The Dismissal of Sarah Palin

Heal This
Speaker John Boehner will host a cocktail party for the Republican National Committee at the same time that President Barack Obama will be addressing the nation at the memorial service for Victims of the Tucson shooting. - Roll Call I honestly don’t know what to say, when in a moment of national mourning the Speaker of the House chooses a Washington, D.C. Fundraiser instead of attending the memorial in Tuscon, Arizona. After a pitch perfect address to the House, the quieting of the c...

Sarah Palin receiving unprecedented level of death threats
(ABC News)- An aide close to Sarah Palin says death threats and security threats have increased to an unprecedented level since the shooting in Arizona, and the former Alaska Governor’s team has been talking to security professionals. Palin has taken much heat for her “crosshairs” map that targeted 20 congressional Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election, including that of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was the main target of Saturday’s attack. ...

The Presidents Speech and Killing Sarah Palin
What was billed as a “memorial service” in Arizona last night was more of a pep-rally and celebration of life. It was complete with sloganeering, Bumper Stickers, and t-shirts. It is what was needed. What’s more, Mr. Obama gave a stunning rebuke to his own base who’ve engaged in a horrific blame game all week. But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of...

Obama to Americans: 'We can be better'
TUCSON, Ariz.  — President Barack Obama mourned Victims of the Tucson Shooting Spree Wednesday and urged Americans not to let a political debate over the tragedy be used as "one more occasion to turn on one another." In a Speech at a service for those killed in a weekend massacre that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded, the president appealed for national unity and soul-searching after the shootings. He urged Americans to "expand our moral imaginations" and "sharpen our ins...

Gillibrand Recounts Giffords 'Miracle' Awakening
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand witnessed the "miracle" awakening of bullet-injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- and may have helped it happen -- she and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told reporters returning from President Obama's Speech in Tucson. Both Democratic women became friends with the wounded Arizonan before she was elected to the House, and flew on Air Force 1 to see her in her Hospital room before Obama spoke yesterday. And there the already emotional moment turned to a s...

The Dismissal of Sarah Palin
I am neither shocked nor surprised that this nation's most prominent liberals see fit to blame Sarah Palin for causing the shooting in Tucson that severely injured Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and claimed six lives. But it does sadden me. Before the shooter was identified much less his Victims were identified we witnessed the spectacle of a Nobel Laureate and an Academy Award-winning actress amongst many others falling all over themselves to excoriate the former Alaska Governor. Y...

Krauthammer: Palin’s Statement on Tucson ‘Unfortunate and Unnecessary’
He mainly laments that Palin gave the Speech at all. Sure, it might be a sensitive issue given that Gabrielle Giffords is Jewish, and she's fighting for her life while the rest of the nation debates allegations of "blood Libel"? I'm personally not bothered by the use of the term as it's applied to the libelous attacks on Palin and Tea Party Conservatives. Frankly, Glenn Reynolds' essay at WSJ the other day has been one of the most penetrating: "The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel...

Manchin Would Not Have Run Ad
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told the West Virginia Gazette that in the wake of the Arizona shootings he probably would not have aired his advertisement last year in which he shot a stack of cap-and-trade Legislation. Said Manchin: "I can't say that we would, I really can't. Because it's a much more sensitive thing we're dealing with right now." ...

In Wake of Tucson Shooting, Joe Manchin Says He'd Reconsider Gun Ad
(Credit: CBS/AP) In the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, many have been quick to lay blame on Sarah Palin for using the image of crosshairs during Midterm Elections to "target" lawmakers. Plenty of other politicians, however, used gun imagery during the 2010 midterms, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D). The new senator said Monday that, in light of the Tucson shooting, he doubts his future campaigns would use such imagery again. "I can't say that we would, I really ca...

Capitol Hill tries to find new normal
Four days after a gunman killed six people, injured 14 others and rocked the Capitol Hill community, leaving one of its own in critical condition, normal is nowhere in sight for Congress. On Wednesday, Congress set aside planned business to take up an itinerary that pulled a shocked community between matters of the heart and those of basic physical security, with a string of events that sought to soothe mournful souls and rattled nerves. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 The Ho...

Michael Russnow: Media Pundit Sarah Palin Says She's Not Responsible: Oh, Yeah? I Don't Think So
The subject of the tragedy in Tucson has perhaps been talked to death on the major networks, but having watched the give and take on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as those who preach moderation, it's my view regarding Sarah Palin and her ilk, that they doth Protest too much. I'll let slide Sarah Palin's use of anti-Semitic terms such as "blood Libel" in her desperate attempt to cast aside aspersions to her integrity, because I honestly don't believe she has the intellectual dep...

Palin grabs spotlight with video
On a day that political leaders in Washington and Arizona devoted to honoring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and other Victims of Saturday’s Mass Shooting in Tucson, Sarah Palin proved once again that her bully pulpit is second to none in commanding the attention and passions of the political world. As Democratic and Republican lawmakers filed into the well of the House to offer prayers for the severely wounded Giffords and the six people who were killed, Palin’s eight-minute Facebook vid...

Quote of the day: Krauthammer rips Kruggie a new one
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, not the biggest Sarah Palin fan in the world, rips the blood libelers a new one - especially Paul Krugman and the NYT (via @ Stage_Right ): Finally, the charge that the metaphors used by Palin and others were inciting violence is ridiculous. Everyone uses warlike metaphors in describing politics. When Barack Obama said at a 2008 Fundraiser in Philadelphia, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” he was hardly inciting...

The Arizona massacre libel
Image by Getty Images via @daylife Charles Krauthammer: The charge: The Tucson massacre is a consequence of the "climate of hate" created by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, ObamaCare opponents and sundry other liberal betes noires. The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence. As killers go, Jared Loughner is not reticent. Yet among all his writings, postings, videos and other ravings - and in all...

Jonah Goldberg: Sarah Palin attacked by 'ghoulish opportunists' (video)
"It is ghoulish, cynical and opportunistic to use  this slaughter , when anybody who pays any attention to the facts, knows that there is no evidence, zero evidence, linking this slaughter to the Speech by Sarah Palin or anybody else," says Jonah Goldberg, speaking of the left-wing smear against Conservatives and especially Sarah Palin in the aftermath of the tragedy in Tuscon, Arizona. Goldberg went on to slam those who would do so, calling them , " ideological ambulance chasers" who in hi...

For Once, Washington Gets it Right
Anyone walking around Capitol Hill this week would have been struck by the stillness and quiet -- and especially by how vividly this contrasted with the acrimony swirling online, on Cable News, and on Talk Radio over who should bear the blame for last weekend's massacre in Tucson that gravely wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others. Critics like to claim that Washington is the catalyst for this sort of rage. But right now, they'd be hard-pressed to turn up much evidence....

Capehart: Sarah Palin doesn't get it
Sarah Palin has emerged from the protective cloak of Twitter and e-mails to Glenn Beck to speak directly to the American People about the tragedy in Tucson. In a video, she expresses condolences for the Victims' families and concern for those recovering from Saturday's horrific events. But for nearly eight defensive minutes, the woman who has been at the center of a stormy national debate over our super-heated political discourse does her best to absolve herself of any role in that discourse. ...

Clearing the Browser Tabs Tone-Moderation Thursday Edition
I admit all the “moderate your tone” talk from the MSM and the left has really gotten under my skin. I’m glad, though, that I’m not the only one. I’ve collected some of the better links on the “tone” aspect of the story for today’s post. Some are snarky and funny, but most are serious and insightful. I trust there’s something in there that will give you pause. And now, links! Come for the memorial service, stay for the professional branding a...

Why Sarah Palin brings out the worst in her online supporters
The Tea Party darling has unleashed a political storm with her bang-bang Rhetoric, says Allison Pearson. ...

Death threats against Palin increase
Death threats against Sarah Palin have reached an unprecedented level in recent days, an aide says. In the wake of Saturday’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others, the aide said that threats against Palin have spiked, ABC News reported. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset The aide did not offer further details on the threats or whether Palin has taken additional security precautions. Palin’s use of gun-related language and imagery, including a map that marked Giffords&r...;

Obama strives to comfort mourners and unite a nation
"We can be better," he said, striking a familiar refrain. "What we cannot do," he said, "is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other." What's required now, he said, is that we "expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy." Obama, interrupted repeatedly by cheers from the crowd, eulogized those who died and praised the people who rushed to the scene of the shooting --the two men who wrestled suspect Jared Loug...

Obama and Palin, a Tale of Two Speeches
David Becker/Getty Images President Obama gives his Speech honoring the January 8 Shooting Victims at McKale Memorial Center. Wednesday was bookended by two remarkable — and remarkably different — political performances that demonstrated the vast expanse of America’s political landscape. The day opened at 5 a.m. with Sarah Palin, whose seven-and-a-half minute video statement captured with precision the bubbling anger and resentment that is an undercurrent of the national conversatio

Friends: 'Watching a miracle' as Giffords opens eye
The scene inside Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' Hospital room yesterday was like "watching a miracle," one of her closest friends in Congress says. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., recounted for Journalists aboard Air Force One last night the emotional scene as they watched their friend respond to them during their visit. "It felt like we were watching a miracle," said Wasserman Schultz, who helped recruit Giffords to run for Congress in 2006. The announcemen...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's Friends Narrate the Moment She Opened Her Eye
WASHINGTON—Just a few hours after attending a memorial service in Tucson, a giddy Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida came back to the press cabin aboard Air Force One to tell reporters about the moment when their friend, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, opened one eye for the first time since she was shot in the head last Saturday. Also in the Hospital room at the time, they said, was Mark Kelly, Ms. Giffords’s husband, and House Minority L...

President Obama Offers Healing: Gabrielle Giffords "Has Opened Her Eyes"
In remarks to a crowd of 14,000 at the University of Arizona, President Barack Obama announced, with authorization from Astronaut Mark Giffords, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, that following his visit to her in the Hospital where she lay attempting to recuperate from a point-blank gunshot wound to the head last Saturday that "Gabby has opened her eyes" for the first time since being shot, he delightedly repeated that "Gabby opened her eyes!" The address was over 30 mi...