SRLC Straw Poll Open Thread (Update: Three Way Race)

The results are revealed at around 7 PM EDT. Doug has already provided a preview below.

In other news:

-Adrienne made it in the AFP write-up of the SRLC.

-I think it's safe to say that Chris Matthews was right to give Palin the victory in her exchange with Obama. "Fifty-five percent (55%) of U.S. voters oppose President Obama’s new policy prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons in response to chemical or biological attacks on the United States" and Obama's disapproval rating in the Gallup Daily Tracking poll among adults, not registered or likely voters, hit a record high today.

-Here's the Washington Post's write-up of Palin's SRLC speech. CBS Evening News also produced a segment on her speech.

-Liberal Greg Sargent thinks he knows something about Palin's team.

-This will be the last time I ever mention the television ratings for Real American Stories. The 2.1 million that watched the special's debut on April 1st is higher than the number that watched On the Record any day this week. Don't take this as a criticism of Greta Van Susteren as she hosts one of my favorite shows on cable television.

What else is going on today?

Update: The pollster counting the ballots tweets that "[t]his is a three-way race at the moment for #SRLC straw poll. Gets more exciting with every ballot."

Update II: The final results of the straw poll (courtesy of Sinistar):

(click to enlarge)

Full results here.

Update III: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posts on the advertising done for the straw poll:

It’s been pointed out in the media filing center that both Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee spent some money to campaign here. Huckabee has a booth in the exhibitor hall; Palin’s team put out caribou beef jerky with a plug for Palin attached in the main ballroom on Friday. Romney also made a big push with piggy banks and advertising boards. For Huckabee, the outcome has to be a big disappointment.

Judging by that, you might assume that the Palin and Romney people did about the same amount of advertising for the poll. But the only advertising for Palin was the caribou jerky. Quite a bit more than the piggy banks and advertising boards that Ed mentions were involved in the push for Romney. As we posted earlier, the Romney people were "sophisticated, organized, and trying to create a sense of momentum and inevitability, in part by stuffing the ballot box." And more than one media outlet reported that a group called Evangelicals for Mitt bought blocks of tickets for the event:

I spoke to a young female delegate who said she planned to vote for Romney in the poll. I asked her how she had ended up at the conference.

She said "Evangelicals for Mitt" had contacted her and offered to pay for her to have a limited-access ticket -- so long as she agreed to vote for Romney in the straw poll.

Asked how "Evangelicals for Mitt" got her name, she said she didn't know. But she said that she was on the e-mail list for Romney, and speculated that the Romney team had given out their e-mail list.

"Evangelicals for Mitt" co-founder David French said in an interview yesterday that his group is not coordinating with the Romney team, though he noted that his wife had worked with the Romney campaign in the past.

UPDATE: Politico's Ben Smith reports that a conference organizer told him that "Evangelicals for Mitt" and Ron Paul's "Campaign for Liberty" bought blocks of tickets to the conference, which can then be given to supporters who cast ballots in the straw poll. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom denied to Smith the Romney e-mail list had been released to "Evangelicals for Mitt."

Meanwhile, a commenter at a Web site for Paul supporters posted what the commenter claims is an e-mail from "Evangelicals for Mitt" to Romney supporters offering free tickets to the event. They normally go for $119.

And our own Sinistar reported that Evangelicals for Mitt handed out free copies of Romney's book in exchange for email addresses.

So, according to these reports, blocks of tickets were purchased in exchange for votes for Romney. And we know that there were bulk orders for Romney's book. Hmmmmmm... I'm sensing a theme here.

Buying blocks of tickets in exchange for votes is quite different than putting some packs of caribou jerky on people's seats in advance of the governor's speech. Palin's people did a bit of advertising. If the reports are true, supporters for Romney and Paul bought votes for them.

Update IV: From 'portlandon' in the comments at Hot Air:

Romney- Buys 500 $119 tickets= $59,500 =TIE FOR FIRST
Paul- Buys 800 $119 tickets= $95,200 =TIE FOR FIRST
Palin- Buys 500 Caribou Jerky= $1,500 = SECOND PLACE

WHICH ONE IS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE?
WHICH ONE GOT MORE FOR THEIR MONEY?

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Jillian Bandes: Palin Brings Conservatives to Their Feet at SRLC

The most important part of Governor Palin's speech yesterday at the SRLC, in my opinion, was the focus on energy. With oil prices at an 18 month high and some economists predicting a return to $4 per gallon gasoline prices, a sound energy policy is crucial to any economic recovery. Much of the media coverage of Governor Palin's speech focused on her prescient criticism of Obama's misguided nuclear policy. This tended to overshadow the energy component of her speech. Jillian Bandes, in an article for Townhall, discussed Governor Palin's emphasis on energy:

Palin didn't hint at her 2012 plans in her keynote address to SRLC, but she did provide some meaty thoughts on energy policy, possibly her most important campaign issue if she does decide to run.

"Republicans need to hit the road in 2010, and show America what an all-of-the-above energy policy looks like," she said.

Alaska is a leading producer of crude oil, and Palin has been an outspoken opponent of Obama's cap-and-trade proposals, which have been a stalled agenda item for his administration. But Republicans have the opportunity to steal that issue away from him, said Palin.

"It's an issue that really touches every challenge that we face. There is an inherent link between energy and security, and energy and prosperity, and energy and freedom," she said.

In her SLRC speech, there were more harsh words for Obama's two-faced energy policy; the President has claimed to support nuclear energy and wind turbines, but has stalled the development of those resources at every turn. While preaching support for nuclear energy, Obama has opposed the development of a nuclear disposal site ate Yuca Mountain and has gummed up regulations for those trying to open production sites.

"You can't claim to support nuclear energy and then gut our supply at both ends of the fuel cycle," she said.

She was especially critical of Obama's announcement that he wanted to open up large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard for energy production. She said such plans amounted to nothing more than "more studying" — a common complaint from many conservative critics. She also said Obama's desire to open up wind turbines in the U.S. was baseless.

Read the rest here. Energy policy, in my opinion, will be one of the most important economic issues for the foreseeable future. Governor Palin is an expert on this issue and this is something that will inure to her benefit (and ours) as we move forward as a country.

(H/T Ann)

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On the SRLC Straw Poll

The following is a report from C4P reader Peter S who is on the ground in New Orleans at the SRLC. Readers may recall that Peter authored an excellent guest post for us a few weeks back.


