U.S. 2012 Election

[a_majoor]

Well, you heard it here first: Governor Sarah Palin has estabilshed a PAC, which is a pretty conclusive first step in sounding the waters for a Presidential bid.

http://www.sarahpac.com/

Sarah Palin's Official PAC

Dedicated to building America's future, supporting fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation.

SarahPAC believes America's best days are ahead. Our country, founded on conservative principles and the fight for freedom, must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination.

SarahPAC believes energy independence is a cornerstone of the economic security and progress that every American family wants and deserves.

SarahPAC believes the Republican Party is at the threshold of an historic renaissance that will build a better future for all. Health care, education, and reform of government are among our key goals. Join us today!

 

[Infanteer]

My understanding was that she was an unqualified disaster for the Republican Party - like, yaaa!!!!  Better look somewhere else, GOP.

 

[Pelorus]

I think the GOP should just let her fade into obscurity, certainly not bring her out again in 2012.  That is, assuming they want to beat the Democrats.

Sure, she was popular with the "base", but she scared the hell out of all the moderates IMO.

 

[a_majoor]

Of course there is also the argument that without Governor Palin, the popular vote would not have been as close as it was (the President was elected with 52% of the popular vote, very similar to George W Bush's margins of victory in 200 and 2004). Being able to see the Governor without the MSM "filter" might prove very illuminating.

Lets let the market work its magic. If Governor Palin can provide the combination of policy and "salesmanship" to re energize the GOP and win the White house, then all power to her. OTOH, there are many other politicians who also will be trying to sell themselves and their ideas; may the best person win. 

 

[Mike Baker]

My money is on Ron Paul. ;D


But in all seriousness, does anyone think that Dr. Paul will run in 2012? That people may actually vote for him, or that he would be the 'black horse', and somehow get the GOP Nomination?

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Ross Perot  ;D

 

[muskrat89]

My understanding was that she was an unqualified disaster for the Republican Party - like, yaaa!!!!  Better look somewhere else, GOP.

I keep hearing that, and reading it. But my discussions with voting Americans don't prove it out. Maybe I'm just nestled in the right (no pun intended) demographic, and my friends, relatives, co-workers etc. are too like-minded to provide a representative sample.

Of all the Republicans that I know, work with, talk to on message boards, etc - none of them think she is/was a "disaster"

 

[tomahawk6]

The only one's who think she was a disaster are the hypocrites in the democrat party and the RINO's in the GOP. She IS the only conservative politician that actually excites the folks. Maybe another charismatic pol may appear on the scene but right now she's it. Whether she can draw independents is a big question but right now she's the best of the field. She took everything the democrat controled media threw at her and she didnt implode. You're right if she hadnt been on the ticket McCain would have lost by a wider margin. McCain aimed his campaign at democrats and independents and didnt get enough of those and lost ground with the base. Like 06 people sat the election out.

 

[GAP]

She might be wise to sit out 2012.....if Obama does anywhere 1/2 decent, he'll get a second term easily.....all he has to do is not declare war on anybody...

 

[tomahawk6]

2010 will be the first referendum on the Obama administration. If the dem's lose one or both houses of Congress it will be bad news for Obama. If they retain control Obama will be good til 2012. I think the economy will sink Obama, his initiatives right now are not conducive for a recovery.With another Trillion dollars sloshing about the economy I am thinking 70's style inflation will hit by 2010. Another factor is the banking system.The first stimulus went to the banks,what if that doesnt work ? Where will the money come from for more money for the banks ? Print more ?

 

[a_majoor]

How you see governor Palin is probably a good indication of where you are on the politcal spectrum, rather than where she stands:

http://www.redstate.com/josh_painter/2009/01/28/sarah-palin-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/

Sarah Palin in the eye of the beholder

Posted by Josh Painter (Profile)

Wednesday, January 28th at 7:02PM EST

30 Comments
Since the debut of SarahPAC yesterday, there’s been renewed speculation that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin intends to make a run for the White House, perhaps as early as 2012. If such a run is indeed in the cards, where will the pundits place her on the political spectrum? The answer to that question depends on which pundit you choose to believe.


