You are clearly trying to sell a lie, Governor Palin governed as the most popular Governor in America, even after your lefty amigos in the media went after her in the most vicious, sustained attack in American political history, she left office with 56% approval, which is very good, as perspective, the frontrunner Governor Romney, left office with 34% approval.
You lost Trey Grayson, who are you pushing to take out Palin?
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s Newest Star
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
JUNEAU, Alaska — The wipeout in the 2006 election left Republicans in such a state of dejection that they’ve overlooked the one shining victory in which a Republican star was born.
The triumph came in Alaska where Sarah Palin, a politician of eye-popping integrity, was elected governor. She is now the most popular governor in America, with an approval rating in the 90s, and probably the most popular public official in any state.
Her rise is a great (and rare) story of how adherence to principle—especially to transparency and accountability in government—can produce political success. And by the way, Palin is a conservative who only last month vetoed 13 percent of the state’s proposed budget for capital projects. The cuts, the Anchorage Daily News said, “may be the biggest single-year line-item veto total in state history.”
As recently as last year, Palin (pronounced pale-in) was a political outcast. She resigned in January 2004 as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission after complaining to the office of Governor Frank Murkowski and to state Attorney General Gregg Renkes about ethical violations by another commissioner, Randy Ruedrich, who was also Republican state chairman.
State law barred Palin from speaking out publicly about ethical violations and corruption. But she was vindicated later in 2004 when Ruedrich, who’d been reconfirmed as state chairman, agreed to pay a $12,000 fine for breaking state ethics laws. She became a hero in the eyes of the public and the press, and the bane of Republican leaders.
In 2005, she continued to take on the Republican establishment by joining Eric Croft, a Democrat, in lodging an ethics complaint against Renkes, who was not only attorney general but also a long-time adviser and campaign manager for Murkowski. The governor reprimanded Renkes and said the case was closed. It wasn’t. Renkes resigned a few weeks later, and Palin was again hailed as a hero.
Palin, 43, the mother of four, passed up a chance to challenge Republican senator Lisa Murkowski, the then-governor’s daughter, in 2004. She endorsed another candidate in the primary, but Murkowski won and was reelected. Palin said then that her 14-year-old son talked her out of running, though it’s doubtful that was the sole reason.
In 2006, she didn’t hesitate. She ran against Gov. Murkowski, who was seeking a second term despite sagging poll ratings, in the Republican primary. In a three-way race, Palin captured 51 percent and won in a landslide. She defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles in the general election, 49 percent to 41 percent. She was one of the few Republicans anywhere in the country to perform above expectations in 2006, an overwhelmingly Democratic year. Palin is unabashedly pro life.
With her emphasis on ethics and openness in government, “it turned out Palin caught the temper of the times perfectly,” wrote Tom Kizzia of the Anchorage Daily News. She was also lucky. News broke of an FBI investigation of corruption by legislators between the primary and general elections. So far, three legislators have been indicted.
In the roughly three years since she quit as the state’s chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the “body count” of Palin’s rivals.
“The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah,” says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the Daily News called “Voice of the Times,” which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct.
No matter how many times you say it, and no matter how many straw men you construct, Sarah Palin was not the most "popular governor in US History" - which was the claim of the post I was responding to. It's just not factually accurate, just like it's not factually accurate about George HW Bush being the most popular president in history.
"she left office with 56% approval"
56%? Huh, I would have thought the "most popular governor in American history" would have had an approval rating higher than 56%, especially in a red state like AK. Interesting.
Now, who's lying?
As for current or former governors who are possible candidates, I believe Huckabee was pretty popular, although I don't know what his precise numbers were. Mitch Daniels enjoys strong approval ratings, although I haven't seen one since last year, and Rick Perry is a pretty popular governor. I don't think Pawlenty and Romney would be expected to have much approval at all considering they governed overwhelmingly blue states. There are other long shot candidates, such as McDonnell in VA - a guy who is VERY popular, and Christie, even in the face of fierce opposition, I believe still enjoys an approval rating above 40% - in a state that hasn't gone for a Republican President in over 20-years.
I'm not endorsing nor condemning any of these other candidates, but I am pointing out most enjoy similar job performance numbers as Palin.