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Posted Thursday, November 13, 2008 4:30 PM

Palin Steals GOP Show

Newsweek
By Catharine Skipp

Gone were the ruby red lips and matching peekaboo pumps; the big wink served up with red meat. There was no updo. The look was sedate, save for a maverick-y black leather jacket. The famous accent was toned down; there was nary a “You betcha” to be heard. But Sarah Palin made her mark, nonetheless. With 11 somewhat somber fellow governors at her back at this week’s Republican Governors Association Conference in Miami, Sarah Palin was introduced by Texas Gov. Rick Perry with a hearty, “She is just getting started!”

Palin sought to stay on message, as the governors pull together to remind the party faithful that the GOP power base has shifted to the state level, now that the White House is gone and their standing on Capitol Hill is diminished. She also sought to brush aside speculation about her own political future. "Let the pundits go on with their idle talk about the next election, what happens in 2012," Palin said. "Our concern should be about our state's next great reform, our next budget, our next opportunity to progress in the states that we serve." During the Q&A session afterward, it was clear she hadn’t persuaded the press to ignore 2012. “The campaign is over,” when asked why she was giving a press conference now. “I don’t want to talk about strategy within a campaign that is over. Just suffice it say that I, like every other governor, understands that it is very important that we are speaking to constituents, we are speaking to the people whom we are serving and you have to do that through the media so happy to do that today.”

And at a session dubbed “Looking Towards the Future: The GOP in Transition,” Palin, the pitbull of 2008, offered nothing but praise for the incoming president. “If he governs with the skill and the grace and the greatness of which he is capable, we’re gonna be just fine. And as he prepares to fill the office of Washington and Lincoln, know that this is a shining moment in American history."

But she showed she hadn’t lost the spunky sense of humor that helped make her such a sensation this fall. Talking to the governors in the plenary session, she gave them a thumbnail sketch of what she’d been up to since last they’d met. “It hasn’t been that long I think since we all gathered, but I don’t know about you, but I managed to fill up the time,” she quipped. “Let’s see, I had a baby, I did some traveling. I very briefly expanded my wardrobe. I made a few speeches, met a few VIPs, including those who really impact society like Tina Fey. Aside from that, it was pretty much same old, same old.”

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Member Comments

Posted By: ChiLady (November 28, 2008 at 3:46 PM)

Sarah Palin was an embarrasment to women. First, we were overjoyed to hear a women was selected for vp, but, since she was introduced and performed her scripted speech I knew she was not what McCain & staff claimed. Palin was not an independent, intelligent, well-spoken women, she was a puppet that McCain chose to do his dirty work, appropriately named ...pit bull with lipstick. As the weeks passed and she did the interviews, she made it obvious she was not qualified to be a vp, much less president. She could not put a whole sentence together. I must say, Karl Rove nor Newt Gingrich have the face to talk. The are billed as highly intelligent, well they must have hid it somewhere because the Republican Party could not get rid of Gingrich fast enouch, and Rove could not-did not do the most important assignment of his life---to wisely advise our president.  Thanks to Rove and Chenery Bush will go down in history as the worst president ever.

Poor job on the parts of idiot Rove and Cheney---if that is smart, I rather stay dumb.


Posted By: weesie (November 19, 2008 at 2:22 AM)

