Sarah Palin Post: Obama’s Speech Tomorrow: "A Note to the Pres; What you might say tomorrow on Iraq"

William Kristol of The Weekly Standard:

To Mr. President, 

When you speak to the troops tomorrow at Fort Bliss, and to the nation tomorrow night from the Oval Office, you speak, of course, as the president. As our president.

You won't be speaking—not in these settings—as a once (and perhaps future) candidate for president. Nor as the leader of the Democratic Party. Nor as a critic of your predecessor's foreign policy. You are all of those things, of course—but it is not in those capacities that you speak to the troops at Fort Bliss, and to the nation from the Oval Office. […]

When you speak tomorrow, you might also do what you neglected to do Saturday: You might praise General Ray Odierno, who, with General David Petraeus, turned the war in Iraq around in an amazing feat of generalship, and then did a terrific job of managing, under your direction, a delicate drawdown and transfer of responsibility to our Iraqi partners.

I trust you will also—as you didn't Saturday—praise the Iraqis who fought and died alongside us. And I trust you will—by contrast with Saturday—spend more time praising our servicemen and women for their performance and their valor, than assuring them that we stand ready to help them overcome challenges when they come home (as we of course do). […]

Of course Iraq is free to chart its own course—as is South Korea, and for that matter Afghanistan or Pakistan or, say, Mexico. But in speaking of those nations, American presidents usually express a commitment to working with them to help them in a variety of ways to help them on a course that is good for them and good for our national security. It was encouraging that you said in your Brian Williams interview yesterday, "we're going to be … a long term partner within Iraq." It would be good to elaborate on that tomorrow, and to explain that surely, if we can work out an arrangement for advisory and training forces to stay in Iraq, that would be very much worth considering, and shouldn't be ruled out by you now—because of a campaign promise. If we have an opportunity, in your presidency, to help make Iraq a success and an ally, shouldn't we take it?

My bottom line is this, Mr. President: When you speak tomorrow, speak for America.   

Source: 

The Weekly Standard, A Note to the President What you might say tomorrow on Iraq By William Kristol

One Powerful Niche Product: The Palin Brand

Matthew Continetti, of the Weekly Standard, wrote: Palin Brand

The numbers in David Carr's piece on Sarah Palin's brand are striking:

(1) 2 million people watched the first episode of her show, Real American Stories. That's about the same number who normally watch On the Record with Greta van Susteren, which Palin preempted.

(2) Going Rogue has sold 2.2 million copies. (In 2009 only)

(3) Palin will be paid  million per episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," a travelogue / documentary, on TLC.

(4) Palin's appearance on Oprah last fall to promote Going Rogue drew that show's highest ratings in two years.

Palin has 1.5 million Facebook friends.

When Palin emerged on the scene in August 2008, she spoke as an authentic voice of non-coastal, upper-middle-class cultural conservatism. It was believable when she said, in her speech to the 2008 RNC, that she wasn't much different from your average hockey mom. Not anymore. In the years since, Palin's become something different -- a global celebrity who fuses politics and entertainment in new and startling and occasionally discomfiting ways. She's also become incredibly rich. But, as her personal wealth has increased, the number of people who think she is qualified to be president has decreased. The Palin brand is more and more powerful, but for a smaller group of people.

And those people matter. When Palin campaigned for John McCain recently, reporter Jeff Zeleny noted that "the roar of the crowd was for Ms. Palin. Her name appeared on T-shirts and buttons, with many of her supporters scooping up Palin 2012 merchandise as they waited for an autograph or a picture." A similar roar greeted her speech at the Searchlight, Nevada, Tea Party rally the next day. There simply isn't another figure in the Republican party who commands this sort of fervent and loyal support.

Critics will criticize. Democrats will attack. But Palin may have found her niche as the cult figure who mobilizes conservatives and conservative-leaning independents to the barricades. And as she's said, she doesn't need an office to progress this movement.

Lucky for her, it's also extremely lucrative. 

Original Post:

Palin Brand

Palin Book: Feminists Jealous of Sarah's Rise

Paul Bedard wrote an interesting piece at his column Washington Whispers at USnews.com: Palin Book: Feminists Jealous of Sarah's Rise 

on a new book about Sarah Palin.

Talk about timing. With former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin readying the release of her own 432-page campaign tell-all, Going Rogue: An American Life, now would be the perfect time to pop out another Palin book, and that's exactly what Weekly Standard's Matthew Continetti has done with The Persecution of Sarah Palin.

With his 226-page defense of Palin and slap-down of the media coverage she has faced since being selected by Sen. John McCain as his 2008 veep, Continetti is likely to ride the next wave of Palin frenzy that will accompany her book release set for November 17. If you like Palin, it's a good read. If you don't, well, check it to see what the other side thinks of the potential 2012 presidential candidate. We won't review it here because Whispers just received the book earlier today. But here are some highlights:

— The press, duh, didn't like Palin and didn't fact-check all of its stories on her. Worse, writes Continetti, the press had it out for Palin because she didn't fit the image of an Ivy League-educated national candidate, just as former President George W. Bush didn't. "The left recoils at a certain swagger, a manner of speech, and a lack of cultural embarrassment that the two share. Neither Bush nor Palin mind the fact that they are not part of this country's cognoscenti. But until Palin showed up, one could have written off the liberal reaction to Bush as simply anti-Texan bias. That wasn't it, however. Palin proved that at its root the reaction to these folksy Western politicians is a form of anti-provincialism; revulsion toward people who do not aspire to adopt the norms, values, politics and attitudes of the Eastern cultural elite," he writes.

— McCain's aides messed up her debut and campaign. First, the book says that the McCain press office had no biographical information ready when Palin was picked. Not only had the campaign not done its homework to defend Palin, but it wasn't prepared for the media backlash. In their defense, aides note that had the campaign flooded the state with officials snooping for info on their veep pick, McCain's surprise would have been ruined. Continetti does cite some press tactics that worked, such as the anti-Obama "Celebrity" ad.

— Liberal-leaning feminists, especially comic Tina Fey, the 30 Rock star who portrayed Palin on Saturday Night Live, were jealous of Palin. "Palin's sudden global fame rankled those feminists whose own path to glory had been difficult. To them, Palin was less a female success story than she was the beneficiary of male chauvinism," writes Continetti. He holds out Fey and her TV character for special criticism. "It was telling that Fey should be the actress who impersonated Palin. The two women may look like each other, but they could not be more dissimilar. Each exemplifies a different category of feminism. Palin comes from the I-can-do-it-all school. She is professionally successful, has been married for more than 20 years, and has a large and (from all outward appearances) happy family. And while Fey is also pretty, married, and has a daughter, the characters she portrays in films like Mean Girls and Baby Mama, and in television shows like 30 Rock, are hard-pressed eggheads who give up personal fulfillment—e.g., marriage and motherhood—in the pursuit of professional success," he writes. "On 30 Rock, Fey, who is also the show's chief writer and executive producer, plays Liz Lemon, a television comedy writer modeled on herself. Liz Lemon is smart, funny, and at the top of her field. But she fails elsewhere. None of her relationships with men works out. She wants desperately to raise a child but can find neither the time nor the means to marry or adopt. Lemon makes you laugh, for sure. But you also would be hard pressed to name a more unhappy person on American TV."

Full Article At:

Palin Book: Feminists Jealous of Sarah's Rise