Will Palin Announce Candidacy at Iowa Tea Party Event

The Iowa Republican
by: Kevin Hall

Although they claim to have no inside information, the volunteers that comprise Iowa’s Organize 4 Palin group are convinced the former Alaska Governor is running for President.  They also believe it is very likely she will announce her candidacy at a Tea Party event near Des Moines on September 3^rd.

“It certainly makes a lot of sense for her to announce on that date,” said Richard Rogers, the 3^rd District Co-Chair for Organize 4 Palin.  “It will be the third anniversary of her speech at the Republican National Convention.  That’s what launched her onto the national scene.  Announcing at that event would certainly be appropriate.  The timing is right.”

Rogers was a volunteer for Dave Funk’s congressional campaign and served as Polk County Chair for Fred Thompson’s 2008 Iowa campaign.  He’s been involved in grassroots politics since 1964, when he joined the Draft Goldwater movement.  Rogers believes Sarah Palin decided to run several weeks ago.

“Although there is no coordination with her, Governor Palin is certainly aware of what we’re doing here in Iowa,” Rogers said.  “I don’t believe she would allow us to continue to do this if she wasn’t running.  I think she has determined to do it and I think she made that decision some time back.”

Sarah Palin already has a very solid campaign structure in place in Iowa.  Rogers, Craig Bergman and Myrna Beeber are among a group of longtime political activists who are laying the groundwork for a potential Palin candidacy.  Together, they are building a statewide, grassroots organization of Palin supporters without any financial backing.  “We’re not secretly funded by some shadowy group somewhere in the Andes,” Rogers joked.  “Honest to God, we are all entirely volunteers.”

Despite the lack of funding, the Organize 4 Palin Iowa team is running a very well organized campaign.  Representatives from the group have personally met with every county GOP chair in Iowa.  They have a strong presence at central committee meetings, GOP fundraisers, and events like last weekend’s 2^nd Amendment rally.  In fact, the Palin group has a stronger presence than some of the fully staffed operations.

Craig Bergman is a veteran of many campaigns, including Ron Paul’s 2008 effort.  He has appointed himself “political director” of the Iowa Organize 4 Palin group, while adding that everyone on the team is equal and there is no real campaign hierarchy.  Bergman favors Palin because of her leadership attributes.  “Ron Paul is right on the issues, but he’s not a leader,” Bergman said.  “Sarah Palin is a leader.  She’s a warrior.  She’s been the one out their fighting on the issues.”

Bergman is convinced that Palin will soon announce her candidacy.  “I don’t think somebody does all the things she’s done, all the battles she’s been fighting, and then would abandon the course,” Bergman said.  He points to her highly-touted speech in at a Wisconsin Tea Party rally in April.  “Scott Walker was going to do down and she went there and rallied the masses and turned that entire thing around.”

Even if the former Alaska Governor decides not to run, Richard Rogers will remain loyal to her.  “If she doesn’t get in, she’s at least going to be very involved in the debate and I’ll probably take my cues from her,” Rogers said.  “We’ll just ride a different horse.”

That scenario is not one Craig Bergman looks forward to.   “I’ll probably go to my knees, because that would mean we’re going to re-elect Barack Obama,” Bergman said.  “And if that happens, God help us all.”

Palin recently told Fox News that she would make an announcement about her intentions in August or September.  The Tea Party rally on September 3^rd falls perfectly in that timeline.  The event, location and time are ideal for such an announcement.  Thousands of people will be in attendance.  Worldwide media will descend on Des Moines for the event.  Most importantly, Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus status makes her visit here the perfect spot to let everyone know her decision.  Everyone will be watching.

Palin to Keynote Tea Party Rally in Iowa

Real Clear Politics
By Scott Conroy

In the latest indication that her sights are still set on a presidential run, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has accepted an invitation to keynote a Tea Party rally in Waukee, Iowa, on Sept. 3, RealClearPolitics has learned.

The Labor Day weekend visit to the nation's first voting state comes after Palin indicated during an appearance on Fox News earlier this month that she would make her decision about whether to launch a campaign in August or September.

All signs now point to September as the month when Palin would throw her hat into the ring, as logistical concerns ranging from fundraising to getting her name on the ballot in various states would likely preclude further delay.

Many prominent political analysts and Republican operatives have expressed skepticism that Palin is seriously considering a presidential bid, since she has not taken many of the steps that candidates traditionally take before jumping into the race, such as signing early-state consultants, contacting key powerbrokers and boosting their travel schedules.

But Palin has a long history of shunning the Republican Party machinery and taking an unconventional approach to campaigns -- a mind-set that appears to have been in play throughout the past several months.
Palin's latest appearance in Iowa will come just two days after "The Undefeated," a documentary film spotlighting her accomplishments in Alaska, will be released on Pay-Per-View and video-on-demand. In the film, Palin is portrayed as a continual thorn in the Republican establishment's side. And it is the GOP, rather than the Democratic Party, that garners the better part of the movie's scorn.

If Palin were to announce a White House run, the theme of her campaign would almost certainly focus on resisting the ingrained political culture and what she sees as being wrong with the status quo, and much of the Republican Party itself, in addition to continuing to offer one of the most strident contrasts to President Obama's policies.

The outdoor rally on the first Saturday in September will take place at a field in Waukee, located just outside of Des Moines, and will be hosted by the Tea Party of America -- an Iowa-based political action committee that was founded in May.

The midday affair will be the new group's kickoff event and is sure to generate a large crowd and massive media attention.

One of the Tea Party of America's co-founders, Charlie Gruschow, had previously founded the Des Moines Tea Party before splintering off to start a new group with some like-minded colleagues.

Gruschow praised the work of a highly motivated group of volunteers who have been setting the groundwork in Iowa for a Palin campaign, which almost all of them deem to be inevitable.

"I can only surmise that she's very, very popular here," Gruschow said of Palin's level of support among Republican caucus-goers in Iowa. "And it didn't hurt at all when she introduced her movie in Pella. The feedback I've gotten was it was an awesome movie, and there are more people becoming more endeared to her."

Palin has been relatively quiet over the past month, as she has retreated to Alaska to immerse herself in policy and to strategize with her husband, Todd, and top advisers about how a potential campaign would work.
SarahPAC, Palin's political action committee, has not hired a pollster or a media consultant, and Palin appears to have little interest in doing so, although the addition of a national press secretary may soon be on the horizon.

The 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee will not be on the ballot at next month's Ames Straw Poll, which could winnow the GOP field just as Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to enter the race sometime in August.

Scott Conroy is a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics. He can be reached at sconroy@realclearpolitics.com.

Can Sarah Palin shake up the GOP?

A very insightful analysis by an Iowa State Political Science Proffesor. Love the last line. ~ teledude

Iowa State Daily
By Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science

In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, Sarah Palin shows strengths that none of the other GOP contenders have. According to analysis by the Associated Press "[s]he tops the list as the most empathetic figure and "runs almost even with Romney on the question of who best reflects the party's core values and on who is most compatible with people on the issues."


These are very important "deep" factors that can motivate people to participate politically.

The poll also shows that Palin also has strong support among Republicans without college degrees. This is a group that may or may not be politically savvy and motivated enough to go to the Ames Straw Poll in August or get to a caucus precinct on a cold winter night. However, it is indeed a large and potentially valuable piece of the voting public, especially when you add in the no-party voters without college degrees who can swing either way and who have made the winning difference in past elections.

