. But once that part was over with and Tripp was here, it was just like, this baby is a blessing."
Though Bristol was well-informed about sex education, "it's not like we sat down and were like, 'All right, here's the birds and the bees.' Truly, my parents just assumed that I wasn't doing anything. And it was a shock for us all."
Such a shock that "it didn't hit me that I was going to be a parent until Tripp was like four months old. And I was like, 'Oh yeah, this is reality. I haven't slept in a week and I'm exhausted.'"
In May of 2009, she began working with the Candie's Foundation, which approached her after her frank interview with Fox News's Greta Van Susteren. Bristol now preaches abstinence as "the only 100 percent foolproof way you can prevent pregnancy."
Detractors have been quick to pounce, but "I don't think it's hypocritical at all," Bristol responds. "Like, if you get lung cancer from smoking, why wouldn't you want to tell people, 'Hey, look, don't smoke.' Why wouldn't you want to be productive and share your story and do something positive with it?"
She's not worried that Tripp himself might one day read her words and take them the wrong way. "He knows that I love him," she says, shaking her head. There's no doubt that he is a happy baby, making a few cooing complaints only when it nears nap time. He is learning basic sign language to communicate with Trig, including stop, which Trig signs when Tripp tackles him.
Bristol says that as the oldest girl in a family of three sisters and two brothers, maternal instincts came easily to her. Both parents gave advice, including her father, Todd, who used to braid her hair every morning before school. "He taught me how to swaddle, which is the best trick in the world. I swaddled Tripp for like the first eight months." In a community-college speech class she took as part of the business degree she's chipping away at, she did a PowerPoint presentation titled "How to Swaddle a Baby."
Despite the ways her life differs from those of her classmates, Bristol is hardly a world-weary soul. Instead of limitations, she sees a wealth of possibilities. "I want to pursue the opportunities I have now. I want to do public speaking and cause campaigning. I want to write a book." (Before interviews, her mother advises, "Just smile, be positive, be confident.")
Her parents seem impressed with their determined daughter. "We're very proud of her for taking responsibility. It's not an easy road, but it's the right road," says Sarah. "Decisions were made, and we can't unwind those decisions. Consequences are being dealt with. I'm sincerely proud of her."
Indeed, if the campaign spotlight finds Bristol again, version 2.0 will be tougher. "There's been so much misreporting and lying about me and my family, it makes me sick," she says. "It proves a lot of reporters just report lies and rumors, so I'd push for more accountability." Meanwhile, she and the rest of the world are speculating about Palin 2012. "I don't know if my mom will run, but she should."
Unsurprisingly, she's no Obama fan. "I think he is making more Americans become dependent on government, and he's acting like government can and should take care of everyone. That is completely contrary to what made America a great nation. We should be expected to take responsibility for ourselves."
After all, though Bristol is finding her own path, she is still her mother's daughter: "I just want Tripp to be happy and healthy. But it would be fun if he was an athlete," she says, before picking him up and giving him a hug. "I know I'll be a hockey mom."
Benyamin Korn in the Jewish Voice
An interview in the Jewish Voice with the founder of Jews for Sarah, Benyamin Korn:
What about Sarah Palin inspired you to found this organization?
Korn: Sarah Palin is a tremendous - perhaps once in a generation - political figure. Despite what her detractors and enemies keep repeating endlessly, she is brilliant, charismatic, on top of the issues, and a leader fully capable of taking her place on the world stage. She is an authentic American and the kind of popular and populist politician who can reach the hearts and minds of the average American voter.
Why, though, start a specifically Jewish organization in support of Sarah Palin?
We wanted to break down barriers to the serious consideration of her ideas within the Jewish community. There is intellectual snobbery reagrading Palin since she's not Princeton- or Harvard-educated. Some people are also worried about her reputed association with right-wing figures from beyond the pale. These kinds of issues have been raised in order to try alienating Jewish voters from her. We aim to change that.
Also, many Jewish voters are concerned about Obama's treatment of Israel. One of the key factors in the upcoming elections will be swing and independent voters, and Jews are very heavily swing voters and independent voters. In 1980, 60 percent of Jimmy Carter's [Jewish supporters from 1976] abandoned him to vote for the most conservative candidate of our era, Ronald Reagan.
So we want to get the message out in the Jewish community that it is time to take the gavel back from [Senate Majority Leader] Harry [Reid] and [House Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi], as Sarah Palin put it recently in a speech in Chicago, and time to ensure that the present occupant of the White House is a one-term president.
Finally, it is time that the Orthodox community be given a voice in national politics by being able to show that we not only support [Palin's political agenda], but we especially connect with her family-values agenda. That part of her social conservatism that may make other Jews skittish is a kind of religious and family outlook on life that we, as Orthodox Jews, share.
But considering the whole saga with Palin's daughter during the 2008 presidential campaign, can you really say that Orthodox Jews share her family values?
She supported her daughter having the baby even though she conceived the child before she was married. There was the expectation that the daughter was going to marry this guy. It didn't turn out that way - I'm sure to Governor Palin's sorrow. I'm not saying she's perfect. I'm saying that her values are basically our values.
Earlier you referred to Palin as "brilliant." Is that really a fair description considering her reputation as someone who is out of her league when it comes to national politics?
It's completely ridiculous. Spend ten minutes listening to the woman give a speech and all of those epithets about her are just demolished.
What about her infamous interview with Katie Couric?
I think it's true that she's better as a public speaker than in an interview format. Every politician has things they can improve upon. Obama, who's a fantastic speaker, is terrible once you get him off the teleprompter.
If Palin is truly brilliant, as you say, why is it that so many think of her as mediocre, at best?
It's politically motivated. Look, I spent my whole life among highly-educated Jews, and I don't hear anyone speaking more truth or sense than this woman. Now, there are people who have more academic backgrounds than she does. She's not Harvard Law School. But you don't need to be to run a country.
You could be Harvard Law School and not understand who this country's enemies are, or you could be the governor of the great state of Alaska and understand who this country's enemies are. Who would you rather have leading the country?
Your father, Bertram Korn, was a prominent Reform rabbi and a noted author. And yet, you are Orthodox and a conservative activist. How did that come about?
I wasn't always right wing. I was raised in the heart of the liberal Jewish community. I went to Quaker school for 12 years. In college I was a left-wing campus activist, and I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980. But in the 1980s, I had a Jewish and political awakening and became involved with Zionist politics and began to publicly identify as an Orthodox Jew.
What caused the awakening?
I was studying for the State Department examinations to be a Foreign Service officer. And, if you really take it seriously, that kind of studying forces you to ask yourself a different set of questions than you typically ask in college. In college you look at any situation and say, "Okay, what's wrong with this picture?" But if you take the job of representing this country seriously, then you start thinking about policies that are going to affect the lives of thousands, or even millions, of people.
Instead of asking "What's wrong with this picture?" you ask a deeper question, which is, "Given the limited number of ways in this real world to do things right, what should I do?" It's a more mature kind of question. Once I started asking that kind of question, I began to see the hollowness of the left because a lot of what goes on in the left is fashionable political posturing without having any real responsibility to anybody.
And the religious awakening?
I was one of the Jews for whom the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, created a Jewish revolution. I met a Lubavitcher in the film department at Temple University where I was a graduate student in 1985 and [matters developed from there].
Back to Palin: How can you be sure that she won't modify her views once in office? President George W. Bush, for example, promised to move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem before he was elected. Once in office, though, he changed his mind.
That's a good question, and you can never say for sure how a politician will respond to the pressures once they achieve a very high office. But what you can say is that Sarah Palin's heart and soul are wrapped up in love of Israel and the Jewish people.
Earlier this month, Palin went to the Time 100 gala of the most influential people with her husband and three of her kids. It was like a frum family. This is the glittery of the world at Lincoln Center, and Palin shows up with her husband and three kids. You got to love it. But on top of that, she also wore a pin of the American and Israeli flags. Why did she need to do that? The answer, of course, is she did not. But this woman clearly loves Israel, and that's what's important.
