How Does Palin Overcome These Issues To Win Presidency?

Vanity ^ | 11/24/2010 | Patrick1

[Patrick1]

Sarah Palin seems to be the favorite of the majority of Free Republic members. I still have not made up my mind about her. But if she is the consevative movement's choice to take on the disaster of Obama who has gone from The Messiah to the Mess then there are things that she will need to overcome to get 50% plus one of the American people's vote in 2012. I've listed the ones I hope her supporters can address here because failure to take these issues on will result in certain defeat.

[wtc911]

I see that when pushed to show exactly what there is in Palin’s resume that qualifies her to handle the issues I listed you disappeared from the thread but kept on posting to others. Therein lies the Palinista conundrum...how to make something out of nothing.

[roamer_1]

Your points are important, but the fatal flaw is her lack of record, and the fact that her record (what little exists) is not particularly Conservative... As with all politicians, what she DOES is more important than what she SAYS she will do.

With that as the focus, one can then get to the meat of the issue... Those things which she has done (or said) which directly oppose long held, unmovable principles of the various Conservative factions.

Immigration
Windfall Profits tax (oops, I mean fees)
LIFE being a states issue.

All three of these (her most important flaws) are absolutes which must be violated in order to vote for Palin.

That will cause contenders to rise up in the primaries... factionally pure candidates which will split the Conservative vote, and allow another “UP! the Middle” usurper to gain the crown, in exactly the same fashion that MaCain’t and others have already proven.

Far better to invest in a candidate which can honor all three factions basic unmovable principles. One whom all three can vote for with a clean conscience.

DeMint, Pence...

[Little Ray]

Shouldn’t catch any flame, those are valid questions all of them.
Wish I had answers.

[Wolfstar]

Adding one more good reason for quitting an elective office prior to the end of your term -- to concentrate on running for a higher office. Most politicians don't do that, however. Palin didn't, as she remained governor throughout the 2008 campaign. She quit effective July 26, 2009, choosing to turn tail and run from what she said was politically motivated ethics complaints. If that's true, then why not stay and fight it out? Why leave it hanging unresolved?

Strangely, she quit several months after she was supposedly cleared of ethics violations the previous October.

Any reasonable independent -- and that's who we're talking about reaching here -- could conclude either that she reneged on her commitment to the people of Alaska for no good reason, or she was running from more brewing scandals. The only way it gets resolved in a way that won't turn off independents is for Palin to address the matter squarely and forthrightly.

She doesn't need to convince people like you who already support her staunchly. She needs to convince enough voters who aren't already in her camp to come over to her side.

[Wolfstar]

I respectfully disagree.

Which is your right to do so. At least you're classy about it, which is refreshing. :)

[wtc911]

The problem is all your “issues” are talking points for the left, and demonstrably wrong

__________________________

Then please demonstrate to us, in detail, how they are wrong. It should be easy.

[wtc911]

If Palin has a national campaign to run for president, then the answer to your question, why did she quit, becomes self evident.

____________________________________

She had to quit in July 2009 so she could run three years later? Weak, very weak.

[November 2010]

Palin owed over 500,000 in legal fees from the bogus lawsuits the left threw at her. I know the left tried to use Alan West’s personal finances against him in attack ads and they were ugly, ugly ads. He crushed his opponent, but true public servants, not those on the take, can’t just make 500,000 appear out of thin air. Palin freed herself, was able to pay those fees and then some, left the state in good hands, avoided the chaos the left was creating both for her and her state. It was a brilliant move. She has already changed the course of history with her support of conservative candidates in the 2010 elections.

[November 2010]

I don’t see questioning Palin as a conservative. You can look at the 60 some odd candidates she supported. Conservatives almost all, and many of them long shots. Regarding immigration, at the beginning of her 1st Alaska show she says she supports the fence. I just don’t buy that there is a question there as to her conservatism.

[excopconservative]

In 2006, Independents had voted (D) by a margin of +7%. That’s a shift of +26% to (R) among Independents from 2006 to 2010.

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It was Palin’s job to appeal to the conservative base of the party in 2008, which she did. It was McCain’s job to get the independent vote which was thought to be his forte. He failed. It’s much easier to convince an independent to vote conservative than it is to convince them that anyone with an R after their name is going to be a better liberal than a democrat. If the mood of the country is liberal, then we lose unless we can convince them to vote conservative. If the mood of the country is conservative, and we run a RINO, voters may decide to elect a real democrat rather than a phony one.

[Wolfstar]

Palin owed over 500,000 in legal fees from the bogus lawsuits the left threw at her. Palin freed herself, was able to pay those fees and then some, left the state in good hands, avoided the chaos the left was creating both for her and her state.

Then she will need to make that case to the broad American public if she runs for president. That's the premise of the original poster, as I understand it -- to discuss potential pitfalls for her and what she needs to do to overcome them.

Right now, most potential non-politically attuned 2012 voters only know Palin ran for vice president (if they know that much). They know her as a celebrity more than anything else, and now the mother of a celebrity who was on Dancing With the Stars. When voters get around to paying close attention to the 2012 candidates, Palin will have to reintroduce herself all over again if she runs.