On the horse-race question — who's ahead and who's coming around the turn at fast speed — Palin got 23 percent and Romney 22 percent among non-college Republicans. However, Romney leads 32 to 9 percent among college graduates.

"Palin is also first or tied for the top spot in both groups when it comes to her connection to people's problems. Above all, it is this "connection factor" that would allow Palin to quickly transform the race, were she to jump in," according to the Washington Post.

The news media have largely neglected Palin because she has not bought space and asked to be on the Iowa (Ames) GOP Straw Poll in August. She has also not officially declared that she will run for President. However, she has been touring the country, giving major interviews to magazines, and hoarding a very nice stack of cash from her various enterprises, which  include books, TV specials, speeches and her work for Fox.

In Newsweek, Peter J. Boyer features her in a very flattering article that was published July 18. The cover of the magazine reads "I can win" and features a posed and very glamorous-looking Palin with the headline, "Sarah Palin on why she's confident — and how she'll decide whether to run in 2012."

When I talked to GOP contacts and friends, the opinion was pretty consistently this. Palin is a big "silent" factor in the 2011 Iowa events (debates and Ames straw poll) and will lurk in the background until caucus night is over in 2012. She may even skip the caucuses and decide to jump in at the last moment. However, in primaries there are ballot printing and candidate filing deadlines, so she cannot wait too long.

One acquaintance, a lifelong Republican, said, "Steffen, she's like the severe storms center hurricane forecast for the season. When they say this year will be an exceptionally active hurricane season, everyone from the Gulf States to Maine is jumpy, looking over their shoulder, getting plywood ready to board up, getting hurricane supplies, arranging to have their boat hauled out should a big one hit. All of the Republican candidates right now are looking over their shoulder to see if Hurricane Sarah might strike!"

I thought that was a sweet metaphor.

Palin has a passionate base of support in the public because she represents the only outsider, populist and unpredictable candidate. Oddly enough, she would also be one of the only GOP candidates (Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the other potential new entrant) who has not signed off on pledges from Iowa conservative "kingmaker" Bob Vander Plaats and others. These are "written in stone" promises about deficits, budgets, gay marriage, abortion and foreign policy issues such as Libya and Afghanistan that these candidates will now be bound to for the rest of the 2012 political season.

Being an unknown and unpredictable political force for 2012 has significant advantages. If nothing else, Palin can emerge from the early "mutual bashing events" such as early debates and the Ames Straw Poll un-bloodied.

Palin can, in other words, hover above all of this and swoop down on the GOP adversaries like the bald eagle I saw from the helm of my sailboat, talons out front, snatching a hapless Merganser duck at the tip of Pt. Bolin, right by the U.S. Navy torpedo-testing facility coming into Liberty Bay, Wash. I'm sure the other GOP candidates will scatter just like the fortunate ducks that were in the water but escaped the mighty raptor!

With Michelle Bachmann misspeaking so often, and now with the revelation that she suffers from severe migraines and is often heavily medicated, her appeal may wane a bit. And, with the depth of gut-feeling enthusiasm for the other GOP contenders pretty shallow in all the polls I've seen, we underestimate the Palin factor at our own risk.

By the way, I also heard that there may be a very well-organized grassroots movement to write her name in at the Ames Straw Poll, so keep an eye on that.

Why Sarah Palin Will Be the Next President of the United States

What a great article I found on a really cool blog! ~ teledude

Lipstick 2012 

by Jeanette Pryor 

On Sunday, July 17th, I braved heat and Harry, (No disrespect to fellow fans!) and traveled to Independence Missouri to see The Undefeated, the documentary of Sarah Palin’s accomplishments as Governor in Alaska.  I left the theater certain of two things: Sarah will run in 2012 and she will win.

What convinced me?  Two things:  The Palin Platform and 80%.

The Undefeated chronicles the four areas upon which Governor Palin focused, the Palin Platform.

1.  Ethics Reform.  Governor Palin basically built a wall between those writing or enforcing the law and major corporations profiting from the shared resources belonging to Alaskans.  Before Sarah’s arrival, the conflicts of interest were such that politicians and Big Oil conducted business in a manner that mutually benefited each another while neglecting the best interest of the ordinary citizens.

2.  “Kitchen Table Economics.”  When Sarah Palin arrived at the Governor’s Mansion, she was asked by the director to give a detailed list of what groceries she would like purchased.  The new Governor told the director that she wanted to use up all the food and supplies still in the pantry from the previous tenants before buying fresh groceries.  Sarah’s spirit of “using what’s in the pantry first” is indicative of her
application of simple household money management principles to general government.  This spirit is detailed in the The Undefeated.

She literally sat at the table and, pen in hand, personally removed almost half a billion dollars of wasteful spending from the State’s Budget.  She spent money on building infrastructure that would bring business to towns and improve economy, rather than on wasteful programs.  She insisted on balanced budgets and that legislators remember they were spending other people’s money.

3.  Independent Energy Revolution.  Sarah lay the foundation for a total transformation in American Energy Policy and total energy independence for the United States from all foreign sources.  She worked to  open new areas for drilling and restructured the state tax code so that oil companies now receive tax benefits in proportion to the lowering of energy costs.  Sarah pushed for new privatized pipelines that would bring more American energy resources and new jobs to Alaska and eventually, the entire nation.

4.  American Exceptionalism-Inspired Foreign Policy.  Sarah believes that an energy independent America is the basis for a less tangled foreign policy, one that focuses on securing our freedoms and those of our true allies.  This independence permits America to stand for those unique values in areas of the world where these values are compromised by our dependence on oil produced by countries who hate us and our way of life.

The Undefeated begins with a five-minute montage of derision aimed at Sarah Palin by liberal media, celebrities,  and politicians.  Her opponents often spoke of her as ignorant or incompetent, but none ever attempted to address the significance of her 80% approval rating.  During the months preceding her Vice-Presidential campaign,  though she advanced legislation and reforms that had the potential to alienate many Alaskans, Sarah Palin’s approval rating never dropped below 80%.  This level of approval is unheard of in politics after the first three “honeymoon” months are over.  The only way Governor Palin could have maintained these ratings is if her policies were really and truly good for all her citizens, ordinary people as well as corporations and businesses in Alaska.

Policies generated by a metal dwarf, or an incompetent narcissist would produce chaos and please only the few who benefit from them.  Only well-balanced and intelligent government that weighs the common good of all can create the order in which people with varying needs are all, or nearly all content and find they are able to go about their lives and business uninhibited by intrusion or neglected where good intervention is needed.

I believe that Sarah will run because she believes profoundly in the efficacious principles of governing she applied, with great success, in Alaska.  The Undefeated presents the reality of Sarah Palin as an inspirational leader who is actually most apt, not at the podium, but in her ability to envision and execute practical solutions to state problems.  Sarah will run because she is passionate about her Platform of simple principles that she knows, from personal experience, will fix the crisis we are facing in America.

Sarah will probably announce in early September that she is seeking the office of President of the United States.  This announcement, contrary to what the media, Hollywood, the Democrats, and the GOP Luminaries have told us, will be met by a storm of enthusiasm and relief, support we have yet to see for any GOP Candidate to grace the field.  For the first two years his reign, Sarah was the most vocal opponent of the Obama madness and is the de facto, respected, seasoned representative of the Conservative electorate.  Once declared, her rapid rise as the logical and enthusiastic nemesis of post-American Obama will be met with ridicule by overconfident opponents until it is too late.  They will pay the ultimate price for ignoring her abilities, real record, tenacity, and proven Platform for the restoration of our country.

