Coltons Point Times 82nd Academy Awards Picks

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Sunday is Oscar night, with the best of Hollywood glimmer, glamour and glitz. The golden statues will help us forget the chaos in our nation's capitol, corruption on Wall Street, losing the Olympic hockey finals to Canada for men and women, and yet another resurrection of Obamacare.


So here are my Oscar picks and my admission I have not seen a single nominee for the 2010 Academy Awards. I simply find it no handicap to picking winners. Now make your picks.


Best Picture - The Hurt Locker


Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker


Best Actor - Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart


Best Actress - Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side


Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz - Inglorious Bastards


Best Supporting Actress - Mo'nique - Precious

Best Animated Feature Film - Up

Best Foreign Film - Germany - The White Ribbon

Best Original Screenplay - Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay - Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - Up in the Air

Best Documentary Feature - The Cove


Best Original Score - Up

Best Original Song - The Weary Kind - Crazy Heart

Best Film Editing - The Hurt Locker


Best Cinematography - Avatar

Best Costume Design - The Young Victorian

Best Art Direction - Avatar

Best Makeup - The Young Victorian

Best Visual Effects - Avatar

Best Documentary (Short Subject) - Rabbit á la Berlin

Best Short Film (Animated) - A Matter of Loaf and Death

Best Short Film (Live Action) - The New Tenants

Best Sound Editing - Avatar

Best Sound Mixing - The Hurt Locker


Enjoy the show.

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The Week in Review - Olympics Closing Ceremony to Chilean Earthquake to Health Care to Hollywood

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Last Sunday I was sitting and watching my television as the Olympic Closing Ceremony was just getting started in Vancouver, Canada. After a pretty decent presentation by Russia on the next Olympics, we returned to a cornball Canadian Series of mini documentaries with the most bizarre themes, speeches, strange creatures and three legged Olympic flames.



Think about it. Two weeks earlier one of the highlights of the opening ceremony was when one leg of the flame platform jammed in the floor and refused to rise, leaving the torch carriers, crowd, and zillions of TV watchers around the world waiting on baited breath to see how in the world the Canadians were going to get out of this mess. People held their breath while NBC and the Canadian Olympic people seemed to be doing nothing.



Seconds before the torches held by NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and others went out, and long after the millions viewing had started breathing again, someone decided to light the three legs that did show up and hope no one noticed the drama around the missing fourth leg and torch bearer with no torch to light.



That was two weeks earlier. Now as I sat watching the flying moose and massive beavers show up and listened to what those Canadians were saying and doing on the boob tube, I was certain I went through a time warp and was back in the crazy '60's. There was Star Treks' Mr. Priceline while you were going Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox of Family Ties.



Thank God Neil Young was there, all alone, just Neil and his guitar, and he played a wonderful version of Long May You Run and showed all those Olympic kids what real music and stories sound like. They loved him and it was the last recognizable thing I saw during the abbreviated closing ceremonies.

The time machine kicked into high gear and the stage or rink or whatever became an assemblage with the weirdest conglomeration of characters, reminding me a little of an afternoon with Timothy Leary. As we watched there seemed to be a Canadian cultural collision showing all the different aspects of Canadian settlers and civilizations and Hollywood actors while interruptions from NBC anchors and reporters further distracted me from figuring out what the Hell the Canadians were doing on that screen.

Then quite unexpectedly anchor Bob Costas pops on the screen, quite awkwardly I noted, saying that the closing ceremonies would be back. First there would be an hour of a new weekly TV series called The Ref, a quite stupid show I thought, and then local news. If you survived that show and news the Olympics Late Show would then broadcast a taped version of the closing that you were just watching.

What was this?

I wait four years to see this event and NBC pre-empts it with another mindless program about the flaws of Americans. Didn't NBC pay $800 million for the right to broadcast the Olympics then cut off the closing ceremonies just as it was getting interesting? This was just the beginning of the week.



So then came wave after wave of strange stories like follow up on the Chile earthquake that hit the night before the Olympic Closing debacle. Obama was talking about health care yet again. Hasn't Congress been trying to figure out what to do about health care for over a year? Don't tell me the president just noticed we had a problem with health care. Funny he still ignored the number one worry of the people, the economy and our national debt. Congress and the media seemed clueless as well.