I'm writing from SRLC (and yes, the C4P'ers have been hanging out together). The article below by Brian Montpoli of CBS News confirms my anecdotal "on the ground" observations from the conference. The Paul folks are aggressive, organized, and pushy. We know their admission was paid for by some shadowy source--you'll recall it posted at C4P a few weeks back that a block of 800 tickets were purchased by the Paul folks out of 3,800 total to give out to Paul supporters to come and vote for him. The Romney folks are sophisticated, organized, and trying to create a sense of momentum and inevitability, in part by stuffing the ballot box:

I just wrote about "Evangelicals for Mitt," a group of evangelical supporters of Mitt Romney who are pressing people to support Romney at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll.

Afterward, I spoke to a young female delegate who said she planned to vote for Romney in the poll. I asked her how she had ended up at the conference.

She said "Evangelicals for Mitt" had contacted her and offered to pay for her to have a limited-access ticket -- so long as she agreed to vote for Romney in the straw poll.

Asked how "Evangelicals for Mitt" got her name, she said she didn't know. But she said that she was on the e-mail list for Romney, and speculated that the Romney team had given out their e-mail list.

"Evangelicals for Mitt" co-founder David French said in an interview yesterday that his group is not coordinating with the Romney team, though he noted that his wife had worked with the Romney campaign in the past.

UPDATE: Politico's Ben Smith reports that a conference organizer told him that "Evangelicals for Mitt" and Ron Paul's "Campaign for Liberty" bought blocks of tickets to the conference, which can then be given to supporters who cast ballots in the straw poll. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom denied to Smith the Romney e-mail list had been released to "Evangelicals for Mitt."

Meanwhile, a commenter at a Web site for Paul supporters posted what the commenter claims is an e-mail from "Evangelicals for Mitt" to Romney supporters offering free tickets to the event. They normally go for $119.

"I'm writing because the Southern Republican Leadership Conference is the kick-off of the 2012 Presidential election, in New Orleans in April," it says. "'Evangelicals for Mitt' is trying to get people there who would vote for Gov. Romney in a straw poll there."

"In addition to voting in the straw poll, we'll provide tickets that will enable you to get into all of the speakers if there's room," the e-mail continues. "Also, you'll have access to all of the break-out sessions, and a large Friday night party called The Taste of Louisiana. We'll also have free autographed copies of Gov. Romney's book 'No Apologies' and tee shirts there, and there will also be plenty of great food!"

Governor Palin's support is grassroots, authentic and enthusiastic, and there are tons of us, but we are entirely unorganized. Both Romney and Paul will get many more votes through their organization and purchasing of votes than their actual support at the conference warrants. While Paul, of course, has no chance at the nomination, Romney has very real support and this is something I've noticed at other conferences, especially CPAC, and even among the conservative base who are not natural supporters of his. Part of it is exhaustion from having the most inexperienced, most radical (by far) president in American history and observing the damage that president is doing on a daily and even hourly basis. Romney’s support is magnified by the steady drumbeat of inevitability from the MSM and GOP insiders. Unfortunately, a large segment of the conservative base are buying into the meme that Romney is the safe candidate, and the Governor either won't run or isn't ready.

However, that support for Romney is soft and based on misperceptions of the respective strengths of Romney and the Governor as candidates (which are and will be corrected in a long campaign between competitors who contend with one another with respect but great vigor). Lastly, and most importantly, Romney supporters misunderstand and underestimate the size, strength and resolve of Governor Palin's grassroots army, as we will be formidable indeed. They are our friends, they are our allies, and we look forward to fighting along side them as we take back the White House in 2012, but we firmly believe that we will be fighting for Governor Palin in that race.

Update by Doug: Sinistar reports that the group Evangelicals for Mitt, referred to above, were handing out free copies of Romney's book at SRLC provided that you gave them your email address (Sinistar thoughtfully provided them with Ian Lazaran's address). I guess we now know the destination of at least some of those bulk ordered copies of Romney's tome that Ian wrote about in March.

Update by Hal: Dave Weigel tweets the following from the conference:

#srlc straw poll results coming at 6pm here, 7pm ET.

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Rex Murphy: Understanding the Sarah Palin Effect

An interesting piece today in the National Post by Rex Murphy:

Among the many delightful characteristics of Sarah Palin is her seemingly unfailing capacity to capture Barack Obama's angry attention. This week, she criticized his new nuclear policy. Obama responded by saying "I really have no response to that," which was, I think we'll all agree, an awkward prelude to his ... response. He went on with: "The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues." Well, colour me huffy.

The last time anyone else checked, neither is Barack Obama. Chicago politics is no richer in seminars on the finer points of nuclear politics than those of Alaska.

[...]

Sarah Palin irritates, agitates, angers and annoys some of the self-appointed finest minds of America to a point long past reason. She has been the target, since the night she walked on stage to speak at a Republican convention, of some of the most savage commentary that the great republic has seen since Richard Nixon.

The great difference, of course, is that Nixon earned some of his venom.

[...]

But Palin is not the president, nor has she been. She's been a presence in American national politics for only about two years. She is a cheerful human being, with a large family, an apparently easy-going and normal husband. She has a personality that would sell corn flakes -- if not grow them. What career she had in Alaska, she earned. She's at home indoors and out, radiates human warmth, seems to have some balance about herself, and has displayed over the last year or so a considerable fortitude under an avalanche of mockery and hatred. For the final stroke of this cameo I should note she is smart -- smarter than 90% of the people who make a point of how rock-stupid they know she is.

She, by rights, should be queen of the feminists. All that self-reliance, her takeover of Alaska politics, the rocket ride to a Vice-Presidential ticket, a public career she blends with her family life-- these seem gold-standard credentials for a real feminist. But official feminism derides herewith an unspeakable intensity. Her early critics were not beyond the inane claim that she was somehow not really a woman.

[...]

But there she is, in all her roughness and candour, and her spiky wit and ability to irritate her self-nominated betters. She also happens to be the most naturally charismatic politician at the moment in the United States. She is the one major figure who can claim authenticity without morally choking on the word. That makes her the populist rallying point of a nascent rejection of the fervid partisanship and Washington insiderism that is eroding the consent on which American politics is founded

No wonder Obama claims he won't respond when she tweets. The Hope and Change President still owns Hope, but real Change in current American politics is on Palin's side of the ledger.

Read the whole thing.