Without running, Palin stays near top of GOP field

The Washington Examiner
By: Byron York

There's a near consensus among Washington insiders that Sarah Palin will not run for president.  But a new poll suggests the former Alaska governor would become an instant force in the race if she did choose to run.
In the survey, by the Washington Post and ABC News, Palin comes in a solid second in the Republican field, behind frontrunner Mitt Romney but ahead of the surging Michele Bachmann.  Palin is also well ahead of another possible GOP candidate, Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The numbers are: Romney 26 percent; Palin 18 percent; Bachmann 12 percent; Ron Paul nine percent; Perry eight percent; Herman Cain six percent; Newt Gingrich five percent; Jon Huntsman three percent; and Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum at two percent each.  In a question without Palin and Perry, the other candidates are in mostly the same order.

Palin is also at or near the top of the field in questions about desirable attributes in a president.  When GOP voters were asked which candidate "most understands the problems of people like you," Palin tops the list with 23 percent, followed by Romney at 18 percent and Bachmann at 11 percent.  When voters were asked which candidate is the strongest leader, Palin was second only to Romney, with 16 percent to his 27 percent.  When asked which candidate "is closest to you on the issues," Palin is in a virtual tie with Romney, with 20 percent to his 21 percent.

In only one category, experience, does Palin slip into third place, behind Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.  Palin famously resigned as Alaska governor in mid-term.

Palin also slips a bit when Republicans are asked which GOP candidate would have the best chance of defeating Barack Obama in November 2012.  Thirty-two percent of those surveyed say Romney has the best chance, while just 14 percent say Palin.  But Palin's number is still more than twice that of any other GOP candidate in the field, including Perry.

-----------------------------------------------

And here are those poll numbers ~teledude

REPUBLICAN NOMINATION

• Mitt Romney 26% {21%} [16%]
• Sarah Palin 16% {17%} [5%]
• Michele Bachmann 13% {3%} [1%]
• Rick Perry 8% {3%}
• Ron Paul 7% {6%} [2%]
• Herman Cain 7% {4%}
• Newt Gingrich 4% {6%} [2%]
• Jon Huntsman 3% {1%} [0%]
• Tim Pawlenty 2% {4%} [1%]
• Rick Santorum 2% {1%} [0%]
• Other 1% {3%} [5%]
• No one/None of them 1% {5%} [12%]
• No opinion 8% {14%} [33%]

Viewers of ‘The Undefeated’ speak out

The Daily Caller

By Jedediah Bila

This past weekend, Stephen Bannon’s documentary on Sarah Palin, “The Undefeated,” debuted in 10 markets: Atlanta, GA; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Denver, CO; Orlando, FL; Kansas City, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Orange, CA; and Oklahoma City, OK. ARC Entertainment, the distributor of the film, affirmed that “through Saturday night the film had a stronger opening than expected with the large markets trending towards weekend per screen averages above $10,000 driven by multiple sold-out runs. The film had accumulated approximately $5,000 per screen through Saturday night. Unique in the theatrical feature world, The Undefeated was rushed to select digital theatres in only 3 weeks, and was marketed almost entirely through social media and grassroots efforts, with virtually no traditional media spend. With the strong initial showing, the film is going to a wider release footprint later this month, with details being announced soon.”
I reached out to attendees via Facebook and Twitter, inviting them to share their thoughts about the film. Here’s what some of them had to say:

“Saw ‘The Undefeated’ in Grapevine, TX, opening night and it was packed. My husband and I had to sit in the front row of the 9:50 showing. I have mixed emotions. I’m saddened by the vicious attacks (montage was almost hard to watch), maddened that the GOP have perpetuated the smear campaign, but through it all I was inspired. I learned so much about her vast executive experience in AK and would be proud to cast my vote for an amazing American, mother, patriot and leader, Sarah Palin. There was thunderous applause at the end of the movie. We’re ready, Sarah. Game on!” — Marisa Marshall

“Just came back from seeing ‘The Undefeated.’ It gave me a sense of her accomplishments as both mayor/governor. What inspired me the most was her character — her willingness to lay down a good-paying job because she couldn’t be a part of something that was unethical when she served as commissioner. Her honesty, her courage, her willingness to stand on principle are encouraging to see in someone who holds a leadership position. It’s what is most lacking in Washington, D.C. today. We all clapped at the end of the movie. We were able to see the ‘good fruit produced by a good tree.’” — Shannon Brown

“I was in Orlando on business — just saw the mid-afternoon showing. Much clapping and cheering at the end. Very nicely done. A Tea Partier’s must-see movie. Palin was ‘Outnumbered’ but her resilience, tenacity and fortitude always left her ‘Undefeated.’ Absolutely enjoyed it. Lived up to the conservative hype and The Great One was in it, too! 6pm showing was sold out and in line when I exited the theater. BTW, I was a fan of Palin going into the theater and came out as a campaign donator. Run, Sarah, Run!” — Wayne Stark

“I flew from Michigan to Houston to see ‘The Undefeated’ with my daughter and her husband. They were early supporters but have since fallen for that ‘she can’t get elected’ crap. Well, the movie was wonderful.
They were thrilled to hear about her record and I am pleased to proclaim they are back! I plan on going again with as many folks as I can to change hearts and minds for Sarah Palin. One thing we know for sure is we can trust Sarah Palin … just have the guts to see ‘The Undefeated’!” — Sue Lynn

“My wife and I saw ‘The Undefeated’ in Kennesaw, GA… Lots of cheering and applause during the best scenes. I found myself wiping back tears many times because Sarah’s love for the country blows me away … We were able to take my wife’s daughter to the show and she absolutely had her eyes open to Sarah … Her husband is always telling her that Sarah Palin can’t win because Sarah is too polarizing. After seeing this movie, I will bet the farm on one thing: her husband will never say those words to her again.” — Bill Morgan

“‘The Undefeated’ changes the game for all Americans. To see the cruelty and depth of the progressive mainstream media’s treatment of Sarah Palin liberates you from ever being duped by them again. That awareness made me extremely angry. I am ready to fight the media and on Sarah’s team. More importantly, ‘The Undefeated’ clearly shows Sarah Palin is the model of leadership and character, the kind we desperately need right now in our politicians. I am so impressed with her integrity, management skills and her servant’s heart. You can’t see this movie without hoping she’ll run and having a strong feeling that she ought to be leading this nation to drive the ship of state away from the rocks we are so directly speeding toward. Ms. Palin is being called to the bridge — report for duty!” — Greg Vanderneck

“‘The Undefeated’ movie was full in one of their largest theaters in Phoenix on opening night. People cheered throughout the movie and gave a standing ovation at the end of the film. It was so important for people to learn why she was forced to leave the governorship in Alaska. After her popularity on the campaign trail, she became a true threat and was attacked by the left and big business with no GOP support. I love Michele Bachmann but she is no Sarah Palin!” -– Diane Burnett

“If I could take one thing from this film it would be humility. The humble beginnings, the call to be a representative of the people and the sacrifice she has willingly carried and will carry for the rest of her life. She has never sought power and that is why she has it.” — Garrett Wilson

“I drove two hours to see ‘The Undefeated’ in Indy last night with my 21-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son … The film delivered big time. It contrasted the current administration’s failures with Sarah Palin’s common-sense, proven track record of success in political office. The movie built its case layer upon layer (Act I, Act II, Act III) and presented compelling reasons Gov. Palin can run or outrun the big boys, proving she is perfectly suited to take on the biggest challenge of her life.” — Ellen Anderson

Congratulations to Stephen Bannon and Victory Film Group on a fantastic opening weekend. After reading numerous comments from viewers that I received via Facebook, Twitter and email, one thing is for sure: A whole lot of Americans are ready, willing and able to “fight like a girl.”

