This is amazing - that Young America's Foundation speech at the Reagan Ranch is easily the best speech Sarah Palin has delivered since the 2008 Republican National Convention.

The problem with the strategy is that Wallace and Schmidt are sure to be rewarded by the left if they admit they are the leakers, which will bring them great financial benefits - probably greater than if they remained with the GOP. And if that happens, they'll be paid to inflict greater damage on Palin in the future. So Operation Leper's 'punishment' may well backfire. Also, if I read the quotes right, Wallace in particular seems conflicted and might well come back into the fold if not excoriated.

That isn't to say the slanderers are admirable people in any way. I think what's been done is disgusting. It would be nice if John McCain would actually step up and squash all this crap, but he doesn't seem to make a habit of stopping in-fighting among his subordinates.

Aside from being a genuine conservative, Palin has an extraordinary talent: she can draw and mesmerize huge crowds. That alone will guarantee her a role in the 2012 campaign, and possibly a win.

I've never seen a presidential or vice-presidential candidate go after a media outlet like this. Palin's opened up a spigot of invective at the Los Angeles Times. It's amazingly honest and refreshing.

Why can she afford to do this? Because given the financial status of big papers, the Los Angeles Times may no longer exist in 2012.

Now by “smart,” I don't refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don't really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. [Sarah] Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a “quick study”; I'd heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her “confidence” is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.

For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included “I'm just a country lawyer”… Yup, Palin is that smart.

I cannot predict who will win the presidential campaign, but I already know who will lose big: all women.

I realized this when I saw a 20-something male student who attends a class in the community college where I teach, wearing a T-shirt that read, "Sarah Palin is a C-." He wore it in public, in broad daylight, and without shame or even consciousness of what he was doing.

McCaffrey doesn't mention it, but what's really taken me by surprise is that the people who seem to hate Palin the most are women. I've ended a 17-year friendship with a woman I went to college with over her frothing, boundless rage and disgusting remarks about Sarah Palin. Seeing all the hate come rushing out of her, I realized that I never really knew her at all.

[Palin deserves our respect - Philadelphia Inquirer]

This is hilarious and must-see. Hat-tip to Red State/

Last year I saw him speak at the Competitive Enterprise Institute banquet and I thought at the time that he was just a little bit over-polished in his delivery. I found out later that he has one speech he gives, over and over, and that he doesn't allow it to be televised because then he'd have to write a new one lest the audience be familiar with it. So he's very familiar with that speech.

My favorite GOP candidate - never mind who it was - didn't win the nomination. John McCain did. So I'm supporting John McCain. It's that simple. And I am delighted to see that McCain has granted a boon to the right by giving us a Sarah Palin VP nomination.

If I wasn't delighted with any of this, I would keep my mouth shut. Because it's not about me. Chris Buckley thinks it is about him, and he should pipe down.