(H/T Pat)

Related: Michelle Malkin's take on Obama's "vast nuclear exerience" here.

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Saturday Open Thread

Jeffrey H. Anderson: "Far from being all bad, the political landscape now offers fertile ground for victory in a fight for the ages — and for the essence of America."

VDH: Our American Catharsis

J.D. Foster: Volker’s Volley: The VAT Battle Begins

Gerald P. O'Driscoll: Could Obamacare Survive a Fiscal Crisis?

WSJ: States Skip Pension Payments, Delay Day of Reckoning

Fouad Ajami: Afghanistan and the Decline of American Power

IBD: Israel, A Friend Betrayed

Lane Wallace: The Bias of Veteran Journalists

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David Corn is the Liberal Moron of the Day/Open Thread

David Corn was watching Governor Palin's keynote address at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference and tweeted the following:

Palin in New Orleans speech so far: no mention of Hurricane Katrina.

Peter Hamby from CNN corrected the misinformation that Corn promoted:

she mentioned it at the very top of her speech, first thing

Other tidbits:

-Taylor Marsh and Chris Matthews' Hardball Panel with Chris Cillizza and Howard Fineman seem to believe that Palin got the better of her exchange with Barack Obama regarding nuclear weapons.

-She's the cover story in this week's National Journal.

-Cubachi slams the NY Times' analysis of Palin's SRLC speech.

-She did talk with AFP about Justice John Paul Stevens and with CNN about what she plans in the future.

-Jonathan Tobin from Commentary describes Palin's criticism of the administration’s nuclear policy as "spot-on."

-Ellen Carmichael, Media Projects Manager for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, tweets that "[i]t's very rarely that I am impressed by politicians, but I must say that @SarahPalinUSA was an absolute delight at #SRLC speech."

-The pollster for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference finds that "Republicans hold the edge in the 2012 Presidential [contest]."

The results of the straw poll will be released tomorrow. What else is going on tonight?

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Gov. Palin and the 50th Law

The way I learned it, the kid in the school yard who doesn’t want to fight always leaves with a black eye. If you indicate you’ll do anything to avoid trouble, that’s when you get trouble. –Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, The 50^th Law (HarperStudio 2009)

==

"It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. No administration in America's history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out President Obama is supporting today. It's kind of like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'” –Sarah Palin, April 7, 2010, on “Hannity”

==

Have you read The 50^th Law, by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Robert Greene? Released in 2009, it is among the best nonfiction books I read that were released last year. The 50^th law, if you’re curious, is fear nothing. It’s been my contention that Gov. Palin either intuitively understands the lessons taught in Robert Greene’s series on strategy, or she’s running a parallel set and has become, without knowing it, his most gifted student.

Educated in Classics, Robert Greene has written four book about strategy: The 48 Laws of Power, The 33 Strategies of War, The Art of Seduction and The 50^th Law, the most recent co-written by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, best known as a rapper whose albums you’ve probably tried to keep out of your children’s hands. They are, among other things, a treasure-trove for geeks like me.

Oversimplified, the first entry regards to how to get power and use it, the second regards how to keep it and strengthen it, and the third regards how to react once one’s power is threatened. The fourth and latest entry could have been titled Power for Beginners. Fans – myself among them – were surprised to learn about the collaboration with 50 Cent.

Say what you will about Gov. Palin, but if she possesses fear, she certainly doesn’t show it. Her political rise has been well-documented here at C4P, in Going Rogue and in thousands of other pieces of source material. Were she a man, she would be described as an Alpha, and through her actions, choices, habits and hobbies, she towers over so many of the most Alpha of men. When curious observers wonder what it is about Gov. Palin that appeals to a certain strain of libertarian-minded men (myself among them), one need only to look at her life and how she has chosen to live it.

When Gov. Bobby Jindal gave the GOP response to Pres. Obama’s first State of the Union address, the most stinging and lasting critique, from friend and foe alike, was that he looked like a teenager responding to an adult. This statement diminishes none of Gov. Jindal’s accomplishments, and is not an observation about his success and well-earned accolades; it does, however, point to a political reality: image matters.

Gov. Palin is among the few adults in the room with a big ol’ megaphone responding to Pres. Obama, a man who would bow to a potted plant if his handlers believed it would help whatever constitutes his notion of global popularity. Bowing is an act of implied respect and explicit submission when unrequited, and cross-culturally, it projects weakness. Politics aside, Pres. Obama is a weak leader, and he projects it everywhere he goes.

With every appearance and utterance, Gov. Palin is strengthening her foothold in the soil of smart power. Her speech today at the SRLC continued a running theme she’s mined, one with wealthy results: Pres. Obama is a weak man, and he is with every action domestic and foreign, economic and political, weakening a strong nation.

The recent kerfuffle regarding George Stephanopoulos asking Pres. Obama about what the former Governor of Alaska had to say about his nuclear treaty is telling: while much has been made of the question and Pres. Obama’s answer, a subtle power-shift occurred.

Pres. Obama broke the first rule of smart political power: a leader never publicly dismisses an opponent who has no power. It advertises a thin-skin, a small world view and – dangerously – opens up one’s flank for unnecessary attack. I’d add that it shows, yet again, he’s paranoid, which is rather creepy. Gov. Palin can draw a crowd, and she’s sold a lot of books. However, she has no government-backed power; to respond to a question about what she said by including her, by name (thrice) is not only poor judgment, it’s petty. For a guy we’re repeatedly told is so intelligent, cool and well-educated, it’s difficult for me to not conclude he’s, well, not.

==

It has become a fetish of Conservatives to quote Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals.

There are two things most Conservatives know about the book: first, that it was dedicated, in part, to Lucifer, and second, that it contains a list of rules detailing how to take down “enemies.” That list takes up five pages of the 200-page book (p. 126-130 in the 1989 Vintage paperback edition).

Pres. Obama has been described, loosely, as having been trained by Alinksyites; however, Alinsky’s tactics are not only amoral and, for the most part, non-partisan, they are effective. If you don’t like this, please consider the following: Gov. Palin has mastered Alinsky’s fifth rule: ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is a lovely irony that Saul Alinksy’s most proficient student is not the man in power forever linked to his name, but the woman absent power who is using the rules against the prodigious student. Pres. Obama hates being ridiculed, Gov. Palin ridicules him, hilarity ensues – it’s not complicated, and that Pres. Obama’s staff can’t figure this out only increases the fun.

