Republican pundits open fire on Sarah Palin

Their harsh views conflict with those of grass-roots GOP voters, revealing a serious split within the party.

Since announcing her resignation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pummeled by critics who have called her incoherent, a quitter, a joke and a "political train wreck." And those were fellow Republicans talking.

Palin has been a polarizing figure from the moment she stepped off the tundra into the bright lights last summer as John McCain's surprise vice presidential running mate. Some of that hostility could be expected, given the hyper-partisanship of today's politics.

What is remarkable is the contempt Palin has engendered within her own party and the fact that so many of her GOP detractors are willing, even eager, to express it publicly -- even with Palin an early front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Some admit their preference that she stay in Alaska and forget about any national ambitions.

"I am of the strong opinion that, at present day, she is not ready to be the leading voice of the GOP," said Todd Harris, a party strategist who likened Palin to the hopelessly dated "Miami Vice" -- something once cool that people regard years later with puzzlement and laughter. "It's not even that she hasn't paid her dues. I personally don't think she's ready to be commander in chief."

Others suggest a delayed response to last year's shaky campaign performance, now that the race is over and Republicans feel free to speak their minds.

"I can't tell you one thing she brought to the ticket," said Stuart K. Spencer, who has been advising GOP candidates for more than 40 years. "McCain wanted to shock and surprise people, and he did -- in a bad way."

It is more than cruel sport, this picking apart of Alaska's departing chief executive. The sniping reflects a serious split within the Republican Party between its professional ranks and some of its most ardent followers, which threatens not only to undermine Palin's White House ambitions -- if, indeed, she harbors them -- but to complicate the party's search for a way back to power in Washington.

Consider a USA Today/Gallup poll released last week. About 7 in 10 Republicans said they would be likely to vote for Palin if she ran for president. Other surveys place Palin in a statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, the former governors of Massachusetts and Arkansas, respectively, who sought the White House in 2008 and give every indication that they will try again in 2012.

Although any presidential poll taken this far out has to be taken with a sea's worth of salt, that is not the reason so many Republican strategists and party insiders dismiss Palin.

"People at the grass roots see a charismatic personality who is popular with other people at the grass roots. But their horizon only goes so far as people who think like them," said Mike Murphy. The veteran GOP ad man eviscerated Palin -- a "political train wreck," "an awful choice" for vice president, her resignation an "astonishing self-immolation" -- in a column published Thursday in the New York Daily News.

"Professional operatives keep their eye on a broader horizon and understand, without independents and swing voters, she can't win," Murphy said. "She's a stone-cold loser in a general election."

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-palin-gop13-2009jul13,0,2642211.story

Poor Republicans- between gate radio, Fox "news} and Palin- they made a deal with the devil- and there's no going back....

'Dumbya' Bush. She is just like him but more cunning.

Dumbya was helped by a thriving economy after Clinton. Palin will be helped if the economy doesn't turn around.

There is a viable populist movement out there that seems to be bolstered by disgruntled Reps and Dems tired of the corporate establishment.

The scary this is that this particular brand of populism that Palin seems to be appealing to is laced with racist, anti-American, anti-immigrant, homophobic sentiment.

Don't blame McCain. It was Bill Kristol and the neocons who forced Palin on McCain. Now we have to deal with her. She's not going away and she won't for a very long time.

For both parties...but she is no boooshie. First of all, boooshie was all but annointed by the party hierarchy...they threw nearly a billion dollars at him and begged him to run. You won't see that happening with Mooselini. Next, few really knew boooosh. While many of us on this side of the fence never mistook him for being the empty suit he was/is, Bible Spice went from red hot to ice cold in a matter of two months with moderates and independents. With boooshie, the more you "got to know him", the more you wanted a beer with him, the more people got to know Palin, the further down her poll numbers went. Lastly, Barak Obama is NOT Bill Clinton...or at least so far. 8 years of non-stop pummeling by a very energized and semi-credible right wing hate machine created "Clinton fatique" that played in their favor. And remember, booooshie didn't win in 2000...he got close. The Rove game was to get 100% of his base with over 50% of the independents...and even that wasn't enough. Mooselini doesn't have that kind of organization and I do see her ever having one. All the people she's alienated are the big party power brokers...they'll get behind someone else before they let her have another shot. She had her chance and her first impression to the majority of the electorate wasn't just bad it was a major reason McCain lost...she'd have to totally reinvent herself as a moderate and she does that at the peril of alienating her flying monkey base.

:rofl:

An apt description.

Unfortunately, we will be dealing with Palin and her ilk for a while to come. Abject stupidity doesn't disappear over night.

"You cain't fix stupid!"

I don't think you were clear on your feelings. LOL

(From a Daily kos post - http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/7/12/203410/174/47#c47 )



It is fantastic - and reminded me why I liked all the children's CDs he did that we played every car trip a decade ago, when our kids were younger. He is Harry Chapin's brother.

:+

And she turns them off. I think the big party gurus are worried she will lose in the General Election.

..that republicons are stupid.

A palin commentator on an Alaskan blog was going through some issues of palin's and he said "she's crazy..she's crazy like a rabid beaver!"!

He's pretty funny if you want to see the video it's through this link in a post by Blue In AK..as she says in her post..it's the last video in the blog..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8524343#8524838