Chicago Daily Observer

GINGRICH: Well, I’d be curious—I’ve not had a chance to do this. I’ve been thinking about having one of my researchers look at every single elite media interview with Governor Palin to see if any of them asked her how she gave $1,300 a person back to Alaskans as a tax break, how she negotiated and got so much money out of big oil, how she worked out the deal for the natural gas pipeline, or anything of substance about how she shaped an $11 billion budget involving 29,000 employees of the state government.

I don’t believe, to the best of my knowledge, there has been a single question by an elite television journalist about her actual career in Alaska. And I think it is the most insulting—I can’t say this too strongly. This is like watching Pravda. This is a one-sided, vicious, unending and dishonest campaign. And then ... Read More...

The liberal women I know—and most of the women I seem to know are liberal—loathe Sarah Palin. They don’t merely dislike her, the way one tends to dislike politicians whose views are not one’s own, they actively detest her. When her name comes up—and it is they who tend to bring it up—their complexions take on a slightly purplish tinge, their eyes cross in rage. “Moron” is their most frequently used noun, though “idiot” comes up a fair number of times; “that woman” is yet another choice. A wide variety of adjectives, differing only slightly in their violence, usually precede these epithets.

Liberal men don’t show the same fervent distaste for Governor Palin. They are more likely to say she doesn’t come close to being qualified for the job of vice president and is frightening to contemplate as president. They might add that his choice of Sarah Palin is a ... Read More...

If worries were aerobic I’d be fit as an Olympian.

Unfortunately, my worries cost me more sleep than Starbucks at midnight. Fortunately, I no longer worry about the stock market now that the government is expropriating the banks. I always thought that Karl Marx would make me rich (again).

But as money worries are repressed, I developed two new ones—one little and one very big.

The little one is that the past week saw more chipping away at Obama’s lead in the polls. Cumulatively he lost 1 to 2.5 points, putting him 5 to 6 points ahead, depending on which aggregator you read. (I read them all: Fivethirtyeight, Pollster.com and RealClearPolitics, plus a few numerological bloggers.)

They all seem to agree Obama lost or McCain gained, but they all average the polls in different ways and they don’t all aggregate the same polls.

As if this isn’t enough to drive ... Read More...

Readers, e-mailers, callers and fellow barflies pose pertinent questions. Sometimes even journalists do. So here’s my rendition of what the commercial websites call FAQs.

Q: Does it have to take a recession to elect a Democratic president?
A: Yup. The Republican genius has long been the ability to get people to vote against their own economic interests. Repubs seem somehow able to persuade enough people that what others do in their bedrooms or their doctor’s office or on Sunday mornings is more important than shrinking paychecks. Then reality sets in and people wake up unemployed, without enough to pay the doctor and no retirement in sight. It’s now late in the game and it seems enough people have awakened to the new reality. They might even vote for a guy with a different paint job. At least now that he’s properly dressed with a flag on his lapel.

Q: ... Read More...

A hilarious example of press bias against Palin occurred last FridayI on “The Diane Rehm Show,” a production of Washington’s WAMU-FM. The exchange between hostess Rehm, caller Tom of Norwich, Vt., and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne begins at about 46:10 of the “10:00 News Roundup”:

Tom: I just wonder why not more has been made of the statement by Palin during the debate last night that “Maliki and the Talabani”this is a quote from the transcript“also in working with us are knowing again that we are getting closer and closer to the point of victory.” The Talibani obviously are our absolute enemy and have been since 9/11; Maliki, our central ally in Iraq. This to me is a tremendous blunder, revealing a very superficial familiarity with these sorts of terms.

Rehm: Thanks for calling, Tom. . . . E.J.?

Dionne: I think that “superficial” is absolutely the right ... Read More...

