Newt Gingrich in Fort Myers, Florida, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012
“Somebody in the Newt camp tossed an ‘internal memo’ over the fence to Matt Lewis. Long story short, they’re lowering expectations in Florida. And as I pointed out in my American Spectator column, second place in Florida is worthless — it’s winner-take-all. Team Gingrich just blew through about $2 million for nothing.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, Jan. 30
In a comment on Smitty’s post this morning, Pagan Temple begins his complaint with these two hypothetical regrets:
“If Palin hadn’t been run out of the race, or if conservatives could have gotten behind Bachmann . . .”
Thus our friend expresses a common misunderstanding about politics, namely that candidates are not responsible for their own fates.
First, ask yourself, “By whom was Palin ‘run out of the race’?”
She decided herself not to run, and it seems to have been a sort of slow-motion process. While I hate to imply that I have any special kind of inside information (which displeases Governor Palin and her aides), my first inquiries into Palin’s 2012 intentions led me to the belief that she was in wait-and-see mode.
One reason I jumped on the Cain Train early was that I felt we needed a populist outsider to carry the Tea Party momentum from the 2010 mid-term campaign into 2012. Cain’s people were flashing the green light, while we were seeing mixed signals from Wasilla, so I got on board with Herman and figured that if Governor Palin decided to get in later, nobody would blame me for any choice I made between the two. But I was pretty sure I’d have a few months before I had to worry about such a choice, because there were many reasons to suspect that Palin would be in wait-and-see mode for a while.
As the Republican field took shape, trying to read the tea leaves as to Team Sarah’s plans became quite a widespread hobby amongst political observers. By the time I went to Iowa for the run-up to the Ames straw poll, it seemed obvious to me that she’d decided to sit this one out. Back in June, Palin had made a point of praising Rick Perry, whom she had endorsed in his 2010 primary against Kay Bailey Hutchison, and by August, he was getting ready to make his big entrance into the campaign. If Palin really liked Perry, it didn’t make sense to think she would jump into the GOP race against him.
That’s one reason I was so skeptical when Peter Singleton and Michelle McCormick insisted on buying me lunch in Des Moines and telling me about their volunteer Iowa for Palin efforts. (See my Aug. 22 American Spectator column, “Still Waiting for Sarah.”) Everybody became frustrated as the will-she-or-won’t-she speculation dragged on, all the way into October, and I developed a private theory about why Palin dragged her feet so long.
Who was advising her? Who had her ear? That was a question I decided to research, and thus I came to focus on Michael Glassner, who had been hired in February 2011 as chief of staff to SarahPAC:
It now falls on the shoulders of Glassner, a veteran of Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and a long-time aide to former Sen. Bob Dole, to professionalize Team Palin.
“Governor Palin’s done incredibly well flying by the seat of her pants,” said Glassner’s friend Scott Reed, a former presidential campaign manager for Sen. Bob Dole. “But Michael will be trying to get a semblance of a structure in place so they can operate better and service her better.”
Whoa. I’d never heard of Michael Glassner, but I have long regarded Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign as one of the most cynical swindles in American political history, a bogus GOP Establishment con job of epic proportions, the perfect model of how Republican operatives can get rich by running a losing campaign.
For a natural-born populist like Sarah Palin to get herself mixed up with someone so closely associated with the Great Fraud of ’96 was, to my mind, a telltale clue about why Governor Palin had dragged her feet so long. My private theory was that Glassner had somehow been planted in the Palin camp in order to make sure she stayed on the sidelines in 2012.
That sounds like a crazy paranoid conspiracy theory, I know. But the GOP Establishment is a many-tentacled creature, and I’ve observed its habits long enough at close range that I’m always deeply suspicious when I see things happening in exactly such a way as to favor the Establishment.
While I don’t want to make any accusations, if it were to be revealed that Michael Glassner spent the past year exchanging e-mails and phone calls with people close to Romney’s campaign, I wouldn’t be surprised.
And you know who’s “close to Romney’s campaign”? John McCain.
Just sayin’ . . .
