It’s been argued that a Mitt Romney loss in November would leave Rick Santorum as the GOP presidential front-runner for 2016. But Geov Parrish flags this from a Public Policy Polling national survey of Republicans:
The talk of a brokered convention never seems to die down and one interesting finding on this poll was that Sarah Palin is far more popular than any of the actual Republican candidates in the race. Her net favorability is +48, with 68% of voters rating her favorably to only 20% with a negative opinion. That compares favorably to +29 for Santorum, +19 for Romney, and -26 for Paul.
Palin is someone GOP delegates might be able to unify around in the case of a hopelessly deadlocked convention. She is seen positively by Gingrich voters (85/7), Santorum supporters (80/10), and Romney ones (57/27) alike. That’s a contrast to Romney who is disliked by both Santorum (38/48) and Gingrich (32/54) voters and Santorum who is disliked by Romney (38/48) voters and only seen narrowly favorably by Gingrich (46/42) backers.
This is a change from, say, last August, when a Fox News poll reported that Palin was so unpopular that 58% of Republicans and 64% of conservatives thought she wouldn’t make a good president, agreeing with the vast majority of non-conservative America.
The difference, I think, is that back then she was spending a lot of time trying to get herself into the broader national spotlight. Since then, she’s retreated to the right’s bubble. She’s saying things right-wingers want to hear, but the rest of us are ignoring her — which means we’re not laughing at her. (When righties finally noticed how hard we were laughing at her, a year or so ago, their fantasies of Palin as conquering Queen Esther became harder to sustain.)
You know what’s hilarious? People who correctly predicted that she wouldn’t run this time said she was avoiding a run because she’d have to answer serious questions at debates. That’s probably true — yet look who shined at the debates. Herman Cain chanting “9-9-9.” Then Newt blathering about God-knows-what while accusing some debate moderator or other of treason. With interludes of Ron Paul getting cheers for talking about leaving people to die in ditches, because the Austrian economics demand it. Palin missed her opportunity! She was made for this clown show!
So will she realize her error and give it a go four years from now? I sincerely hope so.
(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
Bludger
Just stop with the Palin. It’s so tiresome.
Kathy in St. Louis
Nah, she’ll be in her fifties and her biggest attractions for the old white guys of the GOP will be gone. Some new idiot will have come along long before then to grab their limited attention. By the way, I agree with the first poster here. If I never heard another story about this pinhead, it would be a year too soon.
Satanicpanic
I’m all for laughing at people like her, but it’s just not as funny anymore. We need a new target.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
She was the original clown that previewed this year’s clown show.
debit
Four years from now Palin’s starbursts will be older and dimmed. I sincerely doubt she’ll be the GOP rock star she was when McCain thrust her on to the national stage.
jonas
She didn’t run this time and she won’t run in the future for one simple reason: it’s a lot of work and, fundamentally, she’s lazy. Hell, finishing one single term as the governor of one of the smallest (by population) states in the country with a part time legislature and and autopilot budget largely funded by petrodollars was too much for her. It’s a lot easier to sit back and let book royalties roll in (from books she didn’t even write) and collect hefty speaking fees (for speeches also mostly written by staffers).
jl
Fugue states do that kind of thing to people, and we have around 27 percent in the country, and maybe half of the GOP voters off in that kind of dissociated and fantastical psychological territory. IMHO.
handy
@jonas:
Yep. This.
Clime Acts
Palin will never be their nominee, so you can stop now.
OT, President Obama just made another brave choice on behalf of the oil industry.
His firm principles sustain the nation.
eemom
So. much. stoopid.
Raven
OT but it is hilarious to listen to Jamie Dupree laugh at Neal Boortz rant about “government schools”!
jl
Also too, I welcome a world where Palin is the front runner for 2016, since that would mean that Etch Sketchny loses the 2012 election.
So, overall, Palin as front runner for 2016 sounds good to me. Crazy, but good enough scenario for late November 2012.
Daaling
Oh for fucks sakes. Surely you can find something better to blog about than what Palin is doing in 2016. Jesus fucking christ on a stick.
shortstop
Enough.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Clime Acts: Did you read the article? He wants fast track approval for a pipeline from OK to the Texas coast (hell, it’ll probably run by my house). You know, OK, the state that floats on an oil lake (though we’ve drained it some). The article even states that he rejected the Keystone pipeline.
