Sarah Palin Endorses Dan Bongino for Congress

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed Maryland Congressional candidate, former Secret Service agent for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and best-selling author Dan Bongino Friday.

Palin called Bongino, who is running in Maryland's Sixth Congressional District, a "unique candidate in politics today" because "his boots on the ground experience in Washington, D.C. has given him the wisdom and warrior spirit we need to stop the far left liberal agenda that is fundamentally transforming America."

Palin cited Bongino's background of "rigorous training as a U.S. Secret Service agent." She said he will "put to good use the positive characteristics that have been instilled in him with tenacity and dedication to principles."

"I was proud to support Dan’s candidacy in 2010 for U.S. Senate against an entrenched liberal in a state that many in the GOP had long abandoned. We’re not giving up!" she wrote. "Maryland deserves the best, and Congress sure needs the help, so Dan is back, more prepared than ever! It’s an honor to support Dan in his bid to reclaim a very important Congressional seat."

Palin mentioned that these "elections are more than just liberal vs. conservative or Republican vs. Democrat – it’s come down to us vs. them – the people vs. the politicians," and Bongino is running for the right reasons......

“As I stated in the first exchange, you hate her. That’s fine, it’s a free country. And I don’t need to defend myself against you. Think whatever you want.As I stated in the first exchange, you hate her. That’s fine, it’s a free country. And I don’t need to defend myself against you. Think whatever you want.

But as I said, you sam to know each and every shortcoming she supposedly has in great detail, as though you have a vested interest in running her down.

So no, I won’t let you “turn the tables on me” because i already said that I don’t think she’s gonna run. i just think that she wants the same things that I want, which is a renewal of America.

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So, you’re the only one who can pose questions, which I take the time to answer? I pose questions to you, and you dismiss them and me altogether? This is the behavior of The Idol Worshipper. The Idol is not to be questioned, and non-believers are not to be answered - just dismissed. If you claim that all she wants is a “renewal of America”, why does that make her above any sort of question as to how that’s to be secured???

By the way, if you believe she’s not going to run again for anything, then why is it she’s to be elevated at all in any political sense? It underscores my questions about her totally. She demands others do what she herself won’t do. If she stays out of politics (and she’ll likely have to since to run for POTUS you need Wall Street caliber money backing you to underwrite the hundreds of millions of dollars it costs to mount a serious POTUS campaign, which she would never get), why is her insight better than anyone else’s to the extent you need to say she just knows better? Her criticism from people like me is justified because she is the one putting herself on the periphery of the political arena by what she says and does. But since much of her criticism of other politicians is often hysterically shrieked (that’s what her hyper ALL CAPITAL LETTERS posts on Facebook are about: shrieking in hysteria), it becomes hard to take her seriously. If she never seeks an office again, then she will be nothing more than just another celebrity posing as someone who’s an expert politically. And it’s her contract at Fox and her appearances on both TV & Radio political shows that makes her eleigible to be critiqued. So to answer your question - again - her choosing to wade into politics makes her worthy of scrutiny. But to you - who apparently simply wants to worship her above all else - that worship quality is what would make this scrutiny unbearable. And one more thing: I’m pretty sure if she herself read what I’ve written here, she’d be a lot tougher handling this very minor critique from me than you. Your skin is apparently much thinner than hers.

Well, I wanted to just “agree to disagree”.

But you seem determined to make me admit that you are 100% right and I am100% wrong.

Ok. On her endorsements in 2010, she did a good job, but the establishment wasn’t prepared for it. They did manage to make sure that she was blamed for the losses in Delaware, Nevada and Alaska, even though the Delaware loss was the only one that she even bore slight responsibility for. I blame Rove for making it clear that the GOP preferred to lose and blame her than to unite behind O’Donnell. Whatever you thought of O’Donnell, she was the winner and the GOP’s lack of support was regrettable.

In 2012 she supported Cruz and Fischer most notably. In Missouri she supported Steelman, who lost to Akins. Akins unfortunate comments made him instantly unelectable but that’s not on Palin. With Hatch, I wish she’d steered clear completely. I think the other guy was suspect. Kind of like I think Matt Bevins is suspect this year in Kentucky, as he has ties to Richard Blumenthal. BTW- Are you upset with Rand Paul for supporting McConnell here over Bevins?

Which brings me to this year. You already have denounced any upcoming success that she might have in the Sasse race and the McDaniels race. Yet the GOP led by McConnell is throwing 100,000 bucks at Sasse in Nebraska and they are rallying around Haley Barbour and Cochran in Mississippi and denouncing McDaniel in very unsavory terms.