Friends of “Mike the Mole” Glassner may be outraged at these baseless insinuations, and admirers of Sarah Palin will angrily deny that she would be so foolish as to trust someone who might be a spy for her enemies, but I’m just telling you the kind of gut-hunch suspicions that crossed my mind during those agonizing weeks from August to October when all of Palin’s fans were hoping she’d get into the race. Whether or not my private theory was paranoid (and because it seemed so crazy, I only half-believed it myself) it was nonetheless obvious that if she had this Dole guy as her top adviser, she wasn’t running.
So we return to Pagan Temple’s complaint about Palin being “run out of the race.” Ultimately, this was her own decision. If Sarah Palin had been determined to run in 2012, nothing — not even the influence of a highly-placed undercover agent of the GOP Establishment — could have stopped her from running. If anyone is disappointed that Palin didn’t get in, they need to address their complaints to the Governor herself, rather than scapegoating Palin’s critics and opponents.
OK, so what about Pagan Temple’s regretful remark, “if conservatives could have gotten behind Bachmann”? Again I say, who is to blame for this? Whose job is it to get conservatives “behind” any candidate? Isn’t it ultimately the job of the candidate to rally conservative support, rather than any duty of conservatives to support any particular candidate?
I like Michele Bachmann. I admire Michele Bachmann. But everybody who knows anything about politics knows that it’s almost impossible for a sitting member of the House of Representatives to run for president. The enormous demands on the time of a congressman (or congresswoman) are simply incompatible with the similarly enormous demands on the time of a presidential candidate.
There is a reason, after all, why the top three finalists for the 2012 GOP nomination are a former governor, a former senator, and a former Speaker of the House. Beyond the requirement that representatives run for re-election every two years, there is also the fact that even a popular and nationally known member of the House like Bachmann is at an automatic disadvantage in comparison to a senator or governor, who necessarily must have experience running a statewide campaign. Until you’ve run a statewide operation, you will have likely have difficulty organizing a national campaign, and so Bachmann began her 2012 race with very long odds against her.
Could I nitpick everything that Bachmann did wrong in her campaign? Sure. Could I point out instances where Bachmann was unfairly mistreated? Sure.
But why bother? The odds against her success were overwhelming, and there is no need to blame conservatives — or blame anyone else, including Bachmann herself — for the failure of Bachmann’s campaign.
Attempting to externalize blame, scapegoating a nameless and amorphous “Them” for our political disappointments is as useless as it is psychologically unhealthy. This is one reason I’ve been so harshly critical of Newt Gingrich in recent weeks.
I never thought Newt had any realistic chance of winning the nomination and, even though it was wrong and unfair for Team Mitt to unload millions of dollars in attack advertising against Gingrich, whose fault was it that Newt couldn’t afford to reply effectively? Gingrich raised more than $12 million in 2011, despite being thrown under the bus in June by his original campaign staff. If he didn’t have enough money to fire back against Romney with a TV ad campaign, maybe Newt should have thought twice before running up a million-dollar account with Tiffany’s and sailing off on an Aegean luxury cruise with his third wife. (“Several advisers pleaded with Mr. Gingrich not to go on the trip, an aide said, but Mrs. Gingrich wanted to go. ‘We have a spouse who controls the schedule,’ said the aide …”)
Yet it was predictable that World-Historical Newt could never accept responsibility for his own screw-ups and when I saw him Fort Myers, Florida, blaming his problems on “money power” and Goldman Sachs — nudge, nudge — I was dismayed without really being surprised.
And I knew Newt was doomed.
The Gingrichites hate me for that, as if I somehow had more to do with Newt’s downfall than did Newt himself, and all I can do is shake my head at their misplaced wrath. It’s a lot easier for Newt’s admirers to hate me than it is for them to re-evaluate their high opinion of His Newtness, because such a re-evaluation would require them to consider the possibility that I was right and they were wrong.
Pagan Temple is filled with hindsight regrets about 2012, as are nearly all conservatives, and if it makes you feel better, go ahead and blame me.
