Tea Party favorite in Delaware Senate race gets Sarah Palin Endorsement

 Sarah Palin can't seem to stay out of the spotlight - or better still, she doesn't WANT to stay out of it. To be perfectly honest, the people she endorses do benefit from her ability to command attention. She draws large crowds and collects a lot of money for their campaigns. So why not?
    . . . June


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Sarah Palin endorsement: Palin endorses 'tea party' favorite in Delaware Senate race

by Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau   4:14 PM MDT, September 9, 2010

Christine O'Donnell's once-quixotic campaign against Rep. Michael N. Castle in Delaware's U.S. Senate race got another late boost with the endorsement Thursday of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin announced her support for O'Donnell during an appearance on Sean Hannity's syndicated radio program, five days before Delaware's Republican primary.

'She will support efforts for America's energy security, patient-centered healthcare reform, cutting government waste and letting the private sector thrive and prosper!' Palin later wrote on Facebook. 'We can't afford 'more of the same' in Washington.'

The endorsement by the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee comes weeks after the Tea Party Express organization committed to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of O'Donnell's low-budget effort to topple a Delaware political icon.

Through Aug. 25, Castle had more than $2.6 million on hand, compared with just $20,374 in O'Donnell's war chest, not including nearly $10,000 in debt.

There has not been reliable independent polling of the primary, though the Tea Party Express claimed its internal survey showed the race down to single digits.

That Castle, the state's lone congressman for 18 years and a former two-term governor, would struggle just to win his party's nomination was unthinkable even a month ago. The race was considered his to lose as soon as Beau Biden, the state attorney general, decided in January not to run for what was once his father's Senate seat.

But O'Donnell, the 2008 nominee against now-Vice President Biden, has emerged as a real threat by tapping in to conservative suspicion with the man she calls "King RINO" (Republican in Name Only).

"He's carrying the Obama-Reid-Pelosi water," she said in a recent interview, citing votes on issues such as a cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

She said her campaign drew inspiration from Joe Miller's surprise win over Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska last week, rallying supporters with the idea "that we are not in this race to come close. We are in this to win."

Read on . . .

Michael Joseph Gross Vanity Fair Reporter speaks about The Palin story

 Errors in a piece by Michael Joseph Gross, Vanity Fair writer are addressed in the article below. The reporter mistook another Down syndrome child for Trig. The child's mother says she tried to correct the error. Palin has called the article "yellow journalism." It relies heavily on unnamed sources and describes everything from stingy tips given to hotel staff to heated fights between Palin and her husband. Ho Hum!
    . . . June

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Vanity Fair reporter speaks out about Palin story:
KANSAS CITY, Mo.The Associated Press

The controversy over a Vanity Fair article about Sarah Palin continued Wednesday with the reporter disputing a conservative activist's claim that she tried to prevent him from mistaking her child for Palin's.

Reporter Michael Joseph Gross acknowledged last week that he mistook a child with Down syndrome, named Samuel Loudon, for Palin's youngest son, Trig.

But on Wednesday, in a Vanity Fair blog post, he disputed claims that Samuel's mother, conservative activist Gina Loudon, stopped him during a May rally in Kansas City suburb of Independence and tried to clear up the confusion. She insists he ignored her.

Gross' article, which appears in the magazine's October issue, describes Palin's youngest son, Trig, being pushed in a stroller by his older sister, Piper, before the rally.

"When the girl, Piper Palin, turns around, she sees her parents thronged by admirers, and the crowd rolling toward her and the baby, her brother Trig, born with Down syndrome in 2008," according to the article. "Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, bend down and give a moment to the children; a woman, perhaps a nanny, whisks the boy away; and Todd hands Sarah her speech and walks her to the stage."

Gross said in his blog that he wasn't allowed backstage but saw what happened there from his seat in the audience.

But Loudon said Wednesday in a telephone interview that she stood by earlier remarks that she spoke to Gross during the rally and insisted it would have been impossible for him to witness what happened from the audience.

Read on . . .