OMG! Palin may run for President!

[SamIam]

Please say it ain't so! I bet the Tea Baggers are mad with joy!

WASHINGTON – Sarah Palin says it would be "absurd" for her not to consider running for president in 2012.

The former Alaska governor and the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008 says she will run for president if she believes it's right for the country and right for her family.

Palin was asked on "Fox News Sunday" if she knows more today about domestic and foreign affairs than she did two years ago. Her response: "Well, I would hope so."

She says her focus has widened since she was governor of Alaska. Palin says she gets daily briefings by e-mail on domestic and foreign policy issues from advisers in Washington.

Palin appeared on "Fox News Sunday." She is a paid contributor to Fox News.

[Pico and ME]

I hope she does.

[SamIam]

Yeah, I thought Bush was a lost cause for his second term, but look what happened with him! Never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter.

[classicman]

I'll second that, Sam.

[Undertoad]

BOO!






Were you scared?

[Griff]

Now we get to see the Republicans act appalled and talk about how they automatically deserve the tea-baggers support much like the Dems cry-babied about Nader. It will be interesting to find out what the baggies actually believe and see how Obama's second term goes.

[DanaC]

You know your problem Sam? You just aren't committed enough to the cause of freedom. You keep on supporting the anti-democrats against solid freedom fighters like Palin.

[Clodfobble]

In my head, I always equate Sarah Palin with Peggy Hill.

[Pico and ME]

Oh God no! I have a lot more respect for Peggy!

But I see where you are coming from...

[classicman]

Originally Posted by DanaC

You know your problem Sam? You just aren't committed enough to the cause of freedom.

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[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by Griff

Now we get to see the Republicans act appalled and talk about how they automatically deserve the tea-baggers support much like the Dems cry-babied about Nader.

I enjoyed this article: Beginning Of The End: Sarah Palin Hijacks The Tea Party Movement

This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.

The people we saw on the steps of Legislative Plaza and county courthouses across the state last year weren’t “movement conservatives.” Certainly the movement conservatives were there at those protests but the tea parties were much bigger in size, scope and concept than just traditional modern conservatism reheated. Last night, the professional conservatives fixed that for good.

For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition.

Sarah Palin.

Palin, while explicitly saying the movement had no leader, implicitly offered herself up as one. After this speech, which was widely covered on the internet and carried on television, the tea party movement and Sarah Palin will be inextricably intertwined.

[Pico and ME]

Originally Posted by classicman

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[richlevy]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Please say it ain't so! I bet the Tea Baggers are mad with joy!

Well, you got part of that right.

Palin was asked on "Fox News Sunday" if she knows more today about domestic and foreign affairs than she did two years ago. Her response: "Well, I would hope so."

She says her focus has widened since she was governor of Alaska. Palin says she gets daily briefings by e-mail on domestic and foreign policy issues from advisers in Washington.

So if you're wondering where all the bright minds that thought we could have a quick clean pair of Middle East wars went.....

The sad thing is that if she had just read a couple of magazines, newspapers, or even Google News, she would not have gotten into so much trouble in the first place. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I can say where Hamas and Hezbollah operate, that the Palestinian authority has it's roots in the PLO, what territories have caused the most friction between Turkey and Greece and India and Pakistan, and which two of these countries have nuclear weapons.

Noone needs special advisors or security briefings to get a decent handle on where the world is. Even Fox News is useful, if you can filter out the partisan noise and disinformation. We have had smart presidents before. Not all of them worked out (Nixon may have been one of the smartest).

Noone expects the President of the US to have PhD or Masters degrees in every discipline, but we do expect them to have enough to know when their advisors are bullshitting them. Reagan was not a very smart president, he was a gifted actor and spokesperson, but he picked good people. Clinton was a little smarter and better educated, and he also picked good people (at least when it came to FEMA).

Bush II was a disaster. He chose loyalty over competence and his minions quickly found out how hard it was to educate their boss, especially when his preconceptions got in the way. An ossified view of the world is not true conservatism, even though it achieves same goals in the way that a flamethrower will achieve the same goal as a candle.

I cannot find an example of Palin ever backstepping. While some may consider this a strength, this implies that either she is perfect or is unwilling to acknowledge her mistakes. I would say that she has the steadfastness of a Samurai warrior, except that in her case the risks are borne by others. Her steadfastness more resembles that of World War I generals, using 19th century tactics in a world that now had machine guns, tanks, and poison gas, ordering full frontal assaults again and again because these were the methods they learned decades ago. The sad fact was that these methods were eventually effective, at a tremendous and unnecessary cost.

This is not a misogynistic attack. There are many competent women in politics. Palin just isn't one of them and I do not think this will change. Like GWB and Reagan, she is charismatic. In my opinion, she will not be an effective leader. She seems unable to open herself to new ideas and does not have intellectual curiosity. I would even give her points if she picked up something from reading Tom Clancy and John Grisham.

Being a president is more about asking the right questions than having the right answers. I do not believe that Ms. Palin has experience in this and it's too late to teach an old dog new tricks and expect it to win a blue ribbon.

[Griff]

Read UT's article.

It sounds like they're being co-opted as a base for Palin inside the GOP. It seems reasonable when I consider the baggers I've bumped into are really just disgruntled Republicans no matter how they protest their independence. Take those guys out of the mix and suppress Democratic votes and you've got an election win. Obama can beat them with solid centrist stuff like getting the budget under control, some actual financial reform, and throwing some red meat to the public by humiliating some bailout recipients.

Originally Posted by DanaC

You know your problem Sam? You just aren't committed enough to the cause of freedom. You keep on supporting the anti-democrats against solid freedom fighters like Palin.

But is she "manly" enough?