Tea Party Leader: Sarah Palin Is A 'Wolf In Sheep's Clothing'

Tea Party Leader: Sarah Palin Is A 'Wolf In Sheep's Clothing'

Dale Robertson, Palin, Palin Wolf In Sheeps Clothing, Sarah Palin, Sarah-Palin, Tea Party, Tea Party Crash, Tea Party Hijacked, Tea Party Movement, Tea Party Profiteers, Tea-Party, Politics News

Sound the alarm!
"A Political firestorm is inevitable as the Tea Party is quietly targeted for capture!" Tea Party leader Dale Robertson warned in a statement on his site TeaParty.org on Thursday.
Robertson cautioned Tea Partiers to be wary, because Sarah Palin, headliner of the recent National Tea Party Convention, represents a threat "to the heart of the Tea Party:"
"I am sending an alarm to the Tea Party membership! Be alert to turncoats and deceivers being herded into the Tea Party by usurpers from the weakened Republican Party for the sole purpose of capturing our populist movement," Robertson said.
More from Robertson's letter, which is posted on his Tea Party site:

"Sarah Palin's well delivered speech and her attractive demeanor is little more than a veneer for her less attractive political philosophy. She seems more like a duck out of water among true Conservative Constitutionalists. Palin demonstrates her NeoCon flippant viewpoint and her naivete as she seems envious of the swelled numbers of Patriots pledging their allegiance, to of all things, AMERICA and not to a kool-aid ridden political dinosaur.
Sarah Palin is not dense or erroneous in her view of the Tea Party, just the opposite. She represents a growing insider's attack to the heart of the Tea Party. Very much like a wolf in sheep's clothing entering in at the gate as an ally, but for all intents and purposes there to seize and capture, not only one or two stray sheep, but the whole flock!Robertson also isn't the first person to point out the Tea Party's vulnerability to hijacking. Many expressed outrage at the concept of this month's for-profit, corporate-sponsored National Tea Party Convention in Nashville where Sarah Palin delivered a keynote speech.

Why FOX news is yet another smart move by Palin

Why FOX news is yet another smart move by Palin
January 14, 10:33 AMSarah Palin ExaminerLori Calabrese

Sarah Palin shined in 2009 and has kicked off 2010 with a bang, signing on with FOX News as a regular contributor.

“Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum, and we are excited to add her dynamic voice to the Fox News lineup,” said Senior VP of Programming Bill Shine.

Palin's move to FOX as an on-air analyst is just another smart move for someone who was criticized for stepping down as the Governor of Alaska. Since her resignation, Palin has proved she's a political contender by writing a best-selling memoir, coming in neck and neck with Hillary Clinton as one of the most admired women in America, having over 1.1 million followers on Facebook, and becoming one of the top political names being thrown around as a candidate for 2012.

Since Palin signed the multi-year deal with FOX News, the nation can't stop talking about how this will affect Palin's future political plans. Overall, it seems as if it's just another smart political move for someone who has already galvanized a lot of support.

1. Experience
Palin's new Fox gig may be key to helping her become more media savvy, says Jonathan Capehart in The Washington Post. "Doing TV, Palin will learn how to think on her feet … [and] how to debate other people in a forum with no real ground rules."

2. Keeping up with the competition
Palin is not only joining programs across the network, she's also joining a lineup of pundits that includes fellow conservatives Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee. FOX, which has some of the highest-rated political talk shows on cable, now has two potential Republican presidential aspirants in 2012 on its payroll.

3. Representing everyday Americans
Palin connects with her supporters because they see her as an everyday American. Palin's new gig contributes to that image, since Palin now has a regular job. In addition, she will host periodic episodes of FNC's "Real American Stories," a series exploring inspirational real-life tales of overcoming adversity throughout the American landscape that will debut in 2010.

4. Another platform
Palin has more than 1.1 million Facebook followers and her controversial pronouncements on healthcare reform and climate change have stirred a media frenzy. The sharp partisan debates Palin creates will continue to boost Palin's image as she now has a larger platform to discuss the issues close to America's heart.

5. Remaining in the public eye
Palin took the world by storm with her memoir, "Going Rogue." Her national book tour brought out thousands of supporters to each signing. You didn't expect Palin to fade away into the distance did you? With her hiring, Palin is keeping herself in the public eye and national exposure never hurt anyone's political ambitions.

6. Communication with her direct supporters
FOX’s viewers are Palin’s potential voters and core supporters.The ex-governor "is taking a page out of the Ronald Reagan playbook," says Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez, as quoted in CBS News. Reagan had a radio show from 1976 to 1980 and, like Reagan, "Palin will have tremendous support. A lot of primary Republican voters watch Fox News. And she's going to be able to hopefully put together some cogent ideas on domestic policy issues, foreign policy. It's a between platform and could lead her down the road to 2012."

7. Expanding her credibility
Not only does FOX News give Palin a platform to discuss her views to her core supporters, it also gives her a chance to speak to her critics, and strengthen her political image. The regular discussion on politics will allow Palin to expand her credibility and defend herself against the regular media scrutiny that follows the former Governor wherever she goes.

No one's certain how this move will affect Palin's plans for 2012. Some see it as a stepping stone to enter the White House, while others see it as a perfect fit for Palin and her celebrity rock-star status. Not surprisingly, FOX couldn't wait to debut their new contributor on the "O'Reilly Factor" Tuesday night and there's a reason why--Sarah Palin's debut was a ratings hit. "O'Reilly Factor" drew 3.954 million total viewers — more than everything else on cable news in the 8 pm hour combined.

In this photo released by The Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor,
former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin,
makes her first appearance as a FOX News Channel contributor on
"The O'Reilly Factor," Tuesday, Jan.12, 2010 in New York. Host Bill
O'Reilly is seated at right. (AP Photo/ The Fox News Channel's
O'Reilly Factor)

BBC News - Sarah Palin: Fox News move widely discussed in US media

BBC News - Sarah Palin: Fox News move widely discussed in US media

The jury is out on whether Sarah Palin is a serious political contender

News that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is to be a contributor to the Fox News Channel is widely discussed in the US media, largely for what it might say about the beaten Republican vice-presidential candidate's hopes for a shot at the presidency in 2012.
For ABC News' Rick Klein the move "appears to be a step away from elected office".
"While the Fox job will leave room for other pursuits, it's also the latest sign that Palin... is looking for ways to build upon her political brand in ways that don't necessarily include a run for the presidency in 2012.
"Though terms of the Fox deal have not been made public, this plus her quick authorship of a bestselling memoir suggest that Palin's attention has turned to her own finances since leaving public life."
CNN's Ed Hornick agrees , suggesting Ms Palin is sending a "clear message" that she is "unlikely to run" in 2012.
Hornick quotes Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Paul Begala saying the same, while adding a couple of barbs: "I do think maybe it suggests, sadly for Democrats, that she might not be running... Let's first hope for [Fox News President] Roger Ailes' sake that she doesn't quit that job the way she quit her job as governor of Alaska."
But Howard Kurtz, in the Washington Post, notes that Ms Palin, "who has been broadcasting her political views on her Facebook page, has just acquired a far more potent media megaphone".
"Out-of-work politicians are increasingly using television and radio to stay on the political radar and keep their options open, which is one reason that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an also-ran in the 2008 White House race and possible 2012 contender, is now hosting a weekend show, also on Fox," Kurtz adds.
The "megaphone" metaphor is also used by Matea Gold and Mark Barabak in the LA Times , who note that "Fox News gets a high-profile figure whose pronouncements on issues such as healthcare reform have helped drive contentious partisan debate".

[The job] establishes her as an official member of the mainstream media she lambasted in her own bestselling memoir as 'worthless as a source of factual information anymore' Erika Bolstad Anchorage Daily News

Political analyst Darrell West tells the Times that it will be hard for Ms Palin to use the job with Fox News - a channel which claims neutrality but is widely seen as having a conservative bias - to broaden her political base.
But Republican strategist David Carney sees her limited role at the channel as a sensible move, adding that it is "probably safer for keeping her presidential possibilities open than a daily show where she'd have to come up with something innovative and entertaining and provocative for 42 minutes, five days a week".
'Ashamed and sickened'
Steve Steckler, a contributor to Politico.com's Arena section, hopes to sees Ms Palin placed "in regular on-air debates with well-armed adversaries rather than just serving up [Glenn] Beck-like monologues".
"If it is the latter, then write her off as a serious future political contender, since she won't have demonstrated that she has overcome her most relevant weaknesses as a candidate," Steckler adds.
In the US edition of FT.com, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Edward Luce suggest that the deal has "revved up" Ms Palin's presidential hopes.
But they also note that her appointment came a day after Matthew Freud, son-in-law of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, denounced Roger Ailes, the chairman and chief executive of Fox News.
Freud told the New York Times he was "ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes's horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to".
Media U-turn?
In an article titled "Fox's Newest Star, Sarah Palin, May Be a Bit Dim", The Nation's John Nichols focuses on a new book of the 2008 presidential election, Game Change, by reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
In the book, and in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview , 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain's senior adviser, Steve Schmidt, describes Palin as a stunningly inept and ill-prepared contender for the vice presidency.
Meanwhile, Time.com provides a photo gallery detailing Ms Palin's life since the 2008 US presidential election.
And on the Atlantic's website, Max Fisher has compiled a selection of previous Palin appearances on Fox News.
"Whether you're a Palin fan warming up the DVR or a Palin skeptic discovering another reason to tune out Fox News, here's what you may have to look forward to when Palin graces your set," Fisher writes.
Finally, Erika Bolstad in Alaska's Anchorage Daily News notes: "Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will join Fox News as a contributor, a job that establishes her as an official member of the mainstream media she lambasted in her own bestselling memoir as 'worthless as a source of factual information anymore'."