What about Sarah Palin inspired you to found this organization?
Korn: Sarah Palin is a tremendous - perhaps once in a generation - political figure. Despite what her detractors and enemies keep repeating endlessly, she is brilliant, charismatic, on top of the issues, and a leader fully capable of taking her place on the world stage. She is an authentic American and the kind of popular and populist politician who can reach the hearts and minds of the average American voter.
Why, though, start a specifically Jewish organization in support of Sarah Palin?
We wanted to break down barriers to the serious consideration of her ideas within the Jewish community. There is intellectual snobbery reagrading Palin since she's not Princeton- or Harvard-educated. Some people are also worried about her reputed association with right-wing figures from beyond the pale. These kinds of issues have been raised in order to try alienating Jewish voters from her. We aim to change that.
Also, many Jewish voters are concerned about Obama's treatment of Israel. One of the key factors in the upcoming elections will be swing and independent voters, and Jews are very heavily swing voters and independent voters. In 1980, 60 percent of Jimmy Carter's [Jewish supporters from 1976] abandoned him to vote for the most conservative candidate of our era, Ronald Reagan.
So we want to get the message out in the Jewish community that it is time to take the gavel back from [Senate Majority Leader] Harry [Reid] and [House Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi], as Sarah Palin put it recently in a speech in Chicago, and time to ensure that the present occupant of the White House is a one-term president.
Finally, it is time that the Orthodox community be given a voice in national politics by being able to show that we not only support [Palin's political agenda], but we especially connect with her family-values agenda. That part of her social conservatism that may make other Jews skittish is a kind of religious and family outlook on life that we, as Orthodox Jews, share.
But considering the whole saga with Palin's daughter during the 2008 presidential campaign, can you really say that Orthodox Jews share her family values?
She supported her daughter having the baby even though she conceived the child before she was married. There was the expectation that the daughter was going to marry this guy. It didn't turn out that way - I'm sure to Governor Palin's sorrow. I'm not saying she's perfect. I'm saying that her values are basically our values.
Earlier you referred to Palin as "brilliant." Is that really a fair description considering her reputation as someone who is out of her league when it comes to national politics?
It's completely ridiculous. Spend ten minutes listening to the woman give a speech and all of those epithets about her are just demolished.
What about her infamous interview with Katie Couric?
I think it's true that she's better as a public speaker than in an interview format. Every politician has things they can improve upon. Obama, who's a fantastic speaker, is terrible once you get him off the teleprompter.
If Palin is truly brilliant, as you say, why is it that so many think of her as mediocre, at best?
It's politically motivated. Look, I spent my whole life among highly-educated Jews, and I don't hear anyone speaking more truth or sense than this woman. Now, there are people who have more academic backgrounds than she does. She's not Harvard Law School. But you don't need to be to run a country.
You could be Harvard Law School and not understand who this country's enemies are, or you could be the governor of the great state of Alaska and understand who this country's enemies are. Who would you rather have leading the country?
Your father, Bertram Korn, was a prominent Reform rabbi and a noted author. And yet, you are Orthodox and a conservative activist. How did that come about?
I wasn't always right wing. I was raised in the heart of the liberal Jewish community. I went to Quaker school for 12 years. In college I was a left-wing campus activist, and I voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980. But in the 1980s, I had a Jewish and political awakening and became involved with Zionist politics and began to publicly identify as an Orthodox Jew.
What caused the awakening?
I was studying for the State Department examinations to be a Foreign Service officer. And, if you really take it seriously, that kind of studying forces you to ask yourself a different set of questions than you typically ask in college. In college you look at any situation and say, "Okay, what's wrong with this picture?" But if you take the job of representing this country seriously, then you start thinking about policies that are going to affect the lives of thousands, or even millions, of people.
Instead of asking "What's wrong with this picture?" you ask a deeper question, which is, "Given the limited number of ways in this real world to do things right, what should I do?" It's a more mature kind of question. Once I started asking that kind of question, I began to see the hollowness of the left because a lot of what goes on in the left is fashionable political posturing without having any real responsibility to anybody.
And the religious awakening?
I was one of the Jews for whom the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, created a Jewish revolution. I met a Lubavitcher in the film department at Temple University where I was a graduate student in 1985 and [matters developed from there].
Back to Palin: How can you be sure that she won't modify her views once in office? President George W. Bush, for example, promised to move the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem before he was elected. Once in office, though, he changed his mind.
That's a good question, and you can never say for sure how a politician will respond to the pressures once they achieve a very high office. But what you can say is that Sarah Palin's heart and soul are wrapped up in love of Israel and the Jewish people.
Earlier this month, Palin went to the Time 100 gala of the most influential people with her husband and three of her kids. It was like a frum family. This is the glittery of the world at Lincoln Center, and Palin shows up with her husband and three kids. You got to love it. But on top of that, she also wore a pin of the American and Israeli flags. Why did she need to do that? The answer, of course, is she did not. But this woman clearly loves Israel, and that's what's important.
Death Panels were Overblown....Until Now
Article in the Daily Caller:
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During the debate over ObamaCare, the bill’s opponents were excoriated for talk of rationing and “death panels.” And in fairness, with a few minor exceptions governing Medicare reimbursements, the law does not directly ration care or allow the government to dictate how doctors practice medicine.
But if President Obama wanted to keep a lid on that particular controversy, he just selected about the worst possible nominee for director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the office that oversees government health care programs. Obama’s pick, Dr. Donald Berwick, is an outspoken admirer of the British National Health Service and its rationing arm, the National Institute for Clinical Effectiveness (NICE).
“I am romantic about the National Health Service. I love it,” Berwick said during a 2008 speech to British physicians, going on to call it “generous, hopeful, confident, joyous, and just.” He compared the wonders of British health care to a U.S. system that he described as trapped in “the darkness of private enterprise.”
Berwick was referring to a British health care system where 750,000 patients are awaiting admission to NHS hospitals. The government’s official target for diagnostic testing was a wait of no more than 18 weeks by 2008. The reality doesn’t come close. The latest estimates suggest that for most specialties, only 30 to 50 percent of patients are treated within 18 weeks. For trauma and orthopedics patients, the figure is only 20 percent.
Overall, more than half of British patients wait more than 18 weeks for care. Every year, 50,000 surgeries are canceled because patients become too sick on the waiting list to proceed.
The one thing the NHS is good at is saving money. After all, it is far cheaper to let the sick die than to provide care.
At the forefront of this cost-based rationing is NICE. It acts as a comparative-effectiveness tool for NHS, comparing various treatments and determining whether the benefits the patient receives, such as prolonged life, are cost-efficient for the government.
NICE, however, is not simply a government agency that helps bureaucrats decide if one treatment is better than another. With the creation of NICE, the U.K. government has effectively put a dollar amount to how much a citizen’s life is worth.
To be exact, each year of added life is worth approximately $44,305 (£30,000). Of course, this is a general rule and, as NICE chairman Michael Rawlins points out, the agency has sometimes approved treatments costing as much as $70,887 (£48,000) per year of extended life.
To Dr. Berwick , this is exactly how it should be. “NICE is not just a national treasure,” he says, “it is a global treasure.”
And, Dr. Berwick wants to bring NICE-style rationing to this country. “It’s not a question of whether we will ration care,” he said in a magazine interview for Biotechnology Healthcare, “It is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”
Dr. Berwick, a professor of health policy at Harvard, actually favors a single-payer system for the U.S. But what he considers absolutely essential to health care reform is government control over health care spending, not just for government programs but by patients themselves.
“The hallmarks of proper financial management in a system,” he wrote, “are government policies, purchasing contracts, or market mechanisms that lead to a cap on total spending, with strictly limited year-on-year growth targets.” That way “rational collective action overrid[es] individual self-interest.”
Recent reports suggest that the recently passed health care bill will be far more expensive than originally projected. As it becomes apparent that that ObamaCare is unsustainable, the calls for controlling its costs through rationing will grow louder. With Donald Berwick running the government’s health care efforts, those voices will have a ready ear.
