The Long-Distance Runner (Be afraid, be very afraid for 2012)

Boston.com ^

[Replace all Democrats]

Just before Thanksgiving last year, a group of former aides to Mitt Romney convened at his salmon-colored Belmont home, many of them gathering for the first time since Romney had disbanded his presidential campaign some nine months before. Romney had invited them for a post-mortem of the election weeks earlier, the type of dispassionate assessment that the Harvard Business School alumnus so enjoyed. But over cookies, they found few of the metrics for success that Romney prized -- Republicans had been decisively thumped at all levels -- and his attention shifted from 2008 to the future.

[Diogenesis]

Finny "HIS troops? "

Of course, Romney's troops. After all, Romney was the MASTER of fake badges, fake polls, fake endorsements,
and pretending he was, what he was not.

Romney aide’s bogus badges: Sources detail ‘illegal’ security tactic

" Boston Herald - Friday, July 20, 2007
In an apparent violation of the law, a controverisal aide to ex-Gov. Mitt Romney
created phony law enforcement badges that he and other staffers used on the campaign trail
to strong-arm reporters, avoid paying tolls and trick security guards
into giving them immediate access to campaign venues, sources told the Herald.
“They (the aides) knew the badges were fake and probably illegal,”
said a presidential campaign source who asked for anonymity
because the story could damage the individual’s career.
Two additional sources confirmed that the badges - described as bright silver plates with a state seal attached -
were first created and used by Garrity while Romney was still governor."

FAKE TROOPER (and Chief of Operations)

More here

More here - Romney aide is the focus of probe

Romney aide accused of faking badges

[jla]

to post 27 -

Nobody Boos a Nobody
Redstate July 2, 2009 Fred Malek

To summarize baseball legend Reggie Jackson: nobody boos a nobody. That is definitely true in the case of Governor Sarah Palin. I don’t think I am going out on a limb here when I speculate that individuals who repeatedly attack her anonymously view her as a threat. And that includes members of the media hell-bent tearing down young Republican up-and-comers as well as some in Governor Palin’s own party — a party desperately in need of redefining — who are motivated, for whatever reason, to try and crush their rivals.

The most recent and grossly unfair attack came from Vanity Fair magazine. The writer clearly had an unshakable point of view from the start and talked only to those who would criticize. For example, he personally asked me at event preceding the White House Correspondents Dinner if I would talk to him about Governor Palin. I agreed. He didn’t call. He didn’t email. He never once tried to get my take. I also know he never contacted campaign manager Rick Davis, or John McCain.

I have known many political leaders over four decades including all Republican presidents and VPs. I have come to know Sarah Palin over the past year and can state unequivocally that she is smart, curious, hard working, charming, and effective. She also has something her detractors clearly lack – a sense of honor and loyalty.

I know this is petty, but it reminds me of the 2004 presidential election where it was commonplace and accepted in much of the mainstream media to call President Bush stupid and Senator Kerry smart and insightful. At the end of the day, when Senator Kerry finally released his college transcripts, wouldn’t you know: he did quite a bit worse than President Bush.

I have seen Sarah up close with leading heavyweights, and have seen her hold her own and then some. At the dinner at my home referenced in the article, she engaged comfortably and deeply with people ranging from Alan Greenspan to Madeleine Albright to Mitch McConnell. She asked for a foreign policy discussion on her June 7 trip to Washington, and I saw her engage in an informed and spirited manner with Frank Carlucci.

Governor Palin has many admirers and defenders out there who will not allow her to be branded by jealous rivals with their own agenda and the elitists in the national media. I am not sure who the unnamed Vanity Fair sources are, but without question they lack chivalry and have acted in a craven manner. They also lack the facts. I am ashamed of my former campaign colleagues, whoever they are.

---

Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin
I know Maggie Thatcher. The two women have a lot in common.

---

"Not One of Us"
Thomas Sowell
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

If Barack Obama has been the most remarkable phenomenon of the recent political scene, Sarah Palin must be second. The emotional responses to each-- especially by the media and the intelligentsia -- go beyond anything that can be explained by the usual political differences of opinion on issues of the day.

That liberals would be thrilled by another liberal is not surprising. But there are conservative Republicans who voted for Barack Obama, and other conservatives who may not have voted for him, but who are quick to see in various pragmatic moves of his since taking office an indication that he is not an extremist.

