President Barack Obama is, by far, the most popular politician in America. And there is little doubt who is No. 2.

The city of Auburn in upstate New York, population 28,574, held its first annual Founder’s Day celebration June 6. The most famous of the city’s fathers is William Seward, who as secretary of state purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867. To commemorate the event, the city council invited the current governor of Alaska. The parade featuring Sarah Palin drew more than 20,000 people, according to press reports.

The next day Ms. Palin traveled to Long Island to speak at a fund-raiser for a charity which aids the developmentally disabled. Before that, she and her daughter, Willow, attended a New York Yankees game at the invitation of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The day after that, Ms. Palin took part in a fund-raiser in Washington, D.C., for House and Senate Republicans at which former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the keynote speaker.

“An attempt to have the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate speak at the dinner … fell through when organizers feared she might upstage Gingrich,” UPI reported.

It was a rare trip outside of Alaska for Ms. Palin, who since the election has been tending to her day job, and it produced plenty of snotty commentary.

Much of it came from “GOP insiders” in Washington who speak anonymously to journalists.

“Everyone seems to have a Sarah Palin story of ignored calls, mishandled invitations or unanswered e-mail,” wrote columnist Kathleen Parker, who was severely critical of Ms. Palin last fall.

The subtext of Ms. Parker’s column is that her anonymous confidantes are upset with Ms. Palin because she has not hired them to work on a presidential campaign she has not begun.

This presupposes both that Ms. Palin wants to run for president in 2012, and that if she does, it would be wise for her to start now.

Both are dubious assumptions. Ms. Palin may wish to do the best job she can as governor, and to decide whether or not to seek re-election next year before deciding if she wants to run for president in 2012, 2016 or ever.

If Sarah Palin decides she’s had her fill of public life, it could be because of the attention her visit drew from the likes of “comedian” David Letterman.

In his monologue Monday, Mr. Letterman “joked” about Ms. Palin’s “slutty flight-attendant look,” and made two awful jokes about her daughter, one implying she’d had sex with Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the other that she’d been a prostitute for former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

“Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/New York entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands — that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone’s daughter, contribute to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others,” Ms. Palin responded when asked for comment.

That many liberals found Mr. Letterman’s remarks humorous speaks not only to their depravity, but to their fear. The 20,000 who turned out to see Ms. Palin in Auburn testify to the fact that she strikes a responsive chord with ordinary people no other Republican does.

Liberals and some Beltway conservatives assert Ms. Palin is stupid. She frequently is misquoted — most recently by Dan Balz in The Washington Post Wednesday — to make her appear so.

But I’d say she got the better of it in her exchange with David Letterman. And her brief walk across the stage at the GOP dinner Monday drew more attention than Mr. Gingrich’s stem-winding speech. For someone who, according to the Washington cognoscenti, doesn’t know what she’s doing, she’s doing pretty well.

I don’t think Sarah Palin has decided whether she’d like to live in the White House. But if she does, ignoring the conventional wisdom in Washington may be the best way to get there.

Viewed by many as the heir-apparent to Jeb Bush, Mr. Rubio will be the candidate-of-choice for conservative Floridians. Mr. Rubio was even recently endorsed by Jeb Bush Jr., son of the former governor, as well as social-conservative-favorite Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor. Standing in his way is primary opponent Mr. Crist.

Fortunately, conservatives are beginning to realize they need more leaders like Mr. Rubio. No one can look at Mr. Crist and view him as the future of the party. He’s an “old white guy” and a populist. Mr. Rubio is a stark contrast – young, Hispanic and principled.

Mr. Rubio’s strong Reagan-Republican beliefs are only eclipsed by his ability to electrify a crowd and motivate the base. Handsome, sharply dressed and well spoken, Mr. Rubio earns standing ovations from conservatives and moderates with stories about the struggles of his ancestors in Cuba and his affection for America.

Mr. Crist might speak like a conservative, but Mr. Rubio behaves like one. If anyone questions his credentials, he need only to walk in Mr. Rubio’s office – where a picture of Marco Rubio and Newt Gingrich hangs by his desk.

We have the left rattled and on the run. For proof, consider three developments from late last week.

But first, I want to make a special announcement.
Many of you are probably following the story of how House Republicans are staging a protest in the House Chamber, demanding that Nancy Pelosi call the House back into session in order to vote on The American Energy Act, an “all of the above” energy strategy that includes more drilling, funding for scientific breakthroughs, as well as common-sense conservation efforts. (More info on that story below.)

