Sarah Palin For President

Sounds far-fetched and, to some, totally implausible. But the Republicans are losing potential candidates at a pace that is downright alarming if you believe in a healthy two-party system. The demise of John Ensign’s political career a few weeks ago and the surreal downfall of Mark Sanford last week is enough to send chills through the even the most optimistic Republican strategist. We know that of the 2008 crop, only Mitt Romney seems likely to stay on as a contender. The old stalwarts like Newt Gingrich may get a lot of press, but it is unlikely they can mount a real challenge to Obama in 2012. Yet, the presidential election of 2012 will be more than a simple coronation of Barack Obama if the economy stalls and there is no progress in two important areas: national security and healthcare.

Ballooning deficits and a sluggish economy could alter the mood of America by the time the 2010 mid-terms come up, giving hope to the GOP for the next presidential primary season. This is why Sarah Palin is maintaining a persistent media presence, whether it is debating David Letterman or being the biggest Republican draw on the lecture circuit. She clearly has her eyes set on the presidency.

The latest edition of Vanity Fair brings this possibility forward, though not in a favourable light. Journalist Todd Purdhom paints a picture of a woman with a narcissistic personality, who’s short on knowledge, disinterested in policy discussion, and not ready for primetime. In the end, the story says more about John McCain’s competence and character than it does about Palin, simply because he flubbed his most important decision as a presidential candidate. That said, Palin brought much needed energy to an otherwise lackluster campaign and, to this day, she energizes the base as no other candidate can. Could it be possible she may someday be a candidate for the presidency?

My experience tells me that no one should be written off in a hypothetical context. Barack Obama is proof positive of this. I still maintain that, without Bush, there is no Obama nomination. Palin is a street smart politician who has benefited from being underestimated most of her career. McCain’s disastrous choice may have been fatal to his electoral chances, but it brought Palin to the forefront of national attention. Since then, she has become a celebrity that transcends her party. However, if she is to be taken seriously and considered a viable contender, she needs to change the negative perceptions of her and develop a political profile that appeals to those outside her narrow base.

To do this, she must gradually reduce her exposure and begin to educate herself on the issues. She will not be ready for 2012 by remaining governor of Alaska and playing the celebrity. The GOP has too proud a tradition to have a re-run of the 2008 vice-presidential candidate. Also, the base Palin relies on for support no longer holds the sway it once did. Social conservatism is losing steam as a political movement thanks to the dubious habits of people like Gingrich, Ensign and Sanford, and the election of an African-American president as well as the increased attention paid to gay rights issues shows that Americans have begun to cast their old divisions aside. The future for the GOP lies with fiscal conservatism and strong national security policy—not with turning back the clock. Palin must embrace the values that created the Republican party in the first place—a belief in the individual, a belief in a limited role for the state, and a commitment to equality. The party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and (the pragmatic version of) Reagan is the path to a Republican resurgence. Palin is nowhere on that radar. She is all about celebrity status and controversy.

In the lead-up to July 4, Americans usually reflect on their great democracy. Overall, it is healthy and has shown resilience through the decades. But the Republicans have to become a viable alternative for this democracy to remain vibrant. So is Palin a real possibility for 2012 or 2016? Will she someday be a formal candidate for the presidency? Most definitely. But can she ever win? Based on what we have observed so far, I would say definitely not, though politics has been known to produce some strange developments.

Reagan couldn’t even defeat an unpopular and Americas first and only, unelected President in the Republican Primary.

I mean he had a chance to prove he was viable and he couldn’t even convince his own party that he was a better choice then Nixon’s V.P. who barely fought the Democrats when they yanked funding from the South Vietnamese regime which resulted in America’s first lost war and started the snowball that resulted in over 2 million dead in Cambodia and throughout S.E. Asia.

And as we all know, he limped back to California, never to be heard from again.

Wait a minute...

I love Sarah personally but I don’t think she’d be able to beat Obama in 2012. I don’t think anyone of the big names like Huckabee or Romney or Jindal could either.

I think the Republican Party needs fresh conservative blood. It’s been so corrupted the last few years, leaving Reagan conservatism behind in many areas.

We need to fight fire with fire: we need a young, handsome, well spoken and articulate MAN, with a solid conservative record, a clean family life that the libs couldn’t poke fun at, and something intangible that people respond to, like a sense of humor.

I think the Republicans have a few people who could fit the bill and they should be grooming them right now, but quietly. Someone like John Thune could come from right field and impress both conservative Republicans and Reagan Democrats.

