Posted on 08/17/2011 3:29:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This week, Sarah Palin stoked a late, brief flurry of speculation that she might enter the 2012 presidential race. I wont try to predict the former Alaska governor's decision. But I will predict this: If Palin does enter the race, she won't be any kind of factor.
Over the past three years, Palin has systematically laid waste to the basis for a presidential campaign. By her own words and actions, she has discredited herself and alienated her one-time supporters.
But before Palin vanishes into her hard-earned obscurity, Republicans need an assessment and an accounting. Had John McCain won in 2008, we would have put an incompetent, deceitful, and vengeful person second in line to the presidency.
The people who promoted and celebrated the Palin pick have disavowed — or at least abandoned — their former enthusiasm. They no longer accuse those who objected to the pick of "elitism" or "snobbishness" or "misogyny." It's now considered very bad form among Republicans even to remember what the people said and wrote about Palin three years ago.
But before the episode is consigned to forgetfulness, there are some lessons to be learned of urgent value for 2012 and beyond.
More respect for brains as a qualification for the presidency.
Within days of the announcement of Palin as GOP running mate, it became obvious to everybody that she could not pronounce two coherent consecutive sentences on any aspect of national policy, foreign or domestic. A lot of effort went into arguing that this ignorance did not matter, or even that it represented a weird kind of plus factor.
Three years later, we no longer hear such excuses for Palin. But it remains true even now that Republicans do not take intelligence or expertise very seriously as qualifications for the presidency. Mitt Romney's smarts do him surprisingly little good; Rick Perry's non-smarts do him disturbingly little harm; and Michele Bachmann's out-beyond-the-Orion-belt substitutions for familiarity with life here on Earth only intensify the admiration of her fan base.
Quit treating consumption patterns as substitutes for character.
It's very important that politicians understand the everyday lives of Americans. It's important that politicians champion the ordinary person and not pay undue heed to the wishes of the rich and powerful. It's important that politicians be people of integrity, not hirelings of industry lobbies. These are issues of character, and character counts.
But the choice of cowboy boots over loafers — enjoyment of hunting rather than bicycling -- a preference for ketchup over mustard — these tell us precisely nothing about a candidate's character.
Yet it was precisely these kinds of irrelevant lifestyle choices that persuaded so many conservatives that Sarah Palin would be a fitting leader. She drops her "g"s! Her husband owns a fishing boat! She shoots moose! (Not really on that last point, but that's the story we were told at the time.)
Involve more women as party decision-makers.
The Republican party's nomination of its first female vice presidential candidate led to an utterly unexpected effect: a collapse of female support for the Republican party national ticket.
In the single month of October 2008, Sarah Palin's favorabilities among independent women dropped by more than 20 points. Within a year of Palin's appearance on the national scene, a plurality of female Republicans dismissed her as "unqualified" for the presidency. Male voters, by contrast, took much longer to reject Palin, and male Republicans still give her pretty decent favorability ratings.
Female voters normally favor female candidates. During the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton outpolled Barack Obama among women, especially older women. Sarah Palin had exactly the opposite effect. Why?
I think it's pretty obvious. In 2008, John McCain had a choice of three female Republican senators, two female Republican governors, and an array of Republican female CEOs, including Meg Whitman, who would gain the Republican nomination for governor of California in 2010.
Each of these possible running mates had her weaknesses, but any of them would have been more experienced, more knowledgeable, and more disciplined than Sarah Palin. But there was one clear advantage that Palin did possess over her more traditionally plausible rivals: her looks.
Had women participated in the selection process, one of them would have issued a warning: "Boys, I gotta tell you — whatever she's doing for you, she's not doing for me."
John Ziegler, producer and director of a documentary movie about Palin, had this to say about the women who rejected Palin:
"I think the fact that she was a very successful career woman, with five children, who still clearly loves her husband, who kills her own food and who looks amazing doing all of it, is a very threatening package for a lot of women. Unfortunately, Sarah Palin makes a lot of women feel badly about themselves."
What Ziegler said out loud, millions of American women discerned for themselves: Here was a woman candidate chosen by men who do not respect women. No surprise what happened next.
And unfortunately — it's still happening.
o/t fyi:
Levin’s Daily Temperature Poll
http://www.marklevinshow.com/Article.asp?id=2264015&spid=32364
Who would you prefer for the Republican nomination for president?Sarah Palin 69%
Chris Christie 31%
Total Votes: 6084at 6:00 CDT
Yep, I remember!
Sarah is running, so we’ll have to see how the primaries all shake out!
My prayers and hopes remain with her!
Why? Because they are scared to death of her!
That’s why.
Woo-Hoo and BTTT.
Sarah Palin will *Fight Like A GIRL* which causes Frum and his RINO buddies a whole of grief!
Kraut just said that he now understands how smart Perry was for waiting - lets other candidates beat each other up first.
What an intellect!
Run Sarah, run!
click the pic
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| FIGHT LIKE A GIRL! "Mr. _resident, GAME ON!" April 16, 2011 |
One of the advantages of waking up in the middle of the night is to able to watch Gregg's show.
what a HOT pic
nice......
I’ll say it again:
Only Palin truly satisfies, and I will vote for her.
I would follow her into the gates of Hell if she would lead. If we are to die, let us die with our boots on.
Well said, my FRiend.
That’s not how I feel about it. She had done what a good executive must do during a time of waiting: she is managing expectations. She has told us the decision must come sometime in September. Therefore
, the announcement will come no later than sometime in September. Meanwhile, she has had ample opportunity to set us free to rally around another, yet refuses to do so, and leaving our Iowa personnel, with whom she has now spoken directly, with the distinct impression she is running. Our mission, then, is not to worry whether she will or won’t, but to recruit and otherwise prepare. The stress some are experiencing is self-induced. Read the signals, accept the obvious, and keep building the city. Do not be distracted by the Sanballats and Tobiahs. Any ordinary politician, doing what she is doing, would not be questioned. The dripping doubt is rooted in the Palin 2.0 meme (a once Good Palin has become the new Evil Palin). This meme was created as a backup plan after her pre-2008 character was vindicated, to dampen the enthusiasm that would ordinarily accompany an unofficial campaign, to take people out of the game who otherwise would be early boots on the ground, recruiting, volunteering, and otherwise preparing the field of battle. Don’t fall for it. She needs us working now, not waiting till two or four weeks from now. Stay the course.
Ouch...that’ll leave a mark!
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