Palin vs. McCain: Palin Insider Names Names

Regular Folks United ^ | November 6, 2008 | Kerri Houston Toloczko

[mbraynard]

News has been circulating around GOP insiders for weeks that McCain campaign honchos Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt were planning to blame Sarah Palin for McCain’s loss. This was expected to be an effort to punt the blame for their own failures to the side of the ticket that was most popular with the base, attracted the largest rally crowds, and scared the living bejeepers out of the opposing party.

[SecAmndmt]

“Nobody in the Republican party truly believes that Palin was a “drag on the ticket”

Not even Colin Powell.

[luvadavi]

If mcC had taken in money from ‘small’ donors, esp. those w/limited resources, welfare, etc. —the reporters would be squalling about people going without food to help him, they’d cook up some stories. Al-Bama got a pass on everything. And as far as I know, if we still have laws, he cannot be sworn in as POTUS without producing a valid BC. And I wonder what is in the rest of his history that is so damaging that he keeps it secret? For him to come this far, with judges & election officials stonewalling about the BC, media ignoring it, this whole thing is Twilight Zoney.

[beagleone]

If Palin runs in 2012, the gloves will be off from day one and nothing will be off-limits.

She knows how to win an election and she will wipe the floor with Obama.

Stop watching TV news people. You're just pouring salt in your wounds. Instead lets start building a ground game for the next election.

Obama flooded the streets with door-to-door volunteers in swing states, we can't cede the ground to O-bot operatives next time. The Republican party should be developing personal relationships with the voters NOW.

One of the big criticisms that people in the Swing States have is that "there are only people coming around at election time"

We also need a Conservative version of ACORN, minus the fraud.

[TexKat]

Palin Aide Offers Strong Rebuke to Criticisms

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/11/palin-aide-offe.html

[beagleone]

Colin Powell is a drag, period.

[SecAmndmt]

“It fits in with the NWO, yes conspiracy and no I have no tinfoil hat.”

I think that it is idiotic to on one hand be cognizant that organize criminal conspiracy exists in private life, yet on the other defend the idea that men and women who run for public office are motivated only by good intentions and a belief in the rule of law (and never a desire to herd us into socialism while lying about it).

It only serves the advocates of socialism and big government to deny the reality of criminal conspiracy in government.

[beagleone]

I'm glad Palin didn't speak at the concession speech. It would have linked her to McCain's defeatist tone.

She did not deserve to be tainted by the defeat. It was not her defeat and she does not need to give a concession speech.

Palin did not lose.

Rush Limbaugh has a very good point about McCain's concession speech, that he used the term "unify" about Obama.

In Israel, I remember when the Likud lost to Labor in an election, they told their supporters that they were going to continue to fight for their ideals as a potent opposition to the government. That element was entirely missing from McCain's speech. It was eloquent, but altogether too conciliatory.

If Obama follows his Marxist dreams, he needs to know that there are millions of Americans who will stand up to him and resist. We need to hear that from the Republican leadership.

[beagleone]

The only speech I want to hear Palin read is a victory speech!

[Christian4Bush]

One of our problems too is that Rush defended GWB long after GWB was beyond any help to conservatives.

---

I understand the frustration at the President (and that is how I will refer to him until he is no longer so); I too have experienced it for his not-conservative-enough tendencies...especially in the second term.

But what some seem to forget, especially one “dog” on this thread, is that unlike Mr. McCain, President Bush is three for three in this running for President thing...one primary, and two presidential elections. Whereas Mr. McCain is one for three - lost a primary, won a primary, and lost an election.

And some of the workers on the latter’s losing campaign worked on the winning campaign of the former.

And one final word about someone dogging out those who disapproved of someone who so honorably served this country...no one disputes his service, and his time of being a POW. In fact, his Hanoi imprisonment was mentioned about as many times as was Lurch’s much briefer time in Vietnam on his Sgt. Pepper’s Purple Hearts Club Band tour.

But being a war hero, or someone who served in wartime, is not an automatic ticket to the White House; in the last 40 years, only two wartime servicemen have occupied the White House - and of those two (Ford and Bush 41), only one was elected to get there. Heck, a deserter beat two WW2 vets in the 1990s...

I will echo what a radio host said around the time of the Gang of 14...John McCain: Great American, marginal conservative, terrible Republican. Someone said upthread that a caller to Rush suggested the next time McCain reaches across the aisle, he should just sit down over there, where he belongs.

My vote was for Mrs. Palin, and she, along with Mr. Mac’s courageous service in the military, combined for my utter loathing of the Left, is the only reason I voted for him at all.

[luvie]

Palin’s the only reason you got one dime out of me.

