Right Online 2011 in Minneapolis-St. Paul was the site of the first screening of filmmaker Stephen Bannon’s much anticipated new documentary on the life and career of Sarah Palin, The Undefeated. Bannon had warned the assembled attendees that we would be seeing what he styled as “the R-rated cut.” The pre-screening buzz indicated that this phrasing was in reference to the opening montage of the film where, presumably, a bit of rough language was in store. As promised, the initial three-minute sequence lived up to its billing.

It is difficult to dispute the premise that Sarah Palin is quite possibly the most viciously hated female, not only in the conservative movement, but in the United States. An assorted motley string of D-list Hollywood types/media complex sorts, from Rosie O’Donnell to Sharon Osbourne to Bill Maher, are captured on video, subjecting Palin to the most vile epithets imaginable…replete with the crudest of sexual references. We’re introduced to the “Kill Sarah Palin” Facebook group. (It seems to no longer exist. But this is still out there.) A new T-shirt makes its debut, emblazoned with the legend “Sarah Palin is a C@%T.”

On and on the bilious saga roils. One is forced to ponder the demonstrable truth that this represents a mere few moments in an endless sea of wretched acrimony. All directed at one attractive, slender, 5’5” wife and mother of four five…who also happens to be a former Mayor of Wasilla, Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate.

We observe how Palin’s formative years in a middle-class, values-oriented family in an almost frontier-like Alaska town contributed to the convictions she embraces today. We see the indelible impression the devastation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill imprinted on a young Sarah’s perspective and how the aftermath subconsciously propelled her to public service.

We then gain entrance to the behind-the-scenes machinations of the corruption to which Alaskan politics had succumbed for decades. Sarah Palin’s determination to upend the status quo and introduce transparency to the mix brought her into the mayoral race in her hometown of Wasilla. The same commitment to open government led Palin to take on the Frank Murkowski machine in Alaska and emerge an upset winner. And then, of course, GOP Presidential nominee John McCain came calling in 2008…

Along the way, the single greatest liability of The Undefeated also constitutes its boldest stroke of effectiveness. I had heard Stephen Bannon address a social media gathering at the Heritage Foundation the previous week. He told the assembled activists at that time that the untold story of Sarah Palin is that she was a leader of substance and savvy. He also candidly advised that the section of the documentary that covers this phase of Palin’s career is slow in spots and runs a bit long.

Bannon was correct on both counts. The typical documentary is in the neighborhood of 90 minutes in length. The Undefeated runs for two hours. At times, perhaps partially due to the lateness of the hour, exertion was required to maintain focus.

But in the end, Bannon delivers the goods in a fashion that lingers. Learning about how Palin convinced the Alaska legislature to approve the Aegea AGIA gas pipeline and grant the license to TransCanada/Alaska may not constitute scintillating viewing. The meticulous planning that resulted in newly paved roads and renewed infrastructure across Alaska isn’t spellbinding cinematic fare. But the determination and grit that led Palin to success in these efforts garnered an 80% (I reiterate: EIGHTY percent) approval rating as governor across her native state.

My seatmate at the screening was a good friend who could hardly be described, for a variety of reasons, as a down-the-line traditional conservative. He is certainly the furthest thing from an ardent Palin supporter. But within the last ten minutes of the film, he leaned over and whispered, “Palin’s governorship wasn’t ideological in the least; it was practical!”

I realized in that moment what the powerful takeaway is from The Undefeated. Sarah Palin has had her identity as a problem-solving state leader completely stripped from her by a media machine that loathes her. This process has been aided and abetted at every juncture by a liberal political/Hollywood cabal who has caricatured her every feature. It is despicable. And it is revolting. But it is real.

Despite the above, in the face of all the rhetorical grenades that have been lobbed in her direction, Sarah Palin is resolute. She is indomitable in her adversarial stance towards the Left and specifically towards the initiatives of President Barack Obama. Palin isn’t afraid to call multiple charter members of the progressive Left out for what they are: socialists who seek to undermine what America has been. And for that, she is feared, reviled and scorned. Yet she marches on, head held high.

The mixture of emotion in the room was palpable, from muffled sobs to spirited chuckles to multiple instances of spontaneous applause. For while the pace wasn’t always brisk, the effect of Sarah Palin’s story lingers. Commentary throughout from Palin family members, friends such as Andrew Breitbart, Tammy Bruce and Sonnie Johnson, as well as fellow Alaskans underscored the central theme. Sarah Palin is a woman of steely courage who will not be cowed by the seething rage of a media machine bent on her destruction.

You may see this movie and decide that Sarah Palin will and should launch an Oval Office bid. That wasn’t my final conclusion. I did, however, wake up the morning after, possessed of a steely determination that conservatives must learn never to allow the media to redefine anyone for us again. The casualty of one good woman to this sordid scrum of mendacity is one too many. Sarah Palin deserves better. This film is a step in the process of broad-based restoration to which her image is entitled.

Sarah Palin IS The Undefeated.

 By the time you finish watching this superbly scripted and produced two-hour documentary about the former Alaskan Governor, if you don’t come to that conclusion, you were either asleep during the film or you still  believe that “Community Organizer” trumps true executive experience and success as qualification to serve as America’s Commander-In-Chief.

