I will not run in 2012...
I will not run in 2016...
I will serve out my current term as Governor...
I will not subject my family to any more abuse and hate...
And the rest of you people in Obamerica
can kiss my perfectly-formed ass."
Posted on 12/01/2008 8:24:37 PM PST by fkabuckeyesrule
7 p.m.: Walked out of the Gwinnett auditorium with Tom Baxter, late of this page, who made this observation: That the thousands who attended the Sarah Palin/Saxby Chambliss rally were the most down-scale crowd he’s seen at a GOP event this year.
In other words, these were white, young blue-collar newcomers to the process.
“They’ve got no money,” Baxter noted. Three weeks ago, the Chambliss rally that featured John McCain in Cobb County drew a smaller and substantially different crowd — still white, but older and in business suits.
At the end of the 35-mile drive back to Atlanta, the Jim Martin rally at the state Capitol — featuring U.S. Rep. John Lewis and hip-hop star Ludacris — was just shutting down. Not as large a crowd as the Palin event, but close to a thousand, who gathered in the open on a cold, blustery night. So not a bad showing.
An emphasis on youth was the one thing both events had in common on Monday. We’ll see which side turns out.
4:50 p.m.: The biggest applause lines so far for Sarah Palin have been on abortion and the Second Amendment. She spoke about the remaking of the Republican party.
“”We recognize there was frustration, disappointment by the electorate,” Palin said. Palin promised a GOP that was both conservative and oriented to the American working class.
She just finished, with everyone again standing. All in all, the speech was very similar to the one she gave this morning. Palin goes from here to the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia, where the agenda includes a meeting with President-elect Barack Obama.
4:35 p.m.: Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and former GOP nominee for vice president, just got an extended standing ovation from a crowd of several thousand in the Gwinnett Center.
Palin said re-electing Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss, and denying Democrats a 60th vote in the Senate, was essential to “maintaining the checks and balances needed for our democracy.”
She mentioned that she had been here once before — a politician always likes to say, “It’s good to be back” — when her oldest son graduated from boot camp at Fort Benning. “Georgia, you took care of my boy, now he’s taking care of you,” she said.
On Chambliss: “Saxby’s not going to be an easy yes vote, but he’s not going to be an automatic no vote,” Palin said.
4:25 p.m.: The preacher has given the invocation. Among the gathering’s sins, he proclaims, is the “political correctness” to which many Americans have succumbed.
“We have broken your laws and called it tolerance,” he said. The preacher thanked God for the nation’s biblical foundations, and for the refusal by some to “to bow to modern idols.”
State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine led the Pledge of Allegiance. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is introducing Saxby Chambliss now.
Chambliss campaign people say 20,000 people have seen Sarah Palin — who hasn’t appeared yet — during the day. Chambliss’ re-election is necessary, Isakson said, “to stop a runaway train.”
4:10 p.m.: Still waiting on Sarah Palin and Saxby Chambliss. But close to 60 people have been standing on the dais waiting for 40 minutes or so. It’s very clear that Georgia’s Republican leadership doesn’t mind being seen with her. Quite the opposite.
You may think that strange, but quite a few Georgia Republicans were more than cautious when it came to being seen with John McCain. Even last month, after he lost.
3:46 p.m.: Just so you realize that very little is impromptu in any campaign, the Insider just spotted an aide passing out a hand-painted “Palin-Chambliss 2012” sign.
This event isn’t far from Ralph Reed’s office in Duluth. He’s here, too. Along with many state lawmakers from Cobb, north Fulton and Gwinnett counties, too. And Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren.
More hand-crafted signs. “Read my lipstick. Vote Sax.” No porcine references.
3:35 p.m.: Runoff? What runoff?
Oh, the Saxby Chambliss signs are plentiful, but it’s clear even before you walk in that this is a Sarah Palin for President event, four years ahead of its time.
Several thousand people are already here at the Gwinnett Center, a majority grouped in front into one large mosh pit.
A decidedly younger crowd than Republicans usually draw to the events like this, and the music is less twangy as well. More rock than country, and many young ladies with tiaras and beauty contest ribbons.
