Yeah, pretty much.
Posted on 10/24/2009 7:08:27 PM PDT by Libloather
2012 peek at Pawlenty's PAC fundraiser
Jonathan Martin – Fri Oct 23, 12:26 am ET
Hundreds of mostly young Republicans gathered Thursday night at a Washington brewpub to lend their support to, size up or just catch a glimpse of Minnesota Gov. and 2012 prospect Tim Pawlenty.
Over beers and pretzels, the committed and the curious saw what amounted to an informal debut in the capital for the potential presidential candidate.
The fundraiser was ostensibly to support the PAC Pawlenty opened earlier this month, yet for the after-work crowd of Republicans strolling around the terrace of the Capital City Brewing Company it marked an opportunity to hear from one of the few figures in the party taking obvious steps toward a White House run.
While the kick-off Iowa caucuses are still over two years away, Republicans are already starting to think about who will be their standard-bearer to take on President Obama in a race that more and more in the party think could be competitive.
**SNIP**
Pawlenty’s appearance attracted a significant number of staffers from Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign last year, some of whom have fond memories of the governor’s time as a loyal surrogate for the Arizonan during the primary and general election. Also present were scores of aides from Hill offices, some of them still sporting their badges, as well as operatives from the RNC, NRSC and NRCC – many of whom are interested in working on a White House campaign and wanted to see the man who is emerging as the chief establishment alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
If any other Republican other than Sarah Palin is nominated as the Republican candidate, get ready for four more years of obama.
If the Country Club Republicans decide to destroy her politically or otherwise prevent her from being the nominee. Fine! obama can remain in office four more years.
I tend to agree. He’s a good govenor, but lacks the spark that he needs to be considered presidential.
So in all the Republican Party only Palin can win? How do you base your assumption?
You are the one that was saying that Mc Cain would win the Presidential Election, wasn’t you? What happened? AllI hear is president obama.
I don’t whether she can win or whether she can’t. 2012 is a long way off. A lot can happen between now and then.
I do know that the Country Club Republicans hate her more than the Democrats do. And I do know that they will do everything in their power and some that is not to keep her from getting the nomination.
I do know that if I vote, I will probably vote for her.
I held my nose and voted for Mc Cain in ‘08 against obama.
I made myself a promise then that I would not vote against anyone again. If the Republican hierarchy including the Country Club Republicans want to fild Conservative candidates , fine. If they insist on fielding Democrat Lites and Liberals, fine. I will find other things to do on election day.
I think he is implying that the establishment of the GOP has set out to push Palin aside...and a nice percentage of the base is going to watch the GOP get spanked in 12...
It’s hard to win an election without your base...with present demographics, the GOP can’t afford to lose much of their base.
The GOP, is totally out of touch with the rank and file Republican. These operatives and McCain supporters flocking to see Pawlenty impress me about as much as Obama’s inner groups of communist czars.
Yeah, pretty much.
I agree. While I think Palin is a decent candidate and a solid conservative, nevertheless, I just can't jump on the "Sarah or Bust" bandwagon. Conservatives need to stop looking at personality only, and start building up a presence in the Party that doesn't depend on one person only.
Color me uninspired. Sorry Sarah, quitters don’t cut it either.
Sorry to say it’s Sarah or bust for me.
At one point it was Sarah as lead candidate for me, with and open mind.
But the attacks by all of the Republicans in the media....Parker,Schmidt, that MIttbot loser I can’t think of..oh yeah Murphy...then Steele said some idiotic crap...the list goes on Dana Perino.....blah blah blah.
I figured if the RINO establishment wants her out that bad...she must be the best out there...not that I can think of that many conservatives with name recognition.
But hey, just my opinion and selection.
If Palin is the nominee she will get my full support but I am not going to say if Palin is not the nominee then no one else can win. If Palin has to beat Obama she first has to be the Republican nominee if she cannot make become the nominee then she cannot beat Obama, it is that simple.
