Palin As The GOP’s 2016 Savior? In Your Dreams
Guess who's back?
Charlotte Allen, in an Op-Ed at the Los Angeles Times, seems to think she’s found the solution for Republicans despairing over the election results and wondering who can lead the party out of the wilderness in 2016:
The Republican Party has been doing a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing since the presidential election. Half the conservative columnists and bloggers say the GOP lost because it overemphasized social issues such as abortion and gay marriage. The other half says the party didn’t emphasize them enough. And everyone denounces Project ORCA, the campaign’s attempt to turn out voters via technology.
But I’ve got a suggestion for cutting short the GOP angst:Sarah Palin for president in 2016.
You think I’m joking? Think again.
I’m actually not surprised that there would be “Palin in `16” speculation. After all, a good bit of the time from the end of the 2008 race until the start of the 2012 GOP Primary Season was spent by political pundits on both sides of the political aisle wondering if Palin would through her hat in the ring. Every action on her part, every statement, every Facebook post, every Tweet was interpreted by those watching the matter closely as a “sign” of her intentions. For her part, Palin was quite obviously milking all of the attention that this speculation was bringing to her, and reveling in it. Indeed, it now seems quite apparent that one of the main reasons she dragged the speculation out as long as it did is because it was the main way she was able to stay in the media spotlight. When Palin decided to stage a bus tour of New England on the same day that Mitt Romney was announcing the opening of his campaign for the Presidency, her motives should have been readily apparently. If not then, then they sure should have been when she showed up at the Iowa State Fair on the eve of the highly publicized Ames Straw Poll, for no other reason than the fact that all of American political media was there at the same time. When she finally announced that she wasn’t running, in a manner that royally pissed off her employer Roger Ailes, the media attention quickly melted way. Additionally, Palin herself seemed to lose all interest in the campaign. Indeed, although she did make primary appearances for candidates such as Ted Cruz in Texas, who won, and Sarah Steeleman in Missouri, who lost to Todd Akin, Palin didn’t make a single campaign appearance during the General Election and didn’t appear at the Republican National Convention. With the 2012 race decided, it’s no surprise that we’d see a revival of the Palin brand as 2016 speculation starts up. After all, she needs something to do for the next four years, doesn’t she?
Allen goes on to argue in favor of what she contends are the strengths that make Palin the perfect candidate for the GOP in 2012:
Palin can more than keep up with the Democrats in appealing to voters’ emotions. Hardly anyone could be more blue collar than Palin, out on the fishing boat with her hunky blue-collar husband, Todd. Palin is “View”-ready, she’s “Ellen”-ready, she’s Kelly-and-Michael-ready.
A Palin “war against women”? Hah! Not only is she a woman, she’s got a single-mom daughter, Bristol, to help with the swelling single-mom demographic. On social issues, Palin, unlike Romney, has been absolutely consistent. And let’s remember that most Americans, whatever their view of choice, disapprove of most abortions.
Gay marriage? Palin opposes it. But she is also a strong advocate of states’ rights, and I’m betting she’d be fine with letting states and their voters grapple with the issue on their own. Remember that all of America didn’t swing toward approval of gay marriage on Nov. 6. Three reliably blue states and their voters did. If she were smart, Palin would recruit a member of her impressive gay fanboy base — yes, she has one — to help run her campaign. I nominate Kevin DuJan of the widely read gay conservative blog HillBuzz, a Palin stalwart since 2008.
Palin’s son Track is an Iraq war veteran, so she can be proudly patriotic without being labeled another George W. Bush, looking to do aggressive nation-building. She seems aware there is only one nation in need of building right now: America.
Furthermore, looks count in politics, and Palin at age 48, has it all over her possible competition, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will be 69 by election day 2016 and who let someone talk her into adopting the flowing blond locks of a college student, making her look like Brunnhilde in a small-town Wagner production. Men love Sarah Palin, and she loves men.
I highlighted that last paragraph because it epitomizes the superficiality of Allen’s entire argument. In the end, the argument for Palin has nothing to do with policy, it has nothing to do with competence (as if), and it has nothing to do with what she could bring to the country. It has to do with the same “starbursts” that National Review’s Rich Lowry claimed to see when he met her for the first time. This is because Palin has no substance. Over the past four years, in her books, television appearances, and speeches, she has revealed herself to be a person with only a limited grasp on the issues who seems to think that speaking in sound bites constitutes in depth analysis, and her supporters just eat it up.
As for the rest of Allen’s argument here, it’s difficult to even take it seriously. Palin will win the “war on women” argument because Bristol was dumb enough to get pregnant at 17? If nothing else, that sounds to me like an argument against all those “abstinence” programs that social conservatives like Palin are so in favor of as opposed to teaching kids how they can really avoid getting pregnant. ”Gay fanboys” will overcome the fact that the growing LGBT vote, not to mention voters younger than 65, are coming to see the GOP’s position on same-sex marriage, at the state and federal level, to be outdated and bigoted? What kind of delusional bubble is Allen living in here? She wins the foreign policy debate because her son served in Iraq? That would be the most absurd argument of all if Allen had not ended this portion of her Op-Ed by essentially saying that Palin is qualified to be President because she’s attractive. “Men love Sarah Palin, and she loves men.” Those may be the eight most absurd words ever strung together in the Los Angeles Times in the paper’s entire history.
Perhaps we should cut Allen some slack here. After all, she’s arguing in favor of the candidacy of someone with an incredibly thin resume who has shown no evidence at all of being qualified to sit behind the Resolute Desk. In those types of situations, you go with what you have. I only hope for her own sake, that Allen actually made some money off of writing this thing because I’d hate to thing she pulled together this string of nonsense for free.
The truth about Palin in 2016 is the same as the truth about Palin in 2012. She may be popular with a particular segment of the Republican Party, but we know from polling history that the public as a whole views her incredibly negatively. Notwithstanding that she’s been relatively silent over the past year or so, I seriously doubt that those opinions have changed very much. If she does decide at some point in the next four years to reinsert herself in the public debate, voters are going to be reminded of everything that they didn’t like about her, and the arguments against her candidacy will come up all over again.
