26% of Americans approve of how the GOP handled health care reform. Jeebus.
Speaking of the crazy quarter of our country, that is to say speaking for them, Sarah Palin has a bright idea.
A third party candidate can really shore-up a Republican candidate in terms of that Republican candidate having to be very strong and sharp and debate aggressively, regarding the positions that they have taken.
A third party candidate, I think, Sean, can actually help in this process. .
Thinkprogress responds (same link):
Palin’s comments are particularly surprising considering that, in February, she told activists that “the Tea Party movement is not a party” and that they are “going to have to pick a party.” And on Hannity last month, she urged tea party activists to “take over” the GOP in lieu of starting their own party.
Surprise!
If we act like we really hate Sarah’s new idea, maybe Bob Owens will feel compelled to get behind it.
Marc
Only if we throw in a new charcoal grill and some ammo.
Mal Carne
I strongly suspect that the 2012 elections are going to be… interesting. Not close; I feel pretty confident that Obama’s going to do well. But the road to the election may well be stranger than any journey we’ve taken so far. Bring the popcorn.
Will
I think that polls off. It should be 27 percent.
cleek
i’m all for not saying another fucking word about 2012 until we’ve at least made it through the 2010 primaries.
beltane
Sarah Palin can be the Ralph Nader of the Right wing Party of the Right. Either that or she’s just an idiot who can’t keep her story straight.
beltane
@Will: You can attribute that missing 1% to the margin of error.
Joe Bauers
@Will: Curse you, Will. You beat me to it.
Punchy
Sorry Tim F., I’m about to out-crazy you.
This has to be a Top Ten Nominee for the WTF awards
cleek
shorter Palin: i want to be part of the primaries, but i don’t actually want to win ! that would be hard work.
Leelee for Obama
Does no one explain to Sarah Starbursts that the Tea Partiers are Republican voters to begin with? They want to break away from the liberal leaning Republicans( no, really) who are not PURE enough to cut taxes and services and such even more then they already have, and let them fly their racist freak flags from the highest point in all the land. They’re looking to back the most reactionary, right-wing, John Bircher type candidates, not the run-of-the-mill Republican Corporatists that we know and, well, know. They do not wish to shore up these Republicans, they want to PURGE them, and start a brand new Know Nothing Party all their very own. Speaking of going extinct, whatever happened to Alf Landon?
Brian J
A third party can also shave a couple of percentage points off the Republican party’s totals in traditional swing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Iowa, which will not only make it a lot easier to win in new swing states like Virginia and North Carolina but also expand the map to the Dakotas and Texas. As a Democrat who wants to see a repeat of 1984 but with the results going for my party, I hope she’s successful in getting a third party to challenge the Republicans.
Please, tell me where to help contribute to this cause.
LD50
The exact same 26% who still approved of Bush’s performance in 2008, I assume.
New Yorker
Yup. That worked real well for George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Al Gore in 2000. Please, Sarah, don’t run on the Tea Party line in 2012! Oh no, don’t throw me in that briar patch!
Edit: actually, Lady Starbursts might be onto something: no matter who the GOP candidate is, he or she will look like fucking Cicero compared to Palin and the insane babble that she will inevitably let loose during the debates.
Polish the Guillotines
God damn. That woman is a fucking idiot.
Martin
Can we just take any political poll, clip off the wingnut 27% and renormalize?
Obama’s 46%/54% would instead be 46%/27% normed up to 63%/37%, and the GOP approval would be -1%/74% normed to -1%/101%. That sounds much more realistic.
licensed to kill time
Sarah Palin always sounds like a 4th grader bullshitting her way through a book report after having read the back cover.
Ash Can
HCR was signed only this morning, and a whole percentage point has been shaved off the Batshit-Insane Constant already?
dmsilev
@Punchy: As David Kurtz pointed out in a follow-up post, there’s no need to go back as far as the 17th Amendment. Repeal the 19th, and without all those pesky females demanding the “right” to “vote” and “serve as Speaker of the House”, the GOP would have had no problem blocking health care.
-dms
Mark S.
@beltane:
That’s it. With Sarah, I can actually see the hamster getting off the wheel for a smoke break while she’s in the middle of a sentence.