Maybe those worries about death panels weren’t so crazy after all.
------------
During the debate over ObamaCare, the bill’s opponents were excoriated for talk of rationing and “death panels.” And in fairness, with a few minor exceptions governing Medicare reimbursements, the law does not directly ration care or allow the government to dictate how doctors practice medicine.
But if President Obama wanted to keep a lid on that particular controversy, he just selected about the worst possible nominee for director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the office that oversees government health care programs. Obama’s pick, Dr. Donald Berwick, is an outspoken admirer of the British National Health Service and its rationing arm, the National Institute for Clinical Effectiveness (NICE).
“I am romantic about the National Health Service. I love it,” Berwick said during a 2008 speech to British physicians, going on to call it “generous, hopeful, confident, joyous, and just.” He compared the wonders of British health care to a U.S. system that he described as trapped in “the darkness of private enterprise.”
Berwick was referring to a British health care system where 750,000 patients are awaiting admission to NHS hospitals. The government’s official target for diagnostic testing was a wait of no more than 18 weeks by 2008. The reality doesn’t come close. The latest estimates suggest that for most specialties, only 30 to 50 percent of patients are treated within 18 weeks. For trauma and orthopedics patients, the figure is only 20 percent.
Overall, more than half of British patients wait more than 18 weeks for care. Every year, 50,000 surgeries are canceled because patients become too sick on the waiting list to proceed.
The one thing the NHS is good at is saving money. After all, it is far cheaper to let the sick die than to provide care.
At the forefront of this cost-based rationing is NICE. It acts as a comparative-effectiveness tool for NHS, comparing various treatments and determining whether the benefits the patient receives, such as prolonged life, are cost-efficient for the government.
NICE, however, is not simply a government agency that helps bureaucrats decide if one treatment is better than another. With the creation of NICE, the U.K. government has effectively put a dollar amount to how much a citizen’s life is worth.
To be exact, each year of added life is worth approximately $44,305 (£30,000). Of course, this is a general rule and, as NICE chairman Michael Rawlins points out, the agency has sometimes approved treatments costing as much as $70,887 (£48,000) per year of extended life.
To Dr. Berwick , this is exactly how it should be. “NICE is not just a national treasure,” he says, “it is a global treasure.”
And, Dr. Berwick wants to bring NICE-style rationing to this country. “It’s not a question of whether we will ration care,” he said in a magazine interview for Biotechnology Healthcare, “It is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”
Dr. Berwick, a professor of health policy at Harvard, actually favors a single-payer system for the U.S. But what he considers absolutely essential to health care reform is government control over health care spending, not just for government programs but by patients themselves.
“The hallmarks of proper financial management in a system,” he wrote, “are government policies, purchasing contracts, or market mechanisms that lead to a cap on total spending, with strictly limited year-on-year growth targets.” That way “rational collective action overrid[es] individual self-interest.”
Recent reports suggest that the recently passed health care bill will be far more expensive than originally projected. As it becomes apparent that that ObamaCare is unsustainable, the calls for controlling its costs through rationing will grow louder. With Donald Berwick running the government’s health care efforts, those voices will have a ready ear.
Maybe those worries about death panels weren’t so crazy after all.
Shut Up About Sarah Palin Already
Ilana Angel of the Jewish Journal wrote another piece on Palin:
---------------
Yesterday I went shopping at Target. I was preoccupied, and not really paying attention, when I walked into a little boy. He looked to be about 6 years old, and was standing alone in the aisle. I bent down and told him I was sorry, asked if he was okay, and he assured me he was.
I asked the little boy who he was with, and he told me his mommy. I took his hand, and told him I would help him find her. He asked me to pick him up, which I did. I asked what his mom’s name was, and I began to call out for her. We quickly found her, as she was frantically looking for him
She was lovely, and happy to have her boy back in her sight. I passed off the little man, and told her to have a good day. The little boy, who had Down’s Syndrome, asked me what my name was. I told him, and he responded with “Thank you Ilana. I love you.” It was precious.
About 20 minutes later, I was leaving the register, having just paid, when I heard the little boy calling my name. I turned around, and saw he was in line with his mom, in the shopping cart. I waved and said hello. He asked to be let out of the cart. I told the mother it was fine, and I would stay until she paid.
This woman was super cute, whispered thank you, and took her son out of the cart. As he made his way over to where I was, he “pushed” a woman out of his way to get to me. It wasn’t a shove, he’s just a child. He gave her a little push, so he could get by. He passed her, ran over, and said “Hello Ilana”.
I lifted him up, put him on the counter of an unused register, and we talked until his mother finished paying for her shopping. He asked me if I like to chew gum, which I do, and we talked about gum. His mother came over with her bags, thanked me for the help, and we headed out of the store together.
As I walked to my car, the woman the little boy pushed out of his way, was getting into the car next to me. She asked me where my little boy was. I told her it was not my child, just a friend. She told me I should tell my friend that her son was rude, and hurt her foot when he pushed her.
I think I actually started to laugh, and asked if she was serious. I told her he did not push her, but just rushed past her, and he was not intentionally trying to hurt her. I apologized for him, rolled my eyes, and went to get into my car. As I closed my door, she called me a bitch.
Well. I got out and said, “I beg your pardon?” She then told me that I was a “Palin Lover”, and going to hell. Oh. My. God. Who are these people? I about lost my mind, but instead, asked her calmly what she was talking about. She explained it, as if we were talking about the weather.
Apparently, if you have a child with Down’s Syndrome, it means God is punishing you. God was punishing Palin for being a sinner, by giving her a “damaged” child. He was punishing every person, who has a child with Down’s Syndrome, for a countless array of sins.
Seriously. How is it possible that this opinion can even exist? This little boy was an angel, as is Ms. Palin’s son Trig, as are all children. Kids are innocent, and to have hatred directed at a child, is crushing to me. I cried the entire way home, and not a pretty cry, but a heaving, snotty cry.
I don’t care what you think about Ms. Palin. My opinions about her are beyond irrelevant, and should matter to nobody but me. I am not a politician. I am, most importantly, and before all else, a mother, and I have this to say: SHUT UP ABOUT SARAH PALIN’S KID YOU MORON.
Ever since I wrote about my encounter with Sarah Palin, and the fact that I thought, after meeting her, that she was a cool broad, I have been the target of hate. Both from strangers, and people I know. I don’t think about it too much, because at the end of the day, who cares?
I met her, I dug her, I wrote about it, and I moved on. Sarah Palin and I have nothing in common when it comes to our views on politics, abortion, hunting, or FOX News. I did not judge her based on our different views, because that’s not my job.
Regardless of what I may or may not think about this woman, I would never, and I mean NEVER, say anything derogatory about her children. Some things are off limits, and the top of that list, is children. I liked her because she was funny, engaging, and charming. We talked about our kids, my work, and clothes. It was a million years ago, and not that big a deal.
I am sick and tired of people attacking this woman’s child. Think whatever you want about her, I certainly do, but leave her kids alone. To the woman at Target, you are disgusting and pathetic. I could write a million things, and none of them are nice. Instead I will simply pray for you.
Kids are not born knowing hate, they are taught to hate. People need to stop worrying so much about what Sarah Palin is going to do to the country, and start worrying about each other. Hate is not in Alaska, it’s at Target. I’m very sad today. May God bless all our children. Keep the faith.
------------
Ilana did an interview with Team Sarah's Blog Talk Radio about her meeting with Palin:
---------------
Yesterday I went shopping at Target. I was preoccupied, and not really paying attention, when I walked into a little boy. He looked to be about 6 years old, and was standing alone in the aisle. I bent down and told him I was sorry, asked if he was okay, and he assured me he was.
I asked the little boy who he was with, and he told me his mommy. I took his hand, and told him I would help him find her. He asked me to pick him up, which I did. I asked what his mom’s name was, and I began to call out for her. We quickly found her, as she was frantically looking for him
She was lovely, and happy to have her boy back in her sight. I passed off the little man, and told her to have a good day. The little boy, who had Down’s Syndrome, asked me what my name was. I told him, and he responded with “Thank you Ilana. I love you.” It was precious.
