The GOP’s Dark Horse Candidate

The GOP’s Dark Horse Candidate
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

In the interest of full disclosure, allow me to admit, right up front, that I LIKE Sarah Palin. I think she is a grand lady. She is gorgeous, talented, highly intelligent, a fiery orator, a great motivator, a heck of a fundraiser, and, apparently, a good wife and mother. She is, in my estimation, all those things, and yet, I am not convinced she can defeat Obama in a head-on campaign for President of the United States.

If I had any advice to offer to Mrs. Palin, I would urge her to seek a US Senate seat, or a seat in the US House of Representatives, FIRST, before tossing her hat into the ring for President. But, hey, I’m just an ole country boy in the swamps of North Carolina. What do I know?

Well, I know the GOP will be in trouble if any of the would-be candidates we already know capture the nomination.

See, the thing about conservatives that the establishment republicans do not understand, just do NOT GET, is our determination to vote for a conservative candidate of OUR choosing. That is to say: a CONSERVATIVE candidate.

The GOP continues to run out middle of the road candidates (so-called Moderates) and they expect conservative republicans to vote for them. And we don’t. For evidence, I refer you to the 2008 Presidential election. WE told the RNC that McCain would not get the conservative vote, even with Obama as the opposition.

Apparently they did not believe us, and McCain went on to lose… big. Conservatives either wrote in a name on the ballot, or stayed home on Election Day. Personally, I wrote in a name rather than stay home, or vote for McCain.

Of course, that is past history. However, as we all know history repeats itself. Frankly, I expect history to repeat itself in November of 2012. I also expect the GOP to maintain control of the US House and gain control of the US Senate, BUT LOSE THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE.

Honestly, I just do not see a way to win against the Democratic Party machine in the presidential race in 2012. This is where I disagree with Rush Limbaugh. It has been reported that Mr. Limbaugh, for whom I have great respect, has stated that Obama doesn’t have a chance of winning in 2012. I don’t often disagree with Mr. Limbaugh, but on this – I do. I not only believe Obama has a chance -- I believe he WILL win.

That doesn’t mean I am happy about it -- far from it. It grinds on me something awful. But I have to call them as I see them and, unfortunately, that is the way I see the race for President shaping up.

See, I DO believe the Tea Party, and unaligned conservatives, along with a fairly large portion of Independents, WILL support the candidacy of Sarah Palin. Either the GOP will bow to the pressure and Mrs. Palin will wrap up the nomination -- and lose in the election, or the GOP WILL NOT BOW to the pressure from conservatives, place the name of a moderate or liberal republican on the ticket -- and lose the presidential election. Either scenario will be bad for America.

There is already talk in the Mainstream Media about a possible “Dark Horse” candidate from the GOP stables. The Washington Post has an article entitled: “Republicans' 2012 dark horse still has no name.” You may read the entire article (HERE).

In the WaPo article the author, Chris Cillizza, names four possible dark horse GOP candidates. They are: Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania; Mike Pence, former Congressman from Indiana; Scott Brown, The Massachusetts Republican, who became a national star this year when he won a special election to replace the late Democratic Party Senator Edward M. Kennedy; and Marco Rubio, the Florida senator-elect.

Looking at all four of the possible dark horse candidates above, I see only one that has a prayer. That is Mike Pence of Indiana. Pence has some influence with social and fiscal conservatives. Notice – I said SOME.

The one republican I felt had a chance of winning over conservatives, nationally, other than Palin, of course, was Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. However, he has stated, emphatically, he has absolutely no desire to be President of the US … period!

If I am correct, shouldn’t we conservatives concentrate on gaining a veto-proof Congress?

From my viewpoint, we conservatives have a conundrum, of sorts. One might even compare it to the Gordian Knot. Alexander the Great solved that problem by slicing the knot in twain. An acceptable conservative dark horse candidate just might slice through the “GOP Knot” and gain entrance to the Oval Office. But WHO might that dark horse be? Ah. There’s the rub!

J. D. Longstreet

Will/Should Sarah Palin Run For President of the US?

Will She Run? Palin in High-Profile Visit to Iowa

A Commentary by Texas Fred

LINK: http://texasfred.net/archives/7722

DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is on a roll: Her political endorsements have helped propel upstart Republican contenders to victory in recent primaries, her cable TV show makes its debut in November, and now she’s off to Iowa, a state that has made and broken its share of presidential campaigns.