Ash Can
@licensed to kill time: She could read the whole book cover-to-cover, three times over, and she’d still sound like that.
jrg
Yes, we will call it the “keep the government out of medicare party.” Their platform will be a bunch of free shit, with no taxes, ever.
…Gays will be sent to live on a colony on the moon, and the government will be financed with the pixie dust that’s formed as a byproduct in unicorn scat refineries.
Bob K
Dick Cheney left office with a 29% approval rating.
Third Party Candidate – You Betchya – wink wink.
Remember – part of the Reagan Revolution was the dumbing down of America. They seemed to know what they were doing on that one.
Joshua Derke
It’s a reliable fact that roughly 25% of this country is insane at any given time.
You can quote me on that.
some guy
We don’t have to really hate it, we just have to point out how incredibly retarded she is for thinking of it. Her supporters are so defensive when it comes to attacks on Hustle & Snow (it’s hard out there for a simp) that they’ll double down on whatever ridiculously awful idea of hers we criticize.
bemused
I’ve read that Palin has advisors such as Wm Kristol, Greta of Faux & hubby, Mary Matalin & other conservatives. She doesn’t come up with her talking points all by herself. I’m wondering which advisor told her a 3rd party was a good idea when previously it wasn’t or if she had this brainfart on her own or she now turns to Beck or maybe other advisors are playing her.
ChrisZ
If only Republicans could get more conservative, they’d be sure to win over the American people!
Mudge
She is spectacular. Sort of a female Ralph Nader without the baggage of a useful past.
Eric U.
this idea of a right-wing third party fills me with such fear and trepidation that I’m praying it never happens. Really
Tonal Crow
Oh Sarah, you’re so right, don’tch’a know! If teabaggers run against Republicans from the right, that’ll draw a clear contrast with the Democrat Party and appeal to voters like never before! You’re a genius!
P.S. Please don’t throw us in the briar patch!
acallidryas
This sounds like a fantastic idea to me. Sarah, I would be glad to help you mount a third party challenge. Count me in.
Tonal Crow
@Mark S.:
I nominate this for BJ’s “win of the week” award.
El Cid
Make sure Joe Lieberman knows how much we hate & fear this idea.
Little Dreamer
Sure, go ahead and split the “conservative” vote Sarah, I’m totally in agreement with this. I’ll even donate to your cause. ;)
By the way, when I see commercials for campaigns and they say “(name) is a true conservative” – I’ve decided that descriptor is no longer definable, are they a tea-party tax protestor, perhaps a birther, or a believer in fiscal conservation? I wonder how they redefine themselves after the “conservative” split?
I think the tea partiers should just go with anarchists and leave the conservative tag alone, since obviously they aren’t actually conservative at all.
licensed to kill time
@Ash Can: I hear she even “wrote” a book and still sounded like that…
Ok, what if a 4th grader read the back cover of Palin’s ‘book’ and bullshitted her way through that ? Would it make more sense than Sarah? Why yes, I think it would.
New Yorker
On another note:
Very close (within the margin of error, I’m sure) to 1/4. Remember what South Park said about 1/4 of Americans in the 9/11 Truth episode? I think Matt and Trey were onto something…..
MikeJ
I predict that they’ll start two new parties. The Save America party will be be the mass party and act as enforcers, throwing bricks, beating people they dislike.
The Save the States party will be their political elite.
The election maps will of course be colour coded:
Dems blue, Republicans Red, SA brown, SS black.
But it can’t happen here.
Bob K
Oh these Texas comedians. First it was – “let’s do away with the senate.” Now this same clown is channeling John McCain’s – “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran.” routine. Maybe his staffers should check to see if he maybe he’s off his meds?
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/23/gohmert-bill-israel-iran/
LD50
I hope the Teabaggers run a 3rd party candidate in 2012 and they lose Florida because of it. I would laugh. A lot.
Alex S.
I hope that McCain goes independent after his loss to J.D. Hayworth so we can have a 3rd party Palin/McCain ticket.
gbear
@ChrisZ:
Stop plagierizing Tim Pawlenty!!
me
@Bob K: Rep. Gomer Pyle has too much time on his hands.
