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New Girl Media Unplugs Old Girl Network

Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often 'illusory and deceitful," reports Reuters. Compare Papa Ratzi's open invitation to engage in an expansive search for truth with President Obama's secretive, craven attempts to use the art community as a tool of the state to propagandize his own not-so-hidden statist agenda. Grazie tanto to darling friend and blogbuddy Miss Kelly for the heads up. (REUTERS/Osservatore Romano photo)

"Like me, Jackie became politically involved because of Sarah Palin," writes self-described "California girl, proud conservative, palinista, future politician" Rachelle Friberg, bearing witness to the Amazonian clash between New Girl Media and Old Girl Network that played out upon the national stage last week when MSNBC warhorse Norah O'Donnell tried to play "gotcha" with fresh-faced 17-year-old filly Jackie Seal at a Sarah Palin Going Rogue book-signing event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The usual suspects used the occasion to present Palin supporters as clueless cultists, but we're more interested in the folks who are paying attention. Here's Rachelle:

I actually got to know Jackie a couple months ago on Twitter. When I first met her, I was struck by how mature, articulate and intelligent a young woman she was. Like me, Jackie became politically involved because of Sarah Palin. She is an amazing girl, and I wish I had become politically aware when I was her age. While she may be young, she is already a very talented blogger who has a great future ahead of her. I actually recently wrote about her and other great, young conservative bloggers who are out there making a difference one post at a time. I find it so amazing and incredible that Sarah has brought so many people together. While Jackie and I do not know Sarah personally, we and millions of others have formed a bond that will last a lifetime.

"The so-called 'Staircase Group' by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) is arguably the first major original painting in American art," writes collector and curator John Wilmerding in today's WSJ. Read the whole thing for its historically and aesthetically rich appreciation of the Philadelphia-based artist, inventor, scientist, soldier, writer, naturalist and museum founder. The take-home point for our discussion here: "The full-length format … speaks to its final originality. Heretofore it was reserved in the Old World for upper-class and royal portraiture. Peale inverts its use for American figures who are ordinary, relaxed and democratic." Sarah Palin and the Tea Party/Town Hall Movement come to mind.

Then comes Dr. Melissa Clouthier, who begs to differ with those like Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel who say the Tea Party Movement requires "the emergence of a national leader, group or structure" to become a "sustainable bloc with the power to shape the GOP and swing elections." Freedom Works Press Secretary Adam Brandon explains:

We were never looking to own or control it. The focus needs to be on the issues at hand.

Clouthier nails it:

Asking the “who’s in charge” questions about the Tea Party movement is to fundamentally misunderstand conservatives. Conservatives do not like being told what to do. The notion of subsuming self-interest for “the greater good” is anathema to them. That makes replicating the Borg-like work of ACORN and Moveon.org organizations nearly impossible on the right. When conservatives see a goal, they’ll take 50 roads to get there. The left will get on the Huffington Post highway and ride along together.

In related commentary, it's the town hall, stupid, Bill Whittle tells Scott Ott at PJTV:

Let's remind ourselves of what the essential part of a representative democracy is all about. It's a town hall meeting. Who's in charge of a town hall meeting? Nobody … There are rules and procedures so that equals can come to an assignment of responsibility based on their equality.

The final word goes to the totally adorable Tucker Carlson, who had this to say on Fox and Friends this morning:

There's something about Sarah Palin that drives a certain kind of liberal wild, and I don't know why. I'm not a psychiatrist.

But I personally wish she'd stop calling people "sexist." That's what liberals do.

Carlson may not know why Saracudda drives a certain kind of liberal wild, but we do. 'Been blogging about it for years: It's the tribalism, stupid.

Update: Instalanche! Thank you, dear professor.

Update II: "I am the last person in the entire b-sphere to link it, but I’m delighted to do so, writes Attila Girl." Never too late.

