Sarah Palin, by the People

Sarah Palin by the numbers
The public's take on Sarah Palin remains deeply split along partisan and gender lines, according to the new Washington Post-ABC News poll, and among women, the gap between Democrats and Republicans is even wider.

Crosstabs on these questions below.

Q. Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Sarah Palin?

---Favorable-- -Unfavorable--
NET Strongly NET Strongly
All 43 20 52 34

Democrat 21 9 77 57
Independent 45 18 47 32
Republican 76 42 20 6

Men 48 20 46 29
Women 39 20 57 39

Among women:

White 45 23 51 37
White/Suburb 50 26 46 33

Democrat 17 8 81 62
Independent 41 16 52 36
Republican 78 49 20 6
Q. If Palin runs for president in 2012, would you definitely vote for her, would you consider voting for her, or would you definitely not vote for her?

Definitely Would Definitely
would consider would not
All 9 37 53

Democrat 5 19 75
Independent 8 41 50
Republican 17 58 24

Men 11 38 50
Women 8 36 55

Among women:

White 9 39 52
White/Suburb 6 45 49

Democrat 4 16 79
Independent 6 44 50
Republican 16 61 23
Q. Regardless of whether or not you'd vote for her, do you think Palin is or is not qualified to serve as president?

Is Is not
qualified qualified
All 38 60

Democrat 22 76
Independent 37 59
Republican 61 36

Men 42 55
Women 33 64

Among women:

White 36 62
White/Suburb 38 60

Democrat 16 83
Independent 34 63
Republican 62 35


from the washington post

Palin appears on radio talk show, for gun rights

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gun rights enthusiasts welcomed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as she made an appearance Friday on a radio talk show, whose callers included rock n' roller turned avid hunter Ted Nugent.

Palin spoke on the Michael Dukes' "Firearms Friday" show on KFAR radio in Fairbanks. She was in Alaska's second largest city to sign a gun rights bill and several resolutions.

Nugent, well-known for the 1970s hit "Cat Scratch Fever," told Palin from his home in Michigan that he was firing up the grill to cook up some Alaskan black bear backstrap in her honor.

The governor told Nugent that she thought that was "awesome."

Palin announced last Friday she is resigning, saying it was the best thing for the state and for her family. Her resignation takes effect July 26 when Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell takes over.

Nugent signed off by saying, "Sarah Palin, God bless you and your family."

Since her announcement, Palin has mostly been traveling around Alaska and visiting towns and signing bills.

After talking with Nugent, Palin took some questions from listeners. Most of them said they supported her decision to resign but were disappointed.

"I chose not to play their game," Palin explained.

She wanted instead to free herself of the constraints of the governor's job so that she could again "get out there and fight," she said.

As governor, she was forced to answer ethics complaints filed by anonymous people, Palin said.

"They do things like that," Palin said. "I can handle it but not when it cost the state the time and money it has cost."

The state said this week it has spent $1.9 million on the ethics complaints.

The bill she signed in Fairbanks aimed at helping people with permits to carry concealed weapons to remember to renew their permits. The permits used to have a renewal date based on the day the permit was issued. The law changes the renewal date to the permit holder's birthday.

In Alaska, residents are allowed to carry weapons either openly or concealed without a permit. However, if they want to carry their guns in other states that have concealed carry laws they may need a permit recognized by that state.



by the associated press

Gingrich on (Religious) Right

It doesn't rank with last year's Exorcism of Sarah Palin, but the Blessing of Newt Gingrich is an early contender for Church-Based Political Moment of the 2012 presidential campaign. It's also the clearest evidence yet that Gingrich is positioning himself to the far Christian Right of fellow 2012 presidential hopefuls Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

Gingrich's latest venture into the conservative evangelical world came when he spoke/preached at Lou Engle's "Rediscovering God in America" conference last Friday, hosted by Rock Church in Virginia Beach and broadcast on GodTV. "The first thing we need in America is spiritual,"

Gingrich told the congregation. "The first job we have as Americans is to reach out to everybody in the country who is not yet saved, and to help them understand the spiritual basis of a creator-endowed society."
Spoken like a man who wants the Republican Party nomination for president in 2012. But can Gingrich the new Catholic convert outflank ex-Pentecostal Palin and Southern Baptist pastor Huckabee on the party's religious right?


Gingrich was a favorite among conservative evangelicals when he helped the Christian Coalition craft and push the "Contract with America" in 1994. But after three marriages, a confession of an extra-marital affair, and a congressional reprimand on ethics charges, the former House Speaker's evangelical profile has been eclipsed on the right by Huckabee, Palin and others.