The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate will be the big draw at Friday’s Reagan Dinner in Des Moines, the Iowa Republican Party’s biggest fundraiser, and the question that will be on everyone’s mind is whether she’ll run for president in 2012.

Iowa, home to the nation’s leadoff presidential caucuses, can be tough terrain for celebrity candidates. Those who try to ride their fame to victory in Iowa without organizing a grass-roots campaign often find themselves on the outs.

Take John Glenn. The former astronaut and senator drew huge crowds and intense attention here when he sought the Democratic nomination in 1984 — but he got just 4 percent of the vote.
Full Story Here: Will She Run? Palin in High-Profile Visit to Iowa

Politics, and the choice of a particular candidate, is as much about opinion and likability as it is facts and ability regarding a particular candidate. Sarah Palin has some good points on her side, but she presents a few less than desirable points as well.

Palin is a STAR right now, of that there is no doubt. She can draw a crowd, she can energize a crowd, she can raise a lot of money and without a doubt, her endorsements of candidates have been GOLD in recent elections.

She drives the LEFT crazy!

Palin talks a lot. She has an endless supply of political feel-good sayings. She’s folksy, she’s good looking and she has lots of fans that fawn over her and every word she utters.

Can anyone recall her ever making a statement of substance? One that left no doubt about her being a person of deep thought and great political acumen?

I see a cheerleader when I see Palin. I see someone that could be an outstanding leader for the RNC, a group that is in severe need of a leader. I see Palin as a good handicapper when it comes to picking candidates, and as I said, her endorsements carry a lot of weight.
I don’t see Palin as presidential material.

If she runs, Palin would start with strong appeal among the social and religious conservatives who play a crucial role in Iowa’s Republican politics. But that appeal wouldn’t necessarily last if it’s not backed up by a strong effort to reach out to caucus voters, said Steve Scheffler, head of the Iowa Christian Alliance.

Strong appeal? Yeah, she has strong appeal, sex appeal and rock star appeal.

She plays on her looks as much as anything. She is a cheer leader, not a WORLD LEADER.
Here is where I will likely stir the anger of Palin fans. Sarah Palin is NOT a Conservative. She is, in MY opinion, a Republican opportunist.

I know I will hear all about her loyalty and dedication, but the fact remains, Palin ran as John McCain’s VP. She embraced the McCain campaign, she still supports McCain, a RINO of the 1st order. Conservatives do NOT give their loyalty to a RINO.

I know too that Palin supports Christine O’Donnell, Rep. Nikki Haley, Karen Handel, Arizona, Israel and offshore drilling. I know she shoots guns. I know she can field dress a moose, but her continued support of John McCain gives me great pause regarding her true political thinking and her willingness to toe the GOP line.

And let’s face this one totally indisputable fact: Sarah Palin QUIT her position as Governor of Alaska.

We watched that drama unfold incessantly on the 24/7 news cycle. We were inundated with all Palin, all the time. We still are. We heard all the excuses regarding WHY Palin walked out on Alaska. Those excuses stink. If she was right she should have stayed and fought the accusations against her.

If she couldn’t take the heat in Alaska, why would anyone in their RIGHT mind even remotely believe that she could take the heat of Washington politics and the world stage?

Her favorable ratings have been slipping all year, in recent weeks dropping below 40 percent for the first time, in the latest Associated Press-Gfk poll. Forty percent now have a very unfavorable rating of Palin. But among Republicans, about two-thirds give her positive marks and one-third view her very favorably.

Sarah Palin plays well in a partisan crowd.

Washington won’t be partisan and her folksy little euphemisms won’t run the nation or impress the jobless!

Use Sarah Palin in the method she is best suited for, a fund raising cheer leader.

Consider her for head of the RNC, a place where I believe she would do an outstanding job, but electing her to the White House would expose her for the not so smart Peter Principled rock star she is.

Texas Fred

LINK: http://texasfred.net/archives/7722

Passion over Palin

Passion over Palin
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I have had some reaction to the piece I wrote on Sarah Palin recently -- some good -- some not good. The one thing all comments had, however, was passion. Either the commenter hated her with a passion, or the commenter loved her with a passion. There does not seem to be any middle ground when it comes to Sarah Palin. I am STILL asking why? She has become a polarizing figure.

