The huge crowds at Sarah Palin's book signings were to be expected, and the governor's publisher, HarperCollins, is celebrating. Her book sold 300,000 copies the first day. Total in print is now 2.5 million. That's huge and testimony to Sarah Palin's star power.
Likewise, the rise of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, who drew 25,000 folks at The Villages in Florida over the weekend, according to the local paper there. Beck is promoting his book and encouraging conservative and independent Americans to take back power from the liberal Obama administration.
The question: Does the success of Gov. Palin and Glenn Beck signal a resurgence for the American right?
The answer: somewhat.
There is no question that President Obama is having trouble. The latest Rasmussen poll has 53 percent of Americans disapproving of his job performance. Gallup has the disapproval rate at 44 percent.
While polls are just snapshots in time and can change quickly, Mr. Obama's bold policies of a massive government health care apparatus and trying Al Qaeda big shots in civilian courts have mobilized opposition.
But it is the economy that will define whether or not Barack Obama is successful and whether conservatives can mount a comeback against him. Unemployment is still a big problem, although the outlook for economic growth is better next year.
However, the USA now owes $12 trillion, and that debt is growing. The president is looking to raise taxes, mostly on the rich, but that will not stem the red ink.
If the world loses confidence in the American economic engine, and high taxation may be the tipping point, watch out. The U.S. dollar is already at risk.
The president must see the danger ahead, and if he does not, hard times are coming. The current recession is painful, but if the USA goes bankrupt, like California, there will be revolt in this country.
So it is time to put all the social engineering on hold and get back to sound economic principles. The right wants to do that. The left does not.
Therein lies the struggle. At this point, conservative America is regaining momentum, and the left is on the defensive. That's what you are seeing with Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
We don't often think about this, but animals are affected by global warming as well. And like the human community, there is some controversy:
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GRAPHIC: Felix down the road wants to get a message out. He reckons all this funny weather is due to the cars. He thinks the humans know, but are too lazy to deal with it. He says we've got to get them to stop changing the weather.
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We believe that cats exercising their free speech might be patriots.
Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!
On the pinhead front, our pal Sting has led a very interesting life. Listen to this:
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STING, MUSICIAN: I would never have said I believe in ghosts until I saw one. I was in bed one night in a very old house I used to live in, and I woke up at three in the morning — just bolt upright — and looked into the corner of the room, and I thought I saw Trudie standing there with a child, our child, in her arms, just staring at me. And I thought, well, that's so strange. Why is she standing in the corner staring at me? And then I reached next to me, and there was Trudie. But a lot of things happened in that house, a lot of flying objects and voices and strange, strange, strange things happened.
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Is Sting a pinhead? Only you can make the call.
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