Free Republic

I know there are a lot of reasons, really. But the thing that makes it visceral is that she had the audacity to have a baby with Down syndrome. . . The Internet is rife with brutal caricatures of Trig and hateful invective against Sarah - simply for opting her "right to choose" - but choosing life over death. That grown-up men and women would attack a vulnerable and defenseless baby is unbelievable - except that we live in a culture where Democrat daughters are treated with dignity and Republican daughters prompt jokes about rape and incest. There is something...

From National Review Online comes this week’s smile-quietly-to-yourself schadenfreude moment. It’s obviously a set-up, but I have to admit, it’s a beaut: Slate magazine is just one of the countless media outlets convulsing with St. Vitus’ Dance over that demonic succubus Sarah Palin. In its reader forum, The Fray, one supposed Palinophobe took dead aim at the former Alaska governor’s writing chops...

John F. Kennedy believed that being passed over for vice president by the Democratic convention in 1956 saved his political career. That year, Adlai Stevenson, the presidential nominee, had left the selection of his running mate to the convention delegates—the last time a nominee did so. The choice came down to Kennedy and his Senate colleague Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, who had lined up too much early support even for the attractive young war hero to overcome. In the end, Kennedy had it both ways. He benefited from the television exposure and was spared the blame—which as a Catholic, he...

In Indiana, alot of people, hundreds wanted their book signed as the bus left, and they started chanting "sign our books"....(2 Videos)

With Sarah Palin in the spotlight as she continues her nationwide media and book tour, the Democratic National Committee is suggesting to its supporters that the former GOP vice presidential candidate could pose a real threat to the Democratic agenda. In a fundraising e-mail sent out Friday, Organizing for America -- the community organizing component of the DNC founded in the wake of Barack Obama’s inauguration -- said it is aiming to raise $500,000 in the next week "to help push back against Sarah Palin and her allies."

The Associated Press "fact check" of Sarah Palin's new book wasn't enough. Now the left is just coming out and claiming Palin is a flat out liar. That was the argument made by Bella DePaulo in a Psychology Today blog entitled "Sarah Palin's Lies." DePaulo, who has a Harvard Ph.D. in psychology and experience in analyzing lying, claims Palin excels at it. "From my post as an outside observer, it seems to me that Sarah Palin doesn't care much about the truth. In that way, she is a very special liar," she wrote in the Nov. 19 "Living Single" blog.

Good video if you've not seen it yet: Naomi Wolf on the attraction of Sarah Palin: "She's really articulating a Conservative Feminism, more clearly than any conservative woman has ever done. We're so used to seeing feminism hijacked by the left...the assumption is if you're a feminist, you're pro-choice, you're secular, you believe in big government."

Link only, per FR copyright rules

She's the woman of the moment! Sarah Palin! You betcha! Her book, "Going Rogue," is a bestseller. Her book tour is drawing rock-star crowds. She's the talk of the talk shows. And one other claim to fame: She infuriates the Left! She scares them out of their minds! Palin's ability to connect with the American people, combined with her conservative positions, makes her a real threat. So, the liberal media try to destroy her (see the latest Newsweak), which only makes her MORE popular with Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public! Thus the DUmmies are going RABID right now!...

Depictions ‘took place entirely in her imagination,’ says Wallace. NBC NEWS and NEWS SERVICES NEW YORK - Former McCain campaign senior adviser Nicolle Wallace says Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" is "based on fabrications," and that the basis for Palin’s depictions of her and former McCain campaign director Steve Schmidt as villains "took place entirely in her imagination." In a statement to The Rachel Maddow Show, the former McCain spokesperson repeatedly used the word "fiction" to describe Palin's narrative and echoed criticisms by other former McCain staffers. "She [Palin] probably has a legitimate complaint that things could have been better...

On the cover of this week’s issue of Newsweek is a photo that was shot for the August 2009 issue of Runner’s World, in which Sarah Palin was featured on the monthly “I’m a Runner” back page. Runner’s World did not provide Newsweek with the image. Instead, it was provided to Newsweek by the photographer’s stock agency, without Runner’s World’s knowledge or permission.

