Republicans trying to stop a Palin run for presidency ("Stop Palin Week" now at Warp 10)

WASHINGTON -- Republican triumphs in the recent U.S. congressional elections have left the party with an ironic dilemma: The woman who played such a key role in igniting their conservative base is also the woman they fear the most.

Sarah Palin -- either adored or abhorred in the United States, depending on one's political perspective -- is considered one of the biggest winners following last week's mid-term elections.

The former Alaska governor backed some 60 Tea Party candidates, about half of whom won, while targeting 20 Democrats for certain defeat. Eighteen lost.

Yet in the corridors of power on Capitol Hill, there is a determined and focused effort underway among the Republican elite to find a candidate who can handily beat Palin for the nomination. In recent days, the "Blame Palin" strategy has stepped out from the shadows.

Spencer Bachus, a Republican congressman from Alabama, has pointed to Palin and the Tea Party movement for his party's failure to capture the U.S. Senate in addition to the House.

"The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware," Bachus told an Alabama newspaper. "Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate."

Although Tea Party candidates did well in House races, Bachus added, "they didn't do very well at all" in their attempts to win Senate seats.

Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh, the radio-show host who wields tremendous influence over the party, has been railing against such anti-Palin forces in recent days.

"What's going on here, folks, is very simple," said Limbaugh, who's a big Palin booster.

"They want to establish a lie very firmly in the minds of the public that the Tea Party hurt the Republican party in these elections. They want to use this to stop Sarah Palin. Republican insiders are trying to figure out now how to stop Sarah Palin."

Why the Palin fears? Republicans fret that if she's their presidential candidate in 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama will easily dispose of her. Even George W. Bush, the much-maligned former Republican president, has reportedly told associates that Palin is "unqualified" to be commander-in-chief, and his one-time chief strategist, Karl Rove, says she lacks the "gravitas" for the job.

Palin doesn't appear to be paying any mind. The period after the mid-term elections tend to be when presidential campaigns unofficially begin, and Palin's Twitter stream moved in a new direction Monday. The self-styled hockey mom relies on social media like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with the masses.

"Today: trade speech; tmrw school event 2 start discussing QuantitativeEasing w kids around US so they prepare 4 Feds experiment w their future," Palin tweeted. She usually uses Twitter to make personal comments about political candidates, current events and the media, not to alert followers about her own upcoming policy announcements.

Palin also delivered a hard-hitting speech in Phoenix that assailed Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Board chairman, by focusing on a primary conservative concern this election cycle: government overspending.

"I'm deeply concerned about the Federal Reserve's plans to buy up anywhere from $600 billion to as much as $1 trillion of government securities," Palin said in prepared remarks. "What's the end game here?... All this pump-priming will come at a serious price."

A recent ABC News-Washington Post poll found only 27 per cent of registered voters believe Palin is qualified to be president. Even those who identify themselves as lifelong Republicans are uneasy about her, including the segment that voted for the party in droves last week -- older white men.

"I think she's a very good lady, but I just don't think we're ready for her," Daniel Phillips, 48, a North Carolina Republican businessman, said in a recent interview.

Phillips said he lost respect for Palin when she resigned as Alaska governor last year before serving her full term.

"When she did that, I think she hurt herself. I think she's a good cheerleader for the conservative party and the Tea Party movement, but as far as being a serious presidential candidate, no. I just don't see it."

Nonetheless, 55 per cent of conservative Republicans like Phillips do believe she's qualified, the same poll suggested. And a whopping 73 per cent of Tea Party supporters believe she's got what it takes to be president.

Those making the case that Palin can emerge victorious on a national level often point to 1966, when Richard Nixon, another figure facing some public antipathy, took to the hustings after losing in a presidential election. Nixon won the presidency in 1968.

>>> Coons said he would vote to keep Bush’s tax for rich and everyone! Do you Think he would have promised that if Casle-RINO was the candidate?

Unlike the worst of the O’Donnell cheerleaders, I cannot claim to know for certain what would have happened in a parallel future history track. (My favorite was the CERTAINITY that “Casle-RINO” would have immediately switched parties).

I do however again note my original comment. This was a certain Republican year. The failing economy would have still been the context in which Coon would have to campaign.

So maybe he wouldn’t have made this pledge if that’s what he actually said, or then again maybe the guy understands enough of economics to recognize now isn’t the time to raise taxes. I couldn’t definitively say which.

Bottom line however is Coon didn’t have to pander one iota. Not with such a hapless opponent on the ballot.