Palin's tea party raises eyebrows - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

Palin's tea party raises eyebrows - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

Sarah Palin's keynote address is getting a lot of attention despite her rejection of an invitation to speak at the CPAC. Photo: AP

POLITICO 44

Sarah Palin’s plan to deliver the keynote address — for a fee — at next month’s first-ever National Tea Party Convention is getting renewed attention in light of her rejection Thursday of an invitation to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
The decision to blow off CPAC — traditionally seen as the year’s must-attend event for the conservative establishment — in favor of a little-known convention is prompting some soul-searching among CPAC supporters, and is being interpreted as a calculated play by the former Alaska governor to cast herself as the potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate of the high-energy, anti-establishment tea party movement.
But it’s also renewed questions about her political judgment and brought scrutiny on the Tea Party Convention, which kicks off two weeks before CPAC’s Feb. 18 start date and has cast itself to some degree as a more homegrown, grass-roots alternative to the traditional conservative conference.
“It’s a missed opportunity for her, for sure,” said GOP operative Brad Blakeman. “CPAC is an established mainstay of conservatism that those seeking to be active in 2010, 2012 and beyond should take advantage of to be seen and heard, while the tea parties are a manifestation of frustration that is loosely organized and hasn’t proven itself at the polls.”
Palin has committed to speaking at April’s Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, considered a must-attend for prospective candidates for the 2012 Republican nomination.
Still, the CPAC snub, combined with the tea party commitment, were clearly intended to send a message, asserted Erick Erickson, founder of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, which is owned by a publishing firm that is co-sponsoring CPAC. “I get why she did it,” he said. “It is a purposeful decision on her part to try to claim a segment of the conservative movement as her own.”
Though he said it has caused some conservatives to question whether CPAC is losing relevance as new conservative activists affiliate more with the tea party movement than with establishment conservative and Republican groups, Erickson predicted that CPAC is “going to draw a lot more people and a wider range of both conservative voices and conservative age groups” than the Tea Party convention.
In 2009, CPAC, which is held in Washington and includes a presidential straw poll, drew an estimated 9,000 attendees, while the National Tea Party Convention, set to begin Feb. 4 in Nashville, had 600 tickets, some of which are still available.
“She could have done both,” Erickson said, “but I think she should be doing CPAC because she would have a more expanded reach. The people surrounding the governor need to go some good discernment as to who are her friends and who want to ride her coattails to greater personal success.”

Palin’s representatives confirmed Friday that she is still planning to attend the Tea Party Convention, but they ignored questions about whether it part of a broader effort to position her within the conservative movement.
The Tea Party Convention is being organized by Tea Party Nation, a for-profit company that runs a social networking website for activists, but is not considered a leading group in the tea party movement. It’s paying for Palin’s fee (reported to be in the low six figures) and other overhead by selling tickets (at $560 a pop) and by offering sponsorships, in some cases for $50,000 each.
Tea Party Nation is hoping to turn a profit from its convention so that it can “funnel money back into conservative causes” through a 527 group it plans to set up to get involved in campaigns, according to Judson Phillips, the group’s president.
Though he wouldn’t comment on Palin’s CPAC snub, he previously told POLITICO that his group’s ability to land Palin to keynote the convention demonstrates “that the tea party movement is having an impact in politics and that she recognizes its impact and that she wants to be a part of it. It’s going to be a hugely important event for her and for us in the tea party movement.”
But some Tea Party activists and organizers have questioned whether Tea Party Nation can pull off a successful convention, and also whether its plans are consistent with the goals of the grassroots movement, which exploded onto the scene last year when conservatives mobilized in opposition to the ambitious big-spending initiatives backed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.
Anthony Shreeve, an East Tennessee local tea party organizer who resigned from the convention’s steering committee after a disagreement over its finances, blasted the steep ticket price and expressed concerns that Palin might compromise herself by attending.
“She thinks she’s coming to endorse the tea party movement, but most tea party people won’t be there because they can’t afford it,” he said. “The tea party movement is a grass-roots movement; it’s not a business,” he added, asserting the convention “could potentially harm the movement, because it’s a premature national initiative that doesn’t have the support of the majority of we the people.”
And a tea party source familiar with the convention’s fundraising and planning efforts questioned whether it was wise to prominently feature Palin at an event purporting to be driven by grass-roots activists.
Plus, the source said the convention’s sponsorship requests exceeded the norm for such an event, adding, “I understand completely asking sponsors to chip in, but 50 grand is just way beyond.”
Though the convention lists nine sponsors on its website, some of the groups that have played leading roles in organizing the Tea Party movement are notably absent, including the Dick Armey-led FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity.
Asked why they didn’t sponsor the event, FreedomWorks representatives didn’t comment, while Americans for Prosperity president Tim Phillips issued a statement saying “while we're not an official sponsor, AFP supports efforts to continue strengthening the tea party movement as a grass-roots force. AFP will certainly have activists and staff there.”