All Palin all the time and loving it, revisited

"We're savoring the joy of bloggers, politicians and media types who think McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as running mate is the best thing since sliced sourdough bread," we captioned this image in our August 2008 post dissecting opponents' false claims that the Alaska Governor favored teaching Creationism in science classes. "Not to mention the bewilderment of their counterparts on the other side of the aisle," we continued, "who, like the proverbial deer — moose? —  in the headlights, obviously didn't see it coming down the road to the White House.  Above, "This moose made it across safely, though several hundred other moose end up in collisions with vehicles on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, causing injuries, deaths and property damage." (AP Photo/The Peninsula Clarion, M. Scott Moon)

No, she doesn't think Creationism or Intelligent Design belongs in the science classroom, as we determined to our satisfaction way back in August of 2008 (see below). But tongues will wag in a desperate attempt to discredit Sarah Palin as her blockbuster Going Rogue: An American Life bursts upon a waiting, breath-bated world this week. A relevant excerpt:

Palin complains of several brushes with McCain's 2008 campaign manager. In one, he took her to task for her views on evolution: "'But your dad's a science teacher,' Schmidt objected. 'Yes.' 'Then you know science proves evolution,' added Schmidt. I said, 'But I believe that God created us and also that He can create an evolutionary process that allows species to change and adapt.' Schmidt winced and raised his eyebrows... But I felt I was on solid factual ground."

Pope Benedict XVI has often made very much the same point. Now, rather than reinventing the wheel, we herewith republish "All Palin all the time and loving it," written in the heat of battle during the first flush of our smittenness with the Woman Warrior from Wasilla:

August 30, 2008. "My only worry about Governor Palin had been what I would call a hysterical misreading of her views regarding the teaching of creationism in public schools, but Charles Johnson has put my fears to rest," we wrote in the comments at Dr. Helen's totally excellent "My Thoughts on Sarah Palin." More on her thoughts below, but first, here's what Charles Johnson had to say about how some of our fellow citizens on the left side of the aisle have distorted and will attempt to distort Palin's views:

LGF readers are probably aware that I am no creationist; in fact, I am strongly opposed to the teaching of “intelligent design” or “creation science,” or any other name the advocates for creationism concoct in their relentless quest to promote pseudo-science.

So I was disturbed to learn of Sarah Palin’s apparent support for creationism. However, as I posted in a comment earlier, she does not appear to be the fanatical type who wants to force or sneak the teaching of creationism into public school science classrooms.

But this is going to be a point of attack for the left, as Wired Magazine’s Brandon Keim demonstrates in this article: McCain’s VP Wants Creationism Taught in School.

Looks like Palin made an off-the-cuff statement during a debate on a hot topic, didn’t really expect the criticism she’d get, and then softened her position considerably in a follow-up interview. But to quote just the first part of her statements on creationism and ignore the second is misleading; because in the clarification she’s describing a position that doesn’t cause me (a staunch anti-creationist) any discomfort.

Phew. Now back to Dr. Helen (cross-posted at PJM), who thinks "Palin would focus on helping Americans achieve their dreams by staying out of their way":

For me, Sarah Palin represents many right-leaning libertarian ideas that I personally support: low taxes, gun rights, and smaller government …

While Democrats want to expand government programs to “help women,” I believe that smaller government and the policies of the libertarian right help women in many ways that are often ignored …

It seems that more and more women are going into business for themselves; in fact, a recent study shows that women are emerging as a fast-growing sector of new small business owners. That matches my experience: I hear women at my gym all the time talking about their start-up home businesses, such as working with Ebay selling furniture and other items. Some are making a very good living at it. A living, I am afraid, that will be eaten up by regulation and taxes if they are deemed “too successful” by the Obama camp. I hope Palin has more sympathy for entrepreneurs and those who run their own businesses, for they are the backbone of this country. Their success should be rewarded — not discouraged.

Lots of good, commonsense stuff. Plus, a great punchline: "And unlike some female politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Palin made it herself without the help of a career politician husband to give her an added advantage." You go, self-made woman!

