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.
When the McGinness book came out and Sarah decided not to run, it was pretty clear that she started to plot a pathway to a deadlocked convention. Remember that her lawyers called every primary state and got detailed info on the last possible moment to file for the primaries? She decided not to run just after that.
She has lost nothing in the last year by not running and getting 10 standing ovations at CPAC pretty much told the world that she was viable.
I think she decided not to run a conventional campaign to give her family some peace while the others slugged it out. She traded this family time for the shot at a deadlocked convention nomination.
If there was no chance she would return to the race at the end, the Julianna Moore movie, “Game Change”, would have been cancelled. The Democrats fear SP the most because of her rabid fans and her unpredictable campaign behavior.
All of the polls of Obama versus Romney, Gingrich and Santorum are useless at this point because the R’s have not yet begun to relentlessly hammer Obama on his record. Stay tuned, Obama will look like an incompetent Hitler-wannabe by October.
Pair her with Paul Ryan as VP, Gingrich as Chief of Staff, Romney as Secretary of Commerce and Ron Paul on the FED board and they are our best shot.
She would also be the only Protestant in the race, which should not be overlooked. (BHO’s Black Liberation Theology doesn’t count) In 2008, 57% of Republicans were Protestant and 23% were Catholic.
Obama is an abomination... but I know that and can adjust my life accordingly. Romney, Newt, Rick are all liars and politicians (though I repeat myself). I don’t know what to expect from them. I’d “...rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.” as Hamlet put it.
As to whether my write-in vote is noticed - I will notice it and since it will likely be my last such vote (I am 77 years old) it will have to suffice as my last act of rebellion to tyrany.
It reads like a moron wrote it.
Rick Santorum is not a liar.
“Rick Santorum is not a liar.”
He’s a politician, isn’t he?
Everybody focuses on the fact that she missed the deadlines for the primaries and therefore impossible for her to win nomination.
Not so.
Should a clear winner not emerge from the primary process, the convention will be thrown wide open and all those Santorum, Gingrich, Romney and Paul delegates will be free to choose another candidate.
Unless Santorum, Romney, Gingrich or Paul are able to suddenly pull away from the pack and amass a commanding lead in pledged delegates - we are headed for a brokered convention.
in what way? let's not forget that McCain, in all intents and purposes, had conceded the election to Zero before the polls opened their doors - we voters didn't stand a chance. He went Perot on us and there was nothing Sarah could have done about it. Since then, and unlike McCain btw, Sarah's been a constant presence on the political scene - a kingmaker in her own right - which has been for the good of the country - much to the consternation of the Dem party (and some repubs) who just can't stop talking about her! Is there anyone left in America who doesn't know who she is now? That's star-power. That's the 'it' factor.
If Sarah, as hinted at some few weeks ago, decides to pair up with Newt, I believe we've got a winning team that will put Zero and his Congress into a tailspin. And if we don't beat Zero, well, we ain't seen nuthin' yet - without having to worry about re-election, Zero will pull stunt after stunt after stunt.
If Sarah's strategy this past year has been to avoid the traditional and ever-more-invasive slime slinging of the primaries she experienced last time, while doggedly keeping to her bus tours and growing her base exponentially, well, it's been a very successful strategy, and I say more power to her. Run Sarah Run !
Stop slandering Sarah Palin!
Oh, and Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt! PERFECT! THe biggest @$$hole in Hollywood playing the biggest @$$hole in politics!!
I love it when they actually "out" themselves.
You make it seem like they stormed the beaches of Normandy and slogged their way through mud all the way to the Rhine. A romantic notion, I suppose but I'd rather nominate a winner than a worn-out loser. And if neither of these four can accumulate a majority of the delegates on their own come convention time, they will surely be losing to Obama in November.
While I don’t see Palin getting into the race when there is still a lot more money for her to make I would certainly prefer her over Romney and even Gingrich should she actually be serious. She has some baggage herself she would bring with her BUT it would a lot less than what Gingrich and Mittens are having to lug around. I suppose we will just have to sit back see how things shake out leading to the convention.
nail dot head. article written by...guess who?
So you approve of lying - we'll never see eye to eye
he isn’t liked too much by the electorate
Is that one of your self approved lies or is this a personality contest and nothing about who is the best of lead America.
All of your venom isn’t going to help a darn thing. That is his fault.
My venom? Another one of your self approved lies. Venom is from the liar and it's Rick's own fault I think he's a pawn of satan, the master of lies. It worked for barry because those attracted to evil vote for evil. One nation, under satan, they like it and want more but never on my vote and it helps w/my soul that I didn't bow to satan to bring America down. You have to answer for your own actions. Those who approve of lies here will spend their eternity with the master of lies. He hates truth spoken, also, and calls it venom.
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
You are certifiably nuts! A Governor instituting PRO HOME marriage, is PRO ABORTION, signed into law Big Gov't/ socialism Healthcare, appointed liberal judges and with not a drop of patriotism in him is NOT even a Republican much less a conservative!
Thanks for exposing yourself, troll!
Last week's editorial endorsement of Mr. McCain by the New York Times, which delighted in recounting every one of Mr. McCain's disagreements with conservatives, didn't help. "John has to begin a new phase of his campaign," says one prominent Republican in Congress who is backing Mr. McCain. "He has to decide if he wants to be a leader of the conservative movement that he says he joined after Ronald Reagan inspired him to enter politics in 1982. If he does that, he can be accepted. If he doesn't, he will have to settle for a shotgun marriage with conservatives."
The only way McCain got any of the base to the polls was by putting Palin on the ticket. And I'm nuts. Make an argument. That's how you convince people.
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