Dim the house lights…

It is 2008 and Republican Presidential candidate John McCain introduces Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate to a crowd of thousands of enthusiastic supporters.  The beautiful, poised, confident Governor takes the stage at the Republican National Convention to thunderous applause and delivers an electrifying speech with a level of charisma, wit, and passion not seen since Ronald Reagan, that catapulted this relatively unknown Alaskan Governor onto the National political stage making her almost instantly and simultaneously one of the most revered and one of the most reviled politicians in recent memory.

In stark contrast, the film then cuts over to a dramatic 3-minute montage of pure, unadulterated hatred from the left for this VP candidate which history will record as one of the most vicious campaigns to annihilate a public figure.  It was vulgar.  It was brutal.  It was violent.  It was main stream.  It was textbook Alinsky.  And yet, she is still standing…undefeated.

"Civility" from the left...

The attacks from the liberal pundits, journalists, talk show hosts, celebrities and patrons of social networking sites and the blogosphere were completely abhorrent and offensive.  So much so that the film’s writer/director, Stephen Bannon, told us at the private screening of the rough cut of the film, he would have to do a lot of creative editing to mask some of the more vulgar and violent footage to get the film to a PG-13 rating for National distribution, yet still convey the same astonishing level of the left’s pathological hatred for Palin.  If you have even an ounce of human decency or compassion, viewing this brief sampling of the almost maniacal attacks on Sarah Palin should make your blood boil.  What has she ever done to deserve this?  Does her mere existence threaten people so much they feel she must be destroyed completely before they are satisfied?

Their latest display of depravity or desperation as it were, with the release of over 24,000 of her private emails from her tenure as Alaska’s Governor, has even drawn criticism from those who would never vote for Palin).  The timing couldn’t be better, though, as we are finding (much to the dismay of the corrupt MSM) that she was every bit the dedicated, hard-working Governor depicted in Bannon’s documentary.

But then we see the words from Matthew 7: 17-20 appear on the screen almost as if to calm our souls and bring all of this into perspective.  We are reminded with this passage that this truly is a spiritual battle between good and evil…right from wrong.   Not just for Governor Palin, but for all of us…for our Nation.

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” ~ Matthew 7:20

By the end of this film, you will know who Sarah Palin really is.

With opening credits rolling we hear a single, solitary female voice singing an a capella rendition of The Minstrel Boy (a favorite among Irishmen who fought in the Civil War), with never-before-seen home video footage of a happy, care-free American girl blossoming into a beautiful, accomplished young lady growing up in a small town tucked away in the beautiful, vast, wild, expanses of “The Last Frontier”.  As the singer concludes her song with the words “thy song was made for the pure and free and shall never sound in slavery”, the story that chronicles the political career of Alaska’s own pioneer and patriot, Sarah Palin, begins.

Mayor of Wasilla

With commentary from conservative heavy-hitters Mark Levin, Andrew Breitbart, and Tammy Bruce, conservative activists, former staffers, and others, Stephen Bannon does a brilliant job telling the story of Palin’s rise from obscurity in the lower 48 to stardom on the National political stage.  The seed was planted shortly after the Exxon Valdez disaster that Good Friday, 24 March 1989.  It was when she saw the devastation caused to the community, to the people, to the Alaskan economy that she decided “If I had a chance to serve the people, I would do so”.

As the film takes us through the fascinating journey that is Sarah Palin’s highly successful political career in Alaska, it is clear to see she has always been a tough-as-nails executive who understood her role as a servant for the people during her time as Mayor of Wasilla, as Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Chairwoman, and as Alaska’s most popular Governor.  We see her take on the Republican establishment, big oil, corruption, ethics reform, and tax reform and stare down the ugliness and smears she faced from her political foes and the mainstream Alaskan media with uncommon valor and a fierce, tenacious spirit.  She, like a Marine, always ran toward the danger instead of away from it and took on the huge issues nobody else dared to.  With every new challenge the naysayers claimed there was no way she could do the job, that she was not strong enough, that she lacked the “gravitas”, and didn’t have a good understanding of the issues.  She proved them all wrong…and remained undefeated.

She didn’t just talk the talk…she walked the walk.  When it came to fighting corruption within her own Administration, she said “In politics you’re either eating well or sleeping well”.  She always chose the latter.

With one legislative success after another and overwhelming bipartisan support, Governor Sarah Palin’s popularity was at a record high 88% according to Gallup’s empirical data — the highest approval rating on record for a sitting US Governor.  With that kind of approval rating, Sarah stated “My administration must be doing something right”.  She enjoyed those high approval ratings right up to the day her Blackberry rang and Senator McCain asked “Would you like to help me change history”?

And so began their campaign for the White House.

At the 2008 Republican National Convention

So, too, began another campaign — the one launched by the statists to destroy her.  Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals teaches its disciples that you must take a person’s strengths and “isolate them”.  And that is exactly what they did.  It was an organized strategy and the media gladly participated.  Bannon’s film, The Undefeated, reveals exactly what they “isolated” and as John Nolte, Editor-In-Chief of BigHollywood, so aptly put it, is “doing the job the corrupt MSM won’t”.

