GOP distancing from Gov. Palin?

Should some staff members of Gov. Palin's office be fired? Or is there a deeper meaning in all of this? The annual Senate-House GOP dinner to be held in June now turns to Newt Gingrich as its keynote speaker instead of the Alaskan governor.

Hopefully this is just an amateurish mistake made between her PAC and her staff in the governor's office. The GOP should not distance itself from the former V.P. nominee. She still has star power and a loyal following among conservatives.

Next target: Sarah Palin

The Democrats are leaving Rush Limbaugh alone now, perhaps after realizing that targeting him only helped him gain more listeners. Who's their next target? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, of course!

I'm predicting another Democratic backfire. People are tired of this crap from the Democrat "strategists." Stop wasting time "strategizing" and start doing something productive, like fixing the economy or something. The majority of Americans know that this is just a way to divert attention away from the real issues, and they will not fall for it. No matter how people view Gov. Palin, they still know that their immediate needs are: pay mortgage, job security, and feed the family. And hearing the Democrats blabber about Palin this and Palin that does not help them.

Please move on, you Democrat strategizermeisters.

Video of Biden's daughter doing cocaine?

There is trouble in the domestic front -- V.P. Joe Biden's family and by extension, the White House family. Somebody has video of Ashley Biden, or somebody who resembles her, at a party enjoying a few lines of cocaine.

If the video is truly evidence of Ashley's drug use, then we can expect the standard "children are off limits" spin from the W.H. and the Second Family. I predict the mainstream media burying this story. We're likely going to see another fine example of media double standard: Remember how the media portrayed the Bush twins' college drinking? Or how about the pregnancy of Gov. Palin's daughter? The media had field days with those stories -- nothing was off limits then.

It is unfortunate that the children of politicians also come under the spotlight, but it is even more unfortunate that the mainstream media would tirelessly pursue certain stories to advance their (and the liberal pols they support) agenda than some others.

Gov. Palin testing waters for 2012 run?

There has been reports of robocalls to Iowa and New Hampshire residents polling about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Nobody knows who is behind this, but I'm sure the governor will know about the results. Is America ready for Palin after her defeat alongside Sen. John McCain?

The trouble with Palin has been her narrow audience base. She's a big hit with conservatives, but in order to win votes you have to be a big hit with the majority, not just the base crowd. The only way I can see her presidential dream come to fruition is for the current administration to screw up big time. And I mean BIG TIME. That means President Obama puts us in a much worse position than even now. Yes, this financial mess is bad, but it has not punched a hole in Obama's popularity yet. It hasn't been six months yet, so who knows what the next 3.5 years will bring?

Additionally, Republicans have a good chance at regaining seats in the 2010 elections. Expect to see rising stars, and therefore, potential Palin opposition, within the GOP after the 2010 momentum. Palin would have to re-evaluate her chances then.

Gov. Palin says no to half of federal stimulus money

Gov. Palin of Alaska will refuse nearly half of federal stimulus money, standing firm to keep state government small. The state Democrats, of course, say her actions aren't for the sake of Alaskans, but for her Washington political ambitions.

I applaud Gov. Palin and other governors like her who doesn't want Washington to engineer their states' future!

Palin foe gets Fed job

Remember Alaska State Sen. Kim Elton (D)? He's one of the politicians who led the investigation of Gov. Palin during the presidential campaign. The investigation was over whether Palin improperly dismissed a public safety commissioner who refused to fire her sister's state trooper ex-husband. She was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Now Elton is Director of Alaska Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. Not a bad reward for leading the charge against one of Obama's opponents, eh?

Imagine what took place in Obama's meetings with columnists

Obama had dinner with several prominent conservative columnists a few days ago, and followed up with a meeting with the liberals (of course he had to). Nobody's leaking details of these events, honoring the off-the-record agreement. Larry Kudlow shares some opinion of PEBO. Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic isn't talking. No juicy stuff (heck, Kudlow can't even remember what food was served)!

My guess is that during the dinner with the "crazy" conservatives, the conversations were about the economy, Washington war stories, and lots of exchanged pleasantries. Congratulations. How's the family? Thank you. What delicious food! Here's a toast to our new President...

And what of the meeting with liberals? I bet they complained about not having dinner -- not even refreshments! Are we not as important as the right-wing nuts?! And after a brief exchange of pleasantries, they probably treated the meeting like a BDS support group, whining and moaning about Bush's stupidity and Cheney's dishonesty, and Palin's family. These liberal columnists probably hinted to PEBO that it was their words and leftist colleagues in the media that helped him to the White House. Take good care of us. Don't let us down. We can't believe you invited Rick Warren...

Best of luck to PEBO. As Kudlow pointed out, there's a lot of things to deal with already...

Thanks to liberals for keeping Palin in the spotlight

Where's Palin lately? I don't even know, but thanks to Jeff Schweitzer writing in The Huffington Post, he's keeping the Palin dream alive. Oh, calling her a "walking political abomination" doesn't really help his cause, either...