The denizens of FR can whine all they want about how mean the MSM has treated her, but in the end, Palin will have to make her case directly to the American people. Running for president is not the same as running for VP, when the veep candidate basically takes orders from the presidential campaign. It's not the same as running around throwing rhetorical red meat to her political base during congressional midterms.

The person who started this thread did us a favor by giving us an opportunity to surface some of these issues and face them head on like Palin will have to do if she runs.

[excopconservative]

These are the questions. And some days I really think she can win it all and some days I don’t know if she can win the primary.

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There are no sure things in life. The one sure thing I know, is that there is no way to knock out an opponent in a fight unless you hit them. Palin has been gut-punching Obama for the past year while the others have watched from the audience (occasionally chipping in with vocal support). Yes, she’s taken a few punches, mostly below the belt, but she’s standing tall. When she’s not hitting Obama, she’s goading him into making blunders such as supporting the Ground Zero Mosque and making trips in support of losing candidates.

It would not be appropriate to start punching Republicans at this point even though some bystanders are already yelling against her. After the primary campaign starts and the candidates have declared, do you think that Gov. Palin won’t throw a knock out punch to her opponents? She’s already softened up Obama. He’s wandering around the ring punch drunk. She’s determined to get in the ring and deliver the knock out.

[excopconservative]

When voters get around to paying close attention to the 2012 candidates, Palin will have to reintroduce herself all over again if she runs.

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Her job right now is to re-establish her humanity after having it challenged by every stereotype that the media and critics could come up with. (They have to use stereotypes because all of their opposition research found NOTHING to use against her.) So her media appearances are geared to show that she’s not a bitch, diva, nutcase, or hypnotist, and is much more like us than the plastic media created politicians. She is never going to create an impression that she is anything like the political class that we are used to.

When the campaign starts in earnest, you will see her record put up against the others and it will not be lacking. Has any other candidate exposed corruption within their party? Has any other fought the entire Republican establishment to get elected? Has any other governor cut the budget 10% from three years previous by cutting spending? Has any other governor overcome a Corrupt B*stards Club of oil company executives and Republican politicians who ran their state and taken control back for the people? You can call it a windfall profits tax if you want, but when a corporation in collusion with politicians take a state’s resources for their own benefit, I would call it a conspiracy to commit theft without fair compensation for the resources. Has any other governor made the oil companies stand by their commitments? Has any other candidate got 100% name recognition? Is any other candidate searched for online as much as Gov. Palin? Not even close. People must be interested in learning about her.

Oh, and has any other candidate created an Oxford American Dictionary word of the year? Has any of them said ..anything?

[DWar]

So did Hillary.
While I tend not to believe her and to believe him, given the right circumstances I think he’d run.

[truthfreedom]

The main reason there are so few liberals and so many conservatives is the South. A lot of conservative Democrats in the south. We win in the south because of conservative Democrats. They might vote for Republicans, but they’re technically Democrats. That doesn’t mean that they are many conservative Democrat politicans in the south, just that conservatives didn’t switch to Republican in the south.

here are a few exit polls.

kentucky - 47% D, 32% R - 38% conservative
+6 conservative over R
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/polls/#KYS01p1

arkansas - 51% conservative 13% liberal 34% democrat 29% republican +22
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/polls/#val=ARS01p1

louisiana - 36% conservative 29% republican 45% democrat
+7
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/polls/#val=LAS01p1

Here are some other conservative vs republican numbers.
arizona +10
california +2
colorado +12
connecticut +1
delaware -3
florida +3
hawaii +2
illinois +4
indiana +1
iowa +4
missouri +4
nevada +7
nh +2
ny +4
ohio +4
oregon +10
pennsylvania -2
sc +5
vermont -3
washington +13
wv +6
wisconsin 0

I do agree with you that moderates often believe what they watch on the tv, and usually the tv favors the democrat.

[Norman Bates]

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

As far as the Senate seat is concerned...excuses, excuses. She won a write-in campaign for crying out loud.

[Norman Bates]

Where on this thread did I say “moderate conservative” or “war hero?”

[Norman Bates]

Who cares? This is thread discussing Palin’s vulnerabilities (which incidentally I’d actually like to see addressed). No one here is rooting for her to lose to Obama.

[Norman Bates]

Chairman of AK Mayor

Don't know. It can't amount to much.

Chairman of GOP GOV

Figurehead position. What do they really do?

Head Regulation of Oil And Gas

Relevant experience, but only for a year.

AK GOV job is equivalent of running a major corporation

Yeah, but for less than a term. Unless I'm wrong it is definitely one of the smaller state governments. Off the top of my head I can only think of two governors who didn't complete their first term (although I'm sure there are more): Elliot Spitzer and Spiro Agnew.

Normally I would say this amounts to a decent set of feathers in their hat (especially if she hadn't resigned!!). However after the election of the present lightweight, I am looking for more.

[Norman Bates]

While Bush I was in his sixties he never struck me as geriatric when he was president.