A Second Hand Conjecture

Sarah Palin’s personal email account gets hacked by an anonymous operative and Farhad Manjoo blames Palin for “Rovian tactics.” Indifference to irony isn’t a new thing in Palin reporting, but there’s a certain amusement about the event in liberal circles which is amusing in itself. That is, if you have the imagination to picture the [...]

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Like so many others, Elizabeth Johnson is out for that Palin look.
Sarah always has such choice footwear…and eyewear retailers are getting explicit in their advertising.
In case you were curious, this is where you end up when your anti-Palin hysteria finally hits rock bottom.
Finally, the sad sight of an ideologically indoctrinated childhood, at an anti-Palin protest [...]

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Who would win in a head-to-head contest of the Veeps for the presidency? Palin, according to Rasmussen, by 47%-44%.

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Tim Reid travels to Mount Clemens, Macomb County Michigan, to talk to white working class female voters. Macomb County should be core Democratic blue country, but it was here that Stanley Greenberg first identified the “Reagan Democrats” of the 1980s, and Reid thinks we just might be seeing the ground shift once again:
The Times spoke [...]

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Boy, this was an awfully interesting exchange. Democratic strategist Mark Penn, absurdly invited by Brian Goldsmith to argue the press has been soft on Sarah Palin, instead slams the media for counterproductively biased and vindictive coverage:

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According to a new Associated Press poll 46% of the public thinks Barack Obama is too inexperienced for the presidency, and only 36% say the same of Governor Palin. So much for that line of attack.
In contrast with both, a staggering 80% feel Senator McCain has the right experience for the job. An almost unbelievable [...]

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Toby Harnden weighs in with his thoughts on the Palin effect. All interesting, all very astute IMO.
Of particular interest is Toby’s argument that McCain commands enough public respect for his experience and expertise, that he has no concerns about being eclipsed by Sarah. Because of that, he’s perfectly comfortable to ride in her publicity tailwind, [...]

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Playing a demo for Aviation Day, at the STARBASE Alaska Military Youth Academy in Fort Richardson. Nice rig.

Photo: Capt. Guy Hayes

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Ron Hilton caught some great shots at the McCain/Palin rally in Fairfax, Virginia. He was gracious enough to let us post them here for you:

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According to the Associated Press, a sequence of interviews with Democratic leaders has revealed this to be the political plan being recommended to the Obama campaign:
1. Tie the Republican to an unpopular President Bush.
2. Let no charge go unanswered.
3. Stress plans to fix the economy.
Well, I’m not sure any of these items is good advice, [...]

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(photo: Brian Long)
Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice president of the Canadian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, is concerned that Sarah Palin’s decision to have Trig, may lead to a reduction of abortions in Canada through positive example.
This is perhaps demonstrative of how different perspectives on abortion can be in the United States on both sides. [...]

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StubbornFacts picks up on the political immunization effect of throwing every farcical slander you can find or invent at Sarah Palin: “I suspect that eventually, they may find something that really does hit Palin square amidships. By the time they find it…it falls on deaf ears.” Yup.

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Some thoughts on why Barack Obama’s effort to portray Sarah Palin as “Pat Robertson with ovaries” (as Andrew Romano inelegantly puts it), isn’t working out so well.

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Last week I noticed that Sarah Palin had exceeded Joe Biden slightly in Google returns. Understandably, that has now become an avalanche (Biden: 5.6 million | Palin: 22.4 million). Although it plainly doesn’t exceed John McCain or Barack Obama’s returns as Robert Legge strangely argues.

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Longtime Clinton ally Leon Panetta pronounces Barack Obama “intimidated” by Sarah Palin, and lost in a deepening cycle of reactive defense. With McCain now winning a majority of independents and erasing the gender gap, the blood is most definitely in the water. It’s now a legitimate question to ask whether McCain can finish him off. [...]

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It seems Us Magazine’s anti-Palin cover-story has backfired badly. They’re suffering a flood of mass cancellations from subscribers and have been forced to issue an apology along with free issue incentives. Yikes.