Gail Collins takes cheap shots at Chambliss and his win

Oh, it's really not surprising at all, coming from the op-ed of NYT. I can understand why columnist Gail Collins is taking these cheap shots since Democrat Jim Martin lost to Saxby Chambliss in Georgia. If the outcome had been the reverse, I'm sure Collins would've penned something less of an eyesore.

Cheap shot #1, attacking Chambliss' work ethics:

Anyhow, the Georgia runoff was more important than you might imagine. Certainly more significant than anything Chambliss has done since he skipped a closed-door Senate session on Iraq intelligence data to go golfing with Tiger Woods...

Cheap shot #2, making fun of other Republicans and those who went to Georgia to support Chambliss:

...Mitt! Mike! McCain! Together again, just like in the primaries, with a stuffed manatee playing the part of Fred Thompson. “If we give them a blank check, they will sign that check and be taking money out of our pockets,” warned Rudy Giuliani, whose total failure as a presidential candidate clearly has not affected his ability to turn a phrase.

Cheap shot #3, somehow linking Sen. Chambliss' golfing skills with her BDS:

Now Chambliss has been a senator for six years, and his greatest achievement was getting ranked the 33rd best golfer in Washington by Golf Digest. It is highly unlikely that he could stop the president from doing anything beyond making a putt.

Cheap shot #4, dragging Sen. Joe Lieberman into the picture:

Besides, if the Democrats did get the 60 seats, one of them would belong to Joe Lieberman. You may recall that although Lieberman spent the last year campaigning for John McCain (and, as it turns out, donating money to Republican candidates for the senate), the Democrats were so desperate to keep him in their caucus that they caved in to his demands to keep his committee chairmanship. If Lieberman had turned out to be Mr. 60, he would not only have wanted the committee, he would have insisted on being carried to all its meetings on a litter, borne by the fellow senators who failed to appreciate him, with Lindsey Graham running ahead, clashing cymbals.

Cheap shot #5, trying to justify her cheap shots with RINO Olympia Snowe (Maine):

Olympia Snowe, the senior senator, is widely regarded as one of Congress’s quality acts. In fact, some people might have wondered why John McCain, if he was so desperate for a woman on his ticket, ignored a well-traveled, independent-minded experienced legislator who does her homework in favor of an out-to-lunch moose-murderer who cannot seem to put together a coherent sentence.

All right, so #5 can also be #6, which is ridiculing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a well-liked politician and rising star among conservatives, but a woman that, for odd reasons, doesn't quite appeal to the feminists and liberal op-ed columnists.

It's not just about those 60 seats...

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) defeated Jim Martin (D) with a clear mandate -- by nearly 15 points! --from Georgia voters: we want to stay a red Peach State. This win for the Republicans assures that no super-majority can be achieved by Senate Democrats. Whew!

But it's really about more than that...

Clearly, the Democratic vote driving machine did not work this time in the runoff election. Black voters didn't turn out to vote for Martin as they had in the general election for Obama. If this is any indication of voter turnout in 2010, the GOP certainly will attempt to exploit this kink in the armor.

And why didn't President-elect Obama go down to Georgia to support Martin knowing how important of a race it was? Was he never a believer in Martin? I'm sure Jim Martin is left with a bitter taste in his mouth after this campaign, and not because he'd lost, but because "The One" didn't consider traveling to the Peach State to rally for him.

Chambliss had better luck with his support cast. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin went to Georgia to campaign for Chambliss, and according to the senator, "When she walks in a room, folks just explode." No matter what your opinion of her is, she's going to stay on the media radar and remain a star in the Republican Party.

And what about the messy senate race in Minnesota? Some Democrats are scared of Al Franken actually becoming a U.S. senator. Is it really that easy for any Hollywood hack to become a Washington politician?! Will a Franken win encourage more of these west coast loudmouths to run for office? A Hollywood invasion of Washington. That won't be a pretty sight.

Chambliss wins in Georgia

The Democrats won't be able to attain their 60-seat majority in the Senate as Georgia incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss wins with nearly 60%. My guess is that a lot of Republicans and conservatives came out to vote for fear of the Democratic super-majority threat. It's good to know that Georgia remains red. The win by Chambliss will look good on all those who'd gone to Georgia to campaign for him: Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and especially Sarah Palin.

Palin's reputation rides on Georgia election

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin went to Georgia to stump for incumbent Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the runoff election on December 2. This senate race has national attention because it could mean a 60-seat filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats if challenger Jim Martin wins (and in Minnesota, Al Franken).

Palin also took a bold step in traveling to Georgia after the fallout of the presidential campaign. Georgia is fairly receptive to Palin's conservative messages, but in other red states and among other Republicans, Palin has plenty of vocal critics. She's obviously interested in staying on the political radar for the coming years, and a win for Chambliss would allow her to bank some political credits. However, if for whatever reason Martin unseats the incumbent, then there will be many, many fingers pointed at Palin.

PDS sufferers gasp at slaughtered turkeys

Do liberals celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends eating turkey? I wonder...