Anyone familiar with history knows that Hitler and Stalin were pragmatic. After years of denouncing each other, they signed the Nazi-Soviet pact under which they became allies for a couple of years before going to war against one another.

Pragmatism tells you nothing about extremism. But the conservative intellectuals who seize upon President Obama's pragmatism to give him the benefit of the doubt are obviously bending over backward for some reason.

With Governor Palin, it is just the opposite. The conservative intelligentsia who react against her have remarkably little to say that will stand up to scrutiny. People who actually dealt with her, before she became a national figure, have expressed how much they were impressed by her intelligence.

Governor Palin's "inexperience" is a talking point that might have some plausibility if it were not for the fact that Barack Obama has far less experience in actually making policies than Sarah Palin has. Joe Biden has had decades of experience in being both consistently wrong and consistently a source of asinine statements.

Governor Palin's candidacy for the vice presidency was what galvanized grass roots Republicans in a way that John McCain never did. But there was something about her that turned even some conservative intellectuals against her and provoked visceral anger and hatred from liberal intellectuals.

Perhaps the best way to try to understand these reactions is to recall what Eleanor Roosevelt said when she first saw Whittaker Chambers, who had accused Alger Hiss of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Upon seeing the slouching, overweight and disheveled Chambers, she said, "He's not one of us."

The trim, erect and impeccably dressed Alger Hiss, with his Ivy League and New Deal pedigree, clearly was "one of us." As it turned out, he was also a liar and a spy for the Soviet Union. Not only did a jury decide that at the time, the opening of the secret files of the Soviet Union in its last days added more evidence of his guilt.

The Hiss-Chambers confrontation of more than half a century ago produced the same kind of visceral polarization that Governor Sarah Palin provokes today.

Before the first trial of Alger Hiss began, reporters who gathered at the courthouse informally sounded each other out as to which of them they believed, before any evidence had been presented. Most believed that Hiss was telling the truth and that it was Chambers who was lying.

More important, those reporters who believed that Chambers was telling the truth were immediately ostracized. None of this could have been based on the evidence for either side, for that evidence had not yet been presented in court.

For decades after Hiss was convicted and sent to federal prison, much of the media and the intelligentsia defended him. To this day, there is an Alger Hiss chair at Bard College.

Why did it matter so much to so many people which of two previously little-known men was telling the truth? Because what was on trial was not one man but a whole vision of the world and a way of life.

Governor Sarah Palin is both a challenge and an affront to that vision and that way of life-- an overdue challenge, much as Chambers' challenge was overdue.

Whether Governor Palin runs for national office again is something that only time will tell. But the Republicans need some candidate who is neither one of the country club Republicans nor-- worse yet-- the sort of person who appeals to the intelligentsia.

---

AzaleaCity5691, please explain to the reader why you should be believed and not Messrs. Malek, O'Sullivan, and Sowell.

[jla]

I’m still trying to figure out why the Republicans seem to despise Sarah as much as the Dems.

Envy.
They are convinced, foolishly enough, that Sarah Palin is not all that intelligent and here she is, the GOP's most popular member and a bona fide national phenomenon.
Watch for rumblings from some so-called intellectuals on the Right after Sarah's book sells millions.

[jla]

to post 42 - Very well put. Thank you.

[jla]

We need Senator Jim DeMint!!!!!

I really only began noticing him this year and I like what I've seen.

Sen. DeMint will be an invaluable Congressional ally for the Palin administration.

[campaignPete R-CT]

Max850: You tried to point out that the post#35 contained a nasty jab at Mormons and then the attacks were directed at you.

You can see why some of these folks are never successful at building up support for anyone ... for it makes no sense in politics to spend all your time telling everyone to leave and why their support is unwanted. The GOP is meant to be a party that build coalitions in support of conservative and center-right candidates.

Do your best to be patient with some of the scoundrels on this site.

BTW, I am Romney’s chief adversary in western New Hampshire. And we trounced him thoroughly there in ‘08. But we did it without slandering his family or engaging in anti-Mormon rhetoric. We will defeat him again in ‘12 and Mitt can spend the fall of ‘12 campaigning for our nominee.

[CharlesWayneCT]

You misunderstood my use of the term “we”. I am a Freeper, and it does seem the official policy of this site to chase away Mitt supporters, so I owned the policy of the board I am a member of.

But I hardly support it. I find it counterproductive, probably for the reasons you dislike “chasers”.

[campaignPete R-CT]

Charles, I apologize for questioning your intentions.

