Posted on 12/18/2008 12:08:30 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Former John McCain pollster Bill McInturff said Thursday that in a potential 2012 GOP primary, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would have a leg up on her rivals because she is “well-suited” to campaign in Iowa.
McInturff pointed to the fact that despite a bruising presidential campaign, Palin’s favorability ratings among Republican voters is still extremely high. While Palin comes with some baggage among the general electorate, for Iowa, where former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee successfully drew a large number of social conservatives to his winning bid, she has strong prospects.
“She’s a candidate that would be well-suited to doing well in Iowa,” McInturff told reporters at a breakfast in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. He conceded that Palin creates “a sharply different reaction with swing voters and core primary voters” but said the latter “are not anywhere close to the center.”
If Palin is weighing a potential run, McInturff said that difference and the advantage it gives here is something she is keenly aware of. “She has a very strong political instinct,” he said. “She has a sharp and calculated instinct.”
Reflecting back on the presidential campaign, the pollster said that the McCain campaign had a brief window where they believed victory over President-elect Barack Obama was possible. But that hope was dashed when the campaign’s back was broken by the financial crisis.
“If we had to collapse America’s economy, I wish it had been on Dec. 15 instead of Sept. 15,” he said. Leading up to the financial crisis, he said, the campaign was prepared to launch an offensive to exploit the lingering uncertainties voters had about Obama, but that when the markets crashed, “You didn’t have a presidential campaign anymore, you just had the two campaigns reacting to this.”
“People had substantial and serious concerns about this guy,” McInturff said of Obama. “But if you give people a choice between a proven failure and an uncertain future, they will always choose the uncertain future,” he added, referring to the contrast between Obama and the damaged GOP brand.
The pollster also said the crisis changed McCain’s normal instincts as he tried to demonstrate a presidential level of leadership. For instance, he said, “If John McCain was just a U.S. senator, I cannot imagine him supporting the bailout. . . But you’re not going to be a senator, you are going to be president of the United States.”
Even after the financial crisis, McInturff said the Arizona senator was still within striking distance of Obama until former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed the Democrat. “We had three days where after the Powell endorsement the bottom just fell out,” he said.
Early into the afternoon on Election Day, McInturff said the McCain campaign knew that Obama’s victory was imminent as it read exit poll data. He said, though, that nobody was mourning the loss like they were “sappy volunteers.”
“Your job is to fight like hell, even if you’re getting beat with a baseball bat on the way out,” McInturff said.
“Please, somebody, bolster her security detail to ensure she makes it safely to 2012. Palin ‘12!”
My thoughts exactly, liberals will kill you for thinking differently long before a conservative would. Palin scares them to death, her church was already set on fire.
You forgot to tag it with sarcasm. Romney stinks.
I’m not saying I want Huckabee for our candidate but I don’t see why you call him a faux evangelical.
This sounds like the draft Fred Thompson movement.
I know a national hero/leader would do wonders for us after what we have been through, but you can tell Palin is not moving in that direction. Hillary, you could tell was running for president in 2001 even when she lied and said she wasnt.
Let Sarah be Sarah. Many of the “Sarah is our Savior “crowd reminds me of Monty Pythons “Life of Brian” when the Jews went running after one potential Savior after another. It’s desperation breeding insanity. A sign we are hopelessly lost.
2010 Must be our focus. I would love a hero now. In 1993 against new Clinton mine was Dick Armey. But he was already in a national public office dealing with national issues.
The campaign pretty much ended when McCain told a worried audience in a townhall meeting, “Obama would make a fine President. You don’t have to be scared of him”. That was his concession speech. People lost faith in him afterwards. He was just a drag. Whatever Palin did was just to avoid a landslide and save some face. (Still I think we would have got 50 EV easily in FL, NC,IN and NV. It should have been 226-312)
What a crock of spit!
The guy will do anything that sucks up to the MSM and gets him a headline.
Cripes, cant he just go away , already?
