From Smear To Eternity

Don't go away, it's time today for another on-the-spot report from the still raging Slimeicane Sarah.

If you thought this Enemy Media/Obamocrat tempest was going to quietly slink away in shamed, chastised, sheepish embarrassment after Governor Palin's tour-de-force convention acceptance speech, you don't know the American Fifth Column vewy wew, do you?

***Here was an attack from last week that I neglected to comment on.  It was a direct reaction to her happy-but-Klingonesque-warrior mauling of The One, and dismissed its wild success on the grounds that it was written for her by one of President Bush's speechwriters.  As if pretty much EVERY pol doesn't employ a staff of writers to craft their public addresses for them.  Leaders of the calibre of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill who crafted their own eloquent rhetoric occupy their places of singular historical distinction for a reason, after all.  Besides, we know BO doesn't write his own stuff, either, judging by the trouble he gets himself into when he speaks off the cuff.

A similar blast dismissed Barracuda's barn-burner as "just reading off a teleprompter - big deal".  A sneer so pathetically ironic that it really doesn't merit any additional comment.

***First Governor Palin was supposed to be against Operation Iraqi Freedom on "no war for oil" grounds.  When that was debunked, the ASSociated Press lunged all the way over to her not only being a crazed, bloodthirsty warmonger, but a Christianist Crusader as well:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”…

“Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God,” she said. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”

Chickenhawk theocrat or Blues Brothers mark?  AP reports, AP decides, your job is to swallow it.

Would you believe the fair and balanced party in this story is....the Huff & Puffers?

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

It was, in other words, not a fatwa but a humble exhortation that did not, after all, presume to know the mind of God.

Staying on the Enemy Media's Christophobia for the time being, there was this Miami Herald slur sounding the alarm that Governor Palin may start babbling in tongues like a holy Linda Blair at any moment:

Sarah Palin often identifies herself simply as Christian.

Yet John McCain’s running mate has deep roots in Pentecostalism, a spirit-filled Christian tradition that is one of the fastest growing in the world. It’s often derided by outsiders and Bible-believers alike.

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't deride it per se.  I attended a Pentacostal service once twenty years ago, and it was, indeed, expressive.  I could have done without the eyes-closed hand-waving, and the one person spontaneously gibbering at one end of the sanctuary and somebody else at the other interpreting the gibberish gave me a grade-A case of the creeps.  Biblically speaking, tongues is a gift that was bestowed upon believers by the Holy Spirit in the first century (See the book of Acts) when the miraculous was both more common and more needed since the Church of Jesus Christ was undergoing its initial stages of growth.  The gift faded away as the Church became established and viable.  Those who seek out such manifesations today run the risk of incurring demonic deceptions as a result of their lack of faith.  But as a worship style, there's nothing intrinsically or doctrinally wrong with it.  It's just not my cup 'o tea.

But I cannot help but notice that in the very same piece, the Herald undermine their own Christophobic fearmongering:

Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn. She was then baptized in a Pentecostal Assemblies of God church as a teen and attended that church until six years ago, when she and her family adopted a different home church, an independent evangelical church.

My family and I happen to attend an "independent evangelical church".  I was brought up in one, attended another in college where I met my wife, and we've been at our current one for nineteen years (see the right sidebar).  If the idea was to lampoon Sarah as a holy roller, I'd say the Herald couldn't even stick to their intended meme.

But let's not leave the debunking to chance:

One of the musical directors at the church, Adele Morgan, who has known Mrs. Palin since the third grade, said the Palins moved to the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church in 2002, in part because its ministry is less “extreme” than Pentecostal churches like the Assemblies of God, which practice speaking in tongues and miraculous healings.

“A lot of churches are about music and media and having a big profile,” Ms. Morgan said. “We are against that. That is why it is so attractive to politicians because they can just sit there and be safe.”

“We’ve gotten a lot of their people when the other churches get too extreme,” Ms. Morgan continued. However, she added, “If you lift your hands when we’re singing, we’re not going to shoot you down.”

You can see the ensuing retort: "Palin only switched to Wasilla Bible for political reasons; she's still a crazed snake-handler at heart!"  Because of course, she plotted out her entire political career and meteoric rise to national power years in advance, just like her running mate's opponent did.  Because that's just how those eeeeevil, power-mad Repugnican fascists operate.

