Posted on 11/09/2009 7:09:22 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Matthew Continetti has a piece in this weekend’s Weekly Standard hailing Sarah Palin as the ideal leader of a new populist uprising. One obvious objection to his thesis: The populist Sarah is in fact one of the most unpopular figures in American life.
According to Gallup, 63% of Americans say they would never consider voting for her. By a margin of 62%-31% Americans rate Palin “unqualified” to serve as president – by far the worst score for any leading Republican.
In comparison, only 51% of Americans say they would never consider voting for Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee – and a plurality of Americans rate the two as “qualified”: 50-36 say Huckabee is qualified, 49-39 say Romney is qualified.
Palin supporters have constructed an alternative reality in which their heroine is wildly cheered by the American yeomanry, and despised only by a small coterie of sherry-drinking snobs. No contrary evidence, no matter how overwhelming and uncontradicted, can alter this view: not the collapse in Palin’s support in just 5 weeks in 2008, not the statistical studies that show her as the only vice presidential nominee in ticket to have hurt her ticket, not her rampant unpopularity with American women, not her own flinching from a second encounter with the Alaskan electorate.
In this regard, Continentti’s comparison of Palin to William Jennings Bryan begins to look not only apt, but ominous.
Like Palin, Bryan had some good ideas. He was right about free trade, and he was right too about the gold standard. (Even if his alternative would have been unworkable in its own way.) But he made himself so culturally obnoxious to the American majority that he dragged even his good ideas down to defeat with him. Everybody knows Bryan’s famous line about the “cross of gold.” Not so well remembered are the lines that killed his candidacy in 1896:
"Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."
This was not the way to talk to a rapidly urbanizing nation.
Bryan ran for president three times. He lost every time, and by dwindling margins: 46.7% of the vote in 1896, 45.5% in 1900, and 43% in 1908. Yet not all was lost for him. After four consecutive defeats, the country finally did turn to the Democrats in 1912. Many of the important reforms Bryan had urged over his unsuccessful career were enacted into law. Of course in the interval, Bryan’s party had turned to a new leader: a former president of Princeton University and author of an outstanding work of political science.
The professor won what had eluded the preacher, in part because unlike the preacher, he did not look obviously unequal to the job.
Frum will never change his mind. He can’t get over the fact that he is so smart and that she is not him, because he couldn’t get elected to a school board.
So how much do you think the Gallup polls misses it.
David Frum suffers from severe head trauma.
Hey Frum, if you are so certain that no one will vote for her, why are you even discussing her you prick
Probably sampled 98% democrats and 2% socialists...
He isn't an American, afterall.
This guy is such a royal doofus. I have no idea if she ever want to run for President or not, but the election is not being held today. By his own standard, Romney and Huck can never be elected either because a majority say they would never vote for them. i guess they are disqualified too.
Sarah didn’t hurt that ticket. It was just a talking point. No one who was a serious potential voter for McCain voted for Obama because of Palin. That is just a carefully constructed narrative to damage her future chances. This is like last week when Hoffman got 46% of the vote. The left talking points point to Palin, but the fact is Hoffman moved out of distant third to almost winning, and the momentum began the second she made that endorsement. Sounds like a real political loser to me. Moved the numbers +23 post endorsement.
Let’s see... today, I’ve seen articles on the electability of Huckabee and inelectability of Palin. I think I’ll go with the “taking flack” rule of leadership...
He’s unhealthily obsessed with her, no?
Regardless of whether he’s right or wrong on Palin’s popularity anyone who thinks that any of those losers (referenced by Frum) who ran for president in 2008 is the answer for the GOP next time around is delusional. Not a one of those fellows had any real interest in shrinking the government and obeying the Constitution... I can’t imagine any of those big-government conservatives getting any traction in the near future.
... oh and by the way... William Jennings Bryan was wrong on the gold standard also.
They can't help themselves...they love dwelling on the propaganda imagine they have created of Palin.
I'm sure Baghdad Bob still has dreams of the US being nowhere close to Baghdad as well.
This turkey has no credibility. imho
Frum is a fag. This article proves it.
Soon we will see how Palin flies in America.
“Consider the source.”
I’ve considered it, and will not waste any time reading his drivel.
Desperate hit piece by Frum, who knows that Palin has several prime-time interviews and is scheduled to go on what will be a widely successful book tour, which will rehabilitate her image to independents.
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