"I am Sarah Palin"

Via Michelle Malkin. The Left might have finally overplayed their hand with their grotesque assualt on Governor Sarah Palin and her family. Hell hath no fury like a pissed-off Republican woman....you know, those Bible-readin,' gun-totin,' God-fearin' creatures that are as foreign to the east-and-west coast media elites as a cup of plain-old (and may I add, delicious!)Dunkin Donuts coffee. But much like the ubiquitous hot pink franchise that caters to us working rubes, the "Sleeping Giant" has not only awakened, she's ready to make her presence (and displeasure) known in November. Per Tom Delay:

“The media has done more for John McCain in the last two days than he’s done for himself in the last year and a half,” DeLay said. “Trashing her is waking up the sleeping giant, and the sleeping giant is Republican women.”

Good thing the media is so enamored with each other's opinions that they are tone-deaf to the lives and feelings of real Americans. While their disgusting display of political bias might've played well with their colleagues and militant feminists (while ruthlessly intruding upon the privacy of Palin's daughter and other family members), all it has done is transform Sarah Palin into even more of a middle-class heroine and a modern-day Joan of Arc. And though there won't be any moose carcasses in the auditorium after Sarah addresses the nation in her speech tonight, there may very well be a few "drive-by" media carcasses lying around -- along with any shred of credibility (not to mention integrity) they may once have had.

Oh no! Don Ho!

Historical palindrome that could have been the headline of this account of the star ukulele player's passing.

So it's not a story from Palin's Alaska (state #49), it's from Obama's Hawai'i (#50; note the PC apostrophe, which my spell-checker doesn't recognize). McCain's Arizona is #48 and Biden's Delaware is #1. Interesting home states on the ticket, huh?

PS: When Delaware had ratified the Constitution and Pennsylvania had not yet done so, what was the country called? It couldn't be united, as there was no other state with which to claim unity. It couldn't be states (plural), as it was the only one. America is okay. The State of America? I dunno, but I think Joe Biden was representing Delaware in the Senate before PA ratified, so maybe I should ask him.

PPS: I spent the first 21 years of my life in Delaware County, bordering the state of Delaware to the south and the city of Philadelphia to the northeast. Joe Biden was, in my mind, "Delaware's Joe Biden", as the voice-over in his campaign commercials often referred to him. His goofy grin, bloviation, and fluctuating hairline were a fixture of the political scene throughout my youth. What did I not know about Joe Biden until a couple of weeks ago? That he was a PA native. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but the idea that he is widely know as a son of Scranton strikes me as, at best, mythological.

Kanakanak, Alaska

The longest place-name Alaskan palindrome I could find.

Palindromes 'r' us

The mother lode of palindromes here. Nothing like stilted language 7,000+ times over to make for easy reading...

Can't hep myself!

I'm, alas, kayak salami!

Hey, I got Alaska in there...

VDH on SHP

Trig Paxson Van Palin was named, in part, as an homage to Van Halen. I often think of Van Halen when I read pieces by Victor Davis Hanson, on account of the V(D)H initials. He's a classical scholar and farmer from the Central Valley of California who has this to say about Sarah (Heath) Palin:

Palin's symbolism is the antithesis of the metrosexual wind- or body- surfing politican, and hair-plugged, neurotic TV pundit. So at this time, right now, millions apparently like Palin's atypical 19th-century profile. Again, it's a pleasant change of pace from Harvard Law School, DC politics, "community organizing" and the can't-do, 'they raised the bar on me' collective complaint.

If she can beat off the frothing Newsweek/MSNBC/New York Times inbred rabid wolves, and do it with the grace she has shown so far, she will fill a deep yearning among Americans for someone like her. A lot of Americans, if they watch reality shows, prefer truckers on ice or Bering Sea crab fishing to endless psychodramas of thirty-something suburban whiners.

Harass Sarah

The palindrome of the moment. Presidential politics is plumbing new depths. Hang in there, 'Cuda (and Brooke*), this too shall pass.

* I had the wrong daughter's name in there initially, but the ever-observant Daria spotted it and I have thus corrected it. I'm sure if a lefty blogger saw it, s/he would cite it as proof that it was Willow who was pregnant with Trig and the VRWC let the mask slip...

A classy post

by a left-wing blogger. Prosit!

A New Term is Coined

Palinsanity. Check it out at the Anchoress. Love the buttons! :)

TNR is beginning to get it

The cases against the case against Palin (RTWT):

At the end of 2005, a close friend called to say that he begun writing speeches and talking points for a certain gubernatorial candidate.

"Remind me," I asked. "Who is Sarah Palin?"

