Posted on 07/15/2010 5:26:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Huckabee’s taken potshots at her from time to time, but between this fusillade from unnamed Mitt advisors and the furious counterattack on Romney at Conservatives 4 Palin, I’d say that the 2012 primary is now, at long last, officially on.
In the immortal words of Greg Stillson, “The missiles are flying. Hallelujah.”
Still, few express much regard for Palin’s ultimate chances. One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, “She’s not a serious human being.” Another Romney intimate warns, “If she’s standing up there in a debate and the answers are more than 15 seconds long, she’s in trouble.” One of the most experienced Republican national political operatives in the country suggests that while Palin might be envied and sleek, she lacks the endurance required for a protracted nomination fight. “She’s like a cheetah. She can run really fast, but not really long.” In the end, this school of thought about Palin goes, she is too polarizing to be seen as likely to beat Barack Obama, and Republicans will be too hungry in 2012 to risk nominating someone who could cost the party the White House — maybe even in a landslide…
Such a disjointed field can only provide more encouragement for Palin.
And nothing would make the White House happier. The President’s political advisers, troubled by the weak economy and Obama’s image as a big spender, are more worried than he is about re-election and more worried than they let on publicly. Obama himself has told people that he believes the Tea Party movement will still be going strong in 2012, leaving the party to go into battle against an incumbent with a candidate too far right to win. In fact, the President’s advisers believe that if Palin is the nominee, New York’s billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, could enter the race as an independent, scrambling all the conventional rules yet again.
Bloomberg as a self-funded stalking horse for his pal Barry intent on taking down the GOP? Why, that sounds … entirely plausible, actually. As for the nastiness about her being unserious, righties as respected as Krauthammer and George Will have made the same point. And I’ve noted before myself that, given the media’s obsession with painting her as a female Quayle, she’d have to be virtually perfectly on the trail for more than a year to avoid that narrative. The tiniest, most innocent flub — think Bush being quizzed on the names of foreign diplomats — will be hyped into the second coming of the Katie Couric interview, with the press breathlessly insisting that no sane person would vote for such a doofus. Can she be that perfect on the trail? Can any human being, including Barack “Bitterly cling to guns and religion” Obama?
Follow the link and read all of that piece, actually, if only for the bit about Bush and Cheney both reportedly pushing their old pal Mitch Daniels to GOP movers and shakers. Given the reviving influence of Team Dubya over the party’s establishment, I wouldn’t underestimate Daniels’s ability to burst out of obscurity quickly via a huge push from prominent Republican donors and groups. And speaking of quick bursts, more on Palin from Mark Halperin:
She would be the only woman against a half-dozen or more Republican men. As long as she leaves the door to a race open, she can freeze the field, prevent other GOP hopefuls from gaining much traction, keep the media in a perpetual will-she-or-won’t-she frenzy and jump into the race whenever she likes. That would be impossible for an ordinary candidate, but Palin could splash in as late as November 2011, just a few months before the voting begins. There is no deadline for signing up for the Iowa caucuses, and when it comes to competing in early-state contests, she will have a far easier time than any previous insurgent. Her candidacy would require almost none of the usual time sinks that force politicians to jump in early: power-broker schmoozing, schedule-intensive fundraising, competitive recruitment of experienced strategists, careful policy development. She would have immediate access to cash, with even small Internet donations likely bringing in millions.
