Caveat: What follows is based on the notion that Palin will continue her political career, and is setting herself up for a run for the White House in 2012.
1. Start putting her national team together now. Recruit from the best and the brightest of real conservatism.
2. Ignore her enemies, both in the MSM and the Dem party, and in the liberal wing of the GOP. Define herself on her own terms. No more chat-fests with the likes of Katy Couric.
3. Set out to remake the GOP in her image. This means identifying strong conservative candidates for both the House and the Senate, then supporting them with fundraisers, public appearances, the expertise of her team, and clout with the party itself in both the primaries and the general election.
4. In the process, she should define herself by attacking Obama’s policies without ceasing, and offering real conservative solutions. This doesn’t mean “conservative lite,” or “new conservative” or whatever other euphemisms are currently being pushed for a “conservatism” that is actually liberalism in disguise. She should also make clear that she can work with that wing of the party, but doesn’t support, and will not try to advance, the dogmas of the “moderate conservative” hacks.
5. If she does this right, she can turn the election of 2010 into a referendum on the failed policies and agendas of Obama and the Democrats. If successful - that is, if she helps to greatly reduce or eliminate the Democrat majorities in Congress - she will have set herself up as the savior of the GOP, as the only politician to defeat Obama, and will thus foreclose challenges from other GOP figures.
6. Spend the next year after that building a huge war chest, honing her campaign and her own talents, and then take it directly to Obama himself from late 2011 on.
And here’s an interesting possible side effect: If Palin is successful in leading a GOP revolution in 2010, look for Hillary Clinton to resign in preparation for her own prexy bid as “the only Democrat who has a chance to beat Palin.”
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One other thing she can do is to start showing up at Tea Parties. Not as a speaker (at least not at first) bit as a participant. And when when being interviewed, talk about what she saw at the Tea Parties (mentioning she is just one among many) and talk about the general thrust of the Tea parties.
You’re delusional, Bill. Gov. Palin is ill-equipped to do any of your suggestions.
And you think she has the wherewithal to do any of that because………?
I could easily see her being the scourge of the left.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Nature hath no wrath like a mother wronged.
I don’t think Palin is going to continue her political career. I believe that she is tired of the demonizing from the state-run media, the slimy attacks on her children, and the utter lack of support from a single GOP officeholder.
How ironic - the GOP establishment has helped to drive away the most popular GOP political leader since Reagan. But par for the course.
Great points
You’re scared, Don. A conservative/populist coalition nucleating around Palin could bring down the Obamist cabal and send its tax cheats to prison…and you to the unemployment line.
Assuming the greater national role is her intent, it will be interesting to see whether she advocates the solution as an army of Davids (us) or another army of One (her).
As much as I admire what she’s accomplished, think she truly embodies how our political system is supposed to work, and would love to see what she could do on the national level, I think she should retire.
Until the people whose lust for power overrides their most basic human decencies are chased from the public square, a continued political career would just be subjecting her to more assaults — most likely escalating into the physical — to no effect.
Makes a lot of sense to me. The first good analysis I’ve read–this would explain why she is leaving office now. Clearly 2010 is something a lot of us are looking to, and putting time into local campaigns seems like exactly the right way to show she is serious about helping the country rather than just politics as usual. This is what people don’t seem to get about Palin. She’s a good politician but she doesn’t disdain the private sector, she is part of it. This is what we need, to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people and put it to work to create a new government of, by, and for the people.
In fact, this helps explain the timing of the announcement, as well. People will be talking about it at the tea parties.
Libertarians and conservatives have been on a collision course for a long time. Someone has to bring us together or all will be lost. It seems like those two cultural threads are present in the tea party movement. Perhaps Governor Palin will be the one to understand and tap that momentum.
What makes us think she has the wherewithal to do this? The fact that she didn’t quit the PTA, but went on to run for City Council, then successfully ran for mayor, then successfully ran for Governor and successfully governed. Managed to close the deal with Exxon that nobody thought would happen. Brought the first true breath of fresh air into national politics in a long time, getting citizens engaged who had given up on our smooth-talking, double-crossing, professional political class.
Time to recycle the joke from last year:
What’s the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama? One is a fundamentally unserious person who is a fairly good speaker and very easy on the eyes, and the other kills her own food.
Its going to be a very tough ride for her. If she chooses to run for the Presidency she will have to take on the Democrats and the Republicans.