During the week the Democrats were trying to figure out how to ignore the people and circumvent the legislative process on health care. There was the day long, great, Pacific tsunami watch which started after the tsunami had already hit Chile and wiped out villages killing hundreds. The multi-network watch ended when no one could tell the tsunami hit them beyond Chile. Hawaii reported a two foot rise in the water lever. Big deal. We get more than two feet change twice a day from the tides, every day, and we are just in the tributary backwaters of the Atlantic.



Then came the scandals, reality news instead of the old political innuendoes. A governor, congressman and another congressman from New York all got sucked into abuse of powers scandals, tax evasion, even alleged sexual misconduct. Those Democrats sure do know how to have fun, at our expense. Okay, Greece was collapsing, Toyota was in the midst of the worst recall in history, Ford was selling cars like mad. No one could figure out what Chrysler was doing. We did know Congress was still doing nothing. Kentucky men lost a second basketball game and Bebraska women remained unbeaten.



Three more people told me they now know how to play curling and asked me where was the nearest curling alley. I never knew they existed. There are 131 curling clubs in the USA but do they all have their own curling alleys? If there are 131 curling alleys then there is one curling alley for every 62 Wal-Mart stores in America. Good luck finding a curling alley to go shove a 46 pound rock they call a stone down some ice with two broom-carrying people sweeping up a storm as the rock slides down along it's way.

I have Scottish blood and curling was invented by the Scottish in the 1500's but I prefer to remember the scotch whiskey and those long haired cattle of Scotland. Besides, if you want your own curling game it costs $32,000 for just the 16 stones you need. That is for just two people in one game. I mean in America you can find a ball, bag and bowling shoes for about a hundred dollars.



I'm just glad this week ends with the most glorified awards ceremony of the year, the Academy Awards, to help us forget what we just lived through. There is nothing so soothing to a nation sinking in debt as statues of gold, glitz and glamour. I hope you had an interesting week as well and I share your concerns that given the climate in Washington, we hope next week can continue to divert our attention away from our nation's capitol, leaders and news media.



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Obama's Health Care - Check or Checkmate?

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The President threw down the gauntlet and now seems intent on forcing Congress into submission. It is quite a role reversal from his year of allowing Congress to decide what would be done and it is bound to upset those who still believe in the separation of government functions, the executive and legislative branches, and the legislative procedures of the House and Senate.



Obama and the White House gang are desperate and believe this is the only thing they can get done before the fall elections that might stop the Democrats self-destruction and potential loss of leadership of the House and Senate. In truth it could do a lot more harm than good.

For one, he is counting on his somewhat tarnished vision that people can be strongly influenced by the president of the USA whether they be moderate Democrats, Republicans, Iran, North Korea or the Olympic site selection committee. So far his track record of being heard is dismal at best. The long year Congress has been debating the health care bill just adds to the frustration.



Now his two week timetable to get this done before, well I guess Armageddon, seems a bit ambitious but Obama, if nothing else, has demonstrated that his inexperience in leading has been his greatest fault. Now that the Republicans are out of the picture, and in truth Obama's problem has never been the Republicans but his own party since the Democrats have decisively controlled the House and the Senate, we shall see if he can lead his own party if not the nation.

Which leads us to the second part of the puzzle, the legislative process. What Obama has done is circumvent the legislative process. He had the House pass a health care bill. Then he had the Senate pass an entirely different health care bill. Now he has presented his own bill containing some elements of the House and Senate bill and other things.



Normally a Conference between the House and Senate would be held to work out the differences between bills and present it back to the House and Senate for final approval. Obama has eliminated that step by saying, after a year of legislative hassle, he doesn't want either bill but now wants his own. To give it to him means the Democrats must do the following.



1. The House must pass the Senate bill as is.
2. The House must pass a new bill clarifying changes they want made to the Senate bill they just approved.
3. The Senate must pass the new House bill under Reconciliation which is supposed to be used for only budget and deficit issues.
4. Then the president must sign both bills setting up the health care reform and then changing the health care reform before it is even started.