Mea culpa.
If I’m right, and you still think I’m wrong, then obviously the blame is all mine, for having failed to persuade you. Remember: I’m a professional journalist who has been in this racket more than a quarter-century. It would be utter folly if, having exerted all my skill in making an argument, I were to blame you for not agreeing with me.
Either I’m wrong (a hypothetical proposition I offer only for the sake of argument) or else, being right, I have proven an unworthy advocate for my cause.
The only other possibility is that people who disagree with me are just ignorant assholes, a possibility that must be ruled out automatically, considering how often Mrs. Other McCain disagrees with me.
Therefore, if I can be of no other service to the conservative cause, I will cheerfully accept the role of Universal Scapegoat.
Also: If Tabitha Hale gets a big pimple on her nose? My fault.
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!
I saw her then and see her now as the best Conservative for the office.
AND I also blame that lame excuse for quitting as poo
I wonder how much Ed Rollins wanted Bachmann to succeed?
Go take a gander at
http://www.politijim.com/
Everything is a conspiracy to a conspiracy nut.
Palin didn’t run because her reputation had been savaged by the press ever since being named VP nominee, and she was not about to put Willow and Piper through what Bristol had to go through. She may not ever run but if she does it will after the girls have finished high school.
It’s really that simple. No cloak and dagger, no midnight sacrifices on the altar of Bilderberger.
It’s easy for a disturbed mind to find conspiracies in industries like GOP politics, where everyone knows almost everyone else and either worked for them or knows someone who does. It makes for a boring game of Three Degrees of Separation for the sane, but feeds the nutters with IV high-fructose corn syrup and meth.
Occam’s Razor: the more complex the proposition, the more likely it is flawed. Nearly everything happens for simple reasons, although sometimes they are not obvious. But if you stare at the clouds long enough, you will see many images. This is what happens to the conspiracy nut, except that he believes what he sees is real.
But it’s clouds’ illusions you recall, you really don’t know clouds at all.
Keep it up, and if you hurry, the TOPP.co domain is still available for when you change the blog to The Other Prison Planet.
Re: Sarah – We wuz cheated. Now we’re stuck, and the grim task of getting someone elected begins. The joy and inspiration isn’t there. Would have been. Could have been. And should have been. Sad for us.
I have to think the infantile tantrums of certain, er, ace bloggers and the self-serving opportunism of others like Daily Caller with their disgusting and pointless Tyson video had a lot to do with her decision. She had to know she would never get mainstream media support and we did our level best to convince her she couldn’t rely on us.
It’s beyond sad. When I attended the big teaparty in Searchlight, Nevada, people were backed up clearly to the freeway interchange, miles, trying to get in. It was like Woodstock for people who worked for a livi. ngWhen I climbed to the top of the huge mound of mine tailings behind the site, people were driving thirty miles across the freaking desert on ATV’s and jeeps and trucks to get there.
Nobody has ever driven thirty miles across a desert for Mitt Romney and nobody ever will — but that kind of enthusiasm from the base doesn’t mean a damn next to an invite to a bipartisan Georgetown wine tasting to the RNC and the DC GOP.
Newt’s followers make plenty of angry noise, but funny thing about the angry shouters, when the rubber meets the electoral road, shouting’s all they’ve got. They don’t turn out to walk the precincts, they don’t turn out to work the phones. They don’t have the patience or the temperament.
Adjoran, I have at times been part of various minor conspiracies, right-wing and otherwise. It would not violate Occam’s Razor to suggest that if a GOP Establishment type got into a key position with Team Sarah, the advice she got from such a person would tend to be advice that worked to the benefit of the GOP Establishment.
When I voiced suspicion about Glassman’s influence to people perhaps more informed than me, they dismissed my concerns as baseless, assuring me that Glassman is just an operational manager, not someone who offers strategic advice to Palin. And they’re almost certainly right about that. Still, the fact that someone from the Dole ’96 campaign was in a high position at Team Sarah struck me as a sign that she wasn’t running.
I’m not mad, just exasperated. We should adopt the symbol of a chicken with its head cut off, flailing around helplessly and hopelessly during its final minute or two. Because that’s what we’ve been acting like, myself included. We haven’t been able to stick to one person, Bachmann or otherwise. We went to Perry, to Cain, to Gingrich, to Santorum, back to Gingrich, then back to Santorum, all with every blow of every little ill wind, tearing into each other in the process of doing so. And yet we wonder why Mitt Romney keeps and continues to build on a commanding lead.
Yet where Bachmann’s missteps were notable, they were also relatively minor in comparison to these others. Perry obviously stepped into the fray totally unprepared, as he and his closest advisers must have known he was. Cain and his women problems, which he denied and obfuscated to such a ridiculous extent it became irresistible comedy fodder, including with me. Of Gingrich, well, nothing much need be said. And now Santorum, a gaffe a minute. Or were they gaffes, or just his general attitude about certain things and people? I won’t go into them again, I’ve said my piece. And if I’m wrong, and he does somehow manage to pull it out, I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong and get behind him. But I think a realistic assessment would declare that’s highly unlikely to happen.
So that leaves two choices. Get behind Mitt, or sit it out until 2016. And I just can’t do that. There’s just too much at stake when it comes to judicial nominations, which can change the entire character and nature of the country for decades to come.
That’s why I’m swallowing my pride and reluctance and getting behind him. I know many here don’t want to think about that, but then again, you don’t want to face the reality that Santorum has destroyed his chances, or at least that’s the way it seems, with his many intemperate remarks. Mitt’s money didn’t do that to him. He did that to him.
So that’s my take on it. Do what you want, but the stark reality is, Mitt will be our nominee.
And really, is that really so fucking terrible? What are we anyway, that we are suddenly so desperate for somebody to fill the void with a cult of personality, including Palin? Aren’t we supposed to be better than that? Aren’t we supposed to be the ones who give our consent to be governed, and our elected officials, aren’t they supposed to be our public servants, loyal only to the constitution.
Mitt is certainly as capable as anyone. We just need to hold his feet to the fire. That’s what we’re supposed to do, with him or with anybody we elect, including Palin. Let’s leave the cult of personality to the god damn Democrats. I’m ready to move on.
Yes, that would be so terrible. If Mitt becomes President and DOESN’T repeal O-Care, DOESN’T cut the size and reach of the federal government, DOESN’T appoint conservative or constructionist judges to the bench — and forget his speeches, there’s nothing in his past deeds that suggests he WILL — all those problems will become the GOP’s and our fault.
That’s what killed the GOP in CA. They spent so many years going along to get along, protecting their own little rice bowls in their imagined quid pro quo, the when their ‘colleagues’ in the Democratic Party turned on them in 2006 and 2010, they had nothing to say to defend themselves with. Then DC GOP saddled us with the only two women on earth who could not beat Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer.
Again, that’s going around your ass to get to your elbow. The simple explanation is she didn’t want to subject the young ladies to the kind of crap she and Bristol had to put up with.
Do you think if she had known how they would attack her family she would have accepted McCain’s offer?
“But the GOP Establishment is a many tentacled creature…”
My regret this primary: that they weren’t called out earlier.
Without a miracle, Conservatives are going to have to go to the mat for a very slimy Republican power bloc. Not everyone will.
I don’t disagree with your conclusions – “IF” is the biggest word in the English language, though.
The President cannot “repeal” ObamaCare or cut government spending on his own. Those are areas for Congress. Judicial appointments are all on the Executive: while the Senate confirms, they can’t confirm anyone he doesn’t suggest originally.
Senators do have some influence over who is nominated from their states – informally, but traditionally. So as with everything else, we will get more conservative results by electing more conservatives to Congress.
It is always easier for an unemployed politician to run for office than it is one that has a full-time job already. Mitt Romney is doing well because he spent the last few years running for President, not running a state, or being engaged with the Tea Parties, or writing a book, or working on Congress. It’s that simple.