I also wish that there was some way to apologize to all the Mormons who’ve been insulted over the past few years by the Mormon bashing within the religious right. Especially those Mormons who saved California from “gay-marriage”.

I seem to recall a certain Samaritan who helped out a fella who was lying on the side of the road. Did the guy say, “You Samaritans have weird beliefs, get your hands off of me!?” When the situation is serious, as it is now, we should be grateful to anyone who is willing to help.

[campaignPete R-CT]

Getting back to Marathon Mitt, I read the entire 6-page article ... Mitt is re-inventing himself yet again.

Mitt is not going to make it to the White House. Perhaps that is why he doesn’t scare me. But anyone who reads that article can see that he will not be easily beaten. I am disappointed that Cantor doesn’t have enough sense to stay away from him.

[fieldmarshaldj]

It will be my distinct pleasure to drive a stake through the candidacy of this undead vampire Socialist once and for f****** all. No one has it coming more than he.

[Max_850]

Thanks for your words Pete. I was thinking I was the only one not a Hater there for a minute :) Exaggeration of course, but I think you get it.

Charles, I do owe you an apology since you were meaning a figurative “we” on post #36. I read it as a personal opinion somehow... Think it was because I saw several of these over the weekend. I usually just pass over them without a great deal of thought, but I guess it just reached the point where I had to question it.

That is the problem with written word sometimes and the brief nature of comments on message boards, easy to miss context, sarcasm, etc.

I really enjoy this board. Haven't seen another with this much content and some really great opinions. Just seems there are a few that don't suffer n00bs, or people with a different opinion all that much...

By the way, can someone explain what a RomneyBOT is, forgive me I am a n00b apparently.

[campaignPete R-CT]

i put my cursor over your screen name ... and I am more of a nOOb than you are!

Internet bots are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive. (ro-bot)

so a RomneyBOT is a person who comes on here and acts like a bot ... just keeps repeating pro-Mitt talking points. Some of them actually are working with the Romney organization, presumably as volunteers.

Political campaigns actually hire people to surf the web and post comments promoting the candidate, pretending to be random readers. Howard Dean may have been the first candidate to do this on a wide scale.

[lula]

DeMint/Palin or Palin/DeMint both work for me.

[CharlesWayneCT]

In addition to the fine definition already given, the term is also used derisively against any person who ever supported Romney, or defended him against any charges made against him on this board.

It is meant to suggest that anybody who supported Mitt was mindless, and therefore should be dismissed without having to deal with any facts.

It is a term of marginalization, used to avoid discussion the actual issues.

So, for example, I am called a “RomneyBot”, even though Mitt is only one of 3 candidates I supported in the primaries, and I never worked for his campaign.

My favorite nickname used for mitt supporters though was “Mittens”, used against women who supported Mitt, to suggest that they were voting with their libido rather than their brains.

[Terabitten]

as his fellow Republicans made career-crippling moves or drifted toward irrelevance, Romney’s meticulous approach has left him not only the default front-runner for the party’s 2012 nomination but one of the only stable forces the GOP has left.

Yep. Sarah's sure been ineffective. One single Facebook entry that damn near singlehandedly took down the Healthcare bill. Seems to me that Sarah's only gotten more popular since she resigned as governor -- more and more, people understand *why* she resigned.

The six-person operation that Romney built over the last year in a Lexington office complex -- under the flag of his Free and Strong America political action committee -- may qualify as the closest thing there is to a durable Republican infrastructure in the Obama era.

He's got six people. Sarah's got eight hundred thousand in SarahPAC.

This author is delusional.

[longtermmemmory]

really simple.

How many speaking invites for Romney,
How many speaking invites for Palin,

[Grandma Conservative]

That won’t matter if Romney has the GOP leadership and all their money behind him. And he will have it behind him unless conservatives get on the ball and win back the GOP from the RINOs.

[Grandma Conservative]

You do realize that DeMint was an early supporter of Romney’s?

[Grandma Conservative]

For those here thinking Romney has no chance of being the GOP nominee, remember how dead McCain’s campaign was after he came out in full support of amnesty. If the money men want it, the money men get it. Don’t give them the opportunity.

[campaignPete R-CT]

I have a vision in my mind of all the anti-Romney people falling in line behind Jeb Bush the minute he jumps into this race.

We may have built enough critical mass to stop Romney, but I think the love affair between the pseudo-conservatives and the Bush family will live on.