Karl Rove To Sarah Palin: Get A "Thicker Skin"

Real Clear Politics ^

[indianrightwinger]

Karl Rove responds to controversy over his speculation if Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin will indeed enter the GOP field. Rove said chances are she will jump in, but was not definitive in his observation.

"I'm mystified," Rove said about reaction to his speculation. "Look, she is all upset about this saying how I am trying to sabatouge her in some way. How do I speculate on her future."

"Look, if she doesn't want to be speculated about a potential presidential candidate there is an easy way to end the speculation. Simply say 'I'm not running.' Instead, every time she pops up in the public eye like she did on CNN, at the Iowa State fair a short number of days ago. she said 'I haven't made a decision.'"

"I'm just speculating that more likely than not she is going to be a candidate."

"Now I said 'I wouldn't bet a lot of money on it' because it is such a close thing and I am not privy to her thought-making process. But it is sign of enormous thin-skin that if we speculate about her, she gets upset. And I suspect if we didn't speculate about her, she would be upset and getting ways to get us to speculate about her."

[sarge83]

Really Karl? How did that not fighting back, bending over and taking it from behind from the liberals work for your confidant Bush?

[CajunConservative]

Puhleeze, when all of the major polls say the same thing, she’s in 4th at best then she’s not the front runner. She’s polling about as well as Ron Paul.

[CajunConservative]

I still like her but if she could not figure a way to stand up to her detractors, whether they were lawyers or media slimes, how could she ever stand up to the rest of the world as president of the US. I am hoping that she will not enter the race but be out there to support our nominee, who ever it may be.

---

This! You summed up what I feel as well. With all of the mess the next POTUS is going to inherit from the marxist dictator in chief, we need someone who will not fail or falter when the SHTF.

[no-to-illegals]

Waiting to Go Nationwide ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NJoJanJa0&feature=grec_index

[Springfield Reformer]

she shouldn't have said anything

Shows what you know about organizational psychology. I'm part of the Palin hive on Facebook. It is the nexus of her boots on the ground, not for the general population. The frenzy that she was going to announce on the 3rd was getting so intense in the hive that people were getting very emotionally invested, such that a disappointment would have been crushing for them. Rove is no dummy and he had to know this.

But A good leader sees such things coming and manages the expectation back down to realistic levels before things get out of control. I've seen this before, but primarily within the context of large corporations run by talented leadership. That should be a clue.

[Finny]

I don’t think SP would have “died” if she finished out her term as governor of Alaska. And quite frankly I think she would be the GOP frontrunner today if she hadn’t resigned.

She woudn't have died, but she would have HAD to declare personal bankruptcy. If that had happened, you would be saying, "Well, if she couldn't avoid bankruptcy in her personal life -- if she let politics drive her to bankruptcy -- why on earth should we trust her with responsibilities of the presidency?"

Either way, you'd have had your reasons to object to her.

Alaksan law, if I remember what I've read correctly, supported her enemies who wanted to prevent her from accepting help of defense funds set up by her supporters. By the time she resigned, she and her family were already looking at more than half a million dollars in lawsuit defense expenses; had she remained in office, who knows that that number would have been? And I have read on many discussions that the laws in Alaska prohibited her from relying on defense funds provided by her supporters.

Her opponents' deliberate strategy of deluging her with lawsuits must have seemed like sure win for them -- if Palin stayed in office, she'd be driven to personal bankruptcy and that would sour voters; if she resigned, voters would be sour on her for resigning. No amount of explaining the facts would change either one for people who aren't political junkies, as you have already pointed out in your posts here with regard to the resignation issue.

It's interseting that her enemies' ploy to reduce her and her family to impoverished bankruptcy, ended up creating a circumstance where she and hers are now wealthier than ever.

[DJ MacWoW]

Answer a question. Please.

The frivolous lawsuits cost the state of Alaska $2 Mil.

Should Palin have stayed and cost them 4$ Mil? $6 Mil? What is your cut off point.

Also Malia Littman, a lefty from Texas, just had a suit dismissed in August 2011. That cost Alaska money too.

Should Palin have stayed and allowed the left to continue harass the state of Alaska?

[deport]

Not sure of the accuracy of the following but it shows primary type for each state.

List of States with Open and Closed Primaries

Primaries: Open and Closed

Open primaries (or pick-a-party) are those in which voters of any affiliation may vote for the slate of any party.

Closed primaries are those in which only the voters affiliated with a party may vote in its primary.

Blanket primaries (or “jungle primaries”) are those in which voters, regardless of affiliation, may choose the party primary in which they want to vote on an office-by-office basis. The blanket primary was struck down in 2001 by the Supreme Court in CA Democratic Party v. Jones.

The following is a running list of states by primary type: open, potentially closed, or with special provisions. We say “potentially” because these states require voters to affiliate by party, which allows parties the option to close their primaries.

Please contact mailto:info@fairvote.org?Subject=Open%20and%20closed%20primaries%20page with any questions.