Give to strategic small-government candidates, not parties

There's something happening here. The anti-establishment protest song has been turned on its head as Tea Partiers find their voice: "People speaking their minds/Getting so much resistance from behind/What a field-day for the heat/A thousand people in the street/Singing songs and carrying signs …" (Cover image of October 2008 "quickie paperback satire" Terminatrix,  co-authored by top Harper-Collins Editor Adam Bellow (Saul's boy), who most recently worked on Sarah Palin's forthcoming blockbuster autobiography Going Rogue)

"It's quite a revelation. I'd been slowing down party contributions of late. Now I see THE WAY!" we twittered blogfriend Barry Campbell of enrevanche ecstatically this morning in response to his response to an earlier tweet of ours:

We: Give to strategic small-government candidates, not parties!

Barry: Yes. And I agree so fervently that I don't mind the "shouting."

It was a eureka moment as we saw the social-networking sausage taking shape before our eyes. Delicious! It started with Sarah Palin's endorsement last week of Doug Hoffman, the independent conservative candidate challenging ACORN-supporting Republican-Party-sanctioned RINO Dede Scozzafava in the upstate NY District 23 congressional special election. Dismissed by Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party establishment, Hoffman has become a beacon of hope for the Army of Davids Tea Partiers, who are getting glimpses of a way out of the desert as he surges ahead in the latest poll. And, of course, Palin's every strategic move is of intense interest — to both diehard fans like us and those who can't stand her — in the blogosphere, the twittersphere, Facebook and on cable TV. The networks and airwaves were abuzz. Based upon Palin's support we sent a little money Hoffman's way, just as we had sent a check to Joe "You lie!" Wilson earlier based upon his speaking truth to power during President Obama's recent address to a joint session of Congress. Today it was dollars for someone else we'd never heard of, conservative VA AG candidate Ken Cuccinelli, based upon a Twitter tip from Erick Erickson of Red State, who looks to a higher authority for his response to "the new counter spin" that would have us once again hold our noses as so many small-government citizens did with John McCain:

To quote Christ, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26 NIV)

Well. Gotta be off to add a little something to the coffers of "Upstart candidate Marco Rubio," who's "cut in half [Obama-hugger] Governor Charlie Crist's lead in the race to win the Republican nomination for a Florida U.S. Senate seat in 2010" thanks to "popular outrage at his support for the $787 billion federal stimulus package." We encourage our readers to lend support to strategically-targeted, small-government candidates wherever they may find them. And while we're in the mood, we especially urge you to support our dear blogfriend, satirical genius and candidate for Leigh County [PA] Executive, Scott "Live the Freedom" Ott of Scrappleface and the Washington Examiner. Click here to give early and often.

Update: Dan Riehl links:

Just as one should always follow the money, the politicians will follow the money, too. Use it to force the GOP to adopt the policies we want, not simply for spite against the GOP.

As we wrote in the comments, "Absolutely. Not an ounce of spite. Just a way out of the desert."

The soul of wit

Where have all the blogposts gone? First time we've gone over a week without blogging since launching our little flagship into the blogosphere 5 3/4 years ago on December 12, 2003, with "The tidings that dare not speak their name." We've never veered far off the pro-freedom-of-speech course set for that first outing, but why now the silence? Has the cat got our tongue? Tiny, above and blow atop the dining room table the other day in the countdown to supper, isn't talking.

We've been twittering up a storm of late (check out the column at right just below "Pope Teddy Mug" for a running stream of our latest tweets). As suggested in one of the questions in Technorati's "State of the Blogosphere Survey," which we took this morning, twittering itself — often referred to as microblogging — may be a culprit. Both our own and others' tweets can be a catalyst for expansion of whatever's festering in the febrile blogging brain, but just as easily, Twitter's requirement that the writer condense expression of her ideas into 140 or fewer characters can be a refiner's fire that leaves ideas clarified with no need of further exposition. One example from a series of tweets plucking out highlights of Sarah Palin's historic keynote yesterday before a room full of world-class investors at a conference sponsored by investment firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, her first public-speaking engagement outside North America:

"There is no justice in taking from one person and giving to another," she said. "History shows it simply does not work."

I loved Sarah Palin from the first day: "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom."

"We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," says Sarah Palin in Hong Kong speech.

