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While insisting that she is not endorsing anyone at this time, former Alaska governor and GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin came very close to endorsing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday after his impressive victory in the all-important South Carolina primary. “I’m still not endorsing anyone at this time,” Palin told Fox News. But pointing to husband Todd’s endorsement of Gingrich, she added, “I think that endorsement was real reflective of a lot of Americans who understand that somebody with experience in cutting government budgets, cutting taxes — which does more for liberty and an economic turnaround than anything...

In New Hampshire, they’re still holding out hope for Sarah. Cheerleaders for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are eagerly awaiting her keynote speech Feb. 11 at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., hoping against all odds she’ll shake up the GOP field and announce a run — for president. “If she’s going to do it, that’s when she’d do it,” said Warren Rasmussen, the volunteer New Hampshire coordinator for Organize4Palin.com. “If she felt there was really no one who could make a proper case for conservatism, I think she might feel compelled to run.” Sure, it’s a long...

Arizona U.S. Senator and former Republican presidential candidate John McCain reflected on his 2008 campaign earlier this week, saying choosing former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has his running mate was “the best decision” he has ever made. Mr. McCain made the comment during an appearance on Fox News, where he also took time to promote his 2008 rival, Mitt Romney, whose Republican presidential candidacy he endorsed last week, after Mr. Romney won the Iowa caucus by eight votes. The Arizona Republican has previously said he stands by his decision to choose Ms. Palin as the Republican presidential candidate for vice...

Todd Palin, husband of former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, has endorsed Newt Gingrich in the Republican presidential primary, giving the former House Speaker a much-needed boost among Tea Party conservatives. Palin told ABC News that he had not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from his campaign, but appreciated that the former speaker had fought through scrutiny similar to that placed on his wife during her unsuccessful vice presidential bid in 2008. Palin also applauded Gingrich for fighting through the en masse resignation of his senior staff last summer, saying his campaign has “burst out of...

For the past four years, she has swayed, danced and dodged around the Conservative Political Action Conference, but, this year, Sarah Palin says she has committed to deliver the keynote address Feb. 11, the last day of the conference. ABC’s The Note recounts the rocky history between the former vice presidential candidate and CPAC’s sponsor, the American Conservative Union: She declined to keynote the event in 2011, citing a scheduling conflict. But her refusal to participate fueled speculation that she wasn’t going because of GOProud, a gay Republican group, that planned to attend. She denied that was the case. Her...

<p>She isn’t running, but if she were, what would Sarah Palin be talking about on the trail?</p> <p>Given the concerns I have for some of the Republican field’s focus thus far, I must implore the candidates to do something that sounds self-promoting, but whatever. Candidates, please turn to Chapter Three of “Going Rogue” and read what it takes for our country to step toward energy independence. Note the lesson I share in the same chapter about taking on the “elite,” the crony capitalists and the permanent political establishment to get a job done.</p>

Donald Trump delivered a special Christmas gift to editorial cartoonists, comedians and the late-night talk show hosts they write for when news broke Friday that The Donald is leaving the Grand Old Party to keep his options open for an independent Republican presidential bid in 2012. This also, or course, would be a gift for the Democratic Party due to the loss of a juicy target like Herman Cain, the self-destruction of Michele Bachmann and the increasing marginalization of contenders like Ron Paul, John Huntsman and that guy from Texas who forgets things and falls asleep during debates. Facing a...

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Sarah Palin says it's not too late for someone to jump into the Republican presidential race. Asked by Fox Business Network about the likelihood that she'd become a candidate, the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee said it's not too late for "folks" to jump in. Said Palin: "Who knows what will happen in the future."(continued)

The Republicans’ shaky president frontrunner, ex-Gov. Mitt Romney, has won the endorsement of a GOP senator who took on the Tea Party movement and won in her home state last year. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, became the most prominent West Coast politician to endorse Romney, who lives much of the time near San Diego at the other end of the coast. “Mitt Romney has had the lifelong experience needed to turn around our economy,” Murkowski said. The endorsement increases chances that Murkowski’s fiercest rival in Alaska Republican circles, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, will come out for ex-House...

(VIDEO AT LINK) When asked if she has a candidate she would like to endorse in the 2012 GOP field, Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) said she hasn't made up her mind as of now, and that it wouldn't matter. Palin said her endorsement would amount to a "hill of a beans." "I think today, my personal endorsement, probably doesn't amount to a hill of beans today, at this point in the race," Palin said on FOX News' "Hannity" program. Palin said later in the race perhaps her endorsement may have more weight, but admitted at this moment it doesn't...