About 20 minutes later, I was leaving the register, having just paid, when I heard the little boy calling my name. I turned around, and saw he was in line with his mom, in the shopping cart. I waved and said hello. He asked to be let out of the cart. I told the mother it was fine, and I would stay until she paid.
This woman was super cute, whispered thank you, and took her son out of the cart. As he made his way over to where I was, he “pushed” a woman out of his way to get to me. It wasn’t a shove, he’s just a child. He gave her a little push, so he could get by. He passed her, ran over, and said “Hello Ilana”.
I lifted him up, put him on the counter of an unused register, and we talked until his mother finished paying for her shopping. He asked me if I like to chew gum, which I do, and we talked about gum. His mother came over with her bags, thanked me for the help, and we headed out of the store together.
As I walked to my car, the woman the little boy pushed out of his way, was getting into the car next to me. She asked me where my little boy was. I told her it was not my child, just a friend. She told me I should tell my friend that her son was rude, and hurt her foot when he pushed her.
I think I actually started to laugh, and asked if she was serious. I told her he did not push her, but just rushed past her, and he was not intentionally trying to hurt her. I apologized for him, rolled my eyes, and went to get into my car. As I closed my door, she called me a bitch.
Well. I got out and said, “I beg your pardon?” She then told me that I was a “Palin Lover”, and going to hell. Oh. My. God. Who are these people? I about lost my mind, but instead, asked her calmly what she was talking about. She explained it, as if we were talking about the weather.
Apparently, if you have a child with Down’s Syndrome, it means God is punishing you. God was punishing Palin for being a sinner, by giving her a “damaged” child. He was punishing every person, who has a child with Down’s Syndrome, for a countless array of sins.
Seriously. How is it possible that this opinion can even exist? This little boy was an angel, as is Ms. Palin’s son Trig, as are all children. Kids are innocent, and to have hatred directed at a child, is crushing to me. I cried the entire way home, and not a pretty cry, but a heaving, snotty cry.
I don’t care what you think about Ms. Palin. My opinions about her are beyond irrelevant, and should matter to nobody but me. I am not a politician. I am, most importantly, and before all else, a mother, and I have this to say: SHUT UP ABOUT SARAH PALIN’S KID YOU MORON.
Ever since I wrote about my encounter with Sarah Palin, and the fact that I thought, after meeting her, that she was a cool broad, I have been the target of hate. Both from strangers, and people I know. I don’t think about it too much, because at the end of the day, who cares?
I met her, I dug her, I wrote about it, and I moved on. Sarah Palin and I have nothing in common when it comes to our views on politics, abortion, hunting, or FOX News. I did not judge her based on our different views, because that’s not my job.
Regardless of what I may or may not think about this woman, I would never, and I mean NEVER, say anything derogatory about her children. Some things are off limits, and the top of that list, is children. I liked her because she was funny, engaging, and charming. We talked about our kids, my work, and clothes. It was a million years ago, and not that big a deal.
I am sick and tired of people attacking this woman’s child. Think whatever you want about her, I certainly do, but leave her kids alone. To the woman at Target, you are disgusting and pathetic. I could write a million things, and none of them are nice. Instead I will simply pray for you.
Kids are not born knowing hate, they are taught to hate. People need to stop worrying so much about what Sarah Palin is going to do to the country, and start worrying about each other. Hate is not in Alaska, it’s at Target. I’m very sad today. May God bless all our children. Keep the faith.
------------
Ilana did an interview with Team Sarah's Blog Talk Radio about her meeting with Palin:
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Out of the Mouths of Democrats...
Oh, great. Weeks after the spill starts Obama's going down there. Way to get right on it, dude.
Can you imagine the media asking calmly in the midst of Katrina, "But, what else can the President do? At least he's going down there (weeks after the fact)."
Can you imagine the media asking calmly in the midst of Katrina, "But, what else can the President do? At least he's going down there (weeks after the fact)."
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Peeping Joe
Peeping Joe....When Sarah put out her Facebook post last night about Pathetic-Creepy-Stalker-Boy, my first reaction was to laugh my guts out. I knew these people were sad, sad, human beings. I had no idea it was this bad.
The idea of this idiot who despises the Palins and yet is obsessed with them, actually moving in next door to them so he can get a closer look....he just made himself out to be an absolute fool. He just completely and totally just destroyed his own reputation. He has now been thoroughly humiliated in front of the entire world, and rightly so. I just couldn't get over the patheticness and I had to laugh at it.
Then I started thinking about the Palin's side of it. Man alive, the one place you think that you can retreat to and not have to deal with the creeps of the world that hate your guts, the one place where you can "let your hair down" and just be yourself and enjoy some degree of normalcy has just been invaded by a guy who never met a lie about you he didn't like and who is going to be watching your every move.
What a pain. You want at least one place in the world that's away from prying eyes where you don't want to have to worry about what you look like or if someone's watching. In a world where everyone knows your name you want some privacy.
A fence would be great, but be on the lookout for any strange boats floating by....
What fascinating things will Joe uncover? Hmmmmm.
Oh, look, they're mowing the lawn!
As for his son's quote about him trying to "pick up the pieces" after Todd leaves or something, I think the kid was joking. But a tiny part of me wonders because the Underground does have a meme that Todd is "at the breaking point."
How horrible for the Palins. They've probably been looking forward to spending summer together for some time now. This is the calm before the storm of election season. Quality time to decompress and be together supposedly away from the prying eyes of the rest of the world. Now this jerk has the gall to become their next-door stalker and summarily put a damper on the whole thing. Apparently they can't even have peace in their own yard.
I liked the tone of her FB post. I'm sure the Palins are very upset by this, yet the post was snarky and had humor. This avoids turning Joe into the victim. It got out ahead of Joe, but I also got the feeling that maybe she was just so frustrated by the whole thing, that she had to tell her supporters about it. And if she read the comments on that note, I'll betcha she walked away feelin' a whole lot better. A lot of those comments were laugh-out-loud funny.
What can they do? They can't kick him out. We, the public, can shame and belittle the guy, maybe boycott his publisher or something, but that's about it. I suppose they could try to buy the house, but I'm not sure how that would play.
It's easy for me to sit here far away from the situation and say like I am tempted to that the Palins shouldn't let this get to them, but I'm not in their shoes. I don't have a creepy stalker living twelve feet from my kitchen window.
So, all I can say is that I wish the Palins the best and I hope they have a great time in spite of it. Don't let the loser-stalker ruin your summer.
Good, high, soundproof, electric, barbed-wire-topped fences make good neighbors.
Monday, May 24, 2010
One-Two Punch
One:
-------
Well, whaddya know? South Carolina’s conservative candidate, Nikki Haley, recently zipped to the front of the line in her state’s race for governor; and lo and behold, now accusations of an affair surface.
Nikki categorically denies the accusation that was spewed out there by a political blogger who has the gall to throw the stone, but then quickly duck and hide and proclaim he would not comment further on the issue. Quite convenient.
When Nikki and I held her endorsement rally on the steps of the beautiful and historic South Carolina state house a few weeks ago, I warned her and her family that she would be targeted because she’s a threat to a corrupt political machine, and she would be put through some hell. That, unfortunately, is the nature of the beast in politics today – especially for conservative “underdog” candidates who surge in the polls and threaten to shake things up so government can be put back on the side of the people.
South Carolina: don’t let some blogger make any accusation against your Nikki if the guy doesn’t even have the guts or the integrity to speak further on such a significant claim. And don’t believe anything a liberal rag claims or suggests unless the reporter involved has the integrity and the facts to report to you so you can make up your own mind. For traditional media to rely on an accusation via some blog entry is almost laughable, but I know the seriousness of it because that’s exactly what my family and colleagues have had to put up with, every single day, for the past couple of years.
As I said to Nikki this morning, “Hang in there. I’ve been there. Any lies told about you will strengthen your resolve to clean up political and media corruption. You and your supporters will grow stronger through things like this.”
