Posted on 07/04/2009 3:10:43 AM PDT by truthfreedom
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 15) -- Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) electrified Washington today, resigning from the Senate to campaign full time for the White House (256K WAV sound).
"I announce that I will forego the privileges not only of the office of the majority leader but of the United States Senate itself, from which I resign effective on or before June 11th," a choked-up Dole told a Capitol Hill news conference, flanked by Republican lawmakers and a few Democrats. "And I will then stand before you without office or authority, a private citizen, a Kansan, an American, just a man."
...
Republicans, who learned of Dole's intentions early today, were quick to laud the decision. "This is exactly the right thing to do," House Speaker Newt Gingrich told reporters after the announcement. Praising the boldness of the strategy, Gingrich said it was the most effective speech he had heard Dole give. Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour said Dole's decision was "absolutely" right.
(Excerpt) Read more at -cgi.cnn.com ...
Why at all does it matter when the elections are? The voters aren’t voting for you to run for President.
When you run for President, you often fail to serve your constituents.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/02/obama.missed.votes/
i think you should listen to her speech again. every time she tries to do something, they try to tie her up, legally or otherwise, and it has made her ineffective. she could just go along and collect a paycheck, but what that be right? she said she had already achieved the goals she set out for her term. better for the unencumbered LG to carry on - better for Alaska, and better for her. seems logical to me.
She might be one of the most popular Republicans with the base for right now, but she’s not the most electable.
Perhaps there aren’t any electable Republicans right now.
The party is going to die without some new blood, or a triumphant return of some old heroes.
Yeah
Obama making less than a quarter of Senate votes
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/02/obama.missed.votes/
You think Obama is gonna want to call Palin a quitter?
Palin can just reply “You should’ve quit Obama - you seriously neglected your job.”
Of course the books didn't make him a shoo-in.
Which autobiography of Gingrich's do you like best?
I’m comparing “how much time left in term” (apples) to “how much time left in term” (apples) . In Doles case it was more than 2 years. In Palins case it was less than 2 years.
When the Presidential election is is irrelevant, because the voters weren’t electing “someone to run for President” they were electing someone to do a job of Governor or Senator.
Politicians give a lot of excuses for why they do things.
I think what is most revealing is how she talks about what most politicians do and how she’s “not politics as usual.”
I think she may be trying to make it look like she’s “shaking things up” as a cover for taking an ill-advised gamble for her own self-promotion.
Anything she tries to do after this will get her branded as a flake and an opportunist.
Yeah, they quit their jobs all the time to do something else (often to join the administration). I’m pretty confused about why Palin is getting so much grief about it, except for the fact that the media wants to hurt Palin so much that it doesn’t matter to them if their attacks make any sense.
The time remaining to their terms is not the comparison... it’s their status in life. Dole was a long time leader in the Senate. Palin is a half-term governor. Dole was the nominated Republican candidate for President of the United States. Palin has a lot of time to kill until the 2012 election, for which she is neither nominated nor declared. And after quitting as governor, no longer even a serious contender.
She’s no more a quitter than Bob Dole, who was praised by Gingrich and Barbour when he quit to campaign for President.
Bob, you just wasted a good job because you don’t have a chance in hell to win.
I think she's taking a page out of Reagan's book in that she now can expound on her themes and talking points in many forums. A lot of people will owe her by 2012.
We shall see if she has the legs to go all the way.
Politicians quit the jobs they have when they get a promotion. Like Clinton resigning from the Senate to be the Secretary of State.
Palin didn’t get a promotion.
She didn’t quit her job to take a promotion.
She’s not walking into a new appointment, or even a new political campaign.
Depending on the economy, Palin could easily beat Obama in 2012. If the economy stinks, Palin beats Obama. If the economy is great, Obama beats Palin. At least that the way it usually goes. When the economy is fantastic, the incumbent usually wins. When the economy is terrible, the incumbent usually loses.
Dole quit to run for president.
Palin isn’t running for president.
The election is more than 3 years away.
If she was like Bob Dole, she would have resigned last August or September.
Ronald Reagan was a successful two-term governor of California.
He didn’t walk out of the job two years into it.
No way is this a page out of the Reagan playbook.
He stuck to what he started. He wasn’t a quitter.
He even took his run for the Republican nomination all the way to the convention in 1976. Not a quitter by any measure.
If Palin could easily beat 0bama in 2012, then any one the GOP nominates could be him with even greater ease.
So it’s ok to quit if you’ve been on the job a long time?
You’ve been in the Senate for 30 years, if you quit, you’re not a quitter?
You might have the “experience” issue confused with some other issue surrounding the word “quitter”.
It is true that the time that Palin would have spent as Governor would be executive experience. By resigning, she would not get the full 4 years of executive experience.
But it’s still “quitting” whether you’re a Senator from Kansas for 30 years or a Governor of Alaska for 4.
Basically, what you’re saying is that it’s ok to quit if you have the nomination.
Newt doesn’t write autobiographies.
He writes books on policy.
He’s a serious individual, a man of ideas.
Not one of these shallow self-promoting politicians who write self-promoting books on their own life story as a self-promoting politician.
He lost.
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