Jedediah Bila is a conservative columnist, television commentator and author of the new book Outnumbered: Chronicles of a Manhattan Conservative. For more information on Jedediah, please visit jedediahbila.com. Follow Jedediah on Twitter.

Sarah Inches Closer

The Tea Party Tribune
by Anthony James

Sean Hannity just had Sarah Palin on as a guest with whom he discussed two approaching deadlines. One was the arbitrarily set deadline of August 2 whereby the Democrats are trying to twist the arms of the GOP, forcing them to raise the debt ceiling… basically, demanding that we give the junkie more smack.

Palin’s answers and general approach to the situation were, as usual, spot on. Her suggestions that the GOP not blink, and instead demand that our chief executive actually lead on this issue by coming up with a plan to get through the weeds instead of continuing his petulant game of class warfare and disingenuous financial sky is falling rhetoric, were also exactly what we should expect from a real leader.

The other deadline, a bit more loosely interpreted, was framed when Sean asked Sarah if she had a general timetable for making a decision about whether or not she would run for president. Sarah started with the general disclaimer that she isn’t conceited enough to believe that nobody else could solve the problems that we face, then quickly segued into her belief that the right person, with all the requisite experience, record and skillset, was not yet among the cadre of current GOP hopefuls.

She then, in a more candid moment than we have seen from her regarding this issue to date, acknowledged that any serious candidate would have to have their organizational game on the ground and in motion by August/September. It is now July 13.

I firmly believe that she fully intends not only to throw her hat into the ring, but that she has a very innovative and strategically sound plan for winning the 2012 presidential election. By reiterating that she would not necessarily run if she saw the right person positioned to seize those reins, but that she did not see that person in the current group of contenders, this is the closest we have gotten so far to a firm statement that she intends to run, and intends to officially announce this quite shortly.

While I titled this “Sarah Inches Closer,” I actually feel she did quite a bit more than that tonight. She made it clear that she feels she can win, that there’s nobody already running whom she trusts to do the job, and that it’s only a few short days or weeks at most before she plans to make an official announcement.

What she didn’t come out and explicitly state precisely the same words, she said exactly the same thing with the words that she did use, and quite frankly I could not be happier. For the first time in the 2012 general election season, I have every good confidence that we now not only have some light at the end of this tunnel.

We truly have rapidly rising, very brightly shining star.

Why I Would Vote for a ‘Quitter’ Like Sarah

Here's a great article by Iowa O4P volunteer Phil Arnold, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Pella at the world premiere of 'The Undefeated." Great work Phil! ~ teledude

Conserevatives4Palin
by Phil Arnold
 
One of the things that sickens me most is to hear (or read) conservatives say who say they like and respect Sarah Palin but could never vote for her because she is a quitter. They believe that makes her unelectable.

And yes, I can already imagine the way the Obama machine will try to use the label of QUITTER against her.
The most common response from Palin’s supporters has been to point out all of the other politicians who have quit one political office to take on a higher office. These supporters also point to many politicians who have effectively quit doing their jobs to run for higher office while still getting paid for the job they should be doing but are not. I need not mention any names, but I am sure everyone can think of at least one politician who can be accused of this. I have become convinced that responses such as these are totally inadequate to meet the charges that Palin is a quitter. I am also convinced that it would be even worse to ignore these charges.
I think that it is time for those of us who support Sarah Palin to embrace the idea that “she is a quitter” as a “Badge of Honor”.

Sarah Palin is the kind of a politician many of us would love to see as our President. Throughout her political career she has consistently demonstrated that she has the heart of a servant and that she is willing to make decisions based on what is best for the people she serves rather than what is best for her own career.

One of the first things I learned about Palin when McCain first introduced her as his pick for VP was that she had resigned as chairperson of Alaska’s Oil and Gas Commission in order to fight the political corruption she discovered there. I thought WOW here is a person who was willing to give up a six-figure income to stand up for what is right! That makes her a HERO in my eyes. Nothing I have learned about her since has made me think any less of her.

Her critics complain that she is a “quitter” because she resigned as governor. They say that proves that she can not handle the heat that would come her way if she were elected as president. They also claim that she resigned to further her own fame and fortune. While it is true that resigning as governor did work out well for her and her family, she could not have known at the time that it would.

Palin’s critics miss a very important point. The attacks on her after the 2008 campaign were costing the state of Alaska millions of dollars and had made it impossible for her administration to function for the good of the people of the state. Resigning was the only thing she could have done that could have stopped that huge waste of state money and allowed her administration to get back to work for the people of Alaska. I take it as a
mark of GREATNESS that she was willing to do what everyone considered political suicide and resign for the good of her state and the people she served. Her enemies set out to destroy her and in the process were doing great damage to the state. I would say that she did the most honorable thing and “took one for the team” and for the people of the State of Alaska.

Some say that makes her a quitter. In my eyes that makes her a HERO and and confirms my belief that she is the most rare kind of politician, one who is more concerned about doing what is right than about getting reelected.

Is Palin a quitter? Absolutely! She is exactly the kind of “quitter” who is willing to put her own future on the line to do what is best for the people she serves. That is why I desperately hope that I get the chance to vote for her in 2012 to become our next president.

Help our Hawkeye Heroes: Iowa O4P!

A message from our leadership team:

“Dear friends of Organize4Palin nationwide,

We are a group of grassroots activists in Iowa who have been organizing in this state for a number of months. We need your help! Can you give $10, $20, $50, or even $100 towards some of our key efforts in this state, and do so today? Every dollar you give is enormously productive. None of your donations go towards staff salaries or paid consultants at this point, as we are all volunteers–just like yourselves. We have spent donated dollars in the past on such things as collateral to pass out at meetings and county fairs, t-shirts, and Facebook ads, etc, and will use your donated funds in the coming weeks for the most critical needs as we see them at the time.

Thank you so much! Your help and your contribution mean the world to us. To donate to Iowa Organize4Palin online, please go here:

https://secure.piryx.com/donate/kLDn6iCB/Organize4Palin/Iowa

If you have any questions about what we are doing in Iowa, please contact us at

iowa@organize4palin.com.
The Iowa Organize4Palin team”

The Sugar Daddy Has Run Out of Sugar; Now We Need New Leaders

Governor Palin has taken to facebook and laid down the gauntlet on the national debt. She is brutally honest with what we are facing, and the problems that are stemming from our weak leadership in Washington D.C.  I think the time is drawing near...this is a must read! ~ teledude

Via Facebook
By Sarah Palin

Barack Obama’s big government policies continue to fail. He should put a link to the national debt clock on his BlackBerry. The gears on that clock have nearly exploded during his administration. Yesterday’s terrible job numbers should not be a surprise because it all goes back to our debt. Our dangerously unsustainable debt is wiping out our jobs, crippling our economic growth, and jeopardizing our position in the global economy as the leader of the free world.