She will have to remake the Republican Party and she does have the qualifications and the wherewithal to do that. That will be a major task because the GOP is deeply divided. She will have to take the Democratic Party head on. That’s a very tough task given that the fourth estate is not on her side.
She has the best chance of all the politicians out there. I wish her good fortune and all of the best of luck. She has my vote and my support.
She isn’t perfect, but I just need to know where to send my money for her 2012 Presidential campaign. She is the best thing the Right has going for it. And that’s why the Left is so focused on thrashing her, and her family, no matter the cost.
They fear her for good reason. She is a libertarian who isn’t afraid to go after her own team if it’s the right thing to do.
Not many politicos with that spine and cojones.
This boob’s resignation speech made Sanford’s tearjerker seem positively Shakespearean.
Put a fork in Sarah. She’s done.
The nameless lefty whackjobs are terrified of her, aren’t they? I suspect they see the beginning of their tin god Hussein Obama’s end….
I gave over $4000 to Obama’s presidential run, but I’m more proud of tossing $5 at Palin’s PAC in the hope of encouraging this nitwit.
I truly hope she doesn’t abandon the political scene. She represents the best prospect for ensuring a permanent Democratic majority.
Why the hell does Borat Hussein Osama still have an approval rating above 50%? Why?
I have no idea what Sarah will do. But I agree that Hillary will eventually resign and take on Obama in the Democratic primaries.
Ish Kabibble - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fitting.
I agree 100%. But… I think today is as much about the trashing of her family as anything. And her family probably comes first.
That said, even if she chooses not to run in 2012, she can do a lot of good between now and then.
Shades of Obama! So many people are simply assuming that Palin agrees with them, and all she has to do to benefit by it is keep her mouth shut!
Before she can do any of the items on your list, she’ll have to come out as either a social conservative or a libertarian. Reagan came out as a libertarian. If she decides that she is more comfortable being a social conservative, then she’ll have to worry about more than just the RINOs.
The only possible way for the Republicans to capture a majority again (any majority) is to side with the libertarians. Every Republican insurgency for the last half-century (and there haven’t been many) has come about because of precisely this. But the Republicans will have to be careful — Gingrich threw the libertarians out almost as soon as he gained power, and the libertarians noticed. Since then, the Republicans have been in steady decline, and the libertarians gave us Obama (they can’t stand McCain, just as they couldn’t stand Dole — Bush got the benefit of the doubt because he was an outsider, but it was pretty close both times).
Of course, it is true that there are some libertarians that are virtually indistinguishable from modern liberals (Andrew Sullivan comes to mind). But every great movement has its 5th column. If you don’t recognize that libertarians feel much more comfortable with the Republicans than with the Democrats, then there is no hope for you. From their point of view, at least the Republicans aren’t as greedy.
If you want to be effective politically, then you have to set aside some of your most fervent desires, whether the issue is capital punishment, or abortion, or whatever. For their part, the libertarians will also have to set aside some of the issues that get them fired up, like the drug war. If Republicans manage not to alienate the libertarians any further, then they may have the makings of a structurally dominant political force. Without that, they might as well go home. They’re not going to win any elections by sucking up to Gingrich.
As to Palin, well I don’t really know enough about her, what with all the hype and fog surrounding her. I have some sympathy for the independence and strength of Alaskans in general, but I’m a bit worried about the idea that the state “generously” returns pipeline money (which they extorted from the oil companies in the first place) to its citizens. Enough of robbing Peter to pay Paul. And Alaska is the home of the Bridge to Nowhere.
I was quite surprised to hear her announcement. IF she is staying in the national spotlight, and I hope that she is, Bill has just mapped out a blueprint for success.
Like Mark, I do not think that she is perfect, but no one on the Republican side comes close to matching her. In charisma, in name recognition, or in fund raising ability.
Run, Sarah, run!
What part of anything she said, either today, or anytime in the past, leads anyone to believe she’s planning to fade into the woodwork, stay at home and knit cardigans? Think about what we’ve seen of her so far. She is a woman with principles and the drive to fight for them. I think she actually enjoys the battle. Does anyone think she WOULDN’T like to go on the attack against Obama’s policies full-time?
She’s freed herself from the limits that are inherent to being a Governor, and removed the political and financial distraction generated by frivolous attacks from the people of Alaska. She’s done Alaska a favor, and given herself the freedom to take the battlefield in the fight for Liberty, American energy independence, and our country’s prosperity.