I was dismayed at my friend’s choice of political entree. Why was he wasting his time on a relative nobody, trying to beat an incumbent governor (and former three term senator) in the Republican primary? It was utter folly. "Wait until the big money starts coming in for Murkowski," I said. "Wait until the party machinery goes to work on Palin. They will eat her for lunch."

Murkowski, for his part, expressed a similar view. "If I decide to," he said, "I will run and I will win. It's that simple."

The folly, of course, turned out to be my own (and Murkowski's), as Palin slaughtered the incumbent in the primary--posting a 30 point margin of victory--and went on to win the general (over a former Democratic governor) without seeming to break a sweat. She then quickly fulfilled an implicit campaign promise by slapping down ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips in negotiations over a proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline, even though they, too, by all accounts, were well prepared to dine on her tender little frame. Not bad for a lightweight.

Oooooh, Barracuda!

David Brooks's astute observations

I think this is one of his better efforts:

John McCain is not a normal conservative. He has instincts, but few abstract convictions about the proper size of government. He’s a traditionalist, but is not energized by the social conservative agenda. As Rush Limbaugh understands, but the Democrats apparently do not, a McCain administration would not be like a Bush administration.

The main axis in McCain’s worldview is not left-right. It’s public service versus narrow self-interest. Throughout his career, he has been drawn to those crusades that enabled him to launch frontal attacks on the concentrated powers of selfishness — whether it was the big money donors who exploited the loose campaign finance system, the earmark specialists in Congress like Alaska’s Don Young and Ted Stevens, the corrupt Pentagon contractors or Jack Abramoff.

When McCain met Sarah Palin last February, he was meeting the rarest of creatures, an American politician who sees the world as he does. Like McCain, Palin does not seem to have an explicit governing philosophy. Her background is socially conservative, but she has not pushed that as governor of Alaska. She seems to find it easier to work with liberal Democrats than the mandarins in her own party.

Lots of good stuff to ruminate on

in this column by Spengler. The passage that addresses the choice of Sarah Palin is spot on:

McCain doesn't have a tenth of Obama's synaptic fire-power, but he is a nasty old sailor who knows when to come about for a broadside. Given Obama's defensive, even wimpy selection of a running-mate, McCain's choice was obvious. He picked the available candidate most like himself: a maverick with impeccable reform credentials, a risk-seeking commercial fisherwoman and huntress married to a marathon snowmobile racer who carries a steelworkers union card. The Democratic order of battle was to tie McCain to the Bush administration and attack McCain by attacking Bush. With Palin on the ticket, McCain has re-emerged as the maverick he really is.


The young Alaskan governor, to be sure, hasn't any business running for vice president of the United States with her thin resume. McCain and his people know this perfectly well, and that is precisely why they put her on the ticket. If Palin is unqualified to be vice president, all the less so is Obama qualified to be president.

New McCain Ad

"Sarah Palin."

Click to watch.

Ace versus Allah (and some NR writers)

While his language is sometimes akin to - ahem! - that of the proverbial drunken sailor, Russ over at Ace of Spades makes some valid points concerning the pessimism that has infiltrated otherwise intrepid voices on the right side of the blogosphere when it comes to our favorite barracuda and VP nominee.

While I could do without the overused f-bombs, I agree with Russ' opinions: It seems the thrills running up my leg ever since Friday's announcement were barely beginning to dissipate when I came across several blog posts in the 'sphere that were rife with outrageously trollish tendencies yet inexplicably penned by so-called conservatives.

While I expect such nonsense occasionally from National Review (they are headquarted in Manhattan and thus, a few of their writers occasionally resonate with east-coast elitism), Allah has been by far the most annoying existentialist in this Palin-VP debate. And I say that as someone who admires his sharp wit, clever headlines and thorough analysis (though his KP love, thankfully dialed-down of late, was getting rather irritating:).

True, he prides himself on his pessimism, but for a blog that's been weighing Palin's merits and odds in the VP sweepstakes for several months now, you'd think the guy would at least give it a rest until after the convention. I guess a fired up base, 7+ million in campaign donations (raised in the hours following the historic announcement) and a real shot at winning in a year when Democrats were supposed to rip Republicans a new one just isn't enough for the grumpy HA writer.

And judging from some of the comments, much of the readership is losing patience with the fabled Allahpundit as well. Challenge for Allah: Can you at least try cautiously optimistic?

In one of his expletive-free paragraphs, Russ opines:

I look at Sarah Palin and see a woman who agrees with me on several important issues. She's pro-2nd Amendment, pro-life, pro-drilling and pro-family values. That's family VALUES, not family PERFECTION. I don't expect my candidate to be lilly white with no marks on her record. If I were that stupid, I'd have voted for Huckabee in the caucus instead of Fred!