Former John McCain senior staffer John Weaver, as quoted by Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza:

“The Democrats and the far left will do all they can to grab electoral turf. And one sure way to do it is take some of the most controversial voices on the extreme right — like Limbaugh and [Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin — and try to insist they speak for all members of the center/right movement.”

Self-described conservative Paul Mulshine, in his New Jersey Star Ledger column:

If anyone can think of a reason Palin qualifies as a conservative, please let me know. The truth is that Palin is a project of the so-called “neo” conservatives, who are actually a bunch of moony-eyed leftists masquerading as conservatives.

Patrick J. Buchanan, in an opinion piece for Chronicles magazine:

Make no mistake. Sarah Palin is no neocon. She did not come by her beliefs by studying Leo Strauss. She is a traditionalist whose values are those of family, faith, community and country, not some utopian ideology.

Michelle Goldberg, writing in the left wing magazine The Nation:

She has not always governed as a zealot; in fact, she’s a bit of a cipher, with scant record of speeches or writings on social issues or foreign policy. Nevertheless, several people who’ve dealt with her say that those concerned about church-state separation should be chilled by the idea of a Palin presidency. “To understand Sarah Palin, you have to realize that she is a religious fundamentalist,” said Howard Bess, a retired liberal Baptist minister living in Palmer. “The structure of her understanding of life is no different from a Muslim fundamentalist.”

Professional Palin critic Dan Fagan in a post on his Alaska Standard blog:

It is indisputable the governor has leaned strongly to the left with her policies in her first two years as governor.

Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi in a RealClearPolitics op-ed:

In contrast to any national candidate in recent memory, Palin is the one that exudes the economic and cultural sensibilities of a geniune Western-style libertarian.

Christopher Orr, in a diary on TNR’s blog, The Plank:

The beauty pageant queen is an enormously talented populist in a year that is ripe for populism.

The certifiably inane Joe Conason, in a Salon.com diatribe:

Palin’s phony populism is as insulting to working- and middle-class Americans as it is to American women.

A quote in an article in USA Today:

“She has governed from the center,” says Rebecca Braun, author of Alaska Budget Report, a non-partisan political newsletter. “She has in some small ways supported her religious views — for example, proposing money to continue the office of faith-based and community initiatives — but she has actually been conspicuously absent on social issues.”

The unhinged Marjorie Cohn in a post on the nutroots site AfterDowningStreet.org:

Palin is a radical right-wing fundamentalist Christian who would love to create a theocracy.

Michael Reagan, writing in Human Events:

“Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he’s a she… Like Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin is one of us.”

So, is Sarah Palin the right wing extremist McCain staffers and leftists believe her to be? Is she the fundie theocrat secular leftists say she is?  Is she the “neocon” portrayed by careless conservatives? Is she a populist, as some liberals claim? If the governor is a populist, is that populism as disingenuous as the looser cannons on the left insist it is? Is she a leftist, as Big Oil’s useful idiots would have us believe? Is she the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan that his own elder son sees? Or is Gov. Palin a centrist, as the Alaskan pundit says she has governed? Did Pat Buchanan hit it closest to the mark of all the pundits quoted here, calling her a traditionalist?

All of those pundits can’t be right, as their perceptions of the former vice presidential candidate are diverse and often in conflict with one another. Sarah Palin certainly is no liberal, nor is she the ultraconservative perceived by the loony left. They consider anyone to the right of Gerald Ford to be an extreme right winger, for Pete’s sake. Though she had the opportunity to do so, Gov. Palin did not govern as a theocrat. She not a Paulist libertarian, nor is she purely populist. And she is not Ronald Reagan reborn as a woman, though she clearly has taken more than a enough pages from his book to be described as a Reagan conservative.