Pres. Obama has no sense of self-deprecation, and Gov. Palin knows this; better yet, she’s using it with gusto. She doesn’t kowtow to his elegance, and she doesn’t concede his brilliance. Like so many of us, she appears insulted by the idea that this twit is somehow better than us. Gov. Palin, through her words, amplifies Alinksy’s eighth rule as she master’s the fifth: Keep the pressure on.

Better yet, she has no fear, and currently, we’re quite happy with this.

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Sarah Palin's Keynote At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference

Thanks to the Right Scoop.

Update by Doug: (H/T hrh) Brian Montopoli of CBS provides a fairly balanced review of Governor Palin's speech:

In a high profile address before thousands of conservative activists at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Friday, Sarah Palin attacked the Obama administration for its energy policy, mocked the media and liberals for suggesting she is inciting violence and hit back at the president's criticism of her knowledge on nuclear issues.

[...]

Palin shot back in her comments Friday, mocking the president for "the vast nuclear experience that he acquired as a community organizer." She said that his alleged experience had not helped him make progress in the issue with Iran and North Korea.

Palin was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm by the delegates here, who entered the hall to find Alaskan caribou jerky waiting on their seats. Hundreds of flashbulbs went off when Palin came onstage, and standing ovations and chants of "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah" broke out throughout her remarks.

More here.

Update II by Doug: (H/T Ian Lazaran) Peter Hamby of CNN has this take on her speech:

Without shying away from heated partisan rhetoric, Palin spent the latter half of her talk expounding on differences between Democratic and Republican energy policies, a comfortable topic for the former Alaska governor and onetime chairwoman of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

She called President Obama's decision to expand offshore drilling "smoke and mirrors," cover for a slate of more liberal energy policies that he and Democrats in Congress plan to enact.

WBRZ News 2:

It’s Gov. Bobby Jindal's state but it was Sarah Palin’s crowd today at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

Many in a packed ballroom at the Hilton in downtown New Orleans hovered over their seats, waiting for the former Alaska governor to walk onto the stage so they could leap to their feet and applaud.

Nola.com:

Drawing repeated ovations from a crowd of Republican activists, former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin issued a thorough indictment of President Barack Obama this afternoon and urged the party faithful to wage a "common-sense" battle for a smaller government and a "real" comprehensive energy policy.

"From now until November, whenever they say, 'Yes, we can,' you say, 'Oh, no you don't,'" she said, a riff on Obama's campaign slogan. "Common-sense conservatives have a better way. ...We will write a new chapter in our history. I say we stand together and take our country back."

WWLTV:

Kicking off the second day at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Sarah Palin fired up the packed ballroom of GOP supporters and activists in New Orleans and re-energized them with midterm elections looming in November.

Palin, who ran for vice president in the 2008 presidential election and is considered a potential candidate for the presidency in 2012, drew rousing support from the thousands in attendance.

Update III by Doug: From Liz Sidoti of the AP:

President Barack Obama and Republican Sarah Palin sparred from a distance over nuclear policy with each questioning the other's experience on the issue in a potential preview of the 2012 White House race.

"Unbelievable," Palin said earlier this week after Obama rewrote the U.S. nuclear strategy, and she suggested the president was weak on nuclear defense.

Obama, in Prague to sign a nuclear reduction treaty with Russia, countered by deriding the former Alaska governor who resigned midway through her first term as "not much of an expert" on nuclear issues.

Palin then shot back Friday during a speech to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans with a reference to Obama's early career choice. Mocking the president, she dismissed "all the vast nuclear experience that he acquired as a community organizer."

[...]

Palin got what could be the last word in her Friday speech in New Orleans. Among several potential candidates addressing the GOP rank and file at the conference, Palin got a rousing reception from the few thousand activists in attendance and delivered a speech rife with platitudes for the GOP and criticism for Democrats.

Some in the crowd responded with a "Run, Sarah, run" chant. She didn't say whether she would.

More here.

Update by Mel: Rush Limbaugh's take (transcript here):

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SRLC Open Thread; Update: Live Video Added

srlc on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Governor Palin's speech to the SRLC is scheduled to begin at 1:30 Eastern. In addition to the direct SRLC feed above, it will be broadcast on C-Span, Fox News Channel, and CNN. It will also be live streamed by CNN.

Andrew Malcolm has a preview of Governor Palin's speech here. Malcolm also critiques the recent CBS poll which has been criticized as being weighted against Republicans.

Update: Fox News just announced that Obama would be giving a statement at the White House on Justice Steven's retirement about 1:30 PM. What else is happening at 1:30 PM? Hmmmmm.

Update II: (H/T riley4palin) Via Ben Smith:

Volunteers are the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans are presently laying packages of caribou jerky on chairs for delegates, courtesy of Sarah Palin.

Update III: Governor Palin Tweets:

You can watch my speech today at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference live at http://www.livestream.com/srlc

In the meantime, here's something to occupy your time. Yesterday, as we noted in a post, Obama was interviewed by Democrat Party tool George Stephanopoulos, currently masquerading as a "journalist" for ABC news. An excerpt from the interview follows via Reuters:

"The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues," Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

Pressed further on Republican criticism that his strategy restricts the use of nuclear weapons too much, Obama added:

"What I would say to them is, is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin."

It appears that our man-child president simply can't get Governor Palin out of his head. I suppose we're to believe that Obama, with his vast experience as a community organizer (whatever that is), is an expert on nuclear policy or, well, anything at all. I thought it may be useful to take a quick look at what others think of Obama's dangerously naïve foreign policy in general and nuclear policy in particular.

Obama tries to hide behind Gates and his generals by implying that they are comfortable with this. AllahPundit at Hot Air took a look at this issue:

Are they comfortable with it, though? One of the unanswered questions about the new protocol promising no nuclear response (in most cases) to a biological or chemical attack is how much of it reflects — or rather, doesn’t reflect — Gates’s thinking. From a speech Gates delivered on October 30, 2008, just a few days before the election:

There is no way to ignore efforts by rogue states such as North Korea and Iran to develop and deploy nuclear weapons, or Russian or Chinese strategic modernization programs. As long as other states have or seek nuclear weapons – and potentially can threaten us, our allies, and friends – then we must have a deterrent capacity that makes it clear that challenging the United States in the nuclear arena – or with other weapons of mass destruction – could result in an overwhelming, catastrophic response…

Our nuclear arsenal also helps deter enemies from using chemical and biological weapons. In the first Gulf War, we made it very clear that if Saddam used chemical or biological weapons, then the United States would keep all options on the table. We later learned that this veiled threat had the intended deterrent effect as Iraq considered its options.

