Brutally Honest

Palin rouses 'em at CPAC

The Note:

The most resounding speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference came not from a presidential candidate, or an elected official — but from Sarah Palin.

The screams and cheers that filled the spacious ballroom in which Palin spoke Saturday felt at times like they belonged at a Justin Bieber concert. A dozen times the conservatives at the conference leaped to their feet to applaud Palin, as she threw them line after line about beating President Obama and reclaiming “traditional values.”

“The president says small Americans, small-town Americans — we bitterly cling to our religion and our guns,” Palin said, referring to a comment Obama made in the last election, as the audience rose and cheered. “You say, I say, we say — keep your change. We’ll keep our God. We’ll keep our guns.”

For the first time at the three-day conference known as CPAC in Washington, protesters disrupted a speech. But the response from Palin’s loyal supporters was fierce. As protesters chanted at her from the back of the room at the Marriott, a man in the back row leaped over his chair, ran toward them and screamed, “Get the hell out of here, you asshole!”

The protesters were kicked out as others in the room began chanting “USA! USA!” followed quickly by “Sarah! Sarah!”

“See, you just won,” Palin ad-libbed to more cheers.

The GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee didn’t endorse a candidate for president, and she said that the drawn-out primary process can benefit the party — as long as Republicans don’t turn on each other.

“In America, we believe that competition strengthens us,” she said. “Competition relates to victory in 2012. We must stay true to our principles. I believe that the competition has got to keep going. But let’s make sure that the competition brings out the best in our party.

“We know that the far left and their media allies can’t beat us on the issues, so instead they’ll distort our records,” she added. “Let’s not do the job for them, OK, Republicans? OK, independents?”

Here's the video where she out mic' checks the mic' checkers:

Crossposted at Wizbang.

“I call them ‘dumb arses’”

Sarah Palin, in case you weren't aware, isn't fond of the mainstream media:

In an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Thursday radio show, Palin likened the pending interview to her experience with author Joe McGinniss, who staked out her Alaska home while writing a book. But according to Palin, with Gingrich the media “overplayed their hand.”

“The American public could really care less about being Joe McGinniss’d, not when there are real issues,” Palin said. “Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife is getting ready to reveal all, again — she has already done that, it seems, like a few times.”

“The liberal media,” she added, “and some of that GOP holier-than-thou machine overplayed their hand this time.” 

...

“I call them ‘dumb arses,’” she said. “They think by trotting out this old Gingrich divorce interview — that’s old news and it does feature this disgruntled ex- that claimed that it would destroy a campaign. All this does is, Sean, is incentivize conservatives and independents who are so sick of the politics of personal destruction because it’s played so selectively by the media.”

“Their target in this case, Newt,” Palin added, “is now going to soar even more because we know the game now and we just won’t put up with it. So you know, good call media. Way to go to covertly hype this, even with Gingrich opponents. For being so brilliant, they sure are dumb.”

Newt Gingrich isn't putting up with it either:

I'll admit to wishing that it was someone with less baggage than Newt who could and would take the fight to a media so blatantly biased against conservative thought but I'll also admit that Newt seems to be the best equipped at this time to do so. Battle on Newt.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Sarah Palin endorses Newt

Kinda sorta:

Sarah Palin on Tuesday urged South Carolina voters to support Newt Gingrich in their GOP presidential primary, offering the closest thing to an endorsement the former Alaska governor may come before this weekend's contest.

“If I had to vote in South Carolina, in order to keep this thing going, I’d vote for Newt and I would want this to continue,” Palin said during a FOX News interview Tuesday night.

Her support for the former House speaker, however, was somewhat qualified. Palin said she believed it would be best for the primary campaign to continue, so as to continue to add scrutiny to candidates and forge their strength as an eventual nominee against President Obama.

“More debates, more vetting of candidates because we know the mistake made in our country four years ago was having a candidate that was not vetted, to the degree that he should have been,” Palin explained. “I want to see that taking place this time because America is on this precipice — it’s that important. We need this process to continue."

“We think its a pretty darn clear call to arms,” Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond told NBC News shortly after Palin made these comments this evening.

...

If you consolidate the three conservative candidates, we clearly would have a huge margin over Romney, and the challenge for me is to convince conservatives to come home and have a single candidate on Saturday,” Gingrich told a crowd in Florence, S.C. today.

Palin offered words of flattery for Gingrich beyond her support this weekend, crowning him the winner of a Monday night debate. Her husband, Todd Palin, has formally endorsed Gingrich for president.

"Newt Gingrich is a true leader, which he has proven not only since the beginning of his campaign, but throughout his career,” Todd Palin said in a written statement sent out by the Gingrich campaign on Jan. 9.

Gingrich seems to be singing the same song as Ms. Palin, suggesting strongly that a Romney win in SC pretty much seals the deal:

Newt Gingrich came clean Tuesday afternoon, admitting that if he can't win this state's primary on Saturday, he probably can't win the Republican nomination at all.

"If I don't win the primary Saturday, we will probably nominate a moderate," the former House speaker said, referring to Mitt Romney. "And the odds are fairly high he will lose to Obama."

There's a part of me that thinks the longer this primary season goes on, the higher the odds that Obama wins in November.

I hope I'm wrong and that Ms. Palin is right.

For the sake of the country.

Anyone but Obama...

... may now include Sarah Palin... you know this is causing some gnashing of teeth:

Look out President Barack Obama. Even Sarah Palin's gaining on you.

A new McClatchy-Marist poll finds that Obama looks increasingly vulnerable in next year's election, with a majority of voters believing he'll lose to any Republican, a solid plurality saying they'll definitely vote against him and most potential Republican challengers gaining on him.

Even in potential matchups where he leads, Obama in most cases has lost ground to the Republican.

The biggest gain came for Palin, the former Alaska governor who hasn't yet announced whether she'll jump into the fast-changing race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

After trailing Obama by more than 20 percentage points in polls all year, the new national survey, taken Sept. 13-14, found Palin trailing the president by just 5 points, 49-44 percent. The key reason: She now leads Obama among independents, a sharp turnaround.

You can almost hear the veins popping in necks across the country this morning as the Palin haters stroke out over this news.

The spewing begins in 3, 2, 1...

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Todd Palin addresses the smears, the innuendo, the latest falsehoods about his wife

It's a wonder the guy hasn't punched somebody out yet:

Sarah Palin's husband jumped to her defense Thursday after an upcoming book claimed the Republican politician snorted cocaine off an oil drum and had a premarital fling with an African-American basketball star.

"The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin" by Joe McGinniss -- who moved in next to Palin's home in Alaska last year as part of his research -- comes out Tuesday, as the Tea Party darling ponders whether to formally seek the Republican presidential nomination.

"This is a man who has been relentlessly stalking my family to the point of moving in right next door to us to harass us and spy on us to satisfy his creepy obsession with my wife," husband Todd Palin said.

"His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo, and smears," he added in a statement carried by several US news media and political blogs.

"Even the New York Times called this book 'dated, petty,' and that it 'chases caustic, unsubstantiated gossip.'"

McGinniss is slimy... but do you think that'll stop the press from granting the man interviews purposed in pumping his book?

Not just no, but hell no.  There's a conservative woman out there that needs trashing and destroying and by God, they're going to do their damndest to getting that job done.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

"How outrageously wrong this unapologetic Jim Hoffa is"

Sarah Palin reacts to recent events... and in my view, connects:

So, now these union bosses are desperately trying to cast the grassroots Tea Party Movement as being “against the workingman.” How outrageously wrong this unapologetic Jim Hoffa is, for the people’s movement is the real movement for working class men and women. It’s rooted in real solidarity, and not special interests and corporate kickbacks. It represents the needed reform that will empower workers and job creators. We stand with the little guy against the corruption and influence peddling of those who collude to grease the wheels of government power.

This collusion is at the heart of Obama’s economic vision for America. In practice it is socialism for the very rich and the very poor, but a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It is socialism for the very poor who are reduced to a degrading perpetual dependence on a near-bankrupt centralized government to provide their every need, while at the same time robbing them of that which brings fulfillment and success – the life-affirming pride that comes from taking responsibility for your own destiny and building a better life through self-initiative and work ethic. And Obama’s vision is socialism via crony capitalism for the very rich who continue to get bailouts, debt-ridden “stimulus” funds, and special favors that allow them to waive off or help draft the burdensome regulations that act as a boot on the neck to small business owners who don’t have the same friends in high places. And where does this collusion leave working class Americans and the small business owners who create 70% of the jobs in this country? Out in the cold. It’s you and your children who are left paying for the cronyism of Obama and our permanent political class in DC.