From here, she speaks, writes, helps conservatives get elected, and energizes true Americans across the country. She’s now in a position to build a base before 2012 in the same way Reagan took his principles to the people from 1976 to 1980. We haven’t seen the last of Sarah Palin. Not by a long shot.
Fitting indeed.
Palin, imho, is quitting now for another, rather unsaid reason. The money primary going into 2011 will be an enormous mountain to climb. She probably sat down with Fred Malek and did the math. To even compete with Obama in 2012 she will need four to six hundred million dollars. Obama will have a billion in his war chest, easy (unless he is a complete Clyde and tanks-then Hillary will come riding to the rescue of the Dems, as some are starting to predict).
She has to hire a permanent top-flight staff of serious conservative street-fighters. The kind of guys who met in that hotel room for Goldwater in 1963.
When you hear about this kind of group being put together, Katie bar the Door.
Other than those embellishments, Bill, everything you’ve written has been spot-on.
Meanwhile, the Haters are going to have to explain how Teh Won is guiding us into Weimar and the Second Great Depression. “Save or Create”!
I don’t think she’s done, but I don’t think the way this resignation went down helped her and I don’t think she’s in a great position for 2012.
Events could alter that, but right now I think we’re a little too close to the wounds of the last election. On top of that, her detractors are still hyper-sensitized and gunning for her. Like it or not, that’ll make it tough.
I also don’t rule out the possibility that she genuinely wants out of politics and the public eye, and I worry a bit that that it could have been precipitated by some kind of health or family crisis. I hope not, but it’s a worry.
Cheers,
Erik
I think the GOP establishment and the Dems will rue the day that Sarah Palin resigned from the governorship because she’s gonna take them on head on. Somebody has made Palin an offer she can’t refuse. Most likely, she’s going to head up some organization (can anybody say “Tea Party”?) that will be a driving force in American politics and will serve to destroy the communist Obama-ite agenda. Sarah Palin’s gonna be the next president of the U.S., and I will enjoy working hard to make that happen.
eh, your analysis is sub-par at best. Sarah is a GOP outsider. She is someone the insiders tolerate because the rubes in fly-over country get all excited by her.
The GOP is out of power because they took thier constituents for granted. Thought we would be more afraid of democrats in power then of them abusing the power we granted them.
What Sarah needs to do is pretty much what she did in Alaska, run as an outsider and promote outsiders in congressional races nationwide. attack the RINO’s and corrupt “conservative republicans” just as hard as the leftists, because they are just as, if not more destructive to good government.
we dont need the next Reagan, we need the next no name who can convince us that voting for him is better for us than voting for joe congressman that has been in office for 30 years. I dont know if that can even happen in America anymore, but if it cannot, then America is doomed to repeat Rome’s demise.
I just don’t see any way she can be viable in 2012. You can’t just quit in the middle of your term to start a presidential campaign (especially one 3.5 years away!). She said she did this for her family. Given the crap her family has been put through both during and after the election, this is a viable excuse. Her kids are currently 20, 19, 14, 8, and 1 (or slightly younger; just going on birth year, not month). When things heat up in 2015, she’ll only have 2 kids at home, both of whom will be at more reasonable ages.
She should take a family-friendly job. Stay home, write a book, then get a regular column in, say, National Review. That way she can keep the political heat on the Democrats and the RINOs, craft and expand her political platform, and develop her positions and her arguments for those positions. Do the occasional fundraiser to ingrain herself to the party. But most of all, do what she said she was going to do: put her family first.
If she does that and comes back in 2016, she’s a hero for putting her family ahead of her political ambitions. She has a well-crafted political philosophy. And she lets the Tina Fey impressions fade from the public memory as the media finds another conservative to lampoon. And what memory remains of her resignation looks honorable in hindsight.
If she tries to run in 2012, though, she’s just a quitter. She bailed on her duties as the chief executive of her state so that she could better position herself for a career upgrade. And she used her kids as cover to do so.
If she plans ahead for 2016, both her family and her career will be better off. If she thinks she can run in 2012, she’s crazy.
As crazy as some no-name black guy from a corrupt flyover state thinking he can go from zero political experience to the White House in about three years?
Ish Kabibble (#15) wrote, “I gave over $4000 to Obama’s presidential run, but I’m more proud of tossing $5 at Palin’s PAC in the hope of encouraging this nitwit. I truly hope she doesn’t abandon the political scene. She represents the best prospect for ensuring a permanent Democratic majority.”
Palin a nitwit? No, Ish, you are. Anyone who would give a cent, let alone $4,000 to a corrupt machine-politician from Chicago, a man without moral scrupples, is a fool. Obama may very well destroy what remains of America, seeing as he is a neo-Marxist who regards constitutional checks-and-balances as suggestions, and not the law of our land. Obama, yet another lawyer who thinks he knows how to run the nation, seems determined to bankrupt us before his first year is out. Bush was bad enough with his spending, but Obama’s profligacy dwarfs GWB’s.
Regarding a “permanent Democratic majority,” be careful what you wish for; the Democrats now have sole control of the Legislative and Executive branches, which means there will be no one else to blame except themselves when their policies come to ruin, as they must. The spell has worn off; more and more people around the nation see him for what he is - a fraud, a superficial man incapable of leadership.
Are you people serious? Palin? This in is the country not the local school board. For gosh sakes raise the bar.
I think Sarah is probably not going to run again herself (she seems serious about protecting her family) but I can see her being a popular speaker/fundraiser for conservative candidates. Goldwater, not Reagan.
As far as 2012, I can’t ignore the reports that Hillary and Biden have been BFFs since The One pretty much banished Biden to Siberia. Could we see a member of a standing administration run against the boss with insider dirt? I’m stocking up on popcorn in advance.
Jeebus, how did so many Øbamunists and Kool-aid drinkers end up coming over here?
Bill, I wouldn’t call Illinois a flyover state; it may be smack dab in the middle of some, but flyover states don’t have giant corruptocrat machines run by communisty organizers.
As much as I’d enjoy seeing another Palin campaign, especially one where she’s going for the highest office, what I’ve seen of Liz Cheney recently makes me think she’d be the R’s best hope if she were so inclined.
I think she’s done. I can’t see where any momentum for her to continue with pretty much anything would come from.
As an actual libertarian (not an Instapundit-like libertarian: a neocon warmonger who wants lower taxes), I can only shake my head at some of you people, all ga-ga over the thought of the cougar running in 2012. Have any of you heard her speak, attempt to vocalize her beliefs? She makes Bush seem intelligent, and that’s not an easy task.
Come on now, the left-statists really have their act together - please tell me Palin isn’t the great white hope for the GOP. Isn’t there someone in the on-deck circle who can talk a good game about fiscal responsibility, smaller government, yadda yadda? You guys need someone with charisma, not folksy eye-twitches.
Sarah Palin should have learnt something from Barack Hussein Obama: never QUIT!
How will she recover from being a loser? Forget the Dem party, and the liberal wing of the GOP - the hard core conservatives running next time for the GOP will tear her apart on this.
Irrespective, she may be a dimwit or the second coming of Reagan, there are many (plausibly, a majority) who hate her because she represents the possibility of a self-directed life, as opposed to sucking on the government teat and shuffling papers. Those who hate her (ignorant of who she might really be) are those you need to concern yourself with. I wish her well, and, since I make things and sell them, I shall continue to maintain as low a profile as possible to operate below their radar. I shall, on occasion e.g. Anderson Cooper, shower them with contempt.
Reading her whole statement changes my outlook a bit. I’m still not sure what she’s up to and I still don’t think she’s in a good position for 2012, but from the full text she sure doesn’t sound like she’s planning to disappear.
It’ll be interesting.
So Sarah shows up, on the eve of Independence Day, wearing American red and using language like, “changing directions, not retreating” and “four yeses and one… He** yes.”
This woman in not going away, and she’s savvy like a fox. Most of us outside the beltway would quit a job honorably if we knew we were rendered ineffective…especially if the job brought attacks on our family that we could not defend. It’s funny to see the DC elite tell US how WE comprehend Sarah’s choice. It’s hilarious to watch them flounder to figure her out, because they don’t get that middle America is completely soured on them. They told us that Obama would be wonderful with the HopeyChangey. (some of us never believed it, though). Six months later: all lies. Now they tell us Sarah is incapable, irresponsible. Think we trust these crusty old carmudgeons anymore?