As a governor, I had to deal with facts, even unpleasant ones. I dealt with the world as it is, not as I wished it to be. The “elite” political class in this country with their heads in the sand had better face some unpleasant facts about the world as it is. They’ve run out of money and no amount of accounting gimmicks or happy talk will change this reality. Those of us who live in the real world could see this day coming.

Back in January 2009, as governor of Alaska, I announced: “We also have to be mindful about the effect of the stimulus package on the national debt and the future economic health of the country. We won’t achieve long-term stability if we continue borrowing massive sums from foreign countries and remain dependent on foreign sources of oil and gas.” Then I urged President Obama to veto the stimulus bill because it was loaded with absolutely useless pork and unfunded mandates. Everyone knows my early and vocal opposition to that mother of all unfunded mandates known as Obamacare starting back in August 2009, and many recall my objections to the Federal Reserves’ inflationary games with our currency known as QE2 from November 2010. It’s a matter of public record that I did not go to Harvard Law School, but I can add.

The same “experts” who got us into this mess are now telling us that the only way out of our debt crisis is to “increase revenue,” but not by creating more jobs and therefore a larger tax base; no, they want to “increase revenue” by raising taxes on job creators who are taxed enough already! As Margaret Thatcher said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” That’s where we are now. Hard working taxpayers have been big government’s Sugar Daddy for far too long, and now we’re out of sugar. We don’t want big government, we can’t afford it, and we are unwilling to pay for it.

This debt ceiling debate is the perfect time to do what must be done. We must cut. Yes, I’m for a balanced budget amendment and for enforceable spending caps. But first and foremost we must cut spending, not “strike a deal” that allows politicians to raise more debt! See, Washington is addicted to OPM – Other People’s Money. And like any junkie, they will lie, steal, and cheat to fund their addiction. We must cut them off and cut government down to size.

To paraphrase Hemingway, people go broke slowly and then all at once. We’ve been slowly going broke for years, but now it’s happening all at once as the world’s capital markets are demanding action from us, yet Obama assumes we'll just go borrow another cup of sugar from some increasingly impatient neighbor. We cannot knock on anyone’s door anymore. And we don’t have any time to wait for Washington to start behaving responsibly. We’ll be Greece before these D.C. politicians’ false promises are over. We must force government to live within its means, just as every business and household does.

We can’t close our $1.5 trillion deficit overnight, but we must get as close as we can as soon as we can. Little nibbles here and there over 10 years (spun to sound like they’re huge budget cuts) aren’t anywhere near enough. I know from experience that cutting government spending isn’t easy. As governor, I made the largest veto cuts in my state’s history, and I didn’t make many friends doing it. But we will never recover, we will never get free of devastating debt, unless we make tough choices now. We don’t hear talk like this from leaders in D.C. or from those running for office because they say what they think we want to hear rather than what must be said.

We are in desperate need of real leadership, but President Obama’s solution to everything is to grow government by borrowing more money, spending more money, printing more money, and taxing our job creators. He once said that he “believes in American Exceptionalism…just as the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism.” Well, the path he has us on will make us just as “exceptional” as Greece – debt crisis, stagnation, permanent high unemployment, and all.

As we approach 2012, there are important lessons we can learn from all of this. First, we should never entrust the White House to a far-left ideologue who has no appreciation or even understanding of the free market and limited government principles that made this country economically strong. Second, the office of the presidency is too important for on-the-job training. It requires a strong chief executive who has been entrusted with real authority in the past and has achieved a proven track record of positive measurable accomplishments. Leaders are expected to give good speeches, but leadership is so much more than oratory. Real leadership requires deeds even more than words. It means taking on the problems no one else wants to tackle. It means providing vision and guidance, inspiring people to action, bringing everyone to the table, and with a servant's heart dedicating oneself to striking agreements that keep faith with our Constitution and with the ordinary citizens who entrusted you with power. It means bucking the status quo, fighting the corrupt powers that be, serving the common good, and leaving the country better than you found it. Most of us don’t see a lot of that real leadership in D.C., and it’s profoundly disappointing.

But let me tell you where real hope lies. It’s not the hopey-changey stuff we heard about in 2008. Real hope comes from realizing how God has blessed our exceptional nation, and then doing something about it. We have been blessed with natural resources, hardworking entrepreneurs, and a Constitution that preserves the greatest form of government ever devised by man. If we develop those natural resources, allow our entrepreneurs to keep and invest more of what they earn, and adhere to the time-tested truths of our Constitution, we will prosper and endure.

But first and foremost we must tackle our debt. We don’t have the luxury of playing politics as usual. We need real leaders who will put aside their own political self-interest to do what is right for the nation. And if they don’t emerge… well, America has a do-over in November 2012.

- Sarah Palin

Why Sarah Palin Must Run in 2012

Big Government
by Tammy Bruce

One of the prevailing debates in the GOP these days (if not the only one) is whether or not Governor Sarah Palin will, or should, run for president. Not only should she, she must if the GOP has any hope of having a legitimate nominee whom everyone can support for the 2012 election.

Why? Without Palin in the race a massive segment of the GOP base—Tea Party patriots and other independent conservatives—will find themselves once again with the prospect of choosing from a manipulated field of Next-In-Line GOP establishment liberals.

And make no mistake—that is exactly who will prevail. Despite the desperate and not surprisingly shallow belief by the boys in control of the GOP, Palin cannot be replaced by another woman, or another Tea Party supporter, or another Brunette (no matter how much they think a Stalking Horse will split the Tea Party vote).  Palin’s impact is unique, significant and deep. Her influence rests on background, experience, legitimacy and most important of all—trust. These are the reasons why Palin matters, the same reasons why the GOP machine appropriately sees her, and no one else, as an existential threat to their status quo.

Despite this, if the GOP truly wants to win 2012 (of which I’m not entirely convinced, after all, I hear Jeb Bush would love to beat Obama in 2016) they should be begging Palin to enter the race. Considering their portrayal of her, why not? Look, if you can’t beat Sarah Palin what makes you think you can beat Barack Obama? What are they so afraid of? Do they so not trust the decision-making of the American people they want to make sure you have no choice at all? Those lingering questions would eventually be answered—by an Obama victory on November 6, 2012.


Palin also has a dilemma. The decision to run is one only Palin can make, and she must know that choice is first and foremost a commitment to every voter so they can own the result of the election. No matter what happens, with so much at stake in the process, we must be able to look in the mirror and know the result is something of our doing, not a half-truth of the insecure and self-obsessed political class. This is the only way a large swath of the American populace will not abandon the process, allowing the government to maintain at least a semblance of legitimacy.

Palin must know the importance of her simply being in the arena. If she runs and is defeated for the nomination, the burden is then on the shoulders of the voters, they made the choice, not Palin, not the machine. With her in play, Reagan Republicans, conservative independents and Tea Party patriots will know their circumstances are of their doing, that the decision is truly theirs and will have no reason to resent the result or stay home on election day.

