RSS Feed MenuSarah Palin is back, using her book Going Rogue as a prop – and from all indications she ain’t going away – which may be why passions, pro and con, are so intense about her.
There seems no middle ground when it comes to Palin — some of it understandable, most of it puzzling.
If she’s a ditz, an airhead as some insist, someone without the depth or substance to be president, why worry about her? The electorate will catch on. So why do Democrats slag her at every opportunity?
If she’s a genuine threat to be a contender for power on the Republican side, why are so many Republicans uneasy about her? Uneasy? Heck, some froth at the mouth.
Regardless, she’s a phenomenon of our times – arguably the only Republican at the moment with star power. Now that she’s back, and appearing on various conservative talk shows – Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, as well as those middle-America favorites, Oprah and Barbara Walters – another aspect of Sarah Palin is coming into focus that possibly is her greatest asset.
She is eminently likeable on TV. This is a quality she shares with Ronald Reagan who, if one remembers, was initially dismissed by self-styled intellectual elites as a dumbo, grade-B movie actor and mad bomber before he won the election and became Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest of U.S. presidents who won the Cold War.
With her book tour bus, complete with her portrait on the side, Palin is obviously taking aim at heartland America – her constituency, that is immune to the appeals of the elite like Barack Obama.
One can understand the unease of Democrats, especially with Obama’s charisma fading with every questionable policy, a soaring deficit and economic setback. But why are some Republicans so hostile?
True, Palin’s solid base among the religious right, right-to-lifers, and no-compromise conservatives is not enough to guarantee election. On the other hand, without this base, no Republican can be elected president.
The trick for Republicans – perhaps their only hope unless Obama continues to disintegrate – is for the factions to blend and cooperate, and heal their ideological differences.
What Palin is proving on this book tour is toughness, resiliency, likeability. She exudes candor and compassion, and appears not to hold grudges. She admits past errors which is disarming, while maintaining a Reagan-like cheerfulness. As for convictions, she doesn’t bend and has a Thatcher-like resolve – minus Maggie’s wisdom and intellect.
Another thing this book tour is proving is that she was shrewd to quit as governor of Alaska if she aspires to be a continuing force in America – as she obviously does. Her gift is to be beautiful without appearing to work at it; everyone knows that good looking people have a built-in advantage over those who aren’t.
Sarah as President? Hard to imagine. But what if Rudy Giuliani seeks the Republican nomination – with Palin as a running mate? Hmm. Like John McCain, Giuliani never has a critical word to say about Palin. He even takes her to Yankee baseball games.
Some see her and her book as mindful of country singer Loretta Lynn’s book (Coal Miner’s Daughter) which was refreshingly honest and much admired. No, Sarah Palin is here to stay, and judging from interviews so far, a repeat of her Katie Couric disaster is unlikely.
MI-GOPer // Nov 21, 2009 at 11:30 pm
CentristNYer whines: “Gee, jruss89 — where do you get off questioning the intellect of Sarah Palin?? You must be yet another TROLL. Because anyone who hates on Sarah Palin is undeniably a TROLL! Or you’re a DemocRAT operative sent here to mess with the voices in MI-GOPer’s head!!”
Centrist, I doubt that jruss could ever be confused with someone like you or BlankHead or TeaBagged or AutomaticBSer or OldSkwerl… all charter members of the Troll Tribe. Or even some of the newest re-worked characters of the same type in Mr About Face or Kanzeon or JohnMcC –that most wittiest of Troll Tribe creations.
There’s nothing wrong with questioning Sarah Palin’s credentials to be a nominee or a candidate or even those to do the job she’s running for… that’s not your problem, CentristNY. As I’ve said before, I’m not a big Palin fan but she’s great for the Party and she understands a term like loyalty better than, say, Ron Paul or Bob Barr or Tom Delay.
Your problem comes from being a troll on a conservative or GOP site dedicated to rebuilding the Party and remobilizing the base to win like we use to do… that’s the problem. You’re a troll here to do nothing more than annoy and irritate… and disrupt the conversation. Like with all the other Troll Tribe creatures. That’s your problem and there’s no escaping it, troll.
mlindroo // Nov 22, 2009 at 7:36 am
Mi-GOPer wrote:
> Given the GOP’s long, long established track record of rewarding
> the rightly deserved nominee
Er, as I recall few conservatives felt McCain was the “rightly deserved nominee” last year.