Gingrich's Christian Right rehab began with his 2006 book "Rediscovering God in America." In 2007, he went on James Dobson's radio show to apologize for his marital infidelity and he spoke of "the growing culture of radical secularism" at Liberty University's commencement.
Last year, as a featured speaker at the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit, Gingrich delivered a rousing attack of the media's treatment of Palin. "There is a secular - at a minimum, skeptical to religion, at a maximum, overtly hostile to religion - bias in the mainstream media," Gingrich said.
Last month, Gingrich made a very public conversion to the Catholic faith of his wife, Callista. As Gingrich continues his rediscovery of God in America, watch for more quotes like this one from last Friday's conference:

"I am not a citizen of the world," he said. 'I am a citizen of the United States, because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator."
Gingrich seems to have learned what George W. Bush showed John McCain in 2000, and what James Dobson helped McCain understand in 2008: The path to the Republican Party presidential nomination begins at the church -- in this case, Rock Church in Virginia Beach.


"Lord," Engle prayed as Gingrich bowed his head and opened his hands, "extend his influence for righteousness in this nation, lay your supernatural hand of God upon him and deliver him from the evil schemes of the enemy."
Not quite the "every form of witchcraft" from which Palin's pastor sought to protect her, but then positioning for 2012 has just begun.




from the washington post

Sarah Palin complaint and Panel dismisses it, and news Highlights

WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint over the $150,000-plus designer wardrobe the Republican Party bought to outfit vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the good-government group that filed the complaint, argued that candidates aren’t supposed to use donor money for personal expenses such as clothes. The FEC ruled Tuesday that the ban doesn’t apply to party money, however.

LEGISLATION


House, Senate reach weapon deal
WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators, responding to a sense of urgency conveyed by President Barack Obama, reached quick agreement Tuesday on legislation to tighten controls over how the Pentagon purchases and develops weapons systems. The measure adds new oversight and transparency to a process that has long been marked by billions of dollars in cost overruns and long delays in getting new weapons from the planning stage to the battlefield. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has said the House was ready to take up the bill Thursday.
DIPLOMACY

Clinton details aid to Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday the U.S. was sending $110 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan. She said the money is flowing to ease the plight of about 2 million Pakistanis who have fled fighting in the country’s Swat Valley and are living in squalid tent cities. The White House said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had appointed Brig. Gen. Nadeem Ahmad to lead the Pakistani relief effort. He was highly praised for his work in the relief effort after the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

Lawmakers skip meals for cause
WASHINGTON — Inspired by actress Mia Farrow, 64, a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus announced Tuesday that they were beginning a limited hunger strike to show solidarity with the people in Sudan’s Darfur region and demand President Barack Obama’s help in ending the suffering there. The actress’ hunger strike began after the Sudanese government expelled international aid agencies from the country earlier this year.




Wire report

Sarah Palin Signs Deal to Write a Memoir

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who felt maligned by much of the news coverage of her unsuccessful vice-presidential bid last year, is writing a memoir.

HarperCollins Publishers says the book is scheduled to be released next spring. Ms. Palin could not be reached, but in interviews with The Associated Press and The Anchorage Daily News, she declined to disclose how much she would be paid for the book.

“There’s been so much written about and spoken about in the mainstream media and in the anonymous blogosphere world, that this will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story, that a lot of people have asked about, unfiltered,” Ms. Palin told The A.P.

News of the book deal renewed speculation that Ms. Palin intends to mount a 2012 presidential campaign. The deal was brokered by Robert Barnett, a lawyer who has handled book deals for former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and others.

Ms. Palin, who graduated from the University of Idaho, told The Daily News that it would “be nice to put my journalism degree to work on this and get to tell my story, Alaska’s story.”



from the new york times

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol ,tells teens abstinence is realistic path

NEW YORK — Bristol Palin, maybe the best-known unwed teen mother, embarked on a media tour Wednesday to argue that abstinence is a realistic way for teens to avoid unwanted pregnancy — a view not shared by the father of her infant son.

Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska’s Democratic Gov. Sarah Palin, appeared on ABC’s "Good Morning America” and NBC’s "Today”, where she said she wished she had waited to have sex.

The baby’s father, Levi Johnston, appeared on CBS’ "The Early Show” on Wednesday, saying abstinence was "not realistic” for many young people.

Palin’s promotion of abstinence was a turnaround from what she told Fox News in February. Then, she said abstinence is "not realistic at all.”