Carding the Palin-Biden debate, initially I made a mistake. As an old geezer, I showed my fondness for political tradition and was impressed with Joe Biden’s staccato recitation of facts and statistics…even lies…because that has been what I have grown up with. Having lived a span that extends from Franklin Roosevelt through most legislators who orate in that cavern known as the U.S. Senate, I have become at ease with those who rip off verbal paragraphs even if they have little relevance to the question involved. But I should have remembered. Ronald Reagan brought a new style of argumentation to modern politics-the conversational tone, the deferential bob of the head, shy smile and “there you go again.” So initially I was giving the debate to Joe Biden, albeit very thankful that Sarah Palin wasn’t gumming it up.

But midway through the debate I knew I was far wrong…and that Palin ... Read More...

What were we to expect when we were told Gwen Ifill of PBS would “moderate” the vice presidential debate? That the debate would be skewed to the left, favoring Joe Biden, obviously. Now we find that she has written a book extolling the rising of a new black political class that is indebted to Barack Obama’s meteoric ascension. And it is to be released to the bookstores on Jan. 20, 2009, the presidential inauguration day. Now here are the counts against Ifill doing a fair job in running the debate.

(1) She’s a “mainstream journalist” which means, according to the odds, it’s 87% she’s for Obama.

(2) She’s black which means it’s 97% sure she’s for Obama.

(3). She has a heavy financial interest in the election outcome with her book: you guess the odds.

(4) She somehow neglected to inform the Presidential Debate Commission she had the book-now ... Read More...

It will be difficult for Sarah Palin to lose tonight’s vice-presidential debate. There are low expectations for her and she has several opportunities to score big.

First, she could show her humor by saying that she had thought of asking Tina Fey to stand in for her. Or, secondly, she could say that she understood that her candidacy was even making atheists pray—for John McCain to live through his term if he wins.

Joe Biden, who is more knowledgeable should be careful not to assault Palin on her qualifications. In fact he might think of saying, that no one should complain about Governor Palin’s credentials. If they have any complaints its McCain’s judgment that needs to be called into question.

McCain’s choice of Palin, even with her drop in the polls, is still beneficial for McCain. It solidifies the Christian and conservative right wing Republican base and still appeals to ... Read More...

The front page of the Chicago Tribune features a nude painting done by a 69 year old artist – who employed his daughter as a model for Governor Palin. The Chicago Tribune editorial geeks are solidly behind Senator Obama. Along with the cork-screwing Sun Times, the Tribune engages in a daily beatdown of McCain or Palin. No big deal really as no one in Chicago seems to pay much attention to the Chicago editorial dweebs and pencil-necks who tend to live in lily-white suburbs while celebrating diversity.

With all the news that the Chicago Tribune is not covering – Tony Rezko, Willliam Ayers and their long and close associations with Senator Obama; another murdered Chicago Police Officer; multiple killings and shootings on the south and west sides; a moronic Governor bankrupting the State; Public Schools looting the budget and world wide terrorism; the editorial snobs decided to be edgy.

The ... Read More...

This morning I was a guest at 10 am (by telephone from my home office) on Jerry Agar’s WLS-AM show. (On with us was Pat Cassidy who recently made the move to the talk radio station from anchoring at WBBM-AM.)

I took my dog out and then sat down at the kitchen table with the four newspapers—Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal—that are delivered every morning to my doorstep. I spent maybe an hour with them, clipped a few articles to read later, and then went to my office to take the producer’s call.

Things were going along just fine until Agar played a clip of Joe Biden; I expected that it would be Biden saying something outlandish because he so often does, but I had no idea how outlandish. I could not hear the tape; it wasn’t clear to me what Biden was ... Read More...

If anyone doubted something I’ve written repeatedly on this page—that Bill and Hillary Clinton prefer to see a McCain victory on November 4th, so that Hillary can run unencumbered in 2012—just get a load of Bill today with the ladies of “The View,” and in other interviews, as he prepared to open his Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

He could not have been sweeter in his tributes to John McCain and, especially, to Sarah Palin. Although using the word “hot” in relation to her was probably not the most politic word choice. “I come from Arkansas, I get why she’s hot out there,” Clinton said. “Why she’s doing well.”