SteveM
@Kathy in St. Louis:
They have plastic surgeons in Alaska. And she’ll be younger then than Madonna is now.
Splitting Image
Palin isn’t so much a good candidate as she is a good idea for a candidate (to paraphrase Charles Foster Kane). She herself is unlikely to run for the reasons given above, but there will likely be a Palin running. Just a younger, prettier model.
It’s no accident that most of the slut-shaming bills are being presented by women, or for that matter that the GOP put a black man on stage to defend voter disenfranchisement. If you assume that the GOP will still be on the slut-shaming train in 2016, there will be a 45-ish Stepford wife in the mix channeling Rick Santorum.
delphi_ote
Oh, Christ. THIS election is too much to take. Do we really have to acknowledge already that, as soon as the agony is over, this bullshit is going to start all over again?!
Comrade Mary
Is there the equivalent of a cosmetic surgeon who deals with the voice? Because that would help a lot.
nellcote
Hillary vs LaPalin? Bring it on!
Sly
My own position was that the other candidates would have come after her with the long knives and she would topple like a house of cards. It wouldn’t have been reporters who were her worst enemies, it would have been Romney’s oppo research team. Sarah Palin simply isn’t megalomaniacal enough to believe anything positive would happen through a failed run for the nomination.
Gingrich, on the other hand….
chopper
on one hand, i think palin is long past her freshness date. she’s not doing anything big ever again.
OTOH, to all the people pissed about the subject of the thread, there’s this thing called a ‘mouse’ with ‘buttons’ that let you ‘click’ on to another one.
SteveM
@Daaling: I just checked Memeorandum. The lead story is John Edwards’ penis. I could do 400 words on that if you’d prefer.
japa21
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Don’t waste your time. There are people that don’t want Obama to do anything that might, in any way shape or form, bring in some dollars to big oil, insurance companies, the military industrial complex, etc. Doesn’t matter that doing those things might also benefit the rest of the country.
The Other Chuck
*Sigh…* There’s not going to be a brokered convention, much as I wish for one. Romney is going to win the NY and CA delegates, and it’s basically all over after that.
Santorum of course has enough clout to give a speech at the convention, which should make for a really interesting sermon. Mullah Rick is going to make Pat “Culture War” Buchanan look like JFK in comparison.
Bruce S
The actual GOP front-runner is…shiny object.
Davis X. Machina
She’s irrelevant now. I’m not even sure the adjective ‘irrelevant’ has a comparative form. Irrelevanter?
Clime Acts
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Of course I read the article.
Hmmm…so you think it’s a good thing that an environmental disaster-in waiting is being constructed across the southern half of the middle of the country, as long as it (temporarily) isn’t hooked up to Canada; furthering the delusion that drilling and production in the U.S. will somehow lower prices at the pump, enabling the continuation of our general reliance on filthy fossil fuels, and ignoring the problem of global warming?
And of course, once the southern half is built, it’s only a matter of time until it’s hooked up to the future northern half.
Obama is playing us.
schrodinger's cat
Test
proverbialleadballoon
i doubt it. not after game change. but it would be awesome if she was.
chopper
@SteveM:
madge has good genes, plus she works out like 12 hours a day. palin aint got the wherewithal to sit down for an interview anymore.
Clime Acts
@japa21:
Please see my comment #28. You think any of those things are good for the country? If so, congratulations, you are a Reagan Republican.
Chris
Like many people have said – if Romney’s the candidate and loses in 2012, that’ll be the second election in a row that the GOP’ll have lost by running a guy they perceive as a RINO, which means they’ll go absolutely apeshit insane and select the most fanatic right-wing psycho this side of Otto Skorzeny in 2016.
So yes, Palin could very well be the nominee.
The Other Chuck
@Clime Acts:
Last I looked, OK to TX didn’t cover half the country. As it is, the oil is going by train and truck. Is that any better?