Hot Air comments yesterday that "the polls in every one of the early states have been pretty much of a roller coaster ride since summer. There’s probably time for at least one more rise and fall before the state’s [South Carolina's] residents actually go to the polls.” The Republican campaign degenerates now to a state like that in the mid-'70s when political contrast was phrased “hippies v. hard hats.” The hard hats, rednecks today, were characteristically pictured sitting by a construction site on lunch break with American flag decals on their safety helmets and on their metal lunch pails poignant...

If turn out to be right on this, remember you probably read it here first. I’m beginning to suspect that the GOP nominee for the 2012 general election may well be, “None of the above“. I.e., some dark horse candidate who’s either at the margins (like a Huntsman or a Roemer), or someone totally out of left field. It involves two words which we haven’t used in about 70 years: “Brokered Convention“. There are Republican candidates with support an inch wide and a mile deep, and candidates with support a mile wide and an inch deep. None of the current...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/25/tv-ad-asking-sarah-palin-to-reconsider-on-tap-in-sioux-city/

Relatively few prominent Republican women have spoken out, so far, about the sexual harassment charges facing Herman Cain. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski started to change that today, telling CNN that she's "concerned" about the growing list of complaints about Cain's behavior: Murkowski made clear she was moved by the public account of Sharon Bialek, a single mother from Chicago ... "It takes incredible courage for an individual to come forward as this latest, as this one woman has," the third-term Alaskan said. "So it does cause me to wonder exactly what is out there. I am concerned." ...

She has always been known as a Tea Party darling as well as a staunch Republican. But now Sarah Palin has nailed her political colours to the mast and changed her Facebook profile from Republican to 'Conservative'. The move on the 'political views' section of her page has left political commentators struggling to decipher what the the former Alaska governor is trying to say. (GRAPHIC AT LINK) One long-time blogger and Palin supporter wrote: 'I suppose one could draw a multitude of conclusions regarding this status change. 'I know that I certainly have. You can be certain that any move...

A fellow tea-party candidate and Alaskan politician who drew Sarah Palin's endorsement in 2010 says it's not "out of the realm of possibility" that the former governor might still run for president in 2012 … as an independent. Former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller evaluated the chances Palin might run in a conversation with Aaron Klein during the host's "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" program on New York City's WABC Radio. When asked if Palin, who announced she would not seek the Republican nomination for president, might consider running as an independent, Miller replied, "You know, I think it's unlikely....

The big news in the political world is that Chris Christie will not enter the GOP race, so what's next? Many are mumbling underneath their breath that Republicans will be forced to choose between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, the current front-runners who have been labeled as having less than polarizing personalities. Perry seems to be losing momentum each day, the spotlight continues to shine on underdog Herman Cain, and according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza is in joint second place with Perry, each supported by 16% of Republicans; and Mitt Romney is...

The Ida County GOP Central Committee will be showing the Sarah Palin documentary, The Undefeated, which was written and directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Bannon and Victory Film Group co-founder Glenn Bracken Evans and Dan Fleuette. The film chronicles Sarah Palin's rise from obscurity to national prominence. ARC Entertainment is the film's worldwide distributor. The Undefeated features leading prominent political commentators Mark Levin, Tammy Bruce and Andrew Breitbart as well as conservative activists Kate Obenshein, Sonnie Johnson and Jamie Radtke. Additionally, the film features interviews with Alaskan civil servants, elected officials and advisors who were involved in...

President Barack Obama borrowed a phrase from one of his harshest opponents last night, telling supporters at a New York fundraiser that “all that hopey changey stuff” from the 2008 campaign “was real.” The “hopey changey” term comes from a certain former Alaska governor and 2008-vintage Obama opponent. At a tea party convention in Nasvhille last year, Sarah Palin said she wanted to ask Obama’s supporters: “How’s that hopey changey thing working out for ya?” Obama’s belated response went like this, according to last night’s pool report from the Gotham Theater: “All that hopey changey stuff, as they say? That...