A Chambliss spokeswoman says the press will have to be satisfied with the stump speech that the governor of Alaska will give here — no separate press availability, where news is more likely to be made.
Three previous speeches — in Augusta, Savannah and Perry — have all been similar. The main theme that Palin has used thus far: That the national GOP needs to be rebuilt, and this is the place to start.
Dozens of people are now packing the stage.
Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, a Public Service Commission candidate also in tomorrow’s runoff, has positioned himself so that any straight-on camera that captures Palin will include him in the background.
If you want to go to this website you can make comments. Since it's the AJC the Michael Moore/Bill Maher types dominate the comments.
We’ll be here waiting for you when you come back Sarah. Better step up your game, though. I’m hoping you have some real conservatives to compete with in the primary.
Well well...the McCain burden has been lifted, Governor Palin is on her own, and speaking her own mind, let’s see what tomorrow will bring.
“Palin promised a GOP that was both conservative and oriented to the American working class.”
That is the key to GOP dominance. Demonstrating through public policy the direct effects of conservative views on working class individuals.
I was at the Gwinnett event. The crowd was in the thousands and unlike anything I’ve ever seen at a GOP gig, especially for a runoff.
I would have loved to have gome but I had to work. I saw Reagan in 1984 at the Ohio State basketball arena and I’ll never forget it.
What is that supposed to mean you post it a lot.
Sort of fkabuckeyesrules, the AJC server may be on the verge of crashing at the moment, the Maher types are being challenged for a change.
Rally on Palin!
Chuckle.
I like Palin....I love your post. My thoughts to a T.
Wonderful picture Old Sarge, how about:
He’s a communist
He’s a liar
He’s twisted
He could marry Bill Ayers in CA
And he hates babies
Haha.
Vini, Vidi, Vici!
We love you Sarah.
Sarah needs to break free from the chains of the lamestream media. Difficult as that may be though, after that watch out.
I’m hoping you have some real conservatives to compete with in the primary.
I understand the sentiment but we can only afford one real conservative candidate. We need to make sure that the conservative is well vetted and then broadly supported within the next two years. No more coy candidates and no more splitting a half dozen ways among semi conservative candidates.
Great post!!!! I love it!!!
AMEN to that!
Ive read reports of her being offered 5-7M for a book deal. Part of me saw how she was treated and just hopes she takes the money and the DC elite and media to shove it.
They were afraid of her, including many GOP types because she’s so far from what they’re used to and was the most outsider candidate arguably ever. At least recently. On the GOP side, McCain, Bush, Cheney, Dole, Kemp, Bush, Quayle, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, etc... They were all of DC and the establishment. Even if they disagreed with their politics the media all hung with them and knew them and felt comfortable with them.
Not Sarah and Todd. I mean, this is a guy who even if they had won, would have been in Anchorage in February racing snow machines and probably wanting to bag salmon up in the Beaufort Sea. Not exactly they type hanging out with Tina Brown and Sally Quinn. Same with Sarah.
It’s also amazing how even though she was only running for VP the press went after her and attacked her as if she was the top of the ticket. One thing youve noticed in the month since the election in all the talk of Obama’s cabinet and his plans and everything, you havent heard a peep about or from Joe Biden. Because the VP disappears into the weeds, just as Palin would have done if McCain had won.
For those who want to see her President, it may have been better that McCain lost. If he won, the odds of the GOP winning a 4th or a 5th staright term were even worse than they were this year. So cahnces are she would have maxed out at VP, unless McCain died, which is unlikely.
Now, if Obama screws up and has a bad first term she;s in great shape. She’s still in decent shape for 2016 or beyond. She’s only 44. In 2024 she’ll be the same age Hillary is now, so she has another 4-5 cycles to potentially run in.
not really . people voted for racial reasons
I am not sure I would call Reagan part of the DC and establishment. From lifeguard to radio announcer to actor to governor to President,there seems very little DC establishment about him. I am not sure he was part of the Tina Brown, Sally Quinn dinner party circuit.
