State & Local Politics

For the better part of the past year (or more), shops, kiosks, sidewalk stands and special displays in larger stores have hosted an array of pro-Obama T-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, hats — everything imaginable under the sun that could fit a photo of Barack Obama. I've often looked for the balance of a McCain or Palin paraphernalia section, only to be disappointed.

But at a North Carolina shopping mall, conservative political kiosk owner Loren Spivack is being forced to shutter his business because he sells pro-GOP merchandise. One of the entrepreneur's best-selling items is a bumper sticker that reads “Work Harder, Obama Needs the Money." Read more...

Before the storm, said Louisiana resident James Madison, he had Mormons knock on his door, just like everybody else, and the object was to try to get rid of them as fast as possible; go away, not interested, don’t want to hear what you have to say. After the storm, he said, it’s “a little bit different now. They’re part of my family now. Always will be. They got into my heart. They’ll never stand on my doorstep again without being invited into my house.”

They were hearing stories of troops coming in and heard helicopters were flying over, he said — they even heard that the president was flying over. But no one was there on the ground with them except the Mormons in their yellow T-shirts to help them clean up. Read more...

Not long ago Mike Huckabee said that he hopes Sarah Palin is not thinking of “going independent,” as she brought electricity to the Republican Party in her run with John McCain. It might be worth wondering if she is thinking of running in 2012 as a candidate for the Alaska Independence Party (AIP).

Palin has been on eight trips outside her Anchorage base since announcing her resignation.

"I am Alaskan. I've grown up here and I'm going to remain in Alaska," she said in an interview. "It's not farewell. It's more like, thanks for letting me be here and I'll see you soon." Read more...

Nothing can separate us, for we are all that is left. — Smashing Pumpkins



I’m almost a little glad that Dallas quarterback Tony Romo has broken up with his attractive girl friend. Too bad for Tony but maybe he will be a little more focused this year. And I wonder about New England’s Tom Brady as well as Tom is married now to the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth. Which is a good thing for him and the missus but how could you work? Read more...

This just in from The Washington Times — Sarah Palin is planning on stumping for conservative Democrats. But did somebody tell them?

"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label of affiliation," Palin reportedly said in an interview with the Times.

That's interesting, since our paper ran a story days ago about how Republicans facing tough reelection fights don't want Palin anywhere near their campaign trails. Read more...

That we are treated this morning by a leading banner photo on Yahoo with pithy comments and observations on why Sarah Palin resigned by a teenage boy who got her daughter pregnant shows how close we have come in this past year to a commissar society. It was Master Chief Obama who first took the initiative, making the despicable comment about putting lipstick on a pig after Sarah Palin made a joke about hockey moms and pit-bulls in her vice presidential debate. Master Chief Obama then defended his comment — guess where? The Letterman Show. This is mnemonic slander; suggest and deny, suggest and vehemently deny. It is an insidious form of propaganda that is feeling- and sensory- rather than language- and logic-based and which the fellow travelers in the press instinctively sense, intuit and advance. Read more...

Marion Barry is on the front page of The Washington Post and other area pubs again today. And once again, the topic is the same — more scintillating scandal.



You want to know what’s wrong with the city of Washington? Just look at Marion Barry. I didn’t think it was possible for one human being to singularly serve as the personification of all the failings and woes of an entire city, but lately I’m starting to believe the two were made for each other. Read more...

It is remarkable in itself that when Sarah Palin comes down to the Lower 48 to go to a baseball game with Rudy Giuliani, she remains in the press for a month.

It is interesting as well that this has taken place as a parallel event to a funeral of a popular dancer whose celebrations and remembrances are dragging out longer than Washington’s, Lincoln’s, Kennedy’s, Gandhi’s or Victoria’s. Maybe things begin where they end. Here is a thought to her and her delightful Alaskan family from another free spirit and a neighbor in the Northwest who was thrown to fame and fell victim to it as well: Read more...

A.B. Stoddard delves into Gov. Sarah Palin's resignation news and answers viewer questions about how Senate Democrats will fare with their 60 seat super majority.

"A quitter never wins and a winner never quits."

So Felix Unger famously said in an episode of "The Odd Couple." It's a quote that has stuck around for 35 years now and, if not exactly as noted a political quote as Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death," or even Richard Nixon's "Sock it to me," the "Felix Unger Doctrine" — we're coining the term right here! — is the paradigm Sarah Palin must now overcome.

That is, should she choose to run for the presidency in 2012. Read more...