A gratifying contrast to President Obama's usual "now-is-the-time" —  first time? — speech before the UN this morning, also billed as historic. We agreed with twitterer Zener39's assessment:

Bolton: Obama's speech "unpresidential."

As we said in a retweet, "The man with the mustache that repels bullets has Obama's number."

Update: More delicious and nutritious Bolton fare: “a post-American speech by our first post-American president. It was a speech high on the personality of Barack Obama and high on multilateralism, but very short in advocating American interests … It was a very naïve, Wilsonian speech, and very revealing of Obama’s foreign policy,” said Bolton.

Update II: "Good one, doll, but you leave us non-twitterers lonely," writes our imail correspondent:

We: I will try to get back into things. So many worries the last period of time. A breather today. Just got word from vet that Tiny's bloodwork is normal. With her being on steroids, one has to keep watch. I've gotten the dose down as low as possible. [Goomp's pussycat] Purrky is fine. Cold almost gone. Freezer now working again with new timer.The little things add up.

She: Yes, constant low-level anxiety is a real energy-drainer.

Sigh.

Update III: "I am out of touch since the advent of the tweet," imails Goomp poignantly. "I'm hoping to get things back on an even keel," we imail back.

Update IV: Unholy alliances: The Anchoress is in the same boat. "She cannot come out to play until she has finished her work":

Apparently, she spent an unholy amount of time last night, playing on something called Twitter, which sounds insipid, flightly, unhealthy, sinful and vulgar. She did this, furthermore, after being expressly forbidden to enjoy herself until her assignments were completed. Because she is a slothful, inattentive, disobedient and lazy flittertigibbet of a girl, she will not be permitted to play here with you on this devil’s machine until she has done her work, or I will beat her until you hear her high c’s from Shanghai to the Aran Islands!

And you get to work, too, young masters and mistresses, or I will find you! Don’t make me use this ruler!

Lord help us.

Update: All things bright and beautiful now boarding Modulator's Friday Ark #262.

John McCain reminds us that elections have consequences

"BEST TOWN HALL EVER," we just tweeted as John McCain warms hearts and minds of a Sun City, Arizona roomful of constituents with free-market, tort-reform sweet nothings regarding health-care reform:

Senator John McCain answering thoughtful questions thoughtfully and with characteristic humor. Peaceful revolt in progress!

A breath of fresh air after the out-of-touch arrogance and disrespect of I-know-better-than-you-what's-good-for-you Arlen Specter et al towards the people who put them in office. You don't have to see eye-to-eye with McCain on everything to know authenticity when you see it. As we said of Palin in a similar vein recently, like Ronald Reagan, he trusts us! Plus, how can you not love a politician who boldly goes where no Senator has gone before, telling a hoary lawyer joke before a national audience (Fox, CNN & MSNBC are all carrying it live):

What is the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? One's a bottom-crawling scum sucker and the other's a fish.

"There goes the lawyer vote," he quips good naturedly. Great TV!

Update: "John is able to stand back and see himself as a human. The liberals can only see themselves as Gods," observes Goomp in the comments. "It's the human factor that is missing in Obama and his cadre," adds our imail correspondent:

Socialist automatons, and that's what Socialism is all about … creating mindless automatons.

The mindset comes through loud and clear in the dismissive attitude of pro-Obamacare Senators and Representatives towards their town hall constituents.

Sarah "a genius controlling the world from her Facebook page"?

Show 'em a little ankle and leave 'em laughing, begging for more. Sarah Palin's girly strategery is leaving political adversaries inside the Beltway and their media fellow travelers reeling. They never did get her. Above, a frame from today's Day by Day cartoon, "Waiting for GOP."

ABC White House reporter and twitterer extraordinaire Jake Tapper's Sunday Roundtable of talking heads was inclined to disagree with Tapper's father-in-law, but we think the old man's onto something:

Sarah Palin is “a genius controlling the world from her FaceBook page.”

She throws the "death panel" bomb, the commentariat explodes and lawmakers retreat:

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, one of six lawmakers negotiating on a Senate bill, said Thursday they had dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration "entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."