Ask yourself if the folks you heard demonize concerned, independent Americans yesterday really speak for the working class when they’re all too happy to burden your families with the bill to bail out the President’s friends on Wall Street.

We should not forget that for all his lofty rhetoric, President Obama is a Chicago politician. Graft, cronyism, and quid pro quo are the well-known methods of an infamous Chicago political machine, of which Barack Obama emerged. This corruption isn’t just the result of a few bad apples. It’s the nature of a skewed system that’s typical of one not allowing a level playing field. If one desires opportunity for all, then the only solution is sudden and relentless reform. I know of what I speak. I too served in public office in a state that had a corruption problem. The difference is that I fought the corrupt political machine. Barack Obama used the machine in his state to advance. He never challenged it. And he’s evidently brought the same Chicago “pay-to-play” practices to the White House.

Read the whole thing... contrast her words with any words from this President... for sincerity, for passion, for genuineness...

Obama falls way short.

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Sarah Palin: "If we were real domestic terrorists, President Obama would want to pal around with us wouldn't he?"

Ya gotta admit, that's pretty funny... especially if you compare it to Biden's latest attempt at humor:

“When I went up, she said, ‘Joe,” Biden recalled of his meeting with Giffords. “I said, ‘Now we’re both members of the Cracked Head Club.’ You know, I had two craniotomies. For real. They literally took the top of my head off. Twice. Now, the wags in Delaware, when the second operation occurred, wrote and said, ‘Well, it’s because they couldn’t find a brain the first time!’”

I suspect they're still looking...

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Palin movie does well on opening day... unless you read The Atlantic

We'll come back to The Atlantic but first, to Yahoo's Associated Content:

Just on the face of it, it would seem to have been the biggest risk in marketing history to roll out a documentary about a politician with less than stellar poll numbers on the same night that the last Harry Potter movie was scheduled to be released.

But, by all accounts, "The Undefeated," the Sarah Palin biop, which was placed in limited release in ten screens across the country, did surprisingly well.

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the theater in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb near the Dallas/Fort Worth area, at least one Friday evening showing actually sold out.

Gateway Pundit reports similar sellout or near sell out crowds seeing "The Undefeated" in Georgia, Orange Country, California, Houston, Orlando, and other markets.

"The Undefeated" was heavily marketed in social media, with regular updates on Twitter and Facebook. The below the radar strategy seems to have paid off, at least for the first night. The question arises, however, has the movie developed enough word of mouth buzz to develop legs, as film marketers call it, so that audiences continue to show up?

Time will bring the telling. 

Speaking of telling, this related piece by The Atlantic, filled with typical liberal snarkiness, is pretty telling in and of itself:

Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County

When the clock struck 12:01 am today, AMC theaters in select cities were permitted to start showing "The Undefeated," a feature length documentary about Sarah Palin. As it happens, I'm visiting my parents in Orange County, Calif., home to one of just 10 theaters where the film is being rolled out. Watching it didn't interest me so much as going to interview folks who decided to attend. I figured I'd meet some nice people, perhaps run into someone who knows my grandparents, press five or six Palin fans on why they like her, and convey their worldview. It's my experience that the grassroots doesn't fit the caricature of its champions or its detractors.

In the parking lot of The Block, an outdoor mall in the City of Orange, I worried that arriving 45 minutes early was cutting it too close: it took 20 minutes to find parking, and folks were lining up scores deep outside the theater box office. Our airport is named after John Wayne. Ronald Reagan remains a hero to many. Even Richard Nixon's association with this place is treated as a point of pride. When I was growing up here, a local hotel broadcast the Rush Limbaugh program everyday in its restaurant. I should've known there'd be a big turnout, I thought.

As I approached, however, I realized that most people present were dressed in costume. The crowd was either showing ironic solidarity with Christine O'Donnell, the tea party candidate who is not a witch, or else everyone was there to see the Harry Potter movie playing on a majority of the theater's 30 screens. Without any way of telling Palin moviegoers from Potter fans dressed up like muggles, I'd have to pay, go to the assigned theater, and look for interviewees.

