Chicago Daily Observer

The media is now applying an appropriate level of scrutiny to the political career of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee. It remains an open question why they have not done the same thing to Barack Obama, who is, after all, a candidate for president.

Much of Palin’s record, as outlined in a 2006 opposition-research document from the campaign of her Democratic opponent for governor (obtained by Politico), is positive and impressive. As mayor, she fought against laws to shorten bar hours in Wasilla, and against unnecessary and arbitrary statewide laws limiting the hours of alcohol sales. She called for spending reductions and a hiring freeze in state government. She helped keep crisis-pregnancy centers — which provide support for women who might otherwise feel forced into having abortions — open by providing very modest city funding.

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate is a bit awkward for Barack Obama. He would like to argue that she is too inexperienced, but that underscores his own deficit of experience. Time magazine notes that in a CNN interview, Obama tried to argue that he should get credit for his time as a candidate:

Obama: Well, my understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town of Wasilla has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years.
By this standard, if you’ve been unemployed for five years but spent the time sending out résumés and ... Read More...

There’s something about outspoken conservative women that drives the left mad. It’s a peculiar pathology I’ve reported on for more than 15 years, both as a witness and a target. Thus, the onset of Palin Derangement Syndrome in the media, Democratic circles and the cesspools of the blogosphere came as no surprise. They just can’t help themselves.

Liberals hold a special animus for constituencies they deem traitors. Minorities who identify as social and economic conservatives have left the plantation and sold out their people. Women who put an “R” by their name have abandoned their ovaries and betrayed their gender. As female Republican officeholders and female conservative public figures have grown in number and visibility, so has the progression of Conservative Female Abuse. The astonishing vitriol and virulent hatred directed at GOP Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the most severe manifestation to date.

With all the pollution and poison permeating the air waves and the internet, unabashedly focused on defeating Republican team John McCain and Sarah Palin’s candidacy, it’s time for Illinois conservative Republicans to stop whining and fight back.

It’s time to stop whining and and time to fight back.

Last night, the Republican National Convention planners did an excellent job of dismantling the Democrats’ faulty caricature of Republicans being nothing more than heartless, selfish, greedy old white men sitting around tables plotting how they can make their fellow humans’ existence as miserable as possible.

This atmosphere is totally distracting. I think I’ve walked around St. Paul and the Xcel Center a gazillion times, taking pix here and there, meeting bloggers and chitchatting. Also celebrity and politico sightings. That’s Laura Bush down there. I was up level with the celebratory balloons. I saw Bill Bennett the other night on the way to the Laura Bush speech and said, “Mr. Bennett!” and patted him on the arm in passing like I was his mother or something.

This morning on the way in, just past security, Jon Voight was being interviewed yet again, (pix up and left). I shook his hand, told him I was a blogger from Chicago and thanked him for standing up for the right. This morning I attended a RedState/Google brunch, met Erick Erickson and Ben Domenach, and had the honor of listening to Sen. Fred Thompson. And I got to ask the ... Read More...

Hindsight, they say, has 20/20 vision. On August 3 in emails sent to my own mailing list I suggested that Senator McCain would appoint a woman if the Democratic Party nominated two men. I listed several women, but Governor Palin was first. In an article that appeared on these pages on August 28 (the day before the surprise anouncement of Governor Palin was made) I said that if McCain chose a woman it would be window dressing and given the way she was vetted I think I’m right.

Twenty four years ago the Democratic Party nominated Geraldine Ferraro for Vice-President and it did not prevent Ronald Reagan from being elected. This year the selection of Governor Palin of Alaska will not be the reason why Barack Obama is either elected or not elected. Her strength is not that she’s a woman, but that she is an absolute pro lifer; though ... Read More...

It is beginning to get ugly.

The hysterical and sexist attacks are mounting as Sarah Palin and her family are being maligned.

Did you know that her husband, Todd Palin, once ran a stop sign and was ticketed? Imagine that! Additionally, he was cited on another occasion for operating a vehicle on public property that was set aside as a wildlife refuge.

That type of occurrence is routine in Alaska where paved roads are few and far between and the frontier is not always well marked. What is even more damning is the fact that he was given a DUI ticket a quarter of a century ago. Todd Palin was twenty years old at the time.

How low can the smear tactics go? Will we next learn that a member of the Palin family has had to pay library fines on overdue books? Not any books, mind you, but ... Read More...