The Challenge

The reconsider movement is buying time for this ad to run in Iowa this week!

Sarah Palin will not run for president.

Sarah Palin will not run for president.  She made the announcement in a letter to supporters Wednesday night.

Read Palin’s letter here:

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!

God bless America.
– Sarah Palin

Christie Takes a Pass; A Palin Decision Forthcoming

"dissatisfaction with the field leaves an open door for Palin to enter late." ~ teledude

Caffeinated Thoughts
by Shane Vander Hart
It looks like we’re down to one possible late entry into the 2012 Republican primary race: Sarah Palin. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declined entering the race. He said he has a commitment to New Jersey which is he is unwilling to abandon. I respect that. Despite big money donors who desire to play kingmaker and unexpected encouragement and strategy advice Christie demonstrated that he indeed is a man of his word and will let his “no be no,” (Matthew 5:37).

I believe it is extremely unlikely that Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will change his mind. That leaves us with our current field and a forthcoming announcement from Palin about her intentions one way or the other. Politico reports a law firm associated with Governor Palin has been making inquiries about early state deadlines.

One candidate, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, believes that the table is set. I don’t know if that is her conviction or her desire, but the health of her campaign either way is in doubt. If Palin gets in I believe Bachmann will be finished. With Palin out her campaign still has some life. I still believe it isn’t too late for Palin to enter, but as I’ve said before the clock is ticking. With the Iowa Caucus likely getting pushed up to the first week in January she will not have much time to win over voters in Iowa.

We are in a unique situation in Iowa. Nobody seems to have momentum. Cain appears to be on an upswing nationally, but I haven’t seen a surge in Iowa or New Hampshire. National polls do not mean much in a state by state primary race. Texas Governor Rick Perry is in decline. Former Senator Rick Santorum has certainly been impressive in the debates, and has campaigned hard but it still hasn’t seemed to pay off. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich also has performed well in the debates, but that isn’t translating into frontrunner status. I believe Congressman Ron Paul will be in the top four on Caucus night, but I would only predict Paul winning if we have a really bad blizzard the night of the caucus. I mean that as a compliment as he has devoted followers, but there are not enough of them to pull it off.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has also run an effective campaign, has debated well, and has stayed on message. I don’t see his base of support growing. He will only win the Iowa Caucus if the rest of the field remains divided. His RCP polling average in Iowa is 18%, and the latest poll done by American Research Group has him leading with 21%. In 2008 he came in 2nd with 25% and I don’t believe he’ll improve or even match that number.

The ARG poll also has 15% being undecided, more than when they polled in July. That still coupled with dissatisfaction with the field leaves an open door for Palin to enter late. She has a hard filing deadline of October 28th to be on the ballot in New Hampshire so her decision will likely be coming soon.

HT: Caffeinated Clips

New Poll Suggests Palin Can Be The Most Electable Conservative - HUMAN EVENTS

Human Events
by  Tony Lee 

Herman Cain's win in the "Presidency 5" straw poll in Florida on Saturday has reset much of the narrative concerning the 2012 Republican presidential contest. Here are some questions being asked. First, was Cain's victory a reflection of the general dissatisfaction Republicans feel toward purported front-runners Mitt Romney​ and Rick Perry? Second, could another candidate enter the presidential contest? Third, will the Republican primary contest be a battle between the William F. Buckley rule versus the Rush Limbaugh​ rule?

If Republicans are indeed not enthused about Messrs. Perry and Romney, one candidate could be primed to enter the race who can square the Buckley rule of electing the most electable conservative with the Limbaugh rule of electing the most conservative person in the field.

That candidate is former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Buckley said that Republicans should elect the most electable conservative in the field. Often, Republicans  act as if Buckley said Republicans should elect the most electable "Republican" in the field and conflate "conservative" with "Republican." When that happens, Republicans nominate candidates such as George H.W. Bush in 1992, Bob Dole in 1996, and John McCain in 2008 who go on to lose in the general election. On the other hand, when Republicans just nominate the most conservative person in the race as they did with Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Senatorial primary in 2010, they sometimes make it harder for the party to win.

One recent national poll, though, suggests Palin could be a candidate who can fit the Limbaugh rule and the Buckley rule and not render those two rules to be mutually exclusive.

In a reputable and unbiased McClatchy/Marist  poll released last week, Palin trailed President Obama by just five percent, 49% to 44%. These numbers are most striking when just last month, Obama led Palin, 56% to 35%. Palin made up the difference and surged because she has won over independent voters and now leads Obama among those crucial swing voters.

In August, Obama led among independent voters over Palin, 48% to 42%. Now, Palin leads Obama, 47% to 43%. Further, within her own party, Palin has strengthened her support among Tea Party voters, getting the support of 87% of those who support the Tea Part as opposed to just 70% in August.

One reason Palin may have won over independent voters in the past month is that she brought up the issue of crony capitalism in multiple speeches and television appearances before Obama was hit with a bevy of crony capitalism scandals ranging from Solyndra to LightSquared. Further, Palin has also reached out to union workers and disaffected Democrats in Facebook notes and speeches with her free market populism that pits her against big government and crony capitalism. This is the strategy Reagan used to build his enduring coalition, which Palin seems to be trying to cobble back together for the 21st century, uniting blue collar voters -- white and minority -- who identify with Main Street over Wall Street and Washington, D.C.

In the same poll, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney did better than Palin against Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up, keeping in mind that neither the Republican primary nor the general election is decided by a national popular vote.

Giuliani led Obama, 49% to 42%. Among independents, Giuliani led, 51% to 37%.
Romney was second best,  trailing Obama, 46% to 44%. Among independents, Romney led Obama, 44% to 40%.

Perry, on the other hand, trailed Obama, 50% to 41%. Among independent voters, Perry and Obama were tied at 43% apiece.

According to the same Marist poll, if Giuliani and Palin were to announce their candidacies, Perry would still garner the most support in a national sample of Republicans with 20%, followed by Giuliani with 14%, Palin and Romney with 13% apiece, with another 14% of the sample being undecided.

Because Palin now beats Obama among swing voters and is almost within the margin of error against Obama (and is the only candidate who is surging against Obama), though, she has to be considered electable as well.

And while Giuliani and Romney do slightly better against Obama than Palin, both Giuliani and Romney are associated with the liberal, northeastern, Rockefeller wing of the Republican party and cannot claim to be more conservative than Palin. The only candidate among the top four who can claim to be more conservative than Giuliani or Romney would be Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but Palin does better against Perry not only against Obama but among  crucial independent voters.

Further, if "conservative" means "Tea Party" for this cycle, no candidate has embraced the principles associated with the Tea Party movement for the past two years than Palin and no candidate has fiercely attacked Obama's policies even when it was not popular to do so than Palin, so she would fit the Limbaugh rule as well.

So if the hypothetical GOP field came down to Giuliani, Romney, Palin, and Perry, one can make the plausible argument that Palin is not only the most conservative candidate in the field but also the conservative candidate who has the best shot of defeating President Obama and winning over independents, rendering moot a potential battle between the Buckley and Limbaugh rules.

Palin has said in the past that she would likely decide on a presidential run by the end of September, but most likely has until the end of October to do so. During the first week of October, she is schedule to speak at a rally in Missouri, at Liberty University, and in South Korea.