“If Palin has to beat Obama she first has to be the Republican nominee if she cannot make become the nominee then she cannot beat Obama, it is that simple.”
It’s not quite that simple. She has to beat back her Party hierarchy propaganda first then she has to win a Primary that set up to nominate moderates and liberals...from the States they select to go first to the Dem “crossover” ability.
If the GOP didn’t treat we conservatives as the Dems treat blacks, they would have changed the rules that favor people like McCain and other Rinos.
It’s the reality that exists and Palin will have to overcome it. But if that is true we are mere slaves to the GOP. Not me. I want a real conservative or I’m going to get out the popcorn.
Do what you feel is best. I will do the same.
The only cult I see on FR are the numbers of anti war, legalize marajuana, 9/11 truther PaulBots allowed on FR
They really reek up the place.
Logic is a terible thing to waste.
Ok, so you live in a fantasyland where the nomination bias tht favors liberals and moderates doesn’t exist in the GOP, that is established.
No victim here. If my favorite doesn’t win...then I lost. I’ll enjoy watching the election returns come back in with some popcorn.
But it will be a pyrrhic victory for the GOP.
What conservatives are watching is the republican war against Governor and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, that is forcing many conservatives to face up to being conservatives or submitting to the anti Reagan segment of the republican party.
Governor Palin is under assault from the eastern republican liberal establishment and we are at war with those people, this is a Reagan versus Herbert W. Bush/Mitt Romney battle.
If Sarah wants to be the nominee, then she has to really want it hard enough.
I get the impression that she is not very interested or serioius in running for higher office, she seems to fit more in the outside rather in the inside running for the Presidency.
There is Palin cult building on Free Republic, I would not say at all that this cult is building among conservatives as the vast majority of them do not even know about Free Republic.
Yes, there does seem to be this sense among FReepers that Palin is our soteria. Since there's still a little under three years until it's even relevant to worry about such things, I'm keeping my options open. Personally, I'm hoping Jim DeMint decides to throw his hat into the ring. I imagine that if he was a serious contender, the RINOs and whatnot would be going after him the same way they are after Palin.
Nevertheless, of the three currently being floated and polled about - Palin, Romney, and Huckabee - I would choose Palin from among them.
That alone should disqualify Pawlenty from serious consideration.
“I get the impression that she is not very interested or serioius in running for higher office, she seems to fit more in the outside rather in the inside running for the Presidency.”
No serious candidate for President is overtly running this early. Maybe I missed a candidate’s announcement?
One thing is clear, Palin came out and supported the conservative in the NY-23 race. Unfortunately the GOP hierarchy supported the liberal.
That speaks volumes about who the conservative is. I didn’t see any other possible nominees come out and support the conservative in the race. Where’s Mitt? Where’s Pawlenty?
She didn’t “quit.” You should stop repeating leftist media talking points. Her successor, Sean Parnell, is successfully carrying out her agenda, for which she was being willfully and deliberately impeded from executing her duties as Governor by the Democrat/RINO/media coalition and frivolous ethics charges. She abandoned and quit nothing, she merely subdivided. She will not play by their rules, she’s changing the game. That’s why Sarah Palin is an enormous threat to the status quo.
Thats the point, without the establishment it is difficult to see a Palin as the Republican nominee but maybe as a outsider on a third party ticket.
Nah, The GOP has had outsiders become insiders before. They have been some of our best Presidents.
OK, so resigning isn’t quitting? Try “depends on what the definition of is is”. That’s a tortured one too. I truly believe that Sarah’s heart and principles are in the right spot, but it’s like when I interview a job candidate that has a spotty work history and the reason for leaving was listed as “personal reasons”, I’m allowed to be suspicious. If she had governed for at least a full term, and had achieved her agenda, I’d be on board, but jumping ship when the heat gets hot doesn’t make me want to hire you either.
No, because unless you’ve been under a rock for the past 15 months, you understand she was being WILLFULLY prevented from executing her duties as Governor. She was being buried under an avalanche of baseless, frivolous ethics charges, all designed specifically to cripple what was to be her reelection efforts next year. So the powerful political interests, the Dem & RINO coalition, could simultaneously claim she isn’t doing her job (which they are preventing her from doing) and she is ethically-challenged (frivoulous claims they have concocted, all of which have been dismissed, but yet cost Palin personally and the state taxpayers, there’s no burden put on the filer).
Imagine you go to work and a bunch of thugs from your workplace decide to knock all the papers off your desk, mess everything up, piss in your food and drink, bully and harrass you (and even your family) constantly - but you can’t do squat about it. If you are being prevented from doing your job as such, does that make you a “quitter” ? How about if you have someone lined up to take said job and they can’t target them in the same way (because the agenda is different) ? That’s exactly what she did. She subdivided herself. Her successor can do everything she can, but because his goal isn’t the White House, he cannot be targeted in the same way. They can defeat him next year, but nothing else. The goal against Palin wasn’t defeat, but complete and total personal destruction of herself and her family.
She wasn’t going to play their games. And if you knew what was going on in Alaska, and the deliberate and systematic targeting of her and her family by the media and by political thugs, you’d understand that. A President cannot be subjected to similarly overt on-the-job harrassment. If they could, we could’ve made Zero’s time a living nightmare. He wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in the job Gov. Palin held.
Your profane response aside, you contradicted yourself as well trying to spin the situation. Fact: She was prevented from doing her job by a coterie of enemies. Fact: She put Alaska’s needs first by standing aside and allowing her qualified and able Lieutenant to carry out her agenda for the state. She did not quit, she subdivided and confounded her enemies who still bellyache. That’s a leader to me.
You’re only leading if people are actually following you. Otherwise you’re wandering by yourself. Plenty of people claim to be leaders, some actually finish what they committed to do, while others are limited by their capacity to handle the heat. She’s an honest conservative in every sense of the word, she’s just not presidential material.
What can I say ? You obviously don’t know Sarah Palin and you clearly don’t know what was going on up in Alaska, even after it has been clearly spelled out to you. If she wasn’t Presidential material, she wouldn’t attract the support (authentic grassroots support, not bought and paid for operatives like Slick Willard employs), the loyalty, and the respect of the Conservative base. Nobody in the GOP commands that level of respect. Nobody. Ronald Reagan would support Sarah Palin 100%, and she embodies his qualities of leadership.
Since you’re intent on running her down, I’d like to see the list of people you presume to be qualified with the appropriate credentials.
Well, I’m glad to hear you’re not in the Slick Willard camp, but some of your attacks on Palin are the same his sycophants use. Your having been in Alaska should give you some insight, but your conclusions are simply wrong where she is concerned. You should know there are effectively three political parties in AK (and I’m not talking about the AK Independence Party that Wally Hickel served under), but the Democrats, the (Conservative) Republicans, and the RINOs. Palin was from the middle group. The establishment, the Stevens-Murkowski-Young troika, was from the RINO wing. Palin opposed them as was an enormous threat to them, they have (had) zero use for her (and they’d are just as eager to be rid of her).
You may (or may not) also know that the legislature, most especially the Senate, is ruled by an unholy Democrat-RINO “majority” coalition. The only state in America for which the Senate President, Majority Leader AND Minority Leader are all of the same party (on paper, but not in practice). When one of the rodents of the majority coalition resigned, one of the lead anti-Palin thugs, the coalition tried to bully and cajole her into appointing another anti-Palin thugocrat to the body, and she refused to do so. The same legislature shot down her choice for Attorney-General this past year, despite his qualifications. This just a taste of the garbage she had to face down.