Comrade Dread
Is Ross Perot available? I’m sure the third time will be the charm.
Oh, please. Any Republican that would win the Tea Party crowd wouldn’t know how to articulate the reasons behind their positions. They would just repeat their talking points louder.
Dollared
OK, give Palin some credit. Buried deep within that, um, sentence is a (single pane, aluminum frame) Overton window concept.
She’s afraid the Republicans will recover their senses, and she wants that third party voice to keep yelling about flouridation.
El Cid
Some other significant GOP poll percentages:
geg6
@Mark S.:
WIN!
Liz
@Comrade Dread:
With Admiral Stockdale!!!
gridlock.
*sigh* good times.
jibeaux
Here in NC we have one new Dem Senator (buh-bye, Liddy Dole), and one old Repub (Burr) up for re-election, and the Dems challenging him are about as inspiring as melted butter. A Tea Party challenge would do far more good for the Dems than the Dems could ever do for themselves. He voted for the jobs bill, that sellout. Come on, somebody teabag him.
Tim F.
@bemused: Bill Kristol. There has never been a dumber wise man in the history of Washington, DC.
freelancer
@licensed to kill time:
This. This has been my ongoing sense of Palin ever since the Gibson interview.
JGabriel
beltane:
There, simpled that up for ya and made it more readable. Thee syllable instead of seven!
.
KDP
Does WP not like links from USA Today? I tried to edit in the URL for the article I referenced @44 and got a message that my edited comment was ‘spam.’
Now my 44 is gone. USA Today now says 49% favorable view of the signed HCR Bill to 40% opposed.
This was after WP ate three prior attempts.
FYWP
Ash Can
@Bob K: Louie Gohmert: A living, breathing argument against downing a fifth of Old Overholt for breakfast every day.
Violet
@ChrisZ:
This is exactly what Rush Limbaugh says all the time. Republicans must get more conservative to win. Said it yesterday – have to elect only true conservatives, especially those who will pledge to repeal HCR.
Their leaders really think this kind of tactic will work.
Bob K
Louie Gohmert – File Photo
or was that John McCain?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Slim-pickens_riding-the-bomb_enh-lores.jpg
Comrade Dread
Here’s a simple guide to understanding ‘conservatives’ as defined by True Conservatives
From right to left on the political spectrum:
Birther = Real American
Tea Party member = True Conservative
Social Conservative = Republican
Neo Conservatives = Serious Conservatives
Fiscal conservative = Flying pink unicorns who poop rainbows (see also Bigfoot, the Lockness Monster, and other mythical creatures)
Paulite = Tinfoil hat wearing crazy isolationists, but please vote for us anyway.
Libertarians = ****tard Reefer smoking hippies.
Rockefeller Republican = RINO traitors who ought to be strung up.
Log Cabin Republicans = F**s
Minority Republicans = Same as Fiscal Conservatives.
MikeJ
@KDP: I tried to point out that Gibbs cites that newspaper in his latest tweet (I’ll include his shortener url)
JGabriel
@Punchy:
Shorter Gohmert: Because I’m for people and against statism, I want states to elect senators instead of the people!
.
Ed Drone
I’ve often said that the 25-27% figure we see in polls is simply the quantification of “some of the people all of the time,” from Lincoln’s famous saying about fooling people.
And it’s really, really true.
Ed
licensed to kill time
@freelancer:
I almost feel sorry for her, she’s so out of her depth. Flailing away in front of the teacher, and the whole class snickering…well, except for the 27% in the back row.
ETA: I said *almost…
Little Dreamer
@Comrade Dread:
LMAO!
Thot so!
;)
Isn’t this a violation of truth in advertising?
Mr. Wonderful
I continue to insist that Sarah Palin achieved her first major life triumph as a beauty contestant, and it forever left its mark on how she speaks in public. It’s all a pageant to her.
Questions are always pro forma, and answers can be improvised on the spot, so long as they include some anodyne buzz words or cliches, and are delivered in a perky, fake-sincere way.
Anything else–e.g., Katie Couric asking, “what do you read?”–is considered unfair and all ambush-y.
ChrisZ
@gbear:
In my defense I was plagiarizing for the good of honest, hard-working, patriotic Americans who love Jesus so I think I am excused.
Leelee for Obama
@Violet: That idea might just work if:
1) Everybody in the country had a mandatory lobotomy.
2) Nobody in the country cared a rat’s ass for any other person in the country.
3) Republicans started running in Burma (oops! Myanmar), or perhaps, Iran.
bemused
@Tim F.:
Media keeps bringing Kristol on to prognosticate & he hasn’t been right on one single thing ever.
Bob K
Oh no – what next? Tea party protest signs of Barack Obama as Emperor Hirohito?
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/23/bond-japanese-slur/
Comrade Dread
Forgot Paleocons:
– Terrorist luving and appeasing lunatics who want OBL to be mirandized so he can blow up your children after escaping Jail with his superpowers. Also sissies who tend to talk like f**s and their sh**s all retarded. Talk about Reagan a lot, but from the histories they lerned in librul schuul system.
Joey Maloney
@Tonal Crow: Seconded!
geg6
Hey Tim! Lookie this!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10081/1044816-455.stm
I’m going to find out how to contact this guy. I’m going to go all out for him. Just like I once did for Jason Altmire.
ChrisZ
@Leelee for Obama:
It actually might work in the sense that it will hasten the demise of the current GOP and thus hasten reform to something resembling a group of people who use their brains. At least, I hope it does, I don’t think I can handle reading about this level of insanity for too much longer.
gbear
@ChrisZ:
I’m just glad you didn’t bring up the ‘conservative jersey’ part. Cow referenced just aren’t cool, even in Bismark ND.
El Cid
I’d tend to bet that the 27% of crazy is over-represented by the South.
To this day Obama’s popularity around the nation is severely weakened in polls by the hyperconservative South — it’s treated like a national average, but elections are all held state by state.
Sentient Puddle
I’m loathe to go into health care on the open thread, so I’ma do it here instead.
TPM reports on how Republicans in the Senate are beginning their shenanigans:
I don’t have the full text on that amendment, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the text were just that. Which would mean any legislator with an ounce of respect for the legislative process would want to punch him in the face for this one.
Because it’s so incredibly important to stop funding an organization that is shutting down. Not to mention germane to health care.
If this is indicative of their tactics, Jesus fucking Christ.
ChrisZ
@Violet:
Please remind me how to get rid of the bolding in blockquotes and I will make you a chocolate cake (I may have to eat it myself though, I don’t know where you live).
mcc
“According to a Harris survey to be released tomorrow, 24% of polled Republicans say they believe the president is the anti-Christ.”
Wildcat12
Isn’t this keeping in line with Alan Keyes % rule? No matter how batshit insane a Republican may be, 27% will always support them
JasonF
@dmsilev:
Kurtz jokes (I think), but back when I was in law school, I saw John Lott present a paper, the thesis of which was that you could go state by state and see a correlation between when they granted women suffrage and the state’s expenditures on social welfare programs. The conclusion we were invited to draw, I inferred, is that we wouldn’t have these pesky liberal laws if it weren’t for those meddling women.
That presentation was one of my great law school memories. It was in a small classroom with about a dozen students and 15 or 20 other professors, including Nobel laureate Gary Becker, who completely picked Lott apart.
licensed to kill time
@ChrisZ:
__
If you start your blockquote directly under the reply link, it also works. The key seems to be not having any empty lines before you start your blockquote.
anonymous
@JasonF:
I would have paid real money to watch that.
Mark S.
@JasonF:
I’m pretty sure Lott’s thesis is bullshit. I don’t see any correlation in this map.
priscianus jr
26%. That’s about the figure I would have guessed. It’s ALWAYS about 25%. GOP party self-identification is also about 25%.
That suggests to me that about three out of every four people in America knows that the GOP is full of shit.
Grumpy Code Monkey
I’ve been saying for a couple of months now that Palin is going to go Perot and run as a third-party candidate. There’s absolutely no way she would survive the Republican primary, and besides, it would require her to, you know, work. By running as a third party candidate, she gets tons of money and TV time, without the risk of actually winning, and without having to actually campaign.
But uncle Grumpy, she says the Tea Party is not a political party, and that she’s not going to be running as a third party candidate.
