On the surface, Ryan endorsement seems pivotal to 2012

Those of us entrenched in following Palin are not surprised to see that she endorsed Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan's Roadmap for America's Future. The content of which is policy that her supporters could easily identify as in line with Palin's views.

However, I will admit I was surprised to see so many comments and posts throughout the blogosphere saying that this endorsement legitimizes Palin as a presidential candidate in their minds. I also hadn't really noticed that Ryan is one of Palin's favorite politicians. I can't believe I didn't notice that, or the view that endorsing this would make her a serious candidate to those who hadn't previously thought of her that way. (Maybe being pregnant most of the year explains how I missed it :)) Ace said endorsing the Roadmap is risky. Well, Palin is all about taking risks so that did not surprise me in the least. There's also this myth among RINOs that she doesn't discuss substantive issues or policy and this is the BIG tipping point where she finally does. Well, if you read her Facebook posts, Going Rogue, America by Heart, her Twitter feed, watch her interviews, listen to what she says on Fox as a contributor...you'll see that she addresses substantive policy daily.

In any event, I'm happy for the change of heart and I welcome it. If this is what it took, then I'm very happy she endorsed it. Where's Romney and Huck and what do they think of the Roadmap?

The endorsement also seems to be pivotal in that many (including myself) are recognizing that Palin really likes Paul Ryan, a lot. She endorsed his views in February and August of this year, too, which I read about at Hot Air.

Palin is definitely doing two things with the Roadmap endorsement: (1) bringing conservative policy reforms to the forefront of the national discussion; and (2), bringing attention to Paul Ryan, again.

She could possibly be doing a third or fourth thing: (3) setting the scene to pick Ryan as her VP; or (4), pushing Ryan to run for president and giving him the ammo to do so by her endorsement of his policy ideas.

In her interview with Mary Hart earlier this year, Palin said (paraphrased) that she'll run for President in 2012 if there isn't a better candidate who will take on the tough task of undoing what Obama and the Left has done to this country. So, she could be hinting that Paul Ryan could be one of those better candidates. But in the February article linked above, Ryan said that he won't run in 2012 point blank. So maybe she's grooming him for her VP pick?

Either way, this endorsement has proven to be pivotal for the 2012 candidates. Palin, for publicly supporting this policy and seeing those who are not publicly supporting it, and Ryan, who may run for President or could be picked as a VP.

What Palin chooses to include on Sarah Palin's Alaska

This is why Palin is the most honest "politician" we'll ever see. I put politician in quotes because she defies all definitions of the modern politician. She is not one. She's a citizen and public servant trying to do the best for her country.

Imagine if Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee had the opportunity to do a show like Sarah Palin's Alaska. They probably would take every opportunity to show how awesome they are, how they would be such amazing presidents, how they never make mistakes and are always right. They would try to smooth over and explain some of their past mistakes such as RomneyCare and Huckabee's Infamous Pardons. They would try to appeal to the largest audience as possible by projecting themselves as center-right politically. They would try to makeover their image in the most electable way possible.

However, we see Palin on her show attempting to climb a portion of Denali being scared out of her mind. It took her 45min to make one small step upward when she was unsure of where to place her feet. Later in that episode we see Todd able to scale that same portion in about 45 seconds. We see her kids fighting in the back of the RV, we see the Palin family in their commercial fishing business, and the traditions of cleaning the fish (blood and guts) with Todd's grandmother. We see Palin hunting and skeet shooting. These are all things that other candidates would never show, never. They would never be seen holding a gun, or cleaning fish on a table outside their grandmother's home - never. They would never show their kids as being anything other than perfectly well-behaved children. Track was featured trying to take over the family business and not really getting off to a good start. He slept in, broke the trailer and left it in the driveway, etc. To me that was very real. It looked like what every family in America who has a small business goes through when their children are transitioning to take it over. But Romney, et. al. probably wouldn't feature any kind of struggles like that because they would be afraid of how it affects public opinion and electability.