The Republican Party has quite an impressive bench of candidates for 2016 that ranges from Marco Rubio, to Chris Christie, to Scott Walker, Susana Martinez, Rand Paul, Kelly Ayotte, and, as a long shot that I’m putting in because I’d like to see him run, Tom Coburn. The idea that voters would select someone who has essentially done nothing for the past four years, and will continue to do nothing for the next four years, is fundamentally absurd. Sarah Palin and her acolytes will milk the 2016 speculation for all it’s worth, but anyone who considers her a serious contender for the Republican nomination is deluding themselves.
Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann were the “thoughtful” Palins in the last campaign and we know how well they fared. Admittedly, Palin has more charisma and chutzpah than either of those two, however I have a hard time believing that the GOP would go full Thelma & Louise in 2016 and go with Palin.
That said, speaking as a Democrat, I hope Palin is the GOP nominee.
Nightmare. The poor woman has transitioned to scary granny.
Really? That’s the good candidates?
Rubio maybe. The rest are cannon fodder we could beat with Joe Biden let alone Hillary or Andrew Cuomo.
Rand Paul? Seriously?
@michael reynolds:
Keep your eye on Senator Paul, Michael. I know you’re going to disagree with him but he’s taking the helm of a growing segment of the Republican Party that is opposed to the neo-conservative foreign policy we’ve seen since the Bush Administration. For that reason alone, I want to see him gain influence within the party and maybe start turning it in a more rational direction.
Why not Palin? The Republicans shot themselves in the foot with Romney why not just shot themselves in the head with Palin and get it over with.
In whose dreams, Democrats or Republicans?
It is time for a real conservative and that is Sarah Palin . She has more Political Experience than Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. She also has better ideas and got more of the hispanic and Democrat vote than Romney/Ryan. Palin 2016.
@Doug Mataconis:
My instincts tell me Paul is nuts. There’s just something off about that boy. He reads to me like a well-mannered psychopath trying to pass. That’s not fact-based, obviously, I’m not claiming any justification for it, it’s just a feeling.
And there’s this, equating a right to health care and slavery. And of course saying that businesses have a right to exclude black patrons on the same libertarian grounds.
Libertarian philosophy really only works for the members of the cult. To anyone else it sounds insane. It’s the political equivalent of Scientology – very compelling for the true believers, wacky to everyone else. That’s different from my feeling that the guy is nuts, but Ayn Rand acolyte, extreme libertarian? GOP presidential nominee? Not happening.
Plus, entirely apart from that, he’s insane.
@michael reynolds:
I suspect he’s following his dad’s business plan. That is, be a compelling left field candidate for life, transferring between 501(c)(4)’s as required.
I’m not sure Allen wasn’t being satirical, given that one of her suggestions was that Palin hire her campaign manager from her “impressive gay fanboy base,” which would cause her social conservative supporters to suffer a collective stroke.
But say Allen is serious. What has Palin done in the past four years to make anyone think she’s added to her already exceedingly negligible qualifications for the presidency? She starred in her own reality show. She took second billing in her daughter’s even more grotesque reality show, the highlights of which were a bar fight with a drunk and and a roadside break-up with a boy friend whose mastery of the various permutations of the word “fuck” set an all-time record for bleeps. Aside from that, she’s shown up on Fox a few times a month to murder syntax.
If she’d wanted to run, she’d have run this year. But it was a given that she’d never show up on a debate stage with nine other candidates who, whatever their faults or virtues, could at least speak in simple declarative sentences.
Y’all, I like Sarah. She’s really pretty, she has some smarts, she can speak well, just not on national issues. I’d love to have her over for a few Abitas and some gumbo.
We can bitch about our children and I can convince her to get her husband to undergo frequent colonoscopy.
But no way for the presidency — gal-pal, yes, president, no.
I think the fact that we are still talking about Gov. Sarah Palin is laughable. It does nothing but play into her hands. She may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but she is smart enough to know what she is doing in regards to her career.
She would have to be stupid, I mean really stupid, to even consider actually stepping foot in the political arena again.
What has she done in the last four years that would have added to her leadership portfolio?
From what I can tell shes had a reality show, paid speaking engagements, and a comfy gig on FoxNews. Sure, she did get on the stump for some republicans, but so did Trump and Meatloaf. She has done nothing else that would make it look like she was actually serious about wanting to run for any office.
And why would she?
She has found a very, very lucrative lifestyle where she can pick and choose where she allows herself to speak or be seen. Add in the points Doug has above, and it’s obvious that she loves the attention, hates political responsibility. At least anything that could risk ruining her chosen career path.
Why would anyone think that she would want to risk everything she has earned in the last four years and/or go through what she did in 2008 all over again?
After she quit because the job got really difficult, I knew she was done the the elected office lifestyle. All my republican friends kept saying just you wait for 2012, she will come back with a vengeance. And looked what happened? She stuck with her comfortable life she has earned for herself, played up the drama of being ostracized by the republican establishment but showed barely any interest of actually putting her skin in the game.
If she were to actually really get in the arena again, and not just say things along the lines of she will review her options etc. I will be completely shocked.
At this point the only way I could see Gov. Palin win the nomination or even the Oval office would be if the Dems said “F*ck it, let’s just run Debbie from Florida.”
And even then it would probably be a close election.
(And before anyone decides to defend Gov. Palin and throw in the fact that President Obama had very little experience himself. That may be true. However, most if not all the same people that harped on Obama having too little experience over the last four years, are also the ones that are perfectly okay with Mrs. Palin being president. IOKIYAR?)
ps. I would also like to say that I am not faulting or looking down on Gov. Palin for what she has done to earn herself the lifestyle she has. I blame the market more than anything else. Palin is just trying to get paid and there is nothing wrong with that.
In another thread a few weeks back a commenter (perhaps John personna?) pointed out that Republicans seem to think the answer to any demographics issue is pure tokenism.
This article read as if Allen sat down and thought “man…Sarah sure does work as a token for almost all of our issues! Women? Hey! She’s a woman! Gays? Why, teh gays love her! Will she alienate men? Of course not! Look at those looks.”