He was constantly and harshly attacked by the likes of Hugh Hewitt, Erick Erickson and the whole NRO Corner (where he was defended by Victor Davis Hanson only). They felt McCain was a RINO and an apostate … “the darling of the liberal media” etc..
—
As for Romney being next in line for 2012, I think his has flip-flopped on too many issues and his role in the Massachusetts health care reform process also will put him in an awkward position. I think Mike Huckabee was the best and most successful of the 2012 GOP losers but he is loathed by the big business / no-new-taxes wing of the GOP.
MARCU$
sinz54 // Nov 22, 2009 at 12:23 pm
mlindroo: I think Mike Huckabee was the best and most successful of the 2012 GOP losers but he is loathed by the big business / no-new-taxes wing of the GOP.
His name is a problem too.
During the 2008 campaign, a lot of his opponents called him “Huckleberry” and so forth.
Plus the press is going to have a lot of fun with his support for teaching Intelligent Design Theory in public schools, something that the courts have already ruled is unconstitutional.
Independent // Nov 22, 2009 at 9:03 pm
“Plus, you’ll have to face this at some point, Mr About Face… Sarah Palin is poised to out-poll your Obama Messiah on favorables even in spite of the non-stop Palin Bashing Movement housed in the far Left quarters, in the sewers of the MSM and at the barricades around the White House” -MIGOP @ 18
bingo, migop. you called it for these motley trolls but they wouldn’t believe you… no, they said you were the idiot… well, today it was announced that mrs plain is outpolling mr obama.
http://www.theadmonition.com/?p=2059
mrs palin has 51% favorables
mr obama has slipped from 71% to 49% favorable in less than a year
i wonder what the village idiots and tribe of trolls will say now? probably that mrs palin is still toxic?
what a sad lot of trolls
Independent // Nov 22, 2009 at 9:10 pm
“Er, as I recall few conservatives felt McCain was the “rightly deserved nominee” last year” –marcus spinning away in democrat aisle #27
true, there were few conservatives who wanted mccain to be the nominee but the rank and file –as well as the state party leaders– thought that it was mccain’s nomination to lose. migop is right on that score. mccain’s nomination to lose means he had the inside track to the nomination, just like mr reagan after carter’s time, mr bush as the vice p, mr dole against clinton, etc.
i think you might be confusing the terms conservative with republicans… one is a movement made up of republicans, independents, libertarians and a smattering of blue dog democrats… the other is the party with elected officials at local, state, congressional district and national levels. try to keep from confusing them, marcus. the party thought mr mccain had the right to gain the nomination for his work after mr bush won the nomination in 92.
mlindroo // Nov 23, 2009 at 4:23 am
Sinz54 wrote:
> His name is a problem too.
> During the 2008 campaign, a lot of his opponents called him “Huckleberry” and so forth.
> Plus the press is going to have a lot of fun with his support for teaching
> Intelligent Design Theory in public schools,
These are all valid points, certainly.
Nonetheless, Huckabee remains an intriguing candidate… His views ARE extreme but he also has a disarming personality and folksy, self-deprecating style that makes it easier to forget about his ideology. Personality-wise, he is the anti-Obama … right now it’s not good to be a Huckleberry or a “Shrub” but who knows about 2012?
BTW, what I admire about Huck is that he was brave enough to run as a slightly different Republican last year. The Club for Growth may not like his economic populism, but at least he was willing to take risks while McCain, Romney and Giuliani all were trying (pathetically) to play “full-spectrum” orthodox conservatives on TV.
Huckabee probably won’t be the GOP nominee in 2012, but he would be one hell of a lot tougher and better than Sarah Palin.
MARCU$
mlindroo // Nov 23, 2009 at 4:50 am
Independent:
The link you posted does not seem to be working right now but I assume you’re talking about the recent Fox News Nov.17-18 opinion poll.
If you are, then you’re confusing two separate issues.
* “Do you have a generally favorable or unfavorable opinion of Sarah Palin?” (47% favorable, 42% unfavorable)
and
* “Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president?” (46% approve, 46% disapprove)
If you want an apples-vs-apples comparison, try e.g. this opinion poll from October 15 ( http://www.gallup.com/poll/123665/Hillary-Clinton-More-Popular-Barack-Obama.aspx ) which says Obama’s favorability rating is 56% favorable vs. 40% unfavorable (down from 78%/18%). Alternatively, you might want to measure the number of Americans who believe Sarah Palin / Barack Obama is ready to be president…
—
It’s hardly surprising that Palin’s favorability ratings are better than e.g. Pelosi’s … she is not doing anything besides selling books after all. If Palin were running the country during a deep recession such as this one, she certainly would be even less popular than she is now. BTW, Obama’s job approval ratings seem to be driven almost exclusively by the state of the economy ( http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/its-still-economy-dumbass.html ).
