Posted on 11/09/2010 5:51:12 PM PST by TitansAFC
WASHINGTON -- Republican triumphs in the recent U.S. congressional elections have left the party with an ironic dilemma: The woman who played such a key role in igniting their conservative base is also the woman they fear the most.
Sarah Palin -- either adored or abhorred in the United States, depending on one's political perspective -- is considered one of the biggest winners following last week's mid-term elections.
The former Alaska governor backed some 60 Tea Party candidates, about half of whom won, while targeting 20 Democrats for certain defeat. Eighteen lost.
Yet in the corridors of power on Capitol Hill, there is a determined and focused effort underway among the Republican elite to find a candidate who can handily beat Palin for the nomination. In recent days, the "Blame Palin" strategy has stepped out from the shadows.
Spencer Bachus, a Republican congressman from Alabama, has pointed to Palin and the Tea Party movement for his party's failure to capture the U.S. Senate in addition to the House.
"The Senate would be Republican today except for states (in which Palin endorsed candidates) like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware," Bachus told an Alabama newspaper. "Sarah Palin cost us control of the Senate."
Although Tea Party candidates did well in House races, Bachus added, "they didn't do very well at all" in their attempts to win Senate seats.
Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh, the radio-show host who wields tremendous influence over the party, has been railing against such anti-Palin forces in recent days.
"What's going on here, folks, is very simple," said Limbaugh, who's a big Palin booster.
"They want to establish a lie very firmly in the minds of the public that the Tea Party hurt the Republican party in these elections. They want to use this to stop Sarah Palin. Republican insiders are trying to figure out now how to stop Sarah Palin."
Why the Palin fears? Republicans fret that if she's their presidential candidate in 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama will easily dispose of her. Even George W. Bush, the much-maligned former Republican president, has reportedly told associates that Palin is "unqualified" to be commander-in-chief, and his one-time chief strategist, Karl Rove, says she lacks the "gravitas" for the job.
Palin doesn't appear to be paying any mind. The period after the mid-term elections tend to be when presidential campaigns unofficially begin, and Palin's Twitter stream moved in a new direction Monday. The self-styled hockey mom relies on social media like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with the masses.
"Today: trade speech; tmrw school event 2 start discussing QuantitativeEasing w kids around US so they prepare 4 Feds experiment w their future," Palin tweeted. She usually uses Twitter to make personal comments about political candidates, current events and the media, not to alert followers about her own upcoming policy announcements.
Palin also delivered a hard-hitting speech in Phoenix that assailed Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Board chairman, by focusing on a primary conservative concern this election cycle: government overspending.
"I'm deeply concerned about the Federal Reserve's plans to buy up anywhere from $600 billion to as much as $1 trillion of government securities," Palin said in prepared remarks. "What's the end game here?... All this pump-priming will come at a serious price."
A recent ABC News-Washington Post poll found only 27 per cent of registered voters believe Palin is qualified to be president. Even those who identify themselves as lifelong Republicans are uneasy about her, including the segment that voted for the party in droves last week -- older white men.
"I think she's a very good lady, but I just don't think we're ready for her," Daniel Phillips, 48, a North Carolina Republican businessman, said in a recent interview.
Phillips said he lost respect for Palin when she resigned as Alaska governor last year before serving her full term.
"When she did that, I think she hurt herself. I think she's a good cheerleader for the conservative party and the Tea Party movement, but as far as being a serious presidential candidate, no. I just don't see it."
Nonetheless, 55 per cent of conservative Republicans like Phillips do believe she's qualified, the same poll suggested. And a whopping 73 per cent of Tea Party supporters believe she's got what it takes to be president.
Those making the case that Palin can emerge victorious on a national level often point to 1966, when Richard Nixon, another figure facing some public antipathy, took to the hustings after losing in a presidential election. Nixon won the presidency in 1968.
...even so I would still vote for Palin. I would rather go down with her, than vote for a rino
Mitch McConnell and the committee chairs didn't have the fortitude, the guts or, frankly, the balls to make it happen.
They could've dumped a little money in a couple of places and things would have been different.
The GOP didn't seem very interested in winning when they put up McCain as a candidate. The only reason he got as many votes as he did was because of Palin.
You might need to take off your hat. Koresh was an off-shoot Seventh-Day -Adventist IIRC.
Evangelicals get “anointing”, its a foreign concept to non-believers.
Calling me a child only reveals your secular lack of foundation. Flame on, dissonant conservative!
I love how they use the ABC poll that sampled twice the number of dems but never mention the Rasmuseen or Gallup polls that show her around 50/50
Awesome analysis Titans!
They have been on here thick...all so reasonable...”I like her, but...you know she just can’t win, she’s just too divisive”
B.S.
"Asked about 2012, Palin said: "If I run, I'm in it to win it."
Love that post. Now lets beat these RINO bastards and take the GOP. No more apologies for the conservative cause.
George W. Bush, the much-maligned former Republican president, has reportedly told associates that Palin is "unqualified" to be commander-in-chief. . . but then, when Rush asked about that report today, Bush explicitly denied it. Bush said he did not and would not say that.
"Sure, it’s two years away, but it’s never too early to set up political action committees if you’re considering a run for president. So far, three potential Republican candidates have started Oklahoma PACs that are tied to the national ones they’ve already established at the Federal Elections Commission. The state PACs allow them to donate to various candidates or issues in Oklahoma... Last month, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin started an Oklahoma PAC."Democrat strategist Kirsten Powers via The Liberty Musings Blog:
"They don’t understand what’s going on in the country if they think that they can stop her."James Nava at The Americano:
"Sarah Palin has become a dynamic and mobilizing force for American conservatism, has a wide social base supporting her and good communication skills. She needs more political support, but she’s working hard on it in the most-active pre-campaigns that we have ever seen, with the ability to communicate and capture what the majority of citizens want for this country."Steven Fishman at The World Of Politics:
"Sarah Palin... seems to give the Tea Party some creditability. If I was a Democrat, I would be very worried in 2012."Amy Siskind at The Daily Caller:
"The Republican Party, perhaps unwittingly, has become decidedly more pro-women in 2010. Sarah Palin can take credit for much progress here. Not only has Palin endorsed and elevated women in the GOP, she also continually speaks out and defends them from sexism... The challenge now for the GOP is to evolve. They’ve set the pace in 2010 by being the party of the first woman governors in South Carolina, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Further, the party of the country’s first Indian-American woman governor, and New Mexico’s first elected Latina governor. Now, the real challenge begins."Linda Turley-Hansen in the East Valley Tribune:
"Gov. Palin has been the bull's eye for every hate barb looking for a target. It's impossible to compute the animosity she absorbs as she remains resilient."David A. Patten at Newsmax:
"Iowa, with the first date on the primary calendar, plays a critical role in selecting the GOP presidential nominee. [Rep. Steve] King... believes Palin would be able to 'build a base pretty quickly' there. One Palin advantage: She gave an early endorsement to GOP Gov.-elect Terry Branstad, who on Tuesday became the first candidate in 48 years to unseat an incumbent Iowa governor (Democrat Chet Culver). Huckabee, by contrast, had endorsed Branstad's GOP opponent, tea party favorite Bob Vander Plaats, in the primary. Now that the midterm elections are in the rearview mirror, all eyes are looking toward 2012. As arguably the only bona fide GOP celebrity, Palin already is sucking a lot of oxygen out of the room... King says Palin's brand of politics would make her a formidable force in the Hawkeye State... adding that Palin would be a serious competitor in the Iowa caucuses, which often serve as a springboard to the rest of the primaries."Pragmatic American:
"For those who appear to believe Sarah Palin is a dope, then why does she clearly see the problems here, and the Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, does not?"Clifton B at Another Black Conservative:
"I remember a few days just before the elections last week, a talking head was saying that one of the sure signs that Palin would run would be her switching gears from campaign rhetoric to policy discussions. Since Tuesday’s elections I have noticed two policy discussions from Palin. The first was some pretty solid advice for Republicans taking over the House that appeared in the National Review the day after their big wins. The second is Palin['s speech Monday] in Phoenix. In this speech she tells Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to 'cease and desist' with the very dicey QE2 monetary policy... The left and some of Palin’s distracters on the right have all been faulting her or being too light on policy. I have a feeling they are going to be getting a whole lot more policy from Palin in the very near future."Moe Lane at RedState.com:
"THAT WOMAN 1, Wall Street Journal 0"Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:
"Does the press ever tire of underestimating Sarah Palin? The latest to assume that Palin doesn’t research her topics is — surprisingly — the venerable Wall Street Journal, and on the equally surprising topic of economics... The point Palin made was that taking a voyage on the QE2 would make a difficult issue for consumers and retailers much worse through the deliberate introduction of even higher inflation, an explicit motivation behind the Fed’s actions. So Palin was right once again, and once again a reporter winds up with egg on face from starting out with an assumption that Palin couldn’t possibly know what she’s talking about. Lather, rinse, repeat."The AP via Stix Blog:
"DeMint’s political action committee helped tea party candidates in Tuesday’s election. He’s also crediting Sarah Palin, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for inspiring tea partiers."Man of the West at Fear an Iarthair:
"Elsewhere in the blogosphere, it is opined that a hypothetical Sarah Palin presidential cabinet would be composed of ideologues and hacks. The weird part is that I'm 90 percent sure that it would never occur to the writer(s) that others might think that such an objection indicates willful blindness. After seeing President Obama appoint Van Jones, for cryin' out loud, to the position of 'green jobs czar' (and that is only one example), it is hard to believe that anyone could have missed the president's own predilection for appointing ideologues and hacks, but apparently he/they have done just that. Or chosen to ignore it."Carrie Devorah at Blue Star Chronicles:
"Come on guys. I hope you can find something better than this to throw at Sarah Palin. Oh wait, you already have thrown everything else at her. I guess an 'accidental favorite' controversy is the best they can do at this point."Sonny Palermo at I Hate The Media:
"The midterm election results prove Sarah Palin continues to be a formidable force in US politics. Since facts bear this out as most of her candidates won, MSNBC was left with no choice but to make stuff up about her. In other words, it was business as usual at the leftist network. In between their usual sniping snippets of FOX envy, and snark-snogged attacks on all things conservative, the President’s propaganda channel dedicated delusional Ed Schultz’s closing segment to an ad hominem Palin attack, along with the obligatory bobble-head guest bought on to parrot his points, this time in the form of HuffPo’s Roy Sekoff, who mimicked the host with his 'The Palin factor is really no factor at all.' Really, gentlemen? ... 'MSNBC – Never let the facts get in the way of a good story'"- JP
Romney and Huckabee are wasting their time if they think they have a chance at the nomination. Same for Newt.
I predict a DeMint-Palin or Palin-Demint ticket and it will kick Obama’s butt in a general election.
Don’t worry about Hillary. If the Democrats dump Obama, forget the black vote. Blacks will stay home, which will also hurt the Democrats in House and Senate races.
Or in other words they went after a “bimbo” and she played the “gravitas card” she is also setting up state pac’s and defending her friends like Michelle bachmann.
further she took after the establishment when they failed to help Renee ellmers in her recount and I'm sure she is waiting for the results of the AK count. If it is very close she will hammer them on that as well.
From a politcal POV it has been gratifying to watch Gov Palin dance and weave and diffuse these attacks. She has shown a keen political eye and some massive skillz. And watching her supporters beat back these talking points has shown they have her back. will it be enough? yes i think the establishment by doing this has done the one thing that all her supporters could never do. Give her a reason to run and win.
Nailed it!
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