Tag-teaming Sarah Palin
What does a Sarah Palin critic and friend of Lisa Murkowski do when a poll shows that Palin would be the clear winner in a potential Senate race between the two women? Have another poll conducted which shows different results, of course. And that is just what has occurred in Alaska.
Dan Fagan is the Anchorage talk show host, columnist and blogger who had a big falling out with Gov. Sarah Palin and has been trying to tear her down ever since. Fagan's best friends in Alaska are the Murkowskis and Big Oil. Ever since Lisa Murkowski's father Frank was pried loose from the governor's job by Sarah, things between the Murkowskis and the Palins have been going downhill. The Murkowskis are still tight with Dan Fagan, however, and Lisa is a regular contributor to Fagan's blog The Alaska Standard.
Even after Palin upset Frank Murkowski in the Republican gubernatorial primary, she still managed to get along with Fagan. But when Sarah Palin took on the oil companies, that was the final straw. Dan has never forgiven her for that unpardonable sin, and it's been open warfare ever since. Two Wall street Journal stories,
here and
here, are good background reads on the subject.
Meanwhile, tensions between Palin and the Murkowskis were further strained when the media tried to provoke open warfare between them
by speculating about a possible Palin run for Lisa Murkowski's U.S. Senate seat. The Senator was not amused, and she and the governor had to release a
joint statement to make at least a public show of unity.
But the media continued its talk of a potential Palin Senate run, even though it's not really in the Govenor's interests to challenge Lisa Murkowski for the seat. If Palin has some hidden desire to be a Senator, it would behoove her to wait until 2014 and take on Alaska's other Senator, a Democrat. No one is more aware of this than Markos Moulitsas, the publisher and founder of the hard left website Daily Kos. He is also quite aware of Gov. Palin's front-runner status for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, evidence for which can be found
here,
here,
here and
here. Also, Palin was impressive in helping Georgia's Saxby Chambliss
retain his Senate seat by a margin that was much wider than expected, and she's a
phenomenon nationally. If you think the Democrats don't fear her, you haven't been paying attention.
So kos figured that the best way to make trouble for Sarah Palin is to exploit the tensions between the governor and her political rivals in Alaska. Understanding that Palin has as many enemies in the Republican Party as she does among Alaskan Democrats, kos commissioned an
opinion poll by Research 2000 which showed Palin with a double-digit lead over Lisa Murkowski in a potential match up for Murkowski's Senate seat.
Here's where Dan Fagan re-enters the picture. His
Alaska Standard website commissioned a poll by a local company which shows results completely different from those of the Research 2000 survey. Fagan's poll, conducted by Dittman Research, shows:
Palin would have a tough time beating Murkowski. In fact, in a Republican primary, Murkowski would defeat Palin soundly, by a margin of 58 percent to 31 percent.
Contrast this result with those of the kos-sponsored poll which shows Palin soundly defeating Murkowski by a 55 percent to 31 percent margin, and it's clear that something is amiss here. Which of the two polls is correct?
It doesn't matter. Fagan's poll numbers provide him with the justification he needs to headline an Alaska Standard article declaring:
New poll shows Palin no longer Alaska's most popular politician
Do you see what is going on here? The Democrat left is exploiting internal rivalries within the Alaska Republican Party in an attempt to weaken Palin's front-runner standing with Republicans nationwide. That some of Palin's harshest critics are self-described conservatives matters not at all. When the political left and their media allies shout "Jump!" the response from Palin's GOP enemies is always "How high?"
This is the nature of the forces arrayed against Sarah Palin to cripple her politically, whatever path she may take - remaining Governor, taking a detour through the U.S. Senate or challenging Barack Obama for the presidency. No matter which path she chooses, she will have to fight not only the Democrats and their media, but her Republican enemies and their own media. These Alaskan "conservatives" are only too willing to conspire with their ideological opposites to defeat her. But Sarah Palin has faced long odds before and emerged triumphant. She will need a maximum effort from her supporters to be successful in whatever she chooses to do in the future.
- JP
Sarah Palin for President