Fred Thompson splashed into the last primary late, but not as late as November. Then again, Fred wasn’t the grassroots phenomenon that Palin is and he suffered from the perception that his late start was due to him not caring quite as much about winning as the rest of the field. That wouldn’t be the case with Palin; her late entry would be seen as calculated for dramatic effect, which would probably give her boost. And the point about small donations is well taken: Romney’s PAC has dwarfed hers in fundraising so far this year, but according to the Globe, most of the money’s come from events and large donors. By contrast, three-quarters of SarahPAC’s haul came from small donors. That’s not good news for her in terms of raw numbers — Mitt can almost certainly use big-money bundlers to crush whatever amount she’d rake in from grassroots contributors — but the media will go bonkers for a storyline about plucky blue-collar conservatives trying to propel Palin to victory against the Romney fortune one five-dollar donation at a time. And of course, that media coverage will be worth millions in itself. Remember: The default press narrative in 2012 will be Palin vs. Anti-Palin, with the task for Romney, Daniels, or whoever emerges as her nemesis to try to embody the good qualities the Anti-Palin is supposed to have — smart, competent, experienced — while avoiding the bad ones (elitist, white-collar, uncharismatic). As such, they’d better be awfully careful with how far they push the condescension towards her, especially given the potential alluded to by Halperin for gender politics to enter this race. For what it’s worth, former McCain associate Mark McKinnon thinks she’s going to run even though neither she nor the country are ready for it. Note well his point at the end about what a Palin loss in the primary would mean; given the fervor her supporters are known for and the likelihood that the race will turn nasty, he’s totally right about the possibility of devastating party divisions in the general election.
Exit question: Some Palin critics are speculating that the Bristol/Levi tabloid wedding announcement was secretly blessed by Sarah. Um, given the fact that her alleged unseriousness is already a major political liability for her, why on earth would she do that?
You get a few months into the primary races you'll see him dropping out to tend to business ~ gonna' be a long cold difficult Ginormous Obama Depression going on, and that's where Mit is needed. Pushing the economy, not his political BS.
All these brave anonymous commenters. They are afraid to come out in the open because they know that Sarahcuda could skin them alive. Cowards!
Everyone knows those clowns are working for him, so I can’t quite see how it doesn’t obviously reflect poorly on him when they spout off like that. I suppose they think they did so much damage when they trashed her undercover for him from within the McCain campaign that they should just keep it up. But it is really disgusting and goes far beyond the usual etiquette for intra-party competition.
Mitt Romney= 0% chance of carrying Ohio.
I wish Mitt masscare Romney would drop out or it will cost the conservatives a lot of money to beat him in the primaries. The issue to win on is health care. He has zero credibility.
I consider political advisors to one campaign who anonymously rubbish a (potentially) competing candidate from the same party not particularly serious human beings. Aaaaand...you know what? Let’s have Mitt Romney, or any of the other guys in the Republican field, go through a fraction of the kind of crap Sarah Palin has had to put up with for the last couple of years and see how their endurance is. That the woman hasn’t curled up whimpering in the fetal position is impressive enough in itself. That she’s throwing bombs back at the Dems and the press and having fun doing it is freaking awesome. If Romney’s brain trust seriously thinks otherwise and isn’t just spinning...well, some brains.
She's in the fight. She isn't seriously AWOL waiting to be crowned "leader".
Leaders lead. Fighters fight. Pretenders wait for a coronation that isn't coming.
I hope she can keep the crazy uncle Ron Paul within the party too.
I wish at least one of these stories about the “Romney Advisor” would tell us the guy’s name, so we wouldn’t have to keep trashing “Mr. Romney Advisor”.
Names are really good things, and we aught to use them.
It might also help to figure out exactly where in the chain of command this advisor is.
I may not be able to raise that much, but I promise I'll give till it hurts. (I gave to Fred too).
“Exit question: Some Palin critics are speculating that the Bristol/Levi tabloid wedding announcement was secretly blessed by Sarah.”
What If the whole Levi Bristol breakup was planned by the Palin clan to keep Sarah’s name in the Public eye?
“There’s no such thing as Bad Publicity”
I couldn’t believe it when I read that they were getting back together after some of the most viscious stuff Levi said.
Beware of “Republicans” who employ campaign and other staff who leak small petty remarks about anyone, much less other Republicans, much less the top Republican rainmakers for funding conservative causes and candidates.
Our nation is in dreadful peril, this is not a time for anti-obamites to eat each other.
My impression of Romney is negative and distasteful. This crap adds to that, big time. That cowardly elitist staffer is very McCain-esque, too.
Hmmm. I seem to remember Sarah doing pretty well against Joe Biden. I don’t remember Romney doing that well, even against John McCain.
Let that idiot Gomer Pyle clone Huckabee and the rest fight it out...Palin can enter if there is a ground swell for her to do so, but there is no need for her to jump in sooner than later.
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