Cassidy
@Daaling: Oh for fucks sakes. Surely you can find something better to
blog about than what Palin is doing in 2016do than continue to come to a blog just be an asshole. Jesus fucking christ on a stick.eemom
Looks like the emmessemm desperation for a horserace has spread to the “progressive” blogosphere.
Srsly dude, if this is the best you’ve got, why fucking bother? Do you have nothing else to do with your time?
Cliff in NH
There is a big difference between liking someone and thinking they would make a good president.
The polls are prob the same if they asked the good president one today.
Brachiator
Nope. She’s lazy and stupid. The GOP loves stupid, but they want their dopes to work hard for the money.
Of course, this also presumes that Obama wins in 2012.
Daaling
https://balloon-juice.com/2012/03/22/the-gop-front-runner-for-2016-is-it-palin/#comments Who or what is memeorandom? An equally obscure blog site because they write about the most ridiculous obsessive shit like what’s the color of Palin’s nails today on Faux.
Let it go. Get a life. This ongoing obsession with Palin is fucking creepy. Not far from actual stalking. Right up there with Tucker Carlsons obsession with mediamatters.
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/03/21/your-restraining-order-only-makes-me-love-you-that-much-more/
Clime Acts
@The Other Chuck:
There really is no capitulation you won’t enable, is there?
Baud
Is it too much to ask that we get past the 2012 elections before speculating about 2016?
eemom
@SteveM:
Yes, and of course Memeorandum is where all the Serious people go for their substantive news coverage.
God you are an idiot.
Timmy, I may not agree with you on much, but you got it right about the direction this blog is going in.
neil
Of course, if she had the courage to actually throw herself into the part of the spotlight that demands answers to questions, she’d be a non-stop gaffe machine inspiring universal ridicule.
There’s that.
John of Indiana
The question is, will the Sarahcuda still be “Sponge-worthy” in 2016, since her appeal seems to mostly be among old white guys who fantasize about doing reverse cow with her.
I seriously doubt she’ll run. As already stated, it’d be too damn much work and why take the pay cut to be President when your books and FAUX NOIZ gigs are going well.
wrb
@Clime Acts:
Oklashoma and Texas are webbed with oil pipelines. How in the world does one more
constitute an “environmental disaster.”
scav
Finally a day without a new live actually happening disaster? Let’s worry about a hypothetical four years!
Luckily, the real world comes equipped with weeds that need to be yanked. I’ll chortle about Meh-tch-A-Sketch to my lonesome and lay waste to errant plants.
Quaker in a Basement
Yes, but after she fails, who will that leave as the likely nominee in 2020?
MikeJ
@wrb:
Everything’s a disaster if the black guy is ok with it.
Cassidy
@Daaling: Let it go. Get a life. This ongoing obsession with
Palincoming to a blog and being a douche is fucking creepy. Not far from actual stalking.Clime Acts
@eemom:
Why eemom, I’m someone else now, didn’t you notice? Soon to be someone else again I’m sure, after DougJ gets pissy and bans me again.
I contain legions.
Ben Cisco
OT because I really don’t give a shit about Sandcrab Snooki: Nice Polite Republicans’ Inskreep asked a couple of now-grown black men if there was anything those in Trayvon Martin’s situation could/might have done differently. Answer:
What a jackass!
Southern Beale
Meh this shit is stupid. When Sarah Palin opens her mouth her poll numbers plummet. No one beyond a few Neanderthals likes her. If her poll numbers look slightly positive now it’s because she’s been out of the national spotlight. She can’t run for office without opening her mouth and showing the nation what a horrible human being she is. As soon as she launches a campaign of any type — be it her Summer Grift Fest from last year or a presidential campaign — people will recoil in horror all over again.
Butch
@wrb: The problem is with this specific pipeline and its would-be owner’s past practice in building pipelines. TransCanada has already built one in the U.S. and it leaks like a sieve.
Cassidy
@wrb: Because it gives him/her the chance to blame the ni-CLANG- and pretend some level of purity.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
You have two choices in 2012: Obama or Romney.
Pick one.
norbizness
It’s depressing even contemplating the place one has to be at to write a post about Palin’s 2016 chances 7.5 months before the 2012 election.
kindness
Anyone who suggests Palin will ever play an important role as an elected official ever again is huffing paint, sniffing glue or worse. They aren’t just bullshitting their audience, they are telling their audience they think they are morans.
