Sarah Palin: Did she save the Republican Party?

September 9, 2011 | techno

[techno]

One of the most important articles ever written about Sarah Palin was by Paul Goldman, a Democratic political strategist and former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party,in September 2010, about 6 weeks before the 2010 midterm election.

This article was originally posted at FR and at the WAPO:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2590825/posts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/16/AR20100901606348.html

In the article Goldman claims there is a good possibility that Sarah Palin has saved the Republican party (from extinction)by not going the third party route (via the Tea party) and in Goldman's words "to allow Republican anger to boil, yet not boil over."

And then Goldman reflects on the possibility that "the GOP establishment fails to appreciate the debt it owes her".

And finally he concludes with this prediction:

"Should Republicans run up the score in November (2010), Sarah Palin will deserve a lot of credit she will never get."

My questions to Freepers:

1)Does Sarah Palin deserve a lot of credit for the results of the 2010 midterms as Goldman asserts or is he simply full of hot air?

2)Now if she does, was Goldman's prediction correct? Has the GOP establishment in collusion with the media and the right-wing blogosphere been able to in the last 10 months to pull the wool of over the eyes of the bulk of the GOP primary electorate and successfully erased Palin's contribution from their memories or convinced them she had little part to play in the massive GOP victory?

3)Now if you feel Palin's contribution was NOT significant or overstated by Goldman could you please tell me who it was on our side you feel did the most to influence the result or perhaps you feel the result was inevitable due to Obama's agenda?

In other words, if Sarah Palin doesn't deserve a lot of the credit for the greatest GOP victory since 1938 who does?

A final note not since exit polls for midterms began being kept in 1982 has the GOP garnered more of the female vote than the Democrats (49% to 48%).

And not since WWII has the GOP reached 60% of the WHITE vote in any midterm election.

[samtheman]

I do not see Palin going 3rd party.. I believe Palin deserves much credit and gratitude for rejuvenating Republicans, inspiring and working hard to influence the 2010 elections..

Yup... and Yup...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Palin has no need to go third-party, nor would she.

The GOP belongs to her now. The ruling-class RINOs just haven't figured it out yet.

It is far more likely that the RINOs will form their own third-party of "moderates" sometime after the 2012 election, when their predicament becomes obvious.

PS - A "moderate" is simply someone with no core beliefs and no firm principles. They are always willing to compromise because they believe in nothing except their own personal advancement.

[pgkdan]

She was very helpful...as were a bunch of other folks. Jim DeMint was great too. But nothing, nothing compares to the influence of the Tea Party (and that is NOT the property of Sarah Palin or any other politician) and the folks who showed up at Congressional Town Hall Meetings all across the country. Pelosi’s response to those meetings helped too.

[bassmaner]

I do not see Palin going 3rd party..

I agree, but with one minor issue ... what was that meeting with Donald Trump about a few months back? Trump continues to make 3rd party noises from time to time ... we all can agree that such a quixotic effort on his part would undoubtedly lead to Zero's re-election.

Sarah needs to get out in front of any connection to a 3rd party run, whether it's her own or anyone else's, including Trump's.

[pgkdan]

Considering the way the slimey way the GOP Establishment has treated Palin, they’ve pretty much proven to me that the Party is hardly ‘worth’ saving at this point.

Don't be a quitter...be a fighter! I'm not going to let the likes of Rove and McCain drive me out of my party! Screew them. Primary every single RINO ikn every election. Truth be told the RINO's in congress aren't as big a probles as are the RINO's in the voting booth who keep pulling the lever for the goodies they get from their PET RINO's!

[pgkdan]

LOL...you’d think so.

[MEG33]

I just don’t think she is 3rd party inclined.
Who knows what that meeting was about?

[bwc2221]

Without Palin’s support it's doubtful that some candidates would have made it through the primaries (including Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez) or got elected.

She really scares the “permanent political establishment.” The “permanent political establishment” goes beyond politicians. It includes bureaucrats and even pundits like George Will, Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter for whom having Beltway friends is more important than being conservatives.

