Posted on 06/11/2011 1:36:32 PM PDT by Brices Crossroads
While I freely concede that both Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry have a right to run for President, it is impossible to overlook the fact that their recent benefactress, Sarah Palin, is rolling out her own Presidential campaign at the same time. This would not generally be extraordinary. In politics, alliances are sometimes (although not regularly) forged and broken. However, in my forty years or so of close political observation, I cannot remember an analogous situation in which the beneficiaries of one politician turn on their benefactor (especially a benefactor as conspicuous as Palin) so shortly after having obtained and used the benefactor's endorsement and appearances to secure both campaign cash and votes. In fact, not since Judas hustled away to the Chief Priests from the Last Supper has there been such a propinquity between the favor and the betrayal. I predict that this disloyalty, spotlighted by the freshness of the favors spent upon these two by Palin, will sour the stomachs of GOP primary voters who tend to place more emphasis on character, which is to say: loyalty. Americans despise disloyalty. Disloyalty and its associated character flaws are a tragedy in a human being, but they are a catastrophe in a President. The association, in the American psyche, of disloyalty and the traitor, Benedict Arnold, bespeaks the level of national revulsion with this particularly poisonous character flaw.
Michele Bachmann, by all accounts, faced a tough reelection fight against State Senator Tarryl Clark, a more attractive and far better financed ($4 million war chest) candidate than she had faced in in 2008, when she narrowly beat lightly regarded and under-financed lobbyist Elwyn Tinkenberg by less than 3% of the vote. At Bachmann's request, Palin rode to her rescue early, appearing on her behalf at a packed rally of over 10,000 in Minneapolis on April 8, 2010, which was nationally televised on Sean Hannity's FOX program. Bachmann parlayed Palin's endorsement and high profile support into a fund raising bonanza of $13.4 million, which she used to swamp Clark. Indeed, the lopsided money advantage freed her to travel around the country campaigning for others and posing as the real TEA party heavyweight. Armed with this Palin-generated largesse, she easily beat Clark by 12%, the largest margin of victory in her career, including her two state Senate Races. Now she is using the balance of these "thirty pieces of silver" to pay odious characters like Ed Rollins to smear Sarah Palin as "not serious" and too lazy to "gain substance" in contrast to Bachmann, who "ha[s] worked hard" and been "a leader of the TEA party". Such treachery, which is both frank and fresh, makes me and every fair-minded person (whether pro- Palin or neutral) sick to our collective stomachs.
Rick Perry similarly faced a very competitive GOP primary against a sitting U.S. Senator, who is more liberal than he, and a solid conservative, Deb Medina, who was very popular with conservatives in Texas and nationally. In essence, he was squeezed from both directions, a challenge on the left and on the right. As she did with Bachmann, Palin went to Perry's aid early and often, endorsing him in the summer of 2009, ahead of the March 2010 primary. The first poll of Perry (by Rasmussen on September 16, 2009), which included both Hutchison and Medina, showed Hutchison pulling ahead of Perry 40-38, with Medina in single digits at 3%.
Perry crowed ad nauseam about Palin's endorsement in order to prevent Medina from gaining real traction and eclipsing him among conservatives. At the time of the endorsement, Perry had this to say about the value of Governor Palin's endorsement and their warm personal friendship:
'Facing a tough Republican primary fight next year in his bid for a third term, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is brandishing the heavy artillery: Sarah Palin's endorsement of his campaign."If there's a bigger endorsement in the Republican universe, I don't know who it is than Sarah," he declared in a telephone interview over the weekend. He described the Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee as a "close personal friend" who knows my heart."'
As Matt Lewis observed in the article, "Palin's nod is indeed an asset for Perry, helping him cement his appeal to social conservatives in the Lone Star State." While Perry never again fell behind, even Palin's endorsement could not totally blunt the momentum for Deb Medina, who continued to rise in the polls, reaching a high point of 24% on February 7, 2010, three weeks before the primary, and reducing Perry's showing to 39% (Hutchison had 28%). Enter Palin again. She appeared at a nationally televised rally in Houston that drew over 8000 people on Super Bowl Sunday, February 8, 2010. After the rally, Medina never again broke 20 in a poll.
With Palin's conspicuous and staunch support, Perry barely beat back the challengers in March 2 primary, winning 51% to 30% for Hutchison and 19% for Medina. Even with Palin's support, Medina nearly forced a runoff, so great was conservative revulsion with Perry in Texas. Had Palin backed Medina as strongly as she backed Perry, it is quite possible that Medina and Hutchison would have been in a run off, and Perry would have been odd man out. Had Palin done nothing for Perry, it is a foregone conclusion that he would have faced a tough runoff. In other words, Perry owes Palin his political hide.
As I said at the outset of this article, both Perry and Bachmann are free to run for President or any other office for which they are constitutionally qualified. The First Amendment however also grants observers the right to express themselves on both the timing and the circumstances of their putative candidacies as well as their previous interaction with "close personal friends" who come to their aid. In assessing both Perry and Bachmann, conservative voters should ask themselves the following question: "In light of how these two have conducted themselves toward Sarah Palin in the last year or so, do you trust either of them---should they be elected--not to double cross you?"
I believe that question answers itself.
I’d like to see the best and brightest conservatives obey Reagan’s 11th Commandment and have at the issues, the current administration and congressional ineptitude with everything they’ve got so the public can pick the one with the most fire. Also, the one that clearly bothers the lying media the most!
Ping!
Ping — I admit I have no idea what the heck is happening this election cycle.
“Baffling” doesn’t begin to cover it...
Let's please not forget that Medina turned out to be a truther.
I am not sure the numbers back up your dramatic rhetoric a la l Perry — though I think the time lines you present are instructive. I think Median self destructed and Perry would have beaten KBH anyway.
I would also say that since none of the three are as yet announced, this is a bit of an academic exercise. If Palin were to officially announce, or even “unofficially announce that she’s definitely in” — then the Perry and Bachmann issues may well take care of themselves.
Pat looking for a moderate Nazi.
So anyone who might seek the Republican nomination is being “disloyal” to Palin on the off chance she might decide to run herself?
None of this article makes sense on any level.
I do not think Bachmann and Perry are double-crossing Sarah Palin at all. If anything, by putting themselves into the race early, they are helping Palin keep her options open by keeping some RINO (like Romney) from becoming a front-runner early on.
If and when Palin does get into the race, she will immediately become the front-runner and be able to easily absorb the organizations and resources that candidates like Bachmann and Perry have already built. Also, Bachmann and Perry are obtaining some visibility and experience on the national stage so that either of them would be good running mate candidates once Sarah is nominated.
maybe Palin will go independant, am sick of BOTH party’s as is
Oh dear Lord, do not let the media get a look at this headline. The next thing you know, all the MSM outlets will be running stories like, "DOES PALIN ENJOY BISEXUAL THREESOMES? SOURCES SAY THAT PERRY, BACHMAN ARE TURNING HER ON!"
Why don’t you wait and see who enters the race?
If people in their campaign are stupid enough to pick a fight with Palin, then they might as well save their contributors the money now. Cooperation is the key here. If at some point in the primary campaign they wish to draw on their differences good, we can hear what they think makes them better. If they are going to try to damage other candidates, the only name they better disparage is BHO.
This piece is crap! If there is ANY truth to it, I can tell you who will still be standing after the dust settles... and it won’t be Perry or Bachmann.
Pat wants a moderate Nazi.
Whether or not Palin’s support made the difference, she did support them. So this disloyalty reflects badly on both of them.
There were a lot of complaints when Palin agreed to endorse McCain in the last election. I didn’t like it myself. But. She HAD to do it. She owed McCain, even considering the fact that McCain’s handlers doublecrossed her.
It was McCain who asked her. And she went and helped campaign for him for two or three days. That was it. But she did refrain from speaking out against him.
She was caught between a rock and a hard place, but I think she did the right thing. No more than was necessary, but she did it. Frankly, it didn’t make any of the conservatives here at FR like McCain any better, and it shouldn’t have had much effect on conservatives in Arizona, either. Caveat emptor. Anyone who voted for McCain after seeing him action all those years didn’t need Sarah Palin’s brief appearance to persuade him to be a stupid idiot.
Competing with Palin is not “turning” on her. How ridiculous, and how condescending...we don’t even know if Sarah wants to run for that office, or play kingmaker and then become Secretary of the Interior AND Secretary of Energy. I think that’s the job she’d rather have.
What have I missed? What is perry saying about Sarah?
Read the first sentence.
“While I freely concede that both Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry have a right to run for President, it is impossible to overlook the fact that their recent benefactress, Sarah Palin, is rolling out her own Presidential campaign at the same time.”
The man says that Perry and bachman have every right to run.
What he is referring to is the statement made by Ed Rollins the other day about Palin. Whta he is saying is that he hopes these people do not turn this into a bashing of any of the candidates. He wants them to fight clean. Already Bachman has stepped on a dog turd by hiring Ed Rollins. Rollins has already attacked Sarah.
Personally I have seen enough Presidents from Texas.
Bachman has proven herself a lightweight with her daily gaffes,and Rollins is one of them.
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