Tomorrow at 10am, I will meet with those Representatives still in Washington, working to pass an energy bill that will lower gas prices, to deliver a message of encouragement on behalf of the 1.4 million Americans who have signed the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition at American Solutions.

After the meeting, I will hold a press avail with these pro-energy Representatives to discuss why 1.4 million Americans have signed the petition, paint a vision of a better energy tomorrow, and explain why I believe we are winning the argument on energy.

Which brings me back to those developments from last week.

Three signs we are winning the argument on energy
First, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her anti-energy allies in the House skipped town without even scheduling a vote on The American Energy Act – the kind of common sense, “all of the above” energy strategy Americans favor.

Then MoveOn.org sent a desperate email to their supporters asking for money to air an ad to slow the momentum of the movement for America to develop more American energy now.

And Senator Obama, who until late last week opposed offshore drilling, said he would now favor offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy strategy for America.

But we all know that after a retreat, the opposition will try to regroup. It’s time to double our efforts to prevent that from happening.

To block a vote on energy, Nancy Pelosi tried cutting the power in the House
Pro-energy House Republicans are doing just that this week, refusing to let Nancy Pelosi and her anti-energy allies get away with ducking the energy issue.

On Friday morning, Nancy Pelosi suddenly and without warning, adjourned the House of Representatives. She knew how badly the anti-energy left was losing the argument over energy and knew she couldn’t allow a full day of discussion about the American Energy Act to take place in front of the C-Span cameras and press. So she called the vote to adjourn, and when House Republicans refused to leave, Nancy Pelosi ordered the microphones and lights in the House be turned off.

Think about this: In order to block a vote on energy for America, Nancy Pelosi tried to cut off power to the House of Representatives.

But Boehner and pro-energy representatives remembered where power really comes from
However, Rep. John Boehner and many other pro-energy representatives have refused to allow Nancy Pelosi to duck the energy issue. They know that Congress derives its power from the American people. Speaker Pelosi can’t order that power supply shut off.

They’re still in Washington this week, making speeches on the House floor to visitors and press, and live-blogging their efforts, which you can view here.

Here’s a flavor of the House Republicans historic uprising:

“We are the light of the world, we are the leaders of the free world. But when we depend on foreign energy we cannot be as strong of a leader as we should and can be.” – Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)

“You need to let your congressman know that he or she works for you, not the Speaker of the House.” – Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL)

“Here’s a letter from the Gardner family in Texas. They can’t afford to both go on vacation and send their son to Boy Scout camp. They can’t afford it. If the Gardners can’t, then neither should Pelosi and the Congress!” – Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)

“Common sense is not very common in Washington, D.C… Why aren’t we using all the resources that we Americans can bring to the table?… We need to use our American ingenuity to solve these problems…We will get it done if there’s a vote on this floor.” – Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA):

And perhaps most importantly, House Minority Leader John Boehner yesterday promised to keep up this pressure throughout the month of August:

“The only way we’re ever going to bring her to heel and allow a vote is for us to continue to put pressure on her. And so it’s 25 Members we had in Congress today, led by Tom Price and Mike Pence. It’s Members all over the country doing their townhall meetings, doing their rotary clubs, they’re all talking about it. And we’re going to keep talking about it until we get our vote.” – John Boehner, OH

You can read their open letter to Nancy Pelosi, here.

Also, check out the comments on the GOP Leader blog to see how this historic uprising is energizing conservatives around the country.

Finally, and most importantly, write your representative to let them know you want them back in session to pass an energy bill and to applaud Boehner’s leadership. Call talk radio as well. Nancy Pelosi may have turned off the lights in the House, but that doesn’t mean we can’t turn on the heat in response.

MoveOn.org Admits the Obvious: The Pro Energy Coalition is Winning the Argument
Nancy Pelosi is not the only member of the anti-energy left looking desperate.

In an urgent email sent to their members last week, the far Left activist group wrote about the national debate over how to best lower gas and energy prices, “Here’s the truth: Right now, progressives are losing this argument.”

They’re right. We are winning and the Left is losing the argument over our country’s energy future because Americans know that thirty years of their policies has led to the current mess.

For decades, anti-energy, left-wing politicians have advocated higher prices and less energy. They were going to save the environment by punishing Americans into driving less and driving smaller cars. They favor a policy of no oil and gas exploration, no use of coal, and no development of nuclear power.