In light of Friday's decision by Standard and Poor's to downgrade the United States' credit rating to AA+, it's worth mentioning again -- as I first did in this Atlantic piece -- that Alaska recently had its bond rating raised to AAA for the first time in the state's history, largely due to fiscal improvements brought about by Sarah Palin while she was governor. The state currently enjoys a $12 billion budget surplus. I was reminded of this fact over the weekend by Ian Lazaren, the indefatigable supporter-cultist behind Conservatives4Palin.com. This is unquestionably a good thing for the people of...

I went to the conservatives4palin.com website to look up the news on the movie The Undefeated and was...intrigued by the banner picture at the top of the page:

A poll unveiled this week from American Research Group shows that three Republican presidential candidates -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska -- are gaining serious momentum in Iowa, site of the first presidential caucus. Bachmann, who declared her candidacy in June and has been surging in polls at both the national and state levels, topped the poll with 21 percent. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts placed second with 18 percent. Paul, who was the Libertarian candidate in 1988 and ran for the Republican nomination in...

Here's a surprise: A New York Times/CBS poll shows Republican voters wish they had more GOP candidates to choose from in the 2012 presidential race -- and about two-thirds of them said they are enthusiastically unenthusiastic about any of the nine announced candidates. The ennui is palpable and who could blame them? Cold mashed potatoes have more pizzazz then this bunch. History-impaired. Goofy. The same, followed by more of the same. Blah-blah-blah. The only way to liven it up would require at least a truckload of fairy dust -- or new blood jumping into the fray. All of this plays...

....I met a young man who is not the President of the Young Republicans Club at the University of California Irvine. He talked about how when the Democrats and Republicans throw events on campus they have big turnouts. I hope the best for Nick and look forward to speaking with him again. And finally, I interviewed Marc Harris who is a blogger from BigGovernment.com and the leader of his areas Tea Party as well. To break the ice as well as start a nationwide survey of a poll truly I asked a question of everyone that was submitted to me...

Via POLITICO's Juana Summers, Sarah Palin is throwing water on reports she'd ditched her "One Nation" bus tour, with a Facebook post saying she will be performing her civic duty: "As I said myself at the end of the east coast leg of the tour, the summer is long, and I'm looking forward to hitting the open road again. The coming weeks are tight because civic duty calls (like most everyone else, even former governors get called up for jury duty) and I look forward to doing my part just like every other Alaskan."

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) made the first and only mention of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), praising her and saying she is qualified to be president. Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, was asked who made the better choice for vice president in 2008, Obama by choosing then-Sen. Joe Biden or Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) selection of Palin. The Minnesotan originally focused his comments on Biden, criticizing his Iraq policy, but then turned to praise Palin. "I think Gov. Palin is a remarkable leader, she is more than qualified to be president of the United States," he said....

There’s a lot to talk about here. Mitch Daniels, whom I thought would enter the race and was going to discuss, bowed out over the weekend, saying he loved his family even more than he loved his country. I thought Daniels would have been a strong candidate with an established record of taming the fiscal situation and having won reelection in Indiana, a Republican-leaning state that Obama did win, however. And I think he could have gotten beyond conservative reflexes against his verbal formulations that have called for “a truce on social issues,” and the “need to be liked,” which...

Sarah Palin has deliberately left the question as to whether or not she will run in 2012 open. For those who believe a bid for the GOP nomination is still a possibility for her, The Arizona Republic provides some further evidence: after months of rumors, Palin may have purchased a house in Scotsdale, Arizona. A deal on a secluded, 8,000-square-foot home in far north Scottsdale was recently closed by Safari Investments LLC for $1.695 million cash. The terms of the deal hide the identity of the owner, and when the attorney listed on the property records, Alan Kierman, was asked...

The president’s announcement, which included plans for expanded drilling in Alaska demonstrate[s] his commitment to reducing oil imports by increasing domestic production… Mr. Obama said the administration would begin to hold annual auctions for oil and gas leases in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve, a 23-million-acre tract on the North Slope of Alaska. The move comes after years of demands for the auctions by industry executives and Alaska’s two senators, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat. In crediting Murkowski and Begich for the policy change, The New York Times omitted the name of Sarah Palin, who’s been...

Jim Palin met both me and calamari for the first time at lunch last month at Evangelo’s, the best Italian restaurant in Wasilla, Alaska. Jim Palin, Todd’s father, has been hunting and fishing in his state for almost 50 years, but somehow he had never crossed paths with a squid, alive or fried. As for reporters from the “lamestream media,” he had met a few, but had never actually sat down to break bread with one before. I had come to lunch hoping to learn a little about Jim’s elusive son, Todd—a figure of enduring fascination who just might, if...

