You have a short memory. Review your 6:11 PST post.

As I said before, I really don't care about Levi or his nonsense, and find it rather pathetic that CBS News went from Edward R. Murrow to the thing it is today. Talk about a Harvest of Shame.

We're seeing something special right now in the country. I donated a few dollars to the Hoffman campaign, at Palin's instigation. It's citizen democracy, Cincinnatus style.

On the substance, this is not really a Goldwaterite, deconstructionist moment, but more of a thermadorian reaction to the snowballing effect of borrowing, taxing, printing and spending out of Washington. It's refreshing. I'm happy Palin is leading the way.

You're a lot more into this family stuff than I am.

More important to me is Palin's 25% showing in today's CNN horse race poll. She drafting Huckabee and beating Romney. It's a good place for her to be.

CNN has the horse race at 32% Huckabee, 25% Palin, and 21% Romney.

All year, the Palin/Huckabee contingent (basically, the staunchly pro-life) has held a combined position of about 45%. Now, it's up to 57% in this poll. This is a real beating for the Romneyite Republican establishment.

It doesn't worry me that Palin is behind Huckabee. It is good to run in another's draft around the first turn. Besides, the time to be in first place is not the height of Obamamania, but during it's decline. Palin is well positioned for a move to the lead.

Palin has two cards she's playing her own way. First, she's the most telegenic Republican bar none, yet she is almost never seen. Second, she's unique. You can turn on Fox News any hour of the day and find any one of the horse race hopefuls yammering on about the daily Obama outrage. With Facebook, a book tour, and all the rest, Palin is doing it her own way. I think it's a great strategy.

As for the experience thing, what can you say? She's the youngest in the field by more than a decade, so of course that's her shortcoming -- at least for now. We'll see if her Alaskan pipeline finds any bidders in the summer of 2010, when the rights will be auctioned. That will help her, if it does. The price of natural gas is about $4.75 right now -- it needs to be above $2 for the pipeline to sell.

In an ideal world, CBS News would not be interviewing Levi, and Palin would not need to respond. In the real world, however, this type of stuff spreads all over, and sometimes warrants a retort.

Nixon had brother Donald; Carter had brother Billy; Reagan had Ron Jr. and his underwear dance on Saturday Night Live; Clinton had jail bird half-brother Roger.

To Palin's credit, her albatross isn't actually part of the blood line.

Um, I think Palin quit as governor to run for president. Or make money pretending to run for president. They're both prestige positions.

CNN has a poll out today -- Huck 32, Palin 25, Romney 21. Naturally, they headlined it as bad news for Palin. Everything is bad news for Palin.

Actually, I think more than one Romneyite establishment head will explode over the thought of a Bryanite populist or Sarah Palin becoming the next GOP nominee. But interestingly, the Washington Post also noted that something like 75% of Republicans have already made up their mind pretty firmly about 2012. The Post claims this is much more like Hillary and Obama in 2007 than the free-for-alls both parties have witnessed in the past.

How does Palin get around Huckabee? I don't know. But even if she ran at age 46 against a bunch of old duffers and got 25% nationally in a second place bid, that would be a good foundation going forward. Reagan, Bush I, Dole, and McCain all had to run twice to be the nominee. Palin likes the movie Rudy -- sometimes you have to fight long and hard for the prize.

It seems to me that Gingrich and Palin are the two winners, or semi-winners, of this battle. Both took principled positions.

Newt can pose himself as a Nixonesque party man who nobody really likes, yet somehow floats toward the top. Palin is the new Reagan, disdaining latter day Fords and Kissingers.

Interesting that Huckabee and Romney both took a pass.

National Review (a pro-Romney outfit) recently ran a very long column explaining how Mitt learned invaluable lessons from 2008; he now has a killer stump speech; and he's ready to throw off his image as a stilted, unprincipled, consultant-driven careerist. So, his response to the shifting, volatile events in New York has been to adopt a stilted, non-principled, consultant driven non-position. Whoops. Back to the drawing board.

Poor Huckabee is shaping up to be the John Edwards invisible man of 2012. (Remember all the split screen images of Hillary and Obama in 2007, even when Edwards was polling in first place in Iowa?). Look at the Krauthammer interview on Salon tonight. When asked about 2012, the GOP establitarian bashes Palin first, praises Romney second, and then reverts back to some pseudointellectual UN musings. That is Huckabee's curse: he can't get anyone to mention him.

There's the old saying: presidents who don't like the news can make their own news. There is a variation on that for Sarah Palin: presidential hopefuls who don't like the campaigns from which they are disinvited (Va., NJ) should go out and splash into other campaigns (e.g., NY-23), where they are welcome.

I know which returns I will be watching on election night -- the ones to which I made the third financial contribution of my adult life (the other being McCain/Palin within hours of Palin's announcement and the Sarah PAC upon its formation this spring).