FR has lots of smart people no doubt, but that is exactly why I am befuddled by the belief that Palin is the best option. I like Palin, I respect her and I know her treatment by the media has been extremely unfair, but I’m not going to let emotions drive my support for a candidate. Paul is a joke and most of us know it, but Palin has no chance and most of us fail to recognize it. Palin is our Hillary...you either like her or you don’t and there is very little she can ever do to change that. Her electability is her Achilles heel...and yes electability is important.
“Her electability is her Achilles heel...and yes electability is important.”
Give me some concrete proof that she is unelectable.
Is it because David Frum, George Will, David Brooks and the rest of the Lamestream Media don’t like her and trash her?
That is eight votes if you count their readers. (BTW, they loved McCain. How did he do?)
Is it because her poll numbers now show her a few points behind Obama?
The NYT and Gallup took a poll in December, 1978 that showed ahead of Reagan 57-36, a 21 point lead. In May of 1980, Carter still led 48-40. Polls this far out are unreliable, and you have to look at who is being polled (likely voters, registered voters or adults).
Is it because she is not a good candidate?
What evidence is there of this? Bad candidates don’t draw 60,000 fans when they are running for VP. Unsuccessful VP aspirants, who are bad candidates, retire and are forgotten. Theey don’t draw crowd of 10,000, 20,000 or more and they don’t have hundreds and hundreds people camping out overnight in freezing weather to get the “unelectable” candidate’s autobiography signed.
Bad candidates don’t take on entrenched incumbents at the City Council level, at the Mayoral level and at the Gubernatorial level and beat them all, culminating in the 31 point shellacking of an incumbent GOP governor who had been elected statewide FOUR times and a solid eight point beating of a popular two term Democrat governor in 2006, the biggest Democrat year since 1974 (which saw rivals Huckabee and Romney, in the face of certain defeat, retire).
I have given you three reasons, including empirical evidence, why Palin is electable. Suppose you come up with one reason (other than David Frum and E.J. Dionne told me so)why she is not.