Politicians and pundits on the Right and Left have criticized her for being too conservative and unelectable in her image. They think she should be more generic, not do a television series, not have her daughter be on Dancing with the Stars, not hunt and fish - all so as not to offend "independents and moderates." What does Sarah do? She goes all-in showing her true life, fish blood and guts included. She basically says "I don't care what they want me to do. I'm going to follow my heart." She's taking this opportunity to show America who she is. This show will appeal to Independents who don't take the time to research or read her books. It's easy to watch TV, and it's entertaining, so those people will definitely be able to be amazed by her easily just by watching every week.

And I think that's why she's been criticized for doing this show. You know all the potential 2012 candidates (including Obama) would kill to have her show. They're so jealous. But they know that (1) they will never be given that chance because they're boring as dry wheat toast; and (2) if they did, no one would watch it and it would be an epic flop. So they fling mud. Meanwhile, Palin is just gaining more popularity by being herself and showing her true life unapologetically.

We need Sarah more than ever

I apologize for the lack of posts. I am going through a huge transformation at home that's taking up all my free time and energy. It's a good thing that's happening, but unfortunately this blog has fallen off the to-do list. But I am going to make a concerted effort to get back to posting regularly because of last night, because of the way our country is going - time is of the essence and we can't give up.

Sarah is the only one who can reverse this monstrosity. We need a leader to take charge and repeal. She's the only one who has the guts to pull this off. Forget Romney, forget Huckabee, forget Pawlenty. We need a REAL leader, and we need someone who is not afraid to take on the beltway. I know Sarah cares about this country the way we do, and she values freedom the way we do. She's a citizen just like us and she'll fight for us.

We also need to throw out everyone who voted "yes" yesterday. Fire. Them. All. They put their political agenda ahead of the will of the people. They purposefully rejected their constituents and we need to make them pay in November. Nancy Pelosi needs to be impeached.

As our President says, the time for talk is over. We need to act. We need to repeal this bill somehow. We need to vote these thugs out of office and we need to elect Sarah in 2012. Our future depends on it.

Here are some starting points.

Special Editorial: Repeal - The Weekly Standard
"Luckily, key parts of Obamacare--especially the subsidies--don’t go into effect until 2014. So what Republicans have to do is to make the 2010 and the 2012 elections referenda on Obamacare, win those elections, and then repeal Obamacare."


Your mission is to drive every Leftist from power, to defund the DNC, and to repeal what was done yesterday. - Hillbuzz
"It is our mission in life, as of today, to see to it the Democrat Party is sent to the dust heap of history with the Whigs and other extinct political animals whose time on this Earth came to an end. To thunderous applause in the case of Democrats, in our opinion."

What Freedom Demands - Hotair
"The decision is up to us. Our representatives will fight various legislative battles in the months to come… and then we will speak in November. As the voters of the United States ponder what to say, it would profit us to think long and hard about the freedom Democrats are trying to take from us tonight, and what freedom demands.



Yes, it makes demands. Freedom is not a gift. It is not given to you by the government, in a precise dosage that can be adjusted to match a politician’s diagnosis of what ails the body politic. Your forefathers won an impossible Revolution against an invincible foe to declare the self-evident truth that your rights descend from your Creator. Whether that Creator is a transcendent God, or a random combination of genetic material in the primordial soup, it is a power that existed before the first king assumed his throne, or the first president was elected. Liberty burns in your imagination, flows through your veins, and rings through your words."

Palin the opposite of Huckabee when it comes to clemency

h/t Be John Galt

Palin did not abuse her executive power in Alaska and was horrified at her predecessor's pardons, and other corrupt policies. She signed legislation that limited the governor's power to grant clemency and pardons soon after she was elected.

