Palin Slashed Money for Teen Moms?

That's the scandal du jour for Sarah Palin. Except that it isn't true.

And, Covenant House's IRS Form 990 shows the funds that Paul Kane describes as "slashed" was over a threefold increase from the government funds they received from all sources in 2006.

This is sort of like when Democrats called restrictions on increases in spending "cuts."

The forces of darkness Democrats and their willing accomplices in the media are pushing hard for Sarah Palin to refuse the Republican nomination for vice president. Here's a story about bookmakers laying odds. Of course, what the story doesn't say is that bookmakers place bets on all sorts of events and that these bookies are not in the U.S. They probably see Palin's revelations as damning, unlike the evangelicals of the Republican base.

But even without the breathless betting on foreign soil, we have the Democrat whisper campaign of Eagleton comparisons. Forget that Democrats saw nothing wrong with Eagleton at the time. Convenient? Nah. But no matter how hard they push the meme for Palin to drop out, it ain't gonna happen. And, in fact, beating up on Palin might help her win.

I was skeptical that the left’s attacks are evidence of panic, but now that the Eagleton thing is suddenly popping up — Ben Smith mentioned it last night, now Joshua Green, and I think NBC mentioned it earlier — I’m starting to wonder. Why on earth would McCain dump her? What does the media have to show for all these breathless scandals they’ve dug up? We found out her daughter’s pregnant, but McCain probably knew about that in advance; in any case, the base has rallied around her in the aftermath and independents are unlikely to care two months down the road. We found out she was once a member of the Alaska Independence Party — except that, er, she wasn’t, and as Smith notes, it’s not nearly as fringe a party as one might think. We found out Todd Palin had a DUI back when Wham! was still together. We found out she flip-flopped on the bridge to nowhere, which would sting if not for the fact that she flip-flopped in the right direction and ended up torpedoing it. We found out she requested earmarks as mayor of Wasilla in the fine tradition of The One, who also claims to stand for “Change.” We found out she hopes God approves of what our soldiers are doing overseas. And as to the one big story that’s cooking, Troopergate, we found out nothing: She has a private lawyer now and the Democrat in charge of the investigation is trying hard to make Republicans panic, but like the Bristol Palin news, this is one thing McCain probably did vet thoroughly given the stakes.
So what’s the big smoking gun that’s going to get her Eagletoned to oblivion? Is the suggestion that something bigger’s coming down the pike? An Alaska libertarian who’s, um, high on Palin thinks there is, although it sounds less like a case of him having specific information than simply believing Alaskans are free spirits with embarrassing juvenile behavior in their closets.

Palin energizes the base and makes people want to work for McCain. Regardless of how the country club set feels, it's regular people who vote. That's who McCain needs.

UPDATE: Dick Morris says McCain should stick with Palin.

The attacks on Palin mirror the problems that tens of millions of American women find in their everyday life. To attack them would be to condemn themselves and their own choices in their own lives. Watching Palin standing strong and McCain backing her up will be inspiring to many of them. And the identification of the Democrats with the attacks on her will turn them off.