As far as all the issues she hasn't addressed yet, like allowing Iran to get nukes, prosecution of the GWoT, immigration, national fiscal policy, and "states rights" & 10th Amendment issues regarding Federalism, I'm going to assume that she's with me until she proves otherwise by her own statements. No longer will I believe ANY so-called "facts" presented to me by the media. They've lied to me so much that I've started to refer to myself as "Elizabeth Edwards" in private moments. If it's not "Bush was AWOL from the National Guard", it's some crap about "McCain is sleeping with a lobbyist" or "Fred Thompson insulted firemen in Northeast Iowa" or "Republicans in Wisconsin booed when President Bush wished President Clinton a speedy recovery from heart surgery". Or "Trig Palin isn't Sarah's son after all; he's her grandson". That's right up there with Trutherism, which is a category of it's own in the Bullshit Hall of Fame, IMFO.

I think that says it all.

Anbar Awakening Part II

Wow! What a difference a surge makes! I know I posted about this once before, but it bears repeating. Because as we all know, had the McCain-instigated strategic change in Iraq known as the surge ended in abject failure, it might've obliterated the distasteful barrage of obsessive media coverage enveloping a young, pregnant teenager whose mother just happens to be running for Vice President. But I digress.

The brilliant Ralph Peters, however, reminds us all of the miracle that has taken place in Iraq, and specifically, Anbar Province, in today's New York Post column:

All too easy to miss the biggest story out of Iraq this year: Yesterday, security responsibility for once-bloody Anbar Province officially passed from the US military to the Baghdad government.

Fallujah. Ramadi. Al Qaeda's worst atrocities. Those opposed to the liberation of Iraq celebrated years of headlines from Anbar.

Then it all changed: We won - and the headlines vanished. (emphasis mine)

This year, Iraq received a special gift to kick off Ramadan, Islam's holy month of alternate fasts and feasts: The handover of a huge, economically resurgent, peaceful province. More than 12,000 Marines have been withdrawn from Anbar. The remaining 25,000 US troops are packing up. That means more forces available for Afghanistan - and more time together for our military families.

The handover also means that 11 of Iraq's 18 provinces are now the responsibility of the country's long-derided security forces - with two more provinces scheduled to revert to full Iraqi control by year's end.

Does this mean Iraq is now "off-limits" as a debate topic? I mean, news this good certainly doesn't help Obama, and it sure ain't doin' much for Michelle and her kids, either.

Michelle Malkin Reader Sums Up Repubicans and Democrats

Heh. Just finished scanning one of my daily must-read blogs and came across this insightful analysis regarding the basic difference between the Republican and Democrat parties. From the Michelle Malkin reader known as Left Coast Conservative:

"Republicans believe in killing taxes and raising babies."

He leaves it to the astute observer to complete that sentence for the Democrats.

Yup! That's about it in a nutshell.

Yeah, baby!

Sarah Palin Facts!

Some entries (go to the linked site for much, much more):

• Sarah Palin is the reason compasses point North.
  

• @moveableHype - Queen Elizabeth II curtsied when she was introduced to Sarah Palin
• @RichardMahoney - Sarah Palin’s image already appears on the newer nickels
• @JonBurg - Fox is starting a new reality show… when Sarah Palin Attacks
• @Rammi - Sarah Palin wants you to LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!!
• @JonHenke - Sarah Palin’s enemies are automatically added to the Endangered Species List
• @lagonmorph13 - Sarah Palin as VP increases Depends sales among scatalogically frightened Democrats
• @RogHaak - Sarah Palin is what Willis was talkin bout
• @arratik - When Sarah Palin attends ritual blood orgies, she always brings the most delicious ambrosia salad
• @robertgorell - To prep for her role as Tracy Flick in “Election,” Witherspoon spent the ‘98 seal clubbing season with Palin
• @jstueve - Ben Linus does Sarah Palin’s bidding
• @aefoley - Jesus has a bracelet that says, “WWSPD?”
• @coreyclayton - Death once had a near-Sarah Palin experience
• Also @coreyclayton - Sarah Palin can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves!
• @jtoeman - in the original version, He-Man had the power of Sarah Palin, but the writers felt this would make him way too powerful
• @mayjah - Sarah Palin can keep a Twitter meme going on and on like a rave kid on X.
• @KurtLuidhardt - Sarah Palin was not flown to Ohio in charter jet- she ran as part of morning workout.
• @johntabin - N. Alaska is sunny half the year and dark half the year because Sarah Palin needed the reading light, then wanted a nap