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While the 2008 Presidential election did not turn out as planned, Sarah Palin won the hearts of millions of Americans, and as Mark Levin noted, the excitement and enthusiasm generated by Palin was the beginning of the awakening of conservatives across the country — the beginning of what is now the TEA Party movement — and very reminiscent of what happened during the Reagan Revolution.  Americans were seeing for the first time since Reagan, a true conservative leader who had a heart for America and for the people.  “Ronald Reagan would have loved the TEA Party” said Levin.  Like Palin, Reagan was called an outsider that couldn’t win.  People said he was “too conservative”, “a right-winger”, “an extremist”.  And he was just what America needed.

Upon her return to Alaska to resume her duties as Governor, Palin was plagued with one trumped up ethics charge after another which cost her staff dearly.  Each charge was dismissed but rarely, if ever, reported by the media.  As the Palins were a middle-class family and had to pay their own legal fees (which had amassed to over $500,000), the intent of her opponents was to force her family into bankruptcy.  Governor Palin knew that with all the negative press and increasing opposition contributing to her declining popularity, she would not be able to pass one single piece of legislation for the people of Alaska.  She knew her constituents were paying the price and suffering simply because their Governor’s name was “Sarah Palin”.  Her decision to step down, as in all her decisions, was in the best interest of the people.  She said “Life is about choices.  You can choose things that tear you down or build you up”.  She always made the right choice for the people in spite of the harsh criticism she knew she would receive.  “Thank God Sarah refuses to accept the premise of her destruction” stated one of her supporters in the film.  Her spirit cannot not be defeated.

In the final scene, as Sarah is speaking at the 2011 Tax Day Rally in Wisconsin, her hair and glasses soaked from the falling snow but the crowd every bit as fired up as they were the day she took the stage at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin states with the same passion and conviction present in every single speech she delivers “We’re here, we’re clear…get used to it.  God has shed His Grace on thee.  Mr. President…Game on!”

We are left to ponder the words of Thomas Paine:  “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

This is a must-see film that “Palinistas” will absolutely love and will allow Palin skeptics to see what the media has so successfully isolated — hidden in plain sight.  I dare you to go see it.

—–

And his post-gubernatorial admission of a secret affair with his housekeeper — that resulted in a love child he hid from his wife, Maria Shriver, and their children — all but shatters the family values image he tried to sustain.

The question now on most minds: Can the Terminator find a strategy to return to prominence and utter his most famous acting line, ‘I’ll be back’, once again?

I caught up with one of Hollywood’s most powerful and prominent PR players, Michael Levine, to ask that very question. He thinks the Terminator is, well, terminated.

Levine’s firm has represented a Who’s Who of American culture — from Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson to Joe Lieberman, John McCain and Bill Clinton. In short, America’s rich and powerful turn to him for advice when in crisis.

Levine disclosed to me that he twice voted for Schwarzenegger for governor. But it didn’t keep him from mincing words as he predicted Schwarzenegger has only just begun his downward spiral from power.

“America right now is a very cynical place and for good reason,” Levine told me. “Arnold Schwarzenegger has gifted America with another reason to be cynical. By the way, societies that are profoundly cynical are not healthy societies.”

“Before the scandal, his political career was over (since he did such a poor job as Governor). Now, since the scandal, any kind of fantasy he may have had with a future in politics — appointed or otherwise — is non-existent. He is politically radioactive,” Levine added.

Levine also is worried the backlash from his downward fall from grace could also cost Schwarzenegger at the box office.

“Before the scandal, his acting days as a leading man action hero were also largely going to be over because he is aging and was never a great actor to begin with. Now, since the scandal…look, last time I went to a movie theatre about half the people in there were women and I’m not exactly sure how this is going to play out with them.”

“The thing about Arnold is he likes himself A LOT, A LOT. I am told by people very close to him that he is so far out there that he actually believes that people think he did a good job as Governor.”

Prior to leaving office, Schwarzenegger shocked people when he commuted the sentence of Esteban Nunez, the son of a political ally who had plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of 22 year old college student, Luis Santos.

The Terminator seen here yukking it up with political friend Fabian Nunez. Arnold commuted the manslaughter sentence of Nunez’s son before leaving office.

The Santos family has filed a lawsuit against Arnold Schwarzenegger alleging he violated a victim’s rights initiative when he reduced the manslaughter sentence. It’s just one more cloud hanging over the storm front we now know to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger has just announced that work on his new movie projects will stop “until further notice.” “At the request of Arnold Schwarzenegger, we asked Creative Artists Agency to inform all his motion picture projects currently underway, or being negotiated, to stop planning until further notice,” said Schwarzenegger’s lawyer, Patrick Knapp.

Apparently, the Terminator will have his hands full preparing for the most important role of his life after politics: defendant in what will surely be an expensive and very public divorce trial.

In fact, I even have a script for him. The working title is “HARD VENGEANCE.” But I’m also toying with “BRUTAL JUSTICE,” “JUSTIFIED VENGEANCE,” VENGEFUL JUSTICE,” And my fave, “HARD VENGEFUL JUSTICE, INC.”

But I also like “THE LAST STRAW.”

