Amazing. No one could have predicted that after Sarah Palin scared away all the moderates and independents in the general election, Republicans in close races wouldn’t want her within a thousand miles of them:
Republicans facing tough elections in 2010 don’t want Sarah Palin campaigning with them.
Though the soon-to-be-former Alaska governor is seen as popular with the conservative grass roots, several Republicans said she’d help them by staying home in Wasilla.
Several of these Republicans hail from districts or states carried in 2008 by President Obama, a frequent target of Palin’s criticism. Republicans must keep these districts and win others where Obama is popular if they are to gain seats next year.
GOP Rep. Lee Terry (Neb.), who squeaked out a victory despite his district’s overwhelming turnout for Obama, said he’d rather have House colleagues campaign for him than Palin.
“There’s others that I would have come in and campaign and most of them would be my colleagues in the House,” Terry said.
Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican from Northern Virginia, which is increasingly becoming Democratic territory, offered caution when asked whether he’d welcome a Palin fundraiser.
“I don’t generally need people from outside my district to do a fundraiser,” Wolf said.
Several other lawmakers indicated a wariness about accepting help from Palin, but did not want to criticize the GOP’s vice presidential candidate from last year. They said Palin could hurt them by firing up Democrats.
Can you imagine how horrified a Republican in a purple district might be at the thought of Palin coming to town? Why not bring the entire freak show- Rush could emcee, Santorum and George Allen could do their greatest hits, Sanford and Ensign could come and talk about family values, then Sarah could bat clean-up and tell 70% of the district that they aren’t real Americans and like the wrong mustard.
And then when the candidate gets killed in the election, Malkin and Red State can write fifty diaries saying that the reason he/she lost was because they were not true conservatives.
I think this has potential.
SiubhanDuinne
Do you think it would work in Michelle Bachman’s district? (Although I guess that’s not purple, so never mind.)
schrodinger's cat
I drove from upstate NY to Maine via Vermont and New Hampshire and drove through Massachusetts on the way back this holiday weekend and I only saw one McCain-Palin bumper sticker. I guess I must have been in fake America. Have Republicans completely written off New England? I can’t imagine any Republican running for election, out here wanting sister Sarah campaigning for them.
Also, I had no internet access but still managed to find out about her crazy resignation, most people were left scratching their heads on that one. What is going on with her, I don’t understand, at all. People who think she is GOP’s great hope for a comeback are delusional.
Cat Lady
What would Palin actually say at an appearance, anyway? What has she actually proposed, outside of some incoherent rambling about the future deficit? Her whole shtick is her personal grudge match against the meanies in the media, and how she didn’t have an abortion with Trig. Pro-lifers are going to stick with the GOP, and the only audience who cares about her petty fights with Letterman et al is our awesome Washington press corps and the wingnut welfare opiners. The potential for disaster is greater too – remember, she’d be writing her own speeches, a surefire recipe for EPIC FAIL.
lovethebomb
Cover of Time magazine baby! It’s all about celebrity capital now. Real politics is hard work when you can’t just sling partisan mud. As much satisfaction as her undesirability with campaigning repubs might bring, it seems apparent that she will continue to provide the right with their greatest joy in life; someone who pisses off liberals. Palin is as Palin does. It doesn’t matter what she says, she has already checked off the boxes with her core audience. She rarely takes a bad photo and does have the porn star librarian/teacher thing going on. Even Letterman said her hip wader photo shoot gave him naughty thoughts. Like Bush, she will provide simplistic cartoonish sound bites which will pull off some undecided since negative attacks work well in our culture among the “low information” voter.
Napoleon
I hope he is talking about Michelle Bachman since she would be nearly as good as having Palin show up.
schrodinger's cat
Oh and I was in Maine for a wedding and was among some wealthy country club Republicans, not DFHs, most of them are absolutely horrified of the soon to be ex-Governor of Alaska. The undiluted crazy is too much for this staid bunch. Forget attracting independents, she is scaring sane Republicans away, many of whom voted for Obama last election, because they could not stomach the vice presidential candidate among other things.
The Grand Panjandrum
I can just see Santorum and Allen showing up in black face to do an Amos and Andy routine as part of the entertainment. A few fried chicken and watermelon jokes should get the crowd prepped for the main event, no?
David
A photo of a handshake with Sarah Palin can destroy a political career.
She’s Voting Booth Poison.
Pete
This is today’s Republican “machine.”
drillfork
According to young Levi, Palin’s resignation is strictly a financial move:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_re_us/us_palin_resignation
On a related note, am I wrong to suggest that that kid just looks like a douche-nozzle?…
RWB
She’s campaigning for Rick Perry (Texas gov) right now–he’s in a tough primary race and he is doing everything possible to whip up the crazies in the base.
Da Bomb
@The Grand Panjandrum: They could actually do a whole Gone With the Wind re-enactment in black face and jazz hands.