All eyes again will be on Palin.

Palin's unique message is catching on!

Quite an exciting day for us Palinista's! A new Marist/McClatchy poll shows Governor Palin only 5 points behind President Obama, and beating him among Independents! She polls better than Rick Perry. This is a huge turn around and is probably due to a combination of her amazing 'Crony Capitalism' speech on Sept 3rd. coupled with Obama's continued weakness and people's disappointment in the failed policies he keeps trying to advance.

Just check out his headline from the Drudge Report:

Also, Governor Palin went on the Sean Hannity show and gave a powerful interview that everyone should see. Her message is starting to resonate!  Here is her interview in three parts:







We really are living in interesting times! GAME ON! ~ teledude

Don’t confuse me with the facts; I’ve already made up my mind.

Great Palin supporter and Iowa O4P volunteer, Phil Arnold, has written an informative piece on how to approach folks who may have bought into the false media narrative on Governor Palin. As Ralph Nader even admitted after her speech in Indianola,  "I think she's a lot smarter than most people credit her." We need to get people to see the real Sarah Palin, and Phil's article is spot on!  ~ teledude

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Phil Arnold

Don’t confuse me with the facts; I’ve already made up my mind.

That may sound like just a line from an old joke, but I suspect we fall into that mentality more often than we realize.  It is easier to form an opinion based on the perceptions we receive from others than it is to dig in and get the facts for ourselves.  Back in the 1960s, when the Chrysler Corporation had made a name for itself by offering the longest warranties in the business, I became a “Chrysler person”.  A friend I knew back then often said that Ford meant “Fix-Or-Repair-Daily”. For nearly 30 years I was unwilling to even go into a Ford dealership to shop for a car, because I had made up my mind that Ford stood for Fix-Or-Repair-Daily.

I had fallen into the trap of “Don’t confuse me with the facts; I’ve already made up my mind”.  I was unwilling to check out any facts about Ford quality until I became dissatisfied with the service I was getting at the local Chrysler dealership where I was living.  I started taking my Chrysler vehicle to the local Ford dealership for service, and have been purchasing Ford products from that dealer ever since.  The last vehicle I traded in was a Mercury Villager that was 10 years old and had 317,000 miles on it.  Obviously, my perception that Ford stood for “Fix-Or-Repair-Daily” was grossly incorrect!  However, I had gone for nearly 30 years being totally unwilling to even question its validity.  I had made up my mind, and I was not the least bit interested in considering any evidence that my prompt me to change my mind.

My point here is not to suggest that Ford products are better than Chrysler products.  I believe that both companies produce fine products.  My point is to illustrate the kind of faulty thinking that kept me from even considering purchasing Ford products for all those years.  I have also caught myself using similar defect logic to avoid giving serious consideration to political candidates based on first impressions that make no more sense than my avoiding Ford products based on the four-word put down of their products that likely never was true.

In 2008 I wrote off one candidate because I did not like the looks of his hair, and another because I got the impression that he was using his religion for political gain. Does that make any more sense than my reasoning concerning cars?

I’m afraid that far too many of us fall into the trap of making up our minds about political candidates based on our first impressions before we have had an opportunity to learn enough about them to form a truly informed decision.  If our first impressions are negative, it can be very tempting to close our minds to any new information that might challenge our first impressions.  In other words, it is very easy to fall into the attitude of “Don’t confuse me with the facts; I have already made my mind up.”  That is probably why it is often said that no one ever gets a second chance to make a first impression.

In August of 2008, John McCain introduced us to a politician few of us had ever heard of before. Even fewer of us knew anything about her record of accomplishments in Alaska.  When McCain introduced us to Sarah Palin as his pick for a running mate, even his campaign staff was unprepared to properly introduce her to the nation or the national press. That allowed McCain’s opponents to shape the narrative about her, while the “wizards of smart” running his campaign kept her hidden away.

The McCain campaign people tried to transform Palin from who she really is into an image of who they wanted her be on the campaign trail. They dressed her up in expensive clothes that she did not want or need.  They refused to allow her to do interviews with friendly media while they worked to script her for her first big media interviews.  Then they sent her into interviews with not so friendly media where the media outlets were free to edit the video any way they wished. The result was a total disaster.

Is it any wonder that many intelligent, well-meaning, and open minded people got a very negative first impression of Sarah Palin?  If you are one of those people, and you have not followed alternative media, it is very likely that you are convinced that you know all you need to know about Sarah Palin.  You probably wonder what people like me can possibly see in Sarah Palin to make us believe that she would make a good President.  One of my favorite quotes from Sarah Palin is this:

“I don’t blame people for not knowing what I stand for. If I believed everything I read in the media, I wouldn’t like me either.”  Sarah Palin of Fox News Sunday August 1, 2010

Now there is a relatively easy way for anyone to be reintroduced to Sarah Palin if they are open-minded enough to get past their belief that they already know all they need to know about her.  The movie “The Undefeated”, which was released in a limited number of theaters in July, reintroduces Sarah Palin in the way the McCain campaign should have introduced her in August of 2008. It is presently available on Pay-Per-View and Video-On-Demand, and will be released on DVD on October 4. The DVD can be pre-ordered through Wal-Mart and Amazon.com.

As a member of a grassroots organization that has been working to pave the way for a possible run for the presidency by Sarah Palin, I have been working to set up showings of “The Undefeated”.  Some of my friends who are intelligent and otherwise generally open-minded have seemed to display the Don’t-confuse-me-with-the-facts-I’ve-already-made-up-my-mind attitude. Some don’t like the sound of her voice; some don’t like one phrase or another they have heard that she said; some just say she isn’t “presidential”.

Our country faces serious challenges. For far too long our government has been dominated by corrupt politicians of both major political parties who will say whatever they need to say to get elected and once in office use their power to spend our money to buy the votes they need to get reelected.  In their effort to keep themselves in power, many are more than willing to sacrifice the future of our children and grandchildren by running up levels of debt that future generations will never be able to pay back.

They are happy to take plenty of campaign cash from any entity that will give it to them, and then they repay those entities that supported their campaigns with sweetheart deals paid for with our money.  And in the process many of them manage to get rich themselves.  This is crony capitalism and it is leading to unsustainable government debt.  It actually will do great harm to many of the people these politicians claim to care about.

The other major source of problems for our country is the fact that current government policies are driving up the cost of energy for everyone.  We notice that most often when we see what it costs us to fuel our vehicles, however rising energy costs drive up the cost of everything we must purchase.  Rising energy costs also make it harder for employers to afford to hire workers, adding to the problems of unemployment.

Sarah Palin has a proven record of taking on these issues. She took on corrupt politicians of her own party and broke up the unholy alliance between the Republican Party big wigs and the big oil companies in Alaska who were lining each other’s pockets with money that belonged to the people of Alaska.  She has long been an advocate of ecologically safe and responsible development of Alaska’s natural resources.  She went after one big oil company that had for over 30 years failed to fulfill its contract to develop production capabilities on land to which it held leases that required it to develop these resources.  They gave in and started to develop these leases only after Palin started proceedings to pull the leases.  She also went after BP Oil for poor maintenance in some of their facilities where pipes had become corroded and were likely to cause an oil spill.  Instead of waiting until a major oil spill to occur and going after BP as the federal government did, Sarah Palin and her team took preemptive action to insure that BP was required to correct these sources of potential oil spills before a major spill occurred.