To sum it up: “Stop Sarah Palin Week” is an organized effort, created by insiders, propagated by surrogates of other candidates and Establishment GOPers, spread in earnest by GOP members of the media, and picked-up by lefty blogs and organizations hoping to join the assassination attempt. The Journolisters were quick to take action as well. It is an all-out attempt to unload on Sarah Palin, relentlessly, for at least all of this week, using every means, medium, talking point, astroturfing tool, media outlet, and blog they can to try and inflict a mortal wound. They are hoping the sheer volume and consistency of their memes will be effective enough to plant enough seeds of doubt in everyone’s mind that they will stop considering Sarah Palin as an option for 2012. This week is a big test for them, because it is going to give them a measure of how much damage they can do with a 100% concerted effort and every weapon in the arsenal firing.

Outstanding analysis of precisely what is going on right now!

"If she IS the nominee and wins, please come back to this thread and ridicule me in 11.2012. I’ll happily take it..."

Hey, why put off 'til tomorrow whom you can ridicule today? She already is the nominee in 2012, some slime-for-brains dolts just haven't figured it out yet. Like you. Oh, and my favorite line from your tortured-logic, backhanded, clumsily psuedo-polite, cowardly-phony assault on the new Commander in Kerchief?

"I like her. I really do!"

You simpering crack-sap. You sniveling puke-tard. If you're going to punch a woman, at least have the guts to admit that you punched a woman, okay? Scum like you would destroy this country if we let you. Lumps like you raise way too many kids, most of whom end up homo.

Had enough yet?

8^D

I don't know if you're asking a serious question or being sarcastic, but I'll answer anyway.

Thank you for your response. I wasn't exactly being sarcastic. I just don't find any effort with so few non-anonymous sources to be sufficiently strong to take her out.

Frankly, the efforts you describe, at least on the talk radio front, are laughable. If Rush is defending Sarah Palin, and blasting these efforts, and he is, that is like Palin having the iPod of the talk radio world, and Romney et al settling for the Zune, Rio, and homebrew geek players. Rush is the Harlem Globetrotters. The others are the Washington Generals (especially since Hannity and Levin won't play).

These folks are like Boris and Natasha, or Wile E. Coyote, they keep on going back for more of the same. No creativity. In doing this, they further galvinize Palin's support and risk a real split, with them getting the short end. Based on what you say, I think they are willing to throw away 2012, if that is what it takes to keep the Republican Party in the Bob Michel/Denny Hastert mold.

These clowns' real power would be if they can change the states' primary systems to weaken Palin. They might try to have more "open" primaries, which may backfire if Obama draws a primary opponent. (Reagan did EXTREMELY well in open primaries in '76) They may also try caucuses in big states with tight controls (Reagan would have won the nomination outright in '76 but for New York's and Pennsylvania's system at the time). Palin is going to need agents on the ground in many of these areas.

The other tactic the establishment would try would be to throw in faux primary opponents to draw votes away from Palin, while quietly agreeing to put their weight behind a single "stop-Palin" candidate. This was last done in '96, when a much weaker candidate, Pat Buchanan, won New Hampshire. Suddenly, Dole was the man. Better candidates like Gramm actually lost ground.

That won't work so easily this time, because Romney wants it, and he is too flawed to get it. Pawlenty would make more sense (he's generic), but he and Romney will only weaken each other. There's a reason that Palin says she likes full-throated, active primaries. Her brand is established.

In 1980, only one candidate out of a half-dozen challenged Reagan on the right, Phil Crane (other candidates: Bush the Elder, Baker, Anderson, Dole, Connolly). Before the NH primary, Loeb's paper made a special effort to attack Crane, and not bother so much with Bush the Elder, who had already won Iowa.

Palin really isn't all that far to the right. Even her self-descriptor, "Common Sense Conservative" means that she isn't going to be a hard ideologue. What she has become, however, is the anti-establishment candidate; she is sort of a right wing Eugene McCarthy, where the style is as important as the actual platform. Who can challenge her on that? Ron Paul? Alan Keyes? Donald Trump? None of these. Maybe DeMint, Pence or Bolton if Palin missteps badly. Palin starts with 25% wherever she goes. Romney starts with 10% Huckabee also 10%. All of the other candidates (Pawlenty, Daniels, Bolton, Perry, Barbour,Pence) start with 2%. DeMint maybe a touch more.

I could easily see a Palin/Bolton ticket.

Getting back to the original topic:

When one is threatened with strong but anonymous forces one has three options. One, acquiesce and be co-opted or go away. Two, quietly work behind the scenes with your own forces. Three, go as public as you possibly can, exposing the plan at every turn, so that if something should happen to you, the source will be known. Plan three only works if you have the ability to get your message out, and if enough people will believe you. The risk to such a plan is that there may be unforeseen collateral damage throughout the system. The upside is that it is the only way to put a permanent stop to these types of threats. Palin has opted for #3, and is executing brilliantly.

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