Category: Sarah Palin

Comedy Gold: Meghan McCain Blames Her Lousy Dating Life on Sarah Palin

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America’s Most Famous Dumb Blonde:

Jay Leno: Are you dating anyone?
Meghan McCain: No. I’m in, like, dating Babylon. Like, I go on dates with men and, literally, like Sarah Palin will come up in like the first 20 minutes, and that doesn’t put me in the mood. Like, talking about Sarah Palin. And they just want to know gossip, and I’m just kind of taking a little hiatus from dating right now, because I just don’t want to talk about Sarah Palin.

This is the part of the blog post where normally I’d include some snarky comment about why Meghan’s dating life is really so bad.

However, recent events have caused me to reconsider my ill-advised penchant for juvenile humor. For example, it would be wrong to make fun of Meghan by suggesting that maybe she shouldn’t date guys she meets at the pharmacy while picking up her Valtrex prescription.

So I’m not going to make any jokes like that, because such crude humor would be in poor taste. However . . .

UPDATE: Just to make sure nobody ever forgets that she’s a victim, Meghan McCain reminds the New York Times:

I wake up every morning with large breasts, and it doesn’t affect me. But people had a meltdown when I posted a photo of myself on Twitter. I found such extreme sexism in it. I’ve spent as much of my career having my weight and body commented on as my writing and politics.

Oh, how horrible a fate! To “wake up every morning with large breasts”! And to be hated for it . . .

UPDATE II: While I don’t usually link Wonkette, it’s worth noting this observation: Meghan “is a multi-millionaire and gets writing jobs for which she is utterly unqualified . . . an ultra-rich Republican who is taking writing jobs away from talented non-rich people . . . her ‘writing career,’ which exists solely because her dad is a failed presidential candidate from four years ago.”

In addition to being a celebrity heiress dilettante, Meghan is also the kind of Republican who can be counted on to badmouth conservatives — the only kind of Republican the media actually likes.

UPDATE III: Welcome, Ace of Spades readers!

UPDATE IV: Linked by The Lonely Conservative and Fire Andrea Mitchell — thanks!

UPDATE V: Now a Memeorandum thread, linked by Legal Insurrection, Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin, House of Eratosthenes, Weasel Zippers and Sister Toldjah — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers!


Media Ignores Black Woman Who Calls Palin ‘Funny, Nice and Genuinely Warm’

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Angel Massey (right) and her husband Michael Massey (left) with their son, Kyle Massey.

In a recent interview with a celebrity gossip Web site, Angel Massey described how, during last season’s Dancing With the Stars, her family became friends with Sarah Palin’s family:

“Both of our families gelled during Dancing with the Stars. Sarah would be in the audience cheering for Kyle, and we’d be in the audience rooting for Bristol. We all became close.”
Mama Massey adds, “The Palins are really funny, nice and genuinely warm to us.”

Isn’t that nice? And wouldn’t you think the rest of the media would be rushing to report this neat human-interest angle about the Palin family?

Except that Angel Massey’s pro-Palin comments were included in her denial of an anti-Palin story the media likes better. Read more about “The Palin Principle of Liberal Media Ethics” at The American Spectator.

Is Governor Palin Running in 2012?

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Earlier this month, Fox News ended its contracts with GOP presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. The network also reportedly delivered an ultimatum to Mike Huckabee that he, too, must decide: Either give up his Fox show or disavow a 2012 presidential run.

When Sarah Palin chose then to continue her contract with Fox, I deduced that she had decided not to be a candidate in 2012. Three weeks later, however, observers have started chattering over several signals that Palin may decide to jump into the race soon. Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times summarize the developments:

Sarah Palin is fortifying her small staff of advisers, buying a house in Arizona — where associates have said she could base a national campaign — and reviving her schedule of public appearances. The moves are the most concrete signals yet that Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, is seriously weighing a Republican presidential bid.
While it is by no means clear that she would be willing to give up her lucrative speaking career and her perch as an analyst on Fox News to face the scrutiny and combat that would come with her entrance into the race, she is being pressed by supporters for a decision and has acknowledged that time is running out.

