Iowa Focus Group: Palin is Unelectable; Healthcare Spells Major Trouble for Romney

TheIowaRepublican.com ^ | 3/1/11 | Kevin Hall

[alstewartfan]

This is going to be the mantra: Sarah Palin can’t win a general election, so let’s choose another Casper Milquetoast who will never, never, NEVER attack Obama substantively and personally on his radical ties and views.
No, I want someone who has the cajones to shift the debate to OUR side. If a Romney or Gingrich wins the nomination, the enthusiasm quotient will fall through the floor for the GOP. So, sure, let’s listen to the left and reject the one candidate who can win the nomination AND make a starkly positive difference if she becomes President. Bob

[Envisioning]

What is the procedure for having a write-in on a presidential ballot?

I WILL sit home before voting for Huckster, Romulan or Neuter......country be damned.

[USSR Didnt Fall]

A small group of RINO conservatives say that Palin is unelectable?

Wow that's big news..

Did they happen to mention the policies that Sarah Palin is wrong on?

[Obadiah]

Exactly. Why, oh why, is this so hard to understand? People don't like conflict so they want a candidate that doesn't make them uncomfortable to associate with. If the candidate is typically ridiculed in the MSM people run away and want somebody that won't make them feel uncomfortable.

But here's the rub, unless it's Bob Dole or “the Maverick” McCain, the corrupt MSM will work overtime to smear them. SO IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO IT IS< IT WILL ALWAYS BE THE SAME!

It happened to Newt. It happened to Quayle. It happened to W. It happened to Reagan. Anybody that challenges the liberal establishment head-on will get slimed — anybody. Why is that so terribly difficult for people to grasp?

Wake up. Man up! Face down the enemy instead of cowering in the corner and begging for mercy!

[jda]

Two thoughts:

- If it was a group of establishment Republicans, they certainly want to discredit Palin as much and as early as possible, so they would say she’s unelectable.

- My personel belief is that, as much as I like and respect Palin for the impact she has had on politics, and I tend to think she would be a good president, I think her greatest value is in doing what she is doing - commenting on politics and politicians, keeping them honest, and helping shape the debate.

[andy58-in-nh]

I doubt very much the group was composed of RINO's, especially given their conclusion on Romney. The problem is that Palin has made a bad impression on independent voters, without whom no Republican (or Democrat) has a prayer of winning. That may not be fair (it is not), but in politics, such impressions are largely irreversible.

The absolute last thing we need is another milquetoast RINO as a candidate. But the next-to-last thing we need is a conservative for whom the electoral well has been poisoned. I really think we need a fresh face and a clear voice - no "pale pastels" as Reagan once said, but also, no two-faced tricksters like Romney.

[USSR Didnt Fall]

Nice try, I am too educated to fall for your planted nonsense, which is why they took a small shot at Romney to make it look legitimate.

This is a straw man poll which you are obviously trying to make into something big.

The only accurate and consistent message from clowns like yourself is that you use ad hominen attacks on Palin because you know as well as all the other inside the beltway hacks that if you went after her on a policy issue you would only embolden her message.

Sorry my friend nice try...

Move along....

[andy58-in-nh]

I truly hope you are not as stupid as you sound, else you'd have trouble with shoelaces. "Plant" yourself. You toss around charges like "ad hominem attacks" without any evidence of their usage. None. Personally, I don't care what you think, because I've been at this site and on this Earth far longer than you have, and as a Conservative activist for over 40 years, I need not prove my credentials to casual purveyors of false accusations.

For the record, I like and admire Ms. Palin a great deal and have said so right here, on numerous occasions.

[WVNan]

ROTFLOL....just as I thought. The media is sickening. They need to be eradicated.

[USSR Didnt Fall]

Your comment:

The problem is that Palin has made a bad impression on independent voters, without whom no Republican (or Democrat) has a prayer of winning.

Where is your proof, and what bad impression?