How someone who has just told their public that they are idiots retains said public is beyond my pay grade. Must be because neo-cons are such a bunch of frigging morons. That’s my only explination.
jl
@kindness: From comments my desultory clicks of the links in the post, the source material is Memeorandom and The Week. And most of their content is like the Onion, except the authors and publishers have a slightly different conceit about what they are doing.
So, I took this post as light entertainment.
Gin & Tonic
@Clime Acts: News flash: Ralph Fucking Nader will not be POTUS, not in 2012, not in a million years. Neither will Dennis Fucking Kucinich. The only NotObama option is a Republican asshole of some sort, and SCOTUS is lost for the next 30 years.
Clime Acts
@wrb:
So the fact that Obama is fast tracking the southern section of the KEYSTONE PIPELINE holds no other symbolic power for you? Means nothing to anyone beyond just another pipeline?
If you say yes, you are lying thru your teeth.
There’s nothing he could do that you wouldn’t excuse, twisting yourself into pretzels.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
As to the subject of the thread: if Romney were my nominee then, yeah, Palin would be looking pretty good about now. Romney won’t give teatards what they really want – someone who will go in front of the entire nation and call Obama a ni**er.
Palin would do that.
Clime Acts
@Cassidy:
Wow. Your bot-ulism takes you to ever lower levels.
Why do you think of president obama as a ni-clang?
Clime Acts
@Gin & Tonic:
Your enthusiasm for the Obama ticket is infectious.
SteveM
Let’s see, the reaction to my last three posts here has been, in order: (1) You’re the biggest fucking moron who ever walked the face of the earth; (2) Brilliant!; (3) You’re the biggest fucking moron who ever walked the face of the earth.
I love Balloon Juice.
Ben Cisco
@MikeJ:
TAG!
The Other Chuck
@Clime Acts:
Got any other examples of my “enabling” or is this just a hyperbole emo Thursday tradition?
(edit) Ah, it’s the “generic you”. Never mind replying, you’re the first one attacking from the left I’ve had to put in the troll filter. Congratulations.
Cassidy
@Clime Acts: There’s nothing he could do that you wouldn’t
excusetwist into some kind of conspiracy theory, twisting yourself into pretzels.Cassidy
@The Other Chuck: Every day is emo day for him/her.
wrb
@Ben Cisco:
Clearly he should have been driving.
However, this isn’t entirely his fault. If you put stores and houses close enough to each other and don’t make walking unpleasant enough, some people will be too lazy to fire up the car and we all see what happens then.
Ben Franklin
@MikeJ:
Sorry I didn’t respond to your query on yesterday’s thread. I’m not in the habit of returning for responses, as it rarely occurs :+)
Clime Acts
@The Other Chuck:
Being the first into your pretend filter is an honor.
Brachiator
@SteveM:
I liked the link to the Sarah Palin/Queen Esther stuff. Very droll.
g
I’m sorry, this poll was so contrived, it’s ridiculous. They name the four candidates, and then they bring in only one other name, a celebrity who clearly isn’t running, has no intention of running, has no chance of running? Why not ask about the favorability of Donald Trump? Why not ask about the favorability of a fifth person who’s actually a Republican politician?
Sure, Sarah Palin’s favorability numbers are higher than those of the four candidates. So would Snooki’s.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
If there is anything worth taking away from all of this in the way of political analysis it is this: Republican politicians are popular in direct proportion to how much they just shut up, go away, and leave us alone (see also Bush, George W). If the GOP were smart their entire platform going into this election would be “Vote for us, we’re Republicans”. That’s it. Nothing else, nilch, nada, zero. If they could hold to that minimalist position they might have maybe a 30% change of beating Obama just because. But oh, noooo, that isn’t good enough for the Base, so instead they can’t keep their fat traps shut. The only GOPer who is even attempting to think about this optimal strategy is Mr. Etch-A-Sketch, and his positions sum to nothing in roughly the same sense that the random walk of a drunk maintains a mean value position of never-very-far-from-the-lamppost when averaged over the sum of all of his brain-damaged staggerings.
daize
@eemom: Here’s an idea — if the subject of a blog post bothers you, DON’T FUCKING READ THE POST let alone take the time to comment upon it.