Adjoran needs a crash course on the History of political espionage ~ which is to say a History of Politics. There happened to be a reason why the Founders so distrusted those who pursued political power. But how ignorance is such bliss.
Yes, that would be so terrible.
Then you’d better get cracking and convince the voters of California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Texas and Wisconsin among others to vote for Santorum. Good luck with that. You might at least have a shot at Texas, but I wouldn’t bet good money on it, or for that matter Pennsylvania either.
You mean like every evangelical who doesn’t vote for a certain canidate is obviously doing so out of religious bigotry?
I’m not in favor of scapegoating Governor Palin’s critics and opponents. Taking them out into the dessert in a large burlap bag stuck in my trunk, dumping them out, and staking them down over a fire ant nest seems much more appropos than scapegoating.It would not surprise me if the many-tentacled theory is correct.And PT, I’m thinking of leaving the GOP. If serious candidates like Bachmann, and Santorum, and Palin can’t make it, then why am I bothering? I’m just being used by half-wits who flatter themsleves on their brilliance.
RSM’s explanation and Adjoran’s are not mutually exclusive.
This was one of the first serious challenges to the Establishment’s authority, and their money, dirty-dealing, scumtastic politics, and to be fair superior organization may have won.
But what they win is a scorched patch of dirt.
Its like the Popes who didn’t want to admit that indulgences were a bad idea, and instead of talking to Martin Luther tried to wax him.
Romney not even trying to reach out to Tea Party conservatives after the stimulus fiasco and the run up to Obamacare, will hurt him with us populists. Palin didn’t have the contacts and ground game setup, like Mr. Romneycare does, but she definitely had the base support to keep up with him. But of coarse we’ll never know now. Bummer.
It’s better to stay and elect good people to office. It doesn’t have to be limited to President. Any national office is worth the fight. But don’t stop there either. People at the state level, even people in your local country and city offices, all contribute something. That’s how you do it, anything worthwhile has to be built from the ground up. That’s how you change things, and yes, it takes time and even more effort. Otherwise you’re just throwing your vote away (assuming you still plan to vote at all) on some meaningless protest vote that nobody will know anything about two years down the road.
Have patience… Rick’s gaffes are really not that bad…
Who really believes that he doesn’t care about the unemployed? His words and actions demonstrate that he will do everything he can to get people back to work… and American factories competing again. After all, Romney was quoted as saying that he doesn’t care about the poor… (Who really believes that kind of nonsense?)
Who really believes that Santorum would rather have Obama as our President than Mitt Romney? He’s said that he will do everything he can to prevent Obama from being elected… and will stand behind the eventual Republican candidate… (even willing to take the VP job… if Romney was so inclined…).
Who really believes that as President he would try to force women to stop using contraceptives? His personal beliefs with regards to whether or not contraceptives are right or wrong are just that… “his personal beliefs”.
What major Santorum gaffe has any real credibilty? (Besides, his wife, Karen, will be helping him to choose his words more carefully from hear out.)
As long as Rick has the slightest chance in this race… and is willing to fight the fight… true conservatives should give him their full support. After all, he is the only clearly contrasting conservative candidate… and our best hope to defeat Obama.
He says what he believes… he stands up for what he believes. He is honest to a fault… but at least he’s honest!
I’ve been a fan of the Atlanta Braves through thick and thin… (mostly thin…) hoping for a world championship year… and in 1995 they finally won the World Series… (and I’m still hoping that they will do it again some day…).
Don’t give up…and don’t give in… especially without a fight. This is much more important than baseball!
A part of me wishes you were right. For all the vitriol I’ve spewed at him over the last week or so, I’d still rather have him than Romney. I just don’t think its going to happen.
And what about this business of him at this event a few years back saying Protestant Christians who practice birth control are not true Christians.
That probably cost him a lot of votes in Ohio, and probably swung that primary in Romney’s favor. He needs to address shit like this in a concise, firm way. And yes, if that’s what it would take, he should apologize. Not all Christians are conservatives, and not all moderate Christians who practice birth control are leftist progressive Democrats. Many of them are Republican, and that hurt him big time, in my opinion.