Of course not all the things the Democrats will want to change can be included under Reconciliation. For example any restrictions on Abortion, and there are some in the House bill but none in the Senate bill, are a matter of policy and not budget so should be excluded from reconciliation. That means Obama will lose the support of all the House Democrats who are Right to Life, all of whom supported the House bill the first time. Not good for the President.

The House and Senate do not even agree what should be in the final bill or two as the House also wants the public option, Andy Stern and the unions want control of all health care workers in America, Goldman Sachs wants nothing that might hurt the stock value of companies they represent on Wall Street, and Obama will take anything so he can say he did accomplish one thing his first two years as president.



Then, of course, there are the deals that will have to be made to get the House to agree to the old Senate bill and the Senate to agree to the new House bill. We already saw how far both the House and Senate went to cut deals for the first bills. The second will be much harder and closer thus opening the door to pork barrel, favoritism, legal bribes and ferocious lobbying to an extent never seen before.



Don't be surprised if wheel barrows full of money are moved into the political campaign funds of those Democrats sitting on the fence. Self-survival seems to be the greatest motivator of our Washington establishment.



With all this confusion, Congress and the president will be operating in a fog, both to keep each other confused as well as the voter and taxpayer who will pay for this mess. Media analysts on both sides of every issue will no doubt expand their standard fare of hyperbole and exaggeration to outright lies and deception as no one, from the president to the Secretary of Health to the leaders of both the Democrats and Republicans and including every person hired by the media to give us the facts has ever let truth get in the way of making a point.

If Obama brings about a checkmate and no health care bill gets through, every person in America worried about the economy, out of work, or having trouble making ends meet should wonder how they can support any longer a president whose own ego and arrogance keep him demanding a win in health care while our economy keeps seeking into the abyss. His failure to address the economy, the Wall Street debacle, the foreign policy crisis and everything else he failed to do the last year will prove he is too inexperienced to be trusted as president.



When the people standing behind him are Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and they all contributed to the obsession with health care and ignorance of the economic problems we face then we should realize there is only one way out of the mess, to change the balance of power by giving the Republicans control of the House and Senate so someone can keep him from destroying the country and it certainly is not the Joe, Nancy and Harry show currently leading the Democrats.

Right now the nation stands at check with the failure of the President and Congress to complete work on a health care bill after a year of nonsense. Checkmate stands about two weeks away when Obama tries to force the House and Senate Democrats to do his will while ignoring the will of the public. Just who are the pawns in this classic chess match? Stay tuned.

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Save Savannah Guthrie from NBC & MSNBC

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Why we must Save Savannah before it is too late.



There are not many reporters out there in the media wonderland whose careers seem worth saving as there are not many reporters left period. Most have chosen to get sucked into the television ratings game and have lost their objectivity as they now play a variety of roles from reporting to speculating to advocating positions to biased news analysis.



Now there is nothing fair and balanced about it and anyone from Fox, MSNBC, CNN or even PBS that claims to be fair and balanced has clearly lost their marbles or ability to tell the truth. The truth is the media business is all about sensationalism, partisanship, making someone look bad or good depending on that person's conformance to the network party line, and even manipulation of truth.



Why the bizarre behavior of cable network and even major media reporters would drive a journalism purist to suicide if they took them seriously. Yet after all the exposure of so called news celebrities it seems as if the people of America have got better things to do. Of course that's not what you would think listening to the ego maniacs on the air pontificating on what you need to believe.

However, facts are facts and these are the facts. On a typical weekday on cable TV news, which includes Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, HTN (CNN Headline News) and CNBC, Fox has the 13 top ranked shows on cable news. In a dismal response by the liberal MSNBC, viewership and target audience numbers are both down from last year with Keith Olbermann, the flagship of MSNBC, losing 29% of average viewers and 43% of the target audience the past year. Perhaps people are tiring of the nonsense.

