Free Republic

“Age hates youth and ugliness hates beauty…”—Kirk Douglas, “Town Without Pity”(1961) Why is the nation’s news and entertainment media—as well as everyday people—so fascinated by Sarah Palin? After all, it’s been almost four years since she unexpectedly burst onto the scene as Arizona Sen. John McCain’s Republican vice presidential running mate, flaunting an effervescent smile and sparkling personality. Yet, the drop-dead gorgeous Palin—a description agreed upon by many female Democrats—still commands all manner of attention from celebrity-obsessed Americans. Pundits, newspaper readers and TV viewers can’t get enough of the former Alaska governor. The latest example is a forthcoming (March 10)...

Thanks to some remarkable reporting from Big Hollywood, it has become increasingly clear the upcoming HBO movie "Game Change" is less a political melodrama than an all-out attempt to destroy the person and reputation of Sarah Palin. The movie is based on a poorly researched book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, and it was criticized at the time of its publication by Howard Kurtz, then a media reporter for the Washington Post, and the New York Times for its overreliance on unsourced "deep background" interviews that were difficult to verify. Two of those sources have been revealed, according to...

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — I’m parked outside the fieldstone and adobe mansion at 29005 North 82nd Street at sunrise, eating my low-fat yogurt from the free breakfast bar at the Quality Inn, and listening to the one-note whistle of the Phainopepla birds high in the Palo Verde trees. The first yellow blossoms of the year are bursting from the Potentillas, and the teddy-bear cholla cacti look fluffy enough to hug. Bad idea. This is the fashionable north side of Scottsdale, land of sun, sand, saguaros, and surveillance cameras. Up here, an hour out of central Phoenix, the streets have names like...

It was a Sarah Palin crowd. At a conference of conservative activists last week, there were stacks of Sarah Palin books and Sarah Palin posters. A special screening of a film about Palin was planned. And after skipping the gathering for four years, Palin herself had agreed at last to give the keynote address. Having traveled from Buffalo, Jason Benner was there to see the one who made his heart soar. “Wayne LaPierre,” he said with gusto, referring to the head of the National Rifle Association. He named the rest of his top five speakers — Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney,...

2012 could have looked much different for Sarah Palin. Had the former Alaska governor entered the GOP presidential race, she likely would have been winding her “One Nation” bus tour through the primary states, antagonizing her opponents with quips about being the only candidate not afraid to “go rogue” or rely on her Mama Grizzly instincts. Instead, she has the heavily marketed HBO movie “Game Change” — which appears to scrutinize her role in the 2008 presidential contest — to look forward to. Palin still lands big gigs: She’s billed as the closing speaker at this year’s Conservative Political Action...

South Carolina represents the heart of the conservative movement because its Republican voters are fierce fiscal and social conservatives, which means they fervently support the Tea Party and evangelicals. These voters are now popularly referred to as “Teavangelicals” and, predictably, dominated the Palmetto State’s primary. According to exit polling from Saturday’s first-in-the-South primary, 64 percent of those who voted in the GOP primary in South Carolina supported the Tea Party and another 27 percent were neutral. Only 8 percent opposed. In addition, 65 percent of primary voters were “Born-Again or Evangelical Christian.” What happened in South Carolina is important for...

Who is the leader of the “Not-Romney” movement within today’s GOP? Is it Newt Gingrich, whose surge in the South Carolina opinion polls puts him within striking distance of front-runner Mitt in tomorrow’s vote? Is it Ron Paul, whose dedicated core of “hard-money” but isolationist supporters gives him 15 to 20% in every Republican contest? Or is it Rick Santorum, recently endorsed by a raft of Christian evangelical leaders? For my dollar, the leader is Sarah Palin, whose endorsements continue to carry more weight among conservatives than any other national figure and who is well-positioned to play a king-making role...

