I must beg to differ with my esteemed colleague, Michael Scherer. Michael this morning posted a CNN poll as proof that Republican voters are pragmatists who will bear an open mind to moderate candidates such as former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman in the 2012 presidential primaries. Michael cited John McCain’s selection in 2008 as proof …
Sarah Palin
Palin’s Populist Message
UPDATED
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Sarah Palin wants Americans to know they have a choice before them. “We are at a cross roads,” she said in a speech last night at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara marking Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. …
Sarah Palin Descending
The number of the day: 14.
That’s the percentage point increase in the unfavorability rating for Sarah Palin among independents, as measured by the New York Times/CBS poll (pdf) between November of 201o and this week. As it now stands, just 17 percent of independents have a favorable view of the former Alaskan governor. Overall, 19 …
Morning Must Reads: King
President Obama and family attend church services at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Jan. 16.
(White House/Pete Souza)
–Gabrielle Giffords’s condition improves.
–Some federal authorities reportedly want Jared Loughner’s trial moved to San Diego. The Justice Department
Does Sarah Palin’s Handling of This Week’s Events in Tucson Tell Us Anything about her Presidential Ambitions?
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Sarah Palin today released a video on Facebook expressing her grief and outrage over Saturday’s shootings in Tucson. She also explained her rhetoric and hit back at those who have suggested that the level of political discourse in the country is, in part, to blame for Jared Lee Loughner’s …
Morning Must Reads: “Libel”
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–Sarah Palin breaks her silence on the Arizona shootings, issuing a long, unapolagetic response from her social media perch that accuses the media of trying to “manufacture a blood libel” against her.
–“Blood libel” historically refers to the powerful anti-semitic falsehood that Jews use …
Time for a New Era of Political Correctness?
Aren’t we all responsible for the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords? Parents worry about the effect on children of violent movies and bloody video games. But what about violence in our public discourse?
On both sides of the aisle, civility has become the latchkey kid of politics.
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a …
Serious Sarah
Even though Sarah Palin could start her own Oprah book club — the book she recommended in an interview with Barbara Walters last night, Confessions of an All-Night Runner, went from No. 13,086 to No. 4,764 on Amazon’s most read list overnight — she’s clearly switching gears to focus on her more serious side.
Her reality show is …
President Palin?
This week I have a cover story on Sarah Palin: is she running for President or to become a right wing Oprah? Certainly, celebrity is a major part of her persona – much as it was with Barack Obama early on. Time was politicians ran for higher office to get famous. Now, fame is a momentum-building tool that greases the tracks to the …
Morning Must Reads: Sunny
Defense Secretary Robert Gates boards a C-17 after visiting U.S. troops at Forward Operating Base Howz-E-Madad in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan December 8, 2010. (REUTERS/Win McNamee)
–The Senate begins debate on Obama’s tax compromise today and Dems there are beginning to thaw. House Dems not so much; some
Palin Hauls in Nearly $500k In Just Over a Month
Sarah Palin raised $469,000 between Oct. 13 and Nov. 22 bringing her total for the year to over $3 million, Tim Crawford, SarahPAC’s treasurer, told TIME exclusively. Crawford attributed the surge of funds to energy surrounding the midterm elections, Palin’s endorsements and her TLC reality show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Her …
Morning Must Reads: 2012 Checkup
(White House Photo by Pete Souza)
–Mike Huckabee tells the Iowa Family Policy Center the state supreme court ousters “may have been singularly the most important election that happened in America.” Back story here.
—New York Magazine‘s Jason Zengerle details how Chris Christie
Iowa Judges, Political Whim and 2012
TIME’s legal columnist Adam Cohen writes this week that voters’ decision to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices whose ruling paved the way for gay marriage in the state is a cautionary tale against electoral tests for judicial appointee:
The Iowa vote is just the latest evidence that elections are a terrible way of choosing judges
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