The contempt the GOP machine has for the average Republican voter is best illustrated by their other Big Fear—Palin does win the nomination! And why should we fear that? Well, that would be a disaster, because, uh, there’s no way she could win the general election and they have to stop that catastrophe from happening! You know, because Mr. Next-In-Line is for sure the only one who can beat Obama. Just like in 2008. Or something.

The truth of the matter is quite the opposite. They fear a Palin nomination because they know if she wins the GOP nod, she wins the general election. How? Consider these years of frantic and pathological attacks on Palin, all of which she has survived with the grace and dignity so void in her accusers. Now imagine what the establishment will try to do to her during the nominating process. If she wins the nomination despite what they do, it means she not only has convinced Republicans under extraordinary circumstances, she will have convinced the rest of the nation as well. If she wins the nomination with all that she will undoubtedly face during the Republican primaries, the presidency is hers.

All of America will watch to see if Republicans and conservatives are serious about saving this nation—that seriousness will be reflected in their nominee—if it’s Obama-lite—a mandate-supporting, universal healthcare-making, “the era of small government is over”-stating Big Government Conservative–why would anyone else feel compelled to abandon a cultural icon incumbent who represents those very same things?

For Sarah Palin, there is only one way for her “fundamental restoration of America” to take place—first, she must run.

‘The Undefeated’ Trailer – Daughter. Wife. Mother. Warrior.

Big Hollywood
by Andrew Breitbart

The much anticipated Sarah Palin documentary by filmmaker Steve Bannon comes out in theaters next Friday, July 15th.  People can now see the trailer for the first time.  I’ve now seen the film three times and one thing that stands out is how Sarah Palin has always been on the offensive and refuses to apologize for who she is. 

Subsequently, there are tens of millions of Americans who not only relate to her, but her ballsyness contrasts more with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party.  If Sarah Palin doesn’t run for the Presidency, someone in the Republican Party should take note on what real leadership looks like.


The Undefeated Teaser Trailer from Dain Valverde on Vimeo.

Democrats who watch this will see somebody they wish they had on their side—and they did once, in Alaska.  Governor Palin stood up to the deservedly vilified ExxonMobil whose criminal misconduct with the Exxon Valdez was exacerbated with years and years of legal wrangling and deep-seated corruption that Governor Palin took on directly.  Bannon’s movie is not a woe-is-her exercise in victimology; it’s a jarring look at how entrenched politicians and entrenched media can distort reality to maintain the status quo.

I have built a brand and a mission based upon pointing out media distortion and lies.  I have never seen a greater disparity between the media Sarah Palin and the real one.  Mainstream media types who have seen this movie are admitting as much but claim that it’s Sarah Palin who drastically changed into a completely different person.  No, this was a manufactured Palin, manufactured to destroy her in the pursuit of protecting Barack Obama.


Rebels of all stripes who come to this film with open eyes will be inspired by a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a warrior who took on the system and won.

Singleton on Palin: She can beat Obama

The Iowa Independent
By Meghan Malloy

Peter Singleton doesn’t consider himself former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin‘s “ground man” in Iowa.

The California resident, who “spends a lot of time in Iowa,” just considers himself “your average private citizen and grassroots activist who wants to have his voice heard. To say I’m the ‘man on the ground’ isn’t accurate, but I’m not offended.”

Yet, Singleton, an attorney, and his political opinion of Palin have circulated blogs and news articles ranging from the Wall Street Journal, to the Los Angeles Times, to The Atlantic, to even the U.K. Telegraph in Europe — some of which have dubbed him one of Palin’s top political operatives.

“I’ve never met Gov. Palin,” Singleton told The Iowa Independent, with a chuckle.

Yet Singleton has volunteered and organized grassroots organizations for Palin tirelessly, including recruiting supporters and volunteers for Organize 4 Palin during the former Governor’s recent trip to Pella for the premiere of the documentary “The Undefeated.” He visits the Hawkeye State repeatedly to continue garnering support for the woman he believes can defeat President Barack Obama in 2012.

“I believe she will run, in fact, it is a certainty she will,” Singleton told the Iowa Independent Wednesday, an idea he bases on his own opinion and analysis of her political movements so far compared to high profile Republicans who have declared candidacy. “Now, this is my opinion, so is there a chance I could be wrong?
 Well, sure. But based on what I have seen publicly, I just find it inconceivable she would sit 2012 out.”

Recently, former WHO Radio talk show host Steve Deace, commented on his website he had met with Singleton, and the pair started talking about the 2012 election, which is comprised of a host of GOP candidates yet to catch fire with Republicans and social or religious Conservative.

“I asked him point blank if he thought Palin was going to declare her candidacy, and his answer was ’100 percent,’” Deace wrote.

Strong words for a presidential prospect who has not formed a presidential exploratory committee, made copious appearances in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, or has dropped indications that an impending announcement is on the proverbial horizon.

But, Singleton, who confirmed the meeting with Deace, said sometimes going against the grain is just as effective in an election cycle, rather than following the leader.

“Look, Gov. Palin is unique and has her own rules. She can’t do what other (candidates) do and just play it loose,” Singleton said. “While others are out just running for president, she’s actually demonstrating leadership. She actively opposed Obamacare, she opposed cap and trade. There is match between her track record of leadership and the needs of this country.”

And Palin, who has visited Iowa once since candidates have started their formal announcements for the White House, also has name recognition to carry a potential campaign.

“Just because she is making movements like the other candidates does not mean she’s not running,” Singleton speculated.

When asked if Palin — often scrutinized by media reports as being inexperienced in the political arena, and teased in parodies during her 2008 vice-presidential bid — could actually beat Obama if nominated, Singleton was upbeat.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Absolutely she can.”

Press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me

Here is a wonderfully written story from Iowan O4P volunteer Mary Kennedy, who was with me as we met Governor Palin in Pella last week for the world Premier of "The Undefeated."  ~teledude.

By Mary Kennedy

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

Awhile back I made bookmarks with that passage of scripture on them with a picture that said "Palin 2012." I thought I was just making them for a friend, not a big deal at all. A month later, I gave a bunch of them to someone else when I first met him, who loved them and has since become a good friend of mine.

It's a little thing, but I had this dream of some day being able to give one to Sarah Palin. On Tuesday when I went to the world premiere of the movie "The Undefeated" I brought some of them with me, knowing it was a long shot at best, to even be able to give one of them to her. But with God all things are possible!!

When we got to town, the first stop we made was at this bakery, a Dutch bakery that is famous for it's pastry letters. When we walked in, Sarah Palin was in the bakery with her husband Todd. It was a surprise, to say the least! I was able to visit with her for a few minutes, then I was able to give her a bookmark that I had made.

When I got back home, I then realized that God giving that heart's desire to me wasn't just about me, it was actually about her. Maybe at some point in the future, she will pick that up and it will encourage her in some little way right at a moment she needs it.

The point?? God is faithful!! He put those desires in your heart and He will bring them to pass. We are created to show His love to those around us. The desires God puts within us, ultimately have that one and only goal, to show His love!!

Dream those dreams, dreams come true!! In this picture, she is holding the bookmark that I gave her, in her hand. :)

Governor Palin in the Jaarsma Bakery holding the bookmark made by 
Mary Kennedy while speaking with Iowan Linda Rothfuss.