Sarah Palin is no normal politician, and at the Associated Press, apparently "Going Rogue" is no normal book. When the former Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor wrote her autobiography, the AP found a copy before its release date and assigned 11 people to fact check all 432 pages. The AP claims Palin misstated her record with regard to travel expenses and taxpayer-funded bailouts, using statements widely reported elsewhere. But it also speculated into Palin's motives for writing "Going Rogue: An American Life," stating as fact that the book "has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto." Palin...

...This is Palin Week--days of interviews relating to the publication of her book, "Going Rogue."... Someone will point out that she is even scheduled soon to go to Iowa--and you know what that means. On the other hand, someone else will point out that the very week Palin is promoting her book, the current president is abroad attending meetings in Asia, including a visit with our Chinese bankers. Could those who fault Barack Obama for being callow and inexperienced imagine Palin meeting with the Chinese or, for that matter, conducting a protracted policy review about Afghanistan? As for Pakistan, South...

I saw the other day that George W. Bush is raising money for his proposed policy institute at Southern Methodist University. I did some research and found out that there are something like 3,000 policy institutes, most of them hosting convocations about nothing much and issuing papers no one reads. I suggest therefore that Bush use his money to do something truly different and constructive — establish the Institute for the Study of Sarah Palin. My check is in the mail. This is Palin Week — days of interviews relating to the publication of her book, "Going Rogue." She will...

Is Palin Selling Books or Settling Scores? "Going Rogue" Criticizes McCain Campaign and Aides, but Some Are Hitting Back; Country Remains Divided on Former VP Candidate (CBS) Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is coming out Tuesday with her account of the 2008 presidential campaign. And her book, "Going Rogue," is putting her at odds - again - with former officials of the McCain campaign, as CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield reports. From an appearance Oprah Monday, to Barbara Walters Tuesday, to a three-week long blitz starting with a bus tour through much of middle America, Palin is in...

Republican 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's highly anticipated book tour kicks off Monday afternoon with the airing of her wide-ranging chat with talk show queen Oprah Winfrey. (snip) Although the 418-page best-seller doesn't come out until Tuesday, the Associated Press already has obtained a copy and assigned 11 reporters to comb through it to publish a pre-emptive "fact check" that has outraged her supporters because several items in it relied more on analysis than black-and-white facts. For example, one of the "fact check" items criticized Mrs. Palin for writing in the book that she was driven by "purpose" rather than...

A little nutty or totally wacked? Totally wacked, for my money. But this is the question some Republicans still ponder about the two most “hated” women in the country, as Fox superstar Sean Hannity lovingly calls them.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - John McCain's former presidential campaign manager Steve Schmidt is the latest McCain adviser to cry foul over accusations Sarah Palin has penned in her yet to be released memoir "Going Rogue." Excerpts obtained by The Huffington Post characterize Schmidt in an unfavorable light, particularly in reference to the prank phone call Palin received from someone pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Right away, the phones started ringing," Palin writes. "One of the first calls was Schmidt, and the force of his screaming blew my hair back. 'How can anyone be so stupid?! Why would the president...

A former top adviser and spokeswoman to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign is pushing back against comments reportedly made by Sarah Palin in her new book. Nicolle Wallace tells CNN that Palin's account of an ill-fated interview with CBS's Katie Couric during the 2008 presidential campaign is not true.

“Going Rogue,” the title of Sarah Palin’s erratic new memoir, comes from a phrase used by a disgruntled McCain aide to describe her going off-message during the campaign: among other things, for breaking with the campaign over its media strategy, its decision to pull out of Michigan and for speaking out about reports that the Republican Party had spent more than $150,000 on fancy designer duds for her and her family. In fact, the most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the press, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign...

On the Friday edition of Morning Meeting, host Dylan Ratigan featured fake photos of Sarah Palin during a mocking segment on why Americans are fascinated with the former vice presidential candidate. While listing the show’s top ten reasons, Ratigan showed a doctored photo of Palin’s head on the bikini-clad body of a woman holding a weapon.