Sarah Palin also went after waste in the Alaska state budget and used the line-item-veto to slash state spending to a degree that no previous governor of Alaska had ever done.

Unless you have been paying attention to alternative media or have been doing your own research, you may know nothing about these aspects of Sarah Palin’s record in Alaska.  You may have a very bad impression of here based on nothing more substantial than the F.O.R.D. mime that kept me from considering any Ford product for nearly 30 years.  You may not like the way she talks; you may think some of her one-liners are dumb; you may think she is all fluff and no substance; you may think that she is not serious about policy issues.

If you have not been reading her postings on Facebook and have not listened to her speeches except for short quotes that make it into the mainstream newscasts, it is likely that you have very little idea how much of a policy wonk she really is.  If you can get past the belief that you already know more than you need to know about Sarah Palin, and can get to know her apart from the failings of the McCain campaign in 2008 and the biased reporting of the mainstream media since then, you may be as surprised by her as I was when I finally learned that Ford did not stand for Fix-Or-Repair-Daily.

If you are as open-minded as I hope, I would like to challenge you to watch “The Undefeated”, and at least give this documentary about Sarah Palin’s accomplishments in Alaska a chance to reintroduce her to you.  It may or may not change your mind about anything, but at least it will expose you to some information you likely have not seen before.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and considering my challenge.

Phil Arnold
Grinnell, IA

Governor Palin’s Free Market Populism Bests the Boys’ Crony Capitalism

Our good friend from Conservatives4Palin, Whitney Pitcher, has penned an important comparison of Governor Palin's record on the economy and job growth with the corporatist policies of the Obama administration as well as the two "front running" GOP candidates. Chock full of statistics and actual evidence, this is a very educational look at the difference in philosophy of a commonsense conservative and the cronyism that has taken over the establishment wings of both parties. No wonder the professional political class fears this woman so!  ~ teledude

C4P
Posted by: Whitney Pitcher


Under the false premise that the government can create jobs, the Obama administration is proposing yet another stimulus/jobs bill that would use nearly half a trillion in taxpayer dollars as another supposed attempt to help the American economy. This new jobs bill is considered by some, however, to primarily be a bailout for blue states. This comes on the heels of the Solyndra scandal  where President Obama’s hybrid of crony capitalism and corporatism meant taxpayer dollars went to funding a failed solar panel company with strong ties to his campaign donors. Solyndra is not the only company to fall under the Obama administration’s “too green to fail” mentality when it comes to stimulus funding, as four other “green” companies who received stimulus funding also have gone bankrupt.

This loan guarantee program for green companies that was a key component of the 2009 stimulus bill has cost American taxpayers $38.6 billion, but has yielded fewer than 4,000 of the promised 65,000 jobs from the loan program. The stimulus bill as a whole was supposed to prevent unemployment from going above 8%, but instead it has been above 8% since February of 2009.

Additionally, although Governor Romney’s healthcare reform bill was not specifically intended to spur job creation, it’s big  government action has impacted jobs– for the worse. A report published this week estimates that Romneycare has cost Massachusetts more than 18,000 jobs. Beyond their similar approaches to healthcare reform, Governor Romney’s policies and stances are similar to President Obama’s in that he feels that subsidies and corporatism are part of a “pro business/big government” mindset, as his administration offered special technology loans to lure business from other states. As a presidential candidate for 2008 and 2012, Romney has supported both energy subsidies and insurance subsidies, and he still supports TARP—all means of government funnel taxpayer dollars towards business.

Governor Perry, who is touted by many as the “jobs” candidate, may have had a lot of jobs come to Texas during his tenure, but he also implemented “pro business” loans like both President Obama and Governor Romney. Like President Obama, he scratched the back of his political donors at the expense of taxpayers. His Emerging Technology Fund also proved to be a mechanism of reciprocity to his political donors to the tune of 200 million in taxpayer dollars. The Wall Street Journal  reports that one such donor invested more in Perry’s campaign than the company for which they were seeking a grant. Interestingly, the grant was initially denied by a regional committee, but was later approved by a Perry appointed committee:

In 2009, when Mr. Nance submitted his application for a $4.5 million Emerging Technology Fund grant for Convergen, he and his partners had invested only $1,000 of their own money into their new company, according to documentation prepared by the governor’s office in February 2010. But over the years, Mr. Nance managed to invest a lot more than $1,000 in Mr. Perry. Texas Ethics Commission records show that Mr. Nance donated $75,000 to Mr. Perry’s campaigns between 2001 and 2006.

The regional panel that reviewed Convergen’s application turned down the company’s $4.5 million request when it presented its proposal on Oct. 7, 2009. But Mr. Nance appealed that decision directly to a statewide advisory committee (of which Mr. Nance was once a member) appointed by Mr. Perry. Just eight days later, on Oct. 15, a subcommittee unanimously recommended approval by the full statewide committee. On Oct. 29, the full advisory committee unanimously recommended the approval of Convergen’s application. When asked why the advisory committee felt comfortable recommending Convergen’s grant, Lucy Nashed, a spokesperson for Mr. Perry, said that the committee “thoroughly vetted the company.”

This was only one example of the reciprocity between Perry donors and grant recipients. The Dallas Morning News shares this graphic depicting hundreds of thousands of campaign donations from companies who would later receive grant funding from Governor Perry’s initiative:

Governor Palin, on the other hand, realizes that government neither creates jobs, nor is supposed to be a channel to funnel taxpayer dollars back to political donors. She recognizes that government’s role is not to be pro business, but pro market, where through billions of transactions the American public determines the success and failure of business by what they choose to buy, not by what government chooses to subsidize. In her Tea Party speech earlier this month, she spoke of the need for less federal government intervention, not only in less regulation and more federalism, but also in removing subsidies, loopholes, and bailouts—the very things her potential political opponents engage in– from the economic equation (emphasis added):

But here’s the best part: To balance out any loss of federal revenue from this tax cut, we eliminate corporate welfare and all the loopholes and we eliminate bailouts. This is how we break the back of crony capitalism because it feeds off corporate welfare, which is just socialism for the very rich. We can change all of that. The message then to job-creating corporations is: We’ll unshackle you from the world’s highest federal corporate income tax rate, but you will stand or fall on your own, just like all the rest of us out on main street.

Governor Palin knows better than anyone else the need to remove crony capitalism from politics. As she noted on Greta van Susteren’s show earlier this week she has the “bumps and bruises to prove it”. ACES, her oil tax plan, reformed Governor Murkowski’s crony corruption tainted plan that was written to favor certain oil companies and ultimately also led to the arrest of oil company personnel, gubernatorial staff, and state legislators.  ACES was not a behind closed doors deal. In fact, Governor Palin did not allow lobbyists in her office at all.  Instead, it was a plan written and passed in a transparent manner, was presented to the people of Alaska more than two weeks before it was presented to the legislature, and did not involve undue influence from the oil companies.  Following the passage of ACES, Alaska saw a record number of oil jobs during Governor Palin’s tenure.  Not only were the number of jobs increasing, the legislation made development more attractive for other companies beyond the “Big Oil” companies favored by Governor Palin’s predecessor. Since the passage of ACES, the number of companies filing with the state of Alaska has doubled.