The biggest news is the forthcoming pro-Palin documentary, The Undefeated, and the news that the movie will premiere in Iowa — well, well, well.

NBC’s team analyzes the question of who would be helped or hurt by a Palin candidacy. Their conclusion that it would spark a rally to Mitt Romney by the GOP Establishment, desperate to stop Palin at any cost, is probably sound. The original “Palin Twibe” activist, Lisa Graas has her own analysis of the impact.

The latest polls show Romney and Palin virtually neck-and-neck among GOP voters. The problem for Palin now is that Romney has been virtually running since 2008, and that the primary field is now crowded by other candidates who’ve spent the past seven months lining up staff and volunteers in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other states. The longer she waits, the slimmer the pickings would be when she finally does get in (if she does). Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics appeared on CBS to discuss the possible Palin campaign:

Doug Brady notes the dismissive attitude of CBS’s Jan Crawford, “a now-familiar mainstream media narrative that’s as predictable as it is delusional.” This narrative — that Palin is damaged goods who would be a certain loser against Obama in 2012 — can only be disproven in one way: By Palin getting into the campaign, winning the GOP nomination, and getting elected in November 2012.

The question, then: How badly does Palin want to disprove that narrative?

Never Burn a Source

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Nothing is more essential to a newsman’s craft than trust. If your sources can’t trust you to keep a secret, they’re not going to tell you everything you need to know, because sometimes you need to know more than you can actually report. Therefore, to breach confidentiality — to burn a source by reporting what were supposed to be off-the-record conversations — is to destroy the kind of trust that is necessary to the practice of your trade.

At the Daily Caller, Jonathan Strong has done something vaguely akin to burning a source: He published confidential Twitter direct messages between Sarah Palin spokeswoman Rebecca Mansour and someone else.

We learn from Ben Smith that the source for Strong’s “scoop” had previously tried to sell this information. Smith says he refused to pay, but wanted the scoop:

“Does Politico pay for exclusives? Cause I’m looking to sell. I have 122 direct messages from Sarah Palin staffer Rebecca Mansour,” the person emailed, eventually sending along sample direct messages identical to a couple the Caller posted. They were forwarded from the account of one improbably named Toki de la Vega, a contributor to some pro-Palin sites, though there was a man’s name attached to one of the tweets as well.
I responded with a counter-offer of lunch and “undying gratitude.”
“Sorry, Ben, but it’s going to take more than a happy meal and a hand shake to get me to betray someone’s confidence. Only freshly printed 100 dollar bills help me get over feelings of guilt,” wrote the emailer, who continued, “Would it violate some fake journalistic ethics and standards to get me in contact someone who does pay? I know that the thought of blogging about this is making your panties wet. The topics range from Chuck Hagel to Ricky Hollywood and everything else in between. It’s a f***ing blogger’s gold mine.”

Good Lord! If I went to press with every unguarded opinion expressed privately to me by political operatives, what untold havoc could I wreak? But that havoc would be short-lived, of course, because once a reporter burns a source, nobody would ever trust him again. Ed Morrissey writes:

Well, having been around a few election cycles, I can attest that every campaign likes to push negative information about their opponents.  I’ve probably received a couple of those types of messages already this morning, and I’m sure I’ll get more by the end of the day, too.  “Leaking damaging information” is what they do.  Being shocked by that, or even considering it news, is approaching Captain Louis Renault territory.

Agreed. And I will add that it has been observed by more than a few conservatives that the only time the Daily Caller ever seems to get a scoop, it is a scoop that damages conservatives.  Continue reading Never Burn a Source →

Everybody’s Talking 2012

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Instapundit had an uncharacteristically long post about the 2012 Republican presidential field, my favorite reaction being Professor Stephen Clark’s remark:

“Rove and Krauthammer amuse me with their response to Herman Cain. Since when has it become self-evident that a man with the professional accomplishments of Herman Cain is unfit to hold the office of President for not having spent the better part of his life as an elected politician and has, unforgivably, remained unknown to the likes of Rove and Krauthammer? Paging Professor Codevilla.”

