Sarah Palin weighs in on Romney’s vice-presidential pick, Paul Ryan, and talks about her experience as McCain’s running mate in 2008, all within the first three minutes of this video. At the end, she asks for prayer warriors to get behind Ryan and Romney.
Former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Sunday said she will not speak at the Republican National Convention in Florida later this month, saying she will instead focus on rallying in support of candidates for the U.S. Congress.
Palin, 48, who previously served as the Governor of Alaska and was U.S. Senator John McCain’s vice presidential nominee during the 2008 presidential elections, said she continues to support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his newly announced running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.
“This year is a good opportunity for other voices to speak at the convention and I’m excited to hear them,” Palin said in a brief statement distributed by Fox News. “As I’ve repeatedly said, I support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in their efforts to replace President Obama at the ballot box, and I intend to focus on grassroots efforts to rally Independents and the GOP base to elect Senate and House members so a wise Congress is ready to work with our new President to get our country back on the right path.”
She added: “Everything I said at the 2008 convention about then-candidate Obama still stands today, and in fact the predictions made about the very unqualified and inexperienced Community Organizer’s plans to ‘fundamentally transform’ our country are unfortunately coming true.”
The Republican National Convention will be held in Tampa, Florida, between August 27 and August 30 and will feature a number of high-profile Republican figures as speakers. Among those confirmed to be speakers are former presidential candidates John McCain and Rick Santorum. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice will also speak.
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Hannity colludes with Cheney in an attempt to repair the damage from his assertion last week that Palin was unqualified, not vetted, and a mistake for McCain’s VP. Instead of apologizing, Cheney instead offers (repeatedly) the lame excuse that he was criticizing “process” not Palin.
In an interview that aired on last weekend’s “This Week” on ABC, former Vice President Dick Cheney revealed his disappointment that Sarah Palin was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. That revelation is still being discussed three days later and it has even drawn criticism from conservatives.
But on Tuesday night’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on the Fox News Channel, Palin herself responded to the former vice president, calling it a “misfire,” and saying that he had bought into the media’s story that has been generated over the last four years.
“Well, seeing as how Dick — excuse me, Vice President Cheney never misfires, then evidently, he’s quite convinced that what he had evidently read about me by the lamestream media having been written what I believe is a false narrative over the last four years, evidently, Dick Cheney believed that stuff, and that’s a shame,” Palin said. “So he characterized me as being a mistake.”
But Palin argued that the mistake wasn’t her selection. It would have been if she declined the nomination and pointed to her high numbers at the time of the 2008 presidential race that made her an attractive candidate.
“Here’s where the mistake would have been, Greta, I believe. It’s had I not answered the call — I was honored to get to run for vice president of the United States alongside Senator John McCain. I was honored to accept the nomination from the GOP. And I think that the mistake would have been me just deciding that, ‘Hey, I love my 86-87 percent approval rating up there in Alaska as the governor, moving and shaking and watching corrupt politicians and businessmen go to prison for crony capitalism, working on 16 to 20 percent of domestic energy supplies being able to be increased via Alaska’s resource development, ethics reform legislation that I was working on — that led to that 86 percent approval rating.”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore
Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, made the following comments yesterday about Ted Cruz’s incredible victory in Texas:
“The victory of Ted Cruz in the Texas Republican Senate runoff primary means that the torch is being passed to a new generation of principled small government constitutional conservatives and that the ‘let’s make a deal’ Republican Party of old will soon go the way of the Dodo bird.
“Ted’s nomination sent a strong signal that a new conservative Republican Party is being born and, by 2016, principled conservatives will replace most leaders in Congress and the Party at the national, state, and local levels. GOP leaders should ‘ask not for whom the bell tolls — it tolls for thee.’
“The Cruz campaign was a contest in which the people–grassroots conservatives and Tea Partiers — routed the establishment and the special interests.
“Inspired by such national conservative leaders as Sarah Palin, Phyllis Schlafly, Ed Meese, James Dobson, by Senators Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Tom Coburn, and by organizations such as The Club for Growth and FreedomWorks, the grassroots conservative and Tea Party voters of Texas took on the combined power of Governor Rick Perry, every Texas GOP state senator save one, and the good old boy network of Austin and DC lobbyists–and they won.
“By nominating Ted Cruz, the Republican voters of Texas today sent a strong message that what they want is an end to the crony capitalism, business-as-usual spending, and disregard for the Constitution that have dominated Washington no matter which party was in power.” Read more from this story HERE.
Another view: Tea Party’s influence could reshape Senate Republicans
By Jennifer Steinhauer. The tea party is very much alive in the drive for Republican control of the Senate, portending a potential shake-up in the mindset of the chamber.
The easy Republican primary victory in Texas on Tuesday of Ted Cruz, the 41-year-old Sarah Palin-blessed upstart, virtually assured the latest tea party candidate a seat in the chamber next year. And he will not be alone when it comes to those backed by the movement that propelled Republicans to control of the House in 2010.
Among 17 contested Senate races and in Texas, more than half a dozen of the Republican candidates — or those currently running ahead in their primaries — are tea party-embraced. The infusion of new conservative blood could alter the complexion of the Senate, increasing the sorts of conflicts between moderates and far-right Republicans disinclined toward compromise that have characterized the House for two years.
From Indiana — where Richard Mourdock recently toppled the veteran Republican Sen. Richard Lugar — to Wisconsin — where two tea party candidates are slowly unmooring the Republican front-runner, former Gov. Tommy Thompson — to Nebraska — where Deb Fischer surprisingly beat out a more established Republican candidate — tea party-backed contenders are surging. In Missouri, three Republicans are fighting to portray themselves as the candidate most strongly aligned with tea party values.