Christ! No wonder John goes head-in-the-oven every once in a while.
BTW — Steve has a valid point about Palin, particularly the Queen Esther bit. She’s right up there with Huckabee in terms of evangelical rapturism xianity founding fathers were Catholic, etc.
wrb
@Clime Acts:
A distinctive feature of the Timmy Troll is that it gets vewy, vewy upset
whenever anyone mentions that they are filtering his comments.
It needs our attention so.
Southern Beale
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Yes, this.
Chris
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
They’d have won bigger if they’d done that in 2010, too. The base’s “show us how much of a freak you are or we won’t vote for you!” shenanigans are really hurting them – but as the saying goes, never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake.
Southern Beale
Why do people engage trolls like Clime Acts whose only comments in the history of Balloon Juice since forever have been “THIS POST IS STOOOPID & SO IS THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT”?
Jesus people. Show some self control.
Southern Beale
@Chris:
Hard to imagine the GOP winning bigger than they did in 2010. That’s why we’re in this mess, because too many people stayed home.
Punchy
Better question– who do the Dems run out there in 2016?
Ben Cisco
@wrb: Where, sir or madam, would you like your multiple internets delivered?
KG
@The Other Chuck: they’re going to split California (assuming it’s competitive come June). California is winner-take-all by Congressional district. There are a lot of inland districts where Santorum will roll Romney. The California GOP is a strange, strange thing… fuck, California in general is a strange thing. There’s the North/South divide and then there’s the Coastal/Inland divide. And it’s the second one that’s more important. OC and San Diego tend to go Republican, but they tend to elect slightly more “moderate” Republicans (read: not Godbotherers). While the inland counties (Riverside, San Bernardino, Imperial, Fresno, etc) might as well be North Texas (nothing against North Texas).
Southern Beale
@Punchy:
Hillary?
Comrade Dread
I hate to say this, but I think Princess Dumbass is actually smart enough to know her future lies in books, speaking tours, and Fox News, where she can gin up the rubes to dig deep and scrap into their pockets one more time when she passes up the collection plate.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Punchy:
It might be worth watching the DNC keynote speech, since both Bill Clinton and Obama first made the national spotlight via it. If that speech is a zinger, keep an eye on the speaker. If it is a Tim Kaine-esqe dud, then we’ve got a problem.
Chris
@Southern Beale:
If they’d run moderates in places like Delaware instead of demanding purity tests and running people better suited to Arizona, they’d have done better.
2010 was bad, but not quite as bad as it could’ve been. Could’ve lost the Senate along with the House…
Cat Lady
OT because of awesomeness:
Cat falls 19 stories and walks away.
Yay superhero kitteh!
gnomedad
This is not about Palin, it’s about whether there will be an upper bound on teh Crazy for the 2016 nominee. Assuming they lose this year, will they recalculate or double down? Who knows?
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Well, not to be too morbid about matters, but a certain percentage of GOP voters may not be alive in 2016. We keep hearing about how GOP’ers are an aging population. Would younger Repubs vote for crazy sister Sarah? If all she does between now and 2015/2016 is spout off more uninformed nonsense, won’t she have further damaged her reputation among Independents? One wonders….
SteveM
@Punchy: If it’s not Hillary or Joe Biden, I’m guessing it’s going to be Andrew Cuomo. He’s sucking up to Wall Street (somebody’s got to bankroll his super PAC) while pushing gay marriage to get liberal cred. The other name I’ve seen is Gov. O’Malley of Maryland, but from a brief clip of him on Rachel Maddow’s show I’d say he’s about as inspirational as Tim Pawlenty, though I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Sarah Palin is the crack cocaine of the liberal blogosphere, and I don’t mind riding that tiger when the urge hits. But she is not anything close to presidential material, and to her credit, I think she knows that. She is starbust, she is golden, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Meanwhile, back at the front
The Wages of Fear and Loathing
crunch. Mo butter please!!