EVERYONE IS ON THE HUNT AGAINST SARAH PALIN'S CLOTHES.  LET'S TALK ABOUT OBAMA,THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, WHO ALSO SPENT OVER 400,000.00 ON A PARTY FOR HIS STAFF.  LET'S TALK ABOUT THE LEFT OVER MONIES FROM HIS CAMPAIGN FUND THAT HE GAVE OUT AS BIG BONUSES TO HIS CAMPAIGN STAFF.  LET'S TALK ABOUT THE CONSTANT WASTE OF TAX PAYORS DOLLARS IN RE-DOING THE DAMN WHITE HOUSE EVERY TIME A NEW PRESIDENT TAKES OFFICE, WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY, LIKE THE WHITE HOUSE NEEDS TO BE UPDATED WITH EXPENSIVE FURNITURE, CHINA, ETC EVERY FOUR OR EIGHT YEARS. IF OBAMA WANTS TO REDUCE WASTEFUL SPENDING LET HIM START NOW BY NOT SPENDING OUR MONEY ON DECORATING THE ALREADY OVERLY DECORATED WHITE HOUSE.  AT LEAST SARAH PALIN IS NOT LYING ABOUT THE CLOTHING SHE "USED" ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL, SHE RETURNED THEM TO THE RNP. GET OFF SARAH'S CASE, GET ON WITH YOUR LIVES AND FOCUS ON THE REAL ISSUES OF THIS COUNTRY LIKE THE RIDICULOUS BANK BAILOUTS NEEDED BECAUSE OF THE GREED OF THE BANKERS, TOO BAD IT WASN'T ONLY 150,00.00 LIKE SARAH'S CLOTHING, NO IT'S BILLIONS OF OUR DOLLARS AT STAKE.  IF THESE BANKS HAD TO APPLY FOR LOANS BASED ON THEIR FINANCIAL FROLLIES AND MISHANDLING OF THEIR MONEY, THEIR CREDIT SCORES WOULD DISQUALIFY THEM, YET THEY WON'T LOAN MONEY TO ANYONE AND CONTINUE TO CHARGE CUSTOMERS OUTRAGEOUS FEES AND PENALITIES.  THIS COUNTRY NEEDS TO PRESENT EVERY SERIOUS BILL DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND GET THEIR DIRECT OPINION ON THEM SO WE ARE REALLY REPRESENTED.  ALL OF THE LYING ABOUT WHO SUPPORTED WHAT, WHEN AND HOW WOULD BE AND OPEN FORUM AND WE WOULD KNOW WHO IS REALLY DOING THE RIGHT THING FOR THE COUNTRY AND NOT JUST FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT AND POLITICAL GAIN.  THIS OUTRAGEOUS GOV SPENDING HAS GOTTEN WAY OUT OF CONTROL AND NOW WE NEED TO SHOVEL THE _ _ _ _, THAT'S BEEN DUMPED ON US.


Posted By: Omaar (November 16, 2008 at 9:00 PM)

I Told you the GOP does not cater to  Palin, nor do they want her as thier standard bearer, their Future will be with Pawlenty, Huckobee, Crist, Romney and other  GOP Governors and you can count out  anyone voting for  Newt Gingrich....

The  Fat A!! Republican Whore Monger won't win a state but Georgia, he's not  old as McCain, but he's old and he should be relegated to doing  Fox Commentary and  Paid Republican Speeches, like Karl Mr. Potatoe Head Rove.

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Leading The News      

Gingrich says Palin will not be the future GOP leader  

By Alexander Bolton  

Posted: 11/16/08 01:05 PM [ET]  

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is batting down the hype that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin heads into 2012 as the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.

Palin energized the Republican base after GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) tapped her as his running mate and she has tried to preserve her high public profile since Election Day.

But Gingrich, an architect of the Republican revolution of 1994, took Palin down a notch, asserting that she would not become the party’s leader, as some have predicted.

“I think that she is going to be a significant player,” said Gingrich during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “But she’s going to be one of 20 or 30 significant players. She’s not going to be the de facto leader.”

Since the defeat of the GOP ticket, Palin has pursued an aggressive media strategy, scheduling a full slate of interviews to keep her face on television.

CNN aired a lengthy, wide-ranging interview between Wolf Blitzer and Palin on Sunday. Palin has also sat down for interviews with CNN’s Larry King, Fox New’s Greta Van Susteren, and invited Matt Lauer of the “Today Show” to Wasilla for dinner.

Palin refused to rule out a presidential bid in 2012 during her interview with Blitzer, which aired on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Some political analysts, citing her high name identification and loyal following among the base, say that Palin will be a frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2012.

Palin dominated media coverage at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami last week. She grabbed the spotlight at a Thursday press conference, answering reporters’ questions while a dozen other GOP governors stood awkwardly behind her on stage.

Crowds of reporters and cameras chased Palin in Miami while ignoring more experienced colleagues from other states.

But Gingrich on Sunday sought to divert some media attention away from Palin and to other governors such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Utah Gov. John Huntsman (R).

“She’s going to be a much bigger story in the short run,” said Gingrich, explaining Palin’s higher media profile compared to other GOP governors. “But, I think, as she goes back to being governor and as she works in Alaska, you’re going to see a group of governors emerge, not just Sarah Palin.”

Gingrich said Huntsman and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) may emerge as political leaders on the economy while Jindal could claim the mantel on healthcare reform.

“I would say, for example, to Republicans who are about to face this question of how do you get the economy growing again, bring in Gov. Daniels and bring in Gov. Huntsman….”

“If you want to understand healthcare, you can do a lot worse than to bring in Bobby Jindal who may well know more about health policy than any other elected official in America and is doing an extraordinary job in Louisiana.”