The truth, of course, is that libs hate, fear, and loathe ALL Christians (defined as those who actually take their faith and what the Word of God says seriously) and don't really distinguish between evangelical denominations.  It's just easier to sell the "weirdness" of an entire congregation doing the Washington Wheat Growers dance while little puffs of flame descend over their heads.

***Time magazine's Jay Carney somehow got the idea from this video clip that Team Sith is so petrified of an avalanche of Palin gaffes and pratfalls that they're going to handle her to death and not let the press anywhere near her:

According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace - in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough's show - the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.

I dunno about you, but I get the impression that Carney was miffed at getting backhanded off the set by Nicole Wallace.  How DARE that beeyach talk to him that way!  Doesn't she know who he IS?  He's a powerful and influential (in his own mind) member of the MEDIA!  The media RUN this country, goddammit, not female impersonators like Nicole Wallace and Sarah Palin!

Meanwhile, she never said that Governor Palin wouldn't talk to the press or do media interviews.  As a matter of fact, she's entertaining ABC's Charlie Gibson up in Wasilla this week mano-e-pit bullo, without training wheels.  But neither she, nor McCain, are going to conform to the media's demands like trained seals.  They know the press is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Obamanation and that it hates them, and especially her.  Their job isn't to kiss the asses of partisan hacks like Jay Carney, but to step on their heads to get to the American voters directly, in the finest Reagan tradition.

A roaringly ironic lesson for Sailor to have to learn, but he's taken that heed.

***The aforementioned Huff & Puffers think the Guv made her first big-time face-plant last weekend in Colorado Springs.  Judge for yourself:

Governor Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” The companies, as McClatchy reported, “aren’t taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization.”

Economists and analysts pounced on the misstatement, which came before the government had spent funds bailing the two entities out, saying it demonstrated a lack of understanding about one of the key economic issues likely to face the next administration.

“You would like to think that someone who is going to be vice president and conceivable president would know what Fannie and Freddie do,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “These are huge institutions and they are absolutely central to our country’s mortgage debt. To not have a clue what they do doesn’t speak well for her, I’d say.”

In a way this is not unlike Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" gaffe from yesterday.  Just as he was speaking in a specific immediate context, so Governor Palin was referring to the imminent federal bailout of the Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced yesterday.  Perhaps Dean Baker doesn't think that making Us, The People cough up another several hundred billion smackers for the twenty-first century version of the S&L crisis isn't "too expensive to the taxpayers," but I'd wager most voters would agree with her.

Moreover, as Peter Viles wrote yesterday, this bailout was authorized by Congress two months ago:

The Palin comment is well within the margin of error on the campaign trail. There is no “gaffe” here. Congress earlier this summer — in the housing bill that both John McCain and Barack Obama supported but didn’t bother to vote on — gave Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. a blank check* to invest in Fannie or Freddie. It OKd a big bailout. Perhaps in your book a blank check freshly signed by Congress is not “too expensive.” Perhaps you trust the government not to spend a blank check. Perhaps pigs have wings. Palin was right: The very existence of a blank check means that Fannie and Freddie are too expensive to taxpayers.

*In a comforting bedtime story that several members of Congress actually believed, Paulson said the blank check was so big and powerful (a bazooka of cash!) he would never have to use it. By the time Palin spoke, it was clear that Paulson’s attempt at “verbal intervention” had failed and that real taxpayer money will be spent to prop up Fannie and Freddie.  No one knows how much, but the Treasury has signed contracts to invest up to $100 billion in each company. Oh, and loan them money too. Oh, and buy their mortgage-backed securities. Do you really want to argue that she made a mistake by saying the two companies are “too big and too expensive to the taxpayers”?

Compare that larger context, which matches the immediate context, to Obama, who is evidently the only human being on the continent who didn't remember Sarah's hockey mom/pit bull line from a week ago.

Barrucuda [not even I can count that high], DeMedia 0

***Obama's Alaska Media Expeditionary Force thinks it's found evidence of a massive Palin corruption scandal involving....gubernatorial per diems:

[S]he billed Alaska for per diem expenses to which she was perfectly entitled, including travel expenses that were roughly 75% less than the previous governor racked up, and actually declined to be reimbursed for some expenses she could have claimed. [emphasis added]

Even the "nuance" is lame:

The graphic accompanying the story shows Palin's claim for 3/29/07.  It shows a claim of $60, the amount to pay Palin's meals and incidental expenses (M & IE) during the work day.  To the left of that column, there is no dollar amount for lodging.