Reaching her from Wasilla, I then joked with Nikki that I was calling her from one of the many locations the lamestream media claims I moved to. (Let’s see, I think the last I heard I was living in the Hamptons, or was it Montana? No, supposedly L.A. is where they claim I moved when I “left Todd” in their idiotic reports.)
South Carolina friends, don’t let ‘em just make things up.
- Sarah Palin
Two:
-----------
Many Americans want a serious discussion about what can be done to finally tackle the Gulf Coast oil spill. Unfortunately, yesterday White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs used his appearance on “Face the Nation” to deflect from the needed discussion about solutions as he suggested that I should “get slightly more informed as to what’s going on in and around oil drilling in this country.”
Mr. Gibbs’ comments were in response to something I said last weekend in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” In the course of discussing the administration’s failure to get to grips with the oil spill, I pointed out that the media was rather silent on asking if there was a connection between the White House’s hands-off response to the spill and the undisputed fact that Barack Obama was BP’s top recipient of both PAC and individual money for the last 20 years.
Please note that I never claimed there was a conspiratorial connection; rather, I was saying that it’s odd that so few in the media have asked that question. In fact, I believe Major Garrett is one of the few reporters to pursue the issue. You can be sure that if this were a Republican administration, at the very least the media would be asking that question nonstop.
As for getting “informed” about oil drilling: I’m confident that in the course of my chairmanship of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) and the U.S.’s Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), and my work as governor of our nation’s huge oil producing state, I’ve learned enough to be able to say with some certainty that the White House’s response to this crisis leaves something to be desired. I also believe that the White House should spend all of its time finding solutions to the enormous oil gush problem.
The Obama administration claims that it “will not rest until we get this situation under control,” but in practice it’s evident that it must do more to stop a potential environmental disaster from happening. U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen probably summed it up best when he described the Obama Administration’s approach to this crisis as “keeping a close watch” while BP is tackling the problem – at the company’s own pace.
While the Administration watches from the sidelines, the Gulf Coast states face some potential disaster. This raises serious questions. Should it really take nine whole days before the Administration asked the Department of Defense for help in deploying equipment needed for the extreme depth spill site?
Why is Governor Jindal still waiting, 35 days later, for material needed to tackle the oil spill to protect the coast’s environment and for federal approval to build offshore sand barriers to protect his state’s coast line? Is it correct that the Coast Guard was initially unwilling to burn off the oil for fear of causing air pollution (which would have been far less harmful than the current water pollution)?
These questions all require answers. In the meantime, let me make a constructive suggestion to help the White House out of its current impasse. They should reach out to the best oil and gas team in the nation and tap into its expertise. I know just the team: Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, led by Commissioner Tom Irwin. Having worked with Tom and his DNR team as Governor, I can vouch for their expertise and their integrity in dealing with Big Oil and overseeing its developments.
This team’s (and Alaska’s PSIO team’s) expertise on oil spill issues is particularly relevant. We all lived and worked through the Exxon oil spill, and we all committed to the principle that this would never happen again in Alaska’s waters, at least not on our watch. That’s why we created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO) when we saw proof of improper maintenance of oil infrastructure in our state.
And that’s why we instituted new oversight and held BP and other oil companies financially accountable for poor maintenance practices. And that’s why we cracked down on unethical and unsound practices by oil companies and their contractors that operate in Alaska. And that’s why I filed a Friend-of-the-Court brief against Exxon’s interests for its decades-old responsibility to compensate victims adversely affected by the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.
None of these actions made us popular with oil company management. (In fact, Commissioner Irwin received a message from a North Slope oil company employee that summed up their view of our efforts well: the message told him to “go to hell, but resign first.”) Our relationship with Big Oil may have been perceived as contentious because we always put the interests of Alaskans first.
The White House could do worse than emulate what Alaska did over the years. No, it doesn’t make you popular with Big Oil (my commissioners and I certainly learned that!), and you may see fewer campaign contributions flow your way – but so what? Dealing with the impacts of 35 days of uncontrolled oil flow into pristine waters is more than enough time for the White House to realize they need to tap into expertise, hold BP accountable, and not waste time politicking around such a grave situation.
Taking a tough stand to protect our environment while domestically drilling for much-needed energy sources is the only way the public can trust government and industry to safely work towards energy independence. We need to “Drill, baby, drill” responsibly, safely, and ethically. That’s the way Alaska’s DNR accomplishes its mission in America’s 49th state.
- Sarah Palin
----------
For the record, she is not saying that Tom Irwin or her team know how to plug up the pipe.
She's saying that Alaska and these people have dealt with a massive oil spill before, and if the White House wants to know how to deal with one, it's only common sense to talk to those who have lived through it and dealt with it already
-------
Well, whaddya know? South Carolina’s conservative candidate, Nikki Haley, recently zipped to the front of the line in her state’s race for governor; and lo and behold, now accusations of an affair surface.
Nikki categorically denies the accusation that was spewed out there by a political blogger who has the gall to throw the stone, but then quickly duck and hide and proclaim he would not comment further on the issue. Quite convenient.
When Nikki and I held her endorsement rally on the steps of the beautiful and historic South Carolina state house a few weeks ago, I warned her and her family that she would be targeted because she’s a threat to a corrupt political machine, and she would be put through some hell. That, unfortunately, is the nature of the beast in politics today – especially for conservative “underdog” candidates who surge in the polls and threaten to shake things up so government can be put back on the side of the people.
South Carolina: don’t let some blogger make any accusation against your Nikki if the guy doesn’t even have the guts or the integrity to speak further on such a significant claim. And don’t believe anything a liberal rag claims or suggests unless the reporter involved has the integrity and the facts to report to you so you can make up your own mind. For traditional media to rely on an accusation via some blog entry is almost laughable, but I know the seriousness of it because that’s exactly what my family and colleagues have had to put up with, every single day, for the past couple of years.
As I said to Nikki this morning, “Hang in there. I’ve been there. Any lies told about you will strengthen your resolve to clean up political and media corruption. You and your supporters will grow stronger through things like this.”
Reaching her from Wasilla, I then joked with Nikki that I was calling her from one of the many locations the lamestream media claims I moved to. (Let’s see, I think the last I heard I was living in the Hamptons, or was it Montana? No, supposedly L.A. is where they claim I moved when I “left Todd” in their idiotic reports.)
South Carolina friends, don’t let ‘em just make things up.
- Sarah Palin
Two:
-----------
Many Americans want a serious discussion about what can be done to finally tackle the Gulf Coast oil spill. Unfortunately, yesterday White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs used his appearance on “Face the Nation” to deflect from the needed discussion about solutions as he suggested that I should “get slightly more informed as to what’s going on in and around oil drilling in this country.”
Mr. Gibbs’ comments were in response to something I said last weekend in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” In the course of discussing the administration’s failure to get to grips with the oil spill, I pointed out that the media was rather silent on asking if there was a connection between the White House’s hands-off response to the spill and the undisputed fact that Barack Obama was BP’s top recipient of both PAC and individual money for the last 20 years.
Please note that I never claimed there was a conspiratorial connection; rather, I was saying that it’s odd that so few in the media have asked that question. In fact, I believe Major Garrett is one of the few reporters to pursue the issue. You can be sure that if this were a Republican administration, at the very least the media would be asking that question nonstop.
As for getting “informed” about oil drilling: I’m confident that in the course of my chairmanship of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) and the U.S.’s Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), and my work as governor of our nation’s huge oil producing state, I’ve learned enough to be able to say with some certainty that the White House’s response to this crisis leaves something to be desired. I also believe that the White House should spend all of its time finding solutions to the enormous oil gush problem.
The Obama administration claims that it “will not rest until we get this situation under control,” but in practice it’s evident that it must do more to stop a potential environmental disaster from happening. U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen probably summed it up best when he described the Obama Administration’s approach to this crisis as “keeping a close watch” while BP is tackling the problem – at the company’s own pace.
