Posted on 07/13/2009 9:07:22 PM PDT by Steelfish
Republican pundits open fire on Sarah Palin
Their harsh views conflict with those of grass-roots GOP voters, revealing a serious split within the party.
By Mark Z. Barabak July 13, 2009
Since announcing her resignation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pummeled by critics who have called her incoherent, a quitter, a joke and a "political train wreck."
And those were fellow Republicans talking.
Palin has been a polarizing figure from the moment she stepped off the tundra into the bright lights last summer as John McCain's surprise vice presidential running mate.
Some of that hostility could be expected, given the hyper-partisanship of today's politics.
What is remarkable is the contempt Palin has engendered within her own party and the fact that so many of her GOP detractors are willing, even eager, to express it publicly -- even with Palin an early front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Some admit their preference that she stay in Alaska and forget about any national ambitions.
"I am of the strong opinion that, at present day, she is not ready to be the leading voice of the GOP," said Todd Harris, a party strategist who likened Palin to the hopelessly dated "Miami Vice" -- something once cool that people regard years later with puzzlement and laughter. "It's not even that she hasn't paid her dues. I personally don't think she's ready to be commander in chief."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I’m taking names.
ATTENTION: GOP
Hire Todd Harris at your own peril!
******
September 06, 2008 Todd Harris - GOP McCain Strategist On Palin’s Mistake That Could Come
Todd Harris, who was Senator John McCain’s communications director, said to Chris Matthews “If she goes out and makes a mistake, that will be something that will haunt them for a long time” in response to the current (as of this writing) situation where Governor Palin has not adressed questions from the political press.
Here’s the video:
Matthews Dares GOP Guest: ‘Say Something Nasty About Rush Limbaugh!’
By Geoffrey Dickens | February 18, 2009 - 19:07
Chris Matthews is so obsessed with Rush Limbaugh’s influence within the Republican Party, that he repeatedly dared, on Wednesday night’s “Hardball,” GOP strategist Todd Harris to speak ill of the radio talk show host as he mockingly challenged: “Would you live in a country where he wrote the Constitution?...Would you live in a country where he wrote our rights?...Say something nasty about Rush Limbaugh!”
After playing a clip of a “Saturday Night Live,” skit – in which two Republicans argue over who is smarter, Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh — Matthews asked his guest panelists Harris and Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, to evaluate how powerful Limbaugh was within the GOP in the following exchange, as it was aired, on the February 18, edition of “Hardball”:
“Hey, watch it. Don’t call any one an idiot. Just read the bible and see what God says about it. Specially about one of his kids.”
I do not believe there is any meesage from God about an idiotic speech from Alan Keyes. Read carefully and do not shoot from the lip...
Harris, who had just finished a stint as the spokesman for Fred Thompson's presidential campaign
“in her resignation speech, Palin was somewhat incoherent, she did quit, the political train wreck remains to be seen.”
We saw two different speeches, evidently. The Palin express...coming to a city near you...be on or under it, I don’t care...
Then, recently, Bennett said he was not for Sarah, and that he likes Kyl. There was something about the *way* he said it that made my blood run cold. That was it. Haven't turned him on since...and not going to.
These are different times.
It's too easy for pundits to accuse Sarah of being polarizing. They fear her, dislike her, trash her, and somehow she is "polarizing". What has Sarah done deliberately to attempt to be divisive (to polarize)? Absolutely nothing. Let's call the rats on their unwarranted cheap shots.
I haven’t taken Bill seriously since 1994 when he and Kemp campaigned AGAINST Prop 187 in California. Their stance was that Californians should continue to be forced by government to flop open their wallets and shell out schools and health care to illegals.
No Bill Bennett for me, thanks.
Doesn't the stupidity of that statement make you roll your eyes? "From the moment" McCain announced her, she's been "polarizing"? Nobody even knew who she was but she was immediately "polarizing"? Sheer stupidity.
I guess the dying LA Times is trying to save some bucks by plucking nincompoops like Mark Barabak from the offices of the local Daily Collegian.
I remember the fight for Prop 187, and I hear you.
That about sums it up... Nice job.
I was wondering the same thing.
Oohh...such brave “conservative” souls. Running to the enemy to fire at a conservative. And they wonder why we don’t give a damn what they say.
That does it. Tomorrow I order a bumper sticker w/Sarah on it. Never done this so far in advance of a presidential election especially as we don’t know if she will run but...if we are choosing sides. I stand with Sarah and against the elites of the party.
Harris and Spencer??? Isn’t that a treatment for STDs?
Just lisening to Bennett in the morning assures me of an extra hour of sleep.
Boring, rambling, in love with his own voice. Blech
I didn't see the video, but I read the transcript, and there wasn't anything incoherent about it. I know that's the liberal meme, but they weren't going to say anything positive about her anyway.
Yes, she did quit, but that's the only way SHE saw to stop the bogus ethical complaints and lawsuits. They were aimed at her personally, and were intended to destroy her professionally and financially. They were wasting her and her staff's time, and the taxpayers money. She left the office in the hands of the Lt. Gov. with whom she'd been working closely, and who the people who voted for her can expect will complete the work she began.
I consider her leaving the office a strategic retreat, and I expect she'll come out swinging on July 27th.
Let’s have a primary today. Sarah could then pick her VP.
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