Culture of Truth
LOL – I don’t think so. He’s a loser. I assume they will learn their lesson from this year and have one national winner-take-all primary on Feb. 1 so the solid rich white guy won’t have to bother with all this nonsense.
@Punchy Biden, Hillary, or person to be named later.
redshirt
@gnomedad: I do. Double down. Then double down on that, and double down again until there is the pure, distilled crystallized crazy of 27% of the population remaining.
Then they all kill each other.
KG
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: my money is on Andrew Cuomo. Not exactly happy with another political dynasty type, but from what I’ve read about him, he seems like a smart choice.
jibeaux
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): I saw that posted on Political Wire, where there is always this guy who defends Romney. I know, but there has to be one, somewhere, right? So he says, yawn, gender gap, that’s always there and we still win.
Think he knows that a) in ’08 the gender gap was 7 points and b) in ’08 McCain lost?
Three-nineteen
Holy shit DO NOT START WITH 2016 ALREADY YOU ARE KILLING ME
Brachiator
@SteveM:
I hope that Mrs Clinton holds to her word that Secretary of State is her last go at political office.
Biden would be 74 in 2016. That’s getting up there. The Democrats are going to have to cultivate some new blood. Cuomo would be an interesting option. is America ready for a president with a live-in girlfriend?
KG
@Culture of Truth: I thought Biden and Hillary had already both ruled out running in 2016. Granted, it’s politics and any previous promises are null and void on a moment’s notice, but Biden will be 73 come 2016 and Hillary will be 68. Can’t imagine either one of them signing up for a presidential campaign at that point (but I could be wrong, I suppose).
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@jibeaux:
head to head horserace polls at this point, are not set in stone, but for Romney, the deficit of love as seen in his whale shit on the bottom of the ocean, favorables, may well be set in stone. Or near impossible to change that metric once it reaches that far south.
chopper
@eemom:
door’s that way. i’ve been here some 10 years and i don’t see it much different than it’s always been, at least since cole’s conversion.
catclub
@SteveM: “And she’ll be younger then than Madonna is now.”
But Madonna WORKS at working out to stay fit. Palin not known for that work ethic. (Although I will note that she is a runner. )
catclub
@Brachiator: Sheldon Whitehouse.
Nominative determinism rules the world!
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Clime Acts:
Do you have a clean, sustainable energy source handy that can replace oil/natural gas in the short term, at the same or lesser price?
If so, send me a prospectus, because I’d love to get in on the ground floor. But until then… Kindly stop whining.
jibeaux
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): Sure, the numbers can and will change, but the willful blindness about the whole “women can vote” thing is approaching the willful blindness on climate change. Fine by me, though.
catclub
@KG: “he seems like a smart choice.”
So was Michael Dukakis. So was John Anderson. So was Adlai Stevenson. Bill Clinton was NOT seen as a smart choice. I think Paul Tsongas was the smart choice 4 years from 1992.
Obama 4 years out was seen as a wild choice, at best. Predictions are hard, especially about the future.
(I just read about his response to someone telling him he was the choice of the smart voters ‘Yes maam, but I need a majority.’ Misquoted, of course.)
dr. bloor
@Brachiator:
Interesting in the same way having ingrown toenails removed without anasthesia is interesting. Not your father’s Cuomo–raw ambition with no core.
TenguPhule
Botox Now.
Botox Forever.
Culture of Truth
I didn’t think Biden had. In any case, I don’t fret about it.
Brachiator
@dr. bloor: RE: Cuomo would be an interesting option.
I don’t think he is nearly as bad as you suggest. We shall see. In any event, this stuff is the most idle of idle speculation. Not much point in blog wars over preferred or hated candidates.
eemom
@daize:
who the fuck are you?
Here’s an idea: don’t like my comments, don’t read ’em, much less bother taking the time to respond.
Though I do love it that you are singularly stupid enough to agree with this moronic post.
baldheadeddork
I don’t think we’ll have to wait four years for Palin to run.
Let’s get this out of the way first: Sarah Palin will never, ever run for the Republican presidential nomination. Too much work and too much exposure to the press and unscreened masses for way, way, too long.
But I’ve always thought there was a better than average chance Palin would run as a Tea Party independent. She doesn’t have a prayer in hell of winning, but it would screw the Republican establishment and set her up to fleece the 27% for a couple more years.
