America’s most influential political tip sheet reports on what Sean Hannity and the cast of “The View” thinks about Palin. Because that’s really all that matters.
One more note about Palin: I’ve heard the possible effect of her resignation on the 2012 Republican primary discussed endlessly. And, while I think no sane person would be more likely to vote for her now that she’s up and quit, the opinions of sane people may not be particularly relevant in the 2012 Republican primary. But what about the general election? Or have Republicans already given up on that?
Update. Kristol has a pretty remarkable column up about Palin, in which he remarks, with no apparent irony that:
The hostility of the GOP establishment may be an obstacle to her success. On the other hand, given the performance of GOP operatives and pols over the past few years, maybe their opposition isn’t a bad thing.
bago
Purse watching to master of puppets.
bago
I was going to add more, but comment edit plus iPhone is dysfunctional.
monkeyboy
Poll Time
Christianity Today is running a poll – “What is your overall opinion of Sarah Palin?” Currently with 734 votes the results are
30% Very favorable
30% Mostly favorable
19% Mostly unfavorable
21% Very unfavorable
freelancer
Shorter Kristol: “The fact that Republicans are in dire straights means that Sarah Palin is just the leader we need to grab the reigns, turn this Oil Tanker around, and dribble around the post defense to victory. America has been headed down the wrong track and with her, we’ll be sprinting towards the finish line ahead of everyone [Swish]
P.S. Sarah Palin being attacked by the evil MSM has NOTHING to do with the current state of the GOP or the ideological commonality of her and the Republican base, also”.
Brachiator
Hah! I mentioned in a note in a previous thread to pay attention to what The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck had to say about Palin because she pals around with her, keeps in touch with her, and has taken on the role of selling Palin and the GOP message to Middle American women.
The funny thing is that Hasselbeck seemed to be as much caught off guard as everyone else, but still tried to push the idea that we should watch to see what Palin does next.
Who knows. The only thing that’s clear is that Palin won’t be a factor. I listened to pundits and other “experts” harp on Palin’s appeal to the GOP base, and trying to give her far more credit for having a plan than is plausible based on anything that we have seen from her. More than once a comparison to Nixon came up.
All these pundits presume that people don’t have an opinion about Palin until the Beltway pundits deliver it. But the bottom line is that the average American does not like a quitter, which is what Palin is no matter how she tries to disguise it.
And during the presidential election, the voters looked at Palin, found her insubstantial, and took a pass. Nothing that she has done or said has given anyone any reason to change that opinion.
The GOP has to deal with the problem that the neocon faction, headed by Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, has decided to push Sarah Palin as their vision of the future of the Republican Party.
Yes. This is the kiss of death. Appearing on the Sunday ABC pundit show, George Will tried to choke down evident disgust over Palin’s antics and her manifest stupidity. The last time he did this was when Bush tried to push an obviously unqualified Harriet Miers onto the voters as a Supreme Court nominee.
It should tell you something that the elitist fringe of the GOP is trying this bullshit again, only this time using Palin. It will fail. The only question is whether or not these buffoons will bring the entire GOP down with them.
MelodyMaker
That Kristol line is just amazing. He’s coming out of his twit shell and letting it fly.
Ash Can
I’m not even sure I understand WTF Kristol is talking about. It’s kind of like earlier today, when I found myself driving along behind a van sporting a sticker with a drawing of an elephant whizzing on the word “liberals,” and a sticker of equal size mounted right next to it that said, in red, white and blue letters, “vote union.” Thinking about it now is making my head hurt all over again.
Zuzu's Petals
Again, Kristol with this “if she just studies up a bit …” nonsense.
Because really, cramming is all that’s needed to get elected. Governing, eh, who cares?
Surreal American
At least the Republicans are trying to excite their base. I fear that Obama maybe losing the Democratic base.
The Republicans can’t win 2012, no matter who the nominee is, on their own. They desperately need Obama to fail.
The Blue Dog Democrats will give the Republicans the assist towards that goal.
Batocchio
Holy crap. Even for Kristol, that’s amazing. File that one for later.
It’s like one of those logic puzzles – “this statment is false,” etc. “It’s my prognosis that Palin may succeed, and you should believe me, because I’ve proved I’m a fucking moron.”
Bill E Pilgrim
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Doonesbury started making jokes about Reagan’s handlers referring to him as “talent”, as in “Okay, the stage is all set, mic is on, bring out the talent” as far back as then.
That’s really how people like Kristol think of this, you just need someone to play a role, others like Kristol will actually make the decisions.