State	Closed	Open	Other	Remarks
Alabama		x
Alaska			x	Blanket primary for four of five registered parties. Republicans use closed primary.
Arizona	x
Arkansas		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
California	x
Colorado	x
Connecticut	x
Delaware	x
District of Columbia	x
Florida	x
Georgia		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
Hawaii		x
Idaho		x
Illinois			x	Must vote in primary of same party as last primary vote. Loosely enforced.
Indiana		x
Iowa			x	Voter may change registration at polls.
Kansas	x
Kentucky	x
Louisiana			x	“Effectively open. Top-two runoff system (\”"cajun primary\”") used. Closed primary used for Congressional races after 2006.”
Maine	x
Maryland	x
Massachusetts	x
Michigan		x
Minnesota		x
Mississippi		x
Missouri		x
Montana		x
Nebraska	x
Nevada	x
New Hampshire	x
New Jersey	x
New Mexico	x
New York	x
North Carolina	x
North Dakota		x
Ohio			x	Must vote in primary of same party as last primary vote. Loosely enforced.
Oklahoma	x
Oregon	x
Pennsylvania	x
Rhode Island	x
South Carolina		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
South Dakota	x
Tennessee		x
Texas		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
Utah	x			Currently only Republicans close primary.
Vermont		x
Virginia		x
Washington		x
West Virginia	x			Currently only Democrats close primary.
Wisconsin		x
Wyoming	x

[ngat]

LOL

“Many, if not most states allow independents to vote in the primary of their choosing. So, you will see a HUGE independent bloc of voters voting in the GOP primaries. I don’t think this will help SP, and it will probably benefit Romney the most.”

Not quite up speed on open and semi open-primary states rules, are you “General”? ...”states allow independents to vote in the primary of their choosing?” In reality, most states allow ANYONE to vote in the primary of their choosing. In those states, you simply show up at the polls, tell the election worker which parties’ primary you wish to vote in, they stamp your voter ID card with “Rep” or “Dem”, and that identifies you, keeping you from crossing over in the runoff that same year, and you vote. So, lemme get this straight, if your half-baked prediction were to hold true, wouldn’t these anti-Palin “independents” and democrats that hate Palin so bad they would forgo voting in their own party primary vote FOR Palin so that she would be the “weak” candidate for the Democrat candidate to beat?

[no-to-illegals]

Sarah In 2012, Waiting to Go Nationwide ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s9lj30IQFU&feature=related

[gov_bean_ counter]

There was even a complaint regarding the legal defense fund she tried to establish over the use of the word "official". She had to shut it down and return the funds.

I think that may have been the tipping point.

[CajunConservative]

She didn’t stay and fix the bad law she signed. She was the governor and had the power to call a special session. She didn’t do that so that bad law she signed is still there to be utilized politically for those who follow her. A good leader would have fixed the problem not run and whine when the heat was too rough.

She opted to go the celebrity route for the money and therefore, IMO she’s not really fit to be the POTUS. I have no problem with her choosing to get the financial payoff while she could. I do have a problem with her thinking that she can just jump in whenever and be the front runner, especially when every major poll says she will get stomped by 0bama by a large margin.

This is not the time to play around, which is what she is doing. We have all got to focus on how to beat the worst president ever whose one goal has been to fundamentally change this country from a constitutional republic into a communist hellhole. I don’t support candidates who can’t win at this most dangerous time in our nation’s history.

[Springfield Reformer]

GOP in Illinois picking Romney? Hardly. I worked the Palin booth her at the IL state fair and Romney signups were almost as bad as Cain signups. You know who was overwhelmingly popular here? Ding Ding Ding, you guessed it, Sarah Palin. Hmmmm... but how can that be? Maybe ordinary people have enough common sense to figure out we don’t need no more stinkin used car salesmen. Just sayin...

[gov_bean_ counter]

Would you rather support a presidential candidate who looks into the camera and lies to the voters about his intentions simply because sitting governors run better that former governors???

[DJ MacWoW]

She didn’t stay and fix the bad law she signed.

It wasn't and isn't a bad law. It makes politicians answerable to the people. It was misused by the left. Every lawsuit was filed by a Dem because Palin did things like wear a coat with a logo and held up a dead fish in a pic. That doesn't make the law bad. It makes Democrats dishonest harassers.

She opted to go the celebrity route for the money

Straight out of the mouth of Democrats. And you bought it.

This is not the time to play around, which is what she is doing.

Another meme from the MSM. The deadline to declare is November. The Press pushes and again, you buy it.

Good luck with that.

[CajunConservative]

She should have called a special session to fix the bad law she signed that was being used as a battering ram against her. She had the power as the governor to do that. She didn’t do that. She quit. She left it for someone else to clean up. That is not leadership.

So In reality, this could cost the state more money as the law is still on the books. She didn’t fix the problem for Alaska, she fixed the problem for herself. That is fine and dandy as long as she doesn’t think she gets a pass if she wants to run for any other political office.

We are talking about characteristics for the President of the United States, not some other small state political office here.

[Gen. Burkhalter]

I am SIMPLY saying this: Independent voters are NATURALLY attracted to where the action is. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that in 2012 most independent voters will be gravitating to the GOP primaries as BHO already has the Dem nomination in his pocket.

Since independent voters are more moderate than rank and file GOP primary voters, it stands to reason that Romney might benefit with a large number of independents voting in the GOP primaries.

[Springfield Reformer]

Bad legal thinking. She would have a conflict of interest charge thrown at her that would have stuck. I’m sure there are laws Illinois Governor Blago would have liked to change too, but that dog don’t hunt. The Lt gov was able to fix it after she left, so for now all is well with Alaska governors and their ethics law. Put another quarter in the machine and try again.

[DJ MacWoW]

She should have called a special session to fix the bad law

OMG! And the howls from the MSM, the left and you would have been deafening!!!!

She did the right thing resigning to save her people money and you're beating her with that. Thank God I'm not a tool of the press!

[Gen. Burkhalter]

Not an expert on Illinois politics, but looking at their GOP US Senator, seems to be a fairly moderate to liberal GOP establishment in that state compared to others.