Glenn Beck Holds Rally on Anniversary of King's I Have a Dream Speech
Glenn Beck held a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. today, exactly forty seven years after Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in the same place. Al Sharpton led a counter protest elsewhere in the city. But Beck surprisingly steered clear of politics, as did Sarah Palin, a featured speaker who talked about veterans. The rally was more about God and honoring the military. But civil rights leaders say Beck was deliberately trying to dishonor King. It all remained pretty peaceful -- some might even say boring. NBC News has video from the scene:
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs poked fun at Sarah Palin by attending a press briefing with notes written on his hand. Sarah Palin was caught with notes on her hand during a question-and-answer session at last week's Tea Party convention.. Take a look:
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is going to join Fox News as a regular commentator. Fox News seems like an appropriate place for Sarah Palin to share her conservative views although it can at times be confusing to see exactly where she stands on issues. For example, she seems to be trying to have it impossibly both ways on the Birther issue - see here. Take a look:
Politico reports that form VP candidate and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin turned her book manuscript in early. The book has a massive 1.5 million copy first print run. It will in stores on November 17th. The book will be called Going Rogue: An American Life.
Palin had a deadline of Sept. 15 for her manuscript and turned it in a bit early. Copy-editing and fact-checking are now underway in a race to meet the crash publishing schedule, which has been accelerated four or five months because of the huge anticipated demand.
After Palin left office on July 26, she went with her husband, Todd, and her children to San Diego, the home of her collaborator, Lynn Vincent, and worked on the book for several weeks.
Later, Palin spent several days in New York, going over the final edits.
Sarah Palin's book will probably sell well since she has a sizeable group of avid supporters.
Newser reports that Sarah Palin is promising to fire off some less PC tweets on her Twitter account, @AKGovSarahPalin, once she has resigned as Alaska Governor. Sarah Palin's tweet said, "10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site."
In a tweet posted Friday, Palin indicates that when she's out of office, she'll use a personal account on the social networking site to stay in touch.
Palin's tweet said, "elected is replaceable; Ak WILL progress! + side benefits10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site."
The governor says in another message that in the meantime, "it's a pleasure to update interested folks on State biz!"
It will be interesting see exactly what Sarah Palin has to say that is "less PC." Everyone is also wondering what she will change her Twitter account to once she is no longer the Governor of Alaska.
Reuters says Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has "flatly denied having any role in Senator McCain's loss in the Presidential election." When questions about running for president in 2012 Sarah Palin said that 2012 is a long ways away. She's right. Four years is a long time in politics but it's hard to imagine she won't eventually decide to run in 2012. Newsweek has already provided a playbook for Sarah Palin if she is planning on running. A CNN poll found that Palin and Huckabee top the lists of 2012 contenders. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also had some support in the poll.
Turkeygate: Sarah Palin Gives Interview In Front of Turkey Slaughterhouse
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave an interview ysterday shortly after pardoning a turkey at a Wasilla turkey farm. She gave the interview right in front of a Wasilla turkey farm employee who was busy slaughtering a turkey. He kept looking back somewhat surprised that the interview was still going on as he went about his job of slaughtering turkeys. Sarah Palin should have realized that this was a little too much reality for many Americans just a few days shy of Thanksgiving and an inappropriate backdrop for a post turkey-pardon interview. Turkeygate has led to an endless stream of hilarious headlines including "Turkey-Killing Fowls Palin News Conference." Even PETA blogged about it. (via E&P Pub)
McCain Aides: Sarah Palin Did Not Know Africa Was a Continent, Not a Country
The election is over and the blaming has started in full force in the McCain camp. Newsweek unveiled new revelations about Sarah Palin's shopping spree. The story quotes two high-ranking McCain aides who said Palin spent much more than $150,000 on clothing, that she answered the door to McCain staffers wearing only a towel and that she made low ranked staffers charge things on their credit cards for her. An angry aide summed up the incidents as follows: "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."
But it gets worse. Fox News Channel political correspondent Carl Cameron today said there will be an "avalanche" of unflattering stories about Palin coming in the near future. Aides to McCain said Palin did not know that Africa was a continent, not a country and did not know what countries are in NAFTA (U.S., Mexico and Canada). And she threw temper tantrums, the aides said. Take a look:
Another aide told Bill O'Reilly that Palin did not know which countries made up North America. And this is who McCain chose as a running mate at the urgings of Bill Kristol? It's mind-boggling.
Sarah Palin has a new interview with ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas that will air on Good Morning America Thursday and 20/20 on Friday. Vargas asked Palin about her plans for 2012 if she doesn't win but Palin remained focused on the current election.
ELIZABETH VARGAS: If it doesn't go your way on Tuesday ... 2012?
GOV SARAH PALIN: I'm just ... thinkin' that it's gonna go our way on Tuesday, November 4. I truly believe that the wisdom of ... of the people will be revealed on that day. As they enter that voting booth, they will understand the stark contrast between the two tickets. ...
VARGAS: But the point being that you haven't been so bruised by some of the double standard, the sexism on the campaign trail, to say, "I've had it. I'm going back to Alaska."
PALIN: Absolutely not. I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken, that ... that would ... bring this whole ... I'm not doin' this for naught.