What you suggested she do was serve as a whipping boy (girl) and continue on as some sort of lame duck while being prevented from pushing her agenda, just to run out the proverbial clock. That was the worst of all options, since for the next year and a half, she’d have continued to be subjected to frivolous ethics allegations, costing her money out of her own pocket, as well as state taxpayers. That’s leadership to just hold onto a title ? I’m sorry, I don’t think so. What she did was brilliant and took all the critics by surprise. Reagan would’ve heartily approved (btw, he was never subjected to frivolous lawsuits while Governor of California, stymieing every single action he engaged in (or did not engage in)). Again, I suggest you do some research and see what was going on. The goal was simple, to destroy her and her family, and her viability by keeping her buried under a blizzard of ethics allegations. Do you think it would’ve been productive to remain another year and a half (to which she was going to end up personally bankrupted in lawyer costs), for which would’ve spent fighting groundless charges being dug up each and every new day ? Your mindset here makes no sense.
Anyway, let’s look at your suggestions for those of Presidential calibre:
Tom Coburn from Oklahoma - No problem here ideologically, per se, but there is one big flaw, Coburn doesn’t have a lick of executive experience (outside of a brief notation in the private sector of being chair of the Muskogee Regional Medical Center). He’s largely in the same boat as Zero in that regard.
Bob Corker (TN) - My Senator. I’m afraid that Corker is a great big phony and major RINO. I followed him closely (I actually cast a vote for him in the 1994 Senate primary because of my concerns regarding Bill Frist - at the time, it didn’t look entirely likely either Corker or Frist could defeat Jim Sasser, our horrid marble-mouthed moron liberal incumbent). Corker went to work for our odious RINO Gov. at the time, and he was so well-regarded by the Democrats, that they went after him to run under their label big time. That was the second bad sign.
He did get some exec experience as Chattanooga Mayor, but he left it after a single term, and handed the office to a Democrat. When Frist retired, the Conservative base was behind Ed Bryant, but Bryant was cash-poor, and like Frist, Corker could buy the primary (despite his being exposed as anything but a solid Conservative), and with no run-off, he won by a plurality. He was set to lose the general election to Harold Ford, Jr., but a gaffe by Ford towards the end of the campaign saw Corker win, but by an extremely narrow margin in ‘06 (he was the only new Republican Senator that year). His narrow win was because a lot of Conservatives refused to vote for him in the general (I almost didn’t myself, but I didn’t want to get blamed if Junior Ford won by a narrow margin).
My problem with Corker is his ties to our odious party establishment and he has to be babysat through every key vote. He’s only slightly better than Lamar!, if only because Lamar! has moved to the left, whereas Corker was worse. I refused to vote for Lamar! last year, and I will support a primary opponent to Corker. I simply don’t trust him.
Mike Pence (IN) - Again, no executive experience. I also worry that he erred greatly with his offering something somewhat akin to shamnesty in the House (however well meaning). He frankly should run for Governor and see how he does in that regard before I can grade him here. House members just don’t make the jump to the Presidency.
Paul Ryan (WI) - Same here again, no exec experience. I’d rather see him run for the Senate.
John Linder (GA) - Not a bad guy, either, but similar to Pence & Ryan. He’d also be a long-timer (with 20 years in the House by 2013). Another problem for him is age. He’ll be 70 in 2012. That’s older than Reagan was in 1980.
Charles Krauthamer and Mark Levin - Krauthammer is a Beltway Boy, and I’ve never cared for his snooty elitism towards Palin. Levin is a talking head and buttboy for Slick Willard. I’d like to see these guys cut it in office.
The problem I face in answering your question as to whom would I support other than Palin, and it’s a difficult one, simply because I see virtually no one currently who combines all her skills, experience, and baptism by fire. Obviously, I’d have to look to the Governors, but many have flaws, Sonny Perdue of GA is a possibility, but he doesn’t look like a motivator. Jindal of LA is too green and continues to make stupid mistakes (and worse, virtually every candidate he endorses loses, all the way down to the local level), he’s become a disappointment.