Friday she threw a "pubic option" bomb, and today the Con Man in Chief claims to be backing off, but the Professor is not impressed:

RETREAT? White House Appears Ready To Drop “Public Option.” I suspect it’s a Parthian retreat ["a feigned retreat, luring the enemy into a prepared counterattack. See, e.g., Crassus." Thanks for the new word, Professor Reynolds!].

On the other hand, you've got a real marketing problem when your own people are having to publicly pledge not to kill old people.

"This is no 'retreat,'" emails Robert Bidinotto:

The co-op arrangement is simply the public option by another name, and by a more circuitous, stealthy route — with the same ultimate objective: nationalized healthcare.

Stealth is the very essence of Obama & Company's modus operandi, and we've known it in our gut since that day way back in December of 2006 when bouncing baby candidate Barack Obama sprung onto the national stage full blown from Oprah's brow:

"Obviously it is flattering to get a lot of attention, but I must say it is baffling, particularly to my wife,” Obama quipped.

We cringed at the disingenuousness, but it was when he called us a racist that our heart turned to stone:

Are some voters not going to vote for me because I’m African-American? Those are the same voters who probably wouldn’t vote for me because of my politics.

The silver lining of this dark cloud is our fellow citizens' resounding rejection of the president's ill-concealed contempt for the Shining City Upon a Hill. As we wrote awhile back, "I am tea party woman, hear me roar!"

Update: Cross posted at Amba's Cloven not Crested.

Sarah Palin: The first Mrs. Smith among equals going to Washington?

"And where was the dog?" teaparty buddy Stoutcat of Grand Rants wants to know in the comments to our previous post. "If I can't see kitteh photos at Sisu, I at least expect to see dog pix." Bird Dog of Maggie's Farm agrees, minus the cats: "Would you please get a darn dog or two, Sissy? Sheesh." Herewith, Jack in the loving arms of his papa Chris at Tuesday's Town Hall mob activities in Portsmouth, NH.

"That's one of my favorite movies," Karl Rove is telling Glenn Beck in response to the question "Do you like 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington'?" Beck worries that we don't have one inspiring leader, but Rove sets him straight:

Tens of thousands of Mr and Mrs Smiths are going to Washington. We don't need a single leader.

After the Town "Holler" event Tuesday we moseyed south down the pike to the Harborside Restaurant in Newburyport, where seagulls looking for handouts were locked in laridacious combat to determine who ruled the roof adjacent to the plein air porch where we sipped and noshed. Hadn't been there for five years or more and were pleasantly surprised at the size — dozens upon dozens — of the fleet of pleasure craft along both sides of the Merrimack. And this in a recession?

But if there WERE a single leader, could it be Sarah Palin as the first Mrs Smith among equals going to Washington? Unlike many brainy Beltway Republicans, Rove was open-minded from day one, August 29, 2008, when rumors began to fly that John McCain was going to shake things up by choosing an unknown frontierswoman from Alaska as his running mate:

She is very smart. She is very personable. She's one of these people who's very approachable. People are going to like her.

And her masterful playing of the national spin machine — check out her FaceBook answer to the president's dissing of her "Death Panels" meme — continues to leave the spinmeisters reeling. As Judge Napolitano just told Bret Baier, all Sarah has to remember is that freedom rang "200 years ago because people like her were not afraid to challenge authority."

Update: For your edification and listening pleasure, Ronald Reagan on the attempted stealth imposition of socialized medicine in a 1961 chat as paid spokesperson for the AMA before it sold out.

Update II: For your viewing pleasure, all things bright and beautiful at Modulator's Friday Ark #256.

Update III: "Sissy has a way of relaying events that makes one believe they were shoulder to shoulder with her the entire day!" writes Pam of Pamibe:

Great writing and great photographs! Oh, and be sure to follow the link at the end of the post. Some things never change.

For the good and for the bad.

Update IV: "I like the concept," writes Dan Riehl of Riehl World View:

And Sarah Palin does seem to have the star power to make the vehicle work. It'll take more than that to produce it. But it isn't a bad start.

Something else Palin has: Authenticity. Like Reagan, The Great Communicator — and unlike Obama, The Great Obfuscator, as Newt calls him in a must-read — SHE TRUSTS US!

Sarah Palin = 1, Saul Alinsky = 0

Less is fewer? Why would you write "in less than" 140 characters when you knew the proper grammar would be "in fewer than"? [see Usage Note] Because you were twittering and honing your prose to keep the tweet count to at or below 140 characters, that's why. The written language evolving right before our eyes. Above, the eyes have it in fanciful Sunday breakfast fruit bowl with melon, strawberry-infused apple and blueberries.

Like President Obama when it comes to the rationale behind police work in Cambridge, when it comes to the rationale behind Sarah Palin's stepping down from her Alaska governorship Sunday, Palinologists have a nasty habit of rushing to judgment in a fact-challenged cloud of psychological denial and projection, curiously incurious about what makes "the other" tick. Why did she really quit? Scroll down beyond Mr. Potatoskin Head (below) for the answer, but first let's review the narrative. Most talking heads cast Palin's exit as a disastrous admission of defeat, but as Carl Cameron said when the Alaska Governor first announced her decision three-plus weeks back:

She's done it again. To some, it's the end of her career. To others, it's the start of her presidential campaign.

And as we blogged at the time:

Like Barack Obama, Sarah Palin can be a blank canvas upon which huddled masses yearning to breathe free — or in Obama's case, huddled masses yearning to be on the dole — project their inchoate longings. The difference is that while Obama speaks from the latest polls, Palin — in Fox Brit ex pat Stuart Varney's words — "speaks from the heart, and maybe that's what Americans want."

Forget about 140 or fewer characters. Tuck trumps Twitter with a postprandial Tw-eat that says "Great meal!" in five menu items: baked stuffed potato skin, mushroom, Stroganoff sauce, sweet potato puree and peas.

John Fund had put his finger on the problem weeks ago, reporting that frivolous "attacks inside Alaska and largely invisible to the national media had paralyzed her administration." Adding at least the appearance of impropriety to the series of accusations, it was reported last week that "the independent investigator who has accused Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of violating state ethics laws is a major donor to the Democratic Party as well as a partner in a law firm that represented Barack Obama's presidential campaign."

But it was the self-described "Rodeo Clown" with a mission and a microphone, Fox News supernova Glenn Beck who connected the dots the other day with this 140-characters-or-fewer tweet [via KatyinIndy]:

Sarah P. Think like a Comm organizer.They were overloading the system. She is 6 steps ahead. VERY SMART lady.

Expanding beyond 140 characters, Palin recognized that her adversaries — from the dirt-digging thugs on the ground to the fancy lawyers and their bosses behind the curtain — were soldiers in an Alinskyesque, Cloward-Piven-inspired army of "community organizers" out to destroy her and the small-government, free-market principles she stands and fights for by sowing discontent from within the system. Understanding their modus operandi, she outfoxed them, quoting Gen. MacArthur as she exited stage right victorious [via goparchitect]:

We are not retreating; we are advancing in another direction.

Coda: "This guy has a social justice agenda," Glenn Beck told Fox & Friends this morning:

He is going to set all of the wrongs of the past right.

I have a feeling that the paradigm is about to change.

People who have been forced to live in a politically correct world … are just going to say "I'm not living in your politically correct world, and I don't care anymore." You've never seen the media really go after him. He's never really been cornered. How does he react?

The people he surrounds himself with, have you heard them with new ears? When you put in a science czar who has advocated forced abortions and made the case that we could put sterilants into the water to control the births, something's very wrong.

Tea party!

Update: Music to my ears:

Cambridge cop on Obama: 'I voted for him. I will not again."

Listen and take heart. The City Upon a Hill is shining still!

Update II: "Dan Riehl = 1, Palin haters = 0," we wrote in the comments to Dan's perfect-pitch "Sarah Palin: They Just Don't Get Her, Or Us." Thanks for the linky love!