While some may not see a real nuclear threat to the United States today, we should be mindful that our friends and allies perceive different levels of risk within their respective regions. Here, our arsenal plays an irreplaceable role in reducing proliferation.

Maybe Gates has since changed his mind, but I’m not sure why he would have; the likelier explanation for the shift is that he’s simply going along with the policy of the new commander-in-chief.

I think Allah is right. Gates has been around for a long time and is a cagey guy. I rather doubt he would be persuaded by The One's aura alone. It couldn't be Obama's experience since, well, he has no experience in anything, much less nuclear and defense policy. Oh wait, he did think about joining the army once. I'll leave you with a few thoughts from others who have recently commented on this radical change to roughly 60 years of U.S. nuclear policy by the least competent president in U.S. history.

Charles Krauthammer:

Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker is up-to-date with its latest IAEA inspections, well, it gets immunity from nuclear retaliation.

Chicago Tribune:

A nuclear stance is a message to America's friends — and its foes. To its friends, it says our nuclear weapons are there to protect you. To its foes, the nuclear policy should … leave them guessing.

Claudia Rossett:

We can now expect an innovative surge in global production of chemical and bioweapons--which have effectively just become a cheaper way to attack the U.S. (and its allies).

Denver Post:

But we don't understand why the president has overruled his own defense secretary on the development of new nuclear weapons and seemingly weakened America's defense without gaining anything tangible in return.

Ralph Peters:

This is a very real -- and unilateral -- weakening of our national security. In the past, our ambiguity made our enemies hesitate. The new policy guarantees that they'll intensify their pursuit of bugs, gas and weaponized computers.

Michael Goodwin:

It is one thing to hope the rest of the world will go along if we tie both hands behind our back. It is quite another to behave as though all mankind is already on board the Peace Train.

Boston Herald:

Not since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended World War II, has the United States used a nuclear weapon. Yet the possibility of doing just that has always existed at least in theory - until yesterday when President Barack Obama took it off the table and in doing so made the world a more dangerous place.

Update IV: (H/T Uffda) Someone called in to Mark Levin's radio show and asked Mark what he thought about Obama's dissing of Governor Palin on the nuclear issue: It's worth a listen:



Update V: Governor Palin addressed Obama's Nuclear Experience today in her speech, via Matthew Continetti:

And President Obama, with all that vast nuclear expertise he acquired as a community organizer, a part-time senator, and a candidate for president, has accomplished nothing to date with Iran or North Korea.

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More Voters Believe We'd Be Better Off with McCain and Palin in Office Than the Number Who Believe We'd be Worse Off With McCain and Palin

Fox News/Opinion Dynamics finds that there is a greater percentage of voters think things in the country would be better today if John McCain and Sarah Palin had won the 2008 election than the percentage of voters that think things in the country would be worse off today if John McCain and Sarah Palin had won the 2008 election.

Polls from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics "generally [haven't] shown much evidence of a Republican-leaning 'house effect.'"

Update: Fox News/Opinion Dynamics finds that 52% of voters want Obama to appoint a conservative to the Supreme Court.

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Bart Stupak Retiring; Update: Justice Stevens Also Retiring, Barney Frank Too?

Via CBS News:

Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, the congressman who led anti-abortion rights Democrats in the House during health care negotiations, will retire this year, CBS News has learned. He is expected to announce his plans later this morning.

Had Stupak sought re-election, he would have faced challengers from both the left and the right backed by interest groups angered by Stupak's health care vote.

Stupak negotiated with Democratic leaders down to the eleventh hour for stricter abortion language in the health care bill, but he ultimately voted for it after President Obama agreed to sign an executive order assuring the new laws will keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.

That prompted the conservative Tea Party Express to launch a $250,000 ad campaign against Stupak this week. The group also scheduled a handful of stops on its bus tour in Stupak's district.

More here. I saw the rumors yesterday but I had a tough time believing them. This certainly doesn't bode well for the Democrat's chances of hanging on to the House. Stupak angered a lot of people with his sellout but was still considered safe for re-election, having been easily re-elected to his 9th term with 65% of the vote less than two years ago. I can't help but wonder if there is an administration appointment in his future. Ambassador to Tahiti perhaps?

Update: Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has announced his retirement. Ed Morrissey has more here. Laura Ingraham tweets that Barney Frank is also hanging it up, although there has been no official confirmation.

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Friday Open Thread

VDH: The Ongoing Melodrama of Victims and Oppressors

IBD: 'I Want My Free M.D.'

Veronique de Rugy: Stimulus Facts: An Update

Daniel Henninger: Will the U.S. accept youth unemployment levels like Europe's?

Bloomberg: Australia Faces ‘Inflationary’ Jobless Rate Five Years Early

The Economist: Greece’s deepening debt crisis

LAT: Kyrgyzstan president goes into hiding

WaPo: Medvedev warns of limits to Russia's backing of Iran sanctions

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Pre-SRLC Open Thread/Obama on Sarah Palin and Nuclear Weapons (Update: More on Obama's Statement) (Update #2: Let's Kill a Rumor)

Governor Palin is scheduled to give the keynote address for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference tomorrow at 1:30 PM EDT. It will be broadcast on C-Span. If you find out who else is broadcasting the event, let us know in the comments or tips. Hopefully, our friends Adrienne, Sinistar, Sapwolf, and Defend will provide updates about the scene in New Orleans when they arrive.

Here are some tidbits to keep you occupied until tomorrow's speech:

-Obama said the following on ABC about Governor Palin's comments regarding his nuclear weapons stance:

The last I checked Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues.

The last I checked, 50% of Illinois registered voters disapproved of Obama's performance in office. Does anyone know the interview from which Obama makes this comment and when it's going to air?

-Jennifer Rubin from Commentary Magazine and Matthew Continetti talk about Palin and Bachmann.

-Liberal Taylor Marsh says that the CBS "headline [blew] the lede and the main data point" with respect to its most recent poll about Sarah Palin.

What else is going on today?

Update: Here's what Obama said:

I really have no response to that. The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues...What I would say to them is, is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.

Update #2: Just a FYI, the rumor on twitter about Palin not speaking at the SRLC is completely false. Peter Hamby from CNN effectively confirms the rumor is false as she savored "the celebrated cuisine of the Big Easy."