Palin YES
Romney HELL NO
Please tell me your joking. Romney of all people
RE :” McCain should have sailed in and tried to stop the bailouts”
Even if the issue backfired on him if he opposed it he would have went out standing for something. But no he acted cowardly and snuck in and voted without a speech, voting FOR GWB/Pelosi plan, then claimed 1) he was Maverick, 2) he was against earmarks(who cares?) and 3) he is separate from GWB, and 4) he didnt like bailout.
He looked SO phoney, it was over by October, which was just as well. He would had made sure democrats still had congress in 2020.
Of course, Sarah will kick butt where Republican votes are.
Her resume will be enhanced with six years of governorship behind her, instead of two.
I still respect his service, and still respect his stand on some conservative issues.
But by and large he is proving once again that he is an entrenched Washington politician and RINO.
What the heck is this idiot talking about?
McCain's numbers fell through the floor after the financial crisis in mid September. Colin Powell had nothing to do with it.
If these are the clowns who were running McCain's campaign, it's no surprise he lost.
(I'm kidding)
It is very hard to gauge what is going to happen in 4 years, let alone 2. No matter who the nominee (and I am fully behind Sarah at this point), these primaries have to be closed. The point about Obama being on the DEM ticket in 4 years is a good one. The DEMs will come out in force to vote for anyone on the GOP side who might have a chance of beating him.
Another thing the GOP nominee needs to do IS NOT accept public financing. If Sarah is the nominee, she could probably raise more money (at least legally) as any other candidate, including Obama (unless you count is ILLEGAL $$).
Also agree she would do great in Iowa and other conservative strongholds in the primaries, but it still really concerns me how she is going to play in the general in some of these purple states that the O won. We need a very strong message and principled conservative candidate that will appeal (and not pander as a populist) to the swing voters. I pray often that she is the one that can do it. 4 years is a long time to learn and repair your image. After all we live in a short memory society...
McCain accepted public financing because he new that he could not raise $87 million on his own, much less compete with the hundreds of millions that 0bama could raise. Given the disparity between the 2 in financing, and 0bama’s thousands of media cheerleaders across the country, and everything else going against him, he didn’t do too bad.
I believe Gov. Palin could raise lots of money. Another advantage she will have over all the others who run in the primaries is a strong ground operation, Team Sarah is already closing in on 63,000 right now, and there are a lot of other supporters out there who will work hard for her in every state. Gov. Palin has to beat 0bama at his own game, hundreds of thousands of loyal followers and volunteer workers, and lots of money. She’ll have the media against her, so she’ll have to utilize the internet to speak directly to the American people, through something like Sarah Palin Radio, and youtube videoes.
0bama also utilized thousands of his followers to swamp comment sections of every online paper and magazine with their vile comments, she will have to outdo that also, but her supporters will at least keep it civil.
It can be done, but it will take a lot of organization. Organize, organize, organize.
The interesting thing Bill said was that McCain’s numbers tanked for 3 days after Powell’s announcement to support Obama and thus sabotage the McCain campaign. Perhaps Powell was much more of a traitor to the GOP than I originally thought and I, for one, despise him more than I already have.
What many pundits don’t acknowledge is that Sarah has the support of the Grover Nordquist types who believe in fiscal responsbility and the national security types who knows she favors a strong national defense and believes in the traditions of America. The social conservative support is fine but it is only one of the 3 legs of the stool. The reason Sarah is so formidable is that she supports all 3 legs as a Reagan conservative plus she has a libertarian twinge that helps her to not appear rigid and sanctimonious.
I agree. For McCain to even acknowledge that in a political campaign in private is the sign of a loser but to acknowledge that in public in front of passionate supporters who wanted McCain to politically thrash Obama was an affront to their dignity and scruples as partisan party members and an insult and miasma to all Americans who believe in the traditional values of America as expressed in the Bill of Rights and the exceptionalism of America. ‘Take no prisoners’ in one instant became I am prepared to bow before you as my commander-in-chief.
RNC needs to have closed primaries if anyone is stand a chance. The time to do this is now. The other side will have to change tactics to deal with that.
The best thing about Sarah Palin running in Iowa is that she will suck all of the oxygen out of Hucksterbee without half trying.
That said, the only good that came out of mccain's campaign was introducing Sarah to America.
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