OK, so maybe I am just thick-headed. Heck, I'll even admit to that. But for the life of me, I cannot see how Ms. Palin, of whom, I had barely heard a word prior to the announcement of her candidacy as McCain's running mate, could come out of the frozen north, still thought of by some as America's frontier, and create so much controversy. THAT was one thing. But AFTER the election, after everyone had gone home, after the party was over, after the lights had been turned out, the bad press just never seemed to stop, or even lessen. Her family problems are the very same problems American families all over the country deal with every day. I am convinced the left made a serious error in judgement by making an issue of the Palin family problems. It created sympathy for the Palins and disgust in conservatives for what was perceived as unwarranted intrusion, by the media, into a family's private affairs.

As far as Alaska politics are concerned... I am a Carolina boy. We know a little something about bare knuckles politics here in Dixie. Take a look at the trouble our former NC governor is facing currently. Then swing your gaze southward to our sister state and the trouble the SC governor is in currently. It gets down and dirty in the Carolinas when politics are involved. So, the political machinations of Alaska's politics, and politicians, made little, if any, impression on me.

As I said in an earlier piece, it DID trouble me that she quit, but, since I have no investment in what Ms. Palin does, or does not do now, or in the future, I did not give it a second thought. It is politics. I moved on.

It seems to me that a neutral observer of the late presidential campaign would have to agree that the "negative" press coverage of Ms. Palin was a bit of "overkill." As a card carrying member of the press for many years, I saw very little subtlety in the way the MSM went after Ms. Palin. It appeared to me to be very nearly a quest to defame her in any way they could so as to render her a neutral threat to their man, Obama, for whom, they were, and are, deeply in the tank.

In the end, it did not seem to matter, one way or the other, for the GOP ticket was doomed from the beginning, long before the voters had heard of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate on John McCain's ticket. For at least two years this old southern boy had been declaring that Senator McCain would never be President of the United States. I am not clairvoyant, I have no crystal ball, and I assure you I am no prophet. What I DO have is knowledge of my fellow southern conservatives.

You see, the day McCain "dissed" the Confederate Battle Flag, any chance he had to garner the bulk of the southern conservative vote was ended. As he had done that just a few years prior to the 2008 campaign, the time he spent campaigning in the south during the 2008 campaign was wasted effort. His status as a "RINO" pretty much slammed the door on any chance he MAY have had.

But THIS is what peaked my interest in Palin. After the election and the Obama win, the Mainstream Media continued their campaign to "Get Palin!" Many southern conservatives, and other conservatives across the land, did not like what they were seeing. (Allow me to add that not ALL conservatives saw it that way. There are a number of conservatives, southern conservatives among them who feel Ms Palin is a phony, to put it bluntly.) It was interpreted by many as an obvious campaign to destroy any credibility Ms. Palin had or might have as a candidate for ANYTHING in the future. Conservatives saw it as sure sign of fear from the left. They quickly became convinced that nothing else could, nor can, account for the zeal of the left in attacking and going after Ms. Palin. What are they afraid of?

The school of thought on that particular question that I tend to lean toward is this: When the political left saw the attraction of conservatives to Ms. Palin, the same conservatives who were supposed to stay home on election day, they panicked. They had to DO something. And they did.

They attacked.

The unrelenting attack on Palin by the left is what has stirred my interest. Had they backed off after the election and stirred clear of Ms. Palin, she would not be nearly as popular today as she is. At least that is my opinion. The cacophony of anti-Palin drum beating, by the left, has drawn the attention of many, many, conservatives who ordinarily would have moved on until the next election campaign or cycle. But the left has kept the attention of conservatives on Palin and drawn many more to the Palin camp as sympathizers.

Now the Republican Party has climbed aboard the "Get Palin" train. Why? The GOP is scared witless that Palin will be the first presidential candidate of the Tea Party in America. If that should happen, she will split the republican electorate, take a slew of votes away from the GOP candidate, and, most likely, insure another victory for the Democrats. However, Palin's possible Tea Party candidacy would suddenly boost the power of those members of the GOP electorate who subscribe to the Tea Party's conservative philosophy. They most certainly would be invited to sit at the table with the high "muckity-mucks" of the GOP and actually have a say in what the GOP does. But, we warn fellow conservatives. This is a power play that will have a high cost. I am convinced it will cost the GOP, and the Tea Party, the White House in 2012.