The governor was conservative enough for Human Events magazine to award her her its Conservative of the Year honors. Yet she was libertarian enough for Libertarian Repulican to name her Libertarian of the Year because:

No single individual has done more to promote limited government, individualism and free enterprise this year than Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin is what I consider an across-the-board conservative. That doesn’t mean that she has a conservative position on every political issue. It means that on most issues, she takes a conservative stance. The governor meets or exceeds the conservative threshold on social, fiscal, federalist and security issues. Single-issue zealots will not understand, nor will those so far out in left field that they wouldn’t recognize a real conservative if the ghost of Ronald Reagan were to suddenly appear before them and softly say, “Boo!”

Sarah Barracuda does have a populist streak, but she’s more conservative than populist. OnTheIssues.org, a nonpartisan website which rates candidates based on their records and their responses to their 20-item VoteMatch issues questionnaire, describes Gov. Palin as a populist-leaning conservative. Whether she is seen as a libertarian-leaning conservative or a populist-leaning one, such a political animal may well be just what the country will be looking for after four years of Jimmy Carter-style liberalism from Barack Obama and a Democrat congress.

- JP

 

[Drag]

IF I was a Democratic PAC I would not have to go any farther than Youtube to sink her.  Imagine the radio prank with the Quebec DJs on the air...  Run her all you want, this should be amusing.  Bobby Jindal on the other hand has what it takes

 

[Retired AF Guy]

IF I was a Democratic PAC I would not have to go any farther than Youtube to sink her.  Imagine the radio prank with the Quebec DJs on the air... 

Then why is Nickolas Sarkozy still President of France??

 

[dapaterson]

Palin should have been given a national platform and exposure in 2008; brought to the Senate for greater breadth of experience, then run as part of a ticket in 2012.

What some pundits ignore is that you don't need a polarizing figure who only attracts your base - to win, youi need to appeal to the central, undecided voter.  News flash:  despite popular mythology, the US is a largerly urban society.  Sarah's appeal was primarily to core rural Republican voters - who weren't going to vote Democrat under any conditions.

Urban voters saw a small town, white trash family with a knocked-up teenage daughter and her redneck high-school drop-out boyfriend.  Not inspirational.

 

[muskrat89]

News flash:  despite popular mythology, the US is a largerly urban society.  Sarah's appeal was primarily to core rural Republican voters - who weren't going to vote Democrat under any conditions.

Urban voters saw a small town, white trash family with a knocked-up teenage daughter and her redneck high-school drop-out boyfriend.  Not inspirational.

I agree with your reasoning but see my comments above. My personal experience doesn't prove that out - and I live/work in one of the largest cities in the US.

 

[tomahawk6]

White trash ? Give me a break !

 

[dapaterson]

From Wikipedia:

White trash is a term referring to lower social class white people with poor prospects and/or low levels of education. It originated as a pejorative. To call someone white trash was to accuse a white person of being economically, educationally and/or culturally bankrupt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash

A pregnant seventeen year-old daughter, with an eighteen year old self-declared f---in' redneck, high-school dropout boyfriend (whose mother gets arrested for selling OxyContin) would qualify in most circles as white trash.

 

[Kirkhill]

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash

A pregnant seventeen year-old daughter, with an eighteen year old self-declared f---in' redneck, high-school dropout boyfriend (whose mother gets arrested for selling OxyContin) would qualify in most circles as white trash.

If ever I saw a suck-back opportunity......

I trust that you are talking about the community's perception of Sarah Palin and not your own.

 

[GAP]

Gee, I guess that makes me and mine white trash too......son of a gun, who woulda thought that a couple kids playing around too early to lead to such a dismal end for us all................................

 

[tomahawk6]

Pretty arrogant remark and one that offends me. Kids having kids isnt unique to folks who live in small towns, but is just as common at all levels of society:rich,poor and middle class. Had Palin been a democrat she would have been given rock star treatment. Alot of hypocrisy amongst our libs. Last week the democrat Mayor of Portland lied about having sex with an 18 year old male intern. No calls for him to resign among the MSM like the Republican Congressman in 06 that had inappropriate emails with a House page.

http://www.katu.com/news/37848109.html