Sarah Palin is probably thinking about her political future with the McCain-Palin ticket down so far in the polls. However, she's not going to slip up and start talking about 2012 with the election just days away. Even so Palin saying she's "not doin' this for naught" possibly referring to a run in 2012 left a senior McCain aide speechless. John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared together in Pennsylvania yesterday and both remain optismitic about their chances on November 4th.
The two mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin appeared together in Pennsylvania in an attempt to battle ongoing accusations that there is a rift between the McCain and Palin camps. McCain focused on taking shots at Obama's tax plan and Obama's comments that he would redistribute wealth. The goal of the McCain campaign now is to win Pennsylvania. The consesus is they have given up on states like Colorado and Michigan. The one big problem with a Pennsylvania strategy is that most recent Pennsylvania polls show Obama with a 10-point lead. The McCain camp believes they can close this big gap before Election Day next week.
Politico reports
that tensions between the Palin and McCain camps are rising during these final weeks of the campaign. There are also reports that Palin is off the reservation and is ignoring her talking points, putting forth her own opinions.
Four Republicans close to Palin said she has decided increasingly to disregard the advice of the former Bush aides tasked to handle her, creating occasionally tense situations as she travels the country with them. Those Palin supporters, inside the campaign and out, said Palin blames her handlers for a botched rollout and a tarnished public image — even as others in McCain's camp blame the pick of the relatively inexperienced Alaska governor, and her public performance, for McCain's decline.
"She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane," said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to "go rogue" in some of her public pronouncements and decisions.
"I think she'd like to go more rogue," he said.
*****
Between Palin's internal detractors and her allies, there's a middle ground: Some aides say that she's a flawed candidate whose handling exaggerated her weak spots.
"She was completely mishandled in the beginning. No one took the time to look at what her personal strengths and weaknesses are and developed a plan that made sense based on who she is as a candidate," the aide said. "Any concerns she or those close to her have about that are totally valid."
But the aide said that Palin's inexperience led her to her own mistakes:
"How she was handled allowed her weaknesses to hang out in full display."
Palin has been talking more to reporters lately, but it's hard to see how she can make up for past mistakes at this late date. The current electoral map has Obama winning in a virtual landslide. The minute the economic crisis hit, it became very clear that Mitt Romney would have been the better VP pick.
Mitt is smart, he understands finance and economic policy: the campaign could have put him front and center from the first day. He could speak fluently about economic policy without needing to study up the night before and could have had daily press conferences during the time that Congress was dithering around on the bailout package. Instead the McCain camp had Sarah Palin, who is so out of her depth on economic matters it's shocking. That was a major misstep by the McCain campaign, and probably sealed the deal for Obama.
Alec Baldwin wrote a blog post critical of those who think Sarah Palin should not have been allowed to appear on Saturday Night Live. Baldwin appeared in the skit with Governor Palin on SNL.
Saturday Night Live is a comedy show. It's not Meet the Press. It doesn't "ask the tough questions" or "set the agenda." It attempts, with varying degrees of success, to make people laugh. That's it. Whether they skewer and savage people in order to do so, they don't care. When you come on a show like that, you are prepared in advance to get worked over. Palin knew that. Palin came on to be a good sport. And she was. She was polite, gracious. (More so than some of the famous actors who come through there, believe me.)
However, I assume that, like Meet the Press, SNL feels an obligation to offer their special forum to any and all public figures and officials who are current. Headline making. And in SNL's case, would make for a hit show. Several people decried SNL for giving her a spot on the show. You're kidding, right? The woman is the Vice Presidential nominee of one of the two major parties in this country. Don't put her on SNL? With all of her exposure and the Tina Fey performance? What reality are you in?
If you think an appearance on Saturday Night Live would sway voters and actually affect the outcome of the election, you may have more contempt for the electorate of this country than the Republican National Committee does. And that's a lot of contempt.
It would have been very unfair and awkward if Sarah Palin had been barred from SNL especially after all of Tina Fey's funny skits. If you haven't already seen the two Sarah Palin skits from Saturday night you can watch them here and here.
Sarah Palin has inspired Hank Williams, Jr. to write a song. Some on the right might enjoy the song because it has plenty of red meat. Below is the video clip of Hank Williams, Jr. singing his song at a Sarah Palin rally at the Richmond International Raceway. You can read the full lyrics here. ABC's Political Radar said Hank once sang the song with the line "Why do you hunt? God why do you fish? How can you be so smart and be such a good lookin' dish?" Either Hank was flirting with the Governor or he just needed a word that rhymed with fish.
Sarah Palin dropped the puck at the Philadelphia Flyers hockey game and was roundly booed by the crowd. A few fans were cheering but the booing was overwhelming and just went on and on and on. The Times hockey blog said that the boos were "resounding (almost deafening)." Here's the video clip:
Saturday Night Live recreated the Joe Biden-Sarah Palin debate and it was very funny. Queen Latifah played Gwen Ifill. Tina Fey is so good at her Sarah Palin impersonation that it's just eerie. She's hilarious. And SNL ratings are up 46% from last year. Take a look:
Politico 
Sarah Palin has a 
Alec Baldwin wrote a 