She is lying. We know she is lying. She knows we know she’s lying, and we know she knows we know it. We’re knowledgable that way. Oh, she’ll throw out some bullshit excuse that she didn’t want to run, but the people demanded she run, and who is she to deny the will of the people?
ChrisZ
@licensed to kill time:
__
Ash Can
@geg6: So this guy’s a labor muckety-muck, eh? Conveniently enough, the Citizens United ruling opens the door to labor unions bankrolling political campaigns, too. If I were Altmire, I’d feel an oh-shit moment coming on right about now.
ds
I don’t think this 26% are the Bush dead enders. Republicans promised that they would kill the bill, and they failed. A lot of people on the right are incensed at Republicans for that. That’s why you see Sarah Palin talking about third parties and such.
The South has lots of hyperconservative white people, but also a lot of black people who vote overwhelmingly Democratic.
So his overall popularity in the South isn’t much lower than in the country as a whole. But it’s way more polarized.
In the South you either love him or you think he’s the Antichrist.
JasonF
@Mark S.:
Always a safe bet.
Tony J
Well, with the Friends of the Chamber of Commerce coming out with an independent source of electoral funding for non Teabagger-approved candidates, I’m not all that surprised to see Palin floating the idea of all those Real American RINO-haters putting their political donations directly into the bank account of a Third Party she’d be titular head of.
And if in the process she screws the Republican Party out of a large minority of ‘their’ electoral votes, well, fuck ’em, what did the Republican Party do for her lately?
jackie
If I was a repub this would worry me. Her one undeniable skill is to find what’s the best thing for Sarah. If she has calculated that she can be Princess of the teabaggers and it will pay better than being a republican she’ll go there in heartbeat. It’s possible that they can make a better counter offer. Kind of like paying off an extortionist, what would make them stop blackmailing you?
gypsy howell
I nominate “Damn You John Rogers” as a tag for any posts citing wingnut/teabaggery-related polling data that falls within the 27% crazification range.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Oooh nooess! A third party candidate would be baaad! It would make libtards, like me, upset and crazzzy! Don’t dos it! Whatevah u do, don’t dos it!!
/crying out from the briar patch
rdale
That 26% who approve of the repubs health care efforts are the same Bush dead-enders, who believed in Dubya even as Rome burned around him. I say round them up and ship them to Saudi Arabia, and make all the illegal immigrants into citizens. Problems solved.
Tiparillo
Shouldn’t that 26% be 27? Or am I thinking of the wrong blog……
New Yorker
This is why I think we should just offer parts of the south as their own independent country, so we can be rid of these people. Not all of the south, of course. Virginia is basically Ohio at this point in terms of being a swing state, and North Carolina is joining the rest of the developed world too (plus, I love the Blue Ridge Parkway and want to keep it part of the US). Nonetheless, we should offer Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina as “Wingnut Homelands” for those who want out of this country. We wouldn’t miss ’em.
joshp
It’s great to see the fear that is so evidently in your voices concerning Governor Palin. That’s right, look down your nose at the conservatives, spew your venom and reverse racism out at the world. If you would actually do some research you will find that you as Liberals have been had. Tricked. Lied to. Swindled. Used by politicians who play with your simple fantasy ridden minds and tell you that the Republicans are all racist baby eaters, that the rich white man is the enemy and should be punished for his crimes. That you should look to others for all the reasons you are not successful. After all, it’s got to be their fault you haven’t achieved your dreams right? The man kept you down right? I am saddened that my family has fought and died over the generations to provide most of you with what you take for granted. Get your house in order, because one day you’ll stand before the good Lord and answer for your decisions. As much as you hate to admit this. I know that you know its true. Don’t worry, I won’t be checking back to see your pathetic attempts at a response. I can only predict that they will be angry, hostile, hate filled diatribes of re-constituted talking points, given to you by your masters. How can you be so naive? Educate yourself on the history of this great country and for goodness sake, take some responsibility for yourselves. Government is not the answer. The ignorant and lazy of this country have finally figured out that they can take things from other people with their vote. God help us all. I figure you’ve got about 5 to 7 years before your leaders completely bankrupt and destroy the country. Thanks for that. Good job buddy. You achieved absolute idiocy. Here’s your cracker.