Category: Sarah Palin

The legacy of Steve Jobs: He changed the world

Posted by dcrim – October 6, 2011

Steve Jobs, right, the visionary co-founder of Apple who helped usher in the era of personal computers and then led a cultural transformation in the way music, movies and mobile communications were experienced in the digital age, died Wednesday at age 56. The New York Times takes a look at Jobs’ life, and The Wall Street Journal describes how Jobs changed the world. The Los Angeles Times offers this photo gallery of one of the world’s greatest innovators.

On the political front, columnist Roger Simon opines that while polls churn out dismal numbers every day for Barack Obama, the president has one huge plus going for him: The Republican field.

Meanwhile, Politico answers five questions about Sarah Palin, who announced Wednesday what virtually everyone already knew — that she will not run for president in 2012.

Jon Stewart on the midnight ride of Sarah Palin

Posted by dcrim – June 7, 2011

‘She’s becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska edition’

Posted by dcrim – March 14, 2011

Sarah Palin’s flamboyant rhetoric always has thrilled supporters but lately it is coming at a new cost: A backlash, not from liberals, but from some of the country’s most influential conservative commentators and intellectuals — the likes of George Will, Charles Krauthammer, the right-leaning Manhattan Institute and a former strategist in the George W. Bush White House.

This from Matt Labash, a longtime writer for the Weekly Standard:

“The appeal of conservatism is supposed to be people taking responsibility for their own actions,” said Labash. “But if you close your eyes and listen to Palin and her most irate supporters constantly squawk or bellyache or Tweet about how unfair a ride she gets from evil moustache-twirling elites and RINO saboteurs, she sounds like a professional victimologist, the flip side of any lefty grievance group leader. She’s becoming Al Sharpton, Alaska edition. The only difference being, she wears naughty-librarian glasses instead of a James Brown ‘do.”

Ouch. Click here for the story.

As we near the 30th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan being shot by John Hinckley, Washington Post reporter Del Quentin Wilber is out with a new book that details just how close Reagan came to dying that day. “Rawhide Down” will be released Tuesday. Click here for the story.

Report: Exit of key aides reveals strife in Palin world

Posted by dcrim – February 18, 2011

The departure of longtime Palin aides Jason Recher and Doug McMarlin is the latest indicator of the turmoil that has for years dogged former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s constantly evolving inner circle as she struggles to mount a stable political operation to set the groundwork for a potential presidential campaign. Click here for the story.

Former Bush adviser Karl Rove is calling on GOP politicians to avoid falling into the “birther” movement trap and to stop fueling rumors that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Obama’s budget released this week needs to be viewed against the backdrop of the 2012 election. The key question is: Can it shore up those states that Obama needs to win reelection?

On Sheen, Reagan, Bachmann, Challenger and trading Pujols

Posted by dcrim – January 29, 2011

Saturday morning shorts while trying to digest the stunning news that Charlie Sheen has reportedly checked himself into a rehab facility after suffering a hernia during an all-night party with five porn stars:

• On the eve of the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, the Washington Examiner offers a retrospective on the nation’s 40th president.

• Politico reports third-term Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann has developed a fan base like 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s: Energized, fiercely loyal and capable of making a critic’s life miserable with threats of political retribution. Meanwhile, Gail Collins of the New York Times writes: Is Michele Bachmann the new Sarah Palin? And do we really need a new Sarah Palin? Shouldn’t the first one be made to go away before we start considering replacements?

• Twenty-five years have passed since the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight. From the Associated Press: “ … images of the exploding space shuttle still signify all that can go wrong with technology and the sharpest minds. The accident … remains NASA’s most visible failure. … It was the world’s first high-tech catastrophe to unfold on live television.

• As the clock continues to count down on the Cardinals’ contract negotiations with Albert Pujols, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports the slugger will veto any trade proposals should that strategy emerge.

Managing – or not – the outsized personalities on cable TV

Posted by dcrim – January 24, 2011

Keith Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC reveals the problematic structure of the current incarnation of cable news, in which bombast, opinion and outsized personality get ratings, but these same qualities can make talent almost impossible to manage. Click here for the story.

Olbermann’s anger drove his ratings, but also drove his bosses crazy. Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast writes on how the newly unemployed MSNBC star’s indignation fueled his rise and fall.

With Olbermann’s departure, Glenn Beck’s collapsing ratings, and Sarah Palin’s recent missteps, John Avlon wonders if we may be witnessing a national turn away from hard-core partisanship. Click here for the story.