MARCU$
mlindroo // Nov 23, 2009 at 5:08 am
By the way, the link seems to be working now.
As I suspected the http://www.theadmonition.com/ blogger mixed up Palin’s favorable ratings and Obama’s job approval although the source data was provided by Rasmussen rather than Fox News.
As I explained earlier, these are two entirely different issues. For example, conservatives still think highly of George W. Bush as a person although they disapprove of many Bush Administration policy initiatives and the way those policies were executed (i.e. incompetently…).
MARCU$
balconesfault // Nov 23, 2009 at 9:16 am
FWIW, in most recent “favorability” polls, Obama ranges from 54% (Fox) to 61% (ABC News/Washington Post).
Major polls this month on “approve of job”:
FOX/OD RV 46-46 (approve/disapprove) (11/17-18/09)
CBS 53-36 (11/13-16/09)
Quinnipiac U. RV 48-42 ( 11/9-16/09)
CNN/ORC 55-42 (11/13-15/09)
ABC/Washington Post 56-42 (11/12-15/09)
AP-GfK * 54-43 (11/5-9/09)
mlindroo // Nov 23, 2009 at 10:33 am
Right. And concerning overall favorability, Obama’s pollster.com average ( http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/fav-obama.php ) has always been considerably higher than Palin’s ( http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/fav-palin.php ). But I guess all pollsters are deliberately oversampling left-wing blacks and Sarah Palin really is the nation’s most popular politician. Or something like that.
MARCU$
MI-GOPer // Nov 23, 2009 at 11:23 am
I think marcus you’ve gotten it wrong again –your intentions in defending the Obama Messiah are transparent, once again.
Rasmussen, indeed, has Palin’s favorables at 51% this weekend. I don’t know who the admonition is– I couldn’t get there either– but you can get to the original Rasmussen survey instrument and cross tabs via my subscription here:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/toplines/pt_survey_toplines/november_2009/toplines_sarah_palin_november_13_14_2009
It’s gratis for you. Sarah Palin does have a 51% favorable.
Care to correct your mischaracterization? I won’t hold my breath, of course.
MI-GOPer // Nov 23, 2009 at 11:33 am
BlankHead tries to keep the “Defend the SSS Obama” against all foes a’float but it’s a failing him.
Rasmussen reports that Obama’s Presidential Approval Index stands at a negative 13… one of the lowest ratings to date for the Obama Messiah. That’s negative 13. Ouch.
It’s fairly telling because Rasmussen polls only likely voters –not garden variety ACORN types gathered from under the bridges by the short yellow bus.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
And Rasmussen separates it out as those likely voters who most dislike the Obama Messiah against those who still think he can walk on water while shootin’ da hoops. Negative numbers mean there are more who strongly dislike than strongly support anymore… down from the legendary days of double-digit plus figures… now, Michele is the only one with a plus figure.
The intensity factor tells us he’s losing his base and those strongly opposed to him grows at a rate that should scare the bee-jebbers out of Rahm the Chief Thug.
Of course, spinmasters like BlankHead are unfazed… the Obama Messiah can still walk on water again… we just need to get more school age kids singing “mmmmm, mmmm, mmm Barack Hussein Obama”.
MI-GOPer // Nov 23, 2009 at 11:37 am
marcus at #31 brings out the ol’ tired straw man again: “Huckabee probably won’t be the GOP nominee in 2012, but he would be one hell of a lot tougher and better than Sarah Palin. ”
Sarah isn’t running in 2012, my intellectually-challenged troll. She isn’t the preferred candidate; she’s positioning herself for a media punditry spot that pays.
What part of no don’t you get, my democrat-dense troll? Oh, that’s right… you keep the fiction alive because you think it helps you discredit GOPers… yeah, about that “Palin stain” that the Troll Tribe thinks afflicts the GOP… lol. Too funny. 51% and climbing. Passes the President even on his best day. Too funny.
mlindroo // Nov 23, 2009 at 12:01 pm
MiGOPer wrote:
> Rasmussen, indeed, has Palin’s favorables at 51% this weekend.
