Sarah Palin

“This is such a weak field,” Fox News analyst Juan Williams, recently ousted from NPR for not fully toting the far-left line, declared during a Fox News Sunday discussion of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates, prompting an appalled Bill Kristol to mock: “Yeah, President Obama had done so much when he ran for President. I mean, all of these guys are better qualified than Barack Obama.”

Williams got in the last words of the December 26 segment, using them to deride Sarah Palin compared to Barack Obama:

There is nobody out there except for Sarah Palin who could absolutely dominate the stage and she can't stand on the intellectual stage with Obama.

That caused oohs from the panel and led host Chris Wallace to suggest “there’ll be a lump of coal” in Williams’ stocking. (Audio: MP3 clip)

 On Friday’s Political Capital show, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson lavished praise on President Obama has having "negotiating skills" like the recently deceased diplomat Richard Holbrooke - known for facilitating a ceasefire in Bosnia in the mid-1990s - as host Al Hunt asked Carlson and the National Review’s Kate O’Beirne to describe what Christmas gifts they would figuratively give to various public figures. Carlson: "I’m going to give him an inscribed copy of the late, great Richard Holbrooke’s memoir, in honor of Obama’s negotiating skills in this lame duck session. All he had to do was give up tax cuts - for which the Republican Party stands - to the wealthy who don’t need it in exchange for everything else he got."

She went on to trash Tea Party Republicans recently elected to Congress as "blowing off steam." Carlson: "I’m afraid that they might succumb to earmarks and lobbyists. They give every sign of that. So I’m going to give them a tea kettle because all they’ve done so far is blow off steam."

It's Christmas Eve, so let's treat ourselves to something conservative political junkies enjoy: handicapping the 2012 Republican field.  

On the Fox News Special Report this evening, panelists Stephen Hayes and Charles Krauthammer both singled out Mitch Daniels as a man to watch.  Hayes identifed  the Indiana gov as perhaps the true Tea Party candidate—someone willing to speak the hard truths about the need for entitlement reform.  Krauthammer counter-intuitively found Daniels' lack of charisma appealing—as an antidote to our overdose of hope-and-change.

View video after the jump.

NewsBusters predicted early Friday that Sarah Palin-hating media members were going to love Oprah Winfrey's attack on the former Alaska governor in the upcoming issue of Parade magazine.

Living down to expectations, MSNBC's Chris Matthews almost got a thrill up his leg reporting the news (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Oprah Winfrey thinks America is going to fall in love with Sarah Palin - as a reality TV star that is.

In a Parade magazine interview scheduled for publication this Sunday, the daytime talk star also said she's not afraid of Palin running for president because she believes in 'the intelligence of the American public":

Chris Matthews on almost a nightly basis devotes MSNBC air time to bashing former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Sticking with the trend, during a brief segment on Wednesday's "Hardball" about how President Obama is polling in Florida against some prospective Republican challengers in 2012, Matthews said, "Sarah Silverman can beat her down there" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The BBC's Katty Kay might think Sarah Palin's reality show is a flop, but The Learning Channel is rumored to be talking to the former governor to get her to do a second season.

The gossip website Popeater reported Tuesday:

Howard Kurtz on Tuesday published a surprisingly glowing piece about one of the most hate-filled commentators on television.

In "Rush Limbaugh's TV Nemesis" posted at the Daily Beast, Kurtz even seemed to condone Ed Schultz's disgusting pet names for Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Chris Christie:

In a report at the top of the 8AM ET hour of Tuesday's CBS Early Show, senior White House correspondent Bill Plante ridiculed Sarah Palin for daring to criticize First Lady Michelle Obama's weight loss campaign: "Palin has never been at a loss for an opinion on anything, including taking a pot shot at the First Lady's campaign to eat healthy."

Fill-in news reader Betty Nguyen introduced Plante's report by declaring: "And there's a war over dessert. Yes, a food fight has broken out between the First Lady and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin." Throughout the segment, the headline on screen read: "Palin Food Fight; Dessert War."

People clicking through MSN.com for a list of Best and Worst TV of 2010 found mostly rave reviews, but near the end of the list came the "Worst," and critic Chris Larkin really blasted Sarah Palin's Alaska with the usual disdain that anyone would kill animals (but wishes a bear would harm Palin):

See Sarah fish. She Sarah hunt. See Sarah log. All eight parts of this shameless ad for the Alaska Division of Tourism involve the killing of dozens of living things and millions of brain cells. Where's an attacking bear when you really need it? The saving grace is watching the former vice presidential candidate well up while discussing Trig, her 2-year-old son who suffers from Down syndrome. But these rare heartfelt moments can't sustain the otherwise painful tedium. Five million viewers watched the premiere, a record for TLC. Three million viewers watched the second episode. Two million viewers were not wrong.

Chris Matthews on the syndicated program bearing his name devoted an entire segment this weekend to attacking Sarah Palin.

To assist him in the attacks, the host of "The Chris Matthews Show" brought on Howard Fineman of the Huffington Post, the BBC's Katty Kay, Joe Klein of Time magazine, and NBC's Norah O'Donnell (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews and four liberal male guests had a nice laugh Friday over the announcement that Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has been named to serve on the House Intelligence committee.

Viewers are advised to prepare themselves for a truly disgraceful level of sexism displayed on MSNBC's "Hardball" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Good Morning America's Robin Roberts on Friday expressed incredulity that Sarah Palin shot a caribou on her TLC reality show. Interviewing the former governor, she chided, "Some in the lower 48, would say, why did you shoot Rudolph? Though, it's not a reindeer."

