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It’s become an “Everyone Else Is Blogging It, I Might As Well Do It Too” thing. I could offer the hat tip to many others, but I’ll give it to Buck because I think he’s put some real quality thought (as have I) into this issue of when, why, and how much to ply our loyalty onto the presuptive Republican nominee, and how much to hold back, & why to do that.

We do not see eye-to-eye on this. And on that disagreement, I’ve tried to remain surgical-precise in my comments because there are things about McCain’s character that I do not understand. In politics, I’m convinced he has a passion for cobbling together alliances that borders on the jaundiced. We’ve probably said quite enough about that.

Personal-wise, I’m gonna have to go ahead and agree, this is a man of exceptionally strong character. In these war stories, as well as his personal life, there has been episode after episode after episode in which McCain could have benefited greatly from tooting his own horn, so to speak — and chose not to do so. This speaks well for him.

And Fred, to repeat what others have asked. Gotta ask the question, bud…where was all this fire-in-belly back in January? Could have changed history, for the better. You ARE the change we seek.

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I’m having a very hard time finding out what the sex ed curriculum is in Alaska schools.  Although Palin advocates abstinence, what are the public schools teaching?  It appears from the article that they’re teaching full sex ed, with an emphasis on the virtues of abstinence.

A couple of things.  First, that’s exactly the same curriculum in my Blue neck of the woods, and that’s because the parents demand it.  They want the kids to know have a sound scientific knowledge about the birds and the bees, and the ways to prevent little birds and bees from coming along, but they want the schools’ emphasis to be on no sex.

Second, if Palin’s daughter really did receive a comprehensive curriculum, one could argue that teaching about sex and birth control, with a mere emphasis on abstinence, doesn’t work.  After all, she got pregnant.

The same article says that the schools in Alaska don’t provide birth control, something with which I heartily concur.  Kids can pick up birth control at any grocery store (condoms for him, sponges for her, not to mention spermicides for both), and the school should not be in the business of putting its imprimatur on teen sex.

So it sounds to me, not as if the Palins failed their daughter, but as if their daughter might just be another casuality of public school sex training.

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Word is out that high profile Barack Obama supporter and Us Weekly Magazine publisher Jann Wenner is using his magazine to smear Governor Sarah Palin from grocery store check out aisles and newsstands across the country. (h/t Michelle Malkin)

The tabloid style attack hypes the ridiculously out of context claims of the Huffington Post that Sarah Palin ridiculed State Senate President Lyda Green in an interview with radio talk show host Bob Lester on the popular Bob and Mark radio show.

On January 15, Alaska governor Sarah Palin laughed along with an Alaskan shock-jock DJ who called her political rival Lyda Green a “cancer,” a “b#@ch” and ridiculed her weight. (Green is a cancer survivor.)

The Us magazine cover story is filed under the URL slug “sarah-palin-very-difficult-to-work-with“. This particular smear job on Sarah Palin was literally spoon fed to the magazine and bloggers on the left by the Huffington Post that featured a hacked up YouTube version of the interview that was edited to take Governor Palin out of context and make the incident sound worse than it really was. (Full interview here)

The claim is that Palin should be held responsible for the comments made by morning radio host Bob Lester as he interviewed the Alaska Governor about Senate President Lyda Green’s animosity toward her. In that interview Lester called Green “a cancer” for standing in the way of Alaska’s political progress as well as “a bit@#”. In all instances Palin appeared to be caught off guard and gave a short laugh while Lester continued to criticize Green.

But that synopsis left to stand on its own is woefully out of context. It doesn’t explain why the media suddenly loves a socially conservative Republican insider that opposed reform nor does it honestly portray Sarah Palin’s conduct in the interview.

The interview focused around Lyda Green’s attempt to delay the start of the Senate’s legislative session to coincide with the start time of Sarah Palin’s state of the state address. A month earlier Palin had requested and received approval from the House for a special 6:00 p.m. start time so that she could attend her son Track’s Army boot camp graduation to the infantry. Green was well aware of this fact and appeared to be stonewalling as some sort of plan to make life difficult for Governor Palin. This became evident as the excuses for not being able to make the 1:00 p.m. scheduled start of the Senate legislative session began to fall apart. All of this was explained by Palin in the full uneditied clip of her radio interview.

Lester specifically took Green to task for standing in the way of a mother’s attempt to attend the graduation of her son before potentially being deployed to Iraq. He further criticized Green for playing games with Alaska’s political process for the sake of making life difficult for Palin.

