It’s an axiom of American politics that everything that happens is good news for conservatives. Therefore, since the Palin book tour is happening, the Palin book tour is good news for conservatives.

And yet, aside from the Weekly Standard whackjobs, I haven’t hear anyone say that Palinpalooza is good news for conservatives. Not Halperin. Not Ambinder. Not the Politico. And the Weekly Standard’s line is more just “she pisses liberals off, and that is good” than any kind of argument that she represents good news for conservatives.

Can anyone think of any argument that prolonged exposure to Sarah Palin is good for conservativism? I can’t think of any. There’s got to be some, given that, it is in fact good news for conservatives since it is happening.

Update. I have to admit, Rich Lowry has come up with the most convincing argument I’ve heard yet that Republicans can use her to keep the teabaggers from forming a third party. It’s still not that convincing because I don’t believe the teabaggers will from a real third party (though they may run challenges in states with third-party infrastructure).

Her supporters identify with her populist, unaffected vibe and tend to be disaffected with politics as usual — they’re Palin Perotistas. A drastic image makeover would only drive them away.

Republicans need these voters more than ever given the roiling grassroots revolt against Obama’s governance. Without them, they can’t get a majority; they’d be doomed if they were ever to slide into a splinter party. If Palin is their voice and channels their energy productively, she’s part of the Republican answer to Obama, no matter what presidential politics ultimately holds for her. There’s an upside to rogue.

I realize this is nut-picking but I was a bit surprised to see a local right-wing blog praying for Obama’s death (via).

Psalm 109:8 – May his days be few; may another take his office.

I guess I don’t get it, in a way, because Joe Biden would just become president then. Maybe they’re concurrently praying for his death.

But that would just make Nancy Pelosi president.

How far down do you have to go in the order of succession before a Republican becomes president?

Update. Via the comments, apparently they need to be praying for the deaths of Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Robert Byrd, Hillary Clinton, and Tim Geithner. That gets you to Robert Gates.

A metaphysical question: can God create a line of succession so long that He cannot kill everyone on it?

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty damned happy that all the fevered discussion of Lady Starburst’s new book is drowning out some of the screaming that Obama is letting a super-genius criminal set foot on American soil.

But I’ve got to think that Palinpalooza would be even more attention-consuming if the Levi Johnston Playgirl issue was coming out right now, in the middle of Palin’s book tour. Why are they waiting til January? Isn’t that like rolling out a new product in August?

I had a friend check out what was going on with my local Sarahpalooza book signing. Here’s what he said:

I talked to one of the clerks and she said they’ve been getting calls non-stop since it was announced, from places as far away as Oregon and Yonkers. One of the other clerks was on the phone fielding Palin questions as I spoke to this one.

The appearance is at 6 PM. She’s not doing anything but signing books for 3 hours—no remarks. They’re handing out 1000 wristbands at 9 AM. Each is good for one “family”—two adults and their kids—to have a maximum of two books signed. The clerk expected that all the wristbands would be gone at 9, considering the volume of calls they’re getting.

Sounds like a pain in the ass hassle to get an autograph…

What the fuck is she talking about?

In addition to the suggestion that government officials would consider hastening the death of the infirm or handicapped, she began her remarks with a puzzling commentary on the design of newly minted dollar coins.

Noting that there had been a lot of “change” of late, Palin recalled a recent conversation with a friend about how the phrase “In God We Trust” had been moved to the edge of the new coins.

“Who calls a shot like that?” she demanded. “Who makes a decision like that?”

She added: “It’s a disturbing trend.”

Update. I see the next two paragraphs answered my question

Unsaid but implied was that the new Democratic White House was behind such a move to secularize the nation’s currency.

But the new coins – concerns over which apparently stemmed from an email chain letter widely circulated among conservatives – were commissioned by the Republican-led Congress in 2005 and approved by President Bush.

It’s fun to hate on Politico, but Jon Martin’s understated arch tone here is perfect.

If Pete Sessions escapes with anything less than being publicly stoned with fake dog poop, he should consider himself lucky:

Make no mistake about it, Pete Sessions and the NRCC must shoulder most of the blame and responsibility, with Michael Steele and the RNC coming right behind them. They did not listen. They would not listen. They posited themselves as the smartest people in the room.

And we’ve cleaned their clocks.

Now? We should be magnanimous in victory — and whether Hoffman wins or loses, as long as Dede Scozzafava loses it is a victory — but we should demand accountability, we should demand a reckoning, and we should demand a purge from the party establishment of those people most responsible for the Republican disaster in NY-23.

Erick the Red rides again.
—————————————

Dear XXXX:

After RedState readers sent Senator Olympia Snowe 1600 lbs. of rock salt, she got back in line with the Republicans and has again signaled her opposition to Obamacare.

We have a new target whose life we need to make very painful over the next week. Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) went home over the August recess and told his constituents he was standing up to Nancy Pelosi and opposing her budget busting health care plan.

