Posted on 06/14/2011 5:57:49 PM PDT by techno
As many of you know Mike Huckabee,on May 14,announced on his Fox weekend TV show he would NOT be running for President in 2012.
That set off a chain of events in the past month culminating today with Chris Matthews, previously a foe of Michele Bachmann, who had previously ridiculed her personally and politically and dumped all over her, to now sing Bachmann's praises for her debate performance last night.
A key revelation over the course of the last month is that both Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin have surged ahead in 5-7 national polls of GOP contenders due primarily to Huckabee bowing out (previous polls pre-Huckabee asking for second choices if Huckabee did not run verify this)and also Donald Trump and Mitch Daniels deciding not to run and thereby producing now a clear separation of 7-10 points between Romney and Palin vs. the rest of the field.
Here are 5 events that have been brought about as a result of this information imho:
1)Mitt Romney has decided to lay low until Labor Day (Piers Morgan interview on CNN). This is called resting on your laurels or in football going into a defensive shell.
2)Mitt Romney has decided to skip the Ames Straw poll and not invest a lot of resources to win Iowa. At the same time recent polls have shown Sarah Palin surging in Iowa as well as the rest of the country. Iowa is a state where 45% of the caucus goers are projected to be VERY CONSERVATIVE and based on the 2008 exit polls of the caucuses 60% self-identified as evangelical Christians. These are the two groups that Romney had the least success with in 2008.
3)Via Rush Limbaugh last Friday: "The media now loves Romney; he's now their guy." Translation: The MSM will no longer be promoting the idea of someone coming out of the GOP establishment bullpen to replace Romney.
4)Sarah Palin has gone dark since her interview with Chris Wallace 9 days ago. Her surge in the polls does give her more latitude and flexibility to adjust her schedule without having to look over her shoulder and to plan the launch of her presidential campaign.
5)The MSM has not only embraced Mitt Romney but as of last night and today gone absolutely "nuts" in their praise of Michele Bachmann, including her arch-nemesis Chris Matthews. In addition Joan Walsh of Salon is now calling on Herman Cain to withdraw from the race. Recent polls show Cain ahead of Bachmann.
Now when you take these 5 events as a whole as a political observer you are left with one conclusion: People are beginning to choose sides. In other words the 2012 GOP presidential nominee will be either Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin with no one else having any chance whatsoever of claiming the brass ring; and thus the next President of the USA will either be the current one, President Obama, Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin. It is what it is.
Now you skeptics and doubting Thomases are sure to ask, "What if Sarah Palin does not run?" Answer: Get ready for the coronation of Mitt Romney.
Without Sarah Palin in the mix, the polls show Romney even creating further separation between himself and the field sometimes as much as 20 points.
Now what does this mean going forward?
If you are Mitt Romney only one person stands in your way to winning the GOP nomination.
If you are Sarah Palin, when you get in all you need to do is to focus on narrowing the gap with Romney in the polls and not have to worry about the rest of the field passing you, at least for the time being.
If you are the mainstream media, you go "all in" with Mitt Romney, lock, stock and barrel because if you don't Sarah Palin may win the nomination.
If you are moderates or centrists who despise Sarah Palin you might decide you no longer have the luxury of supporting other moderate-centrist candidates (eg. Pawlenty, Gingrich, Huntsman) and must throw your support to Romney because the thought of Palin winning the nomination is an abomination to you. And that is despite Romneycare and Mitt's reputation as a flip-flopper.
And if you are Mitt Romney and you realize that for every liberal/moderate GOP primary voter there are approximately 2 conservative voters and that Palin dominates among folks who self-identify as VERY CONSERVATIVE or social conservative, you see the need to sponsor a stalking-horse to bleed away conservative votes from Palin so you can come up the middle in close contests. It also helps that other conservatives are also part of the mix to bleed votes away from Palin.
It just so happens that there is a rumor that Michele Bachmann is a stalking-horse for Mitt Romney and since yesterday the MSM has embraced her as warmly as they now embrace Romney.
So bottom line folks here is how this dynamic will in all likelihood play out over the next 7-9 months:
If you vote for door #1 (Romney) or door #2 (any other conservative but Sarah Palin) Romney will be the GOP nominee. If you are happy or comfortable with that thought, you know who to vote for, but if you have an antipathy to Romney getting the nomination as many freepers I suspect have, you must choose door #3 and vote for Sarah Palin next year. You have no other option
And as for the scenarios that have yet to play out there is one major one not yet decided.
Will conservatives, evangelicals and Tea Party supporters who are opposed to Romney being the GOP nominee coalesce en masse around Sarah Palin or will they decide to become PROXY VOTERS in the end?
That is the $64,000 looming question over the next several months. Will pro-Palin types vote their conservative values and principles and vote for Sarah Palin or will they vote as PROXY VOTERS who have been advised, counseled, or strongly influenced by the GOP establishment, the media, interest groups, prominent RINO's to consider other factors like electability (Palin is damaged goods), appealing to minorities, not being out of step of the new world order and the need to please the media when casting their vote?
The decision made by conservative, evangelicals and Tea Party supporters whether to support Palin en masse or to divvy up their support among other conservatives or Mitt Romney will determine who will win the nomination.
Vote your values-Palin is your nominee; become a PROXY VOTER and vote against your values or against Palin who you like the best and best represents your values and you will assuredly get Romney.
Any guess which direction the media wants to push you.
The #1 goal of the MSM: to create a massive number of PROXY VOTERS by duping unsuspecting GOP primary voters thereby handing the nomination to Romney.
Man it is going to be way more fun THAN the dems Presidential contest!!!!
I wish everyone could carry that thought with them. The MSM chose McCain, they want to unchose Palin. If you can’t understand why some Repubs earn the “quality-assurance badge” then I don’t know how I can help you.
Rollins was out there today saying that the OFFICIAL announcement of Congressman Bachmann entering the race was still to come. Later. In Iowa. WTF???
Hmm. It seems that I see a lot of Dems claiming that they are “praying” (yeah right) that Sarah Palin wins the nomination because Øbama will destroy her. Goes against the reverse operation chaos plan. They are a bunch of liars who would never vote for Sarah Palin . Ever.
She should announce hourly.
The Dems know the best chance Obama has at re-election is to knock Palin off before she is in a position to win the GOP nomination.
So through the MSM, the propaganda arm of the Obama regime, again their #1 goal is to create as many PROXY VOTERS as they can and they know they have 2 doors to get Romney the nomination, voting for the man himself or voting for door #2—Cain, Bachmann or Santorum.
With Sarah Palin only door #3 (a vote for Palin) allows her to prevail.
So their strategy is two-pronged:
1)To moderates and centrists
Dump on any moderate candidate and cause him to leave the race. T-Paw is a prime candidate.
2)To conservatives
Voting for Romney may be too rich for your blood but choose any conservative who is more electable than Palin.
Of course the third part of their strategy is to pound away at Palin on a 24/7 basis, produce a multitude of phony polls showing her way behind Romney and to claim that Palin would lead the GOP into a defeat worse than Goldwater and that the the GOP would also lose the House and not pick up the Senate in 2012.
I will be voting for Sarah regardless of if she actually runs. I’ll just write in her name.
Palin’s not even in the race. How is anyone blocking any of her votes?
You would actually vote for a person who didn’t bother to take the time to run for President?
Ron Paul is interesting. He is the only one that tells the truth on the economy but it’s truth that nobody can handle. Ergo, you’re right he will never even get close.
Yeah, I don’t like the alternatives. I’ll vote 3rd party in the general.
I figure if someone doesn’t even make the effort to try to get my vote, they are definitely not worth the effort...otherwise I would write in Calvin Coolidge...either way, it’s a vote for Obama.
First the polls show if Palin did NOT run, Romney would run away with the nomination.
Secondly Organization4Palin is currently organizing in all 50 states for a Palin presidential run completely under the radar and these folks have been doing that now for at least 3 months.
Do you really think if Palin were NOT running that she would allow this type of grassroots activity to occur on her behalf and in addition receive the moral support of one her people Rebecca Mansour of SarahPAC.
Well stated. Solid structure, solid logic.
The question is: Will Sarah Palin run, and if so, when will she announce?
“meh, the only reason they now hate Bachmann is because they arent big enough to trust their candidate can come out on top in a head to head battle.
Nothing but jealousy.”
No, it is the Ed Rollins gratuitous attack. That simple.
“I believe anybody can beat Baraq in a 2-way, but Im also pretty sure a Romney candidacy will generate a 3rd party challenger.”
Spontaneously. An Obama-Romney race will result in millions of votes for “Other”.
Cool. Let's all talk stalking horse senarios. I'll give you one I think is more probable.
Huckabee was the stalking horse. Rollins was his jockey jusk like Bachmann.
Thompson was sitting a strong second in the polls. The day he entered the race in September, the media pushed Huckabee, just like now they push Bachmann.
Thompson never had a chance after that.
We ended up with McCain.
Depending on the candidates, I can see the GOP in third place in a three way. I cannot see any way Obama fails to win with a plurality though. Terrible turmoil will ensue if this happens. But if it is Obama D and Romney R - so be it.
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