Posted on 12/02/2010 8:09:20 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
I posted yesterday about Ed Rollins being the latest of the "I knew Reagan" types to use a variation on Lloyd Bentsen's "You're no Jack Kennedy" line against Sarah Palin.
Rollins was Mike Huckabee's campaign manager in the 2008 cycle, and guess who Rollins thought was the next Ronald Reagan:
"Governor Huckabee has probably inspired me as much as Ronald Reagan. He had an ability to connect with people and he was a great communicator. I've looked for a long time for another candidate to do that.
"People are always asking: 'Who's the next Ronald Reagan?' Well, I was with the old Reagan. I can promise you that this man comes as close as I've ever seen."
I have nothing against Mike Huckabee, and this is not an anti-Huckabee post. Rather, it's friendly advice to all viable Republican candidates:
Run, don't walk, away from Ed Rollins and the others who think that demeaning Sarah Palin is the best way to advance your campaign.
Other candidates are entitled to make the case why they would be a better nominee, and they should do so forcefully. But if they think -- like Ed Rollins and Joe Scarborough -- that insulting Palin is the way to go, then they have seriously misread the Republican electorate.
Without the enthusiasm of Palin supporters the Republican Party is nothing moving into 2012.
The campaign troops who will be in the field, on the telephones and at the fundraisers in 2012 will be the same troops who fought the 2010 campaign war. And those troops weren't carrying Mitt Romney, or Mike Huckabee, or Newt Gingrich signs.
That doesn't mean Palin gets the nomination just because she wants it, or that she is presumptive, or that her supporters constitute a majority of the Party.
It does mean that the Republican nominee cannot win against Barack Obama without the enthusiasm and support of Palin supporters.
So Mike, I wish you well. But if you start running, don't let Ed Rollins catch you.
You’re right. The present system depends on the bulk of support and money in each major party lining up behind a single candidate. This has worked more/less through the “mainstream media era” where a few major newspapers and the three TV networks pretty well shaped public opinion. But the question seems to be - has the new media given enough people the option to form coalitions like the Tea Party in support of alternate candidates?
The truth is, IMHO, “we don’t know” because the ability to communicate and create these linkages is growing at a much faster pace than the 4 year election cycle reflects. As an example: Twitter has 190 million users yet it did not even exist at the time of the Bush-Kerry election in 2004, and Facebook had only a few thousand users.
Using the new media as it’s communication tool, the Tea Party grew from an idea to a national movement responsible for influencing the outcome of national elections in a little over one year’s time.
But to say “it can’t happen” purely on the basis of Ross Perot or other events in the past is naive.
If it is huck... romney... mccain or any other liberal... they WILL be labeled what they are.
LLS
Beter, more relevant query: "Will the Republican Party give conservatives a solid, actual reason to support their nominee in '12... or, will they simply be taking the squishy, Dem-lite McCain/Romney-esque approach will failed so spectatcularly LAST time out...?"
I support no one in particular, at this point (certainly not Romney, Gingrich, or Huckabee), but I can doggone guarantee you I will vote for whomever is nominated by the GOP to get Obama out of office.
Then again, Rollins has had better days. This is another attempt by a GOP establishment insider to denigrate Palin because she dares to step up and speak out and challenge the Republicans Good Old Boys Club.
Let Palin be Palin. Let the current crop of presidential wannabees rise or fall on their own strengths and weaknesses.
Yes, we all wish we could stick to our principles on this, but let's face it; If 0bama running, I'm tripping over myself to vote against him. You will too.
We just can't though allow another McCain slip through the cracks during the primary.
” [...] WHICH failed so spectatcularly...”
All I can say is that these two years of the establishment GOP continually back-stabbing and bad-mouthing Sarah has had serious consequences regarding my 30-year voting allegiance to the Republican Party. I’m feeling very little connection to it nowadays, if not outright disgust.
I truly believe that the primaries need changed. See, the way these primaries should work or at least the idea is that “the Republicans pick the candidate for nomination to President”. The problem is that four maybe five states basically make the decision (at least gets the momentum going). Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, should be switched around every time. For some reason, Iowa is by law supposed to go first....who thought of that? Now, perhaps back when this was done, Iowa was probably deep red so maybe it made sense, but today Iowa is a purpleish state. I think Georgia or Alabama should go first. Why not? switch it up. I am from Pennsylvania, so of course, we should stay as far away from number one as possible.....If we continue the status quo then our hope for a conservative candidate will either never happen or it will take way more work than it should.
Yeah, because Harvard/Yale Democrats/Republicans Lawyer Presidents have been so good for the country.
/sarc
And until then pray the GOP leadership and good deal of their rank & file have learned something from the past several years.
Here's my answer, again...
I voted for Sarah Palin in the last Presidential election...If she hadn't been in the race, there would have been no reason for me to go to the polls...
I will not vote for a globalist of any party affiliation...
This title is correct, which means the one candidate we don’t want to replace Steele at the RNC is Mike Duncan, Rove’s partner in American Crossroads who jumped into the running last night at the chairman’s candidates debate:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/254274/no-chairs-thrown-rnc-debate-jim-geraghty?page=1
Divide and conquer, and divided we stand, united we fall applies here. The O team is enjoying every moment. You can’t make everyone 100% happy, and sometimes we have to swallow things we don’t like in order to make a change. Beware don’t let the MSM make the choices.
That is EXACTLY right! The GOP knives came out for Sarah even before the 2008 election when it became obvious that McCain was going to lose and most of the campaign staffers tried to pin it on her in order to set up their next gigs.
And then when she returned to Alaska, the GOP tried to wash its hands of her by leaving her to face Pete Rouse's political hit squad alone with no help whatsoever. To compound matters, the GOP even abetted in her attempted destruction by using surrogates and the always willing MSM to attack her from behind, an effort that has been recently escalated with the disgraceful STOP SARAH campaign that is still underway.
What these morons do not seem to understand is that Sarah Palin is the only person who is holding the GOP together---if she leaves or they drive her out, then all of her supporters go with her, thereby splitting the party irrevocably. She had the opportunity to do just that this time last year, but made the conscious choice to remain in the GOP and to try to reform it from the inside rather than destroying it.
Consequently, the GOP actually owes her a huge debt of gratitude for not leading her supporters away to a Third party, but the GOP poo-bahs who are now working to undermine her are apparently too stupid to realize the peril in which they are placing their Grand Ol' Party by attacking Sarah instead of embracing her.
The Republican Party office-holders and candidates simply reflects its constituents.
And Republican voters are weak and afraid of the MSM/DNC, therefore the “men” they elect are, will always be of the same ilk.
There is really no reason to be in a party full of such sissified men and women.
For the first time in my life I believe it is time for a new party....one with citizens who are strong and ruthless with the enemy.
Here’s the problem. (and I have been saying this a lot lately)
We as conservatives always split our votes among several conservative candidates. The establishment is very good at getting who they want, and this time it is Romney.
I’m sure they have operatives whispering in several potential candidates telling them to RUN, you can do it...knowing they are splitting the conservative vote in a large field so their RINO can win with a plurality.
They are playing Chess while we play checkers.
While we are arguing who is the most conservative and taking sides, holding firm to our principles, their candidate is racking up delegates and has all the money and campaign infrastructure all set up waiting to go.
Our only hope of getting a conservative candidate is to come together early behind a single conservative. Otherwise we will get what we usually do (see: Nixon, Ford, Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, and now Romney)
I take heat for this but I believe a vote this time for anyone other than Palin is a defacto vote for Romney.
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