In his final day as governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski issued a very controversial pardon to a Bellingham, Wash.-based engineering company for a 1999 criminally negligent homicide conviction. Appalled by this, newly-elected Governor Sarah Palin pushed for a new state law that limited the Alaskan governor’s power to grant clemency. This law was unanimously passed by the state legislature.


Compassionate conservatives and commonsense conservatives. There is a HUGE difference.

In the quoted 2007 KTUU article from Be John Galt it says this about the "cleanup" Palin had to do after Murkowski:

While legislators will not specifically acknowledge that they are cleaning up after Murkowski, there is a sense that the former governor's legacy is being rolled back. Palin has reversed his appointments, canceled his contracts and is currently selling his jet.

Palin immediately got to work cleaning up after a terrible governor did a disservice to Alaska. Huckabee did that kind of damage to his state; Palin cleaned hers up so tragic events like yesterday's shooting would not happen.

Huckabee's shameful pardons

I was listening to Mark Davis' show this morning and he reported that one of the criminals that Mike Huckabee granted clemency to, Maurice Clemmons, while Governor of Arkansas has allegedly killed four police officers. The story is still unraveling and more facts are being uncovered.

Here is Huckabee's statement:

If Clemmons is found responsible, "it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State," Huckabee said.


He added that Clemmons' release from prison had been reviewed and approved by the Arkansas parole board.

Completely evading blame, and not owning up to his mistake that cost four people their lives.

Huckabee had a history of pardoning criminals recklessly - and he would not give reasons or explanations for them, which infuriated prosecutors. This is something I didn't know about him that I found out by reading today's stories. This is surely a huge red flag that indicates he's ineligible to be our President.

In my opinion, Huckabee played a central role in these murders. If he had not granted clemency to this man, those four police officers would still be alive today and Clemmons would still be in prison where he belongs.

Enthusiasm is at peak in MI for book tour stop

This article shows how excited Michigan is for their chance to see Palin. The author also lumps in Mike Huckabee's book tour but I think she only did that in an attempt to dampen the overly excited mood for Palin - what else do you expect from corrupt media I suppose.

If you read all the way down you'll see how one man says he likes Huckabee more than Palin but his wife chimes in and says they just want Obama out of the White House. I think she likes Palin more. ;)

West Michigan abuzz to see Palin, Huckabee live

www.freep.com
POSTED: 7:45 P.M. NOV. 17, 2009
BY KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Nearly every person at the Barnes and Noble Booksellers store in Kentwood this evening was buying a copy of Sarah Palin’s memoir “Going Rogue.”

Betty Ward, 73, of Coldwater, had two – one for herself and one for her sister. She had already been to a book signing down the road at the Schuler Books in Kentwood, getting two signatures from former Arkansas Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on his book “A Simple Christmas.”

“He’s about as honest as they come,” Ward said. “And she’s just another person like me. I would like to see her run for president.”

Ward made the two-hour drive to Coldwater for the books and was staying overnight in the hopes of getting Palin to autograph her copies.

The Woodland Mall, where Palin will begin her book tour Wednesday, was scheduled to close at 9 p.m. and store officials were expecting long lines when the mall doors reopened at 5:30 a.m. The book store was set to begin handing out wrist bands to people wanting Palin’s signature at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

“I’m going to try and come back and see if I can get my copy signed,” said Cheryl Lusby, 55, of Grand Rapids. “She’s such a strong and smart woman. And it takes a lot of guts to do what she’s done.”

Bert and Marianne Vandentop, of Grand Rapids, were two of the 300 people waiting in line today to see Huckabee. They didn’t think they would make it to the Palin event.

"We like her, but we like Mike better," said Bert Vandentop, 76. "Maybe they should team up."

Marianne Vandentop added, "We just want Obama out of the White House. The sooner the better."

The line at Schuler's snaked throughout the store and cashiers expected that Huckabee would sign 600 before the hour-long event was through. Huckabee is in the midst of a 64-city tour to promote his book of short stores.