But I think people might think it’s about hay.

Here’s the story: Arnold’s character is a hardworking joe (named Fred), whose son is in college having the time of this life. During a party at a frat house, Fred’s son gets into a fight with gang members, who stab Fred’s son to death.

The thugs are captured. To Fred’s dismay, a plea bargain is made to prevent his son’s killers from getting life – after the thugs taunt his family with accusations of guilt, and blaming their actions, mockingly, on gangsta rap.

But Fred gets on with his life.

Then, everything changes.

Yes, it turns out one of the killers had connections. His father was friends with the governor, a well-known celeb. In the final days of his term, the unthinkable happens: the governor commutes the killer’s sentence.

Fred is devastated. His family, distraught.

What does he do? Well in the spirit of all great Arnold flicks like Raw Deal, Commando and Junior, he takes matters into his own hands.

He goes after the governor. Fred fights his way up the power ladder of California, taking out bad guys and slimy bureaucrats, until he comes face to face with the villain – a puffy, former action hero with a fondness for cigars and Hummers.

In a perfectly matched battle, they slug it out, until Fred finally thrusts a gavel into the gov’s cranium.

At that point, Arnold (er, Fred) looks to the camera and says, “Case closed.”

I really think Arnold could pull this movie off!

Of course this is just a movie idea.

Does anyone have any connections?

Tonight:

Arthel Neville!

Robert George!

Jesse Joyce!

other stuff!

this and that!

John Mellencamp might be a famous left-winger (and a helluva songwriter), but at least he’s no elitist. After all, there are some on our side who can’t bring themselves to be this gracious when discussing the former Governor of Alaska…

The legendary rocker says that while he doesn’t support [Sarah Palin's] positions, he is impressed by the mark she’s made on she country since the 2008 election.

Mellencamp says people get the wrong idea about her intellect “just because she says things and winks.”

He says she “knows exactly what’s she doing” and “she wouldn’t be where she is today if she didn’t.”

Mellencamp gives Palin credit for handling the rough world of politics. He says “she’s pushing the right buttons” and “you can’t be stupid and do that.”

Dear Celebrity Culture: Vote for whoever you want, advocate for whatever you want, and if you can remain gracious while doing so and not insult who we are and what we believe in, we can still love you. 

And on that conciliatory note,  we leave you with one of the greatest pop songs this side of Francis Albert:

—–

When you factor in that Barack Obama is my president, Joe Biden is my vice-president, Nancy Pelosi is next in line, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are my senators, Brad Sherman is my congressman, Antonio Villaraigosa is my mayor and Jerry Brown is lurking in the wings to be my governor, do you really think I’ll be turning my pen into a plowshare anytime soon?    

But at least now you might have a better handle on why I look back so fondly on what I have come to regard as the good old days when an American’s major complaint was that he had taxation without representation. 

On top of everything else, I live in Los Angeles and have spent most of my adult life laboring in Hollywood, a place that some people regard as less an actual location than a state of mind.  I agree it is a state of mind in the same sense that paranoia and schizophrenia are states of mind. 

After working in the field of entertainment for about 40 years, I swear to you that there are a fair number of normal, decent human beings who work in the industry.  But truth compels me to say that the lower you go in the pecking order, the likelier you are to find them.  That’s not to say that every producer, actor, director and writer, is an arrogant, leftwing, coke-snorting, bottom-feeding egomaniac, but that’s certainly the way to bet. 

Sometimes, when I’m daydreaming about what Hell must be like, I envision a place where every day you wake up and have to go work for someone like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, nasty sourpusses who think that their every whim should be immediately pandered to and who regard themselves as God, but with a bigger expense account, a larger staff and a better pension plan. 

In short, Pelosi, Frank and Reid and their congressional cronies, could find true happiness working at a TV network, a movie studio or a theatrical agency.  Perhaps you think I’m making this up, but I’m not.  Liberal politicians are doing their best to shove Obamacare down our throats, pretending it’s manna from Heaven, but you may have noticed that they haven’t the slightest intention of leaving their own medical care up to a lottery system.  And can you really blame them?  Do you think Pelosi wants a bunch of strangers deciding if she can get another dozen face lifts?  You think Robert Byrd wants to leave it up to a death panel to determine if it’s time to put the old Ku Kluxer on an ice floe? 

You could call them hypocrites, but I call them Hollywood hopefuls.  They’d fit right in.  This is the town, after all, where people are still whining over the fact that a handful of mediocre actors and hack writers were blacklisted 60 years ago because they were, for the most part, unrepentant Communists whose allegiance was to the evil Soviet Union.  But these same people think nothing of blacklisting writers and directors who have done nothing worse than made the fatal mistake of turning 50. 

Many years ago, radio wit Fred Allen observed that “You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, stick it in the navel of a flea, and still have room left over for two caraway seeds and an agent’s heart.”  I say he was being too kind.  Although I regard myself as basically a loyal person, I’ve had about two dozen agents in my life.  What’s more, in what was a moderately successful TV writing career, by getting my own jobs, I made money for all of them, except the last one.  Which was just as well because she’s the one who went to the slammer for stealing her clients’ money.