I was almost expecting Allen to explain how she is also actually black and Hispanic, so check and check on those demographics!
@Neil Hudelson:
It would have been an easier sell if Allen just tried to make the case that since Alaska has a very large Inuit population, that means that Gov. Palin has a very comfortable relationship with minorities.
“She wins the foreign policy debate because her son served in Iraq?”
She will certainly make this claim even if the paint chip eating supporters don’t make it for her. After all, she claimed to be an expert on the oil business because her husband Todd was a roustabout for an oil company.
@Janis Gore: That should have been “can speak rill guud.”
@michael reynolds:
I’m hoping for a Clinton/Cuomo ticket, or Hillary with any other star Dem. I figure that could give us another 16 years. (And, yes, my dream 2008 ticket was Clinton/Obama.)
Sarah Palin is an authentic working class hero and a self-made woman. She is forceful, charismatic, and brilliant. Sarah Palin 2016
@Ron Mexico:
Too bad she doesn’t know what she reads.
@LCaution:
The only problem with a Clinton/Cuomo ticket is the Constitutional bar on electors voting for a Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominee from the same state. Clinton and Cuomo are both residents of New York.
Sarah Palin is certainly different. Sarah Palin can put together the Reagan coalition and win over hispanics and women more so than Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, and Bobby Jindal. She is far more forceful than Marco Rubio. Palin has balls something the GOP establishment lacks. She smacks down opponents pretty well and did better against Biden than Ryan and actually won the debate. The 2 debates that I have seen of her show that she is a charismatc, competent, and likeable debater in the mold of Reagan. Her convention speech is the greatest speech in decades. Yes to Sarah Palin 2016 . Palin running in 2016 gives conservatives at least 1 more good candidate than they had in 2012.
I’m just curious about who will be the next potential GOP candidate pushed by some newspaper writer…perhaps Lex Luthor or the Joker…
I’ve never heard of Allen but in the credits at the end of the article it says she is a feminist. Possibly it’s a spoof?
Then again, Republicans said John McCain was right to pick Palin in 2008 because angry Hilary Clinton voters would switch over. Yes, all those women think alike! It’s brilliant. Not.
God I love it that there are still Republicans falling in line behind this cretin. There is no bottom to the barrel of stupidity that is the GOP.
Oops, should have checked again. It says Charlotte Allen writes about feminism, not that she’s a feminist. My error. Definitely not a spoof, then. The first few hits on Google turn up pieces at the Weekly Standard, Townhall, etc.
Palin won’t happen. As veep candidate in ’08, she was part of McCain’s campaign organization. Does anyone think she has the skills, or the willingness to put in the hard work, to start up and manage a presidential campaign?
@gVOR08:
She’ll have plenty of time once she stops reading all the newspapers.
@Ron Mexico: She may have done better debating against Joe Biden than Paul Ryan did, but that’s damning by faint praise. She still lost.
A war veteran? As opposed to a peace veteran? Or does she mean an Iraq War veteran?
It’s not going to happen for the same reasons that it didn’t happen in 2012, as you correctly point out, Doug.
But it makes me giddy to speculate (just as it did when I thought it was possible it could happen in 2012) because if the GOP actually nominated her, it would mean a landslide win for whoever the Dem nominee was, and if it was Hillary, she could easily get 400 plus EVs, perhaps even close to 500. I mean can you imagine the two debating?
If Palin actually was the nominee she could not hide as she did throughout the 2008 campaign, she would be asked about policy all the time, and the gaffetastic possibilities would be endless. I could easily see her insulting the entirety of Obama’s coalition (which would be bigger then), while simultaneously embarrassing any conservative with half a brain. On the other hand, if the GOP really wants to go out with a bang, I’d say it’d be hard to pick a better candidate.
What would they say after a 400 EVs loss? All the usual excuses would be hard to sustain. It would be fantastic.
She is what she is — a busy mother of five, Trig with special needs. I don’t fault her much. She didn’t ask to be put in the national spotlight.
Then she became beholden to the current Republican machine. I genuinely doubt she gives a rat’s ass about “gay marriage.” She has her own to tend to.
Palin is a threat to the R establishment and liberals. They wish she would go away …. she doesn’t because her beliefs and statements resonate with a majority of Americans, just as Reagan did in the 1980’s …. the electorate is crying out for a Palin speaks from a place of principle, who governed Alaska from a place of principle and earned an almost 90% approval rating from all political colors for doing so. No other political figure has been so maliciously maligned by uninformed biased media and survived … but guess what SP is still around because he principles she stands for and enunciates so plainly and well resonate with a majority of Americans …. That’s why the permanent political class are so savage and relentless in their attempts to destroy her … she makes their insipid, manipulative echoing of “insider” platitudes irrelevant and destroys their power with simple truth that resonates. Palin’s guts and resilience comes from the principles that guide her … she as a core and a majority of Americans see it …. not the inside politics wise guys but ordinary real Americans who will support, work and follow if Palin decides to lead.
It’s touching that some unknown LAT op-ed writer is concerned-trolling about the GOP and the ’16 election cycle, but on Planet Realityville the chances of Palin winning that primary are between slim and none and if by some Mayan cosmic infarction Palin did become the nominee then the chances of her winning that general election would fall somewhere between Mondale and Dukakis.
The Republicans should nominate a fairly middle-of-the-road, moderate candidate with a proven track record of working across party lines and a record of accomplishments, and eschew anyone with remotely solid conservative credentials. I mean, just because they did that with McCain in 2008 and lost, and Romney in 2012 and lost, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t keep trying to put up the candidate that the press and the left seems to like and get along with in hopes that they might actually not do all they can to destroy him in defense of the Democrat. It couldn’t happen three times in a row, could it?
@Tsar Nicholas: Well hell, hon, we agree on something.
If Palin believed that (a) she could win the nomination and (b) had a good shot at winning the presidency, she would have run this year. She didn’t. I cannot imagine things looking any better for her in 2016.
And for the record, @Jenos Idanian #13 (a) the Republican party — as a whole — clearly believed that Romney was the best choice as no one came remotely close to him during the primary. After all, it was the Republican party — not the media, not the liberals or the left — that overwhelmingly voted for him.
@Ron Mexico:
That is some quality thread-trolling. Seriously, a golf clap for you, sir. If your name really is “sir” . . .
@Ozstickman:
Unfortunately, you are clearly sincere in your enthusiasm. The awful punctuation and inability to paragraph give you away. It’s the kind of thing clear thinkers can’t stand to fake well enough to pass. So, for you only pity. But at least proportional fonts and cheap bandwidth mean you don’t have to print out handbills and pass them out in front of subway stations like your forebears did. The 21st Century is a time of marvels.
@Doug Mataconis:
Wow… cool fact, Doug… did not realize that.
I would have said, the only problem with a Clinton/Cuomo ticket is that there is no way in hell she’s running. 2008 was her year. It’s passed. I don’t think she’s interested (or deluded) enough to try one more run.
@Janis Gore:
If she had retired gracefully she wouldn’t scare me so much. The Palins, as Alaska people are a good fit. The tragedy is that they can no longer be happy with salmon and snow machines, and must do frightening bits on Fox.
Palin’s a threat to liberals! Such a threat! The fear and the trembling from many liberals I’ve met is palpable and tremendous!
Perhaps she’ll join forces with Mr. Crankypants McCain, who this morning on Face the Nation took the position that he wouldn’t support any Secretary of State nomination until he got some answers about Benghazi.. the precise answers he would have received had he bothered to attend the actual Congressional briefing he skipped to complain to some press contacts about his not receiving any answers.
@john personna: John, if I had a tri-g son, I’d pull out all the stops and make every cent I could to make sure that he had the best care available. And I’d work on the public.
Give her time. She’ll be a great advocate. He’s just a little one now.
I’ve known two Down’s Syndrome children in my time. They have great hearts, until they give out because of congenital defects.
@Ozstickman:
You say that Palin “destroys their power with simple truth that resonates.”
As an example of Palin’s truth that resonates, so simply and powerfully, can we consider her statement about Paul Revere’s ride? Direct verbatim quote:
I’ve heard autistic ten year olds do a better job describing Mr. Revere’s signal contribution to nocturnal equestrianism and the Revolution.
@John P.: Come on! Obviously, ringing bells resonate. It’s literally true!
Q.E.F.D.
@John P.: Hey, John, wanna apply your standards to this collection of quotes?
@Ron Mexico:
I’m sorry, Ron, but Sarah Palin was a big nothing until Grampy McGrumpypants foisted her on the American public. Hell, I was JUST getting my mind around voting for him, until that happened.
Well, they couldn’t say she wasn’t conservative enough. Unless, of course, they have moved even farther to the right in four years.
Kevin DuJan, by the way, is an utter psychopath. Once I saw his name I was pretty sure it was a parody.
@al-Ameda: Maybe she could pick Victoria Jackson for her running mate. Palin/Jackson 2016 that’s the ticket 🙂
@Jenos Idanian #13:
OK, fine, but I’m not sure Barack Obama will be eligible to run in 2016, even on the Republican ticket.
@Ron Mexico: Keep smokin’ that stuff. It seems to be a really good hit!
I’m still waiting for Ryan’s great foible to arise. I know it’s out there,
@Janis Gore: ” She didn’t ask to be put in the national spotlight.”
She didn’t decline the spotlight, either. Then again, in the age of “having it all” feminism (at least for the Anne Marie Slaughter’s of the world–for 99% of women closer to “lucky to get any of it at all”), maybe saying “no, I can’t do this my family and special needs child demand more of me than this will permit me to give them” is just a cop out.
Who can tell?
Why would you decline the spotlight when you really do have ‘family values”?
I do. James does. I’m sure Ozark Hillbilly does. Steven Verdon does. Michael Reynolds does. Dave Schuler does. We all try.
Anjin does. Liberty does. Boyd does. Drew does. Jan does. Hell, even His Excellency does once in a while.
Ms. Palin is a fine woman. She just doesn’t need to be president.
@Janis Gore: Who is that, downvoting me now? Snotwad.
Snotwad.
@Janis Gore: You’ll not get the Mandarins, Doug.
Janice, are you ok? You seek to be having a conversation with yourself :-p
I’m fine. And it’s spelled like Joplin. Go look at the Glittering Eye. Doug and and are in tete a tete..
@Doug Mataconis:
Rand Paul just came out for Amnesty, and is now sucking up to Mitch McConnell. He’s just like his old man, but worse. He’s only in all of this for himself.
Rand Paul is not and never will be qualified to be president. He’s just another political hack who needs to be putout to pasture.
I guess just because one can have a website and write their opinion, doesn’t mean they should.
@DougMataconis certainly proves he’s not very bright at all. I’d be ashamed to write such tripe.
Now I agree, the L A Times piece was very superficial, but the conclusion is correct Sarah Palin is the only one with the record and ability to actually BE president from the GOP.
Stacy Drake makes a much better case for why Palin would win in 2016 by a landslide. I’ll give you a hint, it’s all about reform and corruption busting:
http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/if-the-gope-were-smart-they-would-beg-gov-palin-to-come-back-into-the-room/
As Stacy points out here, if Sarah Palin isn’t qualified to be president, the no one who ever breathed is, PERIOD:
http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/governor-sarah-palins-incredible-executive-accomplishments/
@Janis Gore:
If America is to survive, we need Palin as President. End of story. No one else can get the job done.
Palin’s record of excellence speaks for itself.
@Blackwater: You can try.
I think she’d much rather stay home with her child and her grandbabies.
@John P.:
You shouldn’t be talking about retards when you obviously don’t have the sense God gave canned cling peaches!
BTW, that wasn’t her “exact quote” The lefty rags have a habit of added “uhs” and “ums” to the transcripts, when conservatives speak, but removing them when Dear Leader Obama speaks.
Oh, and historians say Palin was 100% correct about Paul Revere too:
http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/experts-and-historical-writings-back-sarah-palin%E2%80%99s-historical-account-of-paul-revere/.
Um. You’re a little off there. Your’re given your litany by Glen Beck, too, aren’t you?
Um…are all these new names popping up in this Palin thread just lurkers that decided to actually post?
Or is there a central hub for Sarah Palin followers that sends out alerts about other places that are currently talking about Sarah Palin in a negative way. Which then dispatches the
white knightsreal Americans to educate the heathens?To the right, Palin is like a photo-negative of Obama. The traits that make Palin unelectable are the same traits the right attribute to Obama, so it’s hard for them to fathom Palin being inadequate as a candidate.
@Mr. Replica: Beats me, dah’lin.
Honestly, talk about epistomologic closure, from both sides.
Where y’all come from? I rock and roll.
Who is this twit who constantly downvotes? It’s either Doug Mataconis or G.A. Phillips.
@Rafer Janders: OK, fine, but I’m not sure Barack Obama will be eligible to run in 2016, even on the Republican ticket.
Apparently you missed my requirement of “proven track record of working across party lines,” so I’ll repeat it: “with a proven track record of working across party lines.”
Obama’s idea of “compromise” is “you’re free to agree with me.”
I’m tempted to view the article as satire, but as evidenced by the number of her defenders, even on this thread, I have no doubt that some consider this a possibility. Which, frankly, is distressing.
Sarah Palin reached the threshold of the Peter Principle when she was selected as a VP candidate. That any Republican would consider her for the top spot only goes to show how far off the rails the party has gone. At some point, denigrating intelligence as “elitist” was bound to manifest itself in this way.
@Janis Gore:
Which one, the spotlight or the family values? The last time a spotlight found me was during a prison break and I had all my “family values” surgically removed.
Palin’s like crack to her critics. They can’t get enough of it, they hate themselves for their addiction, and they’d sell their souls for another hit of the pipe…:)
She didn’t ask to be put in the national spotlight.
I hate to disagree with you, but this is clearly wrong.
@Doug Mataconis: Wait, Rand Paul, you think, is going to be the one to make Republicans more rational? The guy who thinks falsely labeling food products should be a free speech right, but the FDA should be barred from distributing scientific information about nutrients and health? The guy who bought into the conspiracy theory about National Weather Service’s massive purchase of bullets? The guy who says, “F**k the Supreme Court, Obamacare’s still Constitutional? The guy whose idea of meaningful comment on the president’s embrace of gay marriage was to say he “wasn’t sure (Obama’s) views on marriage could get any gayer.” The guy thinks race discrimination is a right? The guy who thinks mine safety regulations are unnecessary because people won’t take jobs at unsafe mines? The guy who attaches “fetal personhood” bills (which would not only outlaw abortion, but could affect in vitro fertilization as well) to flood insurance bills?
That’s the guy who’s going to make Republicans more rational? I don’t think so.
Yes, yes it does. Just not the way you think it does.
In response to Rob in CT
Let’s start with economics..:)
Sarah Palin as Governor didn’t just cut spending; she saved, reformed, and prioritized like a good fiscal manager. She invested $5 billion in state savings, overhauled education funding, paid down debt, invested $2.6 billion in an education fund for the future, and funded a Senior Benefits Program to provide support for low-income Alaskan seniors.
In stark contrast to President Obama and other governors whose fiscal records are dogged by credit downgrades, Palin left Alaska with an improved credit rating during and following her tenure as governor. Standard & Poor’s raised Alaska’s credit rating from AA to AA+ in April 2008.
Then in 2010, both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s upgraded Alaska to AAA for the first time in the state’s history due to policies enacted by Palin that made the state’s finances more than solvent. “
@Mr. Replica: According to wikipedia Todd Palin is an eighth Yup’ik and a quarter Curyung plus a quarter Canadian, so I guess this is sufficient for Allen in order to declare that Sarah has a a strong connection to minorities.
@Idesign: Awesome. So you support raising taxes on oil companies? Because that’s how Palin got that AAA credit rating for her state. That and the nearly half billion dollars in earmarks–more, per capita, than any other governor–she sucked out of the federal government.
@Janis Gore:
Free advice for Sarah. Buy an Alaskan lodge (or partner/name one). Overcharge fanboys for fishing and hunting trips. Run “summits” periodically, on child issues and conservative politics. Make them come to you, while charging them every time.
There was an interesting moment with Newt, way back as he was coming off his “100 days.” Circa late 90’s. He was a media darling, frequently on TV. I remember him saying “my wife thinks I’m becoming over-exposed.” It turns out she was right, his lack of control made him blow up.
And sadly, that good advice came from the wife he booted.
(I guess that should be “a wife” he booted.)
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, something about grandbabies and women who selected to have children — oh, eight years ago.
@john personna: I can think of half a dozen things she could do to make some real cash. I still like the sports clothing line for her.
The woman didn’t have the guts to make it through a second term as Alaska’s Governor and you’re expecting her to go up against guys like Putin?
Friends don’t let bimbos run for POTUS.
Why the Left Hates Sarah Palin
http://evansayet.com/why-the-left-hates-sarah-palin/
@grumpy realist: That’s a little unkind.
@grumpy realist: I think Sarah Palin is not very knowledgeable about policy; sucked up gummint money and then ran for vice president; and she seems to be more fanatically interested in protecting her “brand” than any politician I’ve ever heard of. And those are just the beginning of her flaws as a candidate.
None of that, however, means someone should call her a bimbo. That’s unnecessary and sexist.
@Idesign:
Some of us center and right can “like’ her while not trusting her for high office.
To be brutal about it, to back Palin for high office, you need poorer judgement than Palin. That’s not really the way you want to self-select a constituency.
@Idesign: That should be titled “Dude you never heard of fights a dozen strawmen. Loses.”
Second term? Hell, she quit with more than a year left in her first term, if I recall correctly. So yeah, the odds of her giving up the comfortable life of a political pundit who gets paid more than most people make all year for a single speaking engagement to say any damned thing she wants, no matter ho mind-numbingly stupid it is are somewhere between slim and none.
She was literally governor of a state that PAYS IT’S CITIZENS TO LIVE THERE. And yet conservatives love her.
That’s a serious disconnect if I’ve ever seen one.
And Rand Paul? Doug? Seriously?