NOPE. Happy Independence Day, liberals. You’re laughing and throwing your insults today, but deep down, we know you’re quaking in your Birkenstocks. LOL
Joel, I love the sniff of elitism on Independence Day. Good thing that here in middle America, the vast amounts of red meat on our grill drown out the smell of your lefty garbage. We’re going to come out in droves, and with Sarah’s no-teleprompter, straight-talking fiscally conservative mantra, we’re going to bring the 75% of Independents who rue the day they voted for Obama with us.
Unfortunately for you, rubes can vote just as well as elitist coastal liberals. We might leave a little steak sauce on the ballot, or even a little moose stew. The vote still counts though.
Happy Independence Day!
I don’t think she’s well positioned for national office at the moment for all the reasons stated above. But she *is* well positioned to lead a GOP revival. And let’s face it: the GOP is leaderless right now. Palin could decide to continue national politics, but not as a candidate. She could stump for local candidates, bring the Tea Party people into the GOP as a force for reform, and raise money.
If she tries to run in 2012, I think it would be a long, hard run. Given what she’s been through, I don’t think that’s a good idea. However, if she works now at rallying opposition to Obama’s policies (which are increasingly unpopular, despite the efforts of the press) she can help deal the Dems a significant blow in 2010. Perhaps nothing quite so stunning as the 1994 reversal, but certainly big enough to solidify her control over the GOP. And with a significant victory in 2010, the liberal wing of the GOP won’t have the leverage needed to pry her away from that position of leadership.
There’s a lot of “ifs” in this scenario, but it seems doable. Just so long as she’s not a candidate. If she’s a candidate, attacking her hurts the GOP. But if she’s more-or-less on the sidelines directing the battle, then she’ll draw time, money, and energy from the Dems and from away local candidates.
I think she is setting up for critiquing the current administration and building a base for a run. I would guess some one has approached her to finance the process. At this point, she has taken every blow and is still standing. How much more can they find? Her weakness is an ability to at least marginally appeal to the “elites” on the two coasts. If I were her, I would start to study up while going out and supporting the 2010 candidates, and maybe even starting to court the east/west coast power brokers. She needs to hone her message and build a base. My guess is that her next “national” interview or speech won’t be for a while and when it happens it will be a barn-burner.
Yes! Best analysis I’ve seen to date. I think you’re right on spot (except for the bit about Hillary, who is too old - yes, it’s ageist or whatever the PC term might be, but also true in many ways when talking about another woman running against SP - and Hillary also hasn’t exactly shone thus far in her role as SoS). Now…can you work in a little basketball terminology?
I am a Canadian conservative who, like many other good right wingers, loved the concept of Palin and defended her at the beginning. As time has rolled on, though, it has become painfully clear that she is out of her depth on the national political stage. She was given some good advice as to what to do post-campaign, and she promptly ignored all of it. Silly stuff like the spat with Letterman just reinforced the notion that her judgement is poor.
If she really wanted to run for President one day, resigning as Governor was the worst thing she could do. In order to have future national viability, she needed to complete two solid terms as Alaska Governor to compile an administrative record and shed the lightweight label. Now all she is doing is making that label stick even more, looking erratic in the process. I can see her as a conservative commentator and fixture on the lecture circuit, but for the life of me I just can’t see her making a serious Presidential run.
Every time she makes a speech or throws a barb, she will see that horrid picture of her baby, the media distorted and headlines she has had to endure at the expense of her family. She is a force that will have to be reckoned with. And just in time to save America’s freedom before Obama and his media thugs complete the tyrannical takeover. Godspeed to Mrs. Palin in her future endeavors. One gutsy, patriotic and America loving citizen.
This is hooey. We just elected one of the biggest political lightweights in history to the White House, a black man who, barely three years before, had no experience, name recognition, or base. What he did eventually develop was strong backing from the leftist movement based on their shared ideology and the color of his skin.
Palin is in considerably better position at this comparable point, three years before the 2012 election. She has high national name recognition, has actual successful experience governing a state, has the cachet of “minority” status (isn’t it time we finally elected a
blackwoman candidate?), and resonates strongly with movement conservatives in a nation that self-identifies as being conservative by a 60% margin.The GOP is in a shambles, deserted by its conservative base, and run by a morally bankrupt elite. Its leadership is up for grabs. Anybody who thinks this resignation destroys Palin simply doesn’t understand how politics works in America today.
And it is apparent that most of those who say she’s finished are merely projecting their own hopes that she is (and, probably, their own misogyny).