Update #3: Here's the video of what Palin said that drew Obama's ire.

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Patricia Murphy: Palin and Bachmann Are What Conservative Women Have Been Missing

Patricia Murphy, at Politics Daily, has written an interesting account of the high-octane rally yesterday in Minnesota. I can't say I agree with all her conclusions, or her occasionally snarky comments (including the title of the article), but overall it's an enjoyable read. Her characterization of the charismatically-challenged Tim Pawlenty alone is worth the price of admission:

Poor, poor Tim Pawlenty. The earnest Minnesota governor brought his best zingers and one-liners to the Minneapolis Convention Center on Wednesday, but he got his biggest applause at the GOP fundraiser only when he introduced Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. The two brightest stars of the conservative movement were headliners for the event to raise cash for Bachmann's re-election campaign. On the charisma scale, he was chalk to their napalm.

[...]

"In politics, if you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman," Palin joked to the delight of the crowd, quoting Margaret Thatcher. "My own mantra is that behind every good, productive man stands a very surprised woman."

Although Palin told her fans she was "just joshin' about that gender thing," the visual image of Palin and Bachmann commanding the stage as headliners of the event, rather than bit players, was striking. That they were flanked by women as they spoke as superstars of a political movement would have been the dream of any 1960s feminist.

But along with their super-sized political influence, Palin and Bachmann are both prolific mothers (they have five children each) and pro-life activists. Bachmann has been a foster parent to 23 children with her husband and Palin was outspoken in her choice not to end her pregnancy upon learning that her fifth child would have Down syndrome.

Those are qualities that make the women positively anti-feminist for old-school activists, but it's also what conservative women say they've been missing for years in their search for their own Hillary Clinton. "No matter how you look at it, it is just good to have strong, positive female role models in political life," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, chair of the conservative Susan B. Anthony List. "For only one model to have been represented, basically cutting out half of the female population in terms of mentorship, can never be a good thing."

Read the rest here.

(H/T PatrickinOH)

Update: Ed Morrissey's take on the Palin-Bachmann event here.

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Newshounds Fails Miserably in Attempt to Downplay the Attendance From Yesterday's Palin/Bachmann Rally

Ellen from Newshounds tries to cast doubt on the idea that around 10,000-11,000 attended yesterday's rally with Governor Palin and Congresswoman Bachmann.

As has become the norm at Hannity’s live-audience events, the crowd was a sea of white faces. The StarTribune.com noted that the Republican Party gave out more than 10,000 free tickets but that the “cavernous” Minneapolis Convention Center hall was not full. I checked the floor plans. None of the halls there, even if they combined spaces, hold 10,000 people.

Notice that this Democrat Party hack doesn't even make the assertion that there wasn't around 10,000-11,000 people in attendance; she just implies as much. All she's reduced to is playing the race card and citing an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that doesn't give an official crowd estimate (by the way Ellen, 90% of the voters in 2008 in Minnesota were white).

This radical is probably well aware that five other publications did provide official crowd estimates:

Politico: "[b]efore a predominantly female crowd of more than 11,000 fans."
St. Paul Pioneer Press: "a raucous campaign rally of more than 10,000 fans that exceeded the size of many presidential whistle-stops."
St. Cloud Times: "crowd estimated at more than 10,000."
Minnesota Daily: "before a roaring crowd of nearly 10,000 enthusiastic supporters Wednesday afternoon."
Minneapolis City Pages: "packed the Minneapolis Convention Center with 11,000 people Wednesday in a rally."

So Ellen is effectively counting on her readers to believe her "analysis" of the floor plan for the Minneapolis Convention Center over five non-conservative publications that all estimated independently around 10,000-11,000 in attendance at the Palin/Bachmann rally yesterday. Her readers are probably dumb enough to believe her.

In any event, the attendance at yesterday's event certainly made the hundreds that attended the event that Barack Obama held in liberal Iowa City several weeks ago look tiny in comparison. Unlike this Newshounds hack, I actually can cite to local Iowa media to support my assertion regarding the attendance at Obama's event.

Update: I'll concede though that not all liberals are as out to lunch as Ellen from Newshounds is regarding yesterday's event featuring Palin and Bachmann.

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The Flaw in Media Matters' Obama Promotion Plan

In a blog post titled "The flaw in Fox's Palin promotion plan," Oliver Willis writes the following drivel in Media Matters:

According to Fox's own polling, 51% of voters are less likely to support a candidate if Sarah Palin campaigns for them, versus 25% who are more likely to follow the former governor's lead.

Fox's best efforts to promote Palin and act as a campaign arm of the Republican party appear to be counterproductive.

Oliver, that same poll shows that 45% of voters are less likely to support a candidate if Barack Obama campaigns for them, versus 29% who are more likely to follow the President's lead. This poll also shows that a greater percentage of independents are more likely to vote for a candidate that Palin campaigns than the percentage of independents that are more likely to vote for a candidate that receives a campaign visit from the President. This poll suggests that campaign visits from Obama and Palin have effectively the same impact on independents.

Media Matters' best efforts to promote Obama and act as a campaign arm of the Democrat Party appear to be counterproductive.

By the way, polls from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics "generally [haven't] shown much evidence of a Republican-leaning 'house effect.'"

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Obamanomics: Half of Americans Dependent on Government

“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”

- Alexis de Tocqueville

When discussing the perils of the false promise of wealth redistribution, former Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) frequently talked about how it's easier to ride in the wagon than it is to pull it. An article late yesterday by Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP brought Gramm's metaphor fully into focus:

Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it's simply somebody else's problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

Gramm's point, of course, is that there are two kinds of citizens: the unproductive who, in effect, ride in the wagon and the productive who pull it. The startling data in Ohlemacher's piece indicate that nearly half of all Americans citizens are now receiving a free ride on the backs of those who work hard and pay the bills. This is unsustainable and if the trend of fewer and fewer people paying the bills for more and more people continues, an increasingly volatile economic and political situation will be the inevitable result.

A basic law of economics is that people respond to incentives. When a decreasing amount of productive citizens are paying the bills for an increasing number of unproductive citizens, a point is reached when those producing are confronted with a simple question: Why should I keep working harder to support those who don't? When this point is reached, more producers will elect to become non-producers, further increasing the burden on those who produce as government increases taxes on the dwindling supply of taxpayers in an effort to maintain the level of revenue. This has a snowballing effect. Put another way, at some point some of those struggling to pull the wagon will look back at those riding in it and decide to join them. This point is different for everyone, of course, but eventually the number pulling the wagon will diminish sufficiently to slow the wagon until it eventually stops.