@Doug Mataconis: “Keep your eye on Senator Paul, Michael. I know you’re going to disagree with him but he’s taking the helm of a growing segment of the Republican Party that is opposed to the neo-conservative foreign policy we’ve seen since the Bush Administration. For that reason alone, I want to see him gain influence within the party and maybe start turning it in a more rational direction. ”
IOW, he’s allegedly in 100% opposition to one of the core factions of the GOP (the military-industrial-war machine wing). That’s a reason that he will *not* be a presidential candidate.
@Ron Mexico: “She is forceful, charismatic, and brilliant. Sarah Palin 2016
Hot debate. What do you think?”
Please do.
@Ozstickman: “…nd earned an almost 90% approval rating from all political colors for doing so. ”
I just love how the right makes up numbers, and doesn’t even strive for credibility.
@Idesign: She accomplished all that in only 2 1/2 years – wow! that is impressive! Imagine what she could have done if she stayed in office for her entire term!
Rand Paul talked around the same issues regarding race that his dad did while he was running for his Senate seat in 2010. Given the problems the GOP is having trying to shake it’s racist image I can’t see Rand Paul making it any further than Ron Paul at the national level.
@Barry:
Oh please, oh please, oh please.
[rubs hands together and cackles with glee. Liberally, of course]
@Doug Mataconis:
The question isn’t whether he’ll be a good Presidential Candidate EVER. It’s whether he’ll be one in 2016. Part of the GOPs problem is that it keep rushing people into the presidential race rather than giving them time to get more experience with how the government works, and then they can’t do the job well. (The DNC has the same problem, mind you. Obama probably would have been a far better president if he’d spent another 8 years in the Senate before running.)
@Michael:
@Ron Mexico:
@Ozstickman:
@Blackwater:
Well, if nothing else Palin appears to have the spambot demographic locked down.
@nitpicker: If you don’t want to be called a bimbo, don’t act like a bimbo. Sarah Palin’s obvious use of her so-called sex appeal, winking during the debates, her tendency to spout word salad at every point–
Nah, she’s a bimbo. I’m a woman, so I can use the term.
Rand Paul wouldn’t even have gotten elected without the boost tha Palins endorsement gave him.
Your green eye are showing.@grumpy realist:
@Stormy Dragon:
I am not at all sure about that. Serving in the Senate for an extended period of time has a tendency to inculcate some very bad habits, including self-importance, preening for the cameras, a sense of power unbalanced by executive responsiblity, a preference for deal-making as the end rather than the means, etc.
We might have been lucky to get Obama when we did, before he was spoiled by eight more years of giving lots of speeches but doing very little in the Senate. He came to us with some vigor intact.
If Sarah Palin is the ‘far Right’, ‘fundmentalist’ dimwit that is being claimed here, how was it that the Democrats in the Alaskan Legislature did not notice these traits while she was Governor of that state. Was it not the case that in all the major initiatives that she took she sought and secured the support of a majority of the Dems as well as the republican in those assemplies. Indeed if the truth be told, he bitterest enemies were on the far Right of the GOP establishment, whose corruption she confronted. Sarah Palin has a very fine record of seeking and securing bipartissan accord behind proper reforms. I can find not evidence of Barrack Obama ever confronting the notorious corruption of the Chicago Democratic Machine. As for Hillary Clinton, I took the trouble to examine her career in 2008, and could find not evidence of any substantive accomplishment whatsoever. Okay, she tried healthcare reform inn the early 1990s; she failed. she was ‘First Lady’ to Bill Clinton; so what? She ran an effective primary campaign; she didn’t it was a shambles. As SOS she is an international joke. Whenever I ask Hillary Supporters what exactly is it that makes them support her it boils down to “pro-choice”. And their hatred for Sarah Palin–she is “Pro-Life”. Sad.
@al-Ameda: @Doug Mataconis: I agree that Rand Paul has some very good ideas on closing military bases around the world, and getting the budget mess on the right track.
If he’s serious about running for President, I’d like to know where he stands on the 3 abortion issues of rape, incest, and life of the mother.
Is he a Christian supremacist, or does he accept that separation of Church and state is a good idea.?
We surely don’t need Reverend Santorum bloviating to us again on religious matters.
@CSK: Exactly right on Palin.
She quit the only job that remotely qualified her to run for high office. No excuses will do, in spite of the Palin bots rantings on the subject.
If you go on youtube and listen to about 20 or 30 of her rantings, you hear nothing but platitudes and pablum for the faithful ultra right.
A candidate for President has to engage 100% of the electorate to get elected, as Mr Romney found out with his 47% idiocy
As Governor of Alaska, she even supported a socialist plan to tax Exxon and distribute the proceeds to the residents.
@Steve: Envy? Maybe. Envy that this clueless grifter was able to suck up so much cash and attention from her audience. Disgust that she poured all that energy into creating “her” brand and do absolutely nothing with it. Contempt that now in the Encyclopedia of American History, under the entry “female politician who ran for VPOTUS” we now have a picture of Palin. And contempt for the American populace who supported her and didn’t care how much of a nitwit she was, provided she had Teh Sex Appeal.
Palin will never run for POTUS. Too much hard work. But her sycophants will continue to cherish and support her, muttering darkly under their breath about “the Lamestream Media” and how Their Sarah didn’t get her deserved role in American history.
@Neil Hudelson: I hate to disabuse anyone of their personal notion of “looks,” but coming to a campaign appearance dressed like a 14 year old anorexic teen girl is not very smart
check it out
http://tinyurl.com/bwvpmlv
@Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker:
Palin is widely quoted (as is shown in Game Change movie) to have said “it’s god’s will” when people asked her about becoming VP in 2008
She’s also quoted as saying about the 2008 election, “god will make the right people win”
I guess for those among you who are religious, she was right on at least one of those statements
@grumpy realist:
Actually, it was her 1st AND ONLY term she didn’t make it through.
She quit, and was defeated for VP.
As I read this article, the movie Mean Girls comes to mind. And then it hits me. Very impressive Mean Girl act you got going there, Doug. You are clinical when it comes to Palin. Now, thanks to your super candidate, Mitt Romney and Ryan’s epic failure to beat a beatable Obama, you will have Obamacare to help with your PDS flare-up.