Sarah Palin's dad wrote a letter backing little Tark and the campaign sent out an email with a picture of the entire Palin clan (alas, no Levi) and a pitch to contribute. Here's Chuck Heath's letter to Nevadans: FROM THE DESK OF CHUCK HEATH Hello Nevadans, My family and I would like to thank all of you who welcomed us to your beautiful state and made us feel so at home. Everywhere we went, from Las Vegas, to Reno, to the smaller towns in between, the people there made us feel like family.

David Plouffe slammed Sarah Palin on Sunday for her role in the Republican Party and the NY-23 race, saying the GOP was hanging up a sign, “No moderates need apply,” that will marginalize the party for years to come. Plouffe, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, said of Palin on NBC's “Meet the Press,” “I think we should thank John McCain for picking her.” “What’s going on in the special election in N.Y. 23, I think, is a remarkable phenomenon that could affect our politics for years to come," Plouffe said. He added that Palin, who endorsed the conservative candidate over...

On the dirt he has on Sarah Palin: "There are some things that I have that are huge. And I haven't said them because I'm not gonna hurt her that way... I have things that can, you know -- that would get her in trouble, and could hurt her. Will hurt her. But I'm not gonna go that far. You know, I mean, if I really wanted to hurt her, I could, very easily. But there's -- i'm not gonna do it. I'm not going that far." Says he's referring to things Palin did while she was governor of Alaska....

Levi Johnston, the estranged father of Sarah Palin's grandson, told CBS in an interview that -- among other things -- Palin had joked about her son Trig, who has Down's Syndrome. Palin has released this statement through her spokesperson Meg Stapleton, which appears to refer to Levi's agreement to pose for Playgirl magazine: We have purposefully ignored the mean spirited, malicious and untrue attacks on our family. We, like many, are appalled at the inflammatory statements being made or implied. Trig is our 'blessed little angel' who knows it and is lovingly called that every day of his life. Even...

We know that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can hunt, and even field-dress a moose, but how will she take to poachers on her book sales? Start-up publisher OR Books has announced plans to publish Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare, a collection of essays about the maverick Republican with a title — and cover design — remarkably similar to Palin’s upcoming memoir. What’s more, OR’s paperback tome will be released on Nov. 17, the same day that Palin’s own Going Rogue: An American Life hits shelves — and one day after Palin’s just-announced, first-ever appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s...

Levi Johnston’s shameless exploitation by the liberal media is more than just a convenient cudgel for bashing Sarah Palin. It’s a modern minstrel show, with “Middle American” substituted for “African-American” as Levi capers for his condescending media “friends” wearing figurative blackface. And just as the minstrel shows of the past were tools to reinforce prejudice, the Levi Johnston show is meant to reinforce the prejudices and smug sense of superiority of its elitist liberal audience.

I have, over the past year or so, expressed occasional dismay over Sarah Palin. I think she has the issue understanding of a Kodiak bear and an Arctic wolf’s eye for the main chance, and I think the idea of her being president, devising a national budget and having access to nuclear weapons is the kind of horrific vision that might come to you after weeks alone in the Alaskan wilderness. But I don’t know what she did to deserve Levi Johnston. Johnston, if you miss both the political news and the supermarket tabloids, is the former high school classmate,...

Have you noticed that Governor Palin has not been removed from the hit list of the far left? I mean besides the left over jokes and reruns from the 2008 Presidential campaign…during which she did a damn good job…for someone never on the national scene before…but even now when she has resigned as Governor of Alaska, and is just plain old “Sarah Palin Citizen of the United States of America.” Why is the left so afraid of a staunch Christian Republican who is articulate, a fast learner, who happens to be a women, married with children, and damn good looking...

Apparently Governor Palin's timely entry into the debate offended the sensibilities of Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. In an article in the Financial Times, Ornstein was asked to comment: “The dollar has always been a testosterone issue among America’s political classes,” says Norm Ornstein, a veteran analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “This time there may be a legitimate debate to be had over the dollar’s reserve status, but Sarah Palin is not qualified to participate in it.”

WASHINGTON - She's poised to become the best-selling author in the United States, has a devoted base of conservative supporters and is considered a front-runner to lead the Republicans into the next election in 2012 - and yet key party strategists are tormented by the popularity of Sarah Palin. The very notion of a Palin candidacy has been derided in recent days by some of the brightest minds in the Republican party even as the former governor of Alaska outlines her policies on Afghanistan, energy and other issues of national importance. "Were she to be the nominee, we could have...