Based on your opinion and the mouse in your pocket or a small sampled RINO poll?

Blanket, bs statement, sorry my friend I have to call it like I see it.

Cheers

[trisham]

This group believes that Huckabee will win the Iowa caucus if he chooses to run. Thanks, guys.

[McGruff]

Four of the six attendees say they have no idea who they will vote for in 2012. The other two are backing the same candidates they backed in 2008. Jill Ellsworth, of Urbandale, will support Ron Paul again...

Can polling get any more ridiculous?

[allmendream]

Fornicate Iowa with a used corn cob and drown them in their useless ethanol!

[trisham]

Another one is a “diehard Romney fan”. One for Paul, and one for Romney, out of five members. Brilliant.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>This group believes that Huckabee will win the Iowa caucus if he chooses to run. Thanks, guys.

Because the caucus going Republicans in Iowa that also dominate the party apparatus are all Religious/SO-Cons first, and once they hear The Huck’s ‘God words’ they shut off their brains.

If Palin wants to win Iowa, she will need to get conservatives to the caucuses - ones that care about EVERY issue - not just the religious & social issues.

[USSR Didnt Fall]

Its called propaganda, which many on this site are engaged with when it comes to one of our strongest candidates in Sarah Palin.

I wish Jim Robinson would do a sweep of these left wing inside the beltway hacks, and send them packing back to the Huff post or from whatever rock they crawled under.

[PA Engineer]

I wish Jim Robinson would do a sweep of these left wing inside the beltway hacks, and send them packing back to the Huff post or from whatever rock they crawled under.

Ditto.

[mad_as_he$$]

Well USSR what you Palinistas are ignoreing is that, as Andy said, there is a solid dislike for your god in the middle of the road voters. No one on either side can win without their support. Palin does not have it. Her negatives have stayed the same for the last two years.

Here are the facts you asked for:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/elections/

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

There were SIX PEOPLE sitting at a coffee shop, drinking free coffee and eating donuts, and this is a FU88888 FOCUS GROUP.

You are more right than you know. I know quite a bit about this group. This is why those having hysterics over this report are over reacting.

The report is accurate but it really means very little. There were too few people involved in the first place but the group was not cherry picked. No one had the slightest idea who anyone was supporting--if any.

It's just not this big of a deal.

[andy58-in-nh]

Show me a single poll where Sarah Palin earns even a plurality of positive impressions from self-described Independent voters.

I myself cannot find one.

Here is one article on the subject:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/02/16/president_palins_long_odds_in_2012_104420.html

Now here is a link to all the recent Palin vs. Obama polls:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_palin_vs_obama-1169.html

You'll have to look at each individually, but one of the things that emerges from the "cross-tabs" (internal sample cross-tabulation) is how negatively she rates among independents. Full disclosure: among other things, I analyze statistics for a living.

Now, I have a theory on that, based partly on experience but also on discussions with colleagues. I don't think it will help her in the long run, but I believe the problem is primarily cultural and regional. People who live in the urban and inner suburban population centers of the Northeast and West Coast are largely - but not exclusively liberal. However, they are almost uniformly predisposed - as a matter of cultural preference - to hear a voice like Sarah's and think "uneducated", "inarticulate", "simple" or "rube" or something negative like that. They prefer people who sound like they went to Harvard or Yale.... never mind for a minute that these are the very people who are destroying the country, but it is a very distinct urban elitist prejudice and very hard to overcome.

I'm just giving you the summary, "Cliff Notes" version here - there's a lot more. The problem is that we are dealing here with attitudes, not necessarily ideas or beliefs. It's going to make Sarah's prospective candidacy very challenging, as will her celebrity persona.

Now you might argue that none of this ought to matter, and perhaps it should not, but add to the mix a thoroughly rotten, hostile, one-sided news media and the mountain gets a whole lot taller to climb.

Gotta call it like I see it, too.