A couple of Sarah Palin fans are looking at today’s article about the proposed, and ultimately dismissed, idea of writing in Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, or Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan in New Hampshire’s primary and wondering whether to try to write in Palin in the remaining GOP primaries and caucuses. If a Draft Palin movement were to begin in earnest, the best-case scenario for leave the former Alaska Governor with a decent number of delegates, but not enough to win the nomination — unless she pulled off the Tebow-esque political miracle of winning a significant number...

The harder the Broncos quarterback and the Alaskan governor fall, the more convinced their supporters become that they are modern messiahs. To many, Tim Tebow is the quarterback that God built. The “mile-high messiah” is an end-zone Cinderella, coming off the Denver Broncos bench to win games and pursue Super Bowl glory in only his second season in the pros. He is America’s favorite professional athlete according to an ESPN poll that in 18 years has honored only 11, among them legends Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. But many feel that his incredible celebrity has overshadowed his actual talent and...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin challenged GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney to furnish his tax return and supporting documents that would prove he created the 100,000 jobs he claimed he did while CEO of Bain Capital. "Governor Romney has claimed to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain and people are wanting to know is there proof of that claim and was it U.S. jobs created for United States citizens?" Palin told Fox News Sean Hannity. Palin said that transparency was needed as Romney would likely be targeted by Democrats on this issue if he were to become the Republican nominee....

There is a real life Field of Dreams movement going on in Iowa. With 46% of the American people saying no one running, in either party, would make a good president, activists are working hard to get someone who would into the race. When Sarah Palin announced her decision not to seek the presidency, when asked what it would take for her to change her mind, she said it would take an earthquake the magnitude of 10.3, or better. Since then, a group of dedicated supporters have been working hard to achieve just that sort of [political] earthquake. An independent...

The tea party is still pining for Sarah Palin. The grassroots conservative movement has yet to throw its support behind a Republican presidential candidate because “we don’t have the female Ronald Reagan running — and that’s Sarah Palin,” said Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express. “We haven’t engaged in presidential politics yet because the movement hasn’t coalesced around anybody, so we’re just sitting back and waiting,” Kremer added. Predicting that a good slice of the country’s conservatives will not make up their minds until they are standing in front of the ballot box, Kremer singled out the former...

Sarah Palin is interested in starring in a second reality TV series, according to a report Monday. The new series Palin and reality TV producer Mark Burnett are shopping to various networks would be focused on Palin’s husband Todd and his career as a championship snowmobile racer, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

OUR COLD WELCOME October 24, 2010: We’ve arrived – or I have. Half my film crew have been arrested and deported. Everything is going fine at Seattle airport until they find out we are doing a film about Sarah Palin. The authorities go mad. They search our bags and detain my two researchers. Sarah, 22, is subjected to a urine test against her wishes – just in case she is pregnant and tries to get citizenship by giving birth on US soil. Her colleague Mark is spreadeagled against the wall and given a rectal search before being handcuffed. The 25-year-old...

Nick Broomfield’s new documentary Sarah Palin: You Betcha! shocks and entertains, writes Siân Ruddick For the millions who hate Sarah Palin and her reactionary politics, the rise and fall of the former governor of Alaska makes a gripping spectacle. Nick Broomfield uses his documentary to find out the truth about the Tea Party Republican in a funny and engaging way. There is little in Sarah Palin: You Betcha! that people with an eye on US politics would have missed in terms of the big events. It charts her sacking of state employees who oppose her and the high profile scandals...

None of us can pretend to know what motivates Sarah Palin to do what she does. Sure, there’s money. And attention. And more money and attention. But today’s Palin op-ed goes in a different direction. Palin moves away from the pure cultural populism that has defined her since her run for the vice presidency and back toward the reformist populism that characterized her time as governor of Alaska. She turns her resentment away from cultural elites and focuses it on political elites of both parties, arguing – sensibly! – that being elected to Congress admits one to a veritable merry-go-round...