And you suggest that she deserves no credit if they win, and yet she should throw herself into guaranteed losses?

Sorry, but I suggest that you can find nothing but fault with her no matter what she does. Where am I wrong? Tell me what she has done that you haven’t dismissed?

(BTW- Have you ever read any of her proposals? She had a great 5 point “Palin Doctrine” that she delivered in a speech in Colorado back in May 2011 that any libertarian supporter of Rand Paul should have applauded, as it was a big departure from neo-con thinking that has prevailed in the GOP for an awful long time.

And lastly, regarding the money. She met at Newsmax Headquarters back in late 2010 with those so-called “Big Money” people. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what was said. i do know that it was shortly thereafter that she was attacked very openly by the GOP. The same GOP that happily left her to be blamed for the shooting of Gabby Giffords by a deranged lefty.

And then she was notably not invited to the 2012 convention, with the Romney people gloating about how they’d treated her like last weeks garbage as they hoped to impress the “moderates” by this mistreatment. Nevertheless, she urged us all to vote for Romney over Obama.

Let me ask you this? In a hypothetical matchup between Hillary and Sarah, with no other possibility, who do you choose?

“But you seem determined to make me admit that you are 100% right and I am100% wrong.”

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Again, you’re inaccurate. It has nothing to do with right and wrong to any degree. You’re making that up. That’s not what this was about. Your original accusation was one of hatred of me for her, which is wrong on the face, and in every other way. I see her for what she actually does - not glom onto her as though she was the lone salvation of the nation and ergo gets a huge margin to err, like her blindly faithful flock, of which you seem to be one. I laid out a defense of my position to your accusation (which you seem reluctant to categorize as the accusation it was). I laid out facts. All you’ve countered with - up to now - is more idolatry of her. She’s not an idol to me. She’s someone who ended up in politics, and she’s judged based on what she actually says and does. That’s what I wrote. Now, I’ll get to these amazing nonsense you’ve written here. Let’s start with the most important one - her non-invitation to the 2012 GOP Convention. This is an abjectly false statement. She absolutely was invited to speak there. Reince Preibus went on Fox News - national television - and said unequivocally he called Sarah Palin himself, he offered her a prime spot at the convention to speak, and SHE turned it down. So get that straight. he had everything to lose by having her come out publicly and calling him a liar. She never did (probably because every phone call at the RNC is recorded, so her calling him a liar when he wasn’t would be humiliating for her). So get that straight. They offered. She refused. The fact you don’t know this explains a lot of why we still have this ongoing diatribe. This is what her blind faithful following believe - that she was victimized by the evil RNC. And it’s a complete myth. Idolatry. Again.

You want to know what I said about that was good? I was the one who wrote first she was excellent at choosing candidates in 2010. It had nothing to do with the GOP-E. She herself was riding the wave of her popularity still riding high from 2008, and she did it very intelligently. I also pointed out when it began to fall - when she bailed on the 2012 POTUS race. And I have it on very good authority that she passed because Christie declined to get into the race (which was an utterly stupid decision on her part, which I relayed to the extremely reliable source). Nonetheless, once she bailed, many of her followers were looking for someone to be a leader - and they sensed it’s not her. That’s why her 2012 endorsements fell short of 2010. Those who wanted her to make her stand to help them felt like - “why should I support who she anoints”? She spent 3-4 years doing nothing but maligning Obama, The GOP-E, their destructive policies -and when it came time for her to do her part of at least attempting to try to defend the very people she expected to support those she endorsed, she shrunk from the challenge. Waived Her White Flag Of Surrender, as it were. This is a battle that neither Reagan or Thatcher shied away from, especially Lady Thatcher. Sarah Palin showed herself at that moment to be all smoke and no heat. It would have been far better for her to have gotten into the game and lost out (as Reagan did in 1976), than to tease and tease and tease, and then when push came to shove she decided to get sick to her stomach. So without any more than that retreat, she herself undermined her own brand. That’s why her 2012 endorsements fared so poorly from her 2010 gold mine. But mind you, her litany of complaints on politics has not stopped. Since she herself made her name as a politician - and since she still cashes in on her past political career at Fox News, among other venues - there is a saturation point reached by the public when you complain about what’s lacking in representation but you’re not willing to get in the game and fix what you keep complaining about in such a high profile manner. What you seem to be saying is it’s perfectly fine for her to use the very high profile platforms she’s given to be some kind of Conservative Siren, but it’s abjectly evil to hold her to account when someone asks, “Well, Governor Palin, it’s been 5 years since you last held office (and even quit that job well before you were supposed to), how about instead of criticizing others you suit up, get yourself elected and get your own hands dirty - or bloody - to fix this stuff”?? And we hear crickets chirping at that logic from the Palin Idolaters. Wanna know what the real dirty little secret is? Sarah Palin just plain doesn’t have the guts to get into the game and fix what she complains about. Not now. She may have done so earlier in her career, but she’s cashing in now in a way which she never did before - two TV shows? Two separate contracts at Fox News? However many book deals? Uhh..you can’t make that kinda money governing Alaska, unless you’re a Murkowski LOL!!! She’s clearly trying to stretch her 15 minutes of fame for as much as she can get from it financially. That’s as clear as day to anyone with half a brain. There’s a reason she’s not running for office, ya know???

