Posted on 12/01/2010 7:48:56 PM PST by neverdem
Much of the punditocracy is obsessed with Sarah Palin. It's understandable on several levels. First, she makes for good copy and has a knack for coining catchy phrases ("death panels") and new words ("refudiate" -- it's now in the dictionary). She is controversial and opinionated, so given the choice between, say, a story on John Thune and one on Palin, it's a no-brainer to choose the best-selling author, TV reality show star and Tea Party darling. But conservatives suspect there's also some mischief-making afoot -- the desire by liberal-leaning members of the media and the White House to make Palin the symbol of the Republican Party, which they are convinced will translate into her presidential run, her nomination and a shellacking for the GOP at the polls in 2012.
You don't have to buy into a conspiracy to see that many in the media and on the left are convinced Palin will be the nominee. In fact, they seem to be in a bit of a time warp. Howard Kurtz recently praised her media savvy, an observation widely held by conservatives -- 18 months ago. Unlike conservatives who have had time to process the Palin phenomenon, non-conservatives are just beginning to evaluate her as more than a punchline or an object of ridicule. They suspect conservatives are oblivious to her shortcomings. But that's simply wrong.
For months now the real story on the right has been the search for new presidential contenders. There is far more awareness than many in the media imagine among conservative activists, Tea Partyers included, of Palin's limited appeal to independent voters. Her backing of questionable...
--snip--
And now there's Mike Pence...
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Yea!, Palin will be disaster for Democratic Party! More balls then any Conservative man! Everything they say about her they said about REAGAN, Puppy! Dems wanted Reagan to win too, They will get Palin and a whipping too! Jebie Bush is your type, a Reagan HATER~ PALIN/RYAN/2012
I didn’t have to prove it. Palin did already. At least 4 times I’m aware of. That should be enough even for the thickest skulls.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2618917/posts?page=44#44
If she was a conservative, I might give it some thought.
Micheal Reagan Thought Palin was his Dad in high heels!
He’s changed his tune substantially since then. Can’t blame him.
Great Post
Most of the freepers are dems who don’t want PALIN!
Here what the Dems fear!
If a Republican man wins how is that going to grow the base, but if Sarah Palin wins what do you think its going to do for voting blocks for the future! Young girls will look up to Sarah and the GOP, those girls turn into voters,
THIS IS WHAT SCARES THE DEMS!
But if She doesn’t run little girls will think when someone says you’re dumb and to shut up! You need to take heed, also girls are not smart to be President, if you are Conservative girl!
THE FURTURE OF CONSERVATIVES IS IN THE HANDS OF GOD AND PALIN!
mike Reagan:::
If some media reports are correct — a dangerous assumption nowadays when media skepticism has given way to unquestioned Obama worship — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says the GOP needs to abandon nostalgia for the Reagan era.
I’m inclined to doubt the accuracy of that report since Jeb Bush was probably the best governor Florida ever had, and one who clung ferociously to the Republican principles exemplified by my father, Ronald Reagan.
Even if he did say something silly like that, my argument with him and Mitt Romney and the other participants in the so-called listening tour is not about my dad, but about the absurdity of a listening tour designed to tutor Republican bigwigs on what the public really wants from government. My short answer to that question is that I want the government to get the hell out of our way and let us act like the free people our founding fathers wanted us to be, and not like subjects of an all-knowing, all-powerful federal government.
The listening tour is nothing but Republican gimmickry. The reality is that had they been listening over the past four years of the Bush presidency they would have seen the disaster of 2006 coming and they would have seen the catastrophe of 2008 coming.
Instead, they turned a deaf ear to the Republican conservatives not only on Capitol Hill, but to those out across America.
They lost in 2006 and 2008 because they stopped listening to the “nostalgia” for the conservative principles which guided my dad’s administrations.
[...]
If the GOP listeners want to know what the conservative majority among voters want and are thinking about, all they need to do is listen to Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and — in all modesty — Mike Reagan.