@grumpy realist: Probably a very ugly one at that. Being grumpy would do that to you.
I should have thought it was obvious why Gov Palin stepped down from the Governorship of Alaska. Facing bankrupsy from over two dozen falsely contrived “ethics” charges (all dismissed by the Personnel Board) she had little alternative. But that unjust assault on her told be all I needed to know about Barrack Obama’s America and I find it an ugly and frightening place, fueled by dirty trick politics and deliberate divisiveness along class, race and gender lines.
The depiction of Palin as some kind of religous nut who thinks she knows God’s will is curious, to say the least. And amusing too when such a criticism came recently from a particularly toffee nosed British Tory, who ‘couldn’t understand America’s ‘fundamentalists’–compared to England’s tolerant middle-of-the road Anglican faith. This is amusing because over and over again Palin has explained that the strongest influence shaping her religious worldview is the writer, C S Lewis. Now Lewis was one of the last century’s most famous Anglican thinkers and writers. Lewis may not be everyone’s cup-of-tea, but he was far from being a so-called fundy. A sophisticated thinker and man of letters and an very accomplished philosopher and linguist, he fully accepted evolution (as does Palin).
It seems to me that the main difference between those who scoff at Palin and those who admire her is this. Those who admire her actually took the trouble to find out about her, what she really thinks and what she actually accomplished.
With Democrats like Obama and Hillary on the other hand the process is reversed. Those who scoff at this pair have taken the trouble to find out what they really think and what they are supposed to have done and have come up empty.
@Mark Anthony:
I didn’t support Romney, my friend.
@grumpy realist:
Second term? She didn’t make it through her first term.
@Stormy Dragon: Hey, it worked for Ron Paul…oh, wait…
Sarah Palin is a snollygoster, plain and simple.
After the 2008 election Sarah Palin helped lead Republicans to the greatest congressional victory in several generations during the 2010 election; she has worked tirelessly to fight Obama’s policies and elect conservatives and basically spearheaded the 2010 victory with her endorsements and rallies all over the country. She endorsed 73 candidates for the US House of Representatives and Senate; state governors and attorney generals. Her success rate was at 69%!
Sarah Palin also had a very strong hand in the party’s few successes during this election . Sarah Palin campaigned for constitutional conservatives llike Ted Cruz, Deb Fischer, Jeff Flake, Paul Gosar, resulting in 5 conservatives being elected to the Senate and 32 conservatives to the House.
In 2010, Sarah Palin backed South Carolina’s Tim Scott. He won in 2010 and he won re-election. She backed other African Americans like Allen West and Mia Love. Both of those candidates narrowly lost their races by 2,000 votes in the case of Love and 1,000 votes in the case of West.
Sarah Palin outperformed the Republican Party by a bunch.
Always listen to Sarah Palin. Chances are you’ll have better results
That presumes of course your goal is to get the most electable conservative into congress rather than to enrich the establishment consultant class and those who want to be them.
Perhaps those who blew $400 mil plus on Rove etc should remember this.
@CSK:
Sarah Palin has penned commentary on such topics as the unrest in Libya, the protests in Wisconsin, Obama’s 2012 budget proposal and State of the Union address, getting tough with Iran and standing with Iranians who seek democracy, challenging the specifics of President Obama’s energy policy, the omnibus spending bill, defeating the New START, opposition to state bailouts, tax policy.
She has repeatedly been a leading voice—via television appearances and speaking engagements—against the dangers of ObamaCare and the risks of President Obama’s approach to energy.
During the 2010 election she endorsed 73 candidates for the US House of Representatives and Senate; state governors and attorney generals. Her success rate was at 69%!
Sarah Palin also had a very strong hand in the party’s few successes during this election . Sarah Palin campaigned for constitutional conservatives llike Ted Cruz, Deb Fischer, Jeff Flake, Paul Gosar, resulting in 5 conservatives being elected to the Senate and 32 conservatives to the House.
@Mr. Replica: You wrote: “After she quit because the job got really difficult”
Sarah Palin resigned because she recognized the cost that the frivolous ethics complaints were having on her state , and she saw how much of her staff’s time and her own time were forced to deal with those issues.
That entire campaign of BS lawsuits was meant to do nothing but hamstring the governor’s office and bankrupt Sarah Palin.
She saw that if she stayed on as Governor it would continue to cost the state millions of dollars in wasted time and resources to defend against false and maliciously ethics complaints and doom it to gridlock.
Those frivolous lawsuits had already cost the state of AK close to $2 million; Sarah Palin had over $500,000 dollars in legal fees.
Sarah Palin knew that for the sake of her state, her country, her family, and her political voice, it would be best if she stepped aside from the governorship.
She promised to keep the frivolous anti-Palin law suits away from the Alaskan people and to be more effective on the stump ( supporting candidates , fundraising, etc).
Sarah Palin was truthful on both accounts.
For the past four years Sarah Palin has worked tirelessly to fight Obama’s policies and elect conservatives; she was #1 in the fight!She basically spearheaded the 2010 victory with her endorsements, and rallies all over the country.
She’s spoken out on all the issues, both foreign and domestic, and has been proven right on many of her statements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmEE61iVhCA
Sarah Palin has many years (successful) executive management experience at local, regional and state levels including command of the Alaska National Guard and has a history of being a reformer and taking on powerful interests for the benefit of ordinary people.
She has always been a tough-as-nails executive who understood her role as a servant for the people during her time as Mayor of Wasilla and as Governor; she took on the Republican establishment, big oil, corruption, ethics reform, and tax reform.
In Alaska, Sarah Palin’s top priorities included fiscal restraint, limiting the size of government, resource development, education, equitable oil valuation as well as transportation and infrastructure development. Sarah Palin fought for ethics reform and transparency in government.
She has cut spending, forward-funded education, and paved the way for job growth in her hometown.
Sarah Palin has fought to reduce spending and to enforce fiscal discipline as governor of Alaska. She has drastically reduced the growth of the state budget, which has helped to produce a record budget surplus.
She cut spending and vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars in spending, not because times were tough, but because she wanted to keep government small and solvent.
She reformed Alaska’s pension system and used surplus dollars to help pay down underfunded pensions, which reduced Alaska’s liabilities by 34.6 % to help provide analysts at Moody’s with enough confidence to later upgrade Alaska’s credit rating to AAA.
She also reduced earmark requests for the state of Alaska by 80% during her administration.
Sarah Palin succeeded to a remarkable extent in settling what had seemed insoluble problems, in the process putting Alaska on a trajectory to financial well-being.
This is strong financial management.
Under her leadership, Alaska has invested $5 billion in state savings, reformed education funding, and implemented the Senior Benefits Program, which provides support for low-income Alaskan seniors. She’s also established Alaska’s Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to provide oversight and maintenance of oil and gas equipment, facilities, and infrastructure.
During Sarah Palin’s first year in office, three of her administrations major proposed pieces of legislation passed—an overhaul of the state’s ethics laws, a competitive process to construct a natural gas pipeline and a restructuring of Alaska’s oil valuation formula.
Sarah Palin’s “business experience” comes with the negotiations and dealings she has had with one of the most powerful industries in the world: the energy industry. Sarah Palin has successfully negotiated new tax structures, lease deals and other issues that arise in the Alaska energy industry.
At the end of the day, Sarah Palin negotiated billion dollar deals with one of the toughest industries in the world.
Taking on corruption and crony capitalism has always been a cornerstone of Sarah Palin’s agenda; in Alaska she did take on the old-boy network — the oil companies and her own party .
As oil and gas commissioner, Sarah Palin called out the unethical practices of members of her own party.
As Governor, she sought to end the back room deals and improper relationships between oil companies and politicians.
Sarah Palin is past chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a multistate government agency that promotes the conservation and efficient recovery of domestic oil and natural gas resources while protecting health, safety and the environment.
She also served as chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) Natural Resources Committee, which was charged with pursuing legislation to ensure state needs are considered as federal policy is formulated in the areas of agriculture, energy, environmental protection and natural resource management.
After poring over thousands of emails (24,000+ pages of emails) from Palin’s term as governor, even the mainstream media has been forced to concede that Palin was a conscientious, transparent, and effective public servant.
http://bcove.me/jt9yvxp0
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100091820/american-way-sarah-palin-email-frenzy-backfires-on-her-media-antagonists/
http://www.examiner.com/article/palin-the-emails-the-paul-revere-flap-and-the-foolish-media
There has not been one aspect of Palin’s life and career that has not been chewed over, criticized and lied about by her enemies; she has withstood the slings, barbs, bullets, and arrows that would have fallen a lesser person.
The media hounded her, and her family, on a daily basis, flat out making crap up (like that she, personally, shot wolves from the air). They claimed her baby was not her own; used despicable language to attack her, and her family; sent numerous reporters to Wasilla to dig up dirt on her ; AP reporters “factchecked” her book; accused her of being an accomplice to murder, her email hacked by the son of a Democrat congressman, political operatives filing endless bogus ethic charges designed to bankrupt a working family with a special need toddler and much more.
The media and Hollywood have done everything they can to vilify Sarah Palin and her family but despite a massive effort to destroy her, she is still on her feet and making a difference in the political world.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/07/who-is-the-real-sarah-palin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122057381593001741.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/10/us/10iht-currents10.html?_r=0
http://www.amazon.com/Sarah-takes-Big-Oil-compelling/dp/0982163207
@Mr. Replica: “Um…are all these new names popping up in this Palin thread just lurkers that decided to actually post?
Or is there a central hub for Sarah Palin followers that sends out alerts about other places that are currently talking about Sarah Palin in a negative way. Which then dispatches the white knights real Americans to educate the heathens?”
Oh yes there is a central hub, and they’ve put out the Clarion Call to defend sarah against the evil libruls or some such (specifically mentioning this site): http://conservatives4palin.com/2012/11/la-times-pro-palin-article-revives-blogger-hysteria.html
@Michael Carr: Settling cases is not being “cleared” unless a plea agreement equals not guilty.
@Jackdp: I don’t think any wants to vilify her. She’s not a villian. She’s a likely well-meaning grandma who is simply not prepared to run the country.
@Jackdp: And she was totally unintelligible on any topic she “commented” on.
My 3-year old godson could have done a better job.
armed with nothing more then a keyboard and her wit… this lady exposes the left for the amateurs they are..:)
@nitpicker: She was personally exonerated in all cases without exeception.
@KCF: You are probably right though as a non-American my interest is academic. But it seems to me that there a lot of Americans who deeply resent the tusami of lies invented by the Obama campaign about Sarah Palin before and after 2008. Obama largely won all his previous elections by the methods of personal destruction. In 2008 when hundreds of researchers could not dig any dirt on Palin in Alaska they simply made it up and have being making it up ever since. If Barrack Obama or Hillary Clinton received one-tenth of the scrutiny that was directed at Gov Palin they would not be elected dog catchers in Massachuesetts.
@Michael Carr: Oh yes, go ahead, get your Goddess Sarah to run for POTUS. Running someone with a 73% disapproval rating is going to get nominated in that free-for-all slugfest called the Republican Primaries. Right.
Pass the popcorn.
Seems like Grumpy continues to get all wee weed up about Sarah Palin…LOL
@grumpy realist:
I can actually see how some of them might do the math to hope that this will work out. First, someone is going to observe that Romney finished with a 30% approval rating (i.e., a 70% disapproval number, only slightly less than Palin) in Massachusetts, which is why he didn’t run for a second term. Yet he made it through the GOP primaries.
Secondly, similarly, I would suspect that the 73% negative number you cite is a bipartisan number, not among Republicans. If so, then whoever is pushing Palin’s candidacy would look at that number and “de-skew” it to say that her unfavorable among Republicans might be closer to 40%-50%.
Not that I agree with these arguments, trying to illustrate another self-delusional mechanism that might be at play.
@Michael Carr: Um, no. Look it up. She settled the case on raising defense money by claiming she just couldn’t be expected to know things like laws and stuff and had to pay the money back.