Bring you more later since this thing shows no signs of stopping…

The post that started it all

I posted this at Quad Squad a few days before the announcement of Palin as the VP pick. I thought she made the most sense independent of the Biden pick, but once Slow Joe was the selection, I thought that her sex went from a plus factor (her reform cred I knew would appeal to McCain and her youth and energy were additional plus factors) to determinative. This is where I take great umbrage with Heather McDonald's analysis (I still think your the bee's knees, Heather!), which would have made perfect sense had McCain picked a dull, uninspiring career pol to be VP simply because of the 46,XX karyotype (e.g., KB Hutchison or either Senator from Maine). Anyway, here's the post:

I have been thinking about the strategic implications of Obama's having selected Biden on McCain's VP pick. And I keep thinking that instead of Mitt Romney, whom I had thought was the most logical choice (based on his executive experience in and out of government, his ability to help keep Colorado in our column, and perhaps his ability to tip Michigan), Sarah Palin emerges as the choice. Here are my reasons:

• She makes it difficult for Biden to play the role of attack dog. He is already hamstrung in attacking McCain by his on-the-record encomiums to his pal John. But with his outsized ego and no-"off"-setting mouth, he will have to go somewhere, and if he attacks a woman, he risks looking like an ill-mannered bully.
• She puts the women's vote into play. I understand that she is (in the popular imagination of the MSM, at least) to the women's vote as conservative black candidates are to blacks more generally (i.e., not "authentic"). However, for all the disaffected Hillary Harridans out there, as well as just relatively normal women who would like to see a woman at the head of the ticket (thinking ahead to 2012/2016) and a heartbeat away from the presidency, I think she will garner a lot of "in the privacy of the voting booth" support.
• She represents conservatism as a reformist with a record of achievement. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was marketing of his big government instincts with his respect for conservative governance (as embodied by such as Ronald Reagan), in an attempt to make it palatable to more centrist voters. Palin's reform conservatism is not a gimmick and it's not marketing; she took on the worst of her own party in her home state without abandoning her principles (in fact, she stood by them when many, I suspect, would not have), and succeeded substantively on the issues and politically with the voters.
• She is fresh, new, and has a compelling story, both personally and professionally. I think she will suck a lot of the media oxygen out of the Obama hype (McCain's recent ads have already put the MSM and the Obamaniacs on the defensive when it comes to the worshipful excesses they have oft displayed), as they will have to tell her story. Okay, they won't have to, but people will demand that they do.

I think she represents an opportunity to change the playing field from one in which careful considerations of geography and the electoral map yield to a larger opportunity to tap into the electorate across the nation. Given that the polls are close, I hope that McCain does not feel that he has to agonize over which electoral votes are more likely to come his way by his choice of running mate. I really think that it's game, set, and match if he picks her.

And this is coming from someone who was high on Kasich and Cantor for their conservative cred, and Romney for his business acumen and electoral considerations. I was sour on Ridge, Lieberman, and a lot of the other names that have been floated (I keep the mailing from the McCain campaign with the bumper sticker in the trunk of my car, waiting for the day I can happily affix it to the bumper; that day won't come until I see his VP pick).

PS: The McCain bumper sticker is now on the car!

Somebody gets it!

I have been scratching my head wondering why the talking heads (I think, in particular, of Krauthammer) think that the pick of Palin neutralized the experience argument. My take was that McCain had probably gotten what mileage he could out of that line of argumentation, and that all that was left was for Obama to raise it - then, BAM! - it would explode in his face.

James Robbins agrees:

It's interesting that Barack Obama is publicly making the argument that he has more political experience than Sarah Palin. Why does the top of the Dem ticket feel the need to run against the bottom of the GOP ticket? It diminishes him. And by stressing experience as a metric, isn't Obama setting himself up for the inevitable losing battle of his time in office versus John McCain's? Anyway wasn't this election all about "change?" Didn't Hillary lose the nomination by stressing experience? They must really feel threatened by Ms. Palin.

My, how very much I like this woman!

Bill Kristol:

McCain aides whose judgment I trust are impressed by Sarah Palin. One was particularly amused by this exchange: A nervous young McCain staffer took it upon himself to explain to Palin the facts of life in a national campaign, the intense scrutiny she'd be under from the media, the viciousness of the assault that she'd be facing, etc.:

Palin: "Thanks for the warning. By the way, do you know what they say the difference is between a hockey mom and a Pit Bull?"

McCain aide: "No, Governor."

Palin: "A hockey mom wears lipstick."