“Where was Sarah Palin, Jim Demint, Mike Pence - when we really needed them?
Where were all these “conservative” leaders?
Where were they when we really needed someone to take the 2010 tidal wave of grass-roots conservatism in a real leadership role into 2012?
I pose these questions out of utter frustration for being left with the worst choice.”
Me, too. I really do feel that after ALL that build-up, Palin betrayed us. If she hadn’t, she would have been the nominee-to-beat from Day One, she’d be the presumptive nominee today, and we’d have a good chance of having an actual conservative in the White House.
But, just like last time, we’re left with the worst possible choice.
AGAIN.
The polls of Republicans showed they did NOT want Palin to get in the race, back at the time of her bus tour and the Iowa straw poll. I believe I’ve seen recent polls which now suggest that she has gone back up in popularity. The voters were afraid of her getting slammed by the media and thought they could find a White Knight who everyone in the world would love. I hope everybody’s learned that the media will destroy any Republican for any reason they can, be it true or false. The ironic thing is that if Palin had gone up against Romney in the primaries, his tactics of attacking probably would have backfired dramatically. He might not even have dared try them. So she would have been almost uniquely qualified among all these primary candidates to have survived the Romney machine.
Bottom line is, I don’t think she felt she was ready. She spent a lot of time on her media career, deservedly so, through last year but didn’t seem to increase her depth on policy and government. I’ve seen a big change in her in the last 6 months. I think when faced with the prospect of running, and subsequently in watching the debates, she realized the kind of ammo she would have to have to survive a primary campaign. I think she decided she didn’t have it yet but is now making a concerted effort to build up that kind of factual and rhetorical ammunition for next time. I don’t think she realistically could have entered her celebrity career and groomed herself for office at the same time, and she understandably made a decision to cash in on the 15 minutes of fame before they were up. I think voters also probably prefer to see more than a 4-year-gap after an election loss before someone tries to run the same race again.
“Where was Sarah Palin, Jim Demint, Mike Pence - when we really needed them?.”
I like Palin, DeMint and Pence and would have voted for any of them vs Romney but they have shown that they are not the leaders that many around here think/wish they were. Palin didn’t want to run, which is fine. It’s a huge decision and an incredible sacrifice but there was nothing keeping her from endorsing someone 6 months ago, 3 months ago, even as late as February. She had a chance to be kingmaker but chose not to. To me that was a terrible failure of leadership and the consequence is Mitt Romney.
So, so, so many people felt this way. And, that is how I felt also. To have taken such a very public and activist role in pushing a message and a very specific agenda for 3 straight years, and NEVER saying she would NOT RUN until October 5th 2011, was the most unbelievable wool-pulled-over-the-eyes move I have ever seen in national politics.
Let's face it, we can whine all we want, but we're left with the hand that the dealer dealt and the people played.