Me, too. I waited to find out who his VP pick was before sending anything! If it had been some of the "good ole boys" he would have had to do without my $30! LOL!

I even suggested Sarah to him in an e-mail 3 days before she was picked...so I am taking credit, too! :D

[gidget7]

Couldn’t agree more!

[traviskicks]

Perhaps so, but maybe the next RINO that comes along will think twice before not reaching out to the libertarian wing of the republican party. Each libertarian minded vote is probably worth much more than a single vote because we tend to be very politically active.

[Spera]

Everyone can flame away here, but unless Obama has a really lackluster first term, there is no way Palin would beat him. I love her and her values, but to many (republicans AND moderates) she comes across as a ditz - and this is not because they watch SNL or other mocking shows. They thought she did terribly in her interviews and weren’t really buying the big “Obama is a Socialist” one liners the last 2 weeks of the campaign. I have serious conservative friends who know McCain is a socialist as well because they are political junkies. I mean, we all know McCain is a socialist, and so it was kind of galling to hear Palin and McCain go after Obama on this point. My initial enthusiasm for Palin got dimmer and dimmer as time went on and I saw her exhibit little substance in discussions/interviews and then give these rousing speeches based on sound bites. I began to wonder what her point was... she was becoming the pitbull with lipstick that the left had mocked her about - always on the attack, but with little to say in person.

Honestly, I think we have to accept that while she energized the base for McCain, she didn’t get us any cross-over votes and also lost us some unknown quantity of votes from repubs who thought she lacked depth. I really believe she would get creamed in 2012 unless Obama really messes up.

If people want to argue that she fired up the base and unified us, why then are they also arguing that the base didn’t show up out of disgust? She didn’t lose McCain the presidency, but she wasn’t the huge draw that people are proclaiming she was. Basically, the already-converted social conservatives came out en masse to see her - not independents. And I know two repubs - one in MO (33 yrs old) and one in PA (55 yrs old)- who have always voted, who stayed home because Palin was a deal breaker for them. They thought it was the final nail in an ill-conceived, unfocused bid for the presidency by the Repub. party.

I really hope we have something better up our sleeve than Palin, and I say this after donating 3 times to the campaign after her nomination. In the end, I was disappointed by her.

[GoldwaterChick]

I’ll have to remember to check this out!

[Just mythoughts]

Wasn't lord McCain suppose to draw any votes? Were where alll his good liberal moderate friends anyway. Without Sarah would he even have won AZ?

[traviskicks]

The REpublicans will never get another dime out of me.

may i offer a suggestion:

https://www.clubforgrowth.org/about.php

[Chatlee]

I have been going back and forth on this ne. Hard to know what to think on Palin. I love her for some things. Can’t stand her for others.
Seriously folks - this is a problem.

[Spera]

I think we can all agree he was a terrible choice and yes, got no “cross the aisle” votes from his “friends”. But I don’t think Palin did either, and we also know she didn’t impress some sections of “The Base” - in particular, RINOs (as people are calling them) and libertarians. “Then they aren’t really Repubs!” everyone cries, as though there weren’t real problems with Palin’s performances and lack of depth. As though, if you don’t agree she is unstoppable, you’ve drunk the SNL kool-aid.

Making her the star of 2012 might be a mistake.

I feel like I have just gotten out of a really bad relationship since the election. Of course I am dreading Obama, but in some ways I feel very relieved that I don’t have the nightmare responsibility of McCain-Palin over my head for 4 yrs. To always dread McCain’s next across the aisle choice of cabinet member that makes me want to cry - or stupid policy decision... and 4 yrs of hearing that Palin doesn’t know Earth rotates around the Sun, Palin spent $3000 on a pair of shoes, etc. etc. Now that I’m out of the relationship, and I can look back and see how stressed out it made me, LOL.

[Canedawg]

Interesting post. Thank you for taking the time to write it up. The lack of a good ground game where you were is disappointing to hear. "when you’re fighting unethical people, you simply cannot let them run over you. The majority of republican male Senators have lace on their shorts – and very few have a backbone."

YOu hit the nail on the head right there.

[Just mythoughts]

McCain was chosen for us by the media and liberal moderate voters. I did not have a choice by the time the primaries got to my state.

There is reason why some in RHINO ville and media circles are taking great pains to throw Sarah into the lions den. She scares them. Why? Because she was an awesome candidate, and made lord McCain look old out of touch and not really interested in winning.

I would not have voted if it had not been for Sarah and the life she gave back to conservative ideals. Now she sure must have stirred up the old boys club in Alaska because the long knives are out to removed any possibility of her future in presidential politics.

I am not sure she would even be interested in going through this again but if she is I will be all for her.