Karl Rove is the Architect of . . . what, really? A campaign that squeaked past Al Gore by the barest of margins in 2000, and scored a slim majority against John Kerry in 2004. Looking back on it, Gore and Kerry weren’t the most formidable candidates the Democrats ever fielded, and yet Rove’s reputation as a strategic genius rests on his management of campaigns that just barely beat them.

Rove’s disparagement of Cain, then, is to be taken with a grain of salt. Charles Krauthammer once worked for Walter Mondale. ‘Nuff said. 

Bill Kristol’s pining for the Great Rescuer is, I think, apt to be unrequited. He clearly wants either Chris Christie or Jeb Bush, and neither of them is likely to jump in this late.

Is Sarah Palin in or out? That’s the biggest question mark at this point. The next major televised GOP debate is in August, and I’d expect she’ll give a definite “yes” or “no” by then. But think about this: If Palin waits until August, she’d be spotting her opposition at least a 100-day lead on organizing campaigns in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other early states. Practically, then, her apparent indecision points strongly toward a “no” for 2012.

A poll from New Hampshire seems to show Mitt Romney with a commanding advantage there, but 87% of Republicans there say they have no idea who they’ll vote for, so it’s really wide open.

Can America resist the frenzied hysteria of T-Paw fever? To ask the question is, I think, to answer it. And if Dave Weigel wants Republicans to nominate Pawlenty . . . ?

Eric Cantor wants Paul Ryan to run for president — and who doesn’t like Paul Ryan? I think he’s an obvious favorite for the vice-presidential nomination, regardless of who gets the presidential bid. For any sitting member of the House to run a presidential campaign is, however, a long row to hoe.

Finally, Monday on Sean Hannity’s show, Herman Cain admitted to blowing the “right of return” question on Sunday:

“[‘Fox News Sunday’ host Chris Wallace] caught me off-guard. I didn’t understand the right of return. That came out of left field, out of all the questions I anticipated him asking me, I didn’t even conceive of him asking me about the right of return. I now know what that is.”

Ace was impressed. It’s probably not enough to win over Krauthammer. But then again, Krauthammer isn’t an Iowa caucus voter.

And there’s a new Zogby poll.

UPDATE: Don Surber tells the story of how Karl Rove was unwisely willing to write off West Virginia in 2000.


2012 Candidates Not Named ‘Herman’

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It’s kinda been all-Herman, all-the-time here lately, so let me update you on what’s going on with the non-Hermans:

And finally, Newt Gingrich becomes a punchline:

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled (neutral and objective) reminder to join the online grassroots army at Citizens for Cain.


Go, Willow, Go!

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Ever on the lookout for the latest Palin scandal, TMZ reports that 16-year-old Willow Palin was clocked doing 84 mph in a 65-mph zone. And I just want to say, “Hell, yeah. You go, girl!”

It’s obviously hereditary. Willow’s dad is a championship snow-machine racer, so she gets it honest. And I can totally relate, because my granddaddy ran some ‘shine down in Alabama back in the day. Ask anyone who has ever ridden with me: I was born with that hillbilly NASCAR go-fast gene.

Eighty-four miles an hour? That ain’t even what I call “fast.” I hit 84 mph between here and the corner store. During the famous NY-23 campaign in 2009, Republican consultant Ali Akbar took a few rides with me. Ask him what that was like.

But one thing Willow — 84 mph in an SUV?

Uh-uh. The center of gravity is too high, and it’s unstable in tight curves. To drive safely at high speed, what you want is something low to the ground, like maybe a brand-new Ford Mustang.

“Daddy, I need a new Mustang. Don’t you want me to be safe?”

Also, a radar detector. Call it an “investment.”