News reports that Sarah Palin is planning a separate Christian version of her forthcoming memoir, Going Rogue, are false, according to her publisher, HarperCollins. The reports were so widely circulated that they appear to have caused confusion at Zondervan, a Christian publisher owned by HarperCollins, where the director of publicity said yesterday that a special Christian edition of the book had been planned but was scrapped because of the expedited timetable for the book's release. Reports about a special Christian edition of Palin's memoir included a long Vanity Fair profile on Palin last summer, which said that her memoir was...

From the fringe left Daily Kos to mainstream media outlets such as CNN and MSNBC learned a tough lesson on Thursday as they awoke to find Sarah Palin's Autobiography Going Rogue: An American Life atop the pre-order best sellers lists and daily sales boards for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and nearly every other book retailer websites. The announcement of Palin's release date on Wednesday caused an outbreak of attacks on the former Vice Presidential candidate that would lead you to believe that she had announced a Presidential campaign rather than a book release. Thousands of Internet and print articles attacking...

A day after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made her international debut at a Hong Kong investors conference, an Alaska newspaper apologized for a headline that ended up on the front page. Above a small photo of Palin near the bottom of Page One of Wednesday's Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the headline read, "A broad in Asia." The headline was apparently written intentionally and was not simply an error. News-Miner managing editor Rod Boyce apologized later that afternoon for the "offensive language," noting on the paper's Web site that while the News-Miner had strong disagreements with Palin, it has thus far...

Tina Fey recently won an Emmy for her uncanny resemblance and venomous impersonation of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. In accepting her award, Fey was her typical, obloquious self saying, “Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin!” 2008 marked a departure from the memorable, more cordial years of Chevy Chase as a clumsy Gerald Ford or Dana Carvey’s hilarious H.W. Bush: “wouldn’t be prudent.” Fey was downright mean.

You know, those Palin Republicans are all such racist, fearmongers, right? Well if you didn't know it, Macleans of Canada wants to make sure you do with a piece headlined "The Palin Republicans." For Macleans, writer John Parisella thinks he's discovered why the GOP can't capitalize on the distrust that more and more Americans are feeling for the Obama administration and his Social-Democratic Party. It's because Sarah Palin is a big ol' meanie that told a lie about death panels. And what could save the GOP according to this loony leftist? Why capitulating to socialist healthcare, of course. Oh, and...

Keith Olbermann is not one to pass up an opportunity to attack anything that even hints at being right of center. The repugnant MSNBC host devoted some three-quarters of his Sept. 16 show to claim criticism of President Barack Obama had to have elements of racism, no matter how you sliced it. And therefore, those critics were all despicable human beings, end of story. However, he did manage to find time to revert to old tried and true method of appeasing his angry left-wing desires - a little bashing of former Republican vice-presidential nominee and Gov. Sarah Palin, with an...

Comedy actress Tina Fey has won an Emmy Award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Fey was honoured at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys, which recognise technical and other achievements. Pop star Justin Timberlake, who did not attend, won for playing various characters on Saturday Night Live. There were also wins for Ellen Burstyn for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Michael J Fox for Rescue Me. "I always wanted one of these," Burstyn said, winning her first Emmy after being nominated five times. 'Living my dream' In winning her award,...

AP: The president was alternately bipartisan and tough on his Republican critics. He singled out Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for praise at one point. Yet, moments later, in a line apparently aimed at McCain's former running mate, Sarah Palin, Obama accused Republicans of spreading the "cynical and irresponsible" charge that the legislation would include "death panels" with the power to hasten the death of senior citizens.

A source sends on the talking points the White House is circulating to allies in advance of President Obama's speech, most of them reiterating familiar themes of momentum and security. But the White House has also chosen specifically to focus on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and evidently to make her the face of the opposition, or to respond to her ability to project herself into the debate. She is the only Republican named in the talking points. Here's that section: On Gov. Palin's Attacks Every non-partisan organization that has looked at her claims say they are false. And the...

