Sarah Palin: Giving Her Away

The Young America's Foundation's "Conservative Marketplace" has a FREE poster of Sarah Palin. (Other bargain-basement items include a copy of Wit and Wisdom of Conservatism for 18 cents and a copy of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution for a quarter.)

Apparently they didn't get the message that she's no longer popular, even among conservatives. Yesterday TPM reported that a new CBS poll shows only 41 percent of self-identified conservatives want her to run for President in 2012 and 50 percent said they didn't want her to run.

Cross posted.

YAF Calls for Liberals to Enlist, Stays Home to Fight 'the Battle of Ideas'

I'm really trying to back off of making fun of Young America's Foundation. Honestly. But sometimes they make it just too easy. Take, for instance, the poll they put up on their site this week:

Yes, you're reading that correctly. The poll question is, "Why haven't Obama's youth brigades signed up for military service?" The options to answer are, "They prefer telling others how to live their lives," "They are chicken hawks," "They are just chickens," and "All of the above." (The current winning answer, by the way? It's D, winning at 63 percent.)

The question is first of all weird because Obama didn't actually campaign on going to war. In fact, he campaigned on the idea of getting out of Iraq. Furthermore, some on the left are growing impatient with Afghanistan and continuing to protest the U.S. presence there.

But the implication here is obvious. YAF seems to believe that Real Americans ™ enlist in the military when their president is in power. But if that's true, then why did Jason Mattera, YAF spokesman, insist that he didn't need to enlist in the military because he was busy "fighting the battle of ideas"? Watch it:

Cross posted.

A Conservative Guide to Economics

Young America's Foundation, like many other groups on the right, is taking up the moniker of freedom as a veil for opposing progressive economic reforms. The organization is holding an event at their Reagan Ranch home on the "road to freedom: selling your freedom to government in the era of Obama." They're billing seven old white dudes to teach you about economics. Sounds riveting.

You could watch it all live on U Stream tomorrow, but -- well -- we're guessing you'd rather not. Instead, I've summarized what each of the sessions will be about:

Lecture: Rabbi Daniel Lapin, President, Toward Tradition, "Restoring America's Respect for the Morality of the Free-Market"
CliffsNotes: Seriously, guys. It wasn't free market that destroyed the world economy. It's because the market wasn't free enough.

Lecture: John Fund, Editorial Board Member with the Wall Street Journal, "Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics"
CliffsNotes: Reaganomics are better.

Lecture: Tibor Machan Ph.D., Professor, Chapman University, "Liberty: Pessimistic and Optimistic Assessments"
CliffsNotes: Sure the economy is going to hell, but let's be optimistic. The rich will still be rich.

Lecture: Reagan Ranch Roundtable: John Fund, Editor, Wall Street Journal, "A Visitors Guide to an Alien Planet: Washington, D.C."
CliffsNotes: Did you know that Washington is full of lobbyists? Also we upped our cool factor by referencing science fiction. Get it?

Lecture: Kirby Wilbur, Foundation Director and Seattle Talk Show Host, "Ronnie and Me"
CliffsNotes: In case we didn't already mention it and you didn't get it from the fact that we're hosting this event on Ronald Reagan's sacred ranch, we just wanted to reiterate that Ronald Reagan was awesome.

Lecture: Lawrence Reed, President, Foundation for Economic Education, "Great Myths of the Great Depression"
CliffsNotes: The Great Depression didn't exist. Even if it did, FDR totally wasn't the one that fixed it.

Lecture: Ivan Pongracic, Professor, Hillsdale College, "The Lessons of the Great Recession: The Limits of Knowledge in Economics and The Case for De-politicization of the Economy"
CliffsNotes: Conservative, free market economics are the only real economics.

Cross posted.