The result has been that over the last three decades, America has relied more and more on foreign oil rather than American oil, and our nation’s power grid has been stretched thin because litigation and regulation has made it so difficult to build new sources of electricity.

The American people can see this, so they’re rejecting the Left’s philosophy of less energy and inconvenience in favor of a pro-investment, pro-creativity, pro-production, and pro-conservation energy coalition.

MoveOn.org Fails Einstein’s Test of Insanity
You’d think this much would be obvious to the Left, but the email they sent to their supporters and the advertisement they want to run is filled with the same discredited arguments about American energy production that the American people have rejected over this summer.

It claims not only that more American energy, including opening up additional areas to oil and natural gas development, would have no immediate effect on gas prices, but that even in the long term, more American oil and gas on the market is only a “gimmick.”

Someone should remind MoveOn.org that Einstein’s definition of insanity was “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

Not only does MoveOn.org still think that the Left’s same, misguided energy scarcity policies are good for America, despite the obvious; they also think that the American people are going to continue to buy their arguments.

That’s just crazy, and you don’t have to be a Nobel Prize winning physicist to know it.

That’s why we can be confident in our solutions and our answers to their faulty arguments. Check out our Facts Sheet at American Solutions for rebuttals to the anti-energy left’s most common arguments.

Oh, and just for fun, check out Jay Leno’s take on why the Left’s phony “it will take 10 years” argument holds no water. Watch here.

This summer, as you talk with your friends and neighbors about high gas prices, don’t let the anti-energy left get away with using the same discredited arguments, and don’t let them shirk the responsibility they bear for putting us in the energy crisis today.

The Obama Opportunity: the President Should Call Congress Back Into Session
Finally, in another sign that we are winning the argument over America’s energy future, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has indicated he would support offshore drilling as part of a larger energy strategy.

This is amazing progress considering it was just a few months ago that Senator Obama was not only opposed to more American oil production, he repeatedly voted to keep America ignorant of our own offshore energy resources. (Check out this excellent article at PowerlineBlog.com for more.)

This is real progress. It’s also a real opportunity.

President Bush has the power to call the Congress back into session, but so far he’s said he has no plans to do so. It’s up to us to change his mind. There should be no confusion as to where Nancy Pelosi and her anti-energy allies on the left stand when it comes to a common sense energy strategy the American people want. You can call the White House at 202-456-1111 to encourage the President.

In addition, we should call our Congressmen and ask them to call on the President to bring them back into session. And if your Congressman isn’t one of those staying in Washington to protest Nancy Pelosi adjourning without passing an energy bill, make sure if you see him or her in your district to ask why they are on vacation instead of working to lower gas prices.

Second, Senator McCain should challenge Senator Obama to work with him to create and pass an energy bill in the Senate before the election that includes opening up more areas to oil and natural gas development (including offshore and in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)) as part of a larger, comprehensive energy policy that also includes conservation efforts, nuclear power (Obama has indicated he would support building more plants under the right conditions), and incentives for new technologies.

Then, the question for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will then be simple: with their party’s nominee for President supporting more American oil production and the American people overwhelmingly supporting it as well, will they still oppose a common-sense energy policy that uses all of our American energy resources?

Another Question for Nancy Pelosi, This Time on Immigration
Finally, the news that the suspect of a brutal murder in San Francisco is a known illegal immigrant begs the question whether or not Nancy Pelosi will pass Einstein’s insanity test with regard to her support of sanctuary city policies.

Edwin Ramos had twice been convicted on felony charges as a juvenile, and his status as an illegal immigrant was known. Yet he was released from jail nearly three months before these recent slayings, protected from the country’s immigration policies because of San Francisco’s sanctuary policy.

As I wrote last year when a known illegal immigrant shot four students, killing three, it is simply beyond belief that cities would knowingly shield felons and suspected felons from the country’s immigration laws. Now, in San Francisco – Nancy Pelosi’s district – the tragic results speak for themselves.

This horrible story comes at the same time that the Center for Immigration Studies announced that increased enforcement on the US/Mexico border has decreased the number of illegal immigrants in the country by 1.3 million. Furthermore, their study concludes that the decline of the illegal population was at least seven times larger than the number of actual people removed by the government in the last ten months. This means that most of the decline is due to people here illegally leaving voluntarily as a result of the enforcement.

The evidence is clear: enforcement works; sanctuary policies don’t.

Will Nancy Pelosi (not to mention the rest of the Left) finally back the enforcement of our country’s laws or will they continue to cling to policies that don’t work and expect a different result?

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich

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