Some media commentary on Sarah Palin continues to amuse me quite a bit. There are those who love to talk about how irrelevant she is — usually in the midst of a lengthy blog post or column that obsesses about something Palin recently said or tweeted. There are those who continue to distort her record, despite the surplus her policies afforded Alaska and a list of accomplishments that includes substantial spending reductions, incentivizing and expanding drilling for oil and natural gas, investing in state savings, and a commitment to transparency, ethics reform, and tackling corruption. And there are an array...

The anti-Palin books headed our way are sure to delight the usual Palin-bashing keyboard addicts punching away until the wee hours of the night. On the other hand, they could serve as amusement to others as they become aware of the actual facts. Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin is set for release May 24, 2011 and bears the authenticity of being the only anti-Palin book co-authored by a former aide of the Governor. Frank Bailey served with Governor Palin during her election campaign and victory. Aside from that, it is quite predictable: the book's other authors are Jeanne Devon, a...

It is considered unusual for a former governor who holds no public office and is not currently running for another to have a foreign policy adviser. But Sarah Palin, not known for being conventional, has chosen Peter Schweizer for that job. Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution with expertise in international relations, national security affairs, and the U.S. presidency. He is also the author of a number of books, including two on President Reagan, one on the Bush family, and a critique on the effects of big government on the world economy. Most recently, Schweizer published a...

Politics being a funny beast, we tend to readily accept the idea of a retired state governor, sometime pundit, and non-candidate for president having a “foreign policy adviser.” Ben Smith of Politico reports that Palin this weekend unloaded what he calls the “neocon” advisers who have been with her since the 2008 campaign (when she was assigned them by the McCain organization), in favor of Hoover fellow and political author Peter Schweizer, who wrote two seminal volumes on Reagan’s handling of the Cold War (Victory and Reagan’s War), and writes at Breitbart’s Big Peace. (H/t: Israpundit) This is informative news...

There are at least a dozen Republicans considering a run for the White House in 2012. NPR is profiling some of them to find out what first sparked their interest in politics.Whether Sarah Palin will enter the 2012 presidential race is the political junkie's favorite guessing game — and Palin hasn't said much to end the speculation. But how Palin entered politics in the first place may surprise you. It turns out, Palin was recruited into politics to help the cause of bigger government. "We were looking for a moderate who was interested in community development, basically," says John Stein,...

Few people have ever attracted more polarization than Sarah Palin has. Since her name was announced as John McCain’s running mate in 2008, she has been at the center of controversy. Many Americans love Palin, but an equally large number despise her. Those who speak so ill of her claim she is completely incompetent to be in a leadership position. That may not be entirely true. After becoming governor of Alaska in 2007, Palin immediately passed a state bill on political ethics. This bill requires all Alaskan representatives to receive ethics training, and increases the amount of money a lobbyist...

Well it would seem that Republicans in Congress blinked agreeing to a last minute deal where they compromised everything and Democrats gave nothing. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing a victory lap, and President Obama was thankful that funding Planned Parenthood was avoided. "We protected the investments we need to win the future. At the same time, we also made sure at the end of the day this was a debate about spending cuts — not social issues like women’s health and the protection of our air and water. These are important issues that deserve discussion, just not during...

Pissant has just agreed to come back to Free Republic and spearhead what has been characterized as a massive fundraising effort, just in time for Sarah's planned announcement of her run for the Presidency.

Sarah Palin left India on Sunday and word on the street is that she is “very smart” and “I’d go to see her speak anywhere” or…”she is very dumb” and “no one cares about Sarah Palin,” according to the Youtube page of India Reloaded, here, interviewing the locals as Palin lives Asia’s biggest democracy. Palin praised India for its progress and called for stronger US and India ties. She was the Saturday evening dinner keynote speaker at the India Today Conclave , a gathering of political and business leaders that took place in New Delhi Friday and Saturday. During her...

Speaking to a group involving policy talk on Latin America, Hillary Clinton said it’s about time the United States has a female president. Although she may be talking in the general sense, one can’t help but speculate whether she is talking about Governor Sarah Palin or Representative Michele Bachmann. Both women seem to have interests in 2012. When it came to Palin, Hillary never uttered a bad word about her, nor vice-versa. Via Politico: “I must say, I’m far enough away from my own career in electoral politics that I will not take too much heat for suggesting that these...

