Posted on 11/30/2011 3:48:00 PM PST by presidio9
Edited on 11/30/2011 7:57:13 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
If you’ve spent any time in the American South (I began this week in North Carolina, incidentally), you know it’s a land where your picture is made and not taken, Auburn is a religion and not a color and there are no problems that a little sweet tea and barbecued ribs can’t solve. I will not argue the last point.
You’re also familiar with the well-worn Southern colloquialism that Sarah Palin once adopted to chide Mitt Romney on his reluctance to wade into the debt ceiling discussions back in August.
“Bless his heart,” she said on Fox News. “I have respect for Mitt Romney, but I do not have respect for what he has done through this debt-increase debate,” she continued, accusing him of sheepishly waiting until it was over to weigh in.
In the South, “bless your heart” comes with a genteel and sympathetic smile meant to mask underlying contempt; by all accounts, Palin used it correctly. She may have been trying to soften her criticism of the GOP presidential front-runner, but her underlying message was clear: This isn’t my kind of guy.
And for Romney, that’s a big problem, one that’s emblematic of his primary problems writ large. After months of being every conservative’s second-favorite candidate, and having to prove his right-wing bona fides time and time again, he desperately needs to be Palin’s kind of guy, the kind of guy Middle America will vote for. In fact, he should be doing everything in his power to make Palin — and her millions of supporters — fall deeply, madly in love with him.
Despite trying to market himself as the private-sector, anti-Washington candidate, Romney still reeks of the establishment elite. Deservedly or not, it’s a label he has not been able to shake as folks like Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain proved more Tea Party-ready and Romney continued to suffer from a case of John Kerry-itis.
Palin and Romney have both shrugged off the idea of a rivalry, but relations seem strained between the former governors who have at various times tried to awkwardly occupy the same political space.
Excerpt...read more at nydailynews.com
Let's get this out of the way right now: I am an "ABR" Republican. Anybody But Romney (or Ron Paul). I would also like to point out that Cupp hates Newt Gingrich, the guy Palin will most likely end up endorsing (if she endorses anyone before the nomination.
endrosing Newt is the absolute wrong thing for Sarah to do. She shouldn’t endorse any of these guys.
Newt is almost the polar opposite of her stated beliefs on many issues.
I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll have a nominee.
The rest of the article (which did not need to be excerpted from the NY Daily News):
Sometimes, very awkwardly. After appearing to bogart Romney’s spotlight in the weeks before he formally announced his campaign (and even on the very day that he did), Palin called it merely “coincidental” that her schedule always seemed to coincide with his. And through gritted teeth, he told the media that he didn’t mind her popping up.
Getting Palin — who warned in June that attracting Tea Party support would be “a big challenge” for Romney — to give him her imprimatur is no small undertaking, but one that Romney shouldn’t write off as a lost cause.
After all, stranger things have happened. Just last week, none other than Romney’s 2008 nemesis, Mike Huckabee, suggested that conservatives were probably going to have to just accept Romney as their nominee, prompting some pundits to predict that a once-unthinkable Huckabee endorsement of Romney is next.
Ann Coulter, who spent months trying — and failing — to persuade New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run for President, has also come around, telling “Morning Joe” viewers on Tuesday that she has retracted her earlier declaration that Romney cannot beat President Obama.
And when Christie announced he was endorsing Romney (a huge coup for Mitt from the wildly popular, take-no-prisoners governor), some suggested there must have been a deal of some kind — the promise of a cabinet position, perhaps? — for someone as principled as Christie to back someone as mealy-mouthed as Mitt.
And let’s not forget Tim Pawlenty, who spent weeks on the campaign trail almost attacking Romney on his health care position, only to end up as his campaign’s national co-chairman.
So why not Palin? It could be argued that she needs him, too. Palin has received relatively little attention since her bus tour ended, and will presumably want to play a significant role in the 2012 election. Her supporters, who are set to unveil new ads in Iowa begging her to reconsider a run, won’t likely get what they want — the filing deadline to get on some state ballots has passed.
But coming out early in support of Romney will set her up to make valuable campaign appearances, without looking like a late-coming bandwagoner. Backing the presumptive nominee will also make her look serious and pragmatic, and less the uninformed ideologue that her detractors insist she remains.
Alas, a Mitt and Sarah partnership probably isn’t in the cards. He isn’t likely to chase her approval, and I imagine Palin will get behind a candidate who’s far more incendiary, like Newt Gingrich.
But Mitt Romney has horse sense, as they like to say in the South. He’s a very smart guy. And, bless his heart, he’s run a very disciplined campaign. But if he wants to win the GOP nomination, and appeal not only to moderates but to conservatives in the general election, he needs to pucker up and plant one on someone like Palin. It could just be a match made in heaven.
Ummmmmmm! I miss her on Red Eye.
It’s not going to happen so why bother writing an article about it?
In what universe is Romney on any conservative voter’s preferred candidate list, let alone in the #2 spot?
IBTNGP
In before the Not Guilty posts.
...keep in mind, Daily snoooz is just NYT lite
I can’t see Palin’s endorsement doing anything for Mitt.
The problem is Mitt’s incapable of generating even a smidgeon of enthusiasm. He has no personality. He’s not likeable; he’s not unlikable. Maybe he’s a Vulcan, although Mr. Spock definitely had more appeal than Mitt. I actually wonder if a bimbo eruption or DUI arrest might help Mitt in that it would make him appear more normal.
Piss on Romney
Gov. Palin has a whole army of Ginsu knives planted in her back by Slick Willard.
Romney-Palin would end up with the same result as McCain-Palin.
Who comes up with this stuff?
HA!
The odds of this happening are about one in a million. And even if she DID endorse Mitt, none of her fans would believe it.
My own reaction would be something like, “Look, there’s a flying saucer over there! Endorsement? What endorsement?”
She’s one hot atheist. But when looking at her I’m convinced there is a god!
I immediately dismissed the article as ridiculous and started googling pictures.
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.