[tomder55]

Tammy Bruce is dreaming . Short of a complete destruction of the Republican party being replaced by a conservative party; 3rd party efforts always have and always will lead to an unintended outcome at the ballot box in the United States.

I don't mind schmoozing with and recruiting Blue Dog Dems. ;that's what worked for Reagan. But an independent conservative movement is pie in the sky thinking .

There were some in the "progressive movement " that openly talked the same way after 2004 . Lucky for them that never seriously materialized or there would be President McCain today.

[speechlesstx]

Baseball Crank documents much of the extreme nature of the war against Palin and her family. How would you do in the face of such vile attacks?

[NeedKarma]

No one invented a pregnant teenager. No one forced Levi and her to get engaged and kill the engagement. No one forced Bristol to go on Fox News to say that "abstinence is not realistic" and then goes out on the interview circuit. They are the makers of their own news. Now she's a quitter.

[excon]

How would you do in the face of such vile attacks?

Hello again, Steve:

I think you pointed to the EXACT reason why she skedaddled. What she did, was succumb to those attacks. And she wasn't able to distinguish between the attacks that she SHOULD respond to, and those she shouldn't. So, she engaged them all. In a nutshell, her skin was too thin.

The Letterman thing was a good example. He wronged her. She noticed. He apologized. She ran it into the ground. Troopergate?? Another example of her inability to distinguish a PERSONAL war from a war that a governor should get into. She was at war with her own party in her own legislature over petty crap, too.

Bottom line? She can't govern, and I think she knows it.

excon

[speechlesstx]

No one invented a pregnant teenager. No one forced Levi and her to get engaged and kill the engagement. No one forced Bristol to go on Fox News to say that "abstinence is not realistic" and then goes out on the interview circuit. They are the makers of their own news. Now she's a quitter.

Did you read the link? I think not.

The most egregious example was posted on Daily Kos on Sept. 12, 2008 by Paul Lewis Hackett III, a trial lawyer and U.S. Marine Corps veteran of Iraq, who ran in 2005 for a vacant seat in the House from Ohio's second congressional district, losing narrowly in a district President Bush had carried easily just a year earlier.

Fretting that the Obama campaign was going to lose Ohio to McCain, Hackett proposed his own solution: A series of savage attacks on the GOP ticket focusing on Sarah Palin and her family. Here is what he wrote:

The message (would be) simple and the professionals can refine it but essentially it should contain these elements: Sarah Palin? Can't keep her solemn oath of devotion to her husband and had sex with his employee. Sarah Palin? Accidentally got pregnant at age 43 and the tax payers of Alaska have to pay for the care of her disabled child. Sarah Palin? Unable to teach her 16 year old daughter right from wrong and now another teenager is pregnant. Sarah Palin? Can you trust Sarah Palin and her values with America's future?

Rumors.

A public figure openly called for Palin to be raped during the campaign. Months after the losing campaign was over, a major comedian joked about the fictitious rape of one of her daughters. Immediately after the election, her church was burned. It's fairly difficult to reconcile this 'heat' as something conventional in politics. In fact, there might be some good reason to collectively indict Palin critics for their silent complicity.

Palin brought all this on herself, right?

In the midst of the election season, Mrs. Palin's personal e-mail account was hacked by the son of a Democratic Tennessee representative.

All Palin, she made her own news here.

Also, it's important to remember why the Palin family even acknowledged Bristol's pregnancy: Because a thousand "liberal" Web sites, led by Daily Kos, the favored site of leftist Democrats, filled cyberspace with off-the-wall theories that Trig Palin was really Bristol's child and that Sarah had faked her own pregnancy. This was truly ugly territory, and nutty besides. It's not terribly different from the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim-not-born-in-this-country stuff, with one crucial distinction: The Obama Muslim stuff was either debunked or ignored by the media --not the conspiracy theories about Trig Palin's birth. In some quarters of the evolving new media - The Huffington Post and Bill Maher's HBO program, to name two - the Palin pregnancy hoax was repeated. Some traditional outlets, including Vanity Fair and, most inexplicably, The Atlantic blog written by Andrew Sullivan, kept hammering away at it after it was proven false by photographic evidence and by Bristol's own pregnancy.