While the Administration watches from the sidelines, the Gulf Coast states face some potential disaster. This raises serious questions. Should it really take nine whole days before the Administration asked the Department of Defense for help in deploying equipment needed for the extreme depth spill site?
Why is Governor Jindal still waiting, 35 days later, for material needed to tackle the oil spill to protect the coast’s environment and for federal approval to build offshore sand barriers to protect his state’s coast line? Is it correct that the Coast Guard was initially unwilling to burn off the oil for fear of causing air pollution (which would have been far less harmful than the current water pollution)?
These questions all require answers. In the meantime, let me make a constructive suggestion to help the White House out of its current impasse. They should reach out to the best oil and gas team in the nation and tap into its expertise. I know just the team: Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources, led by Commissioner Tom Irwin. Having worked with Tom and his DNR team as Governor, I can vouch for their expertise and their integrity in dealing with Big Oil and overseeing its developments.
This team’s (and Alaska’s PSIO team’s) expertise on oil spill issues is particularly relevant. We all lived and worked through the Exxon oil spill, and we all committed to the principle that this would never happen again in Alaska’s waters, at least not on our watch. That’s why we created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO) when we saw proof of improper maintenance of oil infrastructure in our state.
And that’s why we instituted new oversight and held BP and other oil companies financially accountable for poor maintenance practices. And that’s why we cracked down on unethical and unsound practices by oil companies and their contractors that operate in Alaska. And that’s why I filed a Friend-of-the-Court brief against Exxon’s interests for its decades-old responsibility to compensate victims adversely affected by the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.
None of these actions made us popular with oil company management. (In fact, Commissioner Irwin received a message from a North Slope oil company employee that summed up their view of our efforts well: the message told him to “go to hell, but resign first.”) Our relationship with Big Oil may have been perceived as contentious because we always put the interests of Alaskans first.
The White House could do worse than emulate what Alaska did over the years. No, it doesn’t make you popular with Big Oil (my commissioners and I certainly learned that!), and you may see fewer campaign contributions flow your way – but so what? Dealing with the impacts of 35 days of uncontrolled oil flow into pristine waters is more than enough time for the White House to realize they need to tap into expertise, hold BP accountable, and not waste time politicking around such a grave situation.
Taking a tough stand to protect our environment while domestically drilling for much-needed energy sources is the only way the public can trust government and industry to safely work towards energy independence. We need to “Drill, baby, drill” responsibly, safely, and ethically. That’s the way Alaska’s DNR accomplishes its mission in America’s 49th state.
- Sarah Palin
----------
For the record, she is not saying that Tom Irwin or her team know how to plug up the pipe.
She's saying that Alaska and these people have dealt with a massive oil spill before, and if the White House wants to know how to deal with one, it's only common sense to talk to those who have lived through it and dealt with it already
Sunday, May 23, 2010
For the Palins, Alaska is Still Home
Article in the New York Times. Yes, the NY Times, so take it with a shake of salt:
------------
WASILLA, Alaska — Stepping quickly toward his big black Dodge Ram truck, Todd Palin offered a few highlights of the weekend ahead.
His youngest daughter, Piper, had a dance rehearsal. His oldest son, Track, would be helping out on the sprawling new addition to the family property on Lucile Lake. The toddlers, his son Trig and his grandson Tripp, would keep everyone on their feet. And his wife would be home for the weekend.
“Everybody,” said Mr. Palin, smiling, the late Alaska light washing over him. “All together.”
Sarah Palin’s big new life is remarkable for its smallness. She is as remote as she is overexposed. Even as she travels the country stirring up Tea Party apostles, poking at opponents and building a robust bank account through speaking fees, book royalties and television contracts, she comes home to one of the more unlikely launching pads in politics — and she apparently will not be pulling up stakes anytime soon.
“Where else would we go?” Mr. Palin said. “Alaska is our home.”
Things have changed, of course. Ms. Palin is often away, sometimes joined by her husband and some combination of their five children. Her father, Chuck Heath, who lives in town, said in a recent interview that he had not seen her in a month. While people say that Piper might turn up at Wasilla Bible Church with a cousin and that her parents attend community basketball games, sightings are far less frequent than they were when Ms. Palin was governor and friends from high school bumped into her at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.
But few people press.
“We don’t want her to feel like we want something from her,” said Adele Morgan, a longtime friend who said she had not seen Ms. Palin since public picnics the governor hosted as she left office last July...
“The world came to Wasilla,” said Janet Kincaid, a friend of Ms. Palin’s parents, “but Wasilla didn’t change. We’re still what we were.”
Not everyone sees it that way.
“Normal isn’t the same now as it was,” said Craig Pell, who works at Chimo. “Wasilla kind of lost its innocence.”
People who once shared intimate details about the Palins have long since learned to be quiet. Some grumble privately about how the governor they voted for resigned and appears to have become a multimillionaire in short order.
Lyda Green, a former State Senate president from Wasilla and a reliable Palin critic, said: “I don’t hear a lot of favorable comment. I don’t usually bring it up.”
[Ha! That's a laugh. FYI, Lyda and Sarah have been foes practically since they were born.]
Ms. Palin’s inner circle has contracted in recent months, with some of her closest longtime Alaska aides — including Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman, and Ivy Frye, who helped research her book, “Going Rogue” — departing. Rumors of family discord still rumble across the Internet. Reports have tried to pin down Ms. Palin’s accumulation of wealth ($12 million?) since she resigned as governor. Yet virtually no one who might know the truth appears willing to talk publicly. Family members are certainly wary.
“Are you the guy who’s been writing all that crap about us?” Mr. Palin barked at an approaching reporter.
A few moments later, less testy, he seemed amused at the soap opera of it all, grinning, eyes wide, as he feigned curiosity. “Have you talked to Levi?” He lingered on the long vowels in the first name of Levi Johnston, his grandson’s father, whose relations with the family have been strained.
Even the most concrete new development in the Palin family, an enormous structure rising beside their existing 3,400-square-foot house on Lucile Lake, is something of a mystery. Based on the limited evidence in the planning department at Wasilla City Hall (the city does not require building permits), the building’s footprint alone is 6,000 square feet, but much of it is two stories. Various sources have said the project includes a television studio (Fox News, Mr. Heath said), apartments for Mr. Palin or the Palins’ older children (Bristol Palin, 19, has said, however, that she is living on her own with Tripp and paying her own bills with the help of handsome speaking fees) and a well-appointed office for Ms. Palin.
Bloggers have speculated that the big double garage doors will allow clearance for Mr. Palin’s Piper Cub airplane and maybe his snowmobiles. Mr. Palin said the space was a “big shop for Trig and Tripp to play in, and for Piper.”
The project is all but done, he said, “just got the trim and the siding to do.”
The family footprint is also expanding in politics. Just after his wife had been on Facebook explaining to unhappy Tea Party supporters why she endorsed Carly Fiorina in her race for United States senator from California, Mr. Palin attended a fund-raiser in Wasilla for Joe Miller, an obscure but ardent conservative who is making a long-shot bid for the seat held by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican with whom Ms. Palin has had differences.
“Joe’s got a fire in his belly to serve,” Mr. Palin said. “It’s all about competition and giving Alaskans a choice...”
Mr. Palin, leaving the fund-raiser for Mr. Miller, said as much. “These midterm elections are very important to her,” he said of his wife. “That’s what she’s focused on right now. Life’s about opportunities and experiences, and what you do with those.”
He got in his truck, dusty on the outside, tidy on the inside. The engine roared. He had just been out in Dillingham, on Bristol Bay, for his aunt’s funeral. He was looking forward to going back soon, to fish for salmon at his family site. He no longer works in oil production on the North Slope.
“We’ll be up here most of the summer,” he said. “That’s important to her, for the kids to be here. Track’s looking forward to going fishing.”
Camera crews will also be up, filming Ms. Palin for a series about Alaska.
Mr. Palin started to pull away, then he stopped and leaned toward the window. He emphasized that he did not want to be misrepresented by a reporter.