Base on average number of viewers, the top morning and prime time shows at Fox are O'Rielly 3.5 million viewers, Beck 2.8 million, Hannity at 2.5 million, Baier at 2.5 million and Shep at 2.1 million. At MSNBC Olbermann is 963,000, Maddow 802,000, Matthews 580,000 and Ed at 500,000. Fox and Friends has 1.1 million while The Morning Joe show has 340,000. The news isn't much better off at CNN as the Rick Sanchez and Wolf Shows have lost 52% of their target audience and 43% of average viewership the past year.



So Fox has been increasing while the other networks decreasing. A typical show at Fox gets 4 times the audience of the MSNBC show at the same time. Does that mean America is 4 times more conservative than liberal? What it does mean is that while 20 million or so watch cable news shows every day about 295 million Americans don't so maybe there is hope for America.



Then there is Savannah Guthrie, named NBC White House correspondent not long ago who was recently given a show, The Daily Rundown, by NBC on MSNBC following the Morning Joe Show. It is too bad that MSNBC had already lost a chunk of the morning audience before they gave it to her and that just 340,000 out of 315 million Americans are watching Morning Joe. What kind of promotion is that?

Truth is she was put on MSNBC to increase the ratings at a time when NBC, including MSNBC, was being sold by General Electric to Comcast Cable. What in the world will a profit driven owner like Comcast do with MSNBC? At least GE stood to make millions of dollars off Obama and his Green America programs so they had a reason to take the liberal position and support him.



As Obama collapsed in his ratings this past year so did MSNBC and it was no accident Obama's liberal agenda was not what America wanted or expected to hear from him. Yet he seems oblivious of the polls, the lack of support for his agenda, and the beating liberals are taking in the elections since he was elected. That does not bode well for MSNBC who attached their hopes to a falling star.

Savannah Guthrie has great credentials as a trained journalist and lawyer and has done an exceptional job of avoiding the tendency of NBC reporters to take the liberal slant to everything. You can bet MSNBC will be trying to mold her into one of their liberal mouthpieces like Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews. It could ruin her career.



So I want to start a Save Savannah campaign to get her out of MSNBC and NBC before Comcast takes over the networks. Fair and balanced is a phrase used by all these cable networks but none can really live up to it. She still does. Help Save Savannah before it is too late. Write NBC and MSNBC, and tell them to not make her into a liberal puppet. Better yet, write Savannah and tell her to get out before it is too late.

By the way, to be fair and balanced and fully transparent, let me say the fact she was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona and graduated from the University of Arizona has nothing to do with it. The fact I went to the University of Arizona and played basketball there also has nothing to do with it. The fact I used to go watch Linda Ronstadt sing in Tucson, met Sonny and Cher there, got to sing with the Kingsmen of Louie Louie fame, was a frat brother with Gary Lewis, watched two other fraternity brothers perform on the ABC TV hit show Hootenanny, and dated the Queen of the Rose Bowl parade who was in my class had nothing to do with it.

The fact Arizona is one of my favorite places in the world and I remain close to the Hopi Native Americans of Arizona also has nothing to do with it nor does the fact the Grand Canyon is one of the wonders of the world. Okay, the fact I have worked with the National Park Service exploring ancient and sacred Native American sites, some thousands of years old, also has nothing to do with it.

I admit that riding on horseback four hours up a deserted canyon above the Grand Canyon with Park Service archeologists and my crew to film one of these sites also had nothing to do with it. I mean I had a coyote, the trickster, cross my path and soon after got thrown from my horse, broke three ribs, was hours from medical help so I kept riding and filming for 8 more hours. How could that have anything to do with it?



No bias on my part. In spite of our University of Arizona and Tucson ties I've never met Savannah. But I have seen her work and we need her to report the truth to America about what is happening in our nation's capitol. Not the NBC liberal truth but the honest truth like she does. I say Save Savannah and there is hope for the future.

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Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum - Look out Democrats Here We Come - Paterson & Rangel

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Just in time for the fall elections it seems as if the new bad boys of the Democratic party are not going away nor going to get booted by the Democratic leaders. As Obama and the Democrats circle the wagons for a tough fall campaign their problems are compounded by the fact Governor David Paterson and Congressman Charles Rangel are refusing to resign from their posts thus keeping both in the public limelight and reinforcing to the public that our political establishment is corrupt.