 The reason, by the way, I kept leaving agents wasn’t simply because none of them ever earned his or her 10%, but because eventually they all lied to me about what they would do for me or, worse yet, what they had already done. 

In my experience, agents are people who like to have lunch, shmooze with other agents and con young women into having sex with them.  Those are the male agents, of course.  Female agents, on the other hand, like to have lunch, shmooze with other agents and con young women into having sex with them. 

In other words, if a genie somehow managed to switch everyone in Hollywood with everyone in Congress, you would barely notice it.  In fact, aside from the fact that the paparazzi would all have to pack up and move east and that “Henry Waxman: The Musical!” would finally be green-lighted at Universal, life would go on as usual.

But Palin ain’t buying it by the barrel, she’s got a whole pipeline of pure grade indigo flowing from the North Slope as she pumps up the volume on her NY Times #1 bestselling memoir.

When I got about halfway through the book I set it down, stepped outside of my Washington, DC townhouse and went for a run around the U.S. Capitol. Listening to the Outlaws, Marshall Tucker Band, and Lil Bow Wow (my daughter slipped that one in there) on my iPod, the recurrent thought in my mind was that this woman is far more qualified to be president of the United States than the current occupant of the White House.

When I completed the journey that is Going Rogue, I wrote down five things:

–She is a positive role model for all Americans
–She is an executive, takes on hard problems and makes tough decisions
–She has tremendous energy, balance and intellect
–America shafted itself in this last election
–Alaska is lucky to have her

Oh, and a sixth, Sarah Palin could be the next president of the United States.

Her book washes away all doubts that any reader might have had about her readiness to be president. She comes across as exceptionally bright, dedicated, and passionate about public service. Her moral compass is strong, pointing true North in this case. And she has a wicked sense of humor.

The most salient take-away from Going Rogue for me was what I admired most in her campaign, which was that she had been in charge as either a mayor or a governor whereas none of the other candidates on either ticket had. Having been a commander several times in the military I know that there is a huge difference between being a hardworking and important staff officer and an ‘alone at the top’ commander. No matter how fancy the title, executive officer or Senator, at the end of the day, you are recommending to someone who actually makes the decision.

As a Governor, mayor or commander, you have the unparalleled responsibility to actually make decisions that have ramifications. There is little training that can prepare you for all those heads turning in your direction when it is decision time. You can’t blithely abstain on a vote or hide behind the guy in front of you, because you own the decision. Case in point is Obama’s inexcusable delay in making a decision on Afghanistan. His indecision, cloaked as ‘sleeves-rolled-up-pensiveness’, is an indicator that he was, at a minimum, unprepared to be commander in chief. What we see in his speech at West Point is a minimally slimmed down version of what General Stan McChrystal submitted to the president on August 30th. So now big Stan has nine months to do what he said it takes 12 months to accomplish.

Palin, on the other hand, demonstrates decisiveness and vulnerability. Is she prepared for the enormous breadth of responsibility of president? I think she’s ready for the hard part, which is making tough decisions. She’s no “Ruminator-in Chief”, that’s for sure, and if the American people think a second year back bench senator was ready to be president, I’m not sure we’ve got the right rubric out there.

Palin is real. She takes counsel of her fears and continuously comes back to her foundation of family, God, state and nation for reassurance and guidance. She has strong moral guideposts that she uses to navigate the shark infested political waters. Reading about the decisions Sarah Palin faced at multiple levels of government reminded me of something my command sergeant major in the 82nd Airborne Division used to say when we faced a tough decision together: “Sir, when you’re right, don’t worry about it.”

Palin is right on many issues such as energy policy, defense, business, and size of government. She gets it and my hope is that she firms up her base and then reaches out to moderates across this country. She has a gritty determination borne in the salmon hauls and caribou hunts that make her pioneer tough.

I am left wondering why the McCain campaign bottled her up and didn’t let the maverick, well, be a maverick. McCain made an unconventional pick and instead of hiring a Wall Street stockbroker to manage her I’m perplexed, and disappointed, that he didn’t let this one-woman campaign juggernaut do her thing. If she was accustomed to traveling all over Alaska campaigning essentially by herself or with her family by her side, surely she could have done without all of the layers of control. I believe that Sarah Palin is precisely what the American people are seeking: an honest, intelligent, passionate, practical conservative who is nonpartisan and a tough decision maker.

Oddly, as I read Going Rogue and learned the real story behind the mainstream media assault upon this patriot, I was briefly reminded of the first time I met Hillary Clinton. She was in her first year as New York’s junior senator and my impression of her was largely shaped by what I read in the newspapers or saw on television, meaning mostly negative. When she came into the Pentagon for a 45 minute briefing from my boss, I was one of four people in the room: the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Senator Clinton, her assistant Uma Abedin, and me.

Over the next 90 minutes, she not only ignored her schedule, but she demonstrated a keen intellect, undeniable sincerity, and genuine interest in the many complex topics discussed. I came away from that meeting with an entirely different viewpoint on Senator Clinton than had been painted for me in the media. I tucked away the lesson to always remember that there is a phalanx of reporters, journalists and hate mongers who are trying to tell us all what to think.