"The cream of the crop has not risen yet in this very fluid primary process so I’m not going to get out there and endorse anybody right now but certainly those ideas that I have, that so many Americans share....that are pro-growth ideas, pro private sector, blessed Constitutional restraints that our Constitution has within it....created in order to build this prosperous and healthy nation of ours....

Not sure who to commit to in the Republican primary race? Let Reason help you out. Picking a presidential candidate is like sorting through online dating profiles—nobody's quite right, but once a meet-cute is out of the question, the best you can hope for is to pick a mate out of a self-selected digital lineup. Today we’re focusing on former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She’s not officially a candidate—but hey, you never know! We’ve got her horoscope, her nick-name, and her positions on the major issues facing the country. Sarah Palin Candidate Profile Reason has profiled the major Republican presidential...

Jon Huntsman has been on a quest to reach out to Republican voters who would prefer to see a moderate candidate run against President Obama as opposed to an ideologically pure one with little chance of winning a general election, but he was put on the hot seat about this very issue on Meet the Press today, when David Gregory brought up Huntsman’s glowing speech about 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention three years ago. In the speech, Huntsman declared to the audience, “We are looking for Sarah!” and praised her for having an “independent...

PERRY, IA, -- Despite missing numerous release dates, MCP Entertainment is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Piein' Palin. The game offers an exciting pie tossing experience. Even if she isn't running for president, doesn't mean she can't take a pie in the face. This is a fun, fast paced, carnival style game. Fun for the entire family. You choose to throw pies as your favorite Palin hater for three levels of raucous good times. A great soundtrack and Palin quips keeps the game fun and fresh for hours of entertainment. You can get your copy through the Android...

Appomattox sisters Shawn Ramsey and Shana Canada got more than they bargained for recently as they were able to experience Palin-mania during the Extraordinary Women Conference in Lynchburg. Canada sang an praise-and-worship set that preceded an impromptu visit from former vice-president candidate Sarah Palin to the sellout crowd at Liberty University, and she later shook Palin's hand as she exited the stage. Ramsey, however, got a lot more than that, thanks to President of Extraordinary Women Ministries and Melissa Small, who is the director of the Extraordinary Women Ministry. Small, who is married to Rev. Rusty Small of Appomattox's Liberty...

SEOUL — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin took aim Tuesday at the political elite in the United States, Europe and China, as she brought her criticisms of big government and "crony capitalism" to South Korea. Days after announcing she would not run for president in 2012, Palin said there "will be a woman president of the United States of America, and I look forward to that day", but did not elaborate on why she did not enter the race. The 2008 vice-presidential candidate told supporters last week she could help the Republican cause more by working to elect others. In...

We’re at a very strange juncture in the 2012 presidential contest. Rick Perry continues to struggle, as Mitt Romney savagely exploits his offensive-to-conservatives position on immigration and the Texan deals with new, potentially damaging revelations of a racially insensitive name for a hunting camp rented by his family. But Romney’s not benefitting much in the polls, and he remains a persona non grata to many conservatives. And the candidate with the current buzz, Herman Cain, is many miles away from being taken seriously by GOP elites as a potential nominee. Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Late last week Reuters...

It seems that activity in these blogs and in the letters forums certainly picked up when discussing the fortunes of the former governor of Alaska. We leftists were spared no amount of scorn and ridicule due to our criticism of Sarah Palin. Of course it was never made to clear how our criticism of Palin is any different from the vitriol directed towards Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer in these same forums, but that is another topic. I am writing this post, because today just might mark a key turning point in the political fortunes of Sarah Palin. It would...

It's happened. The build-up and anxiety over whether folks like Chris Christie and Sarah Palin are going to throw their hats in the ring for the GOP presidential primary has reached critical mass. And now, the will-they-or-won't-they game has flipped from fun and energizing to damaging to the party. Christie and Palin now do conservatives more harm than good. With the question marks still lingering in the ether, and pundits on both sides of the aisle still performing their daily trapeze act -- swinging back and forth between "yes, he's running" and "no, she isn't" -- the focus on Christie...