Paterson started out bad enough when he took over as New York governor for Eliot Spitzer after a prostitution scandal cost Spitzer his governors office. Then just after taking the oath of office Paterson admitted to affairs while he was married. But the people of New York seemed to forgive him. Then he tried to use the power of his office to silence a woman who was beaten up by one of his aides.

This abuse of office would not go away and Paterson multiplied his problems by first sending two state troopers out to talk with her, then personally calling her the day before she was to testify on the beating. In the end their threats to get her to drop the charges scared her off and she refused to go to court. It was an abuse of authority that may not be forgiven by the New York voters. Paterson refuses to resign. Yet President Obama, the national and state Democratic parties refuse to condemn the actions.



Rangel today asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give him a leave of absence as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the most powerful positions in Congress, in order to fight charges from the House Ethics Committee that he took numerous trips financed by corporations, a violation of House rules.



However, it is widely known that this is just the tip of the iceberg of corruption with Rangel as other investigations are underway including IRS inquiries into failing to pay taxes on apartments in NYC and foreign owned property among other issues. These will soon be added to the first House ethics charges and will make the most powerful tax Chairman in Washington defend himself from not paying taxes.

Of course Pelosi knows about all the investigations even though she has only commented on the first minor revelations and she could remove him permanently from being Chairman, or even ask that he be thrown out of the House which should happen if IRS files charges. Pelosi has defended Rangel, one might presume because she appointed him Chairman of Ways and Means, and continues to allow him to remain in the House. Obama, though both Paterson and Rangel were supporters, has refused to say anything as if this institutional corruption has nothing to do with him.



Since Obama campaigned against the Washington establishment and corruption in our nation's capitol and throughout politics it seems odd he would not comment on the cases. Notwithstanding their support for his campaign, there comes a time when one must disassociate themselves from corruption. Once again the Democratic party has had no comment as well.

If these two politicians are not thrown out of office before the election it will be yet another albatross for the president and example of how he said one thing during the campaign and did another once he was elected. Protecting potential crooks or abusers of power does not seem like a defensible position when it comes time for the people to vote again.



It is actions like these by our Washington and Wall Street leaders that caused the formation of the Tea Party Movement and that will further empower that movement this fall. Not to be overlooked is the role the media played in not covering these issues nor pressing for the facts when they started to leak out. Now, of course, the media are writing about it but for a long time they have known about it.



In one of the ironies of politics it was just a short time ago that Rangel called on the public to let his friend David Paterson finish his term in office. The New York Daily News headline shouted Rep. Charles Rangel, Congressman Gregory Meeks and Rev. Sharpton: Let Gov. Paterson finish his term. Now he has to worry about finishing his own term.

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Sarah Palin's Triple Whammy Leaves Liberal Leftists Gasping for Oxygen

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Yesterday was a glorious day for America's most famous cheerleader as she made her stunning debut on Late Night Television joining Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, left her political imprint all over the race for governor in Texas, and set her old nemesis David Letterman back in the ratings, all after being written off for dead by the liberal media. Sarah brought her message of hope for America and of compassion for Americans to the national spotlight.

It was a day the White House and Washington political fat cats should remember because she proved once and for all that Sarah Palin is here to stay and she keeps getting better and stronger all the time. Kudos to Jay Leno for landing her as it was her first appearance in the ratings war for late night television and if her record continues she will help Jay bury Letterman in the ratings.



It was not long ago when Oprah Winfrey, whose ratings were stagnant, was visited by Palin and saw her ratings double in some markets and increased her viewers by several million people. All because of the hockey mom from Alaska who survived one-sided vicious attacks from the liberal media and White House for over a year.

But that was just one aspect of what happened yesterday. Do you remember how the media made such a big deal of how the Republican winners in the New Jersey and Virginia did not want her help and barely got elected? Well in Texas they know something others don't.

Rick Perry was running for re-election against an established politician from Washington, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry was the first major candidate in a nationally watched race to ask Sarah Palin for help and she went in and campaigned with him, drawing over 6,000 to a political rally in Houston. As a result his standing in the polls shot from being behind by nearly 20 points to an astounding 20 point victory over the Washington establishment.

