Sarah Barracuda Catching Obama

Since the moment she was nominated as John McCain's Vice-presidential running mate in 2008, Sarah Palin and her family have not only been the collective butt of nonstop vitriol and slander. They've been under a nearly-continuous barrage of invective from smart-ass types in both what's left of the media and also in the (so-called) entertainment business. In the latter (re: the smarmy David Letterman), Palin's always fair game for a cheap joke, as is her family. (Here's a typical, showbiz-oriented smear, complete with obviously PhotoShopped graphic.)

Over a year after the national elections, we still know vastly more false information about Palin than we do actual facts about the clueless Chicago enigma successfully promoted to the presidency by the press, the professors, the trial lawyers, and everyone else that's smarter than you and me.

Palin was widely derided by the usual suspects for resigning her Alaska governorship and rolling out a book tour. I don't much back this kind of resignation myself on the grounds that if you win an election and take an oath to serve, you need to serve out your term. That having been said, the constant media sniping, coupled with the never-ending attacks on Palin and her family originating with Alaska old-boy pols (even fellow Republicans) made it virtually impossible for Palin to govern in an effective way. Which, of course, was the point of the barrage of attacks.

So Palin did the logical thing. She took herself out of the political fire and went back to being a private citizen.

But she clearly had something up her sleeve. The book and the ongoing promo tour have the dual task of making money for Palin and her family. And making so much of it that it might give her a campaign war-chest starter fund for a run against Obama in 2012.

The press and the pols, as usual, sneered and jeered from the sidelines. Their collective aim, in point of fact, is to continue 2008's demonization campaign in hopes of keeping her off the Republican ticket in 2008. Why? Because, the woman they sneer at and condescend to at the drop of a hat is their worst nightmare. She's an attractive, Conservative, combative female who can hold her own in a debate (re: Biden) and who, gasp, is actually a mom and is proud of it. And oh, yeah, she's a practicing Christian which makes her far scarier to the media than Osama bin Laden. I.e., now that the media-induced Obama haze is being rubbed from America's collective eyes, there's every possibility they're going to want to repent in 2012 by bringing someone like them back to the White House.

Want proof?

Obama's new Gallup Poll job approval number is 47%. Last month it was 53%.

Regular Ticket readers will recall how in this space in late November we pointed out that Obama's closely watched job approval slide was coinciding with Palin's little-noticed rise in favorability. And it appeared they might cross somewhere in the 40s.

Well, ex-Sen. Obama, meet ex-Gov. Palin.

The new CNN/Opinion Research Poll shows Palin now at 46% favorable, just one point below her fellow basketball fan. 

Scary stuff for the liberal elites. Although this particular piece of info comes from the LA Times of all places, although it runs in a political puff piece whose attitude is a little suspect.

Needless to say, the brownshirts on the left are now even more enraged and inclined toward juvenile retaliation:

Political history is not usually made on a second-floor balcony in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

But that's where 33-year-old Jeremy Paul Olson lost it Monday. Observing the lines and hoopla attending former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's book-signing at the mall's Barnes & Noble, Olson lobbed not one but two tomatoes in the direction of the former Republican vice presidential candidate.

Instead he hit a police officer and was arrested for disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer. Gawker called the Bloomington jail and talked to "a bored-sounding officer ... apparently indifferent to the feat of produce-based heroics." The site added, "If anyone has information on the tomato-wielding Real American Hero Jeremy Paul Olson, please email us. Who is this man? What motivated him to throw tomatoes at Sarah Palin? And most importantly: How could he miss!?

Good question. Anecdote appears in the same newspaper, BTW. The miss by the tomato missile could very well serve as a metaphor for what's about to happen to the Democrats in 2010.

This is the whirlwind the Democrats and their MSM toadies reaped. They are slowly learning that there's a price to be paid for all the smarmy fun they've been having dissing Alaska's former governor. Yep. They pissed off Sarah Barracuda. Paybacks are rough.

Meanwhile, we eagerly await the outraged statement from NOW attacking the thuggish, sexist male behavior on display in the state Al Franken bought.