Gov. Palin: Obama ‘clueless’ about energy policy

Sarah Palin was John Stossel's guest on Fox Business Friday. They discussed domestic American oil exploration/production and the need for the Keystone Pipeline:


Cross-posted at US for Palin

- JP

Sarah Palin: Please support Walker & Kleefisch in Wisconsin

From Gov. Palin today via Twitter:

Please remember to support Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Kleefisch in next Tuesday’s recall election. Wisconsin is still the front lines in the battle for our nation's future. Last year, Andrew Breitbart and I spoke at a rally in Wisconsin. Here is the video clip of our remarks:

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch could really use our financial support as well. Her opponent is getting massive last minute funding from organizations out of DC. Let's show her that we have her back. Please visit her website www.rebeccaforreal.com to help.

- JP

Politico’s Harris: Unlike Trump, Palin ‘a serious player’

What we've always known slowly begins to dawn on the lamestream media:


Video courtesy of MSNBC

- JP

Palin-preferred Ted Cruz forces U.S. Senate runoff in Texas

Sarah Palin kept her winning streak of 2012 endorsements intact Tuesday as Ted Cruz forced establishment favorite Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst into a runoff in the Texas U.S. Senate race:

Cruz, a Cuban-American lawyer who served as state solicitor general, along with seven additional Republicans competing in the Senate primary, held Dewhurst to 44 percent of the vote with 100 percent of precincts reporting. That meant Dewhurst was 7 points shy of the majority required to avoid a July 31 runoff. Cruz placed second with 34 percent to secure his runoff spot.

The showing by Cruz, who was endorsed by the Tea Party Express, FreedomWorks, Sarah Palin and others connected to the tea party, marks the latest in a string of U.S. Senate victories for the movement. First, tea party challenger Dan Liljenquist forced Sen. Orrin Hatch to a primary in Utah, then Richard Mourdock defeated Sen. Dick Lugar in Indiana, and most recently, state Sen. Deb Fischer won her party's nomination in Nebraska.

Cruz and his supporters argued Dewhurst was too moderate and had lied in recent days by claiming Cruz backs amnesty for illegal immigrants.

"Dewhurst failed to get a majority because he failed to fight for conservative principles. His false attacks backfired," Sen. Jim DeMint, a Cruz supporter, tweeted Tuesday night.

Cruz' backers hope to build on new momentum ahead of the runoff, believing Dewhurst's establishment-backed candidacy has topped out with regard to support.

[Read More]

Dallas Morning News senior political writer Wayne Slater predicts the Cruz-Dewhurst runoff will be a fierce fight over few voters:

For Dewhurst, who has served a decade as lieutenant governor, the test will be how far his deep pockets and establishment support will take him in a year in which disaffection with government dominates the voter mood.

For Cruz, the task will be to rally a dwindling coterie of GOP activists — and some Washington Beltway free-marketeers supporting his campaign — to win the seat of retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

“Cruz will have a spike for 72 hours and get a lot of national attention,” said GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak, a Cruz supporter. “Folks who came in to support him will claim a major victory. But I do think it will be a little bit difficult to sustain that” over the next two months.

The political landscape is daunting. Perhaps only 3 percent of the state’s 13 million registered voters will turn out July 31, the heart of a hot Texas summer, when families are more interested in vacation than politics.

“Outside of the political geeks and the folks who are really interested in this stuff, this runoff race is not going to be on the minds of Texans,” said Dallas Tea Party activist Ken Emanuelson. “The people who go to vote, they’re going to be the hard core.”

Identifying those likely voters will be the immediate goal of both camps, which will set about to get lists of Republican primary voters with a history of casting ballots in past primaries.

Sarah Palin’s endorsement, which aided Richard Mourdock in Indiana and Deb Fischer in Nebraska, supplied new energy to the Cruz candidacy, observes NRO's Katrina Trinko, who notes that it also helped Cruz successfully push back against a negative ad run by a pro-Dewhurst super PAC.

“When Cruz says he’s a conservative, he has Sarah Palin backing him up. And for a certain segment of the Republican-primary electorate here in Texas, that means something,” says Mark P. Jones, a political-science professor at Rice University. Referencing that pro-Dewhurst super PAC’s ad, which included the line “Ted Cruz, a conservative? You’ve got to be kidding,” Jones points out that Palin’s endorsement undercut that ad. “In a lot of the broadcasts we’ve had here, that’s running right after this Cruz ‘Fighter’ ad, where at the end Sarah Palin endorses him. The Palin endorsement is undermining the next ad, because if you’re a voter, you’re saying, ‘Sarah Palin just endorsed him. Okay, but here’s the Dewhurst attack ad saying that he’s not a conservative. So either the Dewhurst ad is wrong or Sarah Palin’s wrong. But both of them can’t be correct.’”