[BubbaJunebug]

The STINK from obama has done more to help than anything or any one person

[bwc2221]

“Is Palin’s mother and father’s names Mary and Joseph?”

You tell us. Weren't you around then?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Yes, and I was troubled by the way the Republican party was treated in "The Undefeated". There were allegations made that pretty much the whole Republican party was corrupt, with the exception of Palin, of course. They even showed film of Boehner, Cantor and McConnell alleging they are corrupt At the time, I wondered what was the message in doing that.

I do not think she will do that but between the troubling lunch with Trump and his constant drumbeat that if he is not satisfied with the nominee, he may do something, it gives pause.

It will assure the reelection of Obama.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I don’t remember, do you? Was she born in a manger in Bethlehem?

[weston]

I believe Palins speech at the RNC Convention in 2008 marked the beginning of the Tea Party. She lit a fire in Conservative hearts that evening and has been stirring the embers since.

[kevkrom]

I think it's hard to quantify since we don't have a time machine to go back and see what things would have been like without her. So it's a subjective exercise at best. That said, there are clearly some positive results from 2010 that Palin should get credit for. For example, the electoral fortunes of Kelly Ayotte (NH, US Senate) and Nikki Haley (SC, Governor) certain improved markedly from the moment they were endorsed by Palin. On the flip side, there were some high-profile losses among her endorsed candidates: Sharon Angle (NV), Meg Whitman (CA), and Joe Miller (AK). Of course in all of those cases it's probably unfair to blame Palin for the loss -- indeed all three won primaries they weren't "supposed" to and likely performed as well or better in the general election than would otherwise be expected (Miller being the odd duck out here, but sore-loser Murkowski is a special case).

On the whole, her endorsement track record was very high, in terms of wins, but that did include some fairly "safe" picks as well.

More intangibly, her writings, speeches, and interviews help shape and frame the debate. While some excoriate her for "bumper sticker slogans", the fact is that she helped take some issues that the pundits were tying to gloss over with complexity and restate them in simple language that people just "get". Of course there wasn't anything named a "death panel" in Obamacare, but that term got people to realize what a bureaucratic panel who decides what treatments patients can and can't get pretty much amounts to it.

But how much did that quantitatively help? It's impossible to say. The TEA Party was energized -- did she add enough additional energy to make the victory larger? I think she did, but again, it's all subjective.

I also don't think there has been a successful effort to diminish Palin's contributions. Even those GOP folks who aren't going to support her for President almost always qualify it with something like "she'll do more good doing what she's doing in rallying the troops and raising money".

[bwc2221]

Don't think I am nearly as old as you, Granny. I'm not even a grandpa.

It never ceases to amaze me that people who have spent the last few years trashing Palin (like you) are now bent out of shape whenever Rick Perry, patron saint of open borders and illegal immigration, takes any criticism.

[upsdriver]

I agree, but with one minor issue ... what was that meeting with Donald Trump about a few months back? Trump continues to make 3rd party noises from time to time ... we all can agree that such a quixotic effort on his part would undoubtedly lead to Zero's re-election.

FWIW, my opinion is that Donald Trump likes Palin and should Sarah Palin get the nomination, she'll have Trump's support. On the other hand, if someone else gets the GOP nod, I wouldn't be surprised to see Trump run as an independent.

[Gustavus]

Jesus is the Son of God, Joseph wasn’t His father

Better brush up on your snark.......

[Servant of the Cross]

A "moderate" is simply someone with no core beliefs and no firm principles. They are always willing to compromise because they believe in nothing except their own personal advancement.

"If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it. ... "Moderate" (according to EPU) Ronald Reagan

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Nice strawman ya got there, Skippy.

Reagan was not ALWAYS willing to compromise.

He had a firm set of core beliefs and principles.

Romney does not.

CFR-Ric does not.

[beandog]

Where, exactly, does it say that’s Reagan’s definition of a moderate?