Sarah Palin "The Undefeated" pre-screening review

Run Sarah Run ~ teledude

Kingmaking, Horse Manure, And the Meaning of ‘Game On’

As we await an announcement from Governor Palin,  Nicole Coulter has put things in perspective!  ~ teledude

Conservatives4Palin
By Nicole Coulter

Governor Sarah Palin endorsed 67 winning candidates in last year’s historic midterm election, a nearly 70% winning ratio.

So, yeah, she knows how to pick candidates.

And now the Anyone But Palin crowd would like her to keep on picking candidates, including endorsing someone other than herself for president in next year’s primaries. That’s why they use the following bizarre political terms to describe her:

“Kingmaker”
“Coronator” (Is that even a word?)
“Cheerleader”

But this isn’t really out of any deep respect for her endorsement power. It’s because deep down they know Sarah Palin would defeat their favorite candidate for the nomination.

Oh, they’ll tell you it’s because she’s weak and that’s why they don’t want her to run, but notice how they’re not asking Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain or any of the actual weak candidates to drop out of the race and “king make”?

(By the way, I think Mitt Romney would make a lovely queenmaker. He tried once already to become president and failed so why not cheerlead for a change? Lord knows we would welcome his endorsement. But whatever he decides, it’s cool.)

These Anyone But Palin types may also tell you they’re worried that Palin would win the nomination but lose embarrassingly to Obama in the general election. Which basically tells you right there that they have no faith in their own g**dam* party to nominate the “right” person, and begs the question:

Who is the right person to defeat President Obama?

And, isn’t that what primaries are supposed to be all about deciding?

In the absence of a primary, would the party elders simply convene in their undisclosed villa and hand-select their favorite guy for the job of unseating a sitting president whose favorability ratings are sliding faster than melted butter off a hot waffle?

I mean, really, primaries are about deciding who can best represent the party and defeat the other party’s nominee. It’s supposed to be like, a competition, isn’t it? For party poo bahs or others in the conservative media to suggest that a former VP candidate and accomplished governor (with her own independent documentary to prove it) shouldn’t even run?  It’s horse manure. They’re telling the grassroots Tea Party activist and the average conservative voter that one of the most popular leaders in the conservative movement, a woman who leads the field in favorability in her own party, shouldn’t even compete for the nomination?
Ah, but Herman Cain can run. No problem.

Sarah Palin received 60 million votes for vice president just three years ago. (By comparison, Mitt Romney got four million votes in the last cycle.) Her electrifying convention speech and massive campaign rallies were the Tea Party in utero. She rightly is credited along with CNBC’s Rick Santelli with helping inspire a spontaneous grassroots movement across the country that led to an historic 69-seat pick-up for Republicans last fall, and a visible refudiation of President Obama’s agenda. After the party of Bush was left for dead in 2008, Palin and the grassroots Tea Party movement restored it to relevance and gave weeping John Boehner back the speakership.

And this inspiring figure should not run for president? (Or will choose not to run because she’s just a mindless celebrity, after all, who is too damaged to win. Right … ) But others without that impressive resume should run? (I’m sorry, I missed where Michelle Bachmann had her own midterm endorsement tracker on the Washington Post. Maybe they only do that for celebrity kingmakers who shouldn’t run for president.)
It’s kinda backward, ain’t it? Oh, well, we know the real reason they want Palin out. It’s because they can’t beat her.

If you’re Sarah Palin, what’s the down side of running? Not much. As Bristol let slip in a recent interview, even if the family decided to relocate permanently to an igloo in the North Pole, only to surface every other leap year, they would still be criticized by the media, and never left alone, so why not try to make a difference?

And if you’re Sarah Palin, what are your possibilities in 2012? (Hat tip to a C4P commenter for pointing this out. I forget who exactly so please raise your hand in the comments if this was you, so I can give you credit for the idea.)

Possibility A: Run and lose the primary, and be like Ronald Reagan in 1976, primed for another potential run at the White House.

Possibility B: Run and win the primary, lose the general election, and be like Barry Goldwater, laying the groundwork for Ronald Reagan and a generation of staunch conservatives who followed, not to mention becoming the first ever woman nominated by a major party, and an inspiration for conservative women everywhere.

Possiblity C: Run, win the primary, and win the general election, becoming the first woman president, and the first Tea Party president, with a mandate to drastically reduce the size of the federal government, and restore the Constitutional limits on government’s power.

Possibility D: Don’t run, make some winning endorsements, write a few more books, and be forever like Geraldine Ferraro, God rest her soul, while watching your country slide further into the socialist abyss, knowing you could have been president, and fixed it.

Facing those possibilities, what would you choose?

Run, make history and save your country, or sit around the Fox studios providing commentary on less inspiring candidates?

I think it’s pretty obvious which way Governor Palin is leaning. Because she’s saying things that a presidential candidate would say. When she directly addressed President Obama in Madison, Wisc., in a snowstorm, in a union town, with the words, “Game On” what else was that if not a direct challenge? In fact, she’s been issuing ‘Game On’-like direct challenges to Obama since Sept. 3, 2008 (an unbroken string of direct challenges that no other candidate in the Republican Party can match.)

You can probably quote most of her best zingers by heart:

 I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

- In small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

- We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

- Our state budget is under control. We have a surplus.

- Listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate.

- When the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot — what exactly is our opponent’s plan?

- What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?

- The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

- A special welcome to the C-SPAN cameras … you may not be welcome inside the healthcare negotiations, but you’re welcome here at the Tea Party.

- To win that war … we need a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law standing at the lecturn.

- How’s that Hopey-Changey stuff workin’ out for ya?

- This movement is about the people. Remember all political power is inherent in the PEOPLE. And government is supposed to be working for the people. That’s what this movement is all about.

No doubt you’ve got conservative friends, wimpy Eeyore types, who see the glass half empty, who are probably convinced Palin couldn’t beat Obama so why risk it, right?

Why don’t you encourage them to fly up to Alaska and check in with ex-Wasilla mayor John Stein and ex-Alaska governor Frank Murkowski for commentary on whether Palin possesses the ability to unseat entrenched, heavily funded incumbents. It’ll be an interesting, short conversation, punctuated no doubt with some colorful language.

And why don’t we check in with other “top” GOP talent (Romney, Huntsman, Pawlenty) who have never beaten any incumbent at any time in their careers for insights into how they might suddenly and without precedent morph into bonafide, 24-carat-Obama stoppers. That will be an even shorter conversation, filled with plenty of ums and blank stares.

GAME ON means GAME ON.

And kingmaking is horse manure.

What more can we say?

Palin Vows "110 Percent" Commitment to Iowa -- If She Runs

Real Clear Politics
By Scott Conroy

PELLA, Iowa -- Though she indicated that she is still not close to announcing her decision on whether to run for president, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Tuesday said that she would fully commit to the traditional process leading up to the Iowa caucuses -- if she does throw her hat in the ring.

"110 percent," Palin told RealClearPolitics before entering the premiere of a documentary that extols her accomplishments in office. "Doing as much as I can to garner that support. It's necessary."

Dressed down in bluejeans, Palin strolled through the center of this picturesque town with her husband, Todd, and greeted supporters who gathered to cheer her on outside the screening of filmmaker Steven K. Bannon's "The Undefeated" at the 110-year-old Pella Opera House.

Asked about her daughter Bristol's pronouncement during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday morning that her mother "definitely knows" whether she intends to launch a White House bid, Palin said that she texted Bristol after hearing about the remark.