And what good is any “plan” of hers - 5 point or otherwise - is SHE isn’t going to implement it?? What, she decides to write a “5-Point Plan” and then..uh..give it to, say, Ted Cruz and say “Here is my outstanding plan, implement this darling, will you!”??? Unless SHE is going to run on it for office, it means nothing. Period.

And absolutely right about Sasse and McDaniel. They have been backed and supported WAY before she ever said anything about them. If you plan to make the case it was her endorsement alone that carried the day for them should they win - you better be able to back that up with verifiable proof. Not just an arbitrary claim. She got Deb Fischer over the hump in 2012, and that was impressive. But everyone who is anyone conservative knows Sasse and McDaniel both. The SCF, Club For Growth TEA Party have all been working to get their names out way before her endorsement. So no, she alone gets no credit for anything they achieve. If anything, her endorsements of them is a case of her riding on the back of the hard work of others. Given her growing list of no-name losers thus far in 2014 (Benacquisto, Pierson, Lonergan, et.al), it’s no wonder why she felt the need. That’s why she’s not sticking her neck out for Bevin - she knows he has no chance at all. I railed against SCF - as a donor to them - for wasting money on him. The Kentucky GOP is never going to let the party’s national senate leader lose in a primary. It’s just not going to happen. Ditto for Winteregg against Boehner. That’s why Palin won’t endorse them. They are two more losers she’d be saddled with, and her endorsement brand is on life support as it is.

It’s ridiculous to speculate on a 2016 between Hillary and Palin. Neither of them are going to be the nominee. So enough of this. Idolize Palin as you will. She quite simply is not the force she once was, and isn’t likely to be in the future. That said, if she does decide to man up, drag her ass onto a ballot in 2016, then I will watch her closely. If she wins, and decides to try to fix what she complains about, then kudos to her. But until then, she needs to just shut up.

“I appreciate you explaining your position. If you can take the time, I recommend to you the documentary about Gov. Palin called Undefeated. You might be able to rent it on Netflix or buy it at Amazon. It goes through her record in government, starting with her time as Mayor of Wasilla. People are interviewed and they talk about the reforms she made every step of the way in various offices she held. She has, literally, been there, done that, when it comes to fixing government and there’s no doubt she can lay out a blue print for fixing what’s wrong with our Federal government.”

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Thank you for the reply to me. I did see “The Undefeated”. I was with a group of people in Southern California the night it premiered, and Andrew Breitbart spoke after the screening to those of us in the room. My view on it was it was a historical record on Palin written by her hired hagiographer, Stephen Bannon. I got the gist of it - she was fighting political cronyism and managed to succeed against it in her run for governor. But do you honestly think she’s the only one who ever did such a thing in her career? You think that makes her unique? The way her idolaters tell it, you’d think Sarah Palin was the only politician in history to have stood up against a state political machine, and won. It’s more over glorification. All smoke, little heat. The main thrust of her achievement as a governor would be to unleash Alaska’s energy reserves. And that is noteworthy. But I don’t find that some sort of an amazing achievement. One thing I will say on her behalf is about her integrity of resigning her administrative position based on her ethos. That alone is truly rare. But confining it to her achievements as a governor, the entire 90 minutes was about 30 minutes too long and again - her resigning is a stain that will stay with her if she ever decides to run for office again. She’s not going to be able to live it down.