The Alaska Daily News substantiates the rift between Palin and Green. According to their report much of the animosity between the two stemmed from the fact that Green was a Republican insider that opposed Palin’s reform efforts. It seems that Green made it a point to take issue with Palin, which she apparently did often and continues to do today. Thus making Green an instant hero of the American left that has suddenly found all sorts of reason to defend and support a Republican insider. In the case of Us Magazine their hit job is framed within the context of Green’s perspective. She how this works?

Green appeared in the Us Magazine article to specifically take pot shots at Governor Palin and criticize John McCain’s vetting process. You can actually feel the cynicism when Green mentions that Sarah Palin personally called her to apologize.

Green’s comments were followed up by quotes from a pro-abortion activist from NOW that conveniently attacked Palin on the issue of abstinence because her daughter is pregnant.

So what did Green think when she heard Palin was John McCain’s vice presidential candidate? “It’s been very difficult to work with her,” she tells Us Weekly. “I wish there had been more vetting.”

Monday, Palin released a statement confirming that her daughter Bristol, 17, was five-months pregnant.

See more shocking teen pregnancies.

Mom-of-five Palin is antiabortion (even in cases of rape) and opposed to sex-education classes (she believes in abstinence instruction for teens).

In the wake of the announcement about Bristol, questions have begun to arise about the governor’s candor and McCain’s judgment (The New York Times reported that McCain’s camp vetted Palin only the day before her selection was announced.

“It’s conceivable a 17-year-old girl just screwed the GOP,” Democratic strategist George Lakoff tells Us Weekly.

Though hailed by many family-values supporters for standing by her daughter during her difficult time, Barbara Belknap, former president of the National Organization of Women’s Juneau chapter, is less glowing: “Here’s a textbook case of how abstinence - only doesn’t work in practice, even if your mom’s the governor.”

Yes, and here is a textbook case of political activism being perpetrated upon the American public by an over the top supporter of Barack Obama.

Us Magazine reaches about 12 million readers, most of whom are female. As a grocery checkout aisle fixture it will be seen by many more. Wenner, who is also the publisher of Rolling Stone and Mens Journal is well aware of this. It is only a matter of time before this twisted reality makes its way into one if not both of his other publications.

This article has been cross posted at Newsbusters.

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This is going to sting. Joe Liebermans stood in Sarah Palin’s shoes as Vice Presidential candidate for the Democrats 8 years ago. But tonight he took the stage as an America First Democrat. Of course he was forced out of the Democratic Party by liberalism first nut jobs that got their lunch handed to them when he won reelection despite promises by the left to kick him out.

For that effort Joe Lieberman give the Daily Kos party a much deserved payback as he pegged Barack Obama with the phrase “eloquence is no substitute for a record“.

Then Joe Liberman slammed the door shut as he noted Barack Obama’s allegiance to liberal interest groups, his unwillngness to compromise and his total lack of accomplishment.

“In the Senate he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party.

[~snip]

“Only one leader has shown the courage and the capability to rise above the smallness of our politics to get big things done for our country and our people. And that leader is John McCain!”

As Joe Lieberman concluded his speech he said the following in campaigning for John McCain at the expense of Barack Obama.

My fellow Democrats and Independents, you may be thinking of voting for John McCain but you’re not sure. Some of you may never have voted for a Republican before and in an ordinary election, you probably wouldn’t. But this is no ordinary election, because these are not ordinary times, and John McCain is no ordinary candidate.

So tonight, I want to ask you, whether you are an Independent, a Reagan Democrat or a Clinton Democrat, or just a plain old Democrat: This year, when you vote for President, vote for the person you believe is best for our country, not for the party you happen to belong to.

Ouch. Joe Lieberman is a class act.

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Laura Bush spoke at the Republican National Convention this evening and she proved that her views on America is a stark contrast to those of Michelle Obama. Rather than requiring a retrofit on her image Laura Bush stood up on stage beaming proudly about the United States and President Goerge W. Bushes accomplishments. Her bright red outfit complimented her beautiful smile and marvelous demeanor as she touted the record of accomplishment of this country as opposed to how terrible it is according to the world view of socialists and radicals on the left.