Kent County was a good spot for both Republicans. Huckabee finished a respectable third in the presidential primary and in the general election, John McCain and Palin barely lost by a 48.9% to 49.4% margin, while the state as a whole went for Barack Obama for president by a 57%-41% margin.

Even though Hoffman lost, the conservative movement made a lot of progress

It's a shame NY23 didn't turn out the way we wanted. But a lot of good things came out of it. We showed the Republican party that we will not stand for RINOs. We will not elect someone just because they have an (R) next to their name. A third party candidate can gain enough popularity to be viable since this was a very close election. I imagine a lot of the Republican elite establishment are saying "I told you so" right now, but I'll say the same thing I've always said which is, what's the point of winning an election if you've sacrificed your principles to get there? Electing Dede Scozz would have been no different than electing the Democrat (can't even remember his name) so what would be the point in even electing her? She wouldn't have voted conservative or even right-of-center.

Palin being the first high-profile conservative to endorse Hoffman gave others enough courage to stand behind him as well. Of course, being the first to endorse showed that Palin isn't apologetic about her conservatism and it showed she's a trailblazer and a leader who's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in. Everyone who followed her was just that - a follower.

We learned where Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney stand - they both failed to formally endorse Hoffman. We learned how off-the-rails Newt Gingrich has become. We learned that Tim Pawlenty is weak and uninformed. We learned that the Republican party will stop funding RINOs if we insist on it. So a lot of good things came from this election even though our candidate lost.

Most of all, Palin is the one who stood her ground throughout and put her money where her mouth is. I really applaud her for trying to get a third-party conservative elected. She didn't lose anything by endorsing Hoffman.

Family first Sarah

Track is returning home from Iraq this weekend and Palin skipped a high-profile opportunity, the Values Voters Summit in Washington, to welcome him home.

"The Palins are expecting the return of eldest son Track this weekend from a yearlong deployment with an Army combat brigade in Iraq," Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton told The Washington Times. "Mrs. Palin also has her first major paid speaking engagement in Hong Kong" in a few days, she added.

The Left always tries to paint Palin as an aggressive career-opportunist, foaming at the mouth at any chance to get on TV and makes speeches. Absolutely not true. She's always put her family first as she should, which is why we love her.

Mike Huckabee ended up winning the Value Voters Summit straw poll - congratulations to him.

Huckabee takes more shots at Palin

In this current firestorm surrounding Palin's treatment by MSM, Mike Huckabee decided it was a good opportunity to take some (more) shots at her, too.

I know a lot of Republicans like him, but I have to say his attitude is very divisive to the Party. Palin isn't the only one he's dissing - he's also taken a few shots at Mitt Romney. During this time when we are simply outnumbered on every front, and have failed pushing our agenda successfully - we don't need this in-party fighting.

Palin succeeded in energizing the Conservative movement, something that hasn't happened in a long time. She's succeeding now, in putting the spotlight on unfair treatment by the media. She's succeeding on still being in the headlines mere days before Obama is sworn in. I would say she's good for the Party, an otherwise lifeless and unenthusiastic cause.

But here Huckabee tries to take her down a notch. He tries to gain support as the martyr, the poor Republican who didn't win the Nomination, and wasn't picked as the Running Mate by the guy who did. It just screams bitter, sour grapes at a time when we should be uniting and working hard, damn hard, to get Conservatives back in office.

He makes a point that the Couric and Gibson interviews were not unfair. They weren't - if they also gave Obama or Biden the same type of interviews, but they didn't. That was the injustice. And any kind of agreement I had with him went out the window when he made the "shopping" comment.

Excerpts from his Esquire article:

Mike Huckabee: The Laughing Man
By A.J. Jacobs

"Now I must say I did not think that either the Charlie Gibson interview or the Katie Couric interviews were unfair. In fact, if anything, Katie Couric was extraordinarily gentle, even helpful. [Palin] just...I don't know what happened. I can't explain it. It was not a good interview. I'm being charitable."