“What goes around comes around,” he said, still smiling.
Soon he would head down the 900-foot gravel drive to the property on Lucile Lake. He would pass the “No Trespassing” signs nailed into the birches and evergreens and then he would pass a new automatic metal gate, unoperational for now.
“It’ll be powered up soon,” he said.
------------
WASILLA, Alaska — Stepping quickly toward his big black Dodge Ram truck, Todd Palin offered a few highlights of the weekend ahead.
His youngest daughter, Piper, had a dance rehearsal. His oldest son, Track, would be helping out on the sprawling new addition to the family property on Lucile Lake. The toddlers, his son Trig and his grandson Tripp, would keep everyone on their feet. And his wife would be home for the weekend.
“Everybody,” said Mr. Palin, smiling, the late Alaska light washing over him. “All together.”
Sarah Palin’s big new life is remarkable for its smallness. She is as remote as she is overexposed. Even as she travels the country stirring up Tea Party apostles, poking at opponents and building a robust bank account through speaking fees, book royalties and television contracts, she comes home to one of the more unlikely launching pads in politics — and she apparently will not be pulling up stakes anytime soon.
“Where else would we go?” Mr. Palin said. “Alaska is our home.”
Things have changed, of course. Ms. Palin is often away, sometimes joined by her husband and some combination of their five children. Her father, Chuck Heath, who lives in town, said in a recent interview that he had not seen her in a month. While people say that Piper might turn up at Wasilla Bible Church with a cousin and that her parents attend community basketball games, sightings are far less frequent than they were when Ms. Palin was governor and friends from high school bumped into her at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.
But few people press.
“We don’t want her to feel like we want something from her,” said Adele Morgan, a longtime friend who said she had not seen Ms. Palin since public picnics the governor hosted as she left office last July...
“The world came to Wasilla,” said Janet Kincaid, a friend of Ms. Palin’s parents, “but Wasilla didn’t change. We’re still what we were.”
Not everyone sees it that way.
“Normal isn’t the same now as it was,” said Craig Pell, who works at Chimo. “Wasilla kind of lost its innocence.”
People who once shared intimate details about the Palins have long since learned to be quiet. Some grumble privately about how the governor they voted for resigned and appears to have become a multimillionaire in short order.
Lyda Green, a former State Senate president from Wasilla and a reliable Palin critic, said: “I don’t hear a lot of favorable comment. I don’t usually bring it up.”
[Ha! That's a laugh. FYI, Lyda and Sarah have been foes practically since they were born.]
Ms. Palin’s inner circle has contracted in recent months, with some of her closest longtime Alaska aides — including Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman, and Ivy Frye, who helped research her book, “Going Rogue” — departing. Rumors of family discord still rumble across the Internet. Reports have tried to pin down Ms. Palin’s accumulation of wealth ($12 million?) since she resigned as governor. Yet virtually no one who might know the truth appears willing to talk publicly. Family members are certainly wary.
“Are you the guy who’s been writing all that crap about us?” Mr. Palin barked at an approaching reporter.
A few moments later, less testy, he seemed amused at the soap opera of it all, grinning, eyes wide, as he feigned curiosity. “Have you talked to Levi?” He lingered on the long vowels in the first name of Levi Johnston, his grandson’s father, whose relations with the family have been strained.
Even the most concrete new development in the Palin family, an enormous structure rising beside their existing 3,400-square-foot house on Lucile Lake, is something of a mystery. Based on the limited evidence in the planning department at Wasilla City Hall (the city does not require building permits), the building’s footprint alone is 6,000 square feet, but much of it is two stories. Various sources have said the project includes a television studio (Fox News, Mr. Heath said), apartments for Mr. Palin or the Palins’ older children (Bristol Palin, 19, has said, however, that she is living on her own with Tripp and paying her own bills with the help of handsome speaking fees) and a well-appointed office for Ms. Palin.
Bloggers have speculated that the big double garage doors will allow clearance for Mr. Palin’s Piper Cub airplane and maybe his snowmobiles. Mr. Palin said the space was a “big shop for Trig and Tripp to play in, and for Piper.”
The project is all but done, he said, “just got the trim and the siding to do.”
The family footprint is also expanding in politics. Just after his wife had been on Facebook explaining to unhappy Tea Party supporters why she endorsed Carly Fiorina in her race for United States senator from California, Mr. Palin attended a fund-raiser in Wasilla for Joe Miller, an obscure but ardent conservative who is making a long-shot bid for the seat held by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican with whom Ms. Palin has had differences.
“Joe’s got a fire in his belly to serve,” Mr. Palin said. “It’s all about competition and giving Alaskans a choice...”
Mr. Palin, leaving the fund-raiser for Mr. Miller, said as much. “These midterm elections are very important to her,” he said of his wife. “That’s what she’s focused on right now. Life’s about opportunities and experiences, and what you do with those.”
He got in his truck, dusty on the outside, tidy on the inside. The engine roared. He had just been out in Dillingham, on Bristol Bay, for his aunt’s funeral. He was looking forward to going back soon, to fish for salmon at his family site. He no longer works in oil production on the North Slope.
“We’ll be up here most of the summer,” he said. “That’s important to her, for the kids to be here. Track’s looking forward to going fishing.”
Camera crews will also be up, filming Ms. Palin for a series about Alaska.
Mr. Palin started to pull away, then he stopped and leaned toward the window. He emphasized that he did not want to be misrepresented by a reporter.
“What goes around comes around,” he said, still smiling.
Soon he would head down the 900-foot gravel drive to the property on Lucile Lake. He would pass the “No Trespassing” signs nailed into the birches and evergreens and then he would pass a new automatic metal gate, unoperational for now.
“It’ll be powered up soon,” he said.
The Oil Spill
Transcript of FNS:
PALIN: I am a big supporter of domestic extraction of the resources that we are so reliant on, versus relying on foreign sources of energy, relying and beholden upon regimes that can use energy as a weapon and have less stringent environmental standards than we have. I am still a strong supporter of domestic energy supplies being extracted.
Having said that, these oil companies have got to be held accountable when there is any kind of lax and preventative measures to result in a tragedy like we're seeing right now in the gulf.
Alaska has been through that. I lived and worked through that Exxon Valdez oil spill. I know what it takes to hold these oil companies accountable, and we need to see more of that. But we are still reliant on petroleum products and oil and gas.
And I'm a supporter of offshore drilling but also onshore drilling. Maybe this is a lesson, too, for those who oppose safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land, like in ANWR and NPRA, other areas of Alaska. Let us drill there where it is even safer than way offshore.
WALLACE: Governor, I want to pick up on the point that you just made, which is that you did, as governor of Alaska, go after oil companies, including B.P. in several cases. How do you think the Obama administration has handled the oil spill so far?
PALIN: Well, I think that there is perhaps a hesitancy to — I don't really know how to put this, Chris, except to say that the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now —
I don't know why the question isn't asked by the mainstream media and by others if there's any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration.
If there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico —
Now, if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn't received as much support even as President Obama has from B.P. and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case in terms of asking questions why the administration didn't get in there, didn't get in there and make sure that the regulatory agencies were doing what they were doing with the oversight to make sure that things like this don't happen.
---------------
First off, the response to this disaster by BP and the Obama administration has been nothing short of atrocious.
The point that Sarah Palin is making is that if George W. Bush were President right now, the media would be jumping down his throat for taking oil money, etc... suggesting that he is in the pocket of the oil companies and that's why he's not cracking down. They would be asking the questions, grilling his people, hollering day and night about the incompetence of everyone involved as the oil continues to gush out of the broken line and not much at all is being done in the way of cleanup.
Oh, and we're approaching hurricane season.
They would also most likely be calling Bush a racist.
Why is the media not asking the questions that need to be asked of Obama? Hmmmmmmm?
Palin tweets:
PALIN: I am a big supporter of domestic extraction of the resources that we are so reliant on, versus relying on foreign sources of energy, relying and beholden upon regimes that can use energy as a weapon and have less stringent environmental standards than we have. I am still a strong supporter of domestic energy supplies being extracted.