When running for president, Barack Obama famously promised a federal income tax "cut" for 90% of Americans. At the time Governor Palin and others correctly ridiculed this claim as folly given that nearly 50% of Americans paid no federal income taxes. The media, of course, ignored Governor Palin's point since it demonstrated that she had a superior understanding of this issue than their Messiah. Either that or they recognized that Obama was, shall we say, making things up and such a revelation would not be helpful to their goal of seeing him in the White House.

In any case the basis for Obama's false claim is what politicians call refundable tax credits. With refundable tax credits, it's possible to receive an income tax "refund" when no income taxes are paid. To put it simply, this is wealth redistribution, not a tax cut. Only in Washington can you receive a refund for something you didn't pay in the first place. An earned income tax credit (EITC) sounds better politically than welfare, which is exactly what the EITC is in reality.

To anyone paying attention, the goal of the Democrat Party is clear. They want to control the people by getting as many people dependent on big government as possible. Therefore they, as the party of big government, will prosper as they buy the votes of the growing dependent class be redistributing money extracted from the shrinking independent class. But what Democrats fail to recognize is that you if you destroy the incentive to create wealth, there won't be any to redistribute.

The Soviet Union discovered this, as did other countries who experimented with Marxism. In America, 47% are now riding in the wagon. ObamaCare is really nothing more than a wealth redistribution ploy and once implemented, along with all of the other tax increases and wealth redistribution schemes Obama has planned, the incentive to stop pulling the wagon and ride in it instead will be even more difficult to resist. This is a sure route to economic stagnation and eventual decline. Once the point is reached where significantly more Americans don't pay taxes than do, the Democrats will have a majority constituency for higher taxes. This majority will always vote for higher taxes since they don't have to pay them.

This bleak prospect is must be avoided if America is to survive as a free and prosperous country. It's clear that the modern Democrat Party, under the Obama-Pelosi-Reid axis, is blissfully unaware of the train-wreck their policies have in store for America. Governor Palin touched on the danger inherent in this trend for an increasing amount Americans to be dependent on government during her interview yesterday with Sean Hannity:

HANNITY: Have Americans been conditioned by their government to look to the government for the answer? Cradle to grave, womb to the tomb?

PALIN: That is — that is the desire of the left. But no, when you're in a place like this, when you're out across our country, in the cities and the small towns in the U.S., realizing that people still have the independent pioneering spirit, not looking to government for a handout, then you can have that hope.

[...]

And he steps towards this utopia that he would like to create for — for America, what it does is it erodes the work ethic, the entrepreneurial spirit in this country. And that, too, is why we have to fight so hard to make sure we have persons in these positions to cast the votes to undo what it is that he does want to create.

Governor Palin clearly understand what's at stake here. The Democrat Party is intent on creating enough dependency to erode the entrepreneurial spirit that has made this the greatest country on earth. They do this only because they perceive to be on their long term political interests. If it wrecks the country, so be it. Earlier in this post I quoted de Tocqueville, who summed up the very problem America is facing today more than 150 years ago:

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money”

This does not have to be our destiny. We need to do all we can to help Governor Palin lead the charge to take our country back and prove de Tocqueville wrong.

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Thursday Open Thread

Mark Mills: Oil Reality Check: It's Going Higher

AP: Nearly half of US households escape fed income tax

Reuters: US Retail Property Gouged by Record Vacancies

WSJ: Bernanke Says U.S. Must Address Soaring Debt

Rasmussen: 55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem in Politics Than Big Contributions

Boston Herald: Naivete can cost lives

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Post Palin/Bachmann Rally/Interview Late Night Open Thread (Update: Make it Four Minnesota Newspapers)

-Three more local Minnesota newspapers effectively confirm what was reported by Politico and the St. Paul Pioneer Press regarding the attendance at the Palin/Bachmann campaign rally yesterday.

-Teddy Davis from ABC News reports that "Sarah Palin is hammering President Obama for putting unprecedented limits on the use of U.S. nuclear weapons, comparing him to a kid in a playground who is asking for a punch in the face."

-Powerline is pretty clearly behind Tim Pawlenty in 2012 but they have a blog post about the two female headliners from earlier today.

-Steve Holland from Reuters writes that Palin "is to address the [SRLC] on Friday with a speech criticizing Obama's offshore oil drilling plans, unveiled last week, as insufficient to add significantly to U.S. fuel supplies."

-Obama voter Ann Althouse doubles down with another brilliant smack-down of John McWhorter's inane attack on Palin.

-Here's the video of Bristol going On the Record with Greta Van Susteran.

What's going on tomorrow?

Update: The St. Cloud Times reports a "crowd estimated at more than 10,000."

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Video: Palin and Bachmann on Hannity

Part 1



Part 2



We'll update when the other two segments become available

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Palin and Bachmann on Hannity Tonight from Minneapolis/Open Thread (Update: Andy Barr from Politico Reports Over 11,000 in Attendance)

Palin and Bachmann will talk with Hannity tonight from Minneapolis at 9 PM EDT.

Until then, here's what I've got:

-Here's a write-up of the event from Doug Glow of the Minnesota Post. Glow wonders "[h]ow do you get your mind around something like this rally that happened right in the middle of the state's most liberal congressional district?" (emphasis added) The local Fox channel has a video report of the event.

-The Wall Street Journal , CNN, and Minnesota Public Radio have write-ups as well. We'll provide more updates on the rally when they become available. What I'm specifically looking for is an official crowd estimate.

-Luke Hellier tweets that "[e]stimates put tonight's Bachmann/Palin fundraiser [at around] $500k."

-Steve Lombardo from LCG Polling raises a good question regarding Governor Palin.

-You can watch Bristol's public service announcement here.

-The Associated Press previews Palin and her role at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference that set to take place tomorrow through Saturday. Governor Palin speaks on Friday.

What's going on today?

Update: The first liberal reaction comes from Chris Bowers of Open Left:

If Sarah Palin runs for President, then she will win the Republican nomination. The rally she is holding today with Michelle Bachmann is amazing...If Sarah Palin runs for President in 2012, I have a difficult time imagining someone else winning the Republican nomination.... A continually weak economy--which is very possible--could actually make her President less than three years from now.

