Why Some Conservatives Dislike Palin

Why do some conservatives -- including a couple who appear on FOX -- dislike Sarah Palin? Part of its traces back to the time McCain named her as his V-P choice. Both liberal and conservative journalist's got caught with their pants down. Their refrain might have been, "Why didn't anybody tell in advance, so we could have put her on our 'short list'?"

At the Glenn Beck rally in San Antonio, Janine Turner (my long-time heroine) gave tremendous support for Sarah Palin, and the most recognizable signs at many rallies were "ReadMyLipstick" in regard to Sarah and taxes.

O'Reilly cited the Politco poll that showed her with fairly high negatives, but that survey is very suspect since Jonathan Martin, head of Politico, is no fan of Sarah's. Hannity likes Sarah; Beck does (partly because he has a special needs child), and so obviously does Greta. FOX really loves the dour Mark Sanford, who has no chance of being elected to anything outside of SC.

Some at FOX may fear Sarah because she's a (shudder) Republican and governs as a (double shudder) centrist. She's not a gay-basher (far from it), and walks the pro-life path rather than yammer about it constantly. She's not an ideologue, and frankly many on the Left and on the Right are more comfortable with ideologues, who talk the predictable lines. Sarah governs in accord with the state and federal Constitutions -- how novel is that?

Sarah reminds me of Robert Frost's epitaph: "He had a lover's quarrel with the world." As SNL producer Lorne Michaels (a liberal) said about Sarah, she's a model of "graciousness." Most big-time politicians are NOT gracious (or nice). Sarah never said anything negative about HRC before, during, or after the campaign, even though they disagree on various things. She realizes that if it wasn't for Hillary, McCain would not have chosen her for the ticket.

In fact, some of Sarah's strongest supporters are Democrats (current and former) and/or feminists, such as Elaine Lafferty, Camille Paglia, Tammy Bruce, Artemis March, Marnie Delano, Karen Hill, Anne Franklin, Shelley Mandel (head of LA NOW), Kathy (Puma4Palin), S.E. Cupp, and Lynn Rothschild (during the campaign at least). Ironically, a good deal of the feminist support has to do with . . . Todd Palin, the good-looking macho guy who changes the diapers and has no spouse envy.

My constant refrain lately has been: THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH SARAH PALIN. She's a principled human being, a great wife and mother, and an elected official of unparalleled integrity and ability. Some will never forgive her for having those qualities, which make lesser beings feel uncomfortable . . . and envious.

Obama's Media Love Affair

When Obama has nightmares, this woman is usually in them.

Bernard Goldberg, former CBS News reporter, has written a book about the media's deep crush on candidate Barack Obama. It's appropirately titled A Slobbering Love Affair.

Goldberg says, "The media IS his [Obama's] base."

Goldberg adds, "When he became President, Obama found the economy was in worse shape than he thought . . . so he had to lay off 17 journalists."

I heard Goldberg on "The Sean Hannity Show" Monday. is it just me, or is Hannity's show much better without the irritating presence of Alan Colmes.

Sarah Needs Many Democrats, Independents

Please participate in the effort to come up with a slogan for Sarah Palin to use in future campaigns. You can do so by going to: http://www.teamsarah.org/forum/topics/share-ideas-for-sarah-slogan I've give my own suggestion tomorrow.

Sarah Palin at huge rally in Jacksonville, FL stadium . . .

As I've said before of the people in the Palin Movement, our goal shouldn't be to become "the nation's most congenial, PERMANENT MINORITY." In politics, there's really no such thing as a "moral victory." You either win in glory, or lose in devastation, as happened last November.

In a state like PA (and many other big ones), we need to figure out how to reach out effectively to Indies and Dems, including ones who are pro-choice. (Reading poll data carefully, it's clear that many "pro-choice" people are actually more pro-life than pro-abortion.) At this point, we're 7 million-plus votes behind Obama, and we need to make up the difference. We can't do that by being ideological purists.

I keep saying, "We need to deal with our world as it is, not as we'd like it to be.' I spent a lot of time in the campaign working with Hillary Supporters who backed -- or leaned toward -- McCain-Palin. I didn't do it because I adored Hillary -- I do not -- but because there was no other way to win than by getting many Hillary Supporters, some of them pro-choice (strongly) and some pro-life, with most of them in the middle.

In the election, it appears we got about four million of Hillary's Supporters. We needed six million-plus, but without the four million it would have been a true landslide for Obama.

In my book, I will discuss the major feminists (Elaine Lafferty, former editor of Ms.; Shelley Mandel, president of the LA chapter of NOW; and, especially, Camile Paglia) who have strongly backed Sarah. There are many others in addition to the women I've named. I want them to continue their efforts, because we need such people to help us win.

I don't want to lose the social conservatives, far from it. However, Sarah Palin clearly is the best possible candidate they can get to run effectively for President. It will be challenging enough for her win -- I believe she can -- but it would be impossible for any other Republican. I don't under-estimate the ruthlessness of the Obama Campaign, which was the direct source of the smears against Sarah.

Frankly, I have zero interest in Sarah running a race she can't win, and I believe she feels the same way. She knows that millions -- tens of millions -- of her supporters are the working middle-class and even the working poor. Seeing the 10,000 people at Sarah's Beaver County rally, it became clear to me that these sure weren't your stereotypical Republicans. I estimate that at least 100 were members of the UMW, proudly wearing their "Clean Coal" hard hats.

I felt very comfortable with these people and talked to hundreds of them as they waited in line for up to four hours. One older man had been a member of the Boilermakers Union for 50 years. He bragged that he's convinced this wife, for the first time in her life, to vote Republican (for McCain-Palin).

On Sean Hannity's radio program, a Democratic woman, an animal rights activist, was talking to Sean while, in the background, her three daughters were chanting, "Sarah Palin! Sarah Palin! SARAH PALIN!" The woman, a Sarah-backer herself, said, 'I'm afraid the neighbors are going to think I've become a Republican!"

We need that woman (and her daughters and millions like them) on our side.