One thing to consider, even in McCain’s loss, he still held about 95% of the vote that Bush got from 2004. Bush got 62M, Mccain got around 58.5M as of now, that may grow a bit when all is said and done. Still the 2nd most votes a Republican has ever gotten. For all the effort the media put in to elect Obama, and in the end it paid off, there were still at least 59M or so who saw through their facade, who didn’t buy into the hype. Who can be counted on as a potential base of support going forward.
Compare McCain’s 95% retention rate to other past instances when a party lost the WH or the incumbent was defeated.
In 1992, Bush41 held about 82% of the vote he got in 1988. He plummetted from 48M in 88 to 39M in 92.
In 1980 Carter held about 85% of the vote from 76. He dropped from 41M to 35.5M.
In 1976 Ford held about 82%. He dropped from the 47M Nixon got in 72 to 39M.
Humprhey in 68 dropped almost 30% from Johnson in 64. From 47M to 34M.
The point is that historically speaking, McCain did a pretty remarkable job in holding on to the votes that the party had from the last election. Most times a party loses power/an incumbent loses, they bleed a much greater maount of votes than we did this year.
I attribute a good portion of McCain’s retention to Palin. If he had put Lieberman or Ridge on the ticket, he’d have been down in the 80-85% range of Bush41, Carter and Ford, not in th 95% he got.
These are really good crowds for a runoff a few weeks after a major election. Usually GOP crowds struggle in these situations. Speaks well of the base’s opinion of her. Not that the base’s opinion of her is in doubt.
If Saxby wins by a decent margin he had better remember who helped him do it. Had he been a stronger conservative in office he wouldn’t have needed a runoff to begin with.
Reagan was not “of DC and the establishment”.
Where there many younger, (voting aged), people? If so, what would you say was the ratio of male to female?
All true jeltz ( I know you keep track of such things) however Gov Palin can do what McCain cannot...grow the Base of the Republican Party via her personality and her ideals.
I hope Sarah continues to get around the country (and to at least a few foreign countries) during the next two years. I’d suggest she get to Iraq PDQ, not just to see her son but also to meet with the government for a day or two.
Perhaps to Russia for trade talks.
He was part of the Hollywood crowd which is almost tantamount to the same thing. He was good friends with people like Walter Annenberg, George Will, Bill Buckley and others who were very much part of the establishment. EVen in CA he was friends with Unruh and others and was accepted as part of the establishment. He was friends with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Liz Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and just about every other major star of that era. Imagine a Republican candidate who was close, personal friends with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Will Smith and that’d give you some idea.
He was two term governor of the most populous state in the country.
While I’d agree he wasn’t as much a part as say Cheney, the Bushes, Dole, McCain, etc... he was definitely there as part of a comfort level.
I meant it more in that regard. Comfort level with him and Nancy as people and their background. People disagreed with his politics, but they felt comfortable with him and Nancy as people, they were of their class(if not above it), part of Hollywood glamour, etc...
From the beginning, it was very apparent, to me at least, that the NY/DC media and political establishment looked down on both Gov Palin and her husband as unfit to share their space, as beneath them and as deserving of contempt. I could be wrong but I never detected that personal animosity towards President Reagan and Nancy.
That’s what I was trying to get at. Gov Palin was seen as very threatening because she is so far from what they represent and a win by her would be such a repudiation of everything they believe in and stand for.
There was defnitely an extra edge to the media assault on her and it went way beyond being issue/policy based because on issues she was pretty much the same as McCain who they loved(and would have been perfectly ok with if he had won sans Palin).
I’m just contending that it was more because they saw her as hick from the sticks who didn’t belong in their rarified air in Georgetown and Kalorama and Dupont Circle and Embassy Row than because she momentarily lapsed when asked if she reads The Economist or Time, or because she couldn’t name drop Kelo v New London at a moment’s notice.
She has a job in Alaska. We need here on the job here.
Galloway from the AJ Const. was on Greta’s tonight and
stated much of what was in the article.
Great to not hear a Lib bashing for a change.
Gov. Palin brings out the base for sure.
Far younger and more female than usual.
“Ive read reports of her being offered 5-7M for a book deal.”