Even though a third of Alaskan jobs are tied to the oil industry, Governor Palin’s stellar jobs record extends behind solely that industry. Critics may argue that in an energy rich state, jobs naturally increase during a time when oil prices are high (as was the case during Governor Palin’s tenure) as more energy industry jobs are created. When Governor Palin took office in December of 2006, Alaska was pulling up the rear when it came to jobs, ranking 49^th out of the 50 states and Washington D.C. In her first year in office, Alaska was 6^th best in improvement in unemployment. By the end of the final year of her tenure, Alaska was ranked 21^st in the country. This kind of impressive record on jobs is how Alaska was 2^nd best in job growth during her tenure.  Data from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, showed that in addition to a 13.7% increase in resource development jobs, Alaska saw a nearly 5% increase in business service jobs and a 6.4% increase in education and health related jobs during Governor Palin’s time in office.

Governor Palin’s record reinforces her rhetoric. Instead of giving companies  millions or billions in taxpayer dollars in an attempt to create jobs or giving preferential treatment to favored companies or campaign donors, Governor Palin sought to remove the ties of cronyism and truly create a level playing field where businesses are neither too influential to fail, nor too small to succeed. This is what separates Governor Palin from all of her potential political opponents who have gained for themselves the moniker of crony capitalist or corporatist. Instead, she is, in the words Jim Pethokoukis of CNBC, a free market populist. This doesn’t make her William Jennings Bryan in skirt railing against big business, but instead a conservative warrior fighting against entangled web of business, political donors, and big government.

Crony Capitalism on Steroids from GE to Solyndra

Governor Palin took to Facebook today and excoriates President Obama and the permanent political class. I think she is gearing up.  ~ teledude

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Sarah Palin

In my recent speech in Iowa, some eyebrows were raised when I took on our government’s enormous economic problems caused by crony capitalism. As if on cue, just days later President Obama selected someone who exemplifies a major crony capitalism problem to sit next to the First Lady when he delivered his “jobs plan” speech before Congress. He selected General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as his honored guest.

Having grown up with great respect for GE thanks to stories my grandfather shared with us about his days working for the company and even meeting GE spokesman-at-the-time Ronald Reagan during a company event, I am saddened at GE’s leadership evolution. This corporation is now the poster child of corporate welfare and crony capitalism.

This icon of American industry is a company full of good employees who make some good products (and is the parent company of a huge media outlet), but GE is also a large American corporation that pays virtually no corporate income taxes despite earning worldwide profits of $14.2 billion last year, $5.1 billion of it in the United States. In fact, they claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion, meaning they received more of our hard earned tax dollars than they contributed. How is that possible? It’s because not only do they shelter their money from taxes, but they also get many tax credits, loans, government grants, and other benefits from the federal government that our smaller businesses couldn’t even imagine being able to profit from.

Joining GE in the pantheon on crony capitalism is another Obama favorite that has been in the news of late: Solyndra. The President hailed this “green energy” company in a speech last May as “the true engine of economic growth.” When he announced the $535 million guarantee to Solyndra, Vice President Biden said that investments like this are “exactly what the Recovery Act is all about.” (Dear God…If the failed Solyndra venture has been what it’s “all about,” then that explains a lot.) As I pointed out in my speech at the Reagan Ranch Center last February: “History has proven again and again, when government picks the winners and losers, we’re stuck with the losers, and we the taxpayers subsidize failure!” And that’s what we’re seeing now, as the FBI raids the solar energy company’s headquarters to glean more information after the company was handed half a billion dollars in “green energy” Stimulus funds from the American taxpayer only to later declare bankruptcy. More than one thousand Solyndra workers lost their jobs. Now as the truth comes out, we discover that the White House was heavily involved in the Department of Energy’s rushed decision to give the Stimulus funds to Solyndra, and they tried to move the money through so quickly they seem to have ignored concerns that the company was not viable. Why would they do this? Perhaps it’s because a large investor in the company (about 35%) is Obama campaign bundler George Kaiser. And with the way the deal is structured, Kaiser will get his debts paid before we the taxpayers see any relief. That is sickening. And that’s how it works: workers lose their jobs, wealthy political cronies stand a good chance of getting their money back, and the U.S. taxpayer gets the shaft. Again.

President Obama has his sights set on raising $1 billion for his reelection campaign. Raising that money won’t be easy. But if you can hand out other people’s money to friends, it must get a whole lot easier. This crony capitalism and government waste is at the heart of our economic problems. It will destroy us if we don’t root it out. It’s not just a Democrat problem or a Republican problem. It’s a problem of our permanent political class. This won’t stop until “we the people” say enough is enough, and we retire the permanent political class that votes for this.

- Sarah Palin

The Pundits Are Wrong: Palin’s Got the Best Shot

by Lara Brown PhDcloseAuthor: Lara Brown PhD Name: Lara Brown
Email: larambrown@aol.com
Site: About: See Authors Posts (8)

Poring over the head-to-head match-ups looking for a divining rod for the election, most professional political pundits have declared that Romney is the “electable” Republican candidate.


What these analysts fail to acknowledge as they debate the tautological concept of “electability” (only by being elected can one be shown to be electable) is that the presidential contest will look completely different – different levels of turnout, different states in play, different kinds of media coverage – depending on which candidate wins the Republican nomination.

And the reality is this: If sexism doesn’t derail her candidacy (and given that more Americans still prefer a male boss to a female boss, this possibility should not be lightly dismissed), Sarah Palin has the best chance of winning – not just the nomination, but also the general election.

To understand why, one must start with Obama’s standing as an incumbent president seeking a second term for his party. James Campbell found that since 1868 more than “two-thirds of the twenty-two incumbents seeking reelection were reelected…[and] more than two-thirds of in-party candidates seeking a second term for their party were successful” (pgs. 104-106). Leaving aside the economy, Obama is heavily favored to win.


The poor economic conditions do complicate matters. As Campbell also showed, since 1948 “only one of the six in-party candidates (Bill Clinton in 1996) with third year economic growth rates [measured by GDP in constant dollars] below 3 percent entered the campaign ahead in the polls” (pgs. 137-139). Given that the annual estimate for GDP in 2011 now stands at 2.5 percent, it is no surprise that Obama is down in the polls. Still, this does not mean he’ll lose. Only Carter managed that feat (Bush Sr. was seeking his party’s fourth term).

Incumbent presidential elections turn on turnout, not persuasion. Voters – including Independents – decide long before they cast their ballot whether they believe the president deserves a second term. Recall that in the 2004 (the last incumbent reelection campaign), the polls all summer long revealed that only about 7 percent of likely voters were undecided. This was not the case in 2008 (the number of undecided voters did not shrink to single digits until after the bottom fell out of the economy in September) because it was an “open seat” election where voters – especially Independents – wrestle more with their preferred candidate.

