Sarah Palin: The GOP's Best Hope in 2012

Pajamas Media ^ | Katherine Berry

[AJKauf]

McCain’s staff failed to recognize that Sarah Palin could — indeed, should — have been the GOP’s Obama. Her folksy, “hockey Mom” persona was the perfect foil to Obama’s claim that he was a relative Washington outsider, just as her from-the-hip speaking style was the mirror image of Obama’s soaring, lofty rhetoric. Where Obama sought to break the racial barrier as a harbinger of change and reform, Palin as the vice president would have broken the gender barrier, accomplishing the same goal.

Yet despite the huge surge in the GOP’s favor after naming Palin to the ticket, the McCain campaign squandered away her appeal. Some wonder now, in hindsight, whether this waste was intentional.

Given the “full-scale kneecapping of Sarah Palin” that McCain’s staff has undertaken since the election, it certainly appears they have a grudge to bear against her.

Funny how the Palin-bashing seems to be coming from those in the GOP whom she threatens the most.

[blackie]

Go get ‘em, “B”!!

[curiosity]

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is Very Favorable.

I guess I was wrong about the breadth of her appeal within the party. I must say, the poll you cite dissapoints me greatly. If it's accurate, we're in worse shape than I thought and well on our way to permanent minority status.

[curiosity]

I am a Sarah Palin fan, am supportive of her being the first woman President and I am NO REDNECK!!

I mean it as a term of endearment. I have nothing against rural, culturally traditional people in the South or elsewhere.

Now, if you want the GOP to be like the so called conservative Democrats then you are still advocating a move to the left.

No. I don't want to move the party left. On the contrary, I believe what we need is someone who can come up with ways to make conservative policy ideas appeal to the middle.

There is a way to package conservative and traditional American values that differ from the liberal view that would make it palatable to more Americans.

I am with you. However, to do this we need candidates who have intellectual depth and who can coherently articulate conservative political philosophy in a way that appeals to the middle. Sarah Palin falls flat on both counts.

[curiosity]

And I must tell you, all the Republicans I've met around here LOVE Palin and I ate dinner with a room full of them election eve. I'm sure there are some exceptions, there always is, but in general she was quite popular with Republicans in my neck of the woods (Philly).

Then the problem is worse than I thought. We used to be the party of ideas. The party rational thought and deliberation, not the party of emotion.

That so many Republicans are falling for her crude populism and parochial appeal tells me Republicans are thinking with their hearts instead of their heads.

I hope that this changes as the party faithful have a chance to reflect on the last election and start thinking about the way forward.

And I encourage you to do the same. Why do you like her so much? Is emotional or rational? I would venture to say that if you are honest with yourself and really think about it, you will find it is emotional.

[curiosity]

So... you want her to move further left? On what issues, specifically?

No. It's not a matter of being to far to the left or right.

I want someone who has a coherent conservative political philosophy and a good grasp of basic economics. I want someone who can speak intelligently about the role of government and can make a convincing case for limited government.

I want someone with a strong grasp of national policy issues and who is curious about them. I want someone who can come up with creative market-based solutions to policy questions and sell them to the middle.

I don't want a crass populist with an (R) by her name who plays identity politics with her sex, religion, and class background. If that's what you want, then by all means, support Sarah Palin.

[dirtboy]

Sarah is pretty unpopular among the more cosmopolitan pro-business wing of the party.

More like she is pretty unpopular among the big-government Rockefeller wing of the party. And those who LIKE their petty corruption - just as Trent Lott hated Tom Coburn and treated him like a nutbar hick, Ted Stevens feels the same way about Palin. And both are exhibit A of what is wrong with the party.

Quite frankly, the only way the GOP can win again is to have some populist appeal - but not in the normal Dem spread the wealth manner. Instead, it will have to re-invent itself as the party of honest government - and that is where Palin's appeal comes from - the fact that she fought the same type of corrupt hacks that were an anchor around the necks of the party the last two elections.

Will she be the 2012 standard bearer? I have no idea, that is a long time away. I will tell you that she is the basic political model for GOP success in 2012 - honest, no-frills government, whether it is done in Philly or Fairbanks, or by an Ivy-Leaguer or a State School attendee.

[Terry Mross]

Claim 8 dependents then cheat on your tax return? That’s the only way you could “withhold” taxes. And I’m with you! We need to seceed