‘Palin was a rowboat to Obama’s aircraft carrier’

Posted by dcrim – January 13, 2011

Lloyd Grove, editor-at-large for the Daily Beast, writes that Sarah Palin was the reigning queen of Wednesday’s cable news cycle for most of the day—the object of adoration or opprobrium, depending on which talking head had the microphone. And then Barack Obama went and ruined it for her. Click here for the commentary and look below for the president’s 34-minute speech.

Jonathan Martin of Politico writes that in the span of a single news cycle, Republicans got a jarring reminder of two forces that could prevent them from retaking the presidency next year.

At sunrise in the east on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest—or capacity—in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the west, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of reconciliation.

Click here for the story and look below for Palin’s nearly eight-minute video. The “blood libel” remark comes at the 3:30 mark.

On Sarah Palin, ethanol subsidy and Urban Meyer

Posted by dcrim – December 10, 2010

Jay Newton-Small of Time magazine takes an in-depth look at the phenomena known as Sarah Palin. The basic question is this: What does she want? There is no definitive answer.

While other Republicans followed predictable and even plodding paths toward the White House this year, Palin has moved along two parallel tracks, one befitting a candidate, the other designed for a celebrity. It is often hard to tell where one stops and the other begins, and that is by design. A presidential candidate used to need a central headquarters and satellite offices in all the early primary states; now all a contender like Palin needs is a cable modem. Working largely from her lakeside house in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin raised millions of dollars, produced three viral Internet videos and endorsed more than seven dozen Republican candidates (most of whom prevailed).

Matt Kibbe of Forbes.com joins a long line of observers who say it’s time to let the ethanol subsidy expire. But he points out that the powerful ethanol lobby is mounting a full-court press to renew expiring tariffs and tax protections that Kibbe says raises consumer prices while doing little to improve energy independence or the environment. A Congress that claims to be fiscally conscious appears poised to extend the subsidy before the Dec. 31 deadline.

While ethanol subsidies and tariffs are supposed to lead to energy independence and reduce gas prices, numerous studies have demonstrated that the program does little for gas prices while raising corn prices and potentially harming the environment. In fact, ethanol is a story of rent-seeking that transcends party lines, providing $6 billion in benefits to an industry that has been created by the government.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel said Urban Meyer’s resignation this week was the best thing that could have happened to Florida football.

Urban Meyer forcefully and resolutely said after the humiliating season-ending 31-7 loss to Florida State two weeks ago that he was going to fix the University of Florida’s slumping football program. In a strange, sad, surreal way, he made a bold move to do just that Wednesday. He resigned.

A quick look at television viewing from both the right and left

Posted by dcrim – November 15, 2010

The Daily Beast offers these clips (and a little commentary) of the five most hilarious moments from Sarah Palin’s reality TV debut. Even thought the show drew a reported 5 million viewers, Jennifer Braceras of the Boston Herald — who has supported Palin — wasn’t impressed.

Howard Kurtz offers an inside look into the brewing civil war between NBC and royal pain Keith Olbermann, who isn’t portrayed in a flattering light (for those who thought he might be).

Those doggone ‘sleazy’ Republican elitists are out to get Palin

Posted by dcrim – November 2, 2010

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says “sleazy” establishment Republicans are out to get her. This comes on the heels of a story in Politico that reveals top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Palin. Sources say there is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting.

Why do politicians resort to attack ads? Because, as Roger Simon points out, they believe they work. Candidates spent more than a half-billion dollars on attack ads during this election cycle. And we’re just talking about national and statewide campaigns. More money was spent on these type of ads on the local level, although most local candidates in West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri kept it civil and chose to tout themselves, rather than try to tear down an opponent.

Scott Rasmussen, writing for the Wall Street Journal, says if, as expected, there is a GOP tidal wave in today’s election, don’t assume it’s a vote for Republicans. Rather, he points out, the electorate will be voting against the party in power, just like it did in 2006 and 2008 when Republicans were swept out of office.

Howard Kurtz, writing for the Daily Beast, looks back at two years ago and warns about a Republican coronation. He says it doesn’t take long for politicians to fall out of favor with the media and the public, especially if nothing appears to be getting done.

If this year’s Republicans take the House—and perhaps, though the odds seem longer, the Senate—they will have ample reason to celebrate, and the media will give them their due. But soon journalists will demand to know what the new majority has accomplished, why Washington remains deadlocked, and hey, whatever happened to those budget cuts? And the sweet taste of victory could turn sour.