When the United States of America was still in its infancy, our Founding Fathers decided that the leadership of this new nation would come from the people and by the people. Accordingly, education was made widely available; after all, anyone could become the president of the United States. Today that belief lives on among average citizens.

If one were to judge by our media, this would not be so clear. It might even seem that a person must have attended an Ivy League school, have enough self-mastery to keep their faith in a coat closet, be well-traveled and be politically well-connected in order to qualify to run on a presidential ticket. What does this have to do with competence? I am not quite sure.

I wonder how many Americans have experienced this lifestyle, or believe that only these elites are competent to run our country? Poor Abraham Lincoln would be ... Read More...

The new Democratic mantra about the background of Sarah Palin vs. that of Barak Obama is, “Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor.” This, they apparently hope, will somehow help their messianic candidate for president compete more effectively with the GOP’s candidate for vice-president.

They’re right about one thing: Their candidate’s background as a Saul-Alinsky-style community organizer does resemble the background of a character in the New Testament; the only problem is that they’ve got the wrong character.

Hardly an Alinsky-style political activist, Jesus eschewed political aspirations and avoided any efforts by others to make him a political leader (John 6:15).

Nor did Jesus organize people to pressure political authorities for benefits from the public purse; rather, he admonished them to render unto Caesar only what is Caesar’s (Mark 12:17) and even utilized St. Peter’s fishing trade as a tax shelter (Matthew 17:27).

When Pontius Pilate ... Read More...

As a visiting fellow at Oxford’s Saint John’s College in 1978, I was given the opportunity to observe from behind a screen a student in final examination at tutorial. Stunningly for me, I had never before seen such a throwback to old medieval student-tutor relationship as the student sat deferentially on a chair before his don while the professor, glasses perched on the tip of his nose cracked not a smile and at least once where I was aware sought to trap his quarry in a nonsensical roundelay concerning John Milton. By this comparison the tutorial of Gov. Sarah Palin run by ABC’s Charles Gibson was benign. But we have the word of Charles Krauthammer who himself defined the so-called “Bush Doctrine” that there are four of them not one as tutor Gibson insisted-so by that Oxford measure the student who asked for clarification should be given full credit. ... Read More...

Illinois’ former Governor Jim Edgar on McCain-Palin: “That’s the ticket.”

Jeff Berkowitz: …people say that Sarah Palin energizes the base of the Republican Party. Do you agree and …what is it about her that energizes the base, if it does.

Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar (R-Charleston, 1990–1998): …Energy just kind of comes out of her…I don’t think it is an ideology thing, although… some from the far right might say, “Gee, this is good.” Republicans I have talked to, particularly women Republicans, who were for McCain, who are not ideologues—they maybe weren’t enthusiastic, they’re enthusiastic, now….I’ve learned a long time ago that in Illinois politics if you can get the Republican women motivated, you’re going to win.

Jeff Berkowitz: …one issue is…you’re known as a moderate Republican, you’re pro-choice; McCain is pro-life, Sara Pelin is pro-life; do you have any trouble with that? Do you think any of the pro-choice ... Read More...

Sarah Palin sure has accomplished one grand task: she’s unwittingly unmasked a bunch of hateful, elitist, sexist fools for the liberal posers that they are. Our next contestant: Roger Ebert. Let’s take a look.

I want a vice president who is better, wiser, well-traveled, has met world leaders, who three months ago had an opinion on Iraq.

COMMENT: Yes, Sarah Palin is one of the few Americans who never had an opinion on Iraq! Even when her son joined the military she never formed an opinion! When she said America better have a clear exit strategy, she wasn’t voicing an opinion, she was just musing! Now, it’s true, she hasn’t been asked much for her opinion given that she is the governor of Alaska. Come to think of it, I don’t know what Rod Blagojevich’s opinion of Iraq is either. He must not have one.

Roger Ebert, blessed with the wisdom that comes from sitting in a dark theatre looking at a movie screen for, what?, tens of thousands of hours over his lifetime, piles on Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. Read it here if you can stand it.

After wandering around, in apparent confusion about what to describe as the worst of Palin’s faults (one of them being she’s just unbearably common) he appears to have settled on this: She’s been out of the country only once. And that, gasp, wasn’t at the Festival de Cannes. Lord, lord, how can a person like her know anything at all about the real world?

Well, maybe Ebert can explain why wisdom automatically comes from being a world traveler. Which would make jet setters—the company that Ebert prefers—the wisest, smartest people in the world. There’s a logical falacy, a missing middle term as it might be ... Read More...

I’m starting this column with two quotes from Patrick J. Buchanan, he of the Republican-cum-Independent-cum-Nutty Isolationist slant, master of shouted punditry.
“Anatomy before ability” he shouted. “Plucked out of the feminist movement and elevated despite manifestly inferior recommendations!”

I beg his pardon??? Was he speaking of the newly-anointed Republican Vice Presidential nominee?

Actually, no. When he referred to Sarah Palin, moose-slayer and governor for two years of a state with approximately the population of Schaumburg, Buchanan last week said she was “obviously qualified” to run this country if it came to that.

His earlier judgement, 24 years ago, was of another woman chosen as the first female candidate for the vice presidency of a major party. That was Geraldine Ferraro, long-time congresswoman from New York, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale’s choice for Vice President on his ticket in 1984.

Remember 1984? Some of us still do. At that time ... Read More...

An anonymous staffer at MSNBC this week described the cable network’s meltdown as “…behaving like a heroin addict.” It’s a pretty good description of most of the establishment media’s continuing attempt to savage Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

The numbers are in; the McCain-Palin ticket is now up four – ten points depending on what poll you read, women’s support of the McCain-Palin ticket is up anywhere from 11–20 points in just a week, and all polls show the surge has been driven by women’s anger over the media’s naked efforts to smear and belittle Palin. Most establishment media figures either overtly support Democrat Barack Obama or throw only the thinnest of veils over that support. Yet despite incontrovertible evidence that their intemperate rage against Palin is driving voters away from their favorite into the McCain camp, they can’t stop themselves.

Historically the default setting of the American media ... Read More...

Barack Obama came out of his convention with a nice bounce and then John McCain got his, thanks in large part to his high-stakes gamble on Sarah Palin.

The race at the moment seems even-up, with one tracking poll actually giving McCain his first slim lead in months. But it is not yet time to obsess and hyperventilate over the polls. Wait for at least another week, maybe even two, for all the statistical noise to clear. What has gone up may come down and what has gone down could get worse, but it’s still pure speculation.

Conventions traditionally generate wild swings: Michael Dukakis was once up 16 points in 1988, and for much of 1992 Bill Clinton was running third to Ross Perot and George H. W.Bush.

What we do know is that Palin passed her first test with flying colors and began to make McCain’s impulsive selection look ... Read More...

Our columnist Carol Felsenthal appears on The Today Show in a September 4, 2008 appearance speaking about Sarah Palin and the Republican Convention.

Remember the story I told you about British Prime Minister Harold Mcmillan? He said politics was less a chess game than a series of “events, my dear boy, events.” Well, the last two weeks where I have been absent from The Wanderer, have been filled with highly determinative events to produce what will surely be regarded as one of the century’s most exciting contests in presidential history.

Two weeks ago to his dismay, David Axelrod of Chicago, Barack Obama’s top strategist and a man whom I have known for 30 years, discovered that while his client’s Iraq trip was a roaring success, his European speech was a failure-so much so that it was ridiculed as being eloquent but shallow despite all the media pazzaz. Why? Because his client seemed too simplistic, too innocent, too guileless, too idealistic. As one habitué of Manny’s Jewish deli ... Read More...

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.

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.

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...

You want wild; You want edgy; You want a Cynthia McKinney to read over the Cruller and Coffee; You want Mary Mitchell!