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Debbie Schlussel isn’t exactly thrilled about the prospect of Sarah Palin as veep. She can’t seem to make up her mind however, on whether Palin is the “sleazy t-shirt” wearing representative of a “low class” family, or a upper-middle-class high income fraud, with a lifestyle of fashionable luxury.
I don’t know why it is, but [...]

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(photo: Tom LeGro)
Christopher Hitchens notices a pattern with anti-Palin rumors: their troubling tendency to turn out highly exaggerated or entirely fabricated, in a very short turn.
[A]s often as I have forwarded some alarming e-mail about her from a beavering comrade, I have afterward found myself having the sensation of putting my foot where [...]

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Caroline Glick via Ace of Spades
Caroline Glick is an astute observer of our political situation. She is based in Jerusalem.
“McCain’s strategic grasp of the requirements for a successful
presidential race provide an important lesson for policy-makers and
political leaders.”

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Tom in Paine has a blistering take on the MSNBC commentariat’s demands for the intervention of Hillary Clinton against Palin, as a kind of childhood psychodrama: “The more you listen to them the more you realize that instead of supporting Obama, a package of Pampers will do.”

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(Italee)
Apparently Sarah Palin has become the latest women’s fashion trendsetter. Ladies across the country are flocking to find her rectangular rimless spectacles, created by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawasaki, to achieve that “Sarah Palin look.” Some are comparing the glasses to Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hats.
Well, this is certainly one dimension of Sarah’s success I didn’t anticipate.

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Warner Todd Huston compiles some of the more egregious untruths being promoted in mass media about Sarah Palin.

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Michael Carian scores the shirt from a kid selling them out of the back of his car:

(carianoff)

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Turns out the allegation of the Leftblogs that Palin associate Scott Richter was concealing an extramarital affair with Sarah, was just another desperate conspiratorial invention. TSG uncovers the exceedingly boring and ordinary divorce documents Richter filed a sealing motion for. Unsurprisingly, therein Palin is unconnected with any farcical adultery/business scandal conspiracy.
Apparently Richter filed the motion [...]

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Jihad Watch
I have seen a few articles that say something like - if the left dislikes McCan-Palin so much they must be doing something right. Here is a similar argument about views from the Muslim world. “whenever your taqiyya-practicing enemy tries to give you “advice” — such as who or who not to [...]

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How many children does John McCain have? It’s seven including adoptions, but very few seem to know that. Easier question: how many children does Sarah Palin have? Five and I bet you knew that instantly. Welcome to sexism says liberal feminist Linda Keenan, in a profound and important confessional apology to Sarah.

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Sarah on babysitting, energy independence and CS Lewis in the Charlie Rose Green Room:

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Someone here made a good choice back on June 30th.
Me? I think Sarah Palin would make a great choice

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Todd Zywicki, of the Volokh Conspiracy, takes a look at libertarianism in the McCain/Palin ticket and notes a distinct western vibe to the first all-western ticket in our history. He had an interesting observation that I think captures a lot of our hesitation about McCain.
The only caveat to this is that McCain’s westernism is tempered [...]

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Sarah Palin traveled a long way from Wasilla in a short time. Here she graces the cover of an Indonesian magazine.

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Dick Durbin renews the Democratic attack on Palin’s experience, and calls for a retreat on family slander. It’s pretty much back and forth between the two attack vectors day-to-day in Democratic circles. They don’t know how to deal with her yet. Meanwhile they’re letting her develop her image as an classical outsider/reformer. It’s a huge [...]

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Chronicle of the ConspiracyThis is a good thing. She fights waste wherever she finds it.

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If you thought Huckabee’s contention that Sarah Palin received more votes for mayor of Wasilla than Biden did for president sounded a little unlikely, that’s because it was. I don’t know where that went wrong, but I bet he meant in Delaware, where Biden received 2,863 votes.