"I said, 'What did you say this morning, honey?' " Palin said with a smile. "I told Bristol, too, what is talked about on the fishing boat stays on the fishing boat."

Palin said that she was not yet ready to announce a decision and instead remarked on the beauty of Pella and the history of this small Iowa town located about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines. Pella was founded by Dutch settlers in the 1840s, and its downtown area continues to highlight Holland's heritage with several prominent windmills, Dutch bakeries, and shops that sell wooden shoes.

As Palin finally made her way to the entrance of the opera house, she greeted Bannon with a hug.

"I'm very grateful that someone would bother to go to these efforts to make a documentary about the record of my team in Alaska that worked so hard for energy security and ethics reform and privatizing businesses that should never be in government's hands," Palin said. "This film really is a great illustration of what it is that you can accomplish as a team, a bipartisan approach, just common-sense solutions to some tough issues. We tackled it, we succeeded, and someone went to the trouble of documenting what it was that we accomplished. I appreciate that, so that brings me to Iowa."

Scott Conroy is a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics. He can be reached at sconroy@realclearpolitics.com.

“Undefeated” Viewers Review the Movie

Sarah Palin's man in Iowa says she will run for the White House in 2012

Our main man Peter making international news. Of course with his dedication to the Governor, how could he believe anything else. It's just so very obvious to those of us who know what type of person she really is. ~ teledude

 Peter Singleton, Sarah Palin's man in Iowa. Photo: Wall Street Journal

The Telegraph
By Toby Harnden

Sarah Palin will run for the White House in 2012 and conduct an “unorthodox, grassroots campaign the likes of which you’ve never seen”, according to the man who has spent the past eight months organising for her in Iowa.

Speaking to me after the premiere of the film “The Undefeated” in Pella, Iowa, Peter Singleton, a California lawyer who has been assiduously courting Republicans across the state where the first contest of the 2012 election will be held, said it was “unthinkable” she would remain on the sidelines.

“She’s the right person at this time,” he said. “If you look back at Churchill’s time, in 1938 Churchill was unelectable, in 1940 he was indispensable.

“I can’t see her sitting this one out,” he said. “The stakes are too high. It goes back to 1940. Can you see Churchill sitting it out? It’s unthinkable. Can you see George Washington in 1776 sitting it out? Unthinkable. He wanted to be back on his farm but they said we need you to be president of the republic.”

Mr Singleton, 56, tall and urbane, is a man of considerable mystery. He represents the national Organize4Palin group and has been ubiquitous in Republicans circles building up a network for the former Alaska governor, whose presidential intentions have kept Americans guessing for months.

Although he was standing about 20 yards away from Mrs Palin as he talked to me, Mr Singleton insisted he had never met or spoken to her.

This stance, which he has maintained assiduously since he began working on organising a Palin 2012 campaign in Iowa last November following a scouting trip four months earlier, is something that some senior Iowa Republicans do not take at face value.

A film poster outside the Pella Opera House. Photo: Toby Harnden

It was Mr Singleton who telephoned Beth Hill, director of the Pella Opera House, last Thursday to ask her whether “The Undefeated”, a full-throated defence of Mrs Palin and her career, could be shown there. He then visited to look at the auditorium and put Stephen Bannon, the film’s director on the phone to speak to her.

“Peter came here and he found our town reflected Sarah Palin’s small town, conservative values,” she said. Mr Singleton was also instrumental in distributing the 332 tickets for the film as well as inviting 1,000 Iowans, including many key Republican leaders in the state, for a barbecue afterwards.

When I asked about his involvement, Mr Singleton said that he was an old friend of Mr Bannon and he had been just one of ” a bunch of people” who had helped set up the screening.

Pella, with a population of some 10,500, was founded by Dutch immigrants seeking freedom from religious persecution. As well as being famous for the window company that bears its name, the town boasts the oldest working windmill in the United States and an annual tulip festival. There is a town ordinance that stipulates that all buildings should have traditional Dutch facades.

Seymour Vander Schaaf, 70, the theatre pipe organist, who performed before the film, said: “This is a conservative community. Swimming pools weren’t even open on Sunday for many, many years. If you run a lawnmower on a Sunday, you’ll probably have a church member come and ask you whether that is the thing to do.

“They break their damn fool neck trying to get the town to pay bills. They don’t want to have debt. It’s important to get bills paid as quickly as possible and save. The ethic is work hard and provide for your family. Those are values that have huge, long-range implications.

“We’ve lost a bit of them over the years and we need to get it back because we’re at a critical tipping point.  With the debt, we’ve got a damn monster on our hands.”

Asked by a Fox News reporter before the film about whether she would run in 2012, Mrs Palin responded: “It’s a tough decision, it’s a big decision to decide whether to run for office or not. I’m still contemplating….I am still thinking about the decision and you know a lot goes into such a life-changing, relatively earth-shattering type of decision and still thinking about it.”

Earlier in the day, it had been reported that her eldest daughter Bristol had said Mrs Palin had made a decision about whether or not to run. Mrs Palin laughed about this and said: “I texted Bristol, I said, ‘Honey what did you say this morning on some news programme.

“She said, ‘Oh, mom, you’ve got to watch the interview. You know how they take everything out of context.’ I said, ‘You remember Bristol what we talk about on the fishing boat stays on the fishing boat’. I don’t know what she said.”

After the film, Mrs Palin and her husband Todd were mobbed by hundreds of supporters amid shots of “your record is golden”, when’s the sequel” and “we need you in the White House, Sarah”.

Sarah Palin talks to supporters after the film. Photo: Toby Harnden

Asked about the movie as she signed autographs and posed for picture, she said that there was “vindication in it” but “beyond the vindication of my record personally and my team’s record it is a wonderful story about American values”.

It went some way, she added, to presenting the reality of her time as Alaska governor and her life. “There are so many false narratives out there about Todd about our kids, about my record, about my team that has worked so hard together that there is never going to be a way to absolutely set the record straight.”

Mr Singleton also spoke about narratives that were incorrect. “The narratives are: she’s not running; she’s about to endorse another candidate;  it’s too late for her to get in; she’s going to run as a celebrity candidate; she’s  got no support here; support is attenuated; she’s yesterday’s news,” he said. “All that is comically inaccurate.”

Mrs Palin, he said, would work to connect with Iowans. “Her support is latent. When she runs, whether she wins or loses will be dependent in part on how well she campaigns.

“It’s not like all she has to do is announce and then do a couple of rallies. It doesn’t work and way and it shouldn’t . She will need to work diligently and campaign. Her people are going to have to campaign in every town and every county. That’s what we’re doing.”

For her part, Mrs Palin told RealClearPolitics that she would commit “110 percent” to the Iowa caucus process if she does run for president.

Mr Singleton predicted Mrs Palin “will have hundreds of thousands of volunteers, 10 times more than any other candidate and I think that’s why she’ll win”.

There was still time, he insisted, for her to enter the race, currently being led by Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. “It’s not too late. Would I like her to be here campaigning? Oh sure. But am i worried that the window has closed? No.

“The race is wide open. She has a lot of support. I can tell you that because I’ve got field data. I’m part of a team that’s out there all the time.”

Mr Singleton declined to say how many Palin volunteers there were in Iowa but other Republicans said that there were scores, perhaps more than 100, across the state. In time, he said, he expected that “lots of our volunteers now will fold into her campaign in some capacity”.