Palin Power is alive and well in America and look for a lot of other candidates to ask for her help in campaigning and fund raising. It's a role she has mastered. By the way, to show her independence she not only opposed the Washington establishment candidate in Texas but opposed another Tea Party candidate.



Perry crushed Hutchinson. This morning the liberal media were silent on the results and ignored the pivotal role Palin played in helping Perry to his amazing victory. What else could they do? I mean her ratings impact on television are 10 to 20 times the morning ratings for liberal TV shows and bury the prime time mouthpieces of the liberal leftists on MSNBC whenever she makes an appearance.

On the Leno show Jay let her be Sarah and the results were spectacular. In fact Luisita Lopez Torregrosa from Inside Politics Daily said it best in her article this morning. This is what she had to say.

And heeeeeeeere's Sarah!Posted:
03/3/10

At long last, what the world has been waiting for, Sarah Palin at night.

Those long legs, in blue jeans, stride with strong purpose across the polished floors of the stage of Jay Leno's new and shiny studio in Burbank, Calif.

Sarah Palin, she who must be mocked and adored, is making her first-ever appearance on a late-night show. The crowd howls, the band twangs, and Jay Leno, on the second night of his comeback to "Tonight," the show that is his by rights and ratings, shakes her hand and takes his seat behind his new stage desk. He knows -- look at that grin -- he has won the night.

It starts slowly. He asks her about the usual things she's heard over and over and she shoots back answers she knows by rote yet sounds spontaneous somehow. Does she mind being controversial? She smiles. "I'm not one to sit down and shut up...I'm not desiring to hunker down." She slings darts at the mainstream media without drawing blood. She talks about her wish to clarify many of her comments, but doesn't specify which comments, and to large applause, she says that the Tea Party movement is beautiful. Most of this is warmed-over stuff. She sticks to her guns, bless her.

Then, surprise! She gets up, slim as an athlete, takes center stage and does a stand-up routine, all by herself, confident and light, liking that spotlight. "I picked up a gig in Las Vegas at the Legends show...playing Tina Fey." The audience howls. She's got no stage fright, not that she would let it show. But comedy is not something she would want to pursue, but then, many would say, neither is politics. Her two-minute gig will be catnip this week for "Saturday Night Live" and the merciless blogosphere.

Here in New York, meantime, David Letterman, Jay's longtime thorn in the side, is on the run. He's got nowhere to go to flee the Palin tsunami. Dashing David, who made a big splash in the fall with his acknowledged serial affairs with female subordinates, had offended Palin months back, when he sort of insulted one of her daughters. What can he do now but book Mitt Romney, a seriously boring but legitimate contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012? Dave is too smart not to know that Mitt is going to put the audience to sleep out there in America while jazzy Sarah is keeping them awake and ogling.

On Monday night, when Leno ushered his first "Tonight" apres the firing of Conan O'Brien, he won hands down: 6.6 million viewers, according to early Nielsen's ratings, against Letterman's 3.8 million on CBS. But it was last night, with Palin, that Leno found his old familiar stride, letting her move easily in the spotlight.

Her sit-and-chat with Jay Leno was not her only appearance last night on prime time. A framed picture of her in a trademark red top and a copy of her book, "Going Rogue," were used as props and tease at the end of the hit CBS program "The Good Wife." There she was, Sarah Barracuda, doing a cameo without ever having to step in front of a camera. That is, like it or not, true fame.



For those of you who missed it,

Even The Guardian from England featured a story on Sarah and Jay showing her international appeal as well. They reported the following.

In a life lived in the public eye Sarah Palin has been a beauty queen, Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate. But last night, she basked in a new kind of media spotlight: the late-night talkshow interview.

It is a rite of passage for many American celebrities who endure gentle barbs and satirical proddings to tout their latest film, book or TV show.

Palin had only her own brand to sell as she made her late-night debut in California on Jay Leno's's Tonight Show. She passed the test with flying colours, delivering a now familiar folksy performance strong on self-deprecating humour and light on meaningful content. She even did a mock impression of Leno's famous opening monologues, delivering a confident stand-up routine at the end of her interview.

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