If the GOP is serious about retaking the Congress and the White House they had better bite the bullet and work with Palin (as bitter a pill as that might be to swallow) and the Tea Party -- not against them. The tide amongst conservative and Independent voters is toward a conservative replacement for the current occupant of the White House and as many current occupants of the House and Senate as possible.

If the GOP goes to war with Palin, the GOP WILL lose... in more ways than one. They will most certainly lose in the Mid-Term elections, this November, and they will absolutely lose their bid for the White House in 2012 -- and they will lose a huge chunk of their electorate who will move over, officially, to the Tea Party. Going after Palin is not an option to be considered by the GOP as tempting as it may seem.

Palin may be a "penny match phenomenon." She may flare up suddenly, producing lots of heat and light, then die down slowly, and eventually go out. I have no way of knowing and I don't want to guess.

Now, here's the thing: If, in the future, Ms. Palin should become a Congressperson, a Senator, Vice-President, or even President, the political left in America will have only to look in a mirror to discover on whom to place the responsibility for her success. At least, that is my opinion.

J. D. Longstreet

Why does Sarah Palin Scare the living Daylights out of the Left?

Why does Sarah Palin Scare the living Daylights out of the Left?
Mainstream Media Nightmare: Sarah Palin
Democrats worry, lose sleep, over Sarah Palin!
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Have you taken a second look at Sarah Palin lately?

Maybe we conservatives should. Hey! I'm JUST SAYING......!

I must tell you that anytime a conservative, candidate or not, strikes fear in the hearts of the Socialists, Marxists, Communists, and Progressives in the Congress, the White House, and the leftist Mainstream Media in America, we conservatives are selling ourselves short -- if we do not sit up and take notice and, at least, try to determine what, about this particular conservative, is driving "those people" mad.

Of course, like so many other conservatives it bothers me , greatly, that she quit the office of governor of the state of Alaska. I cannot, so far, put the feeling that she is a "quitter" to rest. Why did she do it? I wish I knew the real answer to that question. Maybe someday we will. Someday, should the occasion arise for a face to face with Ms. Palin, I intend to ask just that question. Whether it will make a difference, or not, I cannot say. Her answer to that question , I would think, will make, or break, any future national political ambitions she may have.

In the meantime, though, she is selling books like hot cakes and making appearances across the country and drawing record breaking crowds in some cities and towns.

Representatives of the mainstream media are tagging along like bloodhounds sniffing for any mistake, or misstep, or misspoken word that offers even a meager opportunity for them to discredit her further.

Battalions of reporters and investigators are pouring over her book looking for errors or, well, anything that could be construed as less than truthful in their never ending campaign to belittle her, and diminish her standing among conservative and independent voters in America.

Now, here is what is troubling me. I had written Ms. Palin off as another "also ran". A "has been," a failed "wannabe politician" on the national stage. Now, as a result of the left wing's oh, so obvious fear of this little woman, I am forced to take a second look and reevaluate my most recent negative feelings toward her as a possible candidate for something, or other, either in 2010 or 2012.

See, any conservative who can throw the "Fear of God" into the socialist/progressives/communists/democrats in our Congress and the White House compels me to sit up an utter the words: "What the H**l??? And THAT, dear reader, is what Ms. Palin has done.

There is a reason the socialist leaders of America run screaming from the room at the mere mention of Sarah Palin's name. I mean -- she is bright, eloquent, obviously has a "presence" in any room she enters, and to top off the package, she is strikingly beautiful. And she is resilient. She has managed to fend off all the arrows fired at her by the left-leaning media and the left's hit men and hit women and remain poised, with that striking smile, and her continuous profession of faith in a God who will never forsake her in good times or in bad.

So, she can be "folksy." That is NOT A BAD THING IN MY REGION OF THE USA -- the South. Plus, her "folksy" manner of speech is obviously NOT FAKE. That will go a long way toward establishing the honesty factor in her favor.

Having said all the above, Yes, I am taking a second look at Sarah Palin. If for no other reason than because the mainstream media, which is so biased toward the political left, is expressing such overt fear of her.

When the Left fears the Right, conservatives are doing SOMETHING RIGHT! Is that "RIGHT THING" conservatives are obviously doing... Sarah Palin? I DON'T KNOW! But, you can bet -- I am going to try to find out!

J. D. Longstreet