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Jeremy McCarter for Newsweek: “[W]ith all due respect to whatever kid roughed up the young Barry Obama in Indonesia many years ago, he might never have been on the receiving end of a beatdown like this one.”
Nancy Gibbs for Time: “[S]he held baby Trig in her arms and you felt the shattered glass raining gently [...]

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John Podhoretz thinks the Palin speech might be among the most dazzling debuts in American political history. I don’t know about that, but I do know it was the most powerful, important, and effective speech by a vice presidential candidate since Nixon’s “Checkers.” John later notes that McCain looked relieved by it all. Again, I [...]

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The title is what Time Magazine labeled New Jersey’s Senator William Warren Barbour in 1940. The expression takes on a better curve for Sarah Palin, but it fits the occasion of a very partisan and frankly rather phenomenal speech tonight (transcript).
I suppose I’m surprised by the surprise in so many media reactions I’m seeing. [...]

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Yep:
Understand: Palin is under attack because she was such a good choice.
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After years of electing plasticized creations of political consultants, we have the chance to vote for a real person with real peoples’ problems. In standing by her, McCain speaks volumes about his attitude toward women and his empathy for those who [...]

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When McCain named Sarah Palin his veep, she had about 500k mentions on the web according to Google, and Joe Biden mustered an impressive five million plus (I checked). A few short days later Palin has surpassed Biden with 5.8 million mentions, with Joe at 5.5 mil. Remarkable.

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He’s actually starting to run against Sarah Palin:
“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,”
(CNN via Adam’s Blog)
No, no, [...]

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John McCain, in an interview with Brian Williams on Sarah Palin:
“The facts are funny things. She’s been in elected office longer than Sen. Obama. She’s been the chief executive of the state that provides 20 percent of America’s energy; she has balanced budgets; she has had executive experience as governor, as mayor, [...]

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Looking at today’s stats, so far the number one search engine keyword bringing people to ASHC is “obama vs palin.” It’s amusing that people seem to think the Republican vice presidential nominee bears easier comparison and contest with the Democratic presidential nominee. I can only agree with them.

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Andrew Sullivan is so hysterical about the “irresponsibility” of Sarah Palin as vice president, that he’s almost to the point of arguing that McCain didn’t even know her name until an hour before the announcement. As Neo-Neocon contends however, the Palin selection is demonstrative of skill on the part of McCain (something very unexpected by [...]

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Apparently the teenage pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol has excited social conservatives even more about the candidate (for the when-it-counts demonstration of opposition to abortion). According to Grover Norquist, the soc-cons are “over the moon” in their support.
That’s interesting. It reminds me that historically a minor or unfair scandal that is politically survivable (as [...]

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Barack Obama has denounced and disowned the attacks by the Left on Sarah Palin’s family. A commendable action.

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It would seem the innuendo campaign alleging the illegitimacy of Sarah Palin’s son Trig, inadvertantly uncovered a real family tragedy to media attention. As Jay Tea points out, the circumstances of that situation make it physically impossible for the campaign of whispers to have been true. Don’t wait for any apologies from the whisperers however.

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Perhaps those Zogby numbers weren’t so crazy after all.  CNN confirms the erasure of the Obama lead on an apparent Sarah Palin bounce.

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It has become a serious question to ask if there is any argument in Obama’s perceived interest that Andrew Sullivan will not advance. In the latest project for that question, Sullivan argues that Palin represents the most “irresponsible” pick for the office of Vice President since Dan Quayle, on grounds of her alleged inexperience. It’s [...]

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I’m beginning to sense that anti-Palin hysteria is building toward a collective psychological meltdown of truly epic proportions on the Democratic side of our political divide. Today, Democratic consultant Dan Conley angrily pushed us a little further to the brink of that by arguing that the selection of Palin by McCain was “cynical, undemocratic and [...]

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RightWingNation has some good photographs from the Pennsylvania McCain/Palin rally. Evidently the crowd kept drowning Sarah out with adulatory chants.

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The Weekly StandardNewt Gingrich nails it.

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