And so it was with Sarah Palin, someone I actually supported. I think Palin recognizes that the extreme members of both parties and media put each of them through the Mixmaster, in some part because they are women, and she extends an olive branch to Clinton for a chat over a cup of coffee.

No matter what your political leanings, you better believe that Sarah Palin will step forward when the time is right. She has spine and she is called to public service. She’s been bloodied in the faux battles of presidential politics and yet she’s still standing, making tough decisions. She seems to have an iron core spirit and a will to make our country better.

And like that pipeline of ink, she seems to have an indomitable will that when attacked, unfortunately for her opponents, she doesn’t break. Her resolve seems to strengthen.

As her father said, “Sarah’s not retreating; she’s reloading.”

We should hope so, because she’s precisely the kind of leader America needs.

Moments after I heard the news I did a radio interview and predicted that the news media would destroy her in their transparent quest to pave the way for Barack Obama’s historic election. I had no idea just how right that “blink” calculation would be and I certainly never would have guessed that I would become a small part of that story by dedicating my life and fortune to documenting just how unbelievably bad it would get.

The last twelve months of Sarah Palin’s life truly bring new meaning to the phrase “what a difference a year makes.” I strongly believe that no public figure in modern America has ever endured more stress, pressure and unfair scrutiny in a more dignified fashion than she has over the past year (though what George W. Bush tolerated over the last three years of his presidency probably comes in a close second).

On August 28th of last year Sarah Palin was a largely unknown governor considered to be a rising star largely because of her willingness to take on Republicans in a way that had endeared her to Democrats. Today she is an ex-governor wrongly perceived by most of the country and virtually all of the news media as an erratic, unqualified, lightweight and ultra-partisan Republican who can’t even mange her own family. 

What did she do exactly to deserve this unfortunate perception? I have literally gone around the country (screening my film “Media Malpractice” which features an exclusive interview with then Governor Palin) and asked numerous media outlets that question and I have yet to get a remotely sensible answer.

The best I can come up with (oddly, this is hardly ever mentioned when the topic comes up) is that, after having to deal with three or four sittings with a Katie Couric who was clearly out to get her, she did not name a supreme court case with which she disagrees other than Roe v. Wade. Other than that, my documentary proves that every other alleged transgression that she committed has been either blown out of proportion or simply made up by a news media that obviously had both a political and financial agenda against her. When you consider all of the whopper-sized blunders committed by her campaign counterpart Joe Biden, the unfair treatment of Palin does become, at least based on the live audience reactions to my film, rather hilarious.

On top of this, I wish you to consider the unique circumstances Palin was dealing with while she went through the last year, circumstances that a remotely fair media would have considered a remarkably successful and nearly error-free year.

If, in just one spin around the sun, you had given birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome (that even mainstream media outlets would not fully accept as really belonging to you even though there was no other biological possibility), had your unmarried teenage daughter’s pregnancy (and later, her sex life) become fodder for massive worldwide coverage, had your first child sent to Iraq, had your fourteen-year-old, non-public figure daughter become the subject of rape jokes on national television, had your reputation and character destroyed by lies intended to foster the election of a man you knew would forever change/destroy the country you love, were prevented from doing your day job by a group of loser bloggers who lay awake at night (probably under the roof of their parents’ homes) dreaming of being interviewed by Keith Olbermann, and were thrown under the bus by numerous people on your “side” because they decided it was in their self-interest to do so — what are the chances you would not be left in the fetal position in a pool of your own drool?

But instead of cracking under this unprecedented pressure, Sarah Palin has proven her courage (and perhaps wisdom) by simply pivoting. While I disagreed with the timing of her decision to resign as Governor (mostly because I knew it would be misperceived as “quitting” by those who didn’t understand the facts on the ground in Alaska), I know it was done out of intentions that in a just world would be rewarded and not condemned. So far, it has also proven to be remarkably effective. After all, what other housewife from Wasilla, Alaska could have possibly altered the course of the health care debate (and possibly the entire Obama presidency) by simply posting some strong and well-footnoted opinions on her Facebook page?!

So, what have we learned from Sarah Palin’s remarkable year? Hopefully, we have learned a lot.

Among other things, we should have learned…

That surprise announcements can often create more long-term perception problems than they are worth (at least when they come from Republicans).

That to the media if you are a young, good looking, charismatic,  non-white male without a long resume and  are a conservative running for Vice-President, you are an embarrassment to the country. But if you are a young, good-looking, charismatic, non-white male without a long resume and are a socialist running for President, you are the Second Coming.

That the candidate who told the truth the most during the 2008 campaign was Sarah Palin.

That the media is perfectly willing and able to destroy someone’s character simply because it suits their political and economic agenda and will stop at nothing to do so.

That there are far too many high-profile “conservatives” willing to sell out their “cause” to gain favor with the news media and that there is almost no accountability for their treason.

That the left understands that this is a war where “assassinating” leaders of the other side is perfectly acceptable, while the right seems to still think that this is a picnic and that the Sarah Palins of the world grow on trees.

That the only people more threatened by a highly successful and good looking mom than liberal women, are Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, David Letterman and Bill Maher.

That the power of being a celebrity is far greater than the power of being Governor of Alaska.

