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An adviser to Rep. Michele Bachmann sends over this fairly ruffles-smoothing statement:   “The Congresswoman has nothing but admiration and respect for Governor Palin. The two enjoy a good friendship, and Rep. Bachmann looks forward to working with the Governor for the common goal of making sure President Obama is a one-term President.”

So Obama could lose if -- and here's the big if -- Republicans do not blow the opportunity by presenting themselves as Medicare-annihilating racist maniacs... Tea Party conservatives complain that Republicans who advocate restraint, responsibility and moderation do so in order to be nice to Obama. That's utterly upside down. Restraint, responsibility and moderation are indispensable to the defeat of President Obama. It is Tea Party conservatism itself that is Obama's last, best hope for a second term.

The Tea Party will support whoever wins the GOP presidential nomination - - even if that person is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. That's the affirmative word from Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer.

Cry me a river: Sarah Palin has mesmerized the cable shows by revving a bus and riding a Harley.[...] Meanwhile, the man who was and is the actual front-runner in the Republican presidential race rates barely a mention in the media commentary.I’m talking about Mitt Romney of course, the former governor of Massachusetts who has polled first in almost every Republican presidential preference poll since January 2009. Yet somehow the commentariat will not believe it.It’s truly amazing anyone still listens to this moron, but his musings do undeniably provide comic relief.  A few days ago I observed him on TV (can’t...

Mike Huckabee’s supporters might not rush to the side of Sarah Palin, despite the conventional wisdom that she’ll be the key beneficiary of his decision not to run for president next year. Both the former governor of Arkansas and former governor of Alaska are populist Republicans with strong evangelical credentials. Yet there are some significant differences between the two that suggest Huckabee supporters might not flock to Palin en masse. Style Palin’s and Huckabee’s rhetorical styles couldn’t be more different. Palin mocks her Democratic opponents; Huckabee tends to engage them and look for common ground. When first lady Michelle Obama...

According to the latest polls, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s political popularity trajectory is heading south. It was inevitable given our 24/7 fame-obsessed culture which feeds on new personalities and controversy to fuel the celebrity media machine. Once Sarah Palin resigned from her office as Alaska governor, she left that respected “higher platform” reserved for our elected leaders and crossed over into celebrity jungle. There, she willingly subjected herself to the unforgiving forces of media pop culture, where the masses are easily bored. And now, without a new hit show, movie, book, clothing line, charity cause, or fragrance, Palin is...

The Club for Growth, an influential anti-spending group, is warning its followers that potential presidential candidate Donald Trump is a wolf in sheep's clothing - calling him just another "tax-hiking liberal" and a "king of protectionism" who doesn't deserve conservative support in the next election. Mr. Trump has flirted with a presidential bid for several weeks, leveling stiff criticism of the Obama administration and riding doubts about the president's birth certificate, reviving the so-called "birther" controversy that many have considered a dead issue.

The Trouble With Romney I read the New York Post this morning and, reluctantly, the weekly Peggy Noonan column. Noonan is a centrist RINO who thinks she represents mainstream American conservative thinking because she wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan over thirty years ago. You can read her article titled “Obama Can Lose” here: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/obama_can_lose_XyLH4VsgHAHvWQlmzrdGRJ?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME The traitorous Noonan—who supported, shrilled and voted for Obama in 2008—writes that even if the economy turns around, inflation calms and mid east unrest subsides, Obama will lose in 2012. According this shrill, the only way Obama will win is if the GOP fails to “nominate,...

Glenn Beck today on his radio show revealed his wish list for who should be America’s next President. Beck’s dream ticket consists of Republican Congressman Allen West as President, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for Vice-President and Congressman Ron Paul as Treasury Secretary. Most surprising was who Beck left off his list: Sarah Palin. Beck was eager to praise West for his strong military background and willingness to take responsibility and said “I love Michele Bachmann,” since she refuses to compromise on her values. However, it seems Palin no longer makes the cut, which is certainly a dramatic turn of events from...