Conventional wisdom says that the top of the ticket is what decides the winner, not the running mate.

Yes, that is conventional wisdom, but it was not a conventional ticket or a conventional campaign.
Sarah Palin was elevated to a higher visibility than any other VP candidate in modern times.
Her visibility exceeded that of John McCain's.
All fall, the talk was how it had become a race between 0bama and Palin. Both McCain and Biden were sidelined.

And regardless, Palin vs. 0bama would be viewed by all as a rematch. Dewey vs. Truman was a rematch, too, even though Truman had been the VP candidate. Reagan vs. Mondale was also similar.
You can't expect people to pretend like they didn't already run against each other.
People aren't that stupid.
And you also can't say that Palin was the one everyone was voting for on the ticket, and then turn around and say the fact that no one voted for them says nothing about her ability to attract votes.
If we want to actually defeat 0bama in 30 years, we're going to have to get a bit more serious.

Either Palin can pull in the votes, or she can’t.................................. Ya gotta be kidding. Did you attend any of the rallies before Mc Cain named a VP? They were pale and dull. As soon as Palin came into the picture, it was standing room only, and here, it was standing room outside the center for blocks. It went from a town hall with McCain to a stadium with Palin. She wasn’t running against Obama, she was bringing in votes for Mc Cain. If the NYT was backing Mc Cain you knew he was being set up as a Mondale.

I wasn’t going to vote for Mc Cain or Obama but when she showed up here and I saw the crowd’s reaction, I knew she was the best of the 3. (McCain. Obama and Biden) The only thing she has against her is the Democratic machine and the MSM. (includes Hollywood and the alphabet channels))

really? who didnt vote repub because of mccain? were there a lot of conservatives who werent fans of war hero w/ a track record of conservative positions? i havent met any. where are these conservatives who voted obama because of mccain?

You're kidding, right?

Conservative?

You apparently haven't spent much time on FreeRepublic or any other conservative website have you?

Military and Related Foreign Policy Issues

1. Agrees with Democrats that our Foreign Policy has been arrogant and we need to be more humble.
2. Voted against bill that would impose sanctions against foreign governments and companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector until the president certified to Congress that Iran had dismantled its weapons of mass destruction Here and Here
3. McCain graduates from Annapolis, 894th out of a class of 898. McCain had conflicts with higher-ups, and he was disinclined to obey every rule.
4. McCain loses the first of five aircraft he will lose over the period of his career as a Naval Pilot, contributing to him becoming a reverse Ace. Poore states circa 1960. Article here states 1958. Ace McCain
5. McCain graduates from flight training. He is required to do six arrested landings aboard the Training Aircraft Carrier, the USS Antietam, in the Gulf of Mexico to be certified. He completes two.
6. McCain joins 26 other Republicans to vote with the Majority Party Congressional Democrats to demand U.S. Troops exit Lebanon, winds up on the losing side.
7. McCain co-sponsors an unsuccessful bill to cut off funding of United States troops in Somalia
8. McCain and John Kerry release the Select Committee report urging the MIA issue be put to rest so that Vietnam could be granted normalized relations with the U.S., over objections by MIA family and veterans groups.
8. McCain announces he deplores the Swift Boat adds against Senator John Kerry, and asks the White House to refute them.
9. McCain declares, "I want us in the ICC (International Criminal Court)", but I would like to see more safeguards first
10. McCain joins Dole to write op-ed for the Washington Post, states in part, "We should publicly remind Khartoum that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes...
11. McCain states he will close Guantanamo Bay terrorist detainment center on his first day in office
12. McCain's Gitmo problem, close the base, grant Geneva Convention status, stop water boarding...
13. McCains speech to the World Affairs Council, Europe may get veto power over some of our foreign policy...
14. McCain announces support for severe cutbacks on our nuclear weapons, withdrawing battlefield nukes from Europe and giving our nuclear waste to an international body
15. McCain states, "I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration's mismanagement of the war in Iraq.
16. McCain still wants us to sign the L.O.S.T. treaty in time, but does have concerns over sovereignty issues.
17. McCain Defends John Kerry on Defense matters
18. Wants to close Guantanamo and give Terrorists modified military trials with some of the same rights as our civil court system.
19. March 13, 2000 - Declare he would do the following on his first day in office: "The first thing I would do," the candidate answered, "is call in John Kerry, Bob Kerrey, Joe Biden, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel and several others and say we've got to get foreign-policy, national-security issues back on track."