Then there’s the crap he said about Zimmermann. Yes, Romney said something similar, but the problem is people expect that from him. Nobody expects that from a guy who paints himself as a rock-solid conservative. It makes you wonder.
Most of the other stuff he said I can overlook, but in general, he does come off as petulant. I’ve never seen anybody who can come off as phony and insincere one minute and in the next can come across as an angry, whiny jerk, but somehow he manages to do just that.
Oh and by the way “sometimes you have to take one for the team”? Really? Couldn’t have have come up with a better answer than that for his days in the Senate? Surely he should have known a question about this was coming. But that was the best thing he could come up with? Yet he attacks Newt and Mitt for not being true conservatives? Come on.
I agree, Rose, but some of our frustration must be aimed at Mrs. Palin. She decided to spare her younger children what Bristol Palin went through – and that is understandable – but what if The Founders had thought the same way? What if John Adams had stayed practicing law and tending his farm? What if George Washington had remained a country squire? She was being asked to put her life, her fortune, and her sacred honor on the line and she said ‘no’. I am not angry, but quite disappointed.
Richard, Adj, and the others: How about this…
If the Nominee is Mitt, we vote for him and urge others to do so; we work to get GOP majorities in both houses of the Congress; and then we leave the GOP, do everything we can to make it go the way of the Whigs, and form a new party. It took about eight years for the Whigs to fade away. During the last half of that time the Republican Party rose.
Just an idea off the top of my head and I sit hear trying not to pour what would be the first of many bourbons.
WOLVERINES!
Well put, except it must be stated for the record that I have never been nor ever will be a Populist.
I hear you. I am disappointed, but my anger is directed at the ‘Republican establishment’ who repeatedly stated that she was unelectable, and said ‘but she can serve as a cheerleader.’ They looked at her Soros-generated negatives and said they were insurmountable. I don’t agree that they were, but I am no expert.
I was inspired in the early days of this campaign, also, by the notion that we had a wide variety of interesting candidates to choose from, that it wasn’t a ‘it’s this guy’s turn’ kind of election for the GOP – and we had some real innovative thinkers, and passionate committed conservative candidates. It’s not that I don’t like Mitt Romney, and I realize we must learn to love him, but I am not sure he has what it takes to stem the tide, stop the orgs, restore sanity and pride… but he will stop the bleeding. The most we can hope for, I guess.
Statistically impossible for Newt, I know, but I like his ideas, his knowledge of the system, his ability to stand up and say NO, and direct the argument right straight to the core of the matter… sigh.
Stacy, thanks – a nice trip down Memory Lane – along the way we shared the same front-runners. Meanwhile, in November I will vote for ABO.
Different times Bob. During those days no one would have considered abusing a politicians child or spouse, or any of their family, other than those also involved in public life. Oh I’m sure there are those that would have or would have liked to have done so, but they knew the minute they did so, the vast majority of ladies and gentlemen of that era would have made them pariahs, social outcasts. Now nobody gives enough of a shit to do much but talk about it for a few days, and to many if not most people, such animals are defended, and even lauded.
I don’t blame Palin one bit for her decision. Put the blame squarely where it belongs, on the jackass animals that populate our modern society.
I’m going to agree with Rose, and add one more thing… I think Palin MIGHT have run, had there been one INKLING of any kind of support from the GOP ‘Establishment’ while she was facing the anklebiters in 2009 in AK, recriminations for Tuscon, crap from such people as Letterman.
But no. They critiqued her responses, they agreed with the message, in general, but not her tone, heavens no.
I think they made it pretty clear that she’d be, again, at the point of the spear, with nothing behind her but political animals concerned more with defending their place at the press club dinner than with defending their candidate.
Add to that the truly INSANE hatred of her, not even confined to leftists, and yeah, why put the girls through that again.
I don’t like it, but I guess I understand it.
