Are Obama-loving press members trying to orchestrate an outcome by giving an abundance of attention to the person they hope Obama will face in November 2012?That's basically what they did in 2008, he notes.
But the press liked McCain, I think, because he was relatively liberal. Palin isn't. Palin is good at getting all the attention, and I worry that it will prevent better candidates from getting the early support they need to survive the caucuses and primaries.
As for Chris Matthews, I suspect he's just desperate for ratings and knows how many viewers he could get if Sarah would bring her celebrity-power to his little show.
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216 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 216 of 216If we're looking at quarterbacks to compare Obama to, the man is obviously Alex Smith. Obama is a system politician who never played against decent competition and had no titles before being handed the starting job. He failed, and he'll flounder around the team for a few years until he is eventually released.
What this country needs is a Craig Morton president. Nothing fancy, just gets the win somehow and moves on.
200
Rats, foiled again!
I have said this before, but here it goes again.
My take is that the Democratic operatives and the MSM remember how she campaigned when given the opportunity. Throughout the Jacksonian belt, at her campaign events, she was like a rock star. This is one area of the country where Hillary!! just tromped Obama during the primaries, and Palin connects with this demographic far better than the gal who grew up in an upscale suburb of Chicago.
This is also one of the places where the Democrats crashed and burned the worst during the last election.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, this demographic area is essential for their success. They managed to win much of it in 2006 and 2008 by appearing moderate. But, as noted above, this is the area that switched so heavily in the Republicans' favor in 2010.
With the Jacksonian belt, the South, most of the West (east of the Pacific), and maybe the upper mid-west, the Republicans win the Presidency easily. Obama pulls the NE down through maybe MD, the Left Coast, Illinois, and not a lot more.
Note that she is not the only Republican who could do this - but she is the one who has shown that she can electrify this part of the country.
Keep in mind that reporting on this part of the 2008 campaign was actively suppressed by the Lame Stream Media, and they did this for a reason - it scared them.
That is why, I will suggest, that the MSM, including Mr. Matthews, are so afraid of Mrs. Palin. Plus, the fact that they know that she is increasingly able to bypass them in order to get her message out. They are no longer the gatekeeper to the truth that many Americans get as their news. (Of course, they probably wouldn't have this problem if they hadn't repeatedly abused their power).
Something else - traditionally, the taller candidate won in most Presidential elections. But not always - notably with John Kerry and George W. Bush.
But why? One idea may be that size translates into masculine power - usually. One reason that Kerry may have lost is that he came across as an effete snob during a time of war. Remember some of his outfits - like his wind surfing one?
Someone pointed out above that Putin is really into the macho thing right now. And, Obama fails miserably whenever he tries to be the least bit macho.
Obama's new-wave metro-sexual male image works in the NE, on the Left Coast, and with the most intelligent and sophisticated portion of our populace who recognize that intelligence (esp. theirs) is more important than muscle.
But much of our population is not that sophisticated, and prefer strength in their leaders, esp. in a time of danger, as we face right now.
So, what has Mrs. Palin being doing recently? One thing is her travelogue. I think some have wondered why, besides the money, is she doing it? And one answer may be that she is using those shows to showcase the difference between her and her family and the Obamas and other like minded liberals. The Palins enjoy and are competent in outdoorsy sorts of things that middle-America enjoys. The Obamas are competent and enjoy the sorts of upper class pursuits (plus possibly inner-city basketball) that rich snobs from Ivy League schools enjoy.
We live in a dangerous world, and the more insecure the average American feels these days, the more they are going to gravitate towards the candidates who show what they see as having the most strength. That a woman makes the President seem effeminate and weak just makes this comparison worse.
The Crack Emcee said...
Palin' problem now is the same as it was on the day McCain picked her. She does not have the experience for the job. Being mayor of Wasilla and serving part of a term as governor of the small (population), quirky state of Alaska is pretty weak.
You guys are so full of shit. As someone who's put himself out there (admittedly in another capacity) I ask you:
Could you do it? Run for office and not only win, but do the job good enough to run for the higher office and win that, too? And then be capable of winning people over in your performance of that job enough to be picked for another?
I say you couldn't and you're just talking crap you know nothing about.
I could.
Before you make any sudden moves, you need to find a job, dude. At the present time, your accomplishments are not that note worthy.
Wanted to chime in here on the common criticisms of Palin by the Usual Suspects.
Palin is a cross between McCain's anti-Bush "progressive" Republicanism and Reagan's grassroots Republicanism tossed into a big salad.
People will be surprised at the tenor of her campaign. The reason why is rather simple. All they remember from her is the 2008 attack dog. What few people understand is that in 2006, she ran as a conservative pragmatist for Governor against a corrupt Republican Party heirarchy in Anchorage and Juneau.
She will do the same thing this time; only on a national stage she will take a leaf out of the Clinton/Morris 1995 Triangulation Playbook and run against the Ruling Class in BOTH parties.
The Left is only prepared for a Extreme Right Wing Palin, not for a "Nixon in 1968" Palin. She will run as a center-right reformist Conservative whose Movement street cred is the best since Reagan and who can win votes from Independents by promising to reach across the aisle and make Washington work for "the Little Guy" again.
In short, if only Nixon can go to China, only Palin can fix entitlements by having the kind of credibility on taxes and spending that will keep her party in line so that when time comes to make deals with Democrats, she can keep the GOP coalition behind her.
There are a lot of fools out there who think that Palin is taking this kind of abuse so some White Knight (the Flavor of the Month appears to be Mitch Daniels) can ride to the White House in her stead. What a pantload. Human nature is such that a proud woman such as Palin would never put up with this kind of nonsense for someone else's sake.
She will run. She will win. She will do both because the Left and their handmaidens in the News Media have made a towering miscalculation as to what she is doing and how her politics will work out. Not for the first time in history, I should add.
The question I raised about Palin, which Crack missed completely (he's too busy being happy that Clapton's kid fell out a window and died), was not that she could not possibly win (although I doubt that too), but that she, like the Zero, does not have proper experience to DO THE JOB. How about running a major state for a full term or two?
We have one guy learning on the job now, we don't need the same.
section9 said...
People will be surprised at the tenor of her campaign. The reason why is rather simple. All they remember from her is the 2008 attack dog. What few people understand is that in 2006, she ran as a conservative pragmatist for Governor against a corrupt Republican Party heirarchy in Anchorage and Juneau.
According to Meade, Palin only came into the national spotlight when The Althouse Woman introduced her to America. Or something like that.
What Madison Man said at the beginning of the thread--Ratings gold--for TV and for blogs. Drives up those hit counts.
Joe Scarborough commits career suicide:
Joe Scarborough tells GOP to man up and confront Sarah Palin
"Republicans have a problem. The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected. And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public what they all complain about in private.
Enough. It’s time for the GOP to man up.
Everybody knows that Palin is a busy woman. The former half-term governor of Alaska stays so busy these days that one wonders how this mother of five manages to juggle her new reality show, follow her eldest daughter’s dancing career and launch her latest frenetic book tour while still finding the time to insult a slew of revered presidents and first ladies."
Excellent analyses, Bruce and section9. But I note that as of 9:00 AM Central time, there are only a little over 200 comments. Looks as though the days when the Professor could get 300+ comments just by putting up a "Sarah Palin" tag are fading.
I found out about her, through Bill Dyer, that Texas legal blogger, I followed her campaign mostly through
Sundries blog, by Victoria, a British
medical student, who sued to comment
on this blog, but not so much. I found the press coverage abysmally slanted and ignorant, and thanks to
the Journolist we know why
Trooper, better luck next Palin post.
But I note that as of 9:00 AM Central time, there are only a little over 200 comments. Looks as though the days when the Professor could get 300+ comments just by putting up a "Sarah Palin" tag are fading.
Let me suggest that maybe Mrs. Palin is a bit overexposed here.
Weird, instead of the normal WV that we so know and hate here, I had one that told me to listen and type. Unfortunately, it sounded like mumbling to me. So, I reloaded and got the usual WV random word. Must have been for the visually impaired, or something like that.
Palin is a cross between McCain's anti-Bush "progressive" Republicanism and Reagan's grassroots Republicanism tossed into a big salad.
People will be surprised at the tenor of her campaign. The reason why is rather simple. All they remember from her is the 2008 attack dog. What few people understand is that in 2006, she ran as a conservative pragmatist for Governor against a corrupt Republican Party hierarchy in Anchorage and Juneau.
As you can see right above, I would add in an anti-elitist (Jacksonian) angle too.
I think that you can see the starting salvos here with her response to Barbara Bush as representing blue blood Republicans, which her family surely is.
But, as you appear to note, it all fits together. She keeps pushing the pragmatist with her insistence on common sense. The common-man part comes out at the same time with her insistence that the ruling libs (and blue blood Republicans) would understand their folly if they just had the common sense that the rest of us have. They are just too divorced from the real world, living up in their skyscrapers and academic towers to realize that their solutions just won't work (like borrowing trillions over the next decade or so to solve the current recession). Throw in the reformer with the attacks on the status quo, such as earmarks.
But note that she mostly plays down her religion. Obama really pushes his far harder than she pushes her. But, then she doesn't need to, and he does. She walks the walk, so doesn't need to talk the talk. And, this too is attractive. Many in the demographics she is going after are reasonably devout Christians, but may be uncomfortable with the stridency of the Religious Right. Religion for them is a private thing, as it appears to be for her.
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