Remember that the lede is "Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for three hundred twelve nights spent in her own home during her first nineteen months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business."

She claimed nothing for the night spent in her home on this date.  If this is one of the three hundred twelve nights counted by the WP, the story is off by one.  If this is the pattern for the other nights counted by the WP, then the story's central point is false. [emphasis added]

Dontcha think if they had anything better than this one claim that undermines the core of the WaPo's latest breathless (and brainless) "gotcha," they'd have inserted it into the "story" - and down all of our throats?

***As for "Troopergate," the fondest hope, the most cherished nugget of [non-salacious] "dirt" the Palinphobes think they've unearthed in the Last Frontier, that little ember was doused by a very appropriate source:

Heartache!  Particularly for pot-bellied pigs, who are about to undergo a fusillade of unwanted cosmetics.  Ah, well, at least the nutters can go back to entertaining themselves with photoshops of Barracuda in a bikini firing a faux rifle, Barracuda about to get jiggy with Bullwinkle, and Barracuda calling BO a "Sambo".  Which is a pathetic irony all in itself.

If the point of this bottomless fountain of vomit is to damage Sarah Palin politically, it would seem that its consequences are, shall we say, a smidgen unintended:

***ABC News/Washington Post has McCain surging twenty points amongst white women voters;

***NBC News/Wall Street Journal has McCain rocketing up twenty-three points amongst women eighteen to forty-nine and shows a majority of respondents "comfortable" with the idea of a Vice President Palin.

***CNN is grudgingly noticing the same seismic trend.

Sounds like the PUMAs aren't "coming home" after all.

But the punchline on how self-destructive Slimeicane Sarah has become for Obamanation?  Republican candidates across the country are not just hiding under their desks, not just willing to be seen with her in public, but are as eager to just be in her Everymom presence as a pre-teen girl at a Hannah Montana concert:

One Republican source called it a “huge and immediate” response and attributed it to Palin’s role in helping close the enthusiasm gap between the GOP and Democrats.

“There’s a lot of requests being made,” the source said. “But there [are] only fifty-eight days until the election, and they’ll be heavily campaigning. The details will have to be worked out…

Congressional campaigns contacted by The Hill were nearly unanimous in saying they would love for Palin to visit their districts. Many had already requested her presence, and most of the rest said they would do so soon…

[Representative Tom] Feeney said the “last Republican to enter the national stage with such impressive force was Ronald Reagan in 1964, with his ‘A Time for Choosing’ speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater.”…

If Demothugs can't spook a single Pachyderm with an army of rabid, mutant mice, you'd think they might figure out eventually that it's time to go back to the ol' drawing board.  And perchance to regret that they didn't just ignore her from the git-go rather than stupidly making her America's moose-slaughtering sweetheart.

Alas, they don't have that luxury.  Even if they stopped villifying the 'cuda cold turkey, the self-inflicted damage is already done.  They're committed.  It's like the old fallacy of a "limited" nuclear war, or getting a "little bit pregnant"; a better metaphor would be, "in for a penny, in for a pound."  The Left has no choice but to keep throwing feces like the baboons they are on the off chance that something will finally stick before Election Day.  Who knows, maybe a pic of her clubbing baby seals with a sledghammer, or Todd Palin's secret sordid past as a Chippendale dancer, or Sarah's hushed-up time as Ted Stevens' "intern".  It's a better shot than counting on her making a mistake, which is looking less and less likely.

The smears will also continue for reasons extending beyond this election.  Recall that "America's maverick" clearly sees "Alaska's maverick" as a protege.  If McCain loses, the last thing the Dems would need after the disasters an Obama term would bring would be Sarah Barracuda circling his sinking presidency four years from now; and if McCain wins and decides to serve only one term before passing the torch to her, Governor Palin would be an even more formidable force in 2012.

No, they've got to keep hammering her, win or lose, but especially if she becomes the veep and heir apparent.  Maybe Sarah Palin is the reincarnation of the Gipper, and maybe she isn't.  But Donks can't take the chance on finding that out the hard way.

Keep that powder dry, gentlebeings.  This particular partisan war has a looooong way yet to go.