Palin Smears Debunked

Today, for the first time, Sarah Palin fielded questions from the press -- While visiting New York City, she stopped at several locations related to the 9/11 attacks.  After delivering a brief statement in front of a firehouse that lost many of its firefighters in the World Trade Center collapse, Palin kept the microphone open and answered questions.  Video from ABCNews is here.

Katie Couric's one-on-one with Sarah Palin -- Jonathan Martin at The Politico thinks it didn't go well: "Not only did Palin say the country could be facing another Great Depression without a bailout, but she offered a painful silence when pressed about campaign manager's Rick Davis's ties to Freddie Mac.  And, at the end, she had no good answer when asked by Couric for examples of what McCain has done to regulate Wall Street."

The story that won't die -- the media won't stop talking about Thomas Muthee, a native Kenyan and charismatic Christian minister who visited Wasilla, AK and prayed over Sarah Palin in 2005.  A video of Muthee laying hands on Palin and praying over her has recently surfaced, and made headlines a few days ago.  And check out this headline: "Palin affair claim, "witchcraft" blessing, dog McCain camp."  There is no doubt in my mind that the press is desperately trying to find a Republican "Jeremiah Wright," some sort of fanatical preacher whom they can use to damage the Republican presidential ticket. 

Rev. Thomas Muthee gained prominence in Kenya after he successfully rid his town of Mama Jane, who Muthee and scores of others believed to be a practitioner of black magic.  Allegedly, Mama Jane was a sort of "godfather" to the town, with government and business officials afraid to do anything without her blessing.  After prayer vigils and protests that eventually culminated in a police raid on her home, Mama Jane left the town of Kiambu, and Rev. Muthee publicly declared that he led his congregation to victory in a major spiritual warfare battle. 

Rev. Muthee has been labeled by the press as a "witch-hunter," obviously in an effort to evoke images of the sham Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's.  But here is why I don't think that Rev. Muthee will frighten average Americans to the extent that he has frightened the liberal chattering class.  In the erudite United Church of Christ and Unitarian-Universalist congregations frequented by liberal elites, there is probably little mention of the forces of evil (unless, of course, they are talking about Republicans or the US military), but in fundamentalist evangelical protestant churches -- especially charismatic churches -- there is a very strong belief in spiritual forces of evil that are engaged in a continual effort to wreak havoc here on earth.  The power of Satan over this world and his ability to destroy us are lessons taught regularly in American Sunday schools.  Even though evangelicals differ with regard to their understanding of just how much we can be influenced by spiritual forces, millions upon millions of Americans still believe strongly in Satan and the power of evil.

In contrast, most Protestants and evangelicals would have a very difficult time understanding hardcore black liberation theology as taught by Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  They would be mystified by BLT's understanding of sin as primarily a racial problem, and they would be perplexed and insulted at the direct blame for the current state of our world that BLT assigns explicitly to the arrogance and bigotry of the white ruling class.  However, liberal UCC and UU members would probably have an easy time understanding BLT and associating it with progressive teachings about class struggle and racial injustice. 

The majority of white evangelicals would find BLT offensive, while liberal UCC and UU'ers would have little objection to it.  On the other hand, evangelicals can understand Rev. Muthee's belief in the power of Satan, while such talk would seem shockingly primitive and dangerous to progressives.  That's the primary difference between Rev. Muthee and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Even though most evangelicals probably don't share Rev. Muthee's very strong belief in the occult and in the power of sorcery and witchcraft (he is, after all, from continental Africa, where belief in the occult is still very strong) they would not object to his sincere prayers for Sarah Palin, or to his sincere desire that she be kept out of harm's way (including supernatural harm) and that she prosper in her career as a politician.

"Mmmmmm ... free goo" -- well, more like free slime.  The new issue of Jann Wenner's new  Rolling Stone magazine has "The Lies of Sarah Palin" as a cover story, and Michelle Malkin is reporting that the magazine seems to be mysteriously appearing, unsolicited, in thousands of mailboxes across the country.