Even if Democrats maintain control, newcomers like Cruz are likely to quickly coalesce with veteran conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and freshmen like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, enlarging the ranks of members who stand well to the right of their party’s central platform. Read more from this story HERE.
CNN has issued an apology for playing Pink’s “Stupid Girls” before a story on former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s support for fast-food restaurant Chick-fil-A and its homophobic president Dan Cathy.
In what is known in the broadcasting industry as a ‘bumper,’ CNN played part of Pink’s 2006 hit “Stupid Girls” before a Sunday morning segment about Palin and her husband dining at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Texas.
“Sarah Palin is apparently hungry for chicken and controversy,” CNN hard news anchor Randy Kaye said, segueing into the story about how the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee not only ate at Chick-fil-A but posted about her visit on Twitter and Facebook as well.
“Stopped by a Chick-fil-A in The Woodlands to support a great business,” Palin tweeted.
CNN has since apologized for what it called a “poor choice” of music, but the network denied intentionally linking “Stupid Girls” to Sarah Palin.
Read more from this story HERE.
Publisher’s note: Good luck finding the CNN apology on its web site. At the time of this posting, the story is nowhere to be found. Also, if you haven’t seen the CNN segment introducing the Palin story with “Stupid Girl”, here it is here:
This past week, former Vice President Dick Cheney suggested that Sarah Palin was not qualified for the vice presidency and that John McCain had not properly vetted her. His daughter, Liz Cheney, disagreed publicly by issuing this tweet:
Here’s more on what Dick Cheney said and his daughter’s reaction here:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told ABC‘s Jonathan Karl Sunday that Senator John McCain’s decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 was a “mistake,” and one that Mitt Romney can’t repeat.
“I like Governor Palin. I’ve met her. I know her. She – attractive candidate. But based on her background, she’d only been governor for, what, two years. I don’t think she passed that test…of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake,” Cheney explained.
But now, Liz Cheney– who many respect as a conservative mind independent of her father’s former position– has amicably announced that she disagrees with her father’s position.
“Rarely do I disagree with best VP ever but @SarahPalinUSA more qualified than Obama and Biden combined. Huge respect 4 all she’s done 4 GOP,” Liz Cheney wrote.
And this isn‘t the first time Liz Cheney has come to Palin’s defense:
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo credit: david_shankbone
ABC News’ Brian Ross speculated this morning that the alleged shooter who attacked a Batman premier in Colorado might be a member of the Tea Party. His suggestion — since retracted by ABC — continues a trend of media figures wrongly tying such tragedies to the Tea Party since 2010.
In February 2010, Joseph Stack became a Tea Partier for purposes of the media after he committed suicide by flying his small airplane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. New York Magazine, after reading his online suicide note/manifesto that day, immediately declared that “a lot of his rhetoric could have been taken directly from a handwritten sign at a tea party rally.” The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart added that “his alienation is similar to that we’re hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.”
Neither Capehart or NYMAG mentioned that Stack quoted the Communist Manifesto approvingly and denounced capitalism as a system that teaches, “From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.” That would seem to put him at odds with the Tea Partiers, who often attacked Obamacare as a socialist government program.
A few months later, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speculated that the failed attempt to bomb Times Square was carried out by someone “with a political agenda who doesn’t like the health care bill or something.” The would-be bomber, a Pakistani immigrant, said in court “If I’m given 1,000 lives I will sacrifice them all for the life of Allah.”Most famously, politicians and media figures attacked Sarah Palin and the Tea Party after the Tucson shooting that wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords, R-Ariz., and killed six others. Palin was faulted for having put “crosshairs” over Giffords’ district when she was targeting Democratic seats that might be vulnerable to Republican takeover. Even a year after the shooting, Democratic National Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., was willing to cite the shooting as proof that politicians need to “tone things down, particularly in light of” the Tucson shooting. “I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement,” she said.
Read more from this story HERE.
Publisher’s Note: Please also read the Wall Street Journal’s excellent article, Extreme Prejudice. It gives a brief background on the innocent Jim Holmes (he “is a 52-year-old Hispanic conservative who joined the Tea Party after becoming disillusioned with the Republican party. . . . He disconnected his telephone and says that he is worried about members of his family who might be contacted by the media”) and notes that
There was one other factor, and this is what makes the ABC error not just amateurish but sinister: the innocent Jim Holmes’s involvement with the Tea Party. For more than three years liberal journalists have falsely portrayed the Tea Party as racist and potentially violent. After the January 2011 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., speculation immediately began that the suspect was a Tea Partier. Even after it was proved that he was not, the New York Times published a despicable editorial blaming conservatives anyway.
Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich slammed the Romney campaign Tuesday, saying former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney should extend a speaking invitation to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
“Governor Palin motivates and arouses an entire base,” Mr. Gingrich said in an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. “[She] should absolutely have a speaking slot.”
Mr. Gingrich’s comment on the matter comes just days after reports emerged noting that Mr. Romney has yet to invite Ms. Palin to the Republican presidential convention hosted in Tampa, Florida. Mr. Gingrich, who has not been invited to speak at the convention, said that he would be honored to speak at the convention if asked, but the decision is up to Mr. Romney and his team.
Ms. Palin, who responded to reports that the Romney campaign has yet to offer her a speaking invitation, said the circumtances regarding the Romney decision was payback for her outspokenness and criticism of his policy stances.
“What can I say?” Palin told Newsweek when asked about the convention. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo credit: DonkeyHotey
On Fox News yesterday, Liberal Bob Beckel tried to bash Sarah Palin on her claim that Obamacare created Death Panels. He came up short.