She should do the book deal and donate part of it to charity. All serious candidates who win take advantage of the book opportunity to get their msg out to the public and take advantage of the notoriety involved. The book will be panned by the NY Slimes but that’s to be expected. Same thing happens to Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and all other Conservatives. Regnery Press. Use a high powered, Conservative ghost writer.
I dearly hope she can deliver, because that is the only way we can win.
He was certainly part of the Hollywood establishment. He was President of SAG for 5 years or so. He was close friends with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Liz Taylor, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, and just about every other major star of that time.
Being part of the Hollywood establishment is as good as being part of the DC one. It provides automatic entry. It automatically qualifies you.
The cocktail party types and salon hostesses all knew they had friends in Ron and Nancy. There was a great article in Vanity Fair last year about the DC social scene, especially during the Reagan years.
Even in the NY/DC establishment, there was never this “you are so beneath us” vibe with Reagan that I got in this campaign.
My point was that there was and still is a visceral reaction against Gov Palin. It goes way beyond issues or policy. It’s clearly personal, and other than Greta Van Susteren, the impression I got from evey other reporter or anchor or writer or pundit when discussing her was one of sheer and utter contempt and disgust that came from a different place than the usual political biases or disagreements. I think her having the baby and carrying it to term was part of it. There was a lot. Someone will probably write about it more extensively at some point.
My contention is a lot of it was class based and region based, more of a “they’re just not our kind of folks” deal. Ironically, Barack and Michelle fit right in and no one had any problems wit hthem whatsoever. I guess we have come a long way whne the leftist black radical with muslim name and his wife are instantly accepted and thw down home white couple are shunned.
I think part of reason Reagan had a better relationship with the NYC/DC media was because they turned on Carter.
A late senior NBC correspondent told several friends of mine that he (and others in the media) supported Reagan over Carter. It was clear the media was in the tank for Obama this year.
Over time I think there was some personal animosity towards the Reagans-more so to Nancy I think-but nothing compared to the animosity directed to Palin (you and I are in complete agreemen on that).
“”That’s what I was trying to get at. Gov Palin was seen as very threatening because she is so far from what they represent and a win by her would be such a repudiation of everything they believe in and stand for.”
If Todd Palin were a man of wealth and power instead of a blue collar man with nothing but his outdoor job and wages, I think that it would have been much easier for elitists of the left and right to accept her on the stage (and her bumping them off of it).
This thing about all of this actually being accomplished by her, with out even a parental inheritance or famous name to open doors for her seems to be causing a real disturbance among people that like a certain social order.
She is a throw back to a younger, more volatile, less structured America, and she does all of this in a skirt and high heels, while handling a brood of five kids and a very satisfied looking, verile husband.
If he wins, I hope this taught him a lesson.
I hope so.
I’m worried that we appear to have tapped out the white white vote, taken it as far as we can. And we had a pretty good run with it.
But it’s the law of diminishing returns and it’s shrinking every year. 2012 will be the last election where it tops 70%. It’s shrunk from 87% in 1992 to 81% in 2000 to 74% this year. The growth is all in the black and hispanic vote, and things don’t look so bright there. Combined with the way Obama seems to have captured the younger whites(although not nearly as much as you’d think. he won whites 18-29 around 55-45, a decent margin, but based on the media and all you’d think he absolutely dominated that age group)
There’s something like 250M+ over 18 and eligible to vote in the US. Even in a high turnout election this year, only around 130M or so voted. They’re another 100M or so that either registered and didnt vote or didnt even register. Obama and the dems did a very good job of finding those folks on their side for this year particularly among blacks, hispanics and the youth. We have to do the same. There’s plenty of rural folks, white voters, religious folks, etc... that didn’t vote this year. In the next four years we have to find them and make sure they show up in 2012.
We need to find a few issues where the public supports us big time and opposes the dems big time and go from there. Like the dems did with Iraq, the economy and Bush. The public was 70% against us on those issues and more and the dems went from there. In the next year or two I’m thinking opposition to amnesty, to further bailouts/spending, and capitalizing on the foreign policy/natl security blunders Obama is sur eto make will be a good starting point.