The odds of this are directly proportional to how devoted Romney stays to base conservative positions after he locks up the nomination. If Romney even thinks about pulling back to the middle the base will revolt faster than you can get a G-IV to Wasilla.
Will this hand Obama a second term? Sure, but the conservative base will argue the GOP did that when they got behind a fake conservative like R-Money. Remember, conservatism can never, ever fail. Republicans only lose when they fail conservatism. These people believe in this as much as the rest of us believe the sun rises in the east.
The civil war in the GOP is nowhere close to its end. Republicans want to beat Obama, but the base won’t get behind another moderate to make that happen. It’s either Palin by another name, or Palin herself.
NR
Be careful what you wish for. After four more years of “compromise” with the GOP (read: Enacting their policies in exchange for some token concessions), pretty much any Republican will be able to win in 2016. Even Palin.
Davis X. Machina
@Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity: Nach Romney, Wir!
Bubblegum Tate
@Bruce S:
Inanimate carbon rod!
shortstop
What about the governor of Maryland, Martin Irishname (sorry, no sleep and having a middle-aged noun slippage moment)? Someone who knows him, tell us about him.
Gin & Tonic
@Brachiator:
I think he’s worse. I think we will come to see a Caroline Kennedy-esque sense of entitlement coupled with a Willard-esque shape-shifting, and a Schumer-esque fellating of Wall Street for good measure.
Davis X. Machina
@Southern Beale: Someone we’ve never heard of. They’ll make a killah speech at the convention, and four years later, pow!
Trooptrap Tripetrope
My take is that Palin very likely wants to be Vice President. When told by McCain’s staff that being Vice President wouldn’t require her to do any work, she knew she’d found her dream job.
Maxwel
2016 will be Gettysburg for the Confederate party.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Gin & Tonic:
For better or for worse that’s not far from being a dead-on description of FDR circa 1928.
eemom
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s a bit ghoulish, but I do like the concept of a politician sewed together out of leftover parts.
You haz no love for Andrew at all? What about the marriage equality law?
Gin & Tonic
@eemom: Yeah, supporting marriage equality in NY really expended political capital.
Trying to think of something positive… Let’s see… Well, he’s not as odious as his girlfriend. Um, how’m I doin?
Brachiator
@Gin & Tonic:
What ThatLeftTurnInABQ said.
Caroline Kennedy never held public office before when she thought about running for the Senate. Cuomo is the elected governor and has a history of public service. To talk about a sense of entitlement is ridiculous.
I appreciate the hyperbole in the rest of your post, but don’t think it is particularly accurate.
ruemara
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Reading is not fundamental when you have an agenda.
On topic: Let’s be serious here. Of course they like her now, she’s notRomney and notRunning. All of American politics has devolved into “I liked them before they were famous”. Back when people were mythological perfect statesmen and they get up in front of a microphone or do actual policy. Americans are stupid, en masse and when asked these dim questions, you get stupid answers. Also, shut up about 2016. Let’s just get through 2012.
catclub
@Maxwel: With Appomattox in another 40 years. Joy!
xian
@eemom: why do you read this fucking site, dude?
David Koch
How dare you!
How dare you say our progressive betters, Cenk and Glenn, are backing someone who would let the poor die painful deaths!
What an outrage!
You need to apologize right now!
David Koch
@SteveM:
BAHWHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH
That’s hilarious. He was doing hookers.
And to think the firebaggers, emoprogs, progressive betters constantly lectured us on how Edwards was the only True Progressive™.
Good Times.
Peter
@Southern Beale: It would be hard for them to have won much bigger in the house, true, but their clowning cost them key senate races. If not for Christine O’Donnell and the chicken lady (I’m pretty sure those were the senate races, there was so much clowning at the time that it’s hard to remember) we’d probably have Senate Majority Leader McDonnell today.
eemom
@xian:
what’s it fucking to you, asshole?
Clime Acts
@Southern Beale:
Shorter SB:
Why are you people talking to Britney?! Goddammit, we agreed at the slumber party that we weren’t going to talk to Britney, bitches!