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, leaves this weekend for a three-day trip to India and Israel. Ms. Palin, who is considering whether to run for president in 2012, is scheduled to give a paid speech Saturday night at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi as the keynote speaker for the “India Today Conclave.” Her speech is titled “My Vision for America.” “On her first visit to India, Governor Palin shares her vision of the country she may aspire to lead, and of America’s place in the world,” the group’s Web site says of Ms. Palin. After the...

As her popularity and credibility as a presidential candidate has grown among a rising number of French voters, National Front (FN) party honcho Marine Le Pen has seen detractors draw negative comparisons between her and extreme-right figures elsewhere in Europe—a notorious crowd including Dutch politician Geert Wilders, British National Party leader Nick Griffin, and Italian Gianfranco Fini before he shed his overt fascist trappings to gain more mainstream influence. But there's another well-known foreign politician blazing new trails on the rightist fringe of her country's political spectrum who Le Pen could also be measured against: American Tea Party darling Sarah...

SCOTTSDALE - Members of Sarah Palin's camp are considering basing her presidential campaign in Scottsdale, according to Politico.com. She hasn't yet decided whether she will run, but Politico reports that sources within her camp think Scottsdale is a top headquarters location. For one, Palin's daughter Bristol bought a home in Maricopa a few months ago. In the wake of the Tucson shootings, Palin was blasted for a "crosshairs map" she released during the 2010 election that marked Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson as a Democratic to vote out. Some critics connected that rhetoric to the shooting, later leading her to release...

As gasoline prices shot up for the 13th straight day on Monday to a new national average topping $3.50 and oil prices rose to over $106 a barrel, the cost of energy seemed poised once again to rise to the forefront of the political discourse just as the 2012 presidential campaign generates steam. Of all the prospective Republican candidates, none may have a better opportunity to benefit politically from a nominating cycle in which gas prices take center stage than former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Marginalized by critics in 2008 over her perceived parochialism and lack of foreign policy experience,...

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin came out strongly in favor of continued U.S. foreign aid to Israel in a Sunday interview with Judge Jeanine Pirro on Foxnews. "You know I'm sure that there's some waste and fraud in our foreign aid we need to find efficiencies and not give to any regime that would seek to harm Americans in any sense of the word 'harm,'" Palin said, "I don't support that kind of foreign aid at all. but when it comes to Israel - NO... I stand strong with Israel and unapologetically I say that America should keep this strong...

Sarah Palin on Tuesday called the Obama administration’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court “appalling.” “I have always believed that marriage is between one man and one woman,” Palin said in a statement provided to Maggie Gallagher, the head of the National Organization for Marriage. “Like the majority of Americans, I support the Defense of Marriage Act and find it appalling that the Obama administration decided not to defend this federal law which was enacted with broad bipartisan support and signed into law by a Democrat president,” Palin said...

Rove represents the worst of the elitist GOP establishment. Via NY Mag…One week before the 2010 midterm elections, Rove took aim at Sarah Palin, questioning the wisdom of her appearance on a reality show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, if she really wanted to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Palin lacked the “gravitas” to be president, went a subhead in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph. Rove later tried wriggling out of his comments, as well as observations he made in a German magazine that tea-partiers weren’t “sophisticated,” being unfamiliar, as Rove was, with intellectuals like the economist Friedrich August von Hayek....

America's political theater is spewing snickers and sarcasm over Sarah Palin's proposed trip to India next month amid uncertainty over whether she will run for the White House in 2012. While state governors bidding for Presidency typically make overseas trips to shore up their foreign policy credentials, Palin, ex-governor of Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate, is famously shy of foreign travel. She got a passport only in 2006, and before signing up with John McCain for the Republican ticket in 2008, she had travelled overseas only once, to visit US troops in the Middle East. Since then, she has gone...

just had an interview with sarah, todd and eric are in 1st or 2nd right now

Let me start off by saying, I have no political power or have ever been in a position of the people. However, I am an American who can elect people into that power. And the greatest election of them all is the office of the President of the United States. So what do all voters ask themselves before voting for a Presidential candidate? Are they qualified to do the job. Now the main point I want to talk about is the upcoming 2012 presidential election. And specifically Sarah Palin. This election has already been widely publicized by the media. There’s...