Today, Earl Pomeroy declared he would be Nancy Pelosi’s lap dog, despite the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office declaring her plan will exceed $1.5 trillion. Oh, they put back in the death panels and abortion funding too. It doesn’t matter to Earl anymore. He is going to support Obamacare and he needs to be painfully reminded that he is betraying his constituents.

I just sent Earl Pomeroy a pile of fake dog poop, only because the post office won’t send the real stuff. He needs a real reminder of what the Democrats are serving up and that he is betraying his constituents and selling out our country.

Please join me in sending Earl this fine reminder. Click here to order.

The address is:

Office of Rep. Earl Pomeroy

3003 32nd Ave S Suite 6

Fargo, ND 58103

(701) 235-9760

Likewise, I urge you to call his Washington office at (202) 225-2611 and express your displeasure.

Remember, if we make an example of Earl Pomeroy, both the Blue Dog Democrats and wayward Republicans will think twice before selling us out on health care.

Also, please note that Amazon.com will kindly send RedState some cash, so not only are you saving America, but you are helping RedState too!

Sincerely yours,

Erick Erickson
Editor,RedState.com

I knew that not many people read the Washington Times, but I didn’t know its numbers were this bad (via GOS):

down 17 percent to 67,148

That’s amazing pathetic. Pick a random second-tier city and google their newspaper. You’ll generally find the circulation to be around 100K or higher (I just did this with Syracuse and Tacoma).

By 2002, Moonies had spent $1.7 billion subsidizing the paper. And that was when papers were doing well. So God only knows how much money it is losing today.

I don’t see how Sun Myung Moon is getting his money’s worth from this ridiculous little venture, even granting that its “reporters” show up on the tube a lot more than reporters from any other paper with such shitty circulation numbers.

Update. Yes, I know it is a propaganda front. But, to put it in perspective, the paper was losing $85 million a year for 20 years and certainly much more than that now. The operating expenses of the Heritage Foundation—also a propaganda front, of course—is about $49 million. And that’s 2007 dollars. It’s a good bet that the Moonie Times loses three to four times the operating budget of the Heritage Foundation now.

That’s just not a good way to spend your propaganda dollars.

Obviously, there’s lots to make fun of Michael Ledeen’s hoax post and many have made fun of it. But not many have touched on this claim he makes:

I’ve done satirical pieces myself, and I know how they can take off. I once wrote one that said that Bill Casey did not die, and was hiding in a bunker under the St Andrews golf course from which he was running Mikhail Gorbachev. I thought it was obviously satirical, but it went like wildfire all over the world. And that was in the days before the Internet.

Is it possible that this really “went like wildfire all over the world”? Could people possibly have been that dumb 20 years ago?

Update. I can find no evidence that this happened.

Tapper? Todd? I’d like to know.

QUESTION: One more question — have you — do you any comment on Anita Dunn’s belief that Mao is one of her favorite political philosophers?

MR. BURTON: I caught some of that from the Glenn Beck show yesterday, but I don’t think anybody takes it — takes his attacks very seriously. We’re just — you know, we go day to day in this White House trying to ensure that people know the truth about the policies and programs and positions that the President holds, and we’re going to continue to do that.

At this point, I think it would be easier to cut on the middle man and just have Glenn Beck attend the press gaggles.

So says Neil Cavuto:

I guess the next logical question is whether or not the ombudsman at the New York Times will explore the issue of why the paper’s reporters aren’t covering the Bush recovery that all the conservatives are talking about.

Sorry, Neil, you should have dressed as a pimp for that segment.

The moment I heard Snowe was going to vote for the bill, I began furiously refreshing Red State for the reaction. Finally, they deliver:

That is right, folks. To show unhappy they are, they are going to ask you to buy rock salt through their amazon store and mail it to Olympia Snowe. They don’t call them the Red State Strike Farce for nothing.

Seriously, how do I make a joke about this?

I’ve mostly grown weary of birtherism, but there are some real gems in some of the recent court filings.

On page 27, explaining why it’s good that Congress, not the courts, are in charge of removing presidents from office:

“Or perhaps an eccentric citizen has become convinced that the President is an alien from Mars, and the courts should order DNA testing to enforce the Constitution [7] ...”

“[7] The Court does not make this observation simply as a rhetorical device for emphasis; the Court has actually received correspondence assailing its previous order in which the sender, who, incidentally, challenged the undersigned to a “round of fisticuffs on the Courthouse Square,” asserted that the President is not human.”

The corresponder sounds an awful lot like Zell Miller to me.

Nate Silver had Illinois as the ninth likeliest Senate seat to switch parties in his most recent rankings. I’ve got to think that the Republican reaction to the Olympics decision is going to change that.

Mark Kirk can’t be too pleased with the wingerati right now.

Hegel did this too.

(via Sully)