The self-appointed leader of the lowly opposition, a person whose greatest single summer feat was to walk away from the job the people of Alaska elected her to do, a twitchy woman who challenged President Obama to an arm wrestling match earlier year, has now gathered her credentials to speak on the moral complexities of war, media, responsibility, and family grief. Sarah Palin called the Associated Press's decision to release a battlefield photo of a dying Marine over the family's objection "an evil thing to do." Lacking a podium, a network, or a job, she again relied on her Facebook...

The magazine Vanity Fair opted to open up the fall season featuring another groundbreaking interview with Levi Johnston, a young man whose previous claims to fame included a decisive slap shot in hockey, the ability to navigate a snow machine over rough terrain, and sufficient spermatozoa to impregnate the daughter of a vice presidential candidate. The punditocracy and their associated acolytes across the web immediately fell into predictable patterns of applause and outrage. You may recall that during the Battle of Ought Eight, Levi was held up — albeit somewhat reluctantly — as a hero of traditional American values. Rather...

For the first time in my life, I feel sympathy ofr Sarah Palin.Levi Johnston — you will remember him from his featured role as the father of Bristol’s baby at the Republican convention — has written an article for the new issue of Vanity Fair. It’s his take on the Palin home life, which Johnston says was “much different from what many people expect of a normal family.”Given the fact that Johnston is a 19-year-old high school dropout whose mother was arrested last year on six felony drug counts, it is conceivable that he is not the perfect arbiter of...

The Curse of Nye Bevan usually strikes down anyone who badmouthes the health service - as Levi Johnston's claims prove

As some of the most prominent Republican women across the country gather next week in Orlando, arguably the most well-known of them will not be in attendance. Despite an invitation to speak at the conference, Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate, and until recently Alaska governor, decided not come to the National Federation of Republican Women's 35th Convention, according to the organization. An estimated 1,200 Republican women leaders will attend the three day conference, and some of those are want Palin to reconsider. "It is disappointing," says Barbara Davis, who heads the Melbourne, Fla. chapter." We were hoping that she...

Some of the most prominent Republican woman will be in Orlando for the Republican Women's 35th Convention, but arguably the most famous of them all is not making an appearance. As some of the most prominent Republican women across the country gather next week in Orlando, arguably the most well-known of them will not be in attendance. Despite an invitation to speak at the conference, Sarah Palin, former vice presidential candidate, and until recently Alaska governor, decided not come to the National Federation of Republican Women's 35th Convention, according to the organization. An estimated 1,200 Republican women leaders will attend...

HELLO!? Is this thing on? Good! Listen! Don't vote for Sarah Palin In 2012! America is attacked in 2013 she uses FEMA to lock up her oppenents and then takes over the world! Also they find a cure for Down syndrome and Trig becomes a brutal dictator killing billions! This helps Michelle Obama XII Become intergalactic dictator. Please don't vote for... OMG! Someones coming!

Where in the world is Sarah Barracuda Palin? Alaska's sultry superstar has once again mysteriously disappeared right before she was scheduled to speak at one of her very important fundraisers, this one so slutty teenagers who get knocked up have no choice but to have the baby unless they want to get the ol' parental approval for an abortion. Now normally Sarah's habit of shirking her duties is limited to elected terms in office, but ever since becoming an unemployed publicity hound and Facebook junkie, Palin's erratic behavior has instead metamorphosed into canceling paid speaking engagements at the very last...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been out of office over a month and there are still those working at major media outlets that just can't get over their obsessions with dissecting everything the former GOP vice-presidential nominee does. Case and point - Mark Silva, a blogger for the Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp," in an Aug. 26 post took it upon himself to try to rationalize why Palin would possibly suggest to her friends and followers on social media networks to tune in to Glenn Beck's Aug. 26 program, as NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard alluded to earlier. ...more...

Editor, At the risk of sounding sexist, how did the health care debate get hijacked by an overgrown teenage girl on Facebook? Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska to become an unpaid right-wing blogger, yet still has the power to disrupt any rational discourse. Possibly related: How did someone like Palin even rise to the spotlight in the first place? Her rise was born in the waning days of the contentious Democratic primaries between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. After the controversial Democratic National Convention Rules Committee decision to split in half the delegates from Michigan and...