Here's a part of his post at CNN, where he is apparently a regular contributor, which makes the point: "Ben Smith in Politico reports that the trip was booked through a Christian tour operator. But the real news is who did not book the trip: the Republican Jewish Coalition, the group that brought George W. Bush to Israel in 1998, Mitt Romney in 2007, Haley Barbour in 2011, and many other presidential hopefuls beside. "Very likely you have never heard of the Republican Jewish Coalition. But then again, you probably are not seeking the Republican presidential nomination. If you were...

Prominent New Hampshire Republican Judd Gregg says that Sarah Palin just might have a clearer path to the Republican presidential nomination next year than commonly understood – an event he warns would lead to President Obama's clear reelection. Gregg, the former senator and governor of the Granite State, says the muddled GOP presidential field means it's more likely than ever there won't be a clear consensus candidate before the party's nominating convention in August of 2012. If that happens, says Gregg, Palin and her army of supporters might have the upper hand when it comes to settling on a presidential...

He’s just getting started. As he positions himself as Republican kingmaker in 2012, Rove is trying to make sense of a post-Bush party, one riven by ideological schisms and splintered into a dozen or more potential Republican nominees. To take back power and reestablish his dream of a permanent Republican majority (“Durable,” he now corrects. “I never said permanent”), Rove must carefully negotiate a new media world revolutionized by Sarah Palin and bring order to a restive party upended and realigned by tea- party populists, who view Rove as the elitist Machiavellian who once played them like a Stradivarius for...

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown said he has no plans to run for president next year, but will support Mitt Romney if the former Republican Massachusetts governor jumps in the race.

Scott Brown rejects Tea Party, says it’s not productive to criticize Obama. When Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts was elected to serve the remainder of the term of the deceased Ted Kennedy last year, conservatives had decent hopes for him. After all, Brown nationalized his election battle by saying that he would vote against Obamacare. That pledge brought him huge support from the Tea Party, which worked hard to help him get elected. Since then, however, Brown has revealed himself to be what he truly is: a RINO Republican who does much of the Democrats’ bidding. With that in mind,...

David Keene, the longtime chairman of the American Conservative Union, stepped down on Wednesday as the leader of the organization, one day ahead of the first of its annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Keene had chaired the organization since 1984 and will still preside over the annual conservative gathering. His impending exit had been anticipated, but not the timing. Al Cardenas was selected to succeed Keene. Cardenas was born in Cuba in 1948, and has been a player in conservative politics since the Reagan presidency. “I look forward to taking advantage of the new energies we see today in...

The National Republican Trust spent nearly $100,000 last year to help Scott Brown win the U.S. Senate seat of the late Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, but now the conservative political group wishes it had that money back to help kick Mr. Brown out of office.

Perhaps anticipating that the media would begin ripping Sarah Palin’s interview with Sean Hannity earlier tonight underestimated the speed of the news cycle. Less than an hour later and a network away, Palin’s fellow conservative David Frum responded to her comments with a good-natured plea for her to just “stop talking now.” On MSNBC’s The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell noted that he would have wanted to hear Palin explain the difficulty of finding an appropriate timing to respond to the attacks on her, introducing the review of her performance on Hannity without deeply analyzing any particular part of it. Frum...

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown said this morning he’ll take part in the bipartisan seating at President Obama’s State of the Union address, urging that people need to move past the “itty-bitty letter” signifying he’s a Republican at the end of his name.

Andrea Michell is discussing Sarah Palin (what a surprise) with Democrat David Bonier and Republican strategist Vin Weber, here's the video of Weber. ------- MITCHELL: "She had the choice of when to speak and the tone. and one has to wonder why doesn't she have a wider circling of advisers. i don't know any political strategist of a national campaign, republican or democrat who thinks that was a smart thing to do. VIN WEBER: "Well, we really don't know who advises her. She's quite isolated from what you might think of as the Republican establishment. No one is quite sure...

Sarah Palin didn't retreat. She reloaded. And she proved, again, that she is a ruinously incompetent politician. Over the weekend, liberal pundits overeagerly speculated that she may have inspired the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). After learning more about alleged shooter Jared Loughner, many of those same commentators restrained their criticism of the former Alaska governor, and polls showed that Americans are skeptical of any connection. People recognized Palin had been unfairly implicated in the Arizona massacre. She didn't even have to mention it in her response to the tragedy and the resulting debate. Everyone would have been thinking...