"When they laugh at Sarah Palin, we feel them laughing at us"

"We're ordinary barbarians here. No one controls us. We're a horde," writes R.A. Mansour, co-editor of Conservatives 4 Palin, an unaffiliated group blog that speaks to our heart and mind as a member of the "pooh-poohed-by-the-anti-Palin-pooh-bahs" community. We love C4Ps banner (detail, above). Echoes of Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World."

"Sarah Palin is our voice. When they laugh at her, we feel them laughing at us. Someday we'll have the last laugh," writes R.A. Mansour of Conservatives4Palin:

The latest Rasmussen polling numbers were quite instructive. Palin's biggest group of supporters are young, unmarried, and not social conservative evangelicals. Her supporters do not view her as the social conservative candidate. Social conservatives prefer Huckabee as a candidate in 2012; however, they think just as highly of Sarah Palin as they do Huckabee. Sarah Palin's considerable base of supporters are attracted to her because she is the Beltway Outsider. She is the ordinary American who is fed up with the arrogant and incompetent Beltway elites who got us into the mess we're in and yet still show such disdain for the ordinary hardworking people who want nothing more than for their government to be "on their side and not in their way."

"Like virtually all political observers, I was at first surprised by Governor Palin's decision to hand the reins of Alaska governance over to Lieutenant Governor Parnell," admits Nebraska-based libertarianTim Lindell, another C4P co-editor whose perfect-pitch "Palin is now free to exercise her real power" in the Alaska Dispatch catches the commentariat mid flight, "wheeling and swooping" in self-protective unison:

On the national stage, it sent the entirety of the political and chattering classes hurtling into the air like a flock of geese flushed by a hunter, flapping wildly and honking their displeasure.

"More importantly, the news was burning up the venue in which Palin's core of supporters and advocates resides — the conservative blogs," continues Lindell:

And it was the subject of endless discussion in the places where her national constituency gather and live … at backyard Fourth of July barbeques, in the bleachers at Little League baseball games, at small-town fireworks displays, in the kitchens and around the dining tables of family gatherings over the holiday weekend. These are people who don't obsessively follow politics but are beginning to awaken with a deep sense of disgust for the condition of our national political discourse … and an equally deep sense of disgust for the politicians of both parties that have brought us here, and for the media that enabled them. To these folks, who often refer to Palin as "Our Sarah," each attack by the Beltway class simply slaps another layer of concrete on their support for her …

In our jaded and cynical times, we expect politicians to speak in the language of vagueness and spin, making it necessary to sift through endless verbal dross to find nuggets of truth. But Palin speaks plainly [same point made by Politico's Roger Simon in "The sins of Sarah Palin" the other day] and spoke clearly about her reasons in her Friday announcement, reasons both personal and political.

The WSJs John Fund has the story behind the story, great stuff:

People close to Sarah Palin say national political reporters and pundits have missed the real reasons for her surprising decision to resign as Alaska governor. The national media have dismissed or downplayed her real motives, which had little to do with any plans to run for president in 2012.

Contrary to most reports, her decision had been in the works for months, accelerating recently as it became clear that controversies and endless ethics investigations were threatening to overshadow her legislative agenda. "Attacks inside Alaska and largely invisible to the national media had paralyzed her administration," someone close to the governor told me. "She was fully aware she would be branded a 'quitter.' She did not want to disappoint her constituents, but she was no longer able to do the job she had been elected to do. Essentially, the taxpayers were paying for Sarah to go to work every day and defend herself."

This situation developed because Alaska's transparency laws allow anyone to file Freedom of Information Act requests. While normally useful, in the hands of political opponents FOIA requests can become a means to bog down a target in a bureaucratic quagmire, thanks to the need to comb through records and respond by a strict timetable. Similarly, ethics investigations are easily triggered and can drag on for months even if the initial complaint is flimsy.

Meanwhile, stuck in their anti-Palin Pauline-Kael bubbles, national political reporters continue to miss the point. One example that caught our eye: Reporting on the Iowa GOPs invitation for Palin to headline their annual Reagan Day Dinner, CBS led with "Despite announcing her resignation, Sarah Palin is still a sought-after asset in the Republican Party." As we wrote years ago re "out-of-touch elites who have fallen for their own rhetoric" regarding GWs persistent popularity in the wake of iraq and the 9/11 hearings, "Because of, not in spite of, stupid!"