Sarah Palin is as popular as Diana in the hearts of the American public -- so says Amanda Platell in London's Daily Mail.  Her article is interesting, from the perspective of an European.

Well, that settles it:  Bill Clinton on Sarah Palin's appeal - "I get why she's hot out there ..."

"Saturday Night Live" blows it - After last week's well-received skit parodying Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, SNL dropped the ball this weekend with a skit meant to parody the elitism of the New York Times and the media running wild with unfounded rumors about Palin:

In the sketch, New York Times reporters are sitting around an assignment meeting discussing what about Palin to investigate next.

One reporter asks: “What about the husband? You know he’s doing those daughters. I mean, come on. It’s Alaska.”

Guest host James Franco, who played the assignment editor, sets up the joke of proving a negative, saying, “He very well could be. Admittedly, there is no evidence of that, but on the other hand, there is no convincing evidence to the contrary. And these are just some of the lingering questions about Governor Palin.”

After three of the reporters agree to go to Alaska, one sues for sexual discrimination after being called “sweetie” by a school board member, one is killed by a polar bear and a final reporter wins a Pulitzer for “unproven, yet un-disproven incest in the Palin family” and then is killed by a polar bear driving a “snow machine.”

The final shot in the rambling joke is an image of a New York Times page, featuring headlines: “While No Direct Evidence of Incest in Palin Family Emerges, Counter Evidence Remains Agonizingly Elusive” and “In a Small Alaska Town, Doubts Still Linger.”

In a related item, Tina Fey doesn't seem excited about portraying Sarah Palin.  Fey told the Associated Press, "I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5," she said. "So if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me."

Sarah Palin drew a crowd of 60,000 Sunday in Florida -- and the national press yawns.  The Anchoress notes, "The power of the press - since their credibility is destroyed - now rests in their ability to NOT cover something, and therefore effectively omit it from the national dialogue, which it still cues."

Anatomy of a smear, exposed -- The Jawa Report's Rusty Shackelford, aided by a number of other astute conservative bloggers, has uncovered numerous circumstantial links between a notorious Sarah Palin smear video and the Obama campaign.  Michelle Malkin sums up what he found:

Rusty Shackleford — with help from Jane of Armies of Liberation, Stable Hand, the Jawa team, Dan Riehl, Ace of Spades, and Patterico – traced a Palin-bashing YouTube video to a Democrat public relations firm, Winner and Associates, and one of its employees, Ethan S. Winner. They believe the voiceover for the ad — which spreads the lie that Sarah Palin belonged to a fringe third party, the Alaska Independence Party — was done by a professional whose voice they believe was also featured in several Obama ads and other spots produced by Obama top strategist and astroturfer extraordinaire David Axelrod’s firm.

In case you're not familiar with the term "astroturfing," it's political slang for a professional marketing firm creating phony grassroots outrage over a particular issue.  Shackelford notes that the original Palin smear video was posted by YouTube user "eswinner," and that within hours of his expose, the "eswinner" account and all its videos, as well as another related account, "gocamerica" had both disappeared.

But other YouTubers cached the smear video and reposted it:

It's time to debate -- The New York Times is reporting that the Obama and McCain camps have reached an agreement about the format of the presidential and vice-presidential debate series that begins Friday, Sept. 26.  At the insistence of the McCain camp, the Vice Presidential debate, scheduled for October 2, will include much less open conversation between the candidates than previous VP debates.  Says the Times, "Indeed, both the McCain and Obama campaigns have similar concerns about the vice-presidential matchup in St. Louis: that Ms. Palin, of Alaska, as a new player in national politics, or Mr. Biden, of Delaware, as a loquacious and gaffe-prone speaker, could commit a momentum-changing misstep in their debate."

For the full presidential and vice presidential debate schedule, click here.