Moral and Social Issues and Positions

1. Support for embryonic stem cell research (Murder of unborn babies).
2. Wants to moderate or soften the Pro-Life plank of the GOP Platform. See Here and Here and Here.
3. Has flip-flopped on overturning Roe vs. Wade.
4. Divorced his wife after he got back from Vietnam. The same woman who remained true to him and raised his kids while he was imprisoned.
5. Strongly against Same Sex Marriage Ban Constitutional Amendment
6. McCain leads the opposition to the Coats Amendment, preventing government funded fetal tissue research ( derived from "a legal act" [abortion] ) Amendment defeated!
7. 1999/08/19 - McCain stated, ""Certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade,"
8. 2007/06/00 - McCain joins Baldwin, Shays and Meehan to file an amicus brief against the Wisconsin Right to Life organization brief The wrong side of a pro-life issue, helping pro-abort Feingold
9. 2004/06/04 - McCain signs letter with 58 Senators, "We write to urge you (President Bush) to expand the current federal policy concerning embryonic stem cell research
10. Considers a Pro-Choice position on Abortion OK for likely candidates (Tom Ridge) for Vice-President in his Administration. How can anyone think he will keep his promise to nominate Pro-Life Supreme Court Justices if he thinks so little of the Pro-Life cause to even consider a Pro-Death VP?

Fiscal Issues

1. Socialist Approach to Economics I.: Supports Windfall Profit Tax
2. Socialist Approach to Economics II.: Will Regulate CEO Pay
3. Socialist Approach to Economics III.: Wants to bail out sub-prime losers (many of which are either illegal aliens or lied on thier applications) with US tax money.
4. Socialist Approach to Economics IV.: Wants to implement a socialist Health Care proposal that includes providing tax-coffer monies (your tax dollars) to the states to provide Health Care Insurance for those who either refuse to pay for it, or are unable to afford it (mostly illegal aliens).
5. Socialist Approach to Economics V.: Thinks and states that Pharmaceutical companies are evil
6. Voted against President Bush’s tax cuts (called them tax-cuts for the rich)
7. Voted against repealing the death tax.
8. John McCain's Top 10 Class-Warfare Arguments Against Tax Cuts
9. Total support for global warming scam, including the Carbon Cap-and-Trade system. See Here

Judges

1. Gang of Fourteen (Kept some of President Bush’s best judges from being presented for a vote) See here and here
2. McCain tells Clinton supporters they should back him because he voted for Ginsberg and Breyer
3. 1988/02/11 - McCain votes to affirm Anthony Kennedy as a justice for the SCOTUS
4. 1990/10/02 - McCain votes to Confirm Justice David H. Souter from New Hampshire to be an Associate Justice on the SCOTUS Court
5. 1993/08/10 - McCain joins the Democrats and most Republicans voting to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the worst justice on the court today. Three Republicans vote Nay.
6. 1994/07/24 - McCain joins with the Democrats to confirm nominee Stephen Breyer to be an Associate Justice on the SCOTUS. Nine Senators voted Nay...

Legislation Fathered by McCain

1. McCain-Fiengold (Assault on Free Speech, Gun Groups and Pro-Life Groups)
2. McCain-Kennedy (Amnesty for criminal Illegal Aliens)
3. McCain-Lieberman (50 cents a gallon tax)
4. McCain-Edwards-Kennedy (Many Democrat inspired bad rules included in this monstrosity)

Gun-Rights - 2nd Amendment Issues

1. F grade from Gun-Owners of America.
2. C grade from NRA.
3. 2000/11/20 - McCain participates in the production of a gun control spot for Oregon's Proposition Five. (Circa this date, prior to the November election.)
4. 2001/05/15 - McCain introduces the Gun Show Loophole bill S890, with Carper, Lieberman, DeWine, Clinton, and Schumer co/sponsoring.

General All-Around Unreliability on Conservative and GOP issues

1. 65% score from American Conservative Union in 2006
2. Flirted with the idea of crossing over to the Dems in 2004.
3. Refuses to drill in ANWR. See here and here
4. Has accepted funding from Soros and Teresa Heinz-Kerry for his institute
5. "I think the Democrat Party is a fine and I have no problems with it, in their views and philosophy"
6. Missed 60.8 % of all votes. Most of any Senate Member
7. The list of shame: John McCain's votes against the GOP and conservatism in general. Read them and weep Freepers!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.