Maybe Sarah could be dressed as a mammy and sing negro spirituals as she breaks down a chiffrobe and shoots at a squirrel.
That way, they can attract more diverse supporters to the GOP and at the same time retain the loyal batshit wingnuts who think they real “merkin patriots”.
MattF
Ah, George Allen. There’s a whole posse of conservative ex-politicians who were going to be running the country when Bush retired… who are now all gone, baby, gone. And no one seems to notice, or care, or draw some obvious conclusions– they all just vanished.
GReynoldsCT00
Nevermind
GReynoldsCT00
I can NEVER get this link thing to work!
GReynoldsCT00
Read and laugh…
Violet
@RWB:
I bet Kay Bailey Hutchison is not particularly happy about that. She was way more qualified to be on the ticket with McCain and I’ll never forget her stammering attempt to explain why Palin was a fantastic choice, when news of McCain’s pick finally leaked. I think she was shocked and horrified, but had to put on the Team Player face and make the best of it. It was kind of funny.
jake 4 that 1
Frankenstien, meet Monster. Monster, Frankenstien.
Funkhauser
The McCain campaign knew early last year that you don’t send the Wasilla Grifter ((c) TBogg Enterprises) to “purple” areas. They didn’t send her to battleground states, but only to the deepest red territory. This isn’t a new development.
(I’m not the first to note this; it was written somewhere recently, but I can’t recall where.)
joes527
@drillfork:
I was going to say that he is a dead ringer for Rob Lowe, but douche-nozzle is about the same thing.
Rick Massimo
Well, what does a Republican who won in a huge Democratic year, in a district that went overwhelmingly for Obama, know about winning close elections? He needs a shot of that Palin magic!
EEH
@schrodinger’s cat: Exactly. My lifelong Republican husband was so horrified when McCain picked her for his running mate that he voted for Obama. Had McCain chosen anyone else, he would have voted Republican.
Rick Taylor
Palin sacrificed her job so she could campaign for you, you ingrates!
Balconesfault
I love this.
Because right now, they’re talking to INCUMBENTS.
Sarah’s real value is going to be to challengers in the Republican Primaries, who want to take on those incumbent Republicans with attacks from the right to punish them for having strayed too close to the center.
Add in the Palin-ego on overdrive out to punish the incumbents who turned down her offers to campaign for them?
Sweetness.
Tsulagi
@EEH:
So would my dad. Couldn’t bring himself to pull the lever for Obama, but Palin kept McCain from getting his vote.
Some recent comedy at RedState over the snowmobile diva. In one recommended diary, Redstate Has Become Bot Central — We Need A Moratorium…
A lot of them have had enough of Winky and they have some infighting going on over there. To lose half of serious loon central is pretty good. She’s a uniter, not a divider.
Pasquinade
Mike Murphy: To go forward, GOP must snap out of its Sarah Palin spell
The New York Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/07/09/2009-07-09_to_go_forward_gop_must_snap_out_of_its_sarah_palin_spell.html
A Farewell to Harms
Palin was bad for the Republicans—and the republic.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124716984620819351.html#mod%3DdjemEditorialPage%26articleTabs%3Darticle
CPAC Chairman: Palin Not Ready for Presidential Run
http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/sarah_palin_cpac/2009/07/09/233604.html
FReepers are not happy with this group of “RINOS”.
inkadu
Thanks, but no thanks. Like the bridge to nowhere.
That only took me three hours to figure out.
More and crazy Republicans! That’s my motto going into the primaries next time around.
bcinaz
And Joe the unlicensed not a plummer Plummer. It just wouldn’t be a wingnut wingding without him.
DonnaInMichigan
Sarah Palin has become to the Republican Party…what Paris Hilton is to Hollywood.
Paris Hilton has her followers…but what exactly DOES Pais Hilton do?, She attends Hollywood functions, to get her picture taken? Paparrazzi follow her around, taking pictures…etc. But there is no “there”, there…..
This is what faces Sarah Palin.
J Crowley
I’m really, really hoping that she ends up showing up in these places anyway just to show ’em all what a maverick she is.
Ken
Sending invitations to Palin and the rest of the circus, faking that the invitation is coming from the candidate, would obviously be immoral and probably illegal. But is there any reason a private citizen can’t send such an invitation in their own name? “Help me, Sarah, you’re our only hope. Come campaign for Rep. Terry. Signed, A True Republican.”
kth
Perhaps the unkindest cut from that item:
Hoekstra is as wing-nutty as it gets, and he doesn’t want that babbling idiot anywhere near his campaign. Brutal.
btw, your weird blog software makes R-between-parentheses into (R)
Nancy Irving
How could you leave out Joe the Plumber?
Batocchio
Wolf is a douchebag, and Palin would be poison in most of Northern Virginia. Buy her a ticket!