That the ex-boyfriend of the daughter of the ex-Governor of Alaska can get treated as a media star if it is perceived to hurt a prominent conservative.

That more character was revealed in Sarah Palin over the past twelve months than America probably deserves in a politician.

That August 29th, 2008 was a seminal moment in our politics and media which has changed, perhaps forever, the rules of engagement in a way that may make it impossible for conservatives to ever fully recover and should truly frighten all fair-minded Americans.

If we don’t heed these lessons, then we will deserve what we will inevitably get.

Not so fast, my friends. Since we’re all engaged in wild speculation, allow the reading of one more set of tea leaves, if you please.
 
You can roll your eyes and tease Palin’s supposed lightweight intellectual status. You can bury your head in shame when Charlie Gibson peers down his nose through his reading glasses and stumps her with international policy questions. You may say she had no business on the national stage from the get-go last fall when John McCain announced her as his vice presidential pick. But what you cannot ignore, nor take from her is what she is about to seize on in a big way.The dirty little secret is the 2010 and 2012 Republican candidates in both houses of Congress need Palin now more than ever. They need her just as John McCain needed her. Conservative voters both independent and Republican don’t trust the crew in Washington. Historically it is true they never have when asked. But this is not your typical “throw the bums out” mentality fomenting at tea party protests of late. This is a time when long term blue dog Democrat and Republican moderate office holders are nervously wondering, “Just how real IS the anger?” Bailouts, takeovers, stimulus spending, aggressive energy taxes, and nationalized health care have this electorate frightened and angry. The public is paying attention to their every vote, and those that are on the side of the American taxpayer will be rewarded in coming elections.
 
Then there are those politicians who got it right most of the time, but voted to bail out car companies because, “American car companies going bankrupt would signal the end of our economy.” Or a personal favorite, “Well, sure, I voted to bail out Wall Street and the banks, but, can you imagine the kind of trouble we’d be in today if I hadn’t?” One shudders to think. (Tongue firmly buried in cheek, or course.)
 
Americans aren’t buying what Washington’s selling anymore, and politicians know it. Especially wary of this fact are the damaged Republicans who bought into the economic Chicken Little routine last fall. So just how does a Republican candidate whip up a base of support when voters are angry or suspicious of their voting history? Enter the most powerful motivator and fundraiser in all of Republican politics today. 
 
Name a Republican today who could draw a larger crowd, and encourage more checks to be cut to a political candidate than Alaska’s governor. Ex-presidents don’t count, by the way. But even if you included George Bush – I think she’d give him a race for the dollar. That said – go ahead, try it. Cheney? Romney? Pawlenty? Jindal? Rove? Steele? Rice? Powell? McCain? Huckabee? Ron Paul? Nope. None of them touch the pull of Palin. Remember, it’s not about whom you like personally. It’s who can raise the most money and draw the biggest crowd that matters most in this game.
 
You don’t have to like the unseemly truth of what Reagan called “the second oldest profession.” You don’t have to like Palin’s magnetism. Heaven knows many of the names just mentioned don’t. This one-term pony from the sticks is stealing their thunder. Plain and simple, this woman is not only a license to print money; she is the belle of the ball – the envy of the Republican political establishment. Palin has achieved a level of authentic, average-Joe appeal unmatched by any Republican on the national stage since Reagan and that is sexy as hell to a party who needs money and excitement now more than ever.
 
No, they’ll not say it publicly. In fact, they’ll dismiss her influence altogether if asked. But I’ll bet my house that the weekend voice mailbox of Governor Palin was full of begging, pleading Republican Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates humbly requesting this “erratic, irrelevant, lightweight” to come stand at their side during their upcoming picnic/potluck/town hall/ cocktail fundraiser.
 
Perhaps the political chattering class is correct. Maybe Sarah Palin isn’t electable anymore. It’s highly doubtful that even came close to the top of her list when weighing the option of resigning last week. Sarah Palin knows she holds something more powerful than elected office right now. She has a consistent, unwavering commitment to celebrating American exceptionalism, freedom, and less government in the lives of every American. She now has the ability to hold each and every politician who calls on her for help to rise to her standard and maintain the integrity of the conservative movement. Put plainly, she will now determine the standard, direction, and message of conservatism going forward if they want her help. And there can be no doubt they crave her help.  
 
She holds popularity, trust, interest, and an excitement with a sizable national constituency who listen to her more than any public official today. She can write a best-selling book, turn out big donors, and virtually steal the spot light from anyone who shares the stage. Not bad for an “erratic, lightweight, quitter with no political future.”

Sarah Palin will be around and relevant long after those quietly begging her to save their political lives today. When she leaves office in a couple of weeks, she assumes the role of the Republican’s titular kingmaker. Call it “Palin’s Green Party.” Green – the color of envy and the color of money and oh, how she’s going to create both.

At a time when reckless, lightweight, non-achieving ideologues are all the rage in American politics; when nary a meaningful accomplishment is needed to move up the political ladder; when substance takes a backseat to teleprompters and pedestrian, car salesman charms; Newsom is trying to parlay his overly-bleached smile, expensive suits and camera-ready prop wife (not pictured below) into the most visible governorship in the United States.  

