Jim Robinson
Posted on 02/17/2012 12:01:02 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Has Sarah Palin just announced her candidacy for president? On Wednesday night she told Fox Business host Eric Bolling that she still has the fire in her belly and is still game to run for office. More telling, however, is what she said about the current GOP nomination battle and the possibility of a brokered convention.
Palin’s comments leading into the South Carolina primary, encouraging people to vote for Newt Gingrich because the party is strengthened by a long primary battle, were bewildering at the time.
“I want to see this thing continue, because iron sharpens iron, steel sharpens steel. If I had to vote in South Carolina to keep this thing going, I’d vote for Newt and I would want this to continue.”
Leaving aside metallurgical analysis comparing honing knife blades to the hammer blows of negative campaign ads, the comments were incomprehensible from a strategic point of view. Gingrich at that time was administering a beating to the entire capitalist system, with his attacks on Romney’s wealth and the investment world. It was not clear how that process would help any eventual Republican nominee run against the class-warfare campaign sure to come from President Obama.
After Newt lost Florida by 15 points, Governor Palin announced that she would vote for him in Nevada, again “to keep this thing going.” Even while admitting that the process “thus far, hasn’t been really attractive to the electorate” and saying about negative ads that “when a bell is rung, it’s really tough to un-ring that bell,” she still wanted it to continue.
Why would she want the process to continue if it is causing permanent harm to the Republican candidates?
On the Fox Business Network Wednesday night, Bolling asked Palin about the possibility of a brokered convention, and whether, if asked, she would consider being drafted to be the nominee. She responded: “We could be looking at a brokered convention. … If months from now, if that’s the case, then all bets are off, as to who it will be, willing to offer themselves up in the name of service to their country. I, uh, I would do whatever I could to help.”
It’s becoming clear why Governor Palin wants the nominating process to continue, even though it’s really tough to un-ring the bell of a process that turns off voters. She has no interest in seeing any candidate gain the support of the majority of the GOP delegates, because she believes she could step into a brokered convention and walk out as the Republican nominee. She shares with Gingrich an ability to fire up the base, to draw admiring shouts and standing ovations from audience members. She also shares with him a disdain for conventional campaigning, which critics call a lack of discipline. Those characteristics are ideally suited to winning an election process that lasts only three days and takes place in a single city, but they are liabilities in a process that takes months and covers 50 states.
Palin just gave the clearest signal yet that she intends to compete for the presidential nomination if there’s a brokered convention in August. What is a Republican voter to do? Whatever it is, the voters in Michigan, Arizona and the Super Tuesday states had better start doing it right away. Because if we don’t, we will miss the only chance we have to stop socialized health care and a host of other evils that would result from a second term for Barack Obama.
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Bart Marcois, a former principal deputy assistant secretary of energy, is senior vice president at Policy Impact Communication.
You are probably not aware that there is a thing called a “Brokered Convention”, where if none of the Delegates get the required 1,144 Delegates to win, it goes up for a Convention Floor vote during the convention. It happened before with Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932), Thomas Dewey (1948) and Adlai Stevenson (1952). Two of the Brokered conventions were Democrat, Roosevelt and Stevenson and one was Republican, Thomas Dewey.
So yes, Sarah Palin could easily win if the Convention voters say so. Is it likely? Probably not.
Santorum is not worthy to even unloosen one of Sarah`s sandle straps
Truth is vile to you? It appears it is to Rick, also. Now I see why you support him.
If you want to put people through another 4 years of Obama, follow Santorum’s losing strategy with total blind abandon.
It’s weird that you said that. I am feeling the same way. I am a fan of Palin but when the country needed her, she chose not to serve. While I understand that her family is a top priority, she was all but running for a few years, and she had the exact same family. I figured that as long as one parent was always there for the kids, it could be the Dad.
But Santorum had teh same exact reasons for running, and he got in early and slogged through. He will be the same kind of strong, principled constitutional conservative. I’m sticking with Rick.
Even if the color commentator is the obvious best choice? She has balanced budgets, dealt with corrupt politicians and jailed them, has extensive experience in the energy field and most importantly she has a servant’s heart. When her governorship was costing her state money and man hours to fight the barrage of nonsense ethics charges brought by the left, she gave up her power for the good of her state and her family. Most importantly, she trusts God. We need leaders with her character if we are to survive as a free nation.
Santorum never hurt Newt, Newt is totally responsible for his going into the tank.
He is his own worst enemy, and to be honest, he isn’t liked too much by the electorate. If he was, he would be on top right now. All of your venom isn’t going to help a darn thing. Disapprovals over 60%. That is his fault.
Face it dude, people don’t care for Newt. Without a debate, he is toast, burnt toast.
If he was so great, he would at least be on top within his own party of voters. But he isn’t. Just the way it is.
If you think he can beat Obama and he can’t even get a majority of people in his own party to vote for him, you are nuts.
If this is Sarah’s strategy and she astutely assessed the probability of a brokered convention months ago; I’ll bet she has a plan once a brokered convention becomes a reality.
There is much here that is not only the fault of painfully ignorant voters, but those who have no sense of loyalty or duty. They merely follow the crowd, go with who everybody else is currently going for.
But you also fail to understand that the same thing can reverse itself in days under this chaotic electorate.
“It’s becoming clear why Governor Palin wants the nominating process to continue, even though it’s really tough to un-ring the bell of a process that turns off voters. She has no interest in seeing any candidate gain the support of the majority of the GOP delegates, because she believes she could step into a brokered convention and walk out as the Republican nominee.”
Sure, you can draw that conclusion if you’re willfully ignorant of the context of her statement. Sheesh...
My feelings exactly
Perhaps when she weighed the cost to her family and the direction the race was going, she saw a way to achieve her goal with minimal damage to her family or her campaign fund. If so, she is ballsy and brilliant. Most importantly, she is good and positive. We need that.
Just another writer who attracts hits by putting Palin’s name in the heading.
She has made it fairly clear that she opposes Mitt, and who could blame her. Beyond political philosophy, his minions have savaged her for several years now.
Of his two remaining opponents, she has indicated her preference for Gingrich. The writer again trots out the slam that Gingrich was attacking capitalism, when in fact he was attacking Romney’s way of doing business, which is not exactly the same thing. Remember Romney’s people shredding documents early in the campaign?
She didn’t want to flatly endorse Gingrich, as a Fox pundit, but she has done everything short of it. Her husband endorsed him, and she in effect encouraged him to hang in all the way to the convention - hence, her remarks about the brokered convention. The writer assumes for the sake of an internet piece that Sarah wants a brokered convention for her own purposes, when in fact a brokered convention seemed at the time the only hope against the Romniacs.
I don’t think she has attacked Santorum. She opposes Romney and prefers Gingrich (as do I). Its not very complicated. I likewise seldom attack Santorum. I like Gingrich better, but I would vote for Santorum with an easy conscience, something I can’t say about Romney, mainly after the way his proxies treat his opponents.
Yeehaw!! Go Sarah!
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