Palin headlines: Women's 'Palinoia'; a call for a Palin-free February

What's behind the nation's Palinoia? (James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal): Professional jealousy and intellectual snobbery ... only scratch the surface of the left's bizarre attitude toward Palin. They explain the intensity of the disdain, but not the outright hatred -- not why some people whose grasp of reality is sufficient to function in society made the insane inference that she was to blame for a madman's attempt to murder Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. This unhinged hatred of Palin comes mostly from women. ... For many liberal women, Palin threatens their sexual identity, which is bound up with their politics in a way that it is not for any other group.

I'm declaring February a Palin-free month (Dana Milbank, The Washington Post): I can no longer hide the truth. I have a Sarah Palin problem. I have written about her in 42 columns since Sen. John McCain picked her as his presidential running mate in 2008. I've mentioned her in dozens more blog posts, Web chats, and TV and radio appearances. I feel powerless to control my obsession, even though it cheapens and demeans me. But today is the first day of the rest of my life. And so, I hereby pledge that, beginning on Feb 1, 2011, I will not mention Sarah Palin - in print, online or on television - for one month.

Should the mainstream media stop paying attention to Palin? (Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo): Frequently a reader will write in to say, "Why are you giving her so much attention? You're just pumping her up. If you and the other places would stop giving her so much oxygen, she and her whole circus would just wither away." I don't know which circle of the hell of myopia you need to be residing in to think like this. But it's very deep in there, I assure you. ... I assure you that Palin's popularity, notoriety, footprint on the public stage is quite independent of TPM. Indeed, TPM and a dozen other similar or not so similar publications you can find on the web. Palin is such a big deal because she's got a chunk of the political nation that is very, very into her.

It's too early to count Palin out in 2012 (Roger Simon, Politico): One should never underestimate the power of a candidate who can make an emotional connection to voters. Ronald Reagan said all sorts of outrageous things, both as a candidate and as president. Often, he would cull them from magazines and would not bother to check whether they were true. "Like any other speaker," Reagan once told a reporter, "I'd see something and I'd say, ‘Hey, that's great,' and use it." Did people care? Nah, they loved Ronnie. Palin is no Reagan - she lacks the ideological footing he had, for one thing - but she does know how to connect with people, even if they are not the same people most of the media hang out with.

Palin fatigue: Why America is growing tired of her (Gloria Borger, CNN): OK, you've got Palin fatigue. Not to worry. So does much of the country. ... She's completely overstayed her welcome. We've watched her morph from the hockey mom into a multimedia extravaganza that knocks on our door every day to sell something, without any invitation.

Palin's America: Exceptionalism, faith and freedom (Stanley Fish, The New York Times): There is then a unity to [Palin's new book "America By Heart"], but it is not one Palin proclaims or works out discursively. Rather, the unity is conveyed by the quotations that carry the argument, long (sometimes two-page) quotations from an impressive variety of authors, quotations that are strong in isolation and even stronger when they are laid next to one another. The book is really an anthology. The author does not present herself as controlling or magisterial; she gives her authorities space and then she gets out of the way. ... Humility is not something Palin is usually credited with, but here she enacts it by yielding the stage as others proclaims the truths she wants us to carry away.

Tammy Bruce: Palin's biggest fan (Noreen Malone, Slate): She's a Fox News regular, a striving speaker on the Tea Party circuit, and a prolific Twitterer. In the wake of the Arizona shooting, she's used Twitter to mount a stalwart defense of Palin's infamous "blood libel" video. [But] Bruce makes an unlikely Palin attack dog: She is a Democratic apostate and self-described radical feminist whose name first made headlines in the early 1980s, when, at the age of 19, her ex-girlfriend (and employer), 'Days of Our Lives' actress Brenda Benet, killed herself just weeks after their breakup. Bruce subsequently got involved in the women's movement, counterprotesting against pro-life activists outside abortion clinics, and, in 1990, became president of the National Organization for Women's Los Angeles chapter.

GOP 2012 is not all about Sarah (Ford O'Connell and Steve Pearson, The Daily Caller): Palin must quickly come to understand is that 2012 is not ALL about her; it is about doing what is in the Republican Party's best interest in its efforts to wrest the White House from President Obama. Yet, while the GOP can't win with Palin as its nominee, it certainly could lose without her having a seat at the table.

Palin puts out primary feelers in Iowa (Scott Conroy, Real Clear Politics): Sarah Palin has tasked her aides with quietly gauging her level of support for a potential presidential campaign by making inquiries to a select pool of likely allies and grassroots activists in Iowa. Key Republican officials and operatives in the nation's first voting state had begun to assume that Palin would not run for president in 2012 since most of them have not heard a word from her or from her small circle of aides.
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