a few years ago, will this count as Obama’s second such honor?

of the MSM trashing Sarah Palin ahed of the 2012. I contend they are worried to death she will become a viable candidate and enter the forefront of national politics for the 2012 nomination. I predict a marked rise in attack journalism aimed at marginalizing her before 2010, while the average american politically slumbers.

Outstanding post.

surprise surprise. He appeared on 27% of Time’s covers this year. Add in having his name mentioned that jumps to 48%. Courtesy of the Weekly Standard Blog.

that there is a whole herd of Outside bloggers camped out on both the Juneau Empire and Anchorage Daily News’ sites taking advantage of any opportunity to trash her. The talking points are so consistent that it is clearly some sort of orchestrated effort. Theres an article in both papers today about a Commission’s recommendation to increase the Governor, Commissioners, and Legislator’s salaries. Normally it might get a couple dozen comments; it has a couple dozen pages of comments, most of them from people who don’t live here and all using it as a basis for criticizing Palin.

just a simple question? I’ll take Sarah any day over the a ah a ah ah ah a give me my teleprompter.

I am sure they will prove useful in the future.

I have a couple of sentences:

Nobody should have been fooled by Obama’s pledge not to finance his campaign the way he did. That was the biggest pile of steaming horse turd that I had heard in my life, particularly given the buzz he was creating in the early, early days of the campaign among private donors. I don’t know what was going through John McCain’s head when he decided he believed Obama would go the public-financing route, but just on the face of it, it was laughable.

Obama generated more buzz and more money from the buzz than any other candidate in the history of the world, and that was predictable. McCain should have realized what he was up against.

But the real problem is that McCain wasn’t bamboozled: he was a fizzle. Even if he had switched gears and privately financed his campaign, it wouldn’t have helped: he’s John McCain. In a contest with Barack Obama, and particularly given his weaknesses in the Republican Party, McCain had little choice BUT to hope Obama would take public financing, because McCain himself could never have raised the money privately.

I didn’t give a dime to the McCain campaign and I wouldn’t give John McCain a dime if he runs again: he’s not a Republican. He’s not a Conservative, and he’s certainly not a Republican Conservative. He’s a squish, and always was Playboy John McCain.

That’s why he had to take public financing: he knew that nobody would finance him privately.

Secondly, McCain was (sorry Adam C.) deranged if he ever believed that the media would treat him or his VP choice nicely after Barack got the nod. He found out the hard way that he’s one of those people who are invited to the media party as a kind of curiosity guest, not one of the players who gets to sit in the VIP room. He was treated well by the media for a while when they were flirting with him, like the ugly guest at the party that everyone tries to make nice with, until about 12:30 in the morning, when everyone is partnering up — and as far as the media was concerned, baby, this was Barack Obama’s party.

My takeaway from this election is this: Republicans cannot pitch squishes against charismatic supermen. And they should never be fooled again about how much money the Democrats have and are willing to spend. Finally, they should absolutely never rely on being “friendly” with the media as a barometer of whether or not they are viable candidates. They’re going to be treated as the enemy no matter what, particularly when the Donks are hungry.

Sarah Palin deserves none of the blame for the loss. In my reckoning she brought the ticket at least 5 more percentage points than they would have had if McCain had chosen anyone else.

The entire problem was that her nomination was a last-minute decision and really these things take six months to a year to prepare for adequately. Barack Obama has had at least four years of careful grooming, and Joe Biden — well, Joe Biden is Mr. Meet the Press. The McCain campaign’s last-minute decisionmaking, from Sarah Palin’s botched roll-out to Joe the Plumber, should tell people how desparate they really were internally, and that’s someplace we should never go again as a party.

I also think that McCain himself was delusional about his real chances among Conservatives in the Republican Party. My father could not stand McCain a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, and he voted for him on election day under duress. When I told him McCain was going to be the Republican nominee he would flip me the bird. He’d do that over breakfast, while we were drinking coffee together, and the look on his face reminded me of the Joker — from the original Batman. I can’t think of any real Conservative who would have voted for him.

Add that to the problems Republicans had in this cycle and it was an easy outcome to predict.

Let’s rebuild from here, we have no place to go but up, folks.

In recent news, Gov, Palin’s budget includes a 7% budget cut as oil revenues are expected to drop. Only an “unqualified, redneck bimbo” would be dumb enough to cut spending in the face of an expected revenue decline.

Gov. Palin also is rejecting a $25k salary increase (from $125k to $150k) and has vowed that if she can’t refuse the increase, she will donate it to charity, where it can be used to help peopls.

She is the REAL DEAL.

“Everything about Palin seemed personal: an energy policy reduced to “Drill, baby, drill,” an economic policy embodied by Joe the Plumber. We knew too much about her clothes and her kids and her hunting habits and far too little about her priorities and principles.”

Look, Palin was supposed to be style over substance in this campaign. That’s the VP candidate’s job! They are supposed to win votes for the top of the ticket. You’d think the writer for TIME would understand that a VPs political stances, by necessity, take a backseat to the top of the ticket during a campaign.