It actually explains why people like that are less afraid of the whole idea. Even he can see how nuts and how shallow she is, but he figures so what, she’d be a figurehead anyway.
JGabriel
Billy Kristol via DougJ @ Top:
Shorter Kristol (JGabriel Interpretation):
I believe Bill Kristol may be the only person in the world who can state one thing, state its opposite, and be wrong on both.
.
JGabriel
monkeyboy:
I’m not sure that should be taken very seriously. Christianity Today’s last poll is rather amusing:
Does your church do anything special for the Fourth of July?
3% – Yes, we bring guns to church.
.
JGabriel
Bill E Pilgrim:
Assumption not in evidence. Kristol doesn’t think, he smirks. Glowingly, beatifically smirks.
Like an evil chimp buddha.
.
Colonel Danite
Can’t we just rename Kristol “The man who is wrong about everything”?
IndieTarheel
Man, he really did a 360 there.
Started at stupid, spun all the way ’round, and BAM! – right back where he started.
MikeJ
This certainly is the CW, but I’m not entirely sure it’s correct. The same people that want to canonize Ste Sarah hated John McCain. McCain didn’t get the nom because he appealed to the base, he got it despite the fact the base hate him.
As crazy as McCain was and is, he was the least crazy of all the GOPers running, and when it came time to vote, the crazy base people were ignored. The question is, will any non-crazy people bother voting in the GOP primary?
A Mom Anon
Empty head,empty heart,empty suit. Has Kristol ever been right about anything?
cosanostradamus
.
This just in: Michael Jackson. is not dead! He’s in Alaska, converting the Wasilla Dome into a new Neverland, and bankrolling Palin’s run for the White House in exchange for sleepovers.
.
kay
Celebrity politicians have to stop claiming they hate media attention, while soliciting media attention.
Sarah Palin is giving interviews, while she’s on vacation, while drawing a paycheck as governor, a job she admits she hasn’t done in months.
Sanford’s response to the crisis his created when he went on vacation was…to go on vacation.
In what sense are either of these people a victim? Please. This is ridiculous.
If either of these two clowns worked in the hallowed-by-conservatives “private sector” they would have been out on their asses months ago.
mai naem
@JGabriel:
Don’t laugh. They had some piece up about a church( I think in Texas or Arkansas) where the pastor was letting people come to church with their guns.
As far as Sarah Palin. She’s an idiot. She’s inarticulate and undereducated like the Fox conservative pundit said. James Fallows had a little piece around election time about how Palin was not only undereducated but seemed to show no interest in becoming educated on the issues and how dangerous that was especially in the face of George “govern from the hip” Bush.
Edwin
The Republican establishment is pushing Palin for the same reason they pushed Bush: she would be acquiescent and keep the public entertained while the elites continue to rape it. Ability has no part in the equation, because she would have no real power and could make no real decisions.
mai naem
I think the real reason that people are pushing for Palin are that she’s got the sexy “librarian/teacher” porn thing going. I mean this seriously. I actually heard/read this when she was first introduced to the country as Veep. There was an Alaska woman who said that conservative women voted for Sarah because she was a woman and men voted for her because she had the sexy porn “librarian/teacher'” thing going.
grumpy realist
There was a blog somewhere from a self-identified “feminist” and groupies who really couldn’t figure out why we were all so meeeean to Palin and decided it was because a) she’s sexy, b) she has 5 kids, c) she’s brilliant, and d) women are going to be picked on in politics boo hoo hoo.
The fact that a lot of us can’t stand Palin because she’s incompetent and panders to every last stereotype about women was something that didn’t even cross this blogger’s brain. High approval as governor? Sure, easy to do if high oil prices allow you to scatter $$ from heaven everywhere. Show me one state in the US where the governor wouldn’t have “high approval” if he handed out $3k yearly each in free money.
Palin reminds us of every single *woman* we’ve run into who deliberately clobbers the boss with her sex appeal, gets appointed into a position she clearly can’t run, backstabs everyone else in the office, and then whines about how MEEEAN everyone is to her when the inevitable happens. And supporting her is “feminist”? Give me a break.
2th&nayle
@mai naem: Ahh, no. Actually I think the situation you’re referring to happened in Kentucky. The Arkansas General Assembly voted down a bill that would have allowed guns in church, back in February.
Persia
@grumpy realist: Let’s not forget that Palin also worked to screw girls and women out of their rights.
matoko_chan
This is the best description of how sane people regarded Palin.