Roberts highlighted lefty Hollywood producer Aaron Sorkin, informing that he "calls it a snuff film." She added, "There are some that see this and see the high-powered rifle, and going, really?" (In a humorous moment, Palin dismissed the filmmaker, "Is his name Allen?...I've been calling him Allen.")

Trying to show how hunting is controversial, Roberts added, "I think it also because it was such a high-powered rifle." A perplexed Palin explained, "Well, you can't bring down an animal with a BB gun."

[Video below. MP3 audio here.]

Maybe we need to add the word "Palinography" to the dictionary. Its definition would be: "The process of preparing news photographs and accompanying captions about Sarah Palin in a deliberately negative light."

One example many will likely remember involved the amateurish wire service shoes-and-calves-only photos frequently seen during Palin's vice-presidential run.

Lori Ziganto at the Daily Caller's DC Trawler flagged the latest outrage, which is shown below (direct link):

"Saturday Night Live" began its program last evening with Fred Armisen once again addressing the nation as President Obama.

After being literally held hostage by Republicans for three days - "bound, gagged, blindfolded in a dark room somewhere outside Washington" - Obama, in the grips of weird symptoms associated with the Stockholm Syndrome, became a tax cut-loving, Sarah Palin-admiring, Rush Limbaugh-quoting conservative who's no longer sure he was born in America (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):

On Thursday, NewsBusters made it clear that no matter how Sarah Palin answered Katie Couric's pathetic reading list question back in 2008, the liberal media were going to ridicule her.

On Friday, this point was made even clearer when Mark Levin told his radio audience that Palin's answer to Barbara Walters' same question on ABC's "10 Most Fascinating People of 2010" was edited to remove his best-selling book "Liberty and Tyranny" (audio follows courtesy Right Scoop):

Justin Fenner at Styleite needs to buy a clue or two about how women who like Sarah Palin think and act, and about Palin herself.

In a post late Friday afternoon, he asked, "Why Isn’t Sarah Palin Selling More Clothes?" (bolds are mine):

"This is journalistic insanity," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell protested after watching a montage of liberal journalists misrepresenting the tax policy debate before Congress.

"There is no tax cut going on here at all.... What we're talking about is preventing a tax increase, a tax increase which, by the way,  economists are saying, is going to throw this country into a double-dip recession," the Media Research Center (MRC) founder reminded viewers of the "Media Mash" segment on the December 9 "Hannity."

[Video embedded after page break]

As NewsBusters reported Thursday, Barbara Walters during an interview to be aired hours later claimed the public find the thought of Sarah Palin as president "scary" because she's "uninformed."

When the full segment aired later that evening, Palin fired back saying, "I think it's because the media has shaped that persona and allowed that to be out there as a misconception and a misperception about my, what my values are and what the positions are that I support" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

For well over two years, the liberal media have made fun of how Sarah Palin answered Katie Couric's ridiculous question concerning what she reads.

On Thursday, Chris Matthews, along with MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe, made it clear that no matter how the former Alaska governor answered that question, she was going to be ridiculed (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Barbara Walters dismissed Sarah Palin as "uninformed" on Thursday, telling the former Republican governor, "...Many people find the thought of you as president a little scary."

The View co-host appeared on Good Morning America to promote her upcoming 10 Most Fascinating People special. She derided Palin, "You hear, 'Oh, she's very charming, but she's uninformed.'" [MP3 audio here.]

Video below the jump.
 

Watching liberal media members agonize over the former governor shooting and eating a caribou on Sunday's "Sarah Palin's Alaska" is becoming a spectator sport.

Consider New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd who is so angered by this hunting display she's actually seeing it as a political allegory with Palin's felled prey being the current White House resident:

Chris Matthews on Tuesday once again claimed former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is not very knowledgable about politics.

This deliciously came moments after he wrongly challenged Pat Buchanan about a Winston Churchill quote (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The Today show cast, on Tuesday, previewed a guest appearance by reality show star Kate Gosselin on Sarah Palin's TLC show, and after showing a clip of the former Alaska Governor frightening the celebrity mother of eight kids by firing off a gun, Vieira revealed she shared Gosselin's fears as she yelped: "You're with a woman with a gun. The whole thing makes me nervous, you know?"

The following is the full segment as it was aired on the December 7 Today show:

(video after the jump)

It appears Republicans need to be read their conservative Miranda rights: anything negative you say about Sarah Palin can and will be used against her by the liberal media.

Such was made infinitely clear on Monday's "Hardball" when the host first teased, "Has someone sounded the dog whistle," and later opened a segment, "Are Republicans putting out the word that it's time to stop Sarah Palin?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

During Tuesday's 1PM ET hour on MSNBC, anchor Andrea Mitchell highlighted a new poll from the left-wing pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood that claimed that voters do not trust Sarah Palin on so-called "women's health issues": "A new poll suggests that she may have a tough time getting voters to trust her on at least one front....54% of registered voters do not trust Palin on those issues."

Later in the same segment, deciding to get in a few more shots at Palin, Mitchell claimed that the former Alaska governor's new book, 'America by Heart,' had not appeared on the New York Times best seller list: "All of a sudden, Sarah Palin, with a new book, is not on the list....unless there was something wrong with my edition of The New York Times, she's not on it, with a book that's just come out." Well, apparently there was something wrong with the Times' Sunday December 5 best seller list, because its December 12 list had Palin's book debuting at number two behind George W. Bush's 'Decision Points.'