But you are right that the party has to grow and find new areas of support. 72 year old lifers like McCain and Dole aren’t the answer.
If McCain and Palin could pull close to 59M in the worst year for the GOP arguably since 1964 or 1932 and still win 22 states, we have something to go on. IN and NC were decided by less than a pt. FL was 2 pts or so. OH was around 4. It’s not like we were blown out everywhere.
There was clearly an anti GOP backlash for the past 2+ years and we bore the brunt of it last month, but things can turn around fast. We went from Nov 92 to Nov 94 in only 2 years. Look how fast the dems went from despair after 04 to now. Things change in politics all the time.
We’ll see. A lot depends on Obama, though. If he does well, it could be a long road. If he turns out to be another Carter, things will look quite different next time around.
Absolutely. And it relates to the abortion issue, which is an issue that both sides largely buried. In His book "The Clash of Absolutes," Lawrence Tribe admits that the pro-choice vs. pro-life issue is an instance of class warfare. The upper classes have largely abandoned Christianity except for a minority who treat it as a philosophy--and neo-platonist than Christian. The Middle and "lower"classes, or many of them, still remain Christian in their "values." and visceral reactions to things. Palin's decision not to abort her down's syndrome child showed she belonged to the latter, and for this reason she is hated by the upper crust, because she gave lie to the notion that pro-life people will not put their money where their mouths are. For a person of her standing to do what she did literally puts her out of the pale, as opposed to phonies like Peggy Noonan, who talks a good game but will not play it.
That would be a great book. HOW TO HUNT, SHOOT, DRESS AND BAR-B-Q MOOSE IN ALASKA, or maybe HOW TO BE A REAL AMERICAN OUTSIDE OF SODOM INSIDE THE BELTWAY
It’s the economy.
Good point. One thing I think that younger conservatives/Republicans(ie those under 50 or so) don’t really get when it comes to Reagan is how much of his success was based on the miserable failure that was James Earl Carter.
They think all we need is a strong conservative and everything takes care of itself.
They all say we just need another Reagan and we’ll win big like he did.
And to that I say, sure, have the dems give us another Carter in office and then it will be easy t owin like Reagan did, jsut like it was easy for Obama to win this year.
Change the demographics back to a near 90% white electorate like Reagan had and we’ll do pretty good as well.
Be that as it may, if Obama gives us Carter II, Palin or Jindal or Romney or whoever will be sitting pretty in four years.
Another of McCain’s flaws was taking the SW Hispanic vote for granted, he just never really did much to garner votes from them, Obamao hit him with negative ads, and McCain never fought back or even bothered to fight back.
Hispanics is where the future will be, like it or not.
And I don’t care for it, not a bit, the Obamao will try and grant them amnesty, if he wins, 10 years from now will be ugly.
The backend of the ticket sold its soul to the Socialist Slick Willard.
I found it ironic especially that Springsteen supported Obama when Todd and Sarah Palin were probably the living embodiment of so many of his songs, certainly much more so than Barack and Michelle.
Look at The River:
I come from down in the valley where mister when you’re young, they bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary[Sarah]met in high school when she was just seventeen
Then I got Mary pregnant and man tat was all she wrote, and for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest...
Based on what I’ve read, the song is almost a biography of them.
And I can certainly picture a Sarah Palin who gave her son his middle name so that it would be Van Palin to sound like Van Halen being more a Springsteen fan in the 80s than Obama. So much for loyalty.
But you got to my point. Thats what I was trying to get across
You make some very interesting and valid points. Although the establishment was very, very dismissive of Reagan and remained extremely disdainful of his policies, the society/media elites nonetheless were often rather drawn to his old-style Hollywood manner and connections. They had a certain begrudging fascination and acceptance of him, in between their condescending condemnations of his ideology and actions.
But, wow, the visceral hatred and unyielding scathingness towards Gov. Palin, her family, and her cultural backdrop, by these same media elites, has reached all-new heights. It’s really been something to behold (in a sickening way, of course).
astounding actually......
zero for all his advantage, nearly blew it.....if a few more had bothered to read about him, he would have been trounced....
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