Haley Barbour I personally like, but he looks like the bigoted media stereotype of Southern Republicans, despite the fact that he’s one of our best Governors. Dave Heineman of Neb. is an interesting possibility, but he’s a dark horse (competent, but unknown). John Hoeven of ND is similar (but he needs to run for the Senate at the moment). Don Carcieri of RI, a Conservative Catholic, is another, and he’s worked tirelessly against a raging tide to resuscitate the state party there with little help.
I was a big supporter of Mark Sanford, who was until the affair came to light, came the closest to Palin in potential appeal and success, and I’m still reeling and disappointed over the whole thing (one reason why Palin continues to have little competition to her stature). Mike Rounds of SD is another like Heineman & Hoeven as having potential. That’s about it for current Governors.
As for ex-Governors, every one on FR knows my opinion of closet Democrat Slick Willard. Huckster is almost equally as odious and a failure as a Governor. Pawlenty of MN blew his party’s fortunes there and is now trying to seek promotion for which he has no accomplishments. Ditto that of Mitch Daniels in IN. I find it curious that the media and establishment promotes the RINOs that have had records of total destruction while in office, both to their own state parties, and to the Conservative agenda.
As for Senators and House members, I just think that’s not the place to draw people from. For those that have been there longer than 6 years, they get corrupted into the stagnation and become a part of the problem. I supported Fred Thompson for President, although he also lacked for executive experience. Fred will be too old in ‘12, so he’s done in that regard. I originally wanted George Allen of VA in ‘08, but his biggest mistake was that he should never have run for Senator, that was not the place for him, and proved his undoing. A lot of people in the media want Palin to run for Senator for precisely the same reason, so she becomes a marginalized member of the minority, exactly why she should not run for the Senate (at least until AFTER she’s served as President). 2020 will be fine. But other than that, I’m sticking with Palin. Reagan would support her 100%. She embodies all his ideals and has that same quality of being able to reach the people in a way virtually no one else currently holding office in the GOP can. A real magic touch.
To post 7 - A picture worth a thousand words.
Palin financial disclosure may explain timing of her resignation
Very solid critiques of the potential candidates. I’ve met quite a few of the major names in the party (Newt was my congressman back when I lived in Georgia in the 90’s) Very astute guy, personal baggage makes him unelectable in spite of his qualifications and intelligence, although since his recent conversion to Catholicism he seems to have softened his stances and wants to get along with everyone regardless of how it compromises his political core. Lamar Alexander was like a nice uncle, but nothing more worthy than that. Pat Buchanan was like the Japanese general that came out of the jungle twenty years after the war ended and still can’t believe his side lost. Bob Barr was a loose cannon. Smart guy, but out there. Sonny Perdue was a great Governor because he understood that most people succeeded in spite of government, not because of it. He was a small town politician that knew it was best to stay out of the way. At one point I thought Haley Barbour might cut it, but you are correct in that his homespun personality and the fact that Mississippi isn’t exactly leading the nation in much of anything hurt his potential. Met Giuliani last year and he seemed like an athlete that was well past his prime and was trying to hang on to what was a great career. I was like most conservatives last year in that I wasn’t in love with any of the candidates, so my vote for McCain was the lesser of two evils. I wish that there were a corporate heavyweight that had the political skills to speak to the masses without having to kiss up to the puppetmasters within the party. One of the things that I truly enjoyed in Alaska was the spirit of individualism that the people openly display. Much like myself, they’d rather struggle through life than have a free lunch handed to them and feel beholden to the government hand that fed them. It’s “Leave Me Alone” Libertarianism at its’ best. I still can’t get worked up for Sarah, but given the paucity of heft within the party at the moment (Who would have ever thought that a freakin community organizer would qualify a person for anything beyond a city councilman), I at least have a better understanding and appreciation for your opinion. For the moment, I remain uncommitted to any candidate, but more determined than ever to support the conservative movement.
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