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.
Well, the local Wegmans is a zoo the weekend before Thanksgiving so I’ll be heading out EARLY Monday morning to get the turkey and a few last minute odds and ends.
LOVE the sales and coupons at this time of year. This is my stock up time. It helps to get through the winter usually, but the way this country is going, the survivalist in me thinking ahead, too.
That's four today:
ijrazz
Wee-Weed Up
TopGun25
lady lawyer
Always look for hidden agendas...
We got a “free” turkey coupon from Shaw’s (for spending over a certain amount last week). Mr. T picked up a fourteen pounder this afternoon. It’s hard to beat that. I think he’s going to brine it.
Is that all on this thread?
Yes, cowards and snakes hide agendas.
Oy vey.
Stating facts is trolling in your world? Maybe that’s the problem. And, btw, you don’t have any idea the number of private messages I’ve received in support.
That’s right, I’d forgotten. Amazing.
If she can't take the heat of the Goverorship, then she has no place in office as President.
Did Myth put out a new talking point today? Or is it just one of you with multiple accounts?
I heard that reasoning about Bill Clinton used to justify the nomination of Bob Dole in 1996. In economic hard times in 1980 against Jimmy Carter, Reagan often trailed, winning only because he finally countered the negatives that attached to him. I am not confident that Palin, with less experience and a far thinner resume than Reagan, can do the same thing in 2012 against Obama.
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How many were from Mitt? All of them?
I was thinking more like voices in ones head myself...
None of that leads me to think that Palin is our best nominee against Obama in 2012.
The heat? LOL.
Read-up. Educate yourself.
She resigned, because she couldn't personally afford to fight over $500K's worth of lawsuits which were all eventually dismissed as frivilous, on her governor's salary --- lawsuits that were also costing the state of Alaska hundreds of thousands to investigate on her behalf.
They’re stacking up like cordwood now.
Could be. :)
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