When you compare her to a governor of the caliber of Scott Walker, you realize just how timid Sarah Palin looks. He won his governorship on the promise of the same type of reformation as she did. And his reward was a recall to try to get him thrown out of office. He was faced with hostile unions who were striking whenever they could, and his entire Democrat State Senate literally left the state to try to grind the state government to a halt and tag him with the blame for it. You want tell me who has “been there done that”?? You can believe it’s Palin if you want to. But Walker is a FAR more accomplished executive as governor than she ever was. And if you think she’s going to “lay out a blueprint for fixing what’s wrong with our federal government”, then why hasn’t she done so? And the answer is she has no intention of doing it - because answers are hard to mete out when you have conflicting interests. If she was POTUS now, her “plan” wouldn’t be going anywhere. She cannot fire Harry Reid, so she has to live with a hostile Senate which will never bow to her. That’s why she’s not going to run again. She’s decided it’s a whole lot easier to carp and criticize from the sidelines (which is what her entire post-political career has amounted to) than it is to actually get into the game and work to fix it. Telling others what they do wrong is not a solution to a problem. Failing to get yourself into an elected office again to practice what she preaches is equally not a solution. And this is what Sarah Palin has been about since she quit her governorship five years ago.

carp and criticize from the sidelines

As we all do, here.

Even though Gov. Walker has withstood the unions in Wisconsin, he does have a dreadful habit of caving and running from controversy, instead of standing up for the little things, that would show he has real backbone. He also hides behind his spokesman when he doesn't want to talk about something.

A few months back, he was at a factory to tout their hiring of new workers. Several of the workers were on stage with him, one of whom was a convicted sex offender who had turned his life around and found work at the factory. When it was brought up to Gov. Walker after the event, he threw the guy under the bus and said if he had known the guy was a convict, he never would have had him on stage. Then he said the company picked the people to be on stage with him. Gov. Walker could have easily made this a positive outcome by saying that "This man paid his debt to society and is trying to turn his life around. Wisconsin's policies of putting people to work are working around the state and anyone who wants to work can find a job in Wisconsin." Instead, Walker ran away from the guy.

Last year, the board of regents for UW system was choosing its student representative. The college kid chosen had signed the recall petition against Walker because his mother is a teacher and he wanted to support her. When Walker found out, he turned down the kid for the board slot. This is just a college student and Walker was afraid to have him on the board because of that. The kid is clean-cut and an engineering major, so he's fairly intelligent, yet Walker couldn't bring himself to say that he "welcomes this kid's opinion on the board." And there was no indication that the kid voted against Walker.

So Walker's skittishness and his sudden need to finish his college degree and to get a hair transplant don't speak to someone who has a strong character and who can withstand a lot of criticism without apologizing when the heat's too much. Sorry for the lengthy explanation.

What do you mean one little liberal blogger? You have it all totally wrong for the reason she gracefully stepped down. Alaska, the only state in the nation at the time had a loophole in their law that Obama operatives found that provided a way to bombard the governors office with relentless ethics lawsuits even if they had no proof. Alaska at the time had a statute on the books that provided if a complaint was filed, the Secretary of State would have to launch a investigation. Obama operatives seized the opportunity and they came out of the woodwork filing complaints right and left. For example, one complaint filed by a democrat Obama supporter stated that Governor Palin showed up at a iditarod race wearing a jacket with a logo patch on it. A complaint was filed saying the governor was supporting the company that was on the patch and a violation of the governors office. It was further from the truth. Never the less a full blown investigation took place causing her and her staff to be tied up in hours of depositions and research.

In all over 27 of these similar type lawsuits were filed on average of one a week and her legal bills were piling up to over 700k and climbing. Since Alaska statutes at that time didn’t provide defense funds for the governor, she had to hire her own defense lawyers, pay for them out of her own pocket and she and her family were going broke and facing total bankruptcy and she was being prevented from doing her duties as governor due to countless hours of depositions. Palin returning from the VP campaign had just taken a 25k salary cut out of her salary of just 125k a year as Governor. She was left with two options, stay and tie up Alaska’s state business while going broke fighting the lawsuits OR step down and turn over the governors office to Lt Gov Sean Parnell to carry on her policies and fiscal reforms and take the liberal fight to the lower 48. She chose the latter and immediately after she stepped down, not one ethics complaint was filed again. Later one by one, all ethics suits were dismissed as frivolous without merit and Alaska’s state business under her policies continued without any more interruptions.

In essence, Obama and his supporters thought that by using the loophole to file these bogus suits, they would ruin her politically and send her into obscurity. It failed and she showed her political power during the midterm elections with her drawing huge crowds endorsing tea party candidates. That is when President Clinton went on national TV a week before election day and warned democrats voters and candidates to “Don’t underestimate this woman. She is resilient like me”. He was right because most of her endorsements were victorious . In the end after she stepped down. Alaska passed a new law that would make the Secretary of State defend their governors from ethics complaints. Palin would have stayed if the new law was in place at the time.

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