Having said that, these oil companies have got to be held accountable when there is any kind of lax and preventative measures to result in a tragedy like we're seeing right now in the gulf.
Alaska has been through that. I lived and worked through that Exxon Valdez oil spill. I know what it takes to hold these oil companies accountable, and we need to see more of that. But we are still reliant on petroleum products and oil and gas.
And I'm a supporter of offshore drilling but also onshore drilling. Maybe this is a lesson, too, for those who oppose safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land, like in ANWR and NPRA, other areas of Alaska. Let us drill there where it is even safer than way offshore.
WALLACE: Governor, I want to pick up on the point that you just made, which is that you did, as governor of Alaska, go after oil companies, including B.P. in several cases. How do you think the Obama administration has handled the oil spill so far?
PALIN: Well, I think that there is perhaps a hesitancy to — I don't really know how to put this, Chris, except to say that the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now —
I don't know why the question isn't asked by the mainstream media and by others if there's any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration.
If there's any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico —
Now, if this was President Bush or if this were a Republican in office who hadn't received as much support even as President Obama has from B.P. and other oil companies, you know the mainstream media would be all over his case in terms of asking questions why the administration didn't get in there, didn't get in there and make sure that the regulatory agencies were doing what they were doing with the oversight to make sure that things like this don't happen.
---------------
First off, the response to this disaster by BP and the Obama administration has been nothing short of atrocious.
The point that Sarah Palin is making is that if George W. Bush were President right now, the media would be jumping down his throat for taking oil money, etc... suggesting that he is in the pocket of the oil companies and that's why he's not cracking down. They would be asking the questions, grilling his people, hollering day and night about the incompetence of everyone involved as the oil continues to gush out of the broken line and not much at all is being done in the way of cleanup.
Oh, and we're approaching hurricane season.
They would also most likely be calling Bush a racist.
Why is the media not asking the questions that need to be asked of Obama? Hmmmmmmm?
Palin tweets:
Mr. Gibbs, BP gave over $3.5mill to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with with the largest amount going to Obama http://u.nu/5vpiaAnd it appears (shock!) that she may be on to something. See here, here, here, and here.
Mr. Gibbs, Obama is the top recipient of BP PAC & individual money over the past 20 years. http://u.nu/5vpia Dispute these facts.
Palin in Colorado
Mostly screencaps. I'm sure actual pictures will surface sooner or later:
Find more photos like this on Team Sarah
Find more photos like this on Team Sarah
Palin's Star-Power Undimmed
An article in the Indiana Gazette:
----------
As a vice presidential hopeful two years ago, Sarah Palin drew passion and loyalty from the Republican base even before there was a Tea Party movement.
And though her rhetoric is still red meat, her political tactics have become far more nuanced — more opportunist, say her critics — than fans or foes expected.
The former Alaska governor left office 17 months before her term was up to canvass the Lower 48 so she could leverage her book-tour-burnished brand to help selected — and at times unpredictable — Republicans.
Her picks are a somewhat quixotic blend of traditional candidates and rogue, popular conservatives like Kentucky Senate hopeful Rand Paul.
But her endorsements are undoubtedly helpful.
Palin is the party's biggest star. She draws audiences who pay $50 and $100 to see her speak. And her facile monikers like ``mama grizzlies'' and ``pink elephants'' go viral within hours.
``She has morphed from this very controversial vice presidential candidate who most people thought hurt (John) McCain into this phenom,'' said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. ``She's everywhere, doing everything — all the media interviews, the $100,000 speeches.''
In the past several weeks, she also has taken to boosting conservative women to office — a role many observers say the Republican Party desperately needs.
``It's certainly been the weakness in the Republican Party; they haven't done that well among women,'' said Gary Jacobson, a political-science professor at the University of California, San Diego. ``It's a niche that hasn't been filled by anyone else.''
Speaking at a lunch last week, Palin touted Carly Fiorina for California's U.S. Senate seat, Nikki Haley for South Carolina governor and Colorado U.S. Senate hopeful Jane Norton.
Norton says she is proud to be mentioned in a speech but doesn't expect an official endorsement from Palin.
``I think Sarah Palin plays an indispensable role in the 2010 elections because she challenges the good ol' boys,'' Norton said. ``Just like me.''
Tried-and-true conservatives — those who enthusiastically got behind McCain in 2008 because of Palin's presence on the ticket — say Palin has a more confused role in Republican politics now.
``In some ways, she seems more party-line than she was before,'' said Lu Busse, chair of the 9.12 Project Colorado Coalition.
``People are scratching their heads; these endorsements don't seem to match up. ... She's an enigma, and she's inconsistent. When she doesn't pick the most conservative one in the race, well, then I don't understand.''
Though Palin's future may not include presidential politics, political scientists say her star status will be a boon to Republicans for years to come.
``She's avant-garde. She's a feminist. She cuts a dashing figure. There aren't that many leading Republicans that do that,'' Sabato said. ``Think Mitch McConnell or John Boehner. When you see them coming on, you know it's nap time.
''Whether you love her or you hate her, you don't go to sleep when Sarah Palin comes on,`` Sabato said.
----------
This is what cracks me up. If the media had actually objectively done their research, they would have already known that Palin is much more "nuanced" than even conservatives give her credit for.
----------
As a vice presidential hopeful two years ago, Sarah Palin drew passion and loyalty from the Republican base even before there was a Tea Party movement.
And though her rhetoric is still red meat, her political tactics have become far more nuanced — more opportunist, say her critics — than fans or foes expected.
The former Alaska governor left office 17 months before her term was up to canvass the Lower 48 so she could leverage her book-tour-burnished brand to help selected — and at times unpredictable — Republicans.
Her picks are a somewhat quixotic blend of traditional candidates and rogue, popular conservatives like Kentucky Senate hopeful Rand Paul.
But her endorsements are undoubtedly helpful.
Palin is the party's biggest star. She draws audiences who pay $50 and $100 to see her speak. And her facile monikers like ``mama grizzlies'' and ``pink elephants'' go viral within hours.
``She has morphed from this very controversial vice presidential candidate who most people thought hurt (John) McCain into this phenom,'' said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. ``She's everywhere, doing everything — all the media interviews, the $100,000 speeches.''
In the past several weeks, she also has taken to boosting conservative women to office — a role many observers say the Republican Party desperately needs.
``It's certainly been the weakness in the Republican Party; they haven't done that well among women,'' said Gary Jacobson, a political-science professor at the University of California, San Diego. ``It's a niche that hasn't been filled by anyone else.''
Speaking at a lunch last week, Palin touted Carly Fiorina for California's U.S. Senate seat, Nikki Haley for South Carolina governor and Colorado U.S. Senate hopeful Jane Norton.
Norton says she is proud to be mentioned in a speech but doesn't expect an official endorsement from Palin.
``I think Sarah Palin plays an indispensable role in the 2010 elections because she challenges the good ol' boys,'' Norton said. ``Just like me.''
Tried-and-true conservatives — those who enthusiastically got behind McCain in 2008 because of Palin's presence on the ticket — say Palin has a more confused role in Republican politics now.
``In some ways, she seems more party-line than she was before,'' said Lu Busse, chair of the 9.12 Project Colorado Coalition.
``People are scratching their heads; these endorsements don't seem to match up. ... She's an enigma, and she's inconsistent. When she doesn't pick the most conservative one in the race, well, then I don't understand.''
Though Palin's future may not include presidential politics, political scientists say her star status will be a boon to Republicans for years to come.
``She's avant-garde. She's a feminist. She cuts a dashing figure. There aren't that many leading Republicans that do that,'' Sabato said. ``Think Mitch McConnell or John Boehner. When you see them coming on, you know it's nap time.
''Whether you love her or you hate her, you don't go to sleep when Sarah Palin comes on,`` Sabato said.
----------
This is what cracks me up. If the media had actually objectively done their research, they would have already known that Palin is much more "nuanced" than even conservatives give her credit for.
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