Of course, this is all MHO, as they say…
Yeah, I should have put “the populists”. I painted too broad a picture. ; )
Actually, the President can implement an XO instructing that funding be frozen for Ocare, AKAIK. He can also issue a Presidential finding that Ocare is prima facie unconstitutional, unafforadable, not in the best interest of the country and bogarts the joint at the coolest parties, and refuse to enforce it.
I am supporting Senate and House conservatives now and will do so more once the convention is over.
I simply do not trust Romney to govern enough, and have nothing but contempt for the negative campaign by proxy the candyass has run, to say I would be able to tar myself with his brush and vote for him. As things stand, I honestly do not know if I could bring myself to do it.
I agree… Rick will need to be prepared with concise, genuinely honest answers for where he has stumbled… admitting where he has was wrong… and mending some fences. But nothing he has said is so bad that it is insurmountable or game-changing. He cussed out a reporter the other day out of frustration… and I’m sure he regrets losing his temper… but we all know that he is just human… and as such will make mistakes. Trying to live a Christ-like life is a full time job… and requires a lot of asking for forgiveness. I see Rick as the genuine article… someone that is not afraid to admit his mistakes. Warts and all… he’s our best man.
Andrew Jackson’s wife was insulted by a reporter. The reporter apologized, but then repeated the insult the week later. Jackson duelled him, and the reporter shot first. Custom of the day was to deliberately miss in such a case when the other had already missed….Jackson gunned him down and killed him.
Look, Mitt is obviously inadequate.,At least half of the conservative challengers were clearly better (from a neutral perspective. From a conservative perspective, all were.)
And we’ve just been off some clear lessons on what to do and what not to do in elections.
If the RINOs don’t understand now, they never will. If we don’t have the power now, we won’t.Its looking like trying to trigger some sort of party collapse is the right thing to do. We had the same issue before with Whigs serving as RINOS, and we got through it.One thing that worries me is that the last time, in order to get through th eproblems created by gutless businessmen, we had to suffer a civil war. If the past is prologue, we might have to do that again.=================One of Santorum’s problems is that when jerks and idiots attack him, he fights back. So, with his attacks on Fox and what not.
And his attacks on Libertarians. PT, the Libertarians are the chihuahuas to the RINOS. Oh, a libertarian hates him some RINO, but when it comes down to choosing a Conservative or a RINO, he ends up choosing the RINO. Which goes back to my point….if in order to reform the GOP, you not only have to defeat the RINOS but the Libertarians as well, then that is a hill too tall.
Time for a new party, methinks.
I’m with Thomas. And Stacy. You seem like a pretty smart guy Pagan, but you may have a little something in common with our man Rick when it comes to the perception of whine & petulance. Truthfully, I’m willing to live with a candidates personality faults so long as they’re out on the campaign, talking and listening to real human beings in a way that is genuine and honest. In any case, we’re living in an age when the only sure way to avoid getting video smacked by the media is to become more of a robot than a human, as we see with your boy Mitt.
Is it too much to ask that the next time any of our candidates get the “treatment”, we take a few seconds to question the relevance, the timing, the motivations involved, and then ask ourselves what our reaction shud be. Attempts at manipulation disgust me and they shud disgust you Pagan. You’ve allowed yourself to be played.
I could give a crap less what he says to a reporter, but I could also care less about the reporter asking the question. As far as I’m concerned that’s a non-issue from both ends.
You all need to come to grips with the reality that Mitt is going to be the nominee. Just look at the primaries that are coming up, look at the delegate count thus far, and put two and two together. And then ask yourself, why are more and more conservatives accepting the reality of Mitt’s impending nomination, and in some cases even voting for him and coming out in open support of him.
A hint-I don’t live in Ohio, so mine wasn’t one of the votes that put Mitt in a solid first place finish there. Why do you think that happened in a state that neighbors Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania, and which is demographically, culturally, and economically identical to it?
Nobody else has addressed this issue any time I’ve raised it? Would you like to take a stab at it?
So the Libertarians are chihuahuas and the only way the conservatives can make any headway is by ditching them and the RINOs. And then what? Where do you go from there? You guys still wouldn’t be able to agree on a candidate, so what difference will it make?