I hurried through the teenage hordes, bypassed a concession stand that sold 1,020 calories of soda for $5.25, and entered theater number 30, hoping I'd have ample time before the previews to talk to some people. But inside, the theater was empty. I sat there alone for 20 minutes, at which point an usher stuck his head in the door, gave me a quizzical smile, and said, "How come you're not watching Harry Potter?" Then he left me by myself again, and without any good answer.

The Atlantic chooses to attend a midnight showing of the movie and report breathlessly that behold, no one showed up. 

Which piece do you think will get an airing on regular media outlets later today?  The former or the latter?

Crossposted at Wizbang.

Sarah Palin: "I do believe that I can win"

An interesting piece up at Newsweek:

'I believe that I can win a national election,' Sarah Palin declared one recent evening, sitting in the private dining room of a hotel in rural Iowa. The occasion for her visit to quintessential small-town America was a gathering of the faithful that would have instantaneously erupted into a fervent campaign rally had she but given the word. Instead, it had been another day on the non–campaign trail, this one capped by a sweet victory: she had just attended the premiere of a glowingly positive documentary about her titled The Undefeated.

“The people of America are desperate for positive change, and deserving of positive change, to get us off of this wrong track,” she told me during a conversation that lasted late into the night and, inevitably, kept returning to the subject that has titillated the media and spooked Republican presidential contenders for months: her political intentions. “I’m not so egotistical as to believe that it has to be me, or it can only be me, to turn things around,” she said. “But I do believe that I can win.”

...

Family has been elemental to Palin’s national political identity from the moment she was introduced as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, accompanied by her outdoorsman husband, Todd, and four of their five children, including their youngest, Trig, who’d been born four months earlier with Down syndrome. The press’s fascination with this picturesque brood quickly turned so darkly speculative that candidate Barack Obama threatened to fire anyone in his campaign found participating in the conjectures.

Yet Palin, who is 47, now hinted that her family would not try to dissuade her from entering the race. “My kids know that life isn’t supposed to be easy, and it’s certainly not fair,” she said. “And they know that, even on their end, they have to make some sacrifices for the greater good.”

Track, the eldest son, who was deployed in Iraq during the 2008 campaign, is now married and running the family’s commercial fishing business in Alaska, living quietly out of the public eye. Willow, who turned 17 last week, seems amenable (“As long as her truck’s running, she’s fine,” Palin said), and Piper, who is 10, is a seasoned campaigner. Bristol’s all in. That leaves Todd, who sat in on part of the interview. “Do I want her to run?” he said. “It’s up to her. I mean, we’ll discuss it. But she’s definitely qualified to run this country. And she’s got a fire in the belly to serve.”

The whole thing is worth a gander and I'll officially go on record stating I want her to run.

It'll make for an interesting race... and I'm completely confident that she'd do much better... much, much better, than the current occupant.

Run Sarah, run.

Sarah Palin: "There are important lessons we can learn from all of this"

Sounds to me like she's on the verge of an announcement:

First, we should never entrust the White House to a far-left ideologue who has no appreciation or even understanding of the free market and limited government principles that made this country economically strong. Second, the office of the presidency is too important for on-the-job training. It requires a strong chief executive who has been entrusted with real authority in the past and has achieved a proven track record of positive measurable accomplishments. Leaders are expected to give good speeches, but leadership is so much more than oratory. Real leadership requires deeds even more than words. It means taking on the problems no one else wants to tackle. It means providing vision and guidance, inspiring people to action, bringing everyone to the table, and with a servant's heart dedicating oneself to striking agreements that keep faith with our Constitution and with the ordinary citizens who entrusted you with power. It means bucking the status quo, fighting the corrupt powers that be, serving the common good, and leaving the country better than you found it. Most of us don’t see a lot of that real leadership in D.C., and it’s profoundly disappointing.

But let me tell you where real hope lies. It’s not the hopey-changey stuff we heard about in 2008. Real hope comes from realizing how God has blessed our exceptional nation, and then doing something about it. We have been blessed with natural resources, hardworking entrepreneurs, and a Constitution that preserves the greatest form of government ever devised by man. If we develop those natural resources, allow our entrepreneurs to keep and invest more of what they earn, and adhere to the time-tested truths of our Constitution, we will prosper and endure.

Read the whole thing... I'm sure Obama and his people are doing so and stroking out.

Crossposted at Wizbang.