Posted on 10/26/2015 8:13:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When The Post's front page declares: "Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national party," it's time to ask: How did this come to pass?
You can choose from a litany of insurrections, government shutdowns and other self-inflicted wounds.
But this year's carnival-like GOP presidential primary makes one event, in retrospect, stand out as a crucial turning point on the road to upheaval: the 2008 embrace of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be a heartbeat from the presidency.
Palin's blatant lack of competence and preparedness needs no belaboring. What's critical is that substantive, serious Republican leaders either wouldn't or couldn't declare, before or after the election: "This is not what our party stands for. We can and must do better."
By the campaign's end, GOP operatives were shielding Palin from even the simplest questions. (She had flunked "what newspapers do you read?"). Barack Obama cruised to victory.
Palin became a Fox News fixture, reinforcing the newly formed tea party's "never compromise" demands. Bombast, not reason, reigned. Now the "settle for flash" aura of Palin's candidacy looks like a warning that the party was prizing glib, red-meat rhetoric over reasoned solutions.
Sadly, Palin owes her fame to 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, who is generally one of the party's more thoughtful and substantive veterans.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The space where she lives rent free in their minds must be the size of Australia.
No it all started on the left during Vietnam when you bunch of communists thought you could make this country another communist one, , It was Reagan who turned you back, but I give you give credit, you never gave up and got into your positions of power and influence while fooling the Dem party that you were moderates in order to take the party over.
LOL!
Sarah is still living in their heads……...
I guess seeing Russia’s new base from Alaska is still a joke?
Next for GOP leaders: Stopping Palin
For the period 2009-2011, Palin was virtually the only nationally known Republican out there who was leading the Conservative attack, via the TEA party, and then bearing vicious retaliation and GOP-E backstabbing all alone.
Just think about this...there would not be a 2010 congressional Tsunami, nor a Senator Ted Cruz or Mike Lee, nor any "Mama Grizzlies," if it had not been for Palin, all the while, the GOP-E and its poo-bahs were claiming that for the party to be successful in the future, it had to swing wildly left and go "Democrat lite."
Campaign 2010: The Politics of Palin (Endorsements Tracker)
The Mama Grizzly Scorecard (2010)
Done! Thanks for the head’s up.
Agree with everyone that said Sarah helped. I would not have for for McWhatshisname until Palin was added to the ticket.
Rather than diminish her this artical actually elevates her.
You have to be quite powerful to singlehandedly transform an entire national party. If she could fundamentally transform the Republican Party imagine what she could do with the country with the power of the presidency behind her!
John McCain ran on a campaign of being a maverick. He chose Palin to bolster his image as a maverick ticket.
It was McCain who started the maverick wing of the GOP. It's ironic that the grass-roots party mavericks embraced Palin and rejected McCain.
-PJ
This fool lives in a bubble. He actually believes that Palin brought down McCain. All the while he overlooks
1. McCain suspending his campaign - didn't look to good after doing that
2. McCain's tepid debate performances
3. McCain's statement that "he [Obama] would make a great president".
4. McCain's constant giving in to the democrats and his often ill-timed "gangs of 7, 14, etc" he formed to snatch defeat from victory while in congress.
5. McCain's campaign staff of RINOs (Steve Schmitt, et al) trying to keep Palin out of the public instead of using her to rally conservatives near the end of the campaign.
“John McCain, who is generally one of the party’s more thoughtful and substantive veterans.” LOL....
First,Daley, you dems have got to learn to quit projecting. Your ridicule statement of "Daley's blatant lack of competence and preparedness needs no belaboring."
Second, hey Daly, have you read any of Sarah Palin's books? I didn't think so. She offers sound constitutionally based ideas to restore our country. What are you offering? More centralized government power over the people?
You gave yourself away when you said, "Trump calls Palin "a special person" he'd like in his Cabinet."
You know what Daley and Axelrod, that's a real possibility.
When The Post's front page declares: "Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national party," it's time to ask: How did this come to pass?s/b
When The Post's front page declares: "Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national party," it's time to ask: why should anyone take the Post seriously?
Ding~! Ding~! Ding~! Winner
Tere, fixed it
William M. Daley was born in Chicago, Illinois, the seventh and youngest child of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and Eleanor “Sis” Daley. Need I say more.
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