1. Judd Gregg is an hereditary office holder. His daddy, Hugh Gregg was NH governor before him. IIRC, Hugh was Gerald Ford's 1976 campaign manager against Ronaldus Maximus.
2. Opposition to both Palin and Ronaldus Maximus suggests a certain class-based outlook that displays confusion as to why the GOP has drifted so far from the social snobbery and leftist agenda of its founders like great great granddaddy Abolitionist Q. Firebrand. It is simply toooooo much to tolerate non-Unitarians in the party of hereditary privilege. Bitter clingers...grumble, grumble...gun toters...harumph....Christers... grump grump...the servant class taking over the party of their social betters!!! Lions and Tigers and BEARS!!! Oh my!
3. Not only that but this Palin woman probably imagines herself more attractive than Eleanor Roosevelt who was from the Republican wing of the Roosevelt clan although, ideologically, Lenin and Stalin had few differences with Eleanor.
4. What drives Palin Derangement Syndrome is the certainty that she has no ambition to be a social flibbertigibbet and that if she runs and wins she will be deadly serious about changing the culture of the GOP and of America by showing that sound policy is good politics.
5. Palin is like the best young prospects in baseball. She could crash and burn if she is not yet ready OR, more likely, has the highest upside potential this side of Ronaldus Maximus and could change the game in ways that even he did not and always for the better.
6. Many of my fellow men are also shallow as hell and regard Todd Palin as a verrrrrry fortunate fellow. That will, trust me, translate into votes. Her challenge will be to get the women's vote when at least some women will resent her for being, ummm, "beautiful, hopeful, confident, and principled." No POTUS candidate has combined all four of those qualities. If she can sell women on the fact that her election is the most genuine "liberation" of women (assuming they were captured in the first place) of all, she will be elected and each day will be a new and positive revelation.
7. I once represented in a divorce a man who was born in Great Britain and was the son of a definitely working class mother whom I met. She was an elected Labour (knowledgeable and committed socialist) public official. I teased her by asking how she felt about Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister. She told me sheepishly that she would never admit it in Britain but that practically all the women she knew were very privately bursting with pride over the job that Thatcher had done and over her proven mastery of British politics as a woman. That is Palin's upside potential.
8. Palin's enemies would do well to study her conduct on the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, her resignation because of its corruption, her ignored demand that then Governor Frank Murkowski fire the GOP State Chairman as Chairman of the Commission because of his corruption and her subsequent and resulting challenge to Frank Murkowski which put him in 3rd place in a three way primary despite his being the incumbent who had previously served several terms in the US Senate. The lady ought not to be taken lightly. Saracuda is swift and resourceful and has proven quite deadly to the careers of those who insist on underestimating her.
8. Palin can see the Alaskan oil fields from her porch and, in an election during which gasoline prices may hit $5 a gallon, that may resonate with enraged voters even more than Comrade O's experience as an Alinskyite "community organizer." Voter response to Comrade O as POTUS will be along the lines of: Hey, comrade, organize THIS! with appropriate gesture.
9. Ancestral GOPers and and airhead trust fund babies Muffie and Skipper will move to Europe before President Palin's inauguration. Dustbin of history and all that!
10. Even Bullwinkle will cheer as Marine 1 carts away Comrade O and family. Bullwinkle knows that Palin will be too busy for hunting, ummm, Bullwinkle and his cousins. 4-8 years with no mooseburgers.
Tax-chick: thanks for your post. I had begun to weaken a bit but that is cured now!
Always a pleasure to see your vividly vehement verbiage, BlackElk! Excellent points, all.
I think many of the points I made about Mr. Gregg could also be applied to many women: Sarah Palin makes them feel inadequate, Barack Obama makes them feel superior. Maybe $6 gas, $6 milk, and $6 bread will make a bigger impact on the average woman than on the economically-insulated “elite.” It can’t be easy keeping those SUV’s on the road; I can’t fill my van right now, because the machine shuts off at $75.
Sound policy? Like what? Her pro-choice for states position on abortion? Her judicial supremacism? Her pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens? Her support for the Law of the Sea Treaty? Her support for the Dept. of Education? Her lack of any stated policies that would eliminate much if any existing (largely unconstitutional) federal agencies or programs?
Her stated policies are, frankly, little different than those of her 2008 running mate.
Since 1900, only one Republican became president by defeating an incumbent. That was Ronald Reagan. He had these four traits that might have helped him:
1. He was conservative.
2. He was a governor.
3. He sought the nomination, in a previous election.
4. He was from the West.
These Republicans, who might run, have at least three of those four traits: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Dirk Kempthorne. I hope that all four of them will run, and I hope that Haley Barbour, Gary Johnson, and Buddy Roemer will also run. I hope that at least four of those seven will continue campaigning until the convention. If that happens, no one will get a majority of delegates, before the convention, causing the convention to be more suspenseful and exciting, causing more people to watch and hear the republican ideas. That happened in 1980, and Reagan won about 40 states.