Our voices are the voice of the majority of Republican voters and open-minded independents. We don’t have tens of millions of listeners every day because we have a message that contradicts the opinion of our audience — we have such a vast army of listeners because they recognize that we are echoing their own opinions and telling them they are right in thinking as they do. They recognize gimmicky when they see it. Watching TV this morning, I saw a pornography star who is running for the United States Senate announcing that she is on — guess what — a “listening tour,” to learn if voters want her to make the run for Capitol Hill. It seems Republicans aren’t the only ones using gimmickry these days.
If Republicans had really been listening, they’d still be in control of the House and Senate and there would be a Republican in the White House.
They didn’t listen then, and they aren’t listening now. If they start listening, what they’ll hear is a demand that the Republican Party get back to the principles and beliefs embodied by Ronald Reagan, and get back to the principles of genuine conservatism which echo Thomas Jefferson’s sage advice that a people who fear government cannot be free, but a government that fears the people is a government where the people are the masters and the state is their servant.
Finally, it isn’t nostalgia for the Reagan era we need to forget, but the big government, wild-spending of Jeb Bush’s brother George’s administration.
Michael Reagan: “The others don’t have the passion that Sarah Palin has”
Reagan’a celebrity came long before his career in public office. He did not quit the job of governor of California to pursue it.
“if you were a normal person who loved your country..and knew you were in a position to save it you’d be willing to make the sacrifice.”
It IS a sacrifice and Gov Palin is willing to make it for our sake.
This from the guy who posted this:
LOL. The poor quality of birther reading comprehension skills never ceases to amaze me. Rush is saying they got an imposter into the EQUIVALENT of the White House in AFGANISTATN.
Running interference for Obama on the Birther issue; misunderstanding Rush Limbaugh's plain English while mocking the FReepers who got it right; characterizing a possible Palin bid for the GOP nomination as a disaster...what's next?
I'm looking forward to reading your take on Wikileaks. LOL
And of course the GOP fallback is, if she can’t win, we should run a Rudy or Mitt, who can win.
And then what?
We get RINO’s like McCain who still don’t win and, if they did, would just be socialist-lites, aka Dems, aka, libs.
We’ve been down that road.
The GOP said Reagan couldn’t win.
The candidate that proudly and coherently states the conservative case will win.
I’m not sure if that is Palin, but she is doing more than any other Republican or conservative at this point, and I refuse to jump on the Alinsky bandwagon of ridicule just because that is the momentum the left is trying to generate and which all-too-often pulls independence and conservatives along too.
The problem with being “both” is we aren’t really talking about belief, we are talking about action. While a person can believe contradictory things, in the physical world contradictory actions are more problematic. For example, you can’t keep your car in the driveway, AND drive to work, at the same time.
Either they are working to get Palin nominated, or they are working to keep her from getting nominated. Those two things are mutually exclusive.
I realize that I’ve left out of the equation what I believe to be the REAL answer — that some are working to keep her from getting nominated, while OTHERS are working to get her nominated — that was in fact my point, that there are different groups out there with different goals, and we would do well not to keep posting broad generalizations pretending they are useful facts.
In order to get Palin the nomination, we need to overcome b oth groups. For the one which wants to stop her, we need to help get her qualifications and fitness for office out to the public in a way that resonates, to overcome their attempts, and the current public perception, that Palin is not ready for office.
For the second group, we need to ensure that they don’t poison the well such that we can’t get the real message out, lest we end up with a nominee that can’t win the election. We can’t let the second group drive a nomination that appeals only to conservatives, who are a minority of the general electorate.
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“Bachman had to back down on her quest for a leadership position. I wonder why?
That’s an interesting question...I’d be interested in why also.”
The job she was going for was also wanted by a very conservative Texan with lots of tea party support.
That was the Romneybot spin for 2008. Now, post Obamacare, that spin fails to explain why Romney continues to extoll the 'virtues' of Romneycare.
So take that crap somewhere else. FR is a Romneybot-free zone.
Once again, that fails to explain why Romney is still extolling Romneycare.
Maybe Hunter can double his 2008 performance and win TWO delegates.
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