I have seen the poll, and it is part of Palin’s Pollster.com average too.
Why is this particular poll (and Fox) apparently considered particularly important, by the way?!?!
The recent CBS News, PPP, ABC, YouGov polls found her negatives to be much higher and her average isn’t that great.
—
Anyway, let’s return to Independent’s original claims:
> mrs palin has 51% favorables
Correct…according to a single Rasmussen poll, 51% of Americans have a favorable view of her.
> mr obama has slipped from 71% to 49% favorable in less than a year
That’s Obama’s JOB APPROVAL rating, apparently.
See http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
Like I said, these are two entirely different things. You may compare Obama’s, Pelosi’s and Palin’s personal favorability ratings, but job approval is not directly related to it.
MARCU$
mlindroo // Nov 23, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Mi-GOPer wrote:
> What part of no don’t you get, my democrat-dense troll?
> Sarah isn’t running in 2012, my intellectually-challenged troll.
And where the hell did I claim she would be running in 2012 then?!?!
All I did was point out that HUCKABEE seems more electable than Palin.
And I have also pointed out the fallacy of comparing favorability and job approval.
Not that it stops you from calling me and just about anybody else in this forum names, for that matter.
Mi-GOPer wrote:
// Nov 20, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Ahh Mr Face returns with yet another posting… so, Mr Face,
which troll characters are you playing today for the Tribe?
Mr Face? Kanzeon? Balconesfault? TeaBagged?
// Nov 21, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Mr. Face, the newest redux in the multiple-named Troll Tribe family of democrat activsts says:
// Nov 21, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Thanks for making my point about the fictionalized spin from the far left Troll Tribe here that she isn’t the leader of the GOP…
it’s nice when you guys step in your feces and prove truth need not be your worst enemy.
// Nov 21, 2009 at 11:23 pm
So, you’re wrong. Stick to reading the tea leaves over at the DNC and find a way to help Obama get Clinton-ized…
// Nov 21, 2009 at 11:30 pm
You’re a troll here to do nothing more than annoy and irritate… and disrupt the conversation. Like with all the other Troll Tribe creatures. That’s your problem and there’s no escaping it, troll.
MI-GOPer // Nov 23, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Marcus, troll, you asked: “And where the hell did I claim she would be running in 2012 then?”
Here, at #31, my ferret huslting friend when you said: “Huckabee probably won’t be the GOP nominee in 2012, but he would be one hell of a lot tougher and better than Sarah Palin (in 2012).”
Marcus, sweetie, the TrollTribe has been posting here in new, faux-names and inventing characters faster than Democrats can sign up for hair plug replacements. If you haven’t been watching or paying attention, I think you might want to get in on their morning meetings when they plan out the day of attacking conservtiave and GOP blogs. It’ll help you get a touch coordinated.
And better in tune, for sure.
MI-GOPer // Nov 23, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Yes, Marcus, let’s return to the fact that all the Palin bashing you and your fellow trolls have been doing isn’t sticking with Americans. Palin is now outpolling Obama on favorables. ON the #1 leading issue for American voters, the deficit, nearly 63% of Americans think Obama isn’t doing enough or what he is trying to do is failing.
Congressional Democrats’ favorable ratings in the toilet.
What was that about how relevant you think polling is to the discussion? You were the guy who thought Independent had erred… did you apologize yet Troll?
Didn’t think so… it’s not in your character to be honest.
balconesfault // Nov 23, 2009 at 4:06 pm
It’s fairly telling because Rasmussen polls only likely voters –not garden variety ACORN types
And here I thought you believed all those ACORN types voted … at least 2 or 3 times, under different names.
You’ve really got to work on making your hyperbole internally consistent.
openhand // Nov 28, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I really beleive Palin is a good person, but totally out of her depth, as was GW Bush. Remeber Rumsfeld briefing George with daily quotes from the Bible to ensure that he kept the POTUS under his spell? Well, if they can do it with W they can do it with Sarah.
The reality is though, the neocon experiment was so successful that it overdosed. They broke the rule of the parasite, never let your host know you are there, and the way you do that is to curb your enthusiasm. Well they didn’t, we noticed them and flicked them off, and yes we have to deal with the mess which is where Sarah gets her following.
Sarahs support is a symptom of a real insecurity that is part of any transition. It makes good copy, but in the reality, it is no more significant than an itch on an amputated leg. Sorry.