It isn’t just the lefty whack jobs and the media who are scared to death of Palin; it’s the Republican party establishment. She defeated them in Alaska. She can defeat them nationally. There needs to be a new “Contract with America”; one that the Republicans won’t betray.
Bill,
Good article. But she needs a focus for her message.
Here’s my suggestion for the key topic she should be focused on: ENERGY.
Outside of glaciers and polar bears, it’s what Alaska is known for. It’s also the area of Palin’s greatest expertise. It also happens to be topic number one for most Americans. Every time they fill their gas tank, every time they pay their electric bills, every time they discuss “cap and trade,” every time they see windmills on the horizon and know - in their hearts - that these ugly machines are not going to be the solution, they will think about Sarah Palin.
She will talk persuasively about the Democrats’ refusal to tap the billions of barrels of oil in Alaska’s wildlife refuge, about denying Americans access to clean coal in Utah, about the refusal of congress to explore for oil and gas off our coasts even as foreign companies are doing exactly that, about congress’ refusal to allow the expansion of clean and proven nuclear power plants, the government’s wrongheaded policies that make us rely more and more on foreign sources of energy even as they claim to be doing exactly the opposite.
She will be doing something that she does best: connecting with the American people in terms that they can understand. And she will be pointing out that the problem is a bipartisan one. She will have the opportunity to take on pandering and corruption on both sides of the aisle, just as she did in Alaska.
If she does that, she will be able to re-create the coalition that Ronald Reagan had, and we’ll see the blue collar crowd who went Democrat in the last election come back to the Republican side.
Who dares to compare Palin to Reagan or Thatcher? Shame on you.
Sarah knows what she’s doing. The socialists put her 500K in the hole with legal fees, she only makes 160K as gov. She’ll pay off that 500K in a months’ worth of speaking engagements, then the book, then the real fundraising starts. She’s a 3 headed monster and the socialists are as afraid of her as the Republicans are. She’s not making the same mistake Romney did when he ran for President while still Governor of MA. If a ‘latina woman’ can add flavor to the supreme court (sic), if the country can elect a minority community organizer with no political experience as President, we can elect a white woman with no fancy pedigree and a ton of common sense. Go get’em Sarah!
Let freedom reign!
The yoke has been taken off of Gov. Palin. Congratulations to her and her beautiful family.
Sarah Palin is in an enviable position. Why? Because she is the polar opposite of Obama. He is for big government; she is for the individual. He is for big spending; she is for fiscal responsibility. He is for diplomacy through apology; she is for peace through strength. She is for individual ingenuity; Obama is for government intervention.
She is now unencumbered by the restrictions of office and is able to raise her national persona on her terms. It should make for an exciting campaign to the presidency in 2012.
“Recruit from the best and the brightest”
Yikes. If there’s anything this country absolutely doesn’t need, it’s more “best and brightest”, as that term is commonly understood, running anything. Let’s get people who have the ability to make a decision without a committee and recognize when they don’t know what they’re doing and need expert assistance.
“Are you people serious? Palin? This in is the country not the local school board. For gosh sakes raise the bar”
Why? We certainly didn’t in ‘08.
Yeah. Heh. “Are you people serious? Obama? This in [sic] is the country not the local community organizer’s meeting. For gosh sakes raise the bar”
If she decides to put up with the pure ass-whipping that is running for President of this benighted but still awesome land, I hope she stays miles away from the so-called Republican establishment. In fact, a squad of bodyguards with tranquilizer dart guns would be an excellent idea. They could tag & track the c—s—–s.
Sarah Palin: “I’m taking my ball and going home!”
analogy of sports analogy: “I’m taking my brain and going home. After all, it isn’t much to carry.”
Sarah Palin, can provide a great service to this country by pricking the MSM liberal bubble and shining the light of common sense on the snake pit that is Washington DC. This is easy in a way, because the worst of these people, no matter how camouflaged, are drawn to attack her.
On simple things like energy, reform, patriotism, family values, she is so clear that she is dangerous to the entrenched, nuanced, lawyered, lobbied, political establishment.
Notice how she drew out the backstabbers in the McCain campaign. Political Washington is many times worse. Her existence exposes them for what they are.
More of Sarah is better for us all, and in a way the attacks on her draw the hidden poisons from our political world. They are never so strong or effective again.
Are we better for having her in the political arena, and her ideas and ideals expressed in the political debate. You betcha!
You’re right, Bill. Thanks for correcting me. Your analogy suits Sarah much better.
The lot of you including myself have no idea what Governor Palin’s stategic intentions are.
What she has done in this environment of SANFORD SINS and JOCKOMANIA, is catch the MSM flat footed and knee-capped her political assasins. Was this a three minute round in a 15 round bout? Who knows? Advice for the News crowd and the DC insiders (they are not the same people), put some ice on that eye.
Response:
Ipso, meet facto. No assembly required.
Fixed it for you.
What I would like to see is for Fox News to give Palin her own prime-time show. She’d have a bully pulpit in a friendly environment. She’d be able to get any GOP legislator she wanted to come on her show. She’d have huge publicity and huge clout. With her supporters behind her most GOP legislators would have to think twice before going against any cause she decided to champion, and the prospect of a Palin presidential campaign coming down the pike just intensifies that impact.
Giving Palin her own spotlight on Fox would help boost her chances of becoming the NEW voice of the GOP.
I say this as an Obama supporter. I don’t think there’s any faster way for the GOP to finish imploding than to have Sarah Palin become the voice of the GOP.
But I say this to people who see Palin differently, who would also like to have Palin’s voice be more powerful within the GOP. On something like this, I think the pro-Palin and anti-Palin sides could both go “all in.” One is going to turn out to be very, very wrong.
But can we agree (for different reasons, from different assumptions) that it would be a great thing for Palin to have her own bully pulpit on a prime-time Fox show? I’d like to see right-wing blogs start pushing this idea. I think there’s a good chance it could be made to happen.
“Isn’t there someone in the on-deck circle who can talk a good game about fiscal responsibility, smaller government, yadda yadda?”
Well, Dick Armey. Fred Thompson. Steve Forbes, though the Dr Strangelove smile needs to be remedied with surgeries.
Get the three of them together to build the platform and the talking points, and get Newt and TJ Rodgers rounding up money.
Fuz: didn’t Armey already quit the field? Love the guy, but I got the impression he was done with all that. Definitely The Fred. Forbes, if we can arrange the smile removal, as you note. Would that we could trust Newt not to go all Brainiac on us. I have my personal doubts.
No, bobbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb, getting into the media game with a jabbering head show would be the worst thing Palin could do (which of course is why you want it.) Why crawl into the snake pit? Stand above and outside and pick them off at your leisure. Let the simpering pricks report and react to her, as they have been, and they can continue to be shown for the vermin they are.
Frigging hell, then. Do we have to draft Fred again?
A big part of his failure last time was that he started in earnest too late. Another big part of his failure last time was that he committed to Iowa too late, IIRC.
WTQ could get behind him again, no?
This is excellent advice, and is actually quite easily done. Re: #3 - She was a huge, huge draw during the McCain campaign.
I do want to add that her online efforts are critical, and she should look for talent that is making the most of this medium, if not start Twittering or blogging herself in a more approachable manner (yes, I’ve seen her Twitter, I’m like “eh” about it. I like how Karl Rove uses Twitter). The online efforts aren’t crucial in a “she should respond to all the garbage thrown at her” way - far from it. Rather, they allow her base to defend her and show what she’s about in an instant. I think if part of her team organized a blog that introduced readers to given races and the electoral makeup, specific issues candidates face, and which candidates are and are not viable - something that DailyKos has done for a while, and that Rebuild the Party has imitated - she could very easily that much more of a force in a matter of mere weeks.
I’d love to see her go to FLA and do a few stump speeches for Rubio during the primary fight against that pathetic squish Crist. Helping to put Rubio over the top in FLA could be a huge feather in her cap and would be a grenade in the room of the establishment GOP squishes.
True, these are the things that would help her be successful. Unfortunately, they’ve been written by a blogger on the Internets and bloggers are evil. Except when she blogs. That’s ok.
Well, KG, they were also written by an OpEd writer for the Sunday New York Post, so maybe she’ll listen, and not notice that the OpEd writer just happened to be me.
By her enemies shall ye know her.
The scent of fear emitting from both liberals and RINO’s is overpowering.
She may need to destroy the GOP to save it; something like the GOP did to the Whigs a while back.
She is strong on all major domestic issues; her only weakness being foreign policy.
But, when approached from basic principals, foreign policy is really quite easy compared to domestic. Obama illustrates this point well. She just needs tutoring and seems to be a quick study.
Almost forgot:
Palin/(L)Cheney 2012