The early conventional wisdom on Newsom─when first elected─was that despite the vapid pretty boy image, insiders knew he was he was going to be the next JFK, if not better.  Five years later the reviews are in: even the insiders realize that on his best day, he’s an embarrassment to vapid pretty boys everywhere. 

To date, Newsom’s greatest achievement as Mayor of San Francisco was getting re-elected in a landslide despite having repeated sex with his best friend’s/campaign manager’s wife (of course, he had to go through the motions of rehab following a Pat O’Brien style booza culpa).  Other notable accomplishments include arriving drunk to the vigil of a dying police officer; declaring a city-wide “Colt Studio Day” to honor a San Francisco-based gay porn company (there’s no such thing as too much pandering to the gay community in San Francisco politics); fellaciating a news reporter’s microphone on camera (admittedly, he may have been drunk or high on coke at the time); unilaterally ordering city agencies to issue marriage licenses to gay couples without any legal authorization to do so (he was ignoring the US Constitution before Obama made it cool to do so); offering no-questions-asked city ID cards and bank accounts to illegal aliens to help them launder save their money; appearing in the contact list of Paris Hilton’s hacked cell phone; increasing city funding of alternative lifestyle street festivals; dating a 19-year-old girl in between wives (though he honorably forced her to change her age on MySpace to 26 in anticipation of cameras catching them drinking together); and violating federal law in the name of sanctuary by failing to report illegal aliens negotiating their way through the city’s criminal justice system.  

Newsom’s reign over San Francisco reflects the tradition of City Hall legends Kwame Kilpatrick, Marion “Bitch Set Me Up” Barry, John Street and Ray Nagin─combining bad judgment, bad policies, incompetence, arrogance and corruption in creative, new ways.  The city is in disarray: bankrupt; filthy; ubiquitously potholed and cracked; and festering with drugs, homeless and illegals.  Its sanctuary-city status, touchy-feely approach to crime, and maniacal spending on social services have encouraged all matter of societal debris to migrate there in mass.  When it doesn’t smell like over-ripe trash, it smells like stale urine.  Not really what Tony Bennett had in mind.

Law and order is (sort of) maintained by an inept police department emasculated by Newsom’s fondness for illegal aliens and affirmative action.  His bizarre choice of police commissioner, Asian-American female Heather Fong (think of her as San Francisco’s version of Janet Napolitano but wimpier, less qualified and more stupid), helped him with the city’s considerable Asian and “progressive” votes, but didn’t help much with the crime rate in general or the homicide rate in particular, which reached a 13-year high under her watch.  Fong is best known for forgetting to take a required gun re-certification test and inspiring department-wide contempt and disorganization.

The SFPD recently found its way into national headlines when it was learned that a hapless undocumented worker with multiple felony convictions and at least four timeouts in San Francisco prisons had no trouble getting out and killing a man along with his two sons.  Per Newsom’s policy of progressive tolerance ─ multiple felony convictions notwithstanding ─ this unfortunate fellow was never reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.  

However, luckily for the SFPD, thanks to the existence of the San Francisco Municipal Transit Organization, the SFPD is not the city’s least organized and most dysfunctional agency.  Seemingly, the only thing killing more people in San Francisco than illegal aliens and common criminals is Muni busses.  But in all fairness, Newsom did ban all bottled water from city government offices to help the environment.

In a peculiar juxtaposition, while Newsom wants to capitalize on the Obama Inertia and ride his hallowed Burberry coattails into the California Governor’s Mansion, the broke, wretched San Francisco he leaves behind may well be a microcosm of the America Obama leaves behind once all of his hope/change jibber jabber has been realized. Both men stand for the same idiocy; they’re just operating at different points on their respective disaster timelines.

If there’s an upside to Gavin Newsom it’s the latest Mrs. Newsom.  This is not your father’s first lady.  Yes, she’s pretty; she knows how to smile; and she knows how to dress (putting her at least three legs up on another first lady I know).  She even comes complete with a Stanford pedigree.  But more importantly, she’s starring in a movie released last month where she engages in a three-way sex act with a Sasquatch and an alien (space, not illegal).  If there’s someone out there who’s put a Stanford MBA to better use, I’m not aware of it. Take that, Shriver!

One of Newsom’s Democratic competitors in 2010 will probably be another unaccomplished, philandering, dead-behind-the-eyes big-city mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa of Tijuana by the Sea Los Angeles.  Villaraigosa’s credentials include past membership in a Mexican street gang and changing his name mid-way through life to something more exotic (a la Barry Sotero)—the lovably ethnic Villaraigosa used to be Tony Villar, Jr. Other likely Democratic candidates include former Governor Moonbeam himself, Jerry Brown, and one-third of Capitol Hill’s NorCal half-wit trifecta, Diane Feinstein.  Clearly, not the best options… kind of like the sides menu at a county fair fish-on-a-stick stand.

At the rate Barry is debasing the Office of President of the United States, the empty suit movement should be debunked by 2010.  But as the 2008 presidential election demonstrated, the naiveté of the electorate can never be under-estimated.  If a dopey community organizer can be elected President of the United States, why couldn’t an aging, wannabe frat boy be elected Governor of California?