Face it, the reason you’ve failed to get your man nominated this year is because you haven’t had a man, you’ve had two or three. Cain, Perry, Gingrich, Santorum. The lack of focus and discipline is what’s killing you, not the fact that there are other factions in the party that don’t agree with you on everything.
You have to sell conservative principles, in general before you can be effective. But you’ll have to do that outside of the GOP every bit as much as inside of it, only then you’ve got even more of an uphill battle.
The problem is not with the politicians. It is with the blasted electorate. Large percentages of your countrymen are the problem. Many vote for people who promise them goodies paid for by others for that reason only. Many also have terrible ideas about what is good for the society or the economy or the government’s role therein. Broken windows everywhere (see Bastiat’s superb parable:
http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html ). Benefits (usually to producers and friends (or hoped for friends) of the current government) are concentrated while costs are distributed (and borne by taxpayers and consumers) and thus it is unlikely the trends will change for the better until the ship of our state hits the shoals. As the brokest nation in history, it might be predicted that the wreck will be a monetary phenomenon similar to those befalling other broke nations coming before.
Others want the government to shape the culture and society, when it is these institutions which shape the government, or should. These institutions are in severe distress it seems due to the misallocations of capital and ill-advised social engineering driven by government policies and protections.
Hopeless. But not serious.
Well, I suppose we could call it “maneuvered out” instead of “run out”. And we could call it “a large number of political folks independently caring more about themselves and their buddies than about the good of the party” instead of “a conspiracy”. Those strike me as distinctions without a difference.
Palin allowed herself to be outmaneuvered by the Romney people. A lot of folks don’t realize that while Palin is very shrewd and extremely intelligent, this is still her first time around the block in a Presidential. She was basically beaten like a rented mule by the much more experienced Romney team, who outmaneuvered her by getting some Whisperers to get Perry into the race.
Had Palin got in in June when Romney got in, she would have been able to forestall the Establishment Campaign against her, which consisted of blackballing state GOP people against helping her out and having Marco’s people move Florida up (as Stacy reported last Fall). Palin only has herself to blame for not quite getting the scope of the GOP conspiracy to stop her, and yes, for hiring Glassner if he was part of the problem.
Perhaps a top to bottom purge over at Sarah PAC is necessary of any former RINO’s. Palin should be hiring Reagan people only.
This election is not about Democrat versus Republican. It is about the political class verses the country class. Etch-a-sketch is a leftist. I am against voting for a leftist whether they have a D or an R after their name.
A vote for etch-a-sketch in the primary is a vote for Obama in the general. Etch-a-sketch will not win the states he won in the primary in the general, Obama will.
Insanity is having the same behavior and expecting s different outcome. The GOPe will never allow another conservative candidate to win the nomination. They are still smarting from their loss in 1980. Etch-a-sketch is GHW Bush. I didn’t vote for the leftist then and I won’t vote for him now. I don’t want Supremes like justice Souter who will vote with the leftists for the next 50 years.
You go and vote for etch-a-sketch that is your right. However, not only am I not voting for etch-a-sketch. I refuse to vote for career politician Connie Mack for senator and I refuse to vote for Adam Hasner who co-sponsored Gore-bull warming legislation in Florida. My congressman was Lt. Col. Allen West and the corrupt Bush machine decided to screw everyone in Florida 22 because we had the temerity to elect a great conservative voice.
Screw the GOP!
Sarah Palin couldn’t take the heat in Anchorage. She quit. What made any of you think that she wanted to face the mad dogs of the MSM on a national stage.
Really, people.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone more effective at energizing conservative audiences than Sarah Palin. But she isn’t going to win a presidential nomination without getting back into public office and serving a complete term.
So we should bring back duelling, by God I like it!
Good plan, but I fear it’s too late.
So you are saying Palin was suckered into hiring this guy? And that – even though he was supposedly doing organizational work – she began relying on him for strategic advice?
“Political espionage” goes on, of course – how does it relate to this case, specifically?
Who said that?