STOP TALKING TO BRITNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!
Clime Acts
@Brachiator:
Why?
Clime Acts
@chopper:
Well then you need to see a craniologist. Your powers of discernment are terminal.
Catsy
And this, in a nutshell, is an example of how devastatingly wrong are the people who keep telling us to just ignore Palin and similar malignant tumors on the body politic and they’ll go away, that mocking them just gives them the attention they want.
Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and demonstrably wrong.
When we ignore them, they get a free hand to say and do whatever insane, pig-ignorant crap they want without accountability. Their base is going to eat it up, not call them on it–it’s what they want to hear. Meanwhile, their bullshit goes unchallenged in the media and unnoticed by the average voter, allowing them to build support and undeserved credibility.
When we mock them and shine a bright light on their dangerous stupidity and hateful words, they become toxic and unpopular.
Let me put it another way: if the “ignore them” ostriches are right, and calling attention to the right-wing shit merchants just helps them, the GOP primary ought to be a net positive for them–after all, it’s hauling all of their ugliness and bile out into the open and parading it for all of America to see. Instead the opposite is true: the more people see of the GOP candidates, the less they like them.
Clime Acts
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
Hmmm…I kind of thought that was the government’s job. Obama’s had three and half years to promote or otherwise kick off a Manhattan style project to replace fossil fuels. Haven’t even seen him leaning that direction.
The government as a whole has had 40 years since the first series of fake gas shortages and price spikes and warnings of global warming and other consequences, and haven’t done shit. And each time, in spite of it, I’ve voted Democrat.
I’m not quite as blind as I used to be.
xian
@Cassidy: i think mental illness may be involved
Clime Acts
@David Koch:
Could you explain how it’s a known fact that Progressives never use hookers or have extramarital affairs?
Thanks, I’ll wait.
Also, Elliot Spitzer used hookers. I wish he was president. And still used hookers. Who gives a shit? What business is it of yours?
Clime Acts
@Catsy:
Yes, this worked well with two term president George W Bush.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Clime Acts:
And I suspect that if such a Bill ever made it to his desk, he’d sign it.
Energy policy used to be non-partisan (Nixon, Ford and Carter were all basically on the same page). But once St. Reagan convinced the rubes that talk of a post-oil future was a namby-pamby soshilist plot, our fate was pretty much sealed.
Not sure how that’s Obama’s fault.
pragmatism
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor: clime acts demands that his unreasonable expectations be met. countdown to bully pulpit suggestion……
Brachiator
@Clime Acts: RE: I hope that Mrs Clinton holds to her word that Secretary of State is her last go at political office.
Two reasons. Mrs Clinton was not qualified to be president, and I don’t want to see this farce revisited again. She has been OK as Secretary of State, but not stellar, and has shown not much ability to rebuild that agency.
I also reject the Romance novel aspect of Mrs Clinton’s candidacy; the false notion that she had been commander-in-chief in training simply because she was the spouse of a great leader. Their were soul mates, so this naturally endowed her with presidential gravitas. Nonsense. This kind of thing should be left to third rate countries.
Frankensteinbeck
@Clime Acts:
Then you are not paying attention.
Clime Acts
@Brachiator:
I don’t completely agree with you re Hillary, but I don’t completely disagree either.
That said, Elizabeth Warren is making me wet in my political private parts.
Why not Liz in 2016?
Clime Acts
@Frankensteinbeck:
You’re missing the words “Manhattan style project.” There is no sense of grave urgency about Obama’s energy rhetoric.
Meanwhile, there was NO winter at all in New England, flowers are blooming in mid March, pine beetles are moving north and eating the NE forests, maple syrup production is drying up and moving north, and Obama fast tracks a fucking OIL pipeline.
Such leadership. Such willngness to speak uncomfortable truths.
xian
dont worry colonscope-man. Liz will disappoint you as soon as she has to compromise on something to get something done in office.
xian
eemom yeah I’m the asshole who haunts a blog and obsessively stalking the posters and policing the discourse. carry on, tough guy.
Brachiator
@Clime Acts:
Fair enough, and appreciate that you see that I don’t have any personal dislike of Secretary Clinton.
No political track record yet, but I agree that she bