More Anonymous Sources Trashing Governor Palin

You may have read by now that the NY Daily News has published another hit-piece about Governor Palin using nothing but anonymous sources. The last time it was Politico 'reporting' negative comments by so-called GOP "insiders." This time however, the comments are allegedly coming from "friends" of George W. Bush and a "Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking." The piece says:

The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform.

"Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told the Daily News.

"He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin."

I have no idea if George W. Bush said any of these things but I seriously doubt it. It doesn't mesh with what he has said in the past regarding Governor Palin. According to Jason Recher, who served as special assistant to Bush, the former president thinks highly of Governor Palin. CNN reported back in September:

During a stopover in Fairbanks on the way to the Beijing Olympics last August, Recher said Bush met with Palin and even made a knowing reference to her rising reputation in the Republican Party.

"The president was fully aware of who Sarah Palin was," Recher told CNN. "Even so much that when he greeted the governor and Todd in Fairbanks during a re-fueling stop on the way to the Beijing Olympics, he threw open his arms and said "Madam Vice President!'"

"He was very aware of her rising-star status and who she was and everything about her, even down to the fact that she recently had given birth to Trig," Recher said.

After Palin became the vice presidential nominee, Recher said the White House loaned out both he and Laura Bush's photographer Shealah Craighead to the McCain campaign to help staff Palin and her family.

Recher said Bush and Palin had a warm relationship and talked multiple times throughout the campaign, including after a large campaign rally near Orlando in September and after the Vice Presidential debate in October.

"There is no air, no space between them," Recher said. "Sarah Palin is a big fan of George Bush, and she has said publicly she was proud he was Commander-in-Chief when her son Track was in Iraq."

It should also be noted that Jeb Bush recently said he would support Governor Palin if she were nominated as the 2012 Republican candidate.

The author of the NY Daily News hit-piece is a "well connected" man by the name of Thomas M. Defrank. According to his bio, he "was Newsweek's senior White House correspondent for a quarter century and also served as deputy chief of the magazine's Washington bureau for twelve years." Mr. Defrank should know by now the difference between ethical journalism and writing a hit-piece designed to smear reputations. It's clear he has no problem publishing the latter.

Someone either fed Mr. Defrank these lines and he willingly printed them, or he invented the sources in his own mind. Due to a lack of evidence, the reader has no way of telling which it is. By hiding his sources (mind you, this is not national security we're talking about) he has used his position to turn the NY Daily News into nothing more than a tabloid rag. A Veteran Washington reporter reduced to a gossip columnist.

Assuming these were actual sources Mr. Defrank used to write his piece, this was not the only "insider" attack against the governor since last weeks election. There have also been a few hit-pieces and words spoken by some within the establishment who are trying to pin blame of Governor Palin for the few loses the GOP did suffer. Who knows what else they wish to accomplish by writing and saying these things.

Rush Limbaugh warned us it was coming. He weighed again on the subject last Thursday. Newsmax Reports:

“What's going on here, folks, is very simple,” Limbaugh said. “They want to establish a lie very firmly in the minds of the public that the tea party hurt the Republican Party in these elections. They want to use this to stop Sarah Palin. Republican insiders are trying to figure out now how to stop Sarah Palin.”

[...]

Limbaugh said the ill-advised plan to blame Palin and the tea party for splintering the GOP after a record pickup of seats by Republicans in the midterms turns reality on its head.

“If anybody is an obvious winner here . . . it would be Palin. Look at the grief and the mockery that she got for putting what the media claimed were targets on 20 Democrat incumbents on her website. Look at the grief that she's got ever since she was named McCain's running mate. Eighteen of those Democrats she targeted lost. That's a pretty amazing and impressive record. Sarah Palin targeted a bunch of Democrats for defeat, and 18 of them lost. That's more than any Republican elites are doing.”

Well stated by Mr. Limbaugh...

It seems foolish that the GOP establishment would target Governor Palin in this manner after her efforts and the overall success of the elections. It creates an environment of distrust with the grassroots base who the Republican party needs the support of. Whoever is responsible for these attacks should stop what they are doing and realize that they are only hurting the GOP. While the establishment has a lot of money, the base has a lot of people. Last cycle those people were able to collectively put up a good sum of money themselves. The establishment needs the base. So, my message to the "sleazy insiders" who are behind these attacks - for the good of the Republican party, please knock it off.

David Plouffe Trashes Palin, Rush, Beck, and Most Americans

Barack Obama's political adviser, and the winner of the 2009 "Marketer of the Year" award for his role in the 2008 Presidential campaign, David Plouffe, trashed Governor Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck Sunday morning. Politico reports the following, from an interview Plouffe gave to NBC's "Meet the Press" (emphasis mine):

President Barack Obama's political adviser, David Plouffe, on Sunday called Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin the leaders of the Republican Party — and also a "problem" for the GOP in this fall's elections and beyond.

Plouffe emphasized the "intolerance" and "extremism" of the tea party and of the right wing of the Republican Party as both a short-term and long-term electoral problem for the moderate GOP, citing their attacks even on conservative senators such as Tom Coburn of Oklahoma as an example of how narrowly they have tailored their messaging and base.

"Right now — and this is a problem for them — I do think Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, they are the leaders of the party," Plouffe said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There is an intolerance in that party and an extremism that I think is where the real energy is, and so I think you'll see in '11 and '12 with that presidential primary, those are going to be the people who come

Tea-party-backed candidates — from Sharron Angle in Nevada, Rand Paul in Kentucky and, most recently, Joe Miller in Alaska — have enjoyed high levels of success in primary battles, but Plouffe and the Democrats are banking on the hope that these candidates will alienate independents and more moderate Republicans.

With Limbaugh, Beck and Palin emerging as the leaders of the GOP, and edging out more mainstream Republicans, Plouffe said Democrats could make gains in specific races across the country.

"That's going to be a problem [for them]," Plouffe said.

Considering Plouffe is a message guy, this is clearly going to be the track the White House takes in dealing with their political opposition. What he does in this interview is an attempt to demonize and marginalize the most effective and outspoken leaders in the conservative movement. By doing this, Plouffe is not only trying to taint the perceptions of voters by using such incendiary language as "extremism" and "intolerance." He also attempts to scare the more moderate members of the Republican Party by claiming that the people he just painted as 'extreme' are their leaders too, so they might want to do something about that. Obviously an effort on his part to create division within the GOP.

Just as many others on the left have done in recent days, Plouffe provides no real examples to back up his charge that conservatives are 'extreme' or 'intolerant?' He did say a crowd in Oklahoma "attacked" Senator Coburn for saying that he thought Nancy Pelosi was "nice." However, that crowd did not get violent, and as far as I know Governor Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck were not in attendance there. No, David Plouffe is just throwing those terms out there, providing no real examples, and hoping they stick.

You can bet that we are going to hear a lot more of this kind of thing from the left as they gear up for the upcoming elections in November. Regardless of the fact that this technique backfired on them during the health care debate. You can also be sure that the White House friendly media won't ask any of these people like Plouffe to back up their accusations with any concrete facts.

The Obama Administration are the ones guilty of holding extreme positions, and then forcing them on the American public, against their will. The most recent Rasmussen poll states that only 24% of Americans "strongly approve" of the job Mr. Plouffe's boss is doing. While only a whopping 42% approve at all. Those numbers are very low for the president, so this effort by his staff to demonize his vocal opposition doesn't surprise me in the least.

It should be noted that Governor Palin, someone Plouffe tried to paint as 'extreme,' actually stands with the majority of Americans on the major issues concerning our country. As Sheya pointed out recently, "on abortion 52% agree with Palin; on immigration 55% agree with her; on smaller government 63%; on taxes 66%." She does not hold 'extreme' positions and she is not 'intolerant.' Considering the numbers, I think David Plouffe should look at his own party and his own boss before trashing the views that a clear majority of Americans share with people like Governor Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck.