Rich is excellent as always today, but I think he misses the mark here.
She could well be their last presidential candidate standing. Such would-be competitors as Mark Sanford, John Ensign and Newt Gingrich are too carnally compromised for the un-Clinton party. Mike Huckabee is Palin-lite. Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal — really? That leaves the charisma-challenged Mitt Romney, precisely the kind of card-carrying Ivy League elitist Palinists loathe, no matter how hard he tries to cosmetically alter his history as a socially liberal fat-cat banker. Palin would crush him like a bug. She has the Teflon-coated stature among Republicans that Romney can only fantasize about.
I don’t think that’s right.
It’s important to remember that, before securing the nomination, McCain was despised by both the Christianists and the Limbaugh/Coulter wingnuts. Limbaugh railed against McCain, bellowing that he’d "destroy the Republican party" while Coulter mocked him as less conservative than Hillary — and both Limbaugh and Coulter openly campaigned against Huck. Didn’t matter. McCain had the backing of the GOP establishment and was the neocon favorite in what was thought to be a national security election, and Huck, on the backs of the Southern fundies, finished second. Teflon is overrated.
Palin not only has pissed off and embarrassed too many Village Republicans to make a serious run, it’s very difficult to imagine her besting Willard in states like Florida, California, Pennsylvania and New York — or even states like Michigan and Ohio where the economy will likely be the central issue. And it’s worth noting that Willard has a decent collection of nutters in his corner too, from K-Lo to Hugh Hewitt, and was Limbaugh’s candidate in ‘08. That leaves Palin and Huck fighting over a lot of the same votes, and I wouldn’t underestimate Huck, a two-term governor who already has his own show.
Finally, there’s a managerial aspect to running a presidential campaign that seem to be well beyond Palin’s abilities and temperament. W. may not have known too much about anything, but he was an annoyingly disciplined campaigner and quite happy to let Karl and Dick run the show. Palin’s ego, as we know from the ‘08 campaign, does not permit her to defer to anyone who knows what they’re doing and her erratic behavior is certain to blow up somewhere along the grueling, 18-24 month campaign.
If Palin couldn’t master a few interviews during a three-month campaign, just wait until she’s got to show up for a couple dozen primary debates. Can you see Palin deftly fending off Willard’s and Huck’s attacks over that long a haul? I can’t.
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Palin/Huckster 2012!
Can’t a girl hope? Palin/Jindal 2012! I hope she runs, and runs the Repugs into the ground.
Love to read the issues Frank Rich brings to the NYT. I agree with you. It is unlikely a wingnut like the AK governor (can’t put that name in print) will poll well. As Republicans will have to deal with Bushco’s sins sooner as it looks here http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07…..el.html?hp Cheney played kabuki from US Congress.
You make a good logical argument Blue Texan, but the Republican base is so far from rational that it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they went with her anyway. Every time she said or did something stupid, they seemed to shout her name that much louder.
Now Sarah is threatening to campaign for and with democrats also too. What a brilliant move of mavericky political Aikido.
Maybe with her help, we’ll finally be rid of those pesky Blue Dog conservadems. She’s the Wink of Death, let’s use her wisely!!
But the base isn’t all that matters, as McCain proved.
The GOP always nominates “the next guy,” and that’s Huckabee in 2012. That’s the reason the Rev stuck it out — coming in Number Two guaran-damn-tees you the slot atop the Republican ticket the next time around. And in Huckabee’s case, he’s continued to woo the base from his FOX perch.
I predict Huckabee/Gingrich, with Newtie hoping for a Cheney-like Svengali role.
Which, I will add, cements the GOP as a regional party for many years.
That makes more sense than anything involving Romney. When it comes right down to it, the Republic wingnuts are just to prejudice to seriously support a Mormon.
The GOP is achieving their long held dream of being a regional party of the South. Somewhere, Lincoln is either weeping or changing his party affiliation.
Now there’s a must see road show. Holy shit.
Exactly right – look around the wingnutosphere and you see the same theme repeated: if they’d only been more “conservative” and not nominated a liberal like McCain they’d still be in power. The more rational GOP discussed above died on Inauguration Day, 2009 after a long illness and the prospect of Palin heading their next ticket becomes more likely as time goes on. Obama did Clinton one better when it comes to pushing the haters over the edge: he won while black. The Republican base loves Barbie and think they still matter. Good for us.
Hard to argue with that.
BT, when it comes to Florida, I just don’t see Willard doing well in the R primary here. He’s at least third behind Huckabee and Palin. People are still running around here with McCain cut off their McCain-Palin bumperstickers.
The D’s made real progress here with Obama and we just might get one as governor (Sink is outraising McCollum in the already-started race).
Bushco’s sins of ommission
Bushco’s sins of ommission
I hope to hell for the sake of the country that I’m wrong. The Sarah Palin freak show came to my town during the campaign and I’ve never seen anything so ugly or divisive in all my years. To hear McCain try to defend his choice and claim her ready to be President is just pathetic.
the fact that limbaugh got on board the clearly inadaquate palin train means that his strings are being pulled by krystol or the people who pull krystol’s strings
Oh, and one more thing: The GOPers also still think that their policies were the right ones, that there’s a secret majority out there that think that, and that they were mesmerised by “the messiah” into voting Democratic in 2008. The other theme in wingnuttia is that people are “waking up” to that awful communist/socialist/fascist/Muslim/America-hating Christian dictator Obama (a claim made with every downward tick of Obama’s approval numbers) with the implication that the voters will be returning to the Republican Party starting next year. Yeah, I know – do these people have any relationship with reality? No, they do not.
The real McCain is pathetic.
As unlikely as it seems at the moment, sooner or later the pendulum of public opinion will swing back to the Republicans. The permanent majority is a myth, regardless of which party wishes otherwise. If the economy fails or is too slow to turn around or if something happens that frightens people so that more than the usual high percentage switch off their brains, the recent Dem gains could reverse pretty quickly.
Evil McCollum’s poll numbers are higher, though. Alex has a lot of work to do.
The longer CENTCOM expands here the more right leaning the immediate area becomes. They just broke ground on a new facility. One of our newest tenants is a civilian who spends all his time on a military contract in Afghanistan, all hush hush an’ shit. Rents a million dollar home for 3 grand/month. Wife and child.
You got that right.
If you want to give yourself a real bad case of the shutters, consider this unholy alliance of the racist right paired up with the christianists: palin/ralph reed in a third party. :-(
I was just over at DU reading an article from the Atlanta Journal about little ralphie reed working to make a comeback. When I went back to get the linky, no could find. Not sure what’s up with that.
Seems that a lot of people that Palin has worked with learn to despise her. Eventually, that kind of a legacy catches up to you.
Splitting the Republican social conservatives and secular conservatives into separate parties would ensure a Dem majority for a VERY long time, which is why the powers that be will never allow it to happen.
And it’s worth noting that Willard has a decent collection of nutters in his corner too, from K-Lo to Hugh Hewitt, and was Limbaugh’s candidate in ‘08.
When it gets down to it, it was McCain’s turn, so the money boys were kind of split. And yes, Rushbo is in bed with the money boys. And don’t forget, Hewitt is Mormon. He couldn’t not back Mittens. Mormons are very cliquish/clannish. And K-Lo is just plain stupid.
Well, to be fair, that’s basically how McCain got the nomination…he was the only one left after process of elimination. Some of the off-the-wall things he said were fully excused by the media, because the only alternative would’ve been to say that the Republicans didn’t have a rational candidate, and that just wouldn’t work for the conflict narrative.
It was moved by a moderator. Here’s the full article from the AJ.
Illusion to some, delusion to others. Sure is odd we get to watch so much of it, and have nothing of substance as an alternative. Sort of continues to out news the real news. Our newslike entertainment structure gets more and and more odd. No mention of major events, just major coverage of minor high school quality humor and games of sex. It pretends there are no ongoing crimes against society, only ongoing gossip about people’s naughty bits as they relate to the politicians that use religion, lawyers, guns and money as their excuse for disregarding the needs of people they are employed to serve and protect.
Too damn bad that our government is running a day care center for 10th grade delinquents that have no reason to graduate. The folks in charge are the 11th graders that already know what they are going to do when they get out of school. Professionals in religion, lawyers guns and money.
Frightening prospect, considering what we are experiencing now was caused by the republics out of control spending without increased taxes. How does anyone expect to overcome spending 10 billion a week in Iraq for 6 years in 6 months? This recession started long before bush left office. I’m not saying we will have or should have a permanent majority but I certanily hope people are not stupid enough to give the party of “f**k you I’ve got mine” a chance any time soon.
Just wait till Palin and Lieberman hook up.
Heh.
Palin/Lieberman 2012. Palin proves she’s post-partisan. Lieberman stabs the Dems in the back. Again.
I still would not disregard the C company that has been exposed on KO and Rachel …… they are on the move and controlling a lot on the political scene. Huckabee is not part of the goup, Newt & Palin are tainted…… Mitt is the only one who has remained clean……..
and did everyone forget about that hanging of a dog by his son’s?
Who’s Willard?
Romney’s legal first name is Willard. Mitt is just his preppie nickname
Romney
Thanks, Dragon -
I can always be certain there’s a pup on thread with a faster connection and better search skills than I. *smooch*
P.S. Got any idea why a mod would do that?
Not that I think Frank Rich is a beacon. After all, he was one of many in the so-called liberal msm who ridiculed Al Gore for his personality (too stiff, too serious, brown suits, etc.) and magnified lies about Gore’s policies (cf. The Daily Howler). So why should I trust him today?