Update #2: Andy Barr from Politico affirmatively reports that Palin and Bachmann spoke "[b]efore a predominantly female crowd of more than 11,000 fans."

Update #3: The St. Paul Pioneer Press effectively confirms the Politico number by reporting that Palin and Bachmann held "a raucous campaign rally of more than 10,000 fans that exceeded the size of many presidential whistle-stops."

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Video-Palin Campaigns for Bachmann

Check out the Right Scoop if you want to watch the speeches from Bachmann and Pawlenty.

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NYT: Oh, That "Death Panel"

Via Hot Air the New York Times has apparently realized that there will be health care rationing as a result of ObamaCare. In true liberal fashion, the Times is in favor of restricting care. They call it "learning to say no." The governor called it a "death panel." So, who's going to tell Americans "no"?

The federal government is now starting to build the institutions that will try to reduce the soaring growth of health care costs. There will be a group to compare the effectiveness of different treatments, a so-called Medicare innovation center and a Medicare oversight board that can set payment rates...

From an economic perspective, health reform will fail if we can’t sometimes push back against the try-anything instinct. The new agencies will be hounded by accusations of rationing, and Medicare’s long-term budget deficit will grow...

The final step is the bluntest. It involves changing the economics of medicine, to reward better care rather than simply more care. Health reform doesn’t go nearly far enough on this score, but it is a start.

According to the NYT, these new government agencies get to decide on what care you need. Ed at Hot Air says:

Now [the NYT] admit that the “most important task” of the people running the ObamaCare reform is to deny people medical care — under circumstances where a group of elites decide it’s not worth it.

It all sounds rather like a "death panel" to me. Nice of the Times to finally agree with Governor Palin on that point:

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Perhaps the Times can join Paul Krugman in apologizing to the governor for spending months attacking her for a statement they now admit is accurate.

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Palin Campaigns for Michele Bachmann's Re-election Open Thread

Doors have opened and the event begins in about an hour and a half. You can catch it live at Michele Bachmann's website, CBS News, and CNN at 3PM EDT. Fox News is live streaming the event as well.

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Stacy Drake: Jay Ramras, Blatant Hypocrite

In a post last week, Adam Brickley discussed Eddie Burke's decision to throw his hat in the ring in the race for Lt. Governor of Alaska. A couple hours later, in a post by Ian Lazaran, we learned that Alaska's current Lt. Governor, Craig Campbell, will not be seeking re-election. This leaves friend of C4P Eddie Burke and Jay Ramras as the two remaining GOP candidates in the race. Jay Ramras, of course, is well-known to C4P readers as, among other things, a PDS afflicted RINO who never missed a chance to assist Alaska Democrats in their pathetic attempts to undermine Governor Palin and her policies. Stacy Drake, in a piece at the Palin Twibe, takes a look at some of Ramras' latest hypocrisy:

With the news that Eddie Burke is running for Lt. Governor in Alaska and the current Lt. Governor, Craig Campbell withdrew from the race, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the other man campaigning for the job.

Jay Ramras is a man Governor Palin supporters will no doubt recognize the name of. Remember, he was the guy that made the famous misogynistic "V bomb" comment about Governor Palin back in 2008. A stupid statement from him that just underscored the fact that Jay's brain has a tendency to reside in the gutter at times.

This is also the guy that had the nerve to use (and misuse) his Judiciary Committee Chairmanship to insinuate that Governor Palin was 'unethical' for wearing an arctic cat jacket in cold weather. Something she was accused of by a certain ankle-biting "Official Alaskan DNC blogger," and later cleared for by the state ethics panel. During the confirmation hearing of Wayne Anthony Ross, Ramras said "We have a Governor who is provocative in a lot of her actions. Recently it comes to mind when she was in Fairbanks for the finish line for the Iron Dog she was wearing Arctic Cat gear...Arctic Cat letters..."

Jay Ramras gives new meaning to the term 'blatant hypocrite.' He grandstands, on the record over a coat with a logo on it yet buys loads of commercial airtime on local Alaska television to sell his lodge, "Pikes Landing" in ads staring...himself. All at the same time he is running for Lt. Governor of the state.

Read the rest of Drake's piece here. We have written about Ramras' questionable ethics and fitness for office multiple times in the past. For example, go here, here, here, here and here. There are many more examples as veteran C4P readers know. For your added enjoyment, here's video of Ramras demonstrating his...er...mastery of the legislation.

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Bristol Palin On Good Morning America

Bristol Palin and The Candie's Foundation's Neil Cole Talk About Teen Pregnancy and their new PSA.

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Liberal Paul Krugman Vindicates Governor Palin

Last week in a post, Dave C. linked to a video in which Paul Krugman discussed how death panels would save money. Andrius Vaitekunas at GetLiberty.org has taken this a step further by producing the following video:



Now that ObamaCare has passed, apparently it's OK, even for Paul Krugman, to admit Governor Palin was right all along. This reminds me of a rather bizarre column Charles Krauthammer wrote last summer. In his piece, Krauthammer began by telling Governor Palin to leave the room because there were no death panels in ObamaCare. He then used the rest of his column to explain how the rationing that must occur in ObamaCare basically amounted to...death panels. More here.

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Wednesday Open Thread

VDH: Energy and Debt

Hot Air: Americans more interested in energy than environment

James A. Klein: The White House and the Writedowns

Simon Maierhofer: The Sobering Truth Behind Unemployment Numbers

Jeffrey H. Anderson: Sorting Fact From Fiction On 'Doc Fix'

Debra Saunders: Obama's 17-Minute Non-Answer Answer

The Economist: America and the yuan

Michael Yon: Village Boys

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Is this the Best the DNC Could Do?

The DNC put together this video for the Palin/Bachmann rally tomorrow. Whatever the DNC is paying Democrat Party hack Hari Sevugan, it's too much.

What "extreme comment" does Palin make in these clips? Does the DNC really want to advertise the fact that Fidel Castro supports Obamacare? Does the DNC really want to advertise the fact that their attempts to tie Palin to any violence failed so miserably that a poll of adults indicates that 49% blame the Democrat Party for the vandalism and threats that occurred in the aftermath of Obamacare becoming law? Does the DNC really want to advertise the fact that they consider "extreme" perfectly mainstream critiques of a President who has a 50% disapproval rating from the constituents of the state he served as a junior Senator?

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