Palin is the gravity well of populist appeal, the idea that Joe Sixpack with boobs could run America. Presumeably she would have filled her cabinet with other “realdeals”, ie Joe the Plumber clones.
Populist sentiment dates back to Kylon of Croton, the pissed-off plutocrat that raised a mob of local farmers to protest his rejection by Pythagoras’ School for Leaders by burning down the school and chopping up the teachers with scythes.
It continues to amaze me that populists cite Jefferson as their idealogical patron, when “natural aristocracy” is a clear reference to genetic (talent) and memetic(virtue) inheritance.
mcd410x
I laugh every single time I read the “clap louder” tag. But a lot of the discussion over at the Ace of Base concerns how the eponymous blogger is at fault because his clapping faltered when it became clear Fred Thompson wasn’t exciting anyone. Gosh, if everyone could just have SEEN how excited they were about Fred, others would have taken notice and been just as excited. Keep clapping, y’all!
jenniebee
So… if she’d actually gotten into the Naval Observatory, how long do you think she’d have stayed?
At least in Alaska she was charged with handing out money to people. She had something she was supposed to do. As Veep, she’d have had to call and check in every day, but otherwise get told to please go play in a corner and shut up by her own guy in the WH. I give that six weeks before she and Todd “go rogue” and maybe three months after that before they pull a surprise resignation just to show that mean old McCain that he can’t push Sarah around like that and she’ll take her base and go home. Nyahhh. Because a good point guard never quits (or, apparently, accepts coaching), she boldly passes the ball in the opposite direction, or something. Also.
mapaghimagsik
I consider myself pretty partisan, but I’d like to think that if someone from “my team” (democrats get credibility bashing the left, so I’m not sure “my” team is very much mine anyway) had basically pulled the “gosh, this is hard, I’m quitting” card, I’d entertain the notion that maybe — just maybe — that person was a complete screwup, despite the party affiliation?
Palin is popular among a large group of people, and after the republicans have pissed off so many groups of people to feed to old, white beast, perhaps they can’t “quit her” no matter how much crazy she gets.
And yes, whored in another thread, but won’t someone think of what’s going to happen to Alaska now?
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
It’s nice to see the right-wing media take time out from bashing and defaming Obama to criticize the liberal media for saying mean thing about Palin.
JosieJ
Oh, please: Kristol doesn’t even understand WTF he’s talking about!
This is the guy who has never been right about any prediction that has ever passed through his lips. As JGabriel pointed out, the man is basically paid to smirk–it’s the one thing he does well.
If he says Palin could win the presidency despite her “I’m taking my marbles and going home” stunt, I’m confident that her presidential prospects are deader than one of the moose she’s shot from a helicopter.
CatStaff
Look, Palin never saw any of her political activities as anything more than an endless continuation of her beauty queen days, with a side order of making a few bucks and snagging some free swag.
Basically all she’s ever done is show up for supermarket openings, do the “S” wave, and spout some non-sensical BS, which is pretty much what beauty queens do on a daily basis. The fact that she was able to give free rein to her mean girl tendencies was just icing on the cake.
Now that she’s gotten slapped around a little bit by people who expect their elected officials to act like grownups and actually do a little work, she’s decided to bail and get back into something where all she’ll be required to do is smile and wave and flash a little leg from time to time. Which is really all she’s interested in doing, and capable of.
That whole “Mirror, mirror, on the wall . . . ” routine isn’t going to produce a satisfactory answer for her forever.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I can’t make many predictions about 2012, but I can predict this: the Democratic primaries will be dull,dull,dull compared with the epic slugfest in 2008. What do you think indys and cross-over voters are going to do? I’m betting they switch over to the GOP primaries in large numbers out of sheer boredom with the dullness of renominating Obama on the Dem side, compared with the drama unfolding in GOPer land. I think the rabid base of the GOP is going to be in for a nasty surprise come the time of the primaries, when lots of not-so-crazy people suddenly show up and don’t vote the way that
RushBaron Harkonnen is telling them to. Rush had little influence over the GOP nomination contest in 2008 (look who won), he will have even less influence in 2012.sarah
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
so should we expect/mount an operation anarchy? Palin/Animal the Muppet 2012!
TenguPhule
In six weeks McCain would have died under unusual circumstances and New Supreme Leader for Life Palin would insist we welcome our new Chinese Overlords.
Surreal American
Shorter Bill Kristol for all campaign consulting occasions:
GOP clown car needs brighter colors, faster method of driving over cliff. Needs to be inflammable. Also.