He pauses. "I think it was overpreparation. She'd been hammered by McCain's aides, 'Say this, don't say that.'"

Huckabee has met Palin a few times and talked to her backstage at the Republican National Convention.

"Did you give her any advice?"

"I didn't figure that she was shopping for my advice."

"But she sure was shopping."

"Yeah," chuckles Huckabee. Then stays quiet. I set him up for an easy spike, but he holds his tongue.

And, for old time's sake, here's one of his classic Palin jabs where he says she was only picked because she's a woman, with a little dash of boo-hooing on the side:

From Hot Air (November 24, 2008):

And from that day forward, when I actually was no longer running for President, nobody ever said, ‘Gee, Huckabee would be a great Vice-President.’ ”

Neither was he quite so unperturbed by the Palin pick: “I was scratching my head, saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute. She’s wonderful, but the only difference was she looks better in stilettos than I do, and she has better hair.’ It wasn’t so much a gender issue, but it was like they suddenly decided that everything they disliked about me was O.K. . . . She was given a pass by some of the very people who said I wasn’t prepared.”

Mike Huckabee, please go away now

I was never a fan of Mike Huckabee. I'm less than enthused that he seems wildly popular among Republicans. He always seemed like a stereotypical politician to me, never directly answering anything, not really expressing his beliefs fully and used car salesman-like. But I tried to like him throughout his run and embrace him the way others have - until today.

Now I can totally own my dislike of him without guilt. Here are some of his comments about Palin during a press breakfast he held to promote his book:

Huckabee had some interesting observations about Sarah Palin, a potential 2012 opponent, suggesting that she didn't earn her spurs and was more appealing to the base of the party because she hadn't been scrutinized in the primary.

"What John McCain did for her was to give her the capacity to sort of leapfrog over the process and get right to the center stage," he said of the GOP's vice presidential nominee.

Unlike those, he added, who had competed in the Republican primary.

"She didn't have to get bloodied like us. Few people on that stage didn't get bloodied."He did allow, though, that she did get bloodied -- "but not by the people Republicans care about, you guys."

And from WSJ:

Huckabee’s comments on Palin, a possible rival for the 2012 Republican nomination, suggest some jealously. “She didn’t have to go through any the debates, she didn’t have to go through the primaries, she didn’t have to have people pick her or pick someone else against her. State parties did not have to divide from one to 12 ways over her. So it was a remarkable ability for her to come in at a level that is an extraordinary benefit to her.”

Riiiiiiight (best Dr. Evil impression). Palin didn't earn her right to be there because she didn't compete in the primaries - okay. Well, maybe she was busy running her state as Governor. And I assume Huckabee didn't notice how she very much got bloodied by everyone (including her party) as soon as she was announced as running mate - right down to people scrutinizing how she gave birth. In fact, she's still not done getting bloodied by her own party.

Mike Huckabee is still bitter he didn't win the nomination and this statement reeks of sour grapes. His battle in the primaries was nothing compared to what Palin went through. He's bitter he doesn't have the staying power and popularity she does and is apparently now willing to split the party over it. He also apparently didn't notice how well she performed during the Vice Presidential debate.

What an indicator that he's completely self-absorbed and consumed with his own career - and not putting the best interests of Party first. He of all people should know the Republican Party is in danger right now and we need someone strong like Palin to compete in 2012. He should be cheering her success instead of denying it. Who does he think we should follow? Him? He wasn't strong enough to beat John McCain in the primaries in 2008; I don't think he'll be strong enough to lead the way in 2012. And wow, how could he deny her fabulous performance during her time as VP candidate? How could he deny how she was knocked down only to get back up stronger again and again? He marginalized her by saying she didn't compete in the primaries, which is a straw man argument that undermines how exceedingly well she did as VP candidate.

So please, Mike Huckabee, go away now. You're bad for the Party.