Saradise Lost - Book 4 - Chapter 42: Catching Up

I. The assertion made by some, including MSNBC's Chris Matthews, that Palin, by seeming to balk at going to Bethlehem from Jerusalem, put her into a different league than other GOP or American politicians, was absurd. While many American politicians visit Israel, not many go to Bethlehem. For one thing, it is not in Israel. It is in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

She has been to Bethlehem Pennsylvania, and she's in Naples, Florida late this week, but this statement by Matthews is total bullshit:

She skipped Bethlehem. She skipped the easy ones. She skipped the church where Jesus was born and where he died. Why would you skip that?

The church where Jesus was born and where he died? OK, Chris. I guess catechism class was a long, long time ago. But Matthews' assertion that Palin somehow skipped something other American pols routinely do deserves scrutiny.

If you google the names of a lot of American politicians, as in "Mike Huckabee visits Bethlehem," you get no indication they have. What you mostly get is either a lot of articles about Palin not visiting Bethlehem, or a story about the politician going to Bethlehem Pennsylvania. There are exceptions, though:

John Kerrry visits Bethlehem (Kerry has visited Gaza and the West Bank, though)
George W. Bush visits Bethlehem (he did in January 2008)
John McCain visits Bethlehem (he did last month)
Mitt Romney visits Bethlehem (he did not)
Newt Gingrich visits Bethlehem (he did not)
Tim Pawlenty visits Bethlehem (he did not)
Haley Barbour visits Bethlehem (he did not)

It appears that Palin's trip to the checkpoint and turnaround is yet unexplained. But by not going there, she wasn't exactly skipping a mandatory stop on the way to a viable 2012 presidential candidacy.

II. Cenk on Palin's fading 2012 viability:


III. Palin responding to Greta's question about slimeball Bill Maher calling her a "twat":


So articulate, eh?