She mentioned the success of No Child Left Behind. A program that has endured constant criticism from the left despite the fact that the project is neither new nor anywhere near the failure that Democrats tried to make it out to be. In fact test scores were up across the country as NCLB helped narrow the achievement gap between minorities and white America.

The first lady also spoke of the accomplishments of women and how excellent it would be for the first female Vice President of the United States to be a Republican. This would follow a fine tradition of firsts, starting with Clarence Thomas and continuing with Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. The Democrats talk a big talk but it is clear that the record of accomplishment favors Republicans.

Laura Bush also mentioned the increase in the number of African’s receiving aids care becaus eof Gourge Bush’s increase in spending, from 50,000 to two million.

Finally she mentoned how the Bush administratioin has worked to make this country safe before she introduced George W. Bush.

That is the difference between class and crass.

See also: Michelle Malkikn Open Thread

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Not sure why a photoshopped image of Palin holding a pellet gun is supposed to be a scandal but it’s happening nonetheless

…maybe I should add it to the Things I Don’t Get page. Blogger friend Phil sends along in an off-line, a photo I’m sure most folks have already seen, which he’s way to classy to put up at his site. But hey, we’re bottom-feeders over here.

And the original photo is here. The guy who owns it has asked that the original not be used at another guy’s site, which presumably means he doesn’t want it displayed anywhere else. I’ll respect that weird, bizarre request. But the young lady who owns the body, has been mailing out copies of the ’shopped image to “everyone she knows.”

“Doctor Casino” adds, regarding said modified image that you do in fact see above:

This was just posted on a message board that I frequent by user “am0n.” I had no hand in its creation and am ambivalent at best about the firestorm of Photoshopping the face of Sarah Palin onto things. However, I like this one because it actually kind of sums up the reasons why one might be suspicious of Sarah Palin.

Elizabeth has begun excitedly forwarding this to everyone she knows. She expressed some concern for how convincingly Palin’s 44-year-old head fits onto her own 23-year-old body, but I think this is just to the credit of the Photoshopper in question. [emphasis mine]

Someone clue me in, please.

I might be suspicious of Sarah Palin because…she holds air pellet guns? Or she seems to be born to wear American flag themed swimwear? Or she has a face that looks natural when grafted on to an image of a young lady who looks good in a bathing suit holding an air pellet gun?

Secondarily, I’d really like to hear from Elizabeth about this. Is she in agreement with Doctor C on all the above? Why turn down that other poor guy who wanted to post the original photo on his site, and then begin “excitedly forwarding [the altered image] to everyone she knows”? Does this, perhaps, tie in with the reasons one should be suspicious of Gov. Palin? Are we allowed to pretend Sarah Palin wore a flag bikini and posed with a pellet gun, but we’re not allowed to know as a fact that this Elizabeth person did so? What’s the prob?

Is this perhaps connected with that strategy we were observing this morning…

Repeat ANYTHING or raise false concern over ANYTHING and it is likely to be planted in the conscious/subconscious of many voters….One more doubt (whether tied to reality or not) is another hesitation at the ballot box.

Speaking just for myself, if I didn’t already want to vote for Palin’s ticket, this would make me want to do so. If I thought it was real. Maybe even if I knew it wasn’t. And I don’t think I’m alone on that one.

I’ve noticed this before about some photogenic young women. Whether they’re putting their lovely curves on display, or dressing a bit more modestly, some of them seem to get it in their heads that when they’re tired of the attention they can just give a hand signal or something, and everyone on the seven continents will simultaneously stop looking at the photographs. It’s a little scary. But — back to the subect at hand. How is this supposed to scandalize Gov. Palin in any way? Even if it was genuine? What is it, the swimsuit or the gun? Or both?

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Webloggin Correction On Title - I Thought that a blogger had posted the image of herself. While the person that has been photoshopped appears to be mailing the image out it does not appear that she is a blogger herself. I changed the title and slug to reflect that.- Trip

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Not so long ago the mainstream media didn’t appear too interested in doing the job of vetting the dirty laundry of certain candidates running for the two top jobs in American politics. In fact it was a little over one weekend ago that the media’s silence on Barack Obama’s background indicated that it did not matter what skeletons were in his closet.

But now that John McCain named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate that has all changed. On August 31st the narrative began to form. The Huffington Post and The Atlantic.com were some of the first to sow the seeds of doubt. Much of this was in response to a Washington Post article that allowed McCain staffers to explain that she had indeed been vetted just as much as anyone else.

Soon the rumors and mudslinging began. They inferred that McCain staffers never looked at Palin’s hometown newspaper. Others claim that the McCain camp haphazardly made the choice without properly doing an FBI background check on the two time mayor and new Governor of Alaska.

But there’s more. Did the McCain camp even know that Sarah Palin’s daughter was pregnant? Or how about the investigation into the firing of Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan? Did the McCain camp care about the possible conflict of interest?

Even liberal themes are suddenly scandalous. Sarah Palin raised sales taxes as a mayor, opposed windfall profit taxes for oil companies and, gasp, canceled the bridge to nowhere, but not really as it was doomed anyway.

It doesn’t matter that much of this chatter by the chattering class is of little consequence when compared to the many unanswered questions concerning the vetting of Barack Obama. It is the narrative that is important. The Democratic talking point that the McCain camp was haphazard in their rush to pick Sarah Palin is all the media cares to promote.

Here we sit on the third day since the questions about McCain’s vetting process were first posed and the media is still beating that drum. I am not just talking left leaning blogs like Talking Points Memo and the Daily Kos here. I am referring to The New York Times, The Houston Chronicle, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, MSNBC, Time Magazine here, and here, The Boston Globe AGAIN via The Associated Press, an on and on and on… All of these mainstream media outlets are on the same page.

Contrast the media’s need to dig up supposed dirt that they imagine the McCain camp does not want us to know about Sarah Palin to that of Barack Obama’s past that the media apparently doesn’t want anyone talking about.

One of many questions that still remains unanswered and largely ignored by the mainstream media is that of both Michelle and Barack Obama’s relationship with former terrorist Bernardine Dohrn. Forget William Ayers for a moment. I would like to know why the mainstream media is so wrapped up over the implications of an unmarried 17 year old daughter of a Republican Vice President candidate yet they aren’t in the least bit concerned that Barack Obama launched his political career at the home of two former terrorists, one of whom traveled to Cuba in 1969 to meet with communist representatives of the North Vietnamese government at the same time that John McCain was being held and tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

The fact that Michelle and Barack Obama were having wine and breaking bread with an American terrorist that met with the captor of Barack Obama’s opponent is real news. But not to an Obama obsessed media that would rather campaign for him than inform the American people of his past. After all, the duty to inform is one of the prime directives of journalism. If members of the media can’t do this simple job then why write in the first place?

To be fair some are asking relevant questions about Barack Obama’s past; only to be largely ignored. John Fund of the Wall Street Journal took the mainstream media to task for allowing the Obama campaign to successfully resist a full examination of their records. But that report preceded the frenzy to dig up dirt on Sarah Palin and run with the new narrative. Thus the Obama campaign once again dodged a bullet thanks to a manistream media that does not want to vet his past lest Americans ask more questions about a candidate they have been in the bag for ever since he showed up on their political radar.

See Also: Hota Air - Will Palin get helped by the opposition attacks?, Michelle Malkin - Selective sympathy for moms in public office, Fight the Palin Smears, Sarah Palin Sexism Watch

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The Democratic National Convention had it all, Hollywood glitz, a throng of ridiculously overexcited reporters, Greek style pillars in homage to the left’s new messiah and oh yeah, Barack Obama. Despite all of that the left could only manage to get a typical 4 point bump. The Gallup poll said it like this, “fairly typical of past convention bounces”. In reality the Obama’s bounce was actually 1 point less than average. Pretty pathetic for a campaign that supposedly has the world energized by a man that has repeatedly been symbolized by the press with contrived images of the MSM hero walking around with a halo.

Talking Points Memo and USA Today can read into the bounce all they want, it won’t change the fact that this bounce is nothing special.

In contrast John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate earned him an immediate 2 point bump. But that is not all the Palin announcement did. It also energized the Republican party base for the first time in a very long time as reported by Rasmussen.

Obama receives favorable reviews from 85% of Democrats while McCain is now viewed favorably by 90% of Republicans. Both men are viewed favorably by 60% of unaffiliated voters. Enthusiasm among Republicans for McCain is up significantly since the announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Fifty-one percent (51%) of GOP voters now have a Very Favorable opinion of McCain, the first time he has ever topped the 50% level in that measure. On Friday morning, just 43% were that enthusiastic about McCain.

This one paragraph says a lot, McCain now has a bigger favorable rating among his base than Barack Obama;  devastating news for Barack Obama. Unaffilliated voters are still in the middle on that point rather than shift toward Obama. This means that Obama’s performance in Denver was less than convincing. McCain is on the upswing even though the Republican National Convention hadn’t started at the time of this poll.

This has the mainstream media acting like a bunch of rabid dogs, looking grasping at straws everywhere to try and denigrate McCains pick.

Today’s narrative is that the McCain camp didn’t vet Sarah Palin. Good luck on that one considering that the vetting of Barack Obama was so anemic that we are sitting here almost two months before election day and still finding that questions about Barack Obama’s relationship with American terrorists and an Iraqi Billionaire that provided arms to Saddam Hussein are being stonewalled.

We’ll see if the American people let the mainstream media make up their minds. It didn’t work in 2004, failed in 2000 and will likely fail again this time around. Vet that.

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Sarah Palin Announces Daughter’s Pregnancy.  Good for Sarah Palin for getting this new out.  She should have done this in her acceptance speech so the Kos followers would not have started the vile rumors that were picked up as truth.  We offer our prayers to the Palin family.  Again, … they chose LIFE.

What will we call parents like the Palins???   GRANDPARENTS!  Unlike what Barack Obama who said “I don’t want my daughters punished with a baby!”  (Video Here)

From Bob McCarty Writes:

If you have ever had a teenage daughter or son, you know that you can do EVERYTHING right, and they are still going to make mistakes.  Children make bad decisions, even if they have been raised in a loving home, a Christian home.  But parents still love their children, they continue to support those wayward kids.  Like any parent, I’m sure Sarah Palin would have chosen a different path for her daughter.  But, Sarah Palin is not to be faulted for the decisions her daughter made.

Others share their thoughts:

RedState says: Well, that’s one way to rebut a rumor.

We’ll see how the media inevitably bashes this young woman for her choice in the coming days, in the wake of covering up the John Edwards love child for 2+ years, and botching the story when it came out as they bent over backwards to avoid criticism. Nah, that wasn’t bias.

But it’s fitting that in this moment, one of the toughest a young woman can face, Bristol Palin has chosen on her own to take the right path. This baby is not a “punishment,”, as Obama so famously said; it is not an object to be destroyed, as Obama argued for in the Illinois State Senate; he or she is a human life, one worthy of receiving the love of a mother and father. And we rejoice in the knowledge that a family will receive this blessing into the world.

Cheat Seeking Missiles:

Once they catch their breath, expect the Leftist meme to turn, unwarrentedly, to “Palin’s forcing Bristol to have the baby when she should get an abortion.” But they haven’t quite gotten to that point yet; here’s where the rumormonger Kos is as of this moment:

Huffington Post:

“Senator McCain’s view is this is a private family matter. As parents, (the Palins) love their daughter unconditionally and are going to support their daughter,” said McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt.

Said Schmidt: “Life happens.”

Stop the ACLU: McCain knew when he picked her too!

Right Werds, Korrekt Speeck :

The Left is not called looney without ample reason.  Recently leftist bloggers tried to claim that Sarah Palin’s recent pregnancy was faked to cover up for her daughter’s pregnancy.  That would have meant that the down syndrome baby, Trig, was her daughter’s and not Sarah Palin’s.  Oh, how the left would have jumped with glee had that been true, just like Democrats were happy when it found out hurricane Gustav was bearing down on the US at the time of the Republican National Convention.  Isn’t it disgusting how the left makes political use of disastrous situations?

Wake Up America:

The pathetic lie about Trig was egged on by Andrew Sullivan over at Atlantic.com. (Will not link to the pathetic idiot)

Today I see people calling for a boycott of Sullivan as well as another DailyKos writer offering further debunking of the the original Kos slandered…

Commenter at Wake Up America, Bowlersmom, says:

I really don’t think the left want to go there. They really don’t want to awaken the conservatives on this issue. You NEVER attack our children.We all have personal issues to deal with, and that is what this is personal.

American Power Blog:

It’s still early, but some initial reaction on the left is cautious. Here’s Steve Benen, for example:

Now, there are different schools of thought on this, but I’m very much inclined to think a politician’s kids are entirely off-limits for public scrutiny. Bristol Palin’s pregnancy has no political relevance whatsoever.

From Audacity of Deception and Hypocrisy:

Politico has more.

From Phyllis Chesler “The Only Independent Feminist Commentary on the Presidential Race”

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