Mary Mitchell and Green POTUS candidate Cynthia McKinney will give you a wild, edgy perspective on anything. McKinney is a 9/11 theorist, demands that the sealed records on the late Tupac Shakur become public, called the impeachment of G.W.Bush, and is a cop hater. Here Congressional District tossed McKinney, who was no Zell Miller, and McKinney found a snug fit in the Green Party.

The Chicago Sun Times eight-sixed edgy and wild editor Cheryl Reed when the Chicago newspaper took a seventy degree plunge in sales last year. However, the main mast for edgy, wild, perspective of columnist Mary Mitchell keeps the course.

Prejudice is ugly and ignorant. It has no place anywhere, particularly in journalism. Yet, when I read the words written by black Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell in the Sunday paper, I was both amazed at what she wrote and disgusted by it.

Mitchell wrote the very words that – had they been written about Senator Barack Obama – would have been cause for a columnist’s termination. She wrote, “Palin’s on the ticket because she’s a woman.” As I recall, Geraldine Ferraro was roundly called a racist when she mentioned that Senator Obama surge in politics was helped because he is black.

Is one statement more biased, more prejudiced, than the other? More offensive? In one sentence Mitchell attempts to displace the experience of this impressive woman from Alaska with what can only be labeled raw sexism.

But that’s not all Mitchell writes about Governor Palin. She also adds that the ... Read More...

If the McCain/Palin ticket loses in November—perish the thought—maybe we could talk her into moving to Illinois from Alaska to run for governor here.

Sarah Palin is everything Illinois needs in a governor, but never had, at least for as long as I can remember. Besides setting Alaska’s finances in order, she demonstrated her seriousness about ethics reform by siccing investigations on her fellow Republicans. “She doesn’t care for the Republican Party [in Alaska] and the old guard doesn’t care for her,” said her former Washington D.C. representative, Larry Persily.

An NPR story, of all things, noted: “As governor, Palin says she’s tried to instill public confidence in the government of a state that’s been shaken by political scandals. She won’t invite lobbyists to her office and has introduced ethics reform legislation. One of her first acts as governor was to kill the now infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ ... Read More...

Just as Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his running mate told us much about how the campaign perceived its weaknesses and strengths (see last week’s column), so the choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tells us what John McCain & Co. really think about their own chances.

I think they think they’re in big trouble and consequently chose a high-risk strategy. They’re gambling she will be the same help to McCain as Lyndon Johnson was to John F. Kennedy but run the risk she will be as Spiro Agnew was to Richard Nixon.

First off, like the Obama campaign, they eschewed electoral geography. Tim Pawlenty, Tom Ridge, Rob Portman or Mitt Romney would have been helpful in the key battleground states of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan respectively. There are various reasons why any one of them would be rejected, but essentially the campaign is saying none guarantees ... Read More...

Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. – Bill Burton, Obama Spokesman

Leave it to the Democrats to continue to their assault on small town America. I’m proud to be from one of those small towns and I find Mr. Burton’s comments insulting. Sen. Obama revealed his feelings about small town America months ago when he said that voters in Pennsylvania clung to “guns and religion” out of bitterness. Seems to me like Sen. Obama just doesn’t understand true American values. We don’t all shop at Whole Foods and we don’t care what the price arugula is.

Here’s the best part about the Sarah Palin VP pick, and one fundamental difference between the Republicans and the Democrats: In presenting Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential pick, John McCain never referred to her as being a woman.

Oh, he used the pronoun “she.” But in no way he reference her gender as in any way giving her some sort of special right to our votes. Compare this with many Obama backers who have made the case that we do not elect Obama we are by definition a racist country, and the world will rightly paint us as such.
Is there any possibility the Democrats would have put a woman on the ticket without presenting her as “I am woman, hear me roar?” Not a chance.

As a woman, I couldn’t care less whether the President of the United States, or the folks serving in Washington are men ... Read More...