Update: Marketing and branding expert John Tantillo agrees:

She made a choice that came out of the deepest part of herself (her core brand) — no wonder the political class was left scratching its collective head. They hadn't taken her claims of loving her family seriously. But the wives and mothers who make up Palin's supporters got it …

She's a woman who means what she says and does what she believes.

It's her "core brand," stupid!

Update: "Over at sisu, there's a great piece on Governor Palin," blogs KT Cat at The Scratching Post. Thanks, Maximum Leader!

Update II: Maggie's links!

Pooh-poohed by the anti-Palin pooh-bahs

"Twitter's constantly updating record of up-to-the-minute reaction has in some instances threatened to usurp media coverage of breaking news [and] helped many celebrities, athletes and politicians bypass the media to get their message directly to their audience," says an AP report that ironically demonstrates its own usurpation by clinging to the false premise that "Those direct, near-instantaneous dispatches are far less reliable than old-fashioned journalism." (Twitter bird logo above)

Northeast Corridor Conservatives still don't get it. Sarah Palin's unorthodox behavior continues to drive them and their fellow travelers on the left side of the aisle to distraction, even as she consults — so Gretchen Carlson of Fox & Friends reported the other day — with the likes of Dick Cheney, Fred Thompson, Charlie Crist and other GOP bigwigs behind the scenes and communicates directly with us fans through Twitter. Roger Simon of Politico explains the disconnect in his playfully ironic hit piece "The sins of Sarah Palin":

Sarah Palin is a sinner. She has violated several commandments and thoroughly deserves the savage beating that she is now getting from political mandarins and media elites …

Thou shalt not surprise the media … When you do what the media have predicted, you are “savvy.” You are a “skilled” and “adept” politician. If you surprise the media, however, you are “out of control” and “bizarre” and even “egotistical” …

Thou shalt not upset the pooh-bahs … Doesn’t she know that the highest form of political communication today is to exactly regurgitate a speech written for you by a speechwriter who has crafted, vetted and polled every phrase, line and word?

But listen to Palin. Listen to how “rambling” and “disjointed” she is. Once upon a time in American politics, this was known as being “plain-spoken,” but that time has gone. An entire industry of political consultants has grown up to make sure politicians are never plain-spoken. Sarah Palin does not get this. Which is to say she is not very bright …

Thou shalt pander to the few, not speak to the many … It is only a “certain element” of the party that finds her energizing, fresh, tough and willing to stand up to the mandarins and the media. Clearly, Palin must “grow” beyond that base to win over ... whom?

"When Twitter experiences an outage, users see the 'fail whale' error message created by Australian artist and designer Yiying Lu," says Wikipedia, "a whimsical illustration of red birds [They look orange to us. – ed] using nets to hoist a whale from the ocean. The message reads: 'Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.'" The image itself has developed a huge and enthusiastic following and has its own online store, as breathlessly described in " How An Unknown Artist's Work Became a Social Media Brand Thanks To the Power of Community." Not to mention the power of unfettered capitalism!

Speaking as a member of that "certain element" reflexively pooh-poohed by the pooh-bahs, we have found 1. Sarah Palin to be refreshingly energizing and authentic from that day last August when she emerged onto the national stage "while pampered liberals slept," as we wrote back then, and 2. Barack Obama to be tediously dispiriting and disingenuous from that day in December of 2006 when he feigned shock, shock at all the attention he was getting after his Oprah endorsement and gratuitously implied that persons like us who do not share his political views are racists. We can report now from anecdotal observation that elitist memes of the moribund MSM and their allies in government and academia, desperately trying to keep the dead weight of the Barackian leviathon (see Fail Whale image above) afloat, are losing the ear of the plain-spoken community at an accelerating rate. We used to be able to tolerate the occasional fuddy-duddy on a Fox News panel, but now, even fave opinionator Charles Krauthammer is making our remote finger twitchy.