“In the end, among a lot of movement conservatives, the Palin ad really helped to counter or at least neutralize a lot of the Dewhurst attacks,” Jones says. “Sarah Palin was a much more valuable endorsement for Ted Cruz than Rick Perry was for David Dewhurst.”

- JP

Sarah Palin urges Texans to vote for Cruz today

Gov. Palin tweeted today:

Dear Texans, please remember to vote today for Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate! http://fb.me/KpyB3ek3

- JP

Gov. Palin: Memorial Day and Rolling Thunder

Sarah Palin posted this Facebook Note Friday evening:

Todd and I and our family would like to wish you all a happy Memorial Day weekend. We’d especially like to offer our best wishes to our friends in Rolling Thunder who will be taking part in their Ride for Freedom this weekend in D.C. as they do each year to honor our vets and specifically to bring awareness to POW/MIA issues. We were honored to join them last year.

We were both sad to learn that Preston “Jay” Fairlamb, Jr., one of the organizers of Rolling Thunder and someone who made us so welcome last year, tragically died in an accident last week. Jay was a Vietnam vet, a retired New Jersey State Trooper, and a great American who will be dearly missed. Please keep his wife, his children, grandchildren and his innumerable friends in your prayers.

On this Memorial Day weekend, may God bless our brave men and women in uniform.

- Sarah Palin

Todd and I with Jay last year at Rolling Thunder. Photo by Shealah Craighead
- JP

Sarah Palin and the Ronald Reagan Factor

There are many who don't understand why Sarah Palin doesn't support every public office seeker who dubs himself or herself a "Tea Party" candidate. Yes, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate endorses and contributes to many candidates who have Tea Paarty connections, but those who haven't followed Gov. Palin closely often make the mistake of trying to categorize her into a pigeonhole where she refuses to fit. Mama Grizzy is many things, but monolithic is not one of them. It is, however, safe to say that the former Alaska governor is and has always been a Reagan conservative.

Even some conservatives (not Ronald Reagan conservatives) don't get Sarah Palin because they fail to grasp just how influential the 40th U.S. president was in shaping Gov. Palin's conservative world view. To say that Ronald Reagan is her hero is to underestimate how important his conservative principles and his fighting spirit remain to her even though nearly a decade has passed since his death and more than two decades have elapsed since he left the White House. The Ronald Reagan Factor helps to explain why Gov. Palin endorsed Sen. Orin Hatch earlier this week:

The two people least surprised by Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Senator Orrin Hatch this week are Palin and Hatch. In the Twitter and Facebook era, they became political allies the old-fashioned way: through handwritten letters and personal phone calls.

It’s an unlikely, politics-fueled friendship that’s fit for a Robert Caro book. Hatch, a soft-spoken grandfather, is one of Palin’s top outside mentors. He encourages her and cheers her. They share family stories, they discuss history, and they talk about legislation.

“It’s true,” Palin tells National Review Online. “He’s a warrior.” She respects his record, especially his work on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Hatch has frequently been an influential figure during contentious Supreme Court confirmations.

Even though she is 30 years his junior, Palin has grown to appreciate Hatch’s historical perspective on Congress, the presidency, and the conservative movement. “I respect public servants who benefited from and grew under the tutelage of Ronald Reagan,” she says.

[Read More]

The Reagan Factor also helps to understand why Sarah Palin made no secret of the fact that she voted for Newt Gingrich in the Alaska GOP presidential primary this year. Gingrich was the only candidate running in the 2012 primaries who had a direct connection to Ronald Reagan. Those who backed Rick Santorum just didn't get why Sarah Palin, even though she gave the former Pennsylvania Senator his due, never endorsed or threw her support behind his candidacy. It is not enough for Sarah Palin when a candidate simply pays lip service to Ronald Reagan. Those who worked with Reagan and fought by his side will always have her respect.

further, The Reagan Factor helps us understand why Mark Levin is backing Hatch and why Gov. Palin and Levin share such a deep mutual respect. We see evidence of that respect in Levin's comments made following her endorsement of Hatch. When trying to figure out Sarah Palin, never discount the Reagan factor.

h/t: Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin

- JP