Posted on 11/19/2010 6:50:35 AM PST by WebFocus
By telling Barbara Walters that she thinks she can defeat President Obama, Sarah Palin has dimmed hopes cherished by sensible Republicans that she might decide against a run for the White House in 2012. Here are just some of the reasons she should not run.
The Republican nominee should be someone with a vast and impressive record in government and the private sector. Voters chose a novice with plenty of star power in 2008 and will be inclined to swing strongly in the other direction in 2012. Americans will be looking for sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity — not sizzle and flash.
After the 2008 campaign revealed her substantive weaknesses, Palin was advised by those who admired her natural gifts to bone up on policy and devote herself to governing Alaska successfully. Instead, she quit her job as governor after two and a half years, published a book (another is due next week), and seemed to chase money and empty celebrity. Now, rather than being able to highlight the accomplishments of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, we get Sarah Palin’s Alaska, another cheesy entrant in the reality-show genre. She’d so much rather be out dog sledding than in some “dull political office,” she tells the audience. File that.
It’s true. She is wildly popular with a swath of the Republican electorate. And, as a conservative woman politician told me, political consultants (who get paid the big bucks, win or lose) will doubtless descend upon her with game plans showing how she can win in Iowa and then cruise to the nomination. Maybe. But the general election would be a problem, since 53 percent of independent voters view Palin unfavorably along with 81 percent of Democrats, according to a recent Gallup poll.
There is no denying that Sarah Palin has been harshly, sometimes even brutally, treated by the press and the entertainment gaggle. But any prominent Republican must expect and be able to transcend that. Palin compares herself to Reagan. But Reagan didn’t mud-wrestle with the press. Palin seems consumed and obsessed by it, as her rapid Twitter finger attests, and thus she encourages the sniping. She should be presiding over meetings on oil and gas leases in the North Slope, or devising alternatives to Obamacare. Every public spat with Dave Letterman or Politico, or the “lamestream media,” or (God help us) Levi Johnston, diminishes her.
Speaking of television, have you watched “Dancing with the Stars”? Calling the show cheesy would be too generous. Perhaps the former governor should not be blamed for the decisions of her adult daughter. Yet there in the audience we see Sarah and Todd Palin, mugging for the camera and cheering on their unwed-mother daughter as she bumps and grinds to the tune of “Mamma Told Me Not To Come.” Her parents had advised her, the 20-year-old Bristol told an interviewer, that she had to stay “in character” if she expected to win. Being “in character” evidently meant descending to the vulgarity that DWTS peddles on a weekly basis. The mama grizzly was apparently unfazed by, or — equally disturbingly — unaware of, the indignity. And she is supposed to be a conservative culture warrior?
Voters prize judgment, above all, in a presidential candidate. Some of Sarah Palin’s 2010 endorsements were sound and arguably helpful. Others betrayed flightiness and recklessness. Tom Tancredo, Palin’s choice for governor of Colorado, has ridden his anti-immigration hobby-horse in a style perfectly suited to alienate Hispanic voters (describing Miami, for example, as a “Third World city”). Her endorsement of Christine O’Donnell was irresponsible and damaging, losing a seat that would otherwise have been a Republican pick-up. Of course, O’Donnell received an absurdly disproportionate amount of ink and attention during the race (the liberal press naturally seizes upon any opportunity to make conservatives look kooky), but Palin should have anticipated that. Besides, this one cannot be laid at the feet of the biased media. O’Donnell was a thoroughly unqualified candidate.
Palin has many strengths. I admire her fortitude and her principles. Her ability to connect with a crowd is something most politicians can only dream of. I will always remember her 2008 convention speech as a rollicking star turn. She would be terrific as a talk-show host — the new Oprah.
But a presidential candidate? Someone to convince critical independent voters that Republicans can govern successfully? Absolutely not.
— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist.
Hey afnamvet! Yep, Jim stays busy.
Several trolls, even before anyone has announced!
“she quit”
Then she must not be a factor for President.
Then why is the media attacking her relentlessly.
You’re not intelligent enough to attack Palin. She took a promotion to taking on Obama non-stop...the only person of note doing this in the Republican Party.
You’re a clown. You’ve heard this all before.
You misrepresent Palin while she positions as the co-front runner for the Pres. nomination.
Actually I’m shocked - shocked! - at how sensitive you are about conservatives sticking to conservative principles! You are so delicate.
You believe the lefty press. You are no conservative. Try reading the link in 276.
ZOT!!!
They’re also zotted. Personally. By the Boss.
But NO ONE is attacking them and trying to convince them not to even run.
What’s wrong with letting the VOTERS decide who we want. This coordinated elitist attack is disgusting, and all the anti-Palin people on FR chiming in with it are going to catch some flack.
My suggestion to you is, start some pro Pence or Thune threads...talk up your guy...but quit the anti-Palin piling on.”
What you said! I am going to support Palin until another candidate can prove himself to me. They need to be vetted as well as Palin or better, and they need to get the hell out there an start fighting like a Banche against the commie bastards like Palin has been doing.
The more the PDS’ers do nothing but sit and cry, without promoting their own candidates of choice, the more Palin will remain the frontrunner.
For the love of God, if you do not support Palin, please try to promote, vet, support your candidate, unless he is Mitt et al, then don't bother.
So when IS her time then? 2016 after Obama has left the country in ruins, or even later, when she's an old grey-headed granny?
You’re a little behind. That poster is ZOT.
A zot. A well-deserved zot.
Specifically, what part of her record sucks? She left because it was a matter of math. She made $125,000 as her salary and then she was accumilating legal bills of over $500,000 and climbing. She didn’t want her family to go bankrupt so she stepped down and all lawsuits were dismissed with no bases and deemed frivilous. Palin took her mission to the national stage as a civilian and it has worked. The woman possesses executive experience and she is pro-oil and gas which is the field I have been in for 35+ years. I am a independent domestic drilling contractor and own a Oil & Gas Drilling company since I retired from the military. Palin stepped down of the oil and gas commission due to members practicing unethical business and didn’t want to be part of it. Palin is for domestic independent drilling on federal lands and up in ANWAR which we need. Her record is exemplary as a business executive. She put together many business deals that other Alaska heads of state were unable to do. Palin is self made and she is a patriotic American who has ALWAYS loved her country unlike the first lady who has been loving America for only 2 years now. We need Palin in the White House as a President who loves her country and military who will inspire American exceptionalism throughout the country. Now, I challenge you to point out what is wrong with her record as governor specifically. Prove your point her record sucks ijrazz.
“The more the PDS’ers do nothing but sit and cry, without promoting their own candidates of choice, the more Palin will remain the frontrunner.
For the love of God, if you do not support Palin, please try to promote, vet, support your candidate, unless he is Mitt et al, then don’t bother.”
Nail head.
Yeah, I’m behind - doing several things at once here!
Quite the zotfest today.
>> Article: Americans will be looking for sober competence, managerial skill, and maturity — not sizzle and flash.
Hostile beotch.
Not enough. I’ve spotted more...lol.
Well looky here..another resident PDS troll has magically appeared!
I see two.
It especially doesn't change the truth, which is that she quit. That and her lack of real world qualifications (celebrity is not a qualification) will keep her out.
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