It is horrifying that anyone seriously thinks that Sarah Palin is a viable candidate for President or even VP. That was the beginning of the outrage when McCain picked her, but why this constant drumbeat? Is it a personality contest? Let her show up on American Idol. That’s pretty much what Rich is looking at, who has the personality to defeat those boring policy wonks (like Mitt Romney in this case) who may know something about governing but not much about exciting a crowd. He obviously has his own priorities, something to write about being one of them, but his judgment for the common good doesn’t seem to be among them.
Nope. I don’t go to DU much any more.
The cbs Sunday Morning Show had a piece on today with a woman talking about how her nephew (iirc) died in Iraq at the same time jackson did. She described at length how wonderful the people in his home town were in saluting his sacrifice and mourning with the family on the day he was buried. Then she went on to lament how the media and most of the rest of America were totally oblivious of two on-going wars and the families who were losing loved ones while they devoted pretty much 100% of news time to mj’s death and all the attendant brouhaha. It was heart-wrenching.
Speaking of “The Family”…..does anyone know exactly which of the pols are in current residence? Not that that makes a lot of difference; they’ve been around long enough to have indocrinated (sp?) a lot of others into their cult.
Hewitt is not a mormon. He calls himself an “Evangelical Lutheran Roman Catholic.”
I am shocked and dismayed that you people have not mentioned NotJoeTheNotPlumber and/or Rick Santorum ! /s
Gently put down all liquids before clicking on darkblack’s latest …
Remember, Reagan is the Repubs’ patron saint. Ignorance/stupidity/senility is not a disqualifier, as long as the candidate can read speeches and memorize talking points.
To a politician (either party) a question is an opportunity to recite one of your talking points. (It took Obama a long time to learn this). This is called “being on point”. Palin is relentlessly “on point”, so the Repubs love her. To the rest of us, she comes across as disconnected from reality, as her “talking point” usually has nothing to do with the original question. She doesn’t seem to be able to memorize enough detail in her talking points to deal with followup questions.
When she tries to talk on her own, the results (as in her resignation speech) are downright hallucinatory. To the Repubs, of course, it’s just a matter of marketing. And, hey, she’s On Point! And Clinton’s a liar! And Obama’s a Muslim! Look! It’s the Winged Victory of Samothrace!
I would not write Huckabee off. He is intelligent, and could be dangerous.
Seems that her maverickyness may direct her to start a third party (what with her own admission that her son isn’t even a Republican and she’s tired of the partisanship).
She’d like to call it the S.P.: Sarah Party, so she wouldn’t have to learn two more initials, but she couldn’t get anything catchy to fit, so she’s goin with somethin like:
America Now
or
American First.
She’ll rally all the good, God-fearin’ folks from small towns ’cause we grow good folks in small towns all across this great land, and they’ll pledge to support:
low taxes
small government
energy independence
war-on-demand.
Voila! Republicans, only more so, yet without the pesky connotations that go with the label these days.
Her tv and radio shows (if O’Reilly can do it, why not SP?!) will support this theme, so send your prayer requests and $$$, and we’ll spread the good word about this great land.
Crist will be on the ticket.
Waitaminute, what?
The REPUBLICANS?
A small, regional party built on white supremacy, patriarchal domination, economic plutocracy and christian oppression? You’re saying they’re going to run a national candidate in 2012?
That’s ridiculous. They don’t have the votes, signatures or popularity to compete in a national election. You guys crack me up. What are you going to come up with next, the Whigs?
mikey
So what’s wrong with the Whigs?
Frank Rich needs to retire.
There are “only” two women on the Right that can galvanize the requisite votes to turn a minority party into a majority party, and even that may still be questionable.
And the envelop please?
The Names are: Senators Collins and Snowe from Maine.
And their ’shared burden’ is “85%”. And this 85% consists of Chicano voters polled on election day that voted for Obama. Thus, a proprietary study conducted and consisted of over 1000 Chicano respondents on Election Day and done in Western Maricopa County (Urban West Phoenix and points west).
And what most national scribblers from East of the Mississippi River fail to understand and appreciate, is that the remaining or last standing of any segment of the population still willing to consider voting for a GOP-oriented candidate, are Chicanos. Thus, the likelihood that expanding the rank and file of the GOP may or not come about via Chicanos. But if so, Collins and Snowe are the only two women that may be able to ‘connect’. Of course, Palin was a self-induced fiasco. As to bhe bald-headed white guys, none seem to be either first rate of second rate, and overall, have no demonstrated history for this obvious ‘connect’.
Nonetheless, Frank Rich should’ve of known all this, but obviously, his ‘research’ skills are sorely lacking. Perhaps, he needs to get out of the Big Apple or D.C. a tad more often instead of retiring.
Jaango