Palin: No to freeze because 'Jews need a place to live'

Palin: No to freeze because 'Jews need a place to live'  Jerusalem Post:

Article's topics: Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Settlements

Former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin disagrees with the Obama administration's demand that Israel halt settlement construction, although her reason for that opinion is puzzling to some (or at the least demonstrates she's not familiar with the term "natural growth" that much of the debate has revolved around).

Photo: AP

She told Barbara Walters on ABC's Good Morning America this week that she disagrees with the White House because all the Jews moving to Israel need a place to live.

"I disagree with the Obama administration on that," Palin told Walters. "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand."

J Street responded by releasing a lengthy statement that condemned Palin's comments and accused her of pandering and ignorance.

"Palin's pandering to her right-wing base comes at the expense of the security of the State of Israel, the lives of those actually living the conflict, and the fundamental American interest in achieving a two-state solution in the near term," it said. "Her words reveal a glaring ignorance of damaging facts and a callous disregard of past and present US policy."

What Sarah Palin's "Jewish people will be flocking to Israel" prediction really means

Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet at 7:24 AM on November 21, 2009.

Palin's associated with a religious tendency whose leaders promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theory

There's some acceptance that statements such as Sarah Palin's prediction that Jews will soon be "flocking to Israel" may indicate Palin holds apocalyptic beliefs. What's not understood is that she's closely associated with a religious tendency whose leaders promote anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, including one most commonly used by the Third Reich, in the 1930's and 1940's, to whip up anti-Semitic hatreds: the claim that a worldwide cabal of Jewish bankers manipulates the world economy and preys on working classes.

Stumping for her new autobiography, Sarah Palin has made a round of interviews with high profile media figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters. In the Walters interview Palin justified her support for expansion of Jewish settler enclaves on Israel's West Bank with a strange prediction. Walters asked, "Now let's talk about some issues - the Middle East. The Obama Administration does not want Israel to build any more settlements on what they consider Palestinian territory. What is your view on this ?" Palin responded, "I disagree with the Obama Administration on that. I believe that, um, the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon because the population of Israel is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead."

Why might Palin's prediction come to pass ?

In the 1920's and 1930's, rising anti-Semitism was propelled, in part, by conspiracy theories alleging that Jewish bankers such as the Rothschild banking family controlled both the German and world economies through the manipulation of global money markets. Leaders in Sarah Palin's religious tendency have for years been promoting extremely similar conspiracy theories. Some of these allege that the Rothschild banking family heads an international conspiracy that dominates much of the world economy and controls the U.S.economy through the Federal Reserve.

In the 1980's and 1990's that conspiracy theory was folded into a apocalyptic meta-conspiracy narrative claiming that Jews and "Illuminati" controlled, or were close to controlling, the US government and were plotting to implement a "New World Order." The narrative went on to claim that the Jewish/Illuminati conspiracy was imminently ready to call up hundreds of thousands of foreign troops hidden on US army bases and in National Parks, who would round up patriotic Christians and pack them into trains which would bring them to internment camps where, in some versions of the narratives, those Christians would be slaughtered via machine guns, guillotines, ovens, or poison gas.

While there are secular versions of that New World Order meta-conspiracy narrative, most of the narratives are rooted in Christian apocalyptic end-time narratives that envision, with the coming of the New World Order, the rise of a murderous, tyrannical anti-Christ figure. But the fusion of anti-Jewish conspiracy theory with an anti-Christ narrative has precedent.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, probably the single most destructive work of anti-Jewish propaganda ever created, was first popularized through being printed as the final chapter in Russian Orthodox priest Sergei Nilus' 1905 book The Great within the Small and Antichrist, an Imminent Political Possibility. Notes of an Orthodox Believer. Alfred Rosenberg, Hitler's chief ideologist, tells of being given a copy of Nilus' book in 1917, while Rosenberg was studying in Moscow.

In short, this comes around to a concept widely promoted by Christian Zionists such as Christians United For Israel Founder, Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee, of the "fishers and hunters":

"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." - Jeremiah 16:16, KJV............