1. It’s A Judgment Issue, But I’m Not Personally Offended

2. “It’s a Weak Field”. No, It Is Pretty Typical.

3. Tim Pawlenty comes out against farm subsidies. In Iowa.

1. It’s A Judgment Issue, But I’m Not Personally Offended

There is a story out this morning that Sarah Palin’s top aide Rebecca Mansour sent out a series of nasty direct messages on Twitter about Sarah Palin’s daughter, Mitt Romney supporters, others, and me.The Daily Caller has the details.Regarding me, Jonathan Strong reported:”RedState.com founder and CNN contributor Erick Erickson is “a total d*****bag,” wrote Palin speechwriter and domestic policy adviser Rebecca Mansour in a May 22, 2010, message. ‘Greasy dumb a** with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion.'”As I told Tucker Carlson and Jonathan Strong and as they documented in their story, then candidate Nikki Haley and her campaign manager Tim Pearson emailed me prior to the public release of the endorsement to tell me about it and invite me to be on stage and introduce Governor Haley to the crowd.Now, as a matter of fact, that Rebecca Mansour would send these to a person she apparently only met on Twitter reflects poor judgment, but as I pointed out to Tucker and Jonathan, her note about me was sent on May 22, 2010.I’m sure Rebecca did not know that Governor Haley had personally invited me to be on stage. Likewise, this was at a time when everybody and their uncle was trying to take credit for anything and everything Sarah Palin had done and were also trying to stand in the limelight with her.If anything, I think Rebecca’s reaction to me is completely understandable given what was happening with Team Palin at the time. I’d have probably thought the same thing.There is one other issue though worth exploring.Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. “It’s a Weak Field”. No, It Is Pretty Typical.

A lot of people are taking some comfort in my post from this morning. But there is also a lot of “the field is weak” comments.Let’s review, shall we? Let’s go back to 1964, which was arguably the first year of the modern campaign era. Then we’ll work our way forward with those open years or years when the GOP was the out of power party.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Tim Pawlenty comes out against farm subsidies. In Iowa.

In his official speech kicking off his campaign.As I have been reminded privately, in 2008 John McCain likewise came out against ethanol… and paid the price for it in Iowa and Indiana. And it might make Pawlenty pay the same price in 2012; but the truth is, we really can’t afford ethanol subsidies anymore. Either economically, or – increasingly – in terms of world security. So the sooner we have more candidates feeling comfortable in telling early primary states that their particular sacred cows aren’t actually all that sacred, the better off we’re all going to be.Please click here for the rest of the post.