What exactly did Sarah do to prompt the Trig conspiracy?

Do you, NK, have the integrity to admit these and many other attacks had nothing to do with the Palins being "makers of their own news," or are you going to insist - in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that she brought every bit of this on herself?

[NeedKarma]

Do you, NK, have the integrity to admit these and many other attacks had nothing to do with the Palins being "makers of their own news,"

Will you have the integrity to admit that Obama suffered through attacks (muslim, not born here, terrorist, anti-american) and has nothing to do with him making his own news? Oh by the way, Obama didn't quit.

[speechlesstx]

Hello again, Steve:

I think you pointed to the EXACT reason why she skedaddled.

Ex this isn't news to me, as soon as I read it in the paper I said to my wife "who can blame her?" It wasn't JUST her being attacked, her FAMILY was relentlessly attacked including some of the most vile, despicable, inexcusable hatred concerning her disabled infant. If it were me I would protect my family from such bullsh*t, too, even if it meant being called a quitter. I'd rather be called a quitter than subject my family to that kind of inexcusable crap.

[Wondergirl]

I'd rather be called a quitter than subject my family to that kind of inexcusable crap.

And when you quit, the crap will end? Or it will take on a whole new flavor?

I would rather deal with the crap with honor and integrity. (Of course, I would have to have honor and integrity to begin with... )

[NeedKarma]

I'd rather be called a quitter than subject my family to that kind of inexcusable crap.

I will agree with your assessment if she lives out her career out of the spotlight. Do you think that's what's happening?

[speechlesstx]

Will you have the integrity to admit that Obama suffered through attacks (muslim, not born here, terrorist, anti-american) and has nothing to do with him making his own news? Oh by the way, Obama didn't quit.

As if I haven't already? As if I haven't defended him against such spurious charges? I have indeed, NK, and I'll do so again. I have more than enough fodder for criticism without resorting to idiotic charges that he's a secretly a Muslim or wonder about his birth certificate. Now what about you?

P.S. Why should Obama have quit, the media and blogosphere did a damn fine job of extolling his virtues and defending his weaknesses. It's easy when the media is in the tank FOR you instead of piling on.

[excon]

It's easy when the media is in the tank FOR you instead of piling on.

Hello again, Steve:

I want my president to have thick skin. Sarah Palin doesn't. It's GOOD to find out now.

One thing you can say about the dufus, is his skin musta been 4" thick. HE wasn't influenced by an angry press. Everybody hated him. Didn't stop him. He didn't engage every little thing - well except the for Valorie Plame thing. But, he didn't do it much.

excon

[Wondergirl]

Everybody hated him. Didn't stop him.

I don't think he was aware that everyone hated him. He was wrapped in a cocoon while he was prez.

[NeedKarma]

All one has to do is watch Fox News for continual attacks on the president.

[speechlesstx]

I don't think he was aware that everyone hated him. He was wrapped in a cocoon while he was prez.

That's nonsense.

[Wondergirl]

That's nonsense.

He even said that himself -- refused to listen to anyone other than trusted lackeys.

[speechlesstx]

And when you quit, the crap will end? Or it will take on a whole new flavor?

I would rather deal with the crap with honor and integrity. (Of course, I would have to have honor and integrity to begin with...............)

P Lease Wondergirl, explain - in factual detail - how she didn't deal with the crap with honor and integrity.

[speechlesstx]

I want my president to have thick skin. Sarah Palin doesn't. It's GOOD to find out now.

She's not your president so you don't have to worry about that. Still, would you continue to subject your family to the crap she endured?

[tomder55]

Perhaps if the major media was attacking his daughters like the bloggers were then President Bush would not have been so thin skinned.

You see ;it is the open season on the Palin kids that has been to date the exception rather than the rule. There was a time when public servants children were out of bounds.

[speechlesstx]

All one has to do is watch Fox News for continual attacks on the president.

And all you have to do is come here for continual attacks on Palin... and Bush.

[speechlesstx]

I will agree with your assessment if she lives out her career out of the spotlight. Do you think that's what's happening?

My assessment has nothing to do with whether you have the integrity to acknowledge you were wrong about the Palins being the "makers of their own news."