Because the 2012 election will be about turnout, the Republicans need to foster high levels of voter enthusiasm and engagement. If they do not, then Obama will likely be reelected. Recall that Obama pulled over 8.5 million more votes than McCain in 2008, meaning he can lose five or six million votes and still win, if the GOP selects as un-exciting a candidate as McCain was.

The GOP needs conflict and competition – not comity and civility. They need a war, not a border skirmish. The GOP needs to inject as much uncertainty into the race as possible by picking an electrifying candidate and putting more states in play. They also need someone whose message is not so extreme that they actually depress votes among those Republican-leaning Independents.

They need Palin. She is adored by those aligned with the Tea Party. She brings out crowds like no one except Obama. Unlike Perry, she holds some policy positions with wide appeal (only surprising to those in the mainstream media who failed to take note of her political career and track record in Alaska). She is running in third and she has yet to even announce.

Palin is also the embodiment of what my work (Jockeying for the American Presidency) found successful aspirants are in the Modern Party Era: “Those…perceived by their fellow partisans as charismatic leaders with strong ideological visions and as outsiders who would shake up Washington’s ‘insider’ (read: broken and corrupt) culture” (pg.220).

Since 2008, Palin has helped remake the Republican Party. Now it’s time for the GOP to wake up and realize that she’s the only one positioned to take them to White House this cycle.

Kudos to Sarah Palin for Exposing the Sleazy Bipartisan Corruption Problem in Washington

International Liberty

by Dan Mitchell

I don’t have strong feelings about Sarah Palin, but I like her anti-establishment attitude.

And, in a case of strange bedfellows, so does the New York Times. Or at least one columnist is honest enough to admit when she makes a compelling argument.

Here’s an excerpt from a column published yesterday, in which the author reports on how Gov. Palin perfectly captures the reprehensible corruption that defines business-as-usual in Washington.

Along with her familiar and predictable swipes at President Barack Obama and the “far left,” she delivered a devastating indictment of the entire U.S. political establishment — left, right and center — and pointed toward a way of transcending the presently unbridgeable political divide.  …She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private). In supporting her first point, about the permanent political class, she attacked both parties’ tendency to talk of spending cuts while spending more and more; to stoke public anxiety about a credit downgrade, but take a vacation anyway; to arrive in Washington of modest means and then somehow ride the gravy train to fabulous wealth. She observed that 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States happen to be suburbs of the nation’s capital. …Ms. Palin’s third point was more striking still: in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs. …“This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk,” she said of the crony variety. She added: “It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America.”

Think about the recent controversy about Solyndra, the “green” company that got lots of handouts from the Obama Administration and recently filed for bankruptcy (and got raided by the FBI).

Not that anyone should be surprised, but the money people at the company were big financial backers of Obama.

Let’s be blunt about what happened. They bribed the White House (not in a way that violates the law, we must assume, but does anybody doubt that’s what was happening?). In exchange, the Obama Administration used the coercive power of government to steer undeserved money to the corrupt company.
And we’re not talking about a couple of million dollars. We’re talking about more than one-half of one billion dollars. That’s $535,000,000.00.

And this is presumably just one example of what probably happens dozens of times every day in Washington.
But let me make one thing clear. I don’t think the Obama Administration is an outlier. The same thing happened every day, in all likelihood, during the Bush Administration. And in previous administrations.
Heck, this is almost certainly what happens in state capitals and city governments, and I doubt that it makes much difference what party is in charge.

Indeed, Republicans are probably even worse than Democrats.

The only way to control the festering sleaze is to make government smaller, as I explain in this video.

A GOP Debate, an Obama Speech, and Sarah Palin

The North Star National
By David Karki


The last three days could not illustrate better just how far American politics have fallen as of late, and what it will take to resuscitate it and the nation from the coma into which President Obama has put it.

Start with tonight’s Republican Debate. One could call them the Seven Dwarfs, so little do they look while they obediently jump through the ridiculous hoops presented to the by the biased media that effectively works for Obama.

And even when they have glimmer of understanding how obviously they’re being manipulated, as Newt Gingrich did when he criticized moderator Brian Williams of NBC News for trying to instigate squabbles amongst them rather than allowing them to target Obama, they still stupidly play the game. After all, this was a MSNBC/Politico debate – what the hell else did the seven fools think they were going to get from two blatantly liberal outlets? If any of them really believed in what Newt said, to say nothing of having an ounce of strategic thinking, they would never have bothered showing up for this rigged dog-and-pony show in the first place!



Which brings me to the Joe Isuzu twins, Governors Romney and Perry. Admittedly, if elections were won based on who has the most presidential looking hair, suit, and smile, these two would be WAY ahead of the pack. Substantively, however, you can’t help but feel like you’ve just been smooth-talked by a smarmy used car salesman after listening to anything either says. I’m actually glad that the media has declared these two RINOs to be the ostensible front-runners, since their combined prefabricated-ness will increase the distrust of both all the more, and help the two Ken dolls cancel each other out all the sooner.

As for Obama’s ridiculous Even More Of The Same That’s Already Massively Failed Address, this falls under the old political axiom: when your opponent is busy committing suicide, get out of the way and let him. Speaker Boehner was right to decline a GOP response, thereby not adding any gravity to the speech as well as not giving Obama and the Dems a target to shoot at.

And while I would personally love to see a TV with the Saints/Packers pre-game set up off to the side for the GOP members to watch while they pretend to listen to Obama read his delusional drivel from the teleprompters, they’re right to be minimally respectful and show up and go through the motions. Again, don’t give your opponent a target or any chance to shift the spotlight away from him and onto you.

This speech is the political equivalent of the old philosophical riddle:  If Obama gives a poor imitation of a State of the Union Address, and everyone is watching the NFL opener instead, did he really make a complete fool of himself?

Finally, to Sarah Palin. She has been so right to avoid this whole farcical show. She already has 100% name recognition, will have tons of cash from Tea Partiers the moment she declares, and Snow White might as well let the Seven Dwarfs form the circular firing squad the media would have them make while she stays safely above and out of the fray.

Moreover, in her speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire ripping both parties for “crony capitalism” and Facebook post on the Obama-approved call for union violence against Tea Partiers by Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., she laid out more detailed plans and laid into Obama with a ferocity none of the other candidates would dare – or be allowed to by the Obamedia running the debates.

Palin simply isn’t going to play the usual game by the establishment’s rules. As Dr. Phil says, if you’re going to do what you’ve always done, you’re going to get what you’ve always gotten. In that case, it’s the media trying to produce the most liberal GOP “opponent” possible for the Democrat, which the conservative Tea Party base will hate. This will help an otherwise doomed Democrat have a chance to win, even if it must be alá Clinton 1992:  a slim plurality in a three-way race. And if even that isn’t enough, then at least the GOP winner will be the most leftist of the group, ensuring that nothing the Democrat has created will be touched, much less dismantled.

In other words, the game is to create a completely phony “choice” between a hardcore and a watered-down leftist come Election Day, so that the entire exercise is rigged, pointless and the establishment stays, well, established for another four years.

The Seven Dwarfs are mindlessly playing this silly game with the crooked dealer and entirely pre-determined outcome to benefit the house, and even when they occasionally realize the con job, none of them has the spine to fold their hand and cash out to save what chips they have left. Palin, on the other hand, was smart enough never to sit at the table in the first place.

That’s why she’s so hated – her refusal to step into their best-laid traps and fearlessness in directly calling Obama out make her every bit the existential threat to the establishment that Obama is to America. And let’s not forget the whole first female president thing, the gender card which trumps the race card that you know Obama will play hard if all else fails.

Small wonder then, that the media is doing everything possible to claim it’s too late for Palin and that she polls horribly – the simplest way to beat her is for her to never get in the race and the next simplest is to get her in too early so they can beat up on her as long as possible.

Yes, Sarah will have to officially get in soon in order to be on the ballot in IA and NH, but why on earth should she expose herself to enemy fire any sooner than absolutely necessary? And if the point of such an unconventional campaign is to break the establishment’s hold, then the first step is to refuse to kowtow to their unwritten rules.

Does this come at some risk? Sure. Could it fail? Sure. But could it succeed? Absolutely. And if the alternative is another round of a phony choice between a Democrat versus RINO chosen by the media, with the policy outcome rigged as a result, then why not go for broke? From where I stand, it’s the only chance to beat ‘em…the only chance to save the Republic.

And if nothing else, it’ll be damned entertaining and hilarious watching the media and left go absolutely bonkers…

Some of Sarah Palin's Ideas Cross the Political Divide

The New York Times has a surprisingly fair article on Governor Palin. The truth will out. ~ teledude

The New York Times
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — Let us begin by confessing that, if Sarah Palin surfaced to say something intelligent and wise and fresh about the present American condition, many of us would fail to hear it.

That is not how we’re primed to see Ms. Palin. A pugnacious Tea Partyer? Sure. A woman of the people? Yup. A Mama Grizzly? You betcha.

But something curious happened when Ms. Palin strode onto the stage last weekend at a Tea Party event in Indianola, Iowa. Along with her familiar and predictable swipes at President Barack Obama and the “far left,” she delivered a devastating indictment of the entire U.S. political establishment — left, right and center — and pointed toward a way of transcending the presently unbridgeable political divide.

The next day, the “lamestream” media, as she calls it, played into her fantasy of it by ignoring the ideas she unfurled and dwelling almost entirely on the will-she-won’t-she question of her presidential ambitions.

So here is something I never thought I would write: a column about Sarah Palin’s ideas.

There was plenty of the usual Palin schtick — words that make clear that she is not speaking to everyone but to a particular strain of American: “The working men and women of this country, you got up off your couch, you came down from the deer stand, you came out of the duck blind, you got off the John Deere, and we took to the streets, and we took to the town halls, and we ended up at the ballot box.”

But when her throat was cleared at last, Ms. Palin had something considerably more substantive to say.

She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).

In supporting her first point, about the permanent political class, she attacked both parties’ tendency to talk of spending cuts while spending more and more; to stoke public anxiety about a credit downgrade, but take a vacation anyway; to arrive in Washington of modest means and then somehow ride the gravy train to fabulous wealth. She observed that 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States happen to be suburbs of the nation’s capital.

Her second point, about money in politics, helped to explain the first. The permanent class stays in power because it positions itself between two deep troughs: the money spent by the government and the money spent by big companies to secure decisions from government that help them make more money.

“Do you want to know why nothing ever really gets done?” she said, referring to politicians. “It’s because there’s nothing in it for them. They’ve got a lot of mouths to feed — a lot of corporate lobbyists and a lot of special interests that are counting on them to keep the good times and the money rolling along.”

Because her party has agitated for the wholesale deregulation of money in politics and the unshackling of lobbyists, these will be heard in some quarters as sacrilegious words.

Ms. Palin’s third point was more striking still: in contrast to the sweeping paeans to capitalism and the free market delivered by the Republican presidential candidates whose ranks she has yet to join, she sought to make a distinction between good capitalists and bad ones. The good ones, in her telling, are those small businesses that take risks and sink and swim in the churning market; the bad ones are well-connected megacorporations that live off bailouts, dodge taxes and profit terrifically while creating no jobs.

Strangely, she was saying things that liberals might like, if not for Ms. Palin’s having said them.

“This is not the capitalism of free men and free markets, of innovation and hard work and ethics, of sacrifice and of risk,” she said of the crony variety. She added: “It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest — to the little guys. It’s a slap in the face to our small business owners — the true entrepreneurs, the job creators accounting for 70 percent of the jobs in America.”
Is there a hint of a political breakthrough hiding in there?

The political conversation in the United States is paralyzed by a simplistic division of labor. Democrats protect that portion of human flourishing that is threatened by big money and enhanced by government action.

Republicans protect that portion of human flourishing that is threatened by big government and enhanced by the free market.

What is seldom said is that human flourishing is a complex and delicate thing, and that we needn’t choose whether government or the market jeopardizes it more, because both can threaten it at the same time.

Ms. Palin may be hinting at a new political alignment that would pit a vigorous localism against a kind of national-global institutionalism.

On one side would be those Americans who believe in the power of vast, well-developed institutions like Goldman Sachs, the Teamsters Union, General Electric, Google and the U.S. Department of Education to make the world better. On the other side would be people who believe that power, whether public or private, becomes corrupt and unresponsive the more remote and more anonymous it becomes; they would press to live in self-contained, self-governing enclaves that bear the burden of their own prosperity.

No one knows yet whether Ms. Palin will actually run for president. But she did just get more interesting.

An Open Letter to Sarah Palin Asking Her to Save America from the Cocktail Party and the Leftists it Enables

Kevin DuJan, the founder and editor of HillBuzz, a former Hillary Clinton support site, has penned a heart felt open letter to Governor Palin. Kevin is a former democrat who is also a proud gay man living in Chicago and has become one of Governor Palin's strongest advocates in that city. His writing is often some of the best you will find on Governor Palin and people should check his HillBuzz site frequently, it's great! ~ teledude

HillBuzz
Kevin DuJan




Dear Governor Palin, 

No one has a right to ask you to put yourself and your family through the rigors of another national political campaign. Because of your determined willingness to speak truth to power and confront the uncomfortable realities of the grave dangers facing our country, you have been targeted for abuse from every conceivable side.

Clearly, your millions of supporters well know the litany of horrors the Left has subjected you to — while the Cocktail Party GOP establishment types sat idly by, observing with fetishistic interest but never joining the fray as your allies because the permanent political class knows you are as much of an existential threat to them as you are to Barack Obama’s re-election bid and the Left’s continued dominance of this country.

You have been demonized these past three years as the latest in a long line of conservative boogeywomen because the Left’s survival depends largely on preventing all Americans from voting in their own economic best interests. The Democrat Party is a Jenga tower balanced precariously atop an assemblage of identity-based voting blocs that topples if the Left doesn’t focus emotional and irrational hatred upon a fixed target of the Left’s choosing. You are that current target, because you dare to be a successful, outspoken, politically active, accomplished, wife and mother who pursued her dreams in life and attained professional and personal satisfaction on a path you forged on your own, heeding none of the Left’s directives for women. You did it all your way, on your terms, with no thank-you cards warranted to Gloria Steinem.

The Left hates you because you inspire millions of Americans to follow your example, which threatens the Democrats’ precious and precarious Jenga tower. The Cocktail Party establishment types despise you because you seek to end the status quo and advocate proactive solutions to longstanding problems. The agenda-driven media hates you not just because you threaten the Left, but because lazy journalists enjoy covering the same wedge issues and consistent crises and can’t imagine living in a world where someone like you would get things done, move the country forward, and rattle the status quo.

You are surrounded by enemies Governor, but you’d be surprised by the ever-growing number of friends you really have in the ranks of regular Americans who have waited decades for someone of your caliber to emerge as our champion. Right when we need you the most.

I was a Democrat for the first 30-some odd years of my life, until Barack Obama’s campaign — and the voter fraud, intimidation, race-baiting, and other thuggery his supporters engaged in throughout 2008 — forced me to realize just how dependent Democrats are on hatred and bullying and how much the Cocktail Party GOP establishment allows all of this to happen (so these guys can stay in the good graces of the media, so desperate they forever are for the Left’s love and affection).

I worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, because I believed she would have made an excellent President in 2008. Since even former Vice President Dick Cheney has now said as much — acknowledging she’s one of the sole grown-ups at the table in the Obama administration — and you’ve shown great respect for the tenacity of Secretary Clinton’s epic primary contest with candidate Obama three years ago, I think you need to know that a gay guy like me here in Chicago who broke completely from the Democrat Party because of its horrific Alinsky Methods-treatment of Secretary Clinton has long recognized the exact same playbook used against you.

Since your debut on the national political scene, I have watched the agenda-driven media and all of the various Democrat Party-controlled goon squads malign, berate, degrade, and menace you.  Just as they were ordered to do to Secretary Clinton, back in 2008, when she was a threat to the Left’s plan (conceived in 2004, if not even sooner) to install Barack Obama as our president (to then subject us to everything the Obama acolytes have done to our country ever since, in this “The Golden Age of Hopeychange”).

Governor Palin, it’s deja vu for me all over again because — almost word for word — the exact same attacks being aimed at you to prevent your presidential campaign in 2012 were deployed against Secretary Clinton in 2008, because she, too, stood in the way of what the Left wanted to do to this country with Barack Obama as its tool (or, fool, to be more precise) in the White House.

The exact same people in our national media, in fact, are saying “it’s time for Sarah Palin to shut up and go away” who kept insisting “it’s time for Hillary Clinton to shut up and go away” back in 2008. Though the two of you obviously have many differences, the common element between you is the enormous threat you pose to Barack Obama and the Left’s plans for his presidency (Secretary Clinton blocked his clear path to the nomination, while you’re his biggest obstacle to re-election).

I’m afraid the bad feelings many of your supporters have about Secretary Clinton prevent many from seeing just how recycled and manufactured all of the current attacks on you are.

It’s like a high school drama class finding a box of old scripts and putting on an amateur hour production of a terrible musical heard shrieking on Broadway three years ago. If people listened to what the media, and the Left it directs (not to mention the Cocktail Party GOP establishment that enables all of the above), did to conjure attacks on truth tellers from the Alinksy spell book in 2008, they’d have a better picture of just how fabricated the attacks on you really are here in 2011.

You and your staff have clearly learned a lot from Secretary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.  So far, you have avoided all of the major mistakes our team made in battling the triple threat of the Left, the permanent political class, and the agenda-driven media. The decision is 100% yours and your family’s whether you indeed plan to run for president, but I am one of millions who hope you do enter the race this month. I truly believe you’re being called to duty at the moment America needs a champion most.
You are our American Artemis, when we need an epic hero more than ever.

Governor Palin, every weaponized Alinsky tactic imaginable is being hurled at you, from all sides, because there has never in my memory been anyone who is as much of a threat to the Left and the permanent political class, with as much of a natural ability to get people off their couches and use their individual talents to get our country on the right track again.

I have never heard anyone — including Secretary Clinton — say out loud that one of the greatest problems we face in America is the permanent political class. I call it the Cocktail Party because in my experience the career consultants and aristocratic officials in the highest echelons of the GOP ranks, in particular, will allow the Left to do just about anything to protect their own self interests and guarantee the invitations to high profile, lavish cocktail parties continue uninterrupted in perpetuity.

When you talk about the permanent political class at Tea Party rallies or write about it in your statements on Facebook, you draw attention to the fact that for America to really prosper again it’s time to rollback the influence the shadowy, unelected, men behind the curtains have on this country in BOTH the Democrat and the Republican parties.

You are the first person on the national political scene to ever call the Cocktail Party out like this (even though you call it the permanent political class), because you are the first person to have absolutely no fear of the reprisals you receive for this selfless truth telling defiance.

I want you to know that I appreciate this bravery more than I could ever say, because while I’ve been a conservative my whole life I never felt I could ever call myself a Republican — since “Republican” to me has always meant being one of these Cocktail Party enablers who cave into the Left at every turn, to further their own careers and guarantee them flattering magazine covers celebrating “bipartisanship”. The Democrat Party left me, and all the Jacksonian conservative Democrats like me, in the summer of 2008 when it veered radically to the Left, expelling conservative and moderate Democrats as no longer needed.  I would never have ultimately labeled myself a Republican — like I am proudly now — if you didn’t put an (R) after your name as well, giving me hope there’s more to the party than what the Cocktail Party’s been representing.
I admire you immensely because you do what you know to be right, despite the consequences you suffer professionally and personally as a result. You are a true leader amongst an assemblage of cowards, ditherers, and toadies. You are simultaneously a great hope for our future while reminding me of the best in this country’s past.

I remember one of the nuns who taught me in school telling our class about George Washington, retired from the military, being called upon to run for the presidency because his leadership was needed.  Sr. Francis Borgia stood in front of the blackboard and made us think about the enormity of what people clamored for Washington to do; he had to give up his privacy, his peace of mind, his much-deserved freedom, and subject his family and close friends to all the strain inherent in running for the highest office in the land (with the added burdens heaped upon them all when he’d take that office and serve his country yet again). I recall being nine or ten years old, not being able to imagine an America without George Washington as president, or America as we know it even existing itself if Washington didn’t answer his call to duty and put everything on the line to provide the leadership people needed in a time of profound crisis.

At 34, today I wish I knew what the future holds for you, Governor Palin. I hosted a marathon viewing of your “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” series on Labor Day, with friends and family who spent nine hours with me wishing you and your family lived in the White House now. Even those who weren’t supporters of yours before watching the series admitted things would be better with you at the national helm. A woman who can pilot the family’s fishing boat, provide food for a large brood with her own bare hands, and still navigate the treacherous rapids of public life is a rare hero in our modern world. Your talents are both unique and resounding. You stand head and shoulders above those who malign and seek to marginalize you. For this, the Left endeavors to destroy you while the Cocktail Party establishment in your own party plots aggressively to prevent you from removing their power and influence.

It’s no wonder George Washington was reticent towards subjecting himself to the demands of the presidency himself, after seeing so much war firsthand. Why would he want to put himself through all that again in the highest elected office? I’m sure you’ve asked yourself similar questions more times than you’ve counted.
In recent days, I’ve observed a flood of assaults on you in the agenda-driven media, originating in both the Leftist and Cocktail Party establishment ranks, demanding you renounce any presidential ambitions, shut up, dismiss your supporters, and exile yourself to Alaskan obscurity.

I rarely mail letters to anyone anymore, but I’m printing this one out and sending it to the address I have for you because I want to put on paper my request for you to run for president, in your own way, with a campaign of your own invention.  I hope I am one of millions who write to you this week asking you to run for president and save America from both the Left and the permanent political class that enables it.

I think back to my days in history class, when Sister Francis Borgia asked all her students if we would have joined the chorus of voices urging retired General George Washington to serve as a leader again, despite all it would cost him. Since the call for him to return to duty was so obviously needed, I know I would have written to him asking him to serve his country once again.

That’s why I’m writing to you today, Governor Palin, because America so desperately needs you.
I will always respect whatever decision you ultimately make — and the decision should be yours and your family’s alone — but I’d regret it forever if I didn’t take this opportunity to humbly ask the greatest leader on our national political scene to mount an unconventional, electric, and Tea Party-supporting campaign that seeks to decimate the Left and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment while humiliating the agenda-driven media for its ignorance, bias, and consistent stupidity.

You are the President we need at the moment we need a leader like you the most — and I am just one of many millions who know the grace of God and love of country will guide you in making the right decision for us all.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and continued service of your country.

Kevin DuJan
Chicago, Illinois

Welcome, Union Brothers and Sisters

Facebook

In my speech on Saturday in Iowa, I said: “Between bailouts for Wall Street cronies and stimulus projects for union bosses’ security and ‘green energy’ giveaways, [Barack Obama] took care of his friends. And now they’re on course to raise a billion dollars for his re-election bid so that they can do it all over again.” This was shamefully on display yesterday at President Obama’s taxpayer-funded campaign rally in Detroit. In introducing the President, Teamsters President James Hoffa represented precisely what I was talking about as he declared war on concerned independent Americans and on the freshman members we sent to Congress last November by saying, “Let’s take these son-of-a-bitches out!”

What I say now, I say as a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members. So, as a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former Laborers, IBEW, and later USW member, please hear me out.

What I have to say is for the hard working, patriotic, selfless union brothers and sisters in Michigan and throughout our country: Please don’t be taken in by union bosses’ thuggery like Jim Hoffa represented yesterday. Union bosses like this do not have your best interests at heart. What they care about is their own power and re-electing their friend Barack Obama so he will take care of them to the detriment of everyone else.

To the same degree Americans are concerned about irresponsible, greedy corporate execs who got cushy bonuses from taxpayer-funded bailouts, we should also be concerned about greedy union bosses who are willing to tank our economy just to protect their own power. As union history shows, power and greed corrupt. Just because you claim to represent union members doesn’t mean you are on the side of the angels. The greed of too many of these union bosses has all but destroyed the labor movement in this country, helped chase away our jobs, and is killing the American dream.

To see where this leads, look at what’s happening to the working class in our industrialized cities. These cities are going to hell in a hand basket thanks to corruption, crony capitalism, and the union bosses’ greed. The union bosses derive their power from your union dues and their promise to deliver your votes to whichever politician they’re in bed with. They get their power from you, and yet their actions ultimately hurt you. They’re chasing American industry offshore by making outrageous, economically illogical demands that they know will never work. And now that they’ve chased jobs out of union states, they’re trying to chase them out of right-to-work states like South Carolina, so eventually the jobs will leave America altogether. But these union bosses will still figure out a way to keep their gig, and so will their politically aligned corporate friends. As long as these big corporations have a good crony capitalist in the White House, they can rely on DC to bail them out until the whole system goes bankrupt, which, I am afraid, is not very far off. When big government, big business, and big union bosses collude together, they get government to maximize their own interests against those of the rest of the country.

So, now these union bosses are desperately trying to cast the grassroots Tea Party Movement as being “against the workingman.” How outrageously wrong this unapologetic Jim Hoffa is, for the people’s movement is the real movement for working class men and women. It’s rooted in real solidarity, and not special interests and corporate kickbacks. It represents the needed reform that will empower workers and job creators. We stand with the little guy against the corruption and influence peddling of those who collude to grease the wheels of government power.

This collusion is at the heart of Obama’s economic vision for America. In practice it is socialism for the very rich and the very poor, but a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It is socialism for the very poor who are reduced to a degrading perpetual dependence on a near-bankrupt centralized government to provide their every need, while at the same time robbing them of that which brings fulfillment and success – the life-affirming pride that comes from taking responsibility for your own destiny and building a better life through self-initiative and work ethic. And Obama’s vision is socialism via crony capitalism for the very rich who continue to get bailouts, debt-ridden “stimulus” funds, and special favors that allow them to waive off or help draft the burdensome regulations that act as a boot on the neck to small business owners who don’t have the same friends in high places. And where does this collusion leave working class Americans and the small business owners who create 70% of the jobs in this country? Out in the cold. It’s you and your children who are left paying for the cronyism of Obama and our permanent political class in DC.

Ask yourself if the folks you heard demonize concerned, independent Americans yesterday really speak for the working class when they’re all too happy to burden your families with the bill to bail out the President’s friends on Wall Street.

We should not forget that for all his lofty rhetoric, President Obama is a Chicago politician. Graft, cronyism, and quid pro quo are the well-known methods of an infamous Chicago political machine, of which Barack Obama emerged. This corruption isn’t just the result of a few bad apples. It’s the nature of a skewed system that’s typical of one not allowing a level playing field. If one desires opportunity for all, then the only solution is sudden and relentless reform. I know of what I speak. I too served in public office in a state that had a corruption problem. The difference is that I fought the corrupt political machine. Barack Obama used the machine in his state to advance. He never challenged it. And he’s evidently brought the same Chicago “pay-to-play” practices to the White House.

It’s sad to see much of the labor movement fall lock step behind a President whom Hoffa calls upon to partner in “waging war” against patriotic Americans. I will never forget that as a governor, in trying to be a friend to the working men and women in our unions, I gave a speech on August 27, 2008, at the annual AFL-CIO meeting in Anchorage. There, union members humbled me with a standing ovation for fighting the corruption in Alaska and for bringing parties together for progress on energy development projects. Then just two days later I landed on the national stage as John McCain’s running mate, and the union leadership turned on me from that day forward even though I had not changed one iota in my plans, principles, vision, and commitment to jobs for working class Americans. The only difference was I was challenging the politician the union bosses were committed to electing. It was almost comical, this lesson learned with their new spots revealed so quickly.

Recently someone commented: “I’m a union member. I’ve been a Democrat all my life. Now I’ll vote for anyone with a plan to save America.” I know what that person is feeling. I want all good union brothers and sisters to know that there is an alternative. The grassroots, independent Tea Party Movement articulates a real alternative rooted in free men and free markets, not the cronyism of Barack Obama and the permanent political class in DC. Their cronyism is why we have no job growth, massive unsustainable debt, and a housing market in the tank. Too many politicians are simply addressing the economic symptoms instead of fighting the underlying disease. The path forward is through reform. On Saturday, I outlined some ideas about that reform, and I will continue to do so.

In the meantime, good union brothers and sisters, don’t let Hoffa tell you what to do. He doesn’t represent the real interests of working men and women. He’s not doing you any favors. He’s just living off your paychecks.

- Sarah Palin