Posted on 11/30/2009 7:16:17 PM PST by delacoert
The glib answer to this is to suggest that she'd do the party a great service by not running at all. Yesterday I wrote that she's a "wrecker not a uniter" and that she could hijack the primary season to disastrous effect. That's clearly one possibility. But there are others, including some which might actually help the GOP and not merely by demonstrating the limits of Palinism and, consequently, lancing that particular boil.
Though I think he under-estimates Palin's fund-raising potential, Daniel Larison runs through some of the [reasons?] that make it most unlikely that Palin can actually win the GOP nomination. And as Daniel says, right now the most probable beneficiary of a Palin candidacy is our old friend Shameless Mitt Romney.
Until now Romney has been tacking towards the nationalist base. But Mitt's not very good at phoney populism and it shows. Put Palin in the race, however, and the equation changes: there's no point in Romney going after the type of voters most attracted to Palin (and, to a lesser extent, Mike Huckabee) which, mercifully for him, might spare Romney the embarrassment of trying, once again, to be something he's not. That would give Romney the space, and the motivation, to focus on what he does best: present himself as the problem-solvig technocrat who knows how to get things done.
True, there remains the problem of his Mormonism and his well-earned reputation for flip-floppery but in a field of adolescent midgets (thus far) Romney has the chance to present himself as the only grown-up in the room. Since the GOP, unless it changes the rules, awards delegates on a winner-takes-all basis, Romney only needs a plurality of voters to prevail. When push comes to shove, the Republican party will decide against lobotomising itself.
This, then, presents Romney with the opportunity to run the campaign he should have run in 2004. He's never going to be an exciting candidate and he should probably cease trying to be such. Putting Palin in the race, however, allows Romney to be Romney without having to pander (too much!) or make a fool of himself by trying to persuade the Palinistas that, deep down, he's one of them.
All this may yet change, not least since it's possible that other candidates more exciting than Tim Pawlenty will also join the fray. But in as much as she serves a useful purpose, Palin's presence in the race allows Romney to concentrate on what he does best and, should he win the nomination, escape the primary season without having destroyed the GOP's chances to put up a decent fight in the fall.
As I say, this is all some distance away, but, at least potentially, this is one scenario in which Palin could actually help, not hurt, the Republican party: she would make the eventual nominee look much more respectable than might be the case if he has to spend the primary season wrestling for the Palin constituency. In other words, by providing something to run against, she helps the party become the kind of sensible, pragmatic, problem-focused, grown-up organisation that might actually be worth voting for...
This guy has been smoking some bad weed...
LLS
LLS
LLS
LLS
Mitt Romney is Mitt Romney's UseLESS Idiot [FACT]
Stiff fingers after hanging some blinds for eldest in his new house.
His mother peeled him some grapes, and he feels great today.
Madame President is NO ONE’s idiot.
Palin 2012!
International Mittwits?! Bollocks!
IMNSHO, the GOP decided on McCain/Pawlenty years ago; they told Norm Coleman to not run for governor, to let Pawlenty become governor, and that Norm Coleman could run for Senator, and that GWB would actively help Coleman. It was because the GOP believed that PAWLENTY was a shoe-in for VP, and then prez for 8 years.
The GOP is so ignorant that they didn't see what the millions from mittbots and the billions from mittwhits could do to mess up the presidential primaries.
YMMV, that's my interpretation, however, of HOW & WHY the U.S.A. now has among its august senators, one Senator Alan Stuart Franken.
Shiver...
At Harvard Business School, they call that BRANDING --- go ahead and LIE, it doesn't matter, just get the BRANDING out there.
Whitman is on the board of directors of Goldman Sachs, where Chelsea Clinton's fiance Marc Mezvinski works.
Small world for the nouveau riche, right?
Huh??
Seriously, how did a soccer dude from Scotland get interested enough in U.S. politics to call Governor Sarah Palin a "useful idiot"??
It doesn't make any sense.
WHO owns that newspaper?
Is he, perchance, an Ebay seller or something?
He appears to have been a blogger who speculated about American affairs from a distance. Then he was given this newspaper job last January.
The Brits who come over to America are bad enough, but the ones who write from a distance usually haven’t a clue what they are talking about.
There are exceptions, like Toby Harnden and a few others at the Telegraph.
LOL, that's a great name for a ping list; I'm going to check out all your postings, and I'm sure I'll find lots of 'scoops' about mittites, mittbots, mittwhits and mittfits --- and/or any unforturnate others who happen to exhibit mittens' fetishes.
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I ask this VERY seriously, as I not only worry about the Little Katie Courics of this nation, but also in the potential for False Friends. Greta seems to genuinely like the entire Palin family, but what you state about Fox News is quite worrisome.
Seriously, very seriously, I don't think that Mitt Romney has enough money to pay off the entire staff of Fox News --- but his decades long BFF gal pal Meg Whitman, who is on the Goldman Sachs board of directors and made billions of dollars from the Ebay IPO --- she might have that kind of money.
Is it possible that she wants to run for prez in 2012?
___________________
>>>>> "Fox News and all their teleprompter readers, anchors, analysts are all in for Romney and have been since 2007. Rumour has it that several fox news anchors and reporters are being paid under the table by romney. Just tonight, Bill "Andrea Mackris" OReilly is back to diminishing Palin by showing a dimwitted comedian insulting her on letterman. He's been doing that since the GOP convention in Sept. 2008." <<<
The DNC and their liberal media buddies would love for Romney to win the nomination.
It’s a hedge due to his less than conservative positions.
**One of the biggest drags on Obama will be his ObamaCare attempt.
RomneyMassCare totally takes that issue away. If the economy and jobs turn around by 2012 even a smide the media will usher Obama into the election on a donkey while they wave Palm leaves.
Romney is a weak candidate in that scenario due to his MassHealth anchor.
LOL.
Thanks for the explanation --- maybe this poor soccer fan got very inebriated after attending a game and wrote this drivel during a terrible hangover???
LOL
He's gotta make a buck somehow, hey?
I know the history of Pawlenty. He’s also big fan of that global warming nonsense too. He’s a friggin RINO, just like the rest of them at the high offices of the GOP.
LOL
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