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...

CNN’s Don Lemon sure thinks so. And whether that’s a compliment or an insult depends on whether “Eliza Doolittle� refers more to the little miss with a Cockney accent or to the final fair lady of refinement. If the first, then it’s a compliment. If the second, not so much. Because in these anti-incumbent days, it appears to actually be preferable to be the street stroller selling flowers than the canary in a gilded cage. And, in fact, that’s precisely Lemon’s point — that Sarah Palin has become the princess of politics precisely through her populism. Instead of ruing her...

Mere months after the release of the Sarah Palin hagio-documentary he Undefeated, British provocateur Nick Broomfield (Kurt & Courtney) arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with a counterscreed, Sarah Palin: You Betcha! The doc premiered Friday and it looks like it may leave Mama-Grizzly-hating liberals sorely unsatisfied: Let's take a look at Broomfield's "revelations" and see which, if any, of his punches actually land. • Broomfield’s drive to Wasilla through the icy Alaskan wilderness is punctuated by a soundtrack so ludicrous — ominous violins, shrill piano notes — that you’d think he was on the hunt for the Abominable...

I made the point the other day that Sarah Palin’s speech in Indianola, Iowa, went to the core of the Tea Party movement: "I don’t know what the future holds for Palin, whether she will be a candidate or just a powerful voice against crony capitalism. I also don’t know whether the two are compatible. I am not convinced that even the Republican electorate is ready for the message. That’s for another day. What I do know is that in attacking crony capitalism, Palin gave voice to those of us who refuse to buy into the Democratic narrative that the...

Santa Monica-ARC Entertainment, the distributor of “The Undefeated,” and Victory Film Group, producers of the film about Gov. Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to national prominence, jointly announced that beginning today September 1st, the film is available to 75 million homes via Video on Demand and Pay-Per-View access through national and regional cable and satellite operators. Taking on the political establishment, The Undefeated chronicles Governor Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to become one of America’s new generation of leaders. See for yourself the real story of the woman who is always in the spotlight, but whose story is largely unknown....

I went through what Red State's Ben Howe experienced about a year before the Palin biopic "The Undefeated" came out. I'm not exactly sure why. I too used to share Ben Howe's somewhat clandestine opinion of Sarah Palin. But like so many other conservatives, I wasn't sure how "my" opinion of her got there...

Good for Governor Sam Brownback for standing up to the monstrosity known as Obama"care" and SENDING THE MONEY BACK! And if any of my dear readers entertain the slightest doubt about just how bad Obama"care" will be, you can begin your journey towards enlightenment by giving the following a read...

While I was doing research for another blog post, I happened upon a lamestream media (LA Times) story from 2008 about the massive budget surplus that accumulated under Sarah Palin’s bountiful watch as governor of Alaska. Try to imagine waking up one morning and reading a newspaper article in which the experts quoted had something like this to say about our nation’s federal budget:...

Mike Ditka went out of his way to praise Sarah Palin and scold the media yesterday during his Lessons from Leaders keynote address in Washington, IL...

Revolutionaries are never happy. But they become even more unhappy if their leader makes compromises with the enemy. Such was the scene at Obama's multimillion dollar 50th birthday/fundraising shakedown in Chicagoland last night. One can imagine what these legalized Chicago crime bosses were thinking as Barack and Michelle slowly twirled across the dance floor...

Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin responds to a report that Vice President Joe Biden said Republicans were "terrorists" during a closed-door meeting with Congressional Democrats about the debt compromise. Sean, if we were real domestic terrorists, shoot, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us, wouldn’t he? I mean he didn’t have a problem paling around with Bill Ayers back in the day when he kicked off his political career in Bill Ayers' apartment," Palin said on FOX News' "Hannity."

New York magazine’s Frank Rich stopped by Martin Bashir’s MSNBC show to express his disappointment with President Obama, his expectation that the backlash against Rupert Murdoch in England will soon come to America and his general bewilderment with everything Sarah Palin. Bashir didn’t let Rich have all the “fun” though, as he compared the Tea Party to recalcitrant children who took control of their parents and wondered about Palin what her purpose might be if she doesn’t run for President? Rich suggested that Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have a great advantage over many other candidates in 2012, including Obama,...

If you're near Palm Desert, what are you waiting for, get out there and see it!...

Governor Palin did not hold back as she talked with Sean Hannity tonight. She was quite clear that she isn't going to sit silently by while people on the left--including our Vice President--call tea party Americans names like terrorists...

Now we know a little bit more about what Obama means when he says he plans to "fundamentally transform the United States of America." But it also goes to show that Barack Hussein Obama cannot be trusted, as he talks out of both sides of his mouth. As this video demonstrates, he tells lies to the American people to keep us soothed and pacified while he dismantles the fruits of the American Revolution brick by brick. But behind closed doors, when he is speaking to his fellow anti-American radicals, he can be quite candid about his real plans for America...

Sarah Palin On the Record with Greta Van Sustren (emphasis mine)...

El Rushbo calls it like it is. To the statists (including big government RINOs), the leftists, the socialists, the communists...we are all Sarah Palin. Just as she has been targeted for destruction, so we are targeted for destruction. Our mere existence stands in the way of their headlong drive to accumulate all power to themselves. It's time we recognized this and declare WE ARE ALL SARAH PALIN NOW!!!...

Yep, you heard it right. The New York Times is in awe of Sarah Palin's timing! What exact timing is the NYT marveling at, you ask? They are marveling at how Sarah Palin has once again gone rogue by...

Among the many ways Sarah Palin was hit in the media during her 2008 vice presidential bid—criticism now spilling on to current presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann—was that she should forget politics and make time for her kids. GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway has an answer for those who think Palin, Bachmann, or other women with children don't have enough time to raise them while serving in public office...

Sarah Palin criticizes Boehner for trying to reinvent the wheel and not sticking with Cut, Cap, and Balance which is why he is having trouble getting enough votes to pass his current plan. But she also criticizes Obama for scaring the American people with this crisis mentality and says he doesn’t understand that we have a spending problem in this country, which prompts her to reiterate: “It’s the spending stupid!” "That's the hypocrisy that I guess is inherit in this politics as usual from these Washington DC characters, they say one thing as candidates and they get elected and do...

Sarah Palin is being awfully quiet, and I am hoping that signifies the quiet before the storm...

The celebrities have the case of the dramatics. And when it comes to conservative politicians, liberal Hollywood leaves no room for slip of judgement. Case in point: George Lopez and his case of hate for potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, Lopez defiantly made his stand and assured Morgan he would leave the United States if Palin is elected. And not move to Mexico but Canada. ”I will go further North. I’ve been South but I will go further North. I will leave the United States of America.” But he slipped in the...

Producer Stephen Bannon The Chicago screening of a new Sarah Palin documentary Saturday was a political love fest for her conservative supporters. But Tea Party members weren’t the only ones who came away from the film with admiration for the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate. Eddie Bryant, who attended the screening of “The Undefeated” at downtown’s Gene Siskel Film Center, is an African-American and Chicago Democrat. The retired 67-year-old Union Pacific employee said he was surprised to find he actually likes Palin. “I came because my friend is always talking about Sarah Palin. People say this lady is...

It's funny how liberals claim they're feminists, yet when a powerful, conservative female comes along they jump at the opportunity to smear her as incompetent. The most recent attack is on Michele Bachmann, whom liberals have declared a sickly woman incapable of being president because she gets migraines. Several news outlets questioned her ability to be president because of the headaches, like the Los Angeles Times column titled "Bachmann's migraines matter." Similarly, The New York Times ran a column last week warning us to pay attention to the way Bachmann deals with her migraines, because it would "speak volumes about...