Gov. Sarah Palin pardoned an Alaskan turkey then gave an interview to a local news channel, but the PDS crowd is troubled that in the background there's a man slaughtering turkeys.

The man's doing his job. He works at a turkey farm. He feeds turkeys so they turn plump, then he kills them so others can enjoy turkey meals. In turn, he's compensated and uses his paychecks to take care of his family.

Besides, it's not like there was blood splattering everywhere or turkey pieces flying in the background. The PDS sufferers are reacting as if a serial murderer was captured on TV committing his gruesome crime.

Gingrich rains on Palin's parade

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich isn't that impressed with Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, especially about her prospects in the 2012 presidential election. He categorizes Palin as "a significant player" for the GOP in the years to come, among "20 or 30 significant players," such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Utah Gov. John Huntsman, and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.

One thing is for sure: Gingrich wants attention directed towards the Republican governors in hopes of a sound victory in 2010. It's clear he wants to see the governors shape the state politics in the coming years, win in 2010, then prepare for the victory in 2012. The big question is who will emerge as the leader?

McCain campaign postmortem

We all know that the Obama campaign did many things right. It energized the youth vote with new voter registration drives. It kept Sen. Biden away from the press in the later weeks. It never allowed the candidate to speak without a teleprompter (when he did, he created the "Joe the Plumber" panic). Undoubtedly a well-oiled political machine.

So what went wrong with McCain's campaign?

It took too long to bring Obama's past and current associations into focus. It wasn't until the last presidential debate that McCain decided to talk about Bill Ayers. It was a valid topic, but at that time the general perception was that McCain is desperate, especially when polls continued to show a comfortable Obama lead. Plus he never followed through -- kind of just mentioned Ayers' name, Obama rebutted, and moved onto the next topic.

The choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate was a masterful maneuver. She was a breath of fresh air in politics, a strong conservative leader far away from Washington. She was comfortable on stage and in front of the cameras, perhaps thanks to her experiences in journalism, television, and beauty pageant. Many people had doubts about her when McCain made the announcement, but overall she was welcomed by the conservative base. McCain kept his decision under wraps in order to launch a surprise attach at the opponent. This may have backfired as there was no time to prepare her for the national stage. There were some interviews where she bombed, I think mainly because of lack of preparation. But when you are the underdog you cannot afford mistakes. Unfortunately towards the last several weeks, many have labeled Palin a liability rather than an asset to the campaign.

Then there was the issue of fund utliziation. Obama was outraising and outspending McCain. But when you have little money, you should use it wisely, get the most bang for the buck. Recall Mike Huckabee's campaign. He had no money, but he lasted till the end losing to McCain in the primaries. Huckabee had a great online following, and what better advertising medium than the Internet? The McCain campaign was not inventive enough in advertising. His opponent actually bought ads inside a video game. What better way to reach the younger voters?

These are just some of the things I came to think about after McCain's loss. His campaign was still respectable, but there were definitely some strategic mishaps and lack of vision.

Tension between McCain and Palin?

On stage they seemed to be the perfect maverick combo: McCain the war hero and seasoned senator; Palin the Washington outsider who fought the Republican establishment. But now that the votes have been counted, details are emerging about the tensions between them.

This is another clear example that Republicans need to get their acts together and unite. Yes, you lost. Now is not the time to sling mud amongst yourselves, especially with respect to the ticket.

Post-election eyes on Alaska and Palin

Republican Ted Stevens is likely to win Alaska's senate race. However, about week ago he was found to be guilty on all seven counts of corruption charges, so whether or not he will be seated is still a big question.

Then that leaves the governor of Alaska to appoint a fill-in. Would Gov. Palin be interested in a job at Washington? Would (Can) she appoint herself to the senate? Or would she resign and ask the lieutenant governor to appoint her?

It's a tough call. Does she have White House aspirations in 2012? She jumped onto the mainland political scene as a Washington outsider and reveled in that label. If she were to become a U.S. senator, that would damage her outsider status and potentially hurt her politically. However, on the other hand, she may be interested to enter the Democrat-controlled senate to join her party's fight and advance herself politically by having a voting record in Congress.

The aftermath of the senate race in remote Alaska could end up being the post-election story of the year.

Liberal Halloween props

I suppose it's no surprise that people are going to make Halloween decorations a platform for their political views this year. But a Palin mannequin hung from a noose and a McCain emerging from flames?

Only in West Hollywood.

Biden avoiding the press

Remember the complaints about Gov. Palin being shielded from the press? There was a reason for that... Palin needed a crash course and some protection before being thrown to the press wolves. After all, she's been fairly new to the Washington game.

But what's the excuse for Obama's running-mate, Sen. Joe Biden? Being a career politician, he's certainly not new to Washington and the press. Could it be that now with two weeks to Election Day, the Obama campaign wants to make sure Sen. Biden doesn't make any gaffes to hurt Obama's lead?

Insulting Sarah Palin

Liberals gone wild! Look at these T-shirts. Aren't you glad you're not an Obama supporter?