This is not the Hat mentioned in article

Sen. John McCain brushed off the semi-controversy over his former running mate’s visor Sunday, attributing the blog and talk show chatter about Sarah Palin’s vacation attire to “hysterical attacks” from the left.

The former Alaska governor was photographed wearing a “McCain-Palin” visor with McCain’s name crossed out while she was on vacation in Hawaii. She claimed she was just trying to go “incognito,” but reportedly cut her vacation short.

McCain told “Fox News Sunday” he understands Palin’s explanation, and said he has a “wonderful relationship” with her family.

“Can’t you take her at her word?” he said. “She’s going to be a force in the Republican Party for a long time and the hysterical attacks on her from the left continue to validate that.”

FOX NEWS

Sarah Palin took on the Washington press, her former running mate, and herself with political one-liners at the Gridiron Club winter meeting.

Referring to her foreign policy comment about seeing Russia from Alaska, the former vice presidential candidate got laughs when she said that coming down from her Washington hotel room, she “could see the Russian Embassy.”

Palin also joked that before settling on “Going Rogue,” she originally thought of titling her book “How To Look Like a Million Bucks For Only $150,000,” in a reference to campaign spending on her wardrobe.

There was also a barb for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign staff, which has criticized her. Palin’s been on a book tour and told the audience the view is “much better from inside the bus than under it.”

As for her media hosts, she said she was glad to appear before a group of intellectuals, “or as I like to call it, a death panel.”

WGME

Marg Delahunty (Mary Walsh) of This Hour Has 22 Minutes tries to talk to Sarah Palin at a book signing in Ohio.

“Keep the Faith!”

Sarah Palin’s new book, Going Rogue, contains a certain amount of score-settling aimed at former McCain campaign aides, so what does John McCain think of the book?

McCain received a signed copy of Going Rogue on November 12th and reported on Saturday that he enjoyed reading running mate Sarah Palin’s new memoir.

“I enjoyed the book and she and I are dear friends. I talked to her on the phone yesterday. We got along fine,” said McCain in an interview Saturday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum.

In Going Rogue, Palin explained how she was denied the chance to deliver a concession speech and was often referred to as ‘Going Rogue,’ providing Palin with the title for her memoir. Reports have stated that tension between McCain aides and Palin has continued after the campaign. Steve Schmidt, former top McCain aide said last week that Palin’s description of him in her book was a “fabrication” and “total fiction.”

Despite the tension between Palin and McCain’s aides, McCain continues to say he’s proud of Palin, proud of the campaign they ran and he’s moving forward.

EXAMINER

Democrats may equate the name Palin with the sound of sharp nails clawing a chalkboard but so much the better, says Miller, a show business pro who understands a thing or two about shtick and the art of pushing peoples’ buttons.

“I mean, she drives the right people crazy,” he told O’Reilly. “Do I think she’s going to outsmart you? No. But do I think that, in some way, she has an appeal with people that practiced politicians might never have? Yes, I do.”

If you judge by the numbers, there’s no debate he’s right about that. Palin’s upcoming memoir Rogue is ranked No. 1 both on the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble bestseller lists – and this, still a full month and a half before the book is scheduled to go on sale.

As they look to 2012, the Republicans already have a media superstar in their stable. The one caveat: Palin remains a lightening rod for controversy. So it was that after readers responded to our post reporting the advance success of Rogue, I came across a post by one person who goes by the handle “two-cats.” He wrote: “Comic book, soap opera baloney is more like it. I shall not be reading anything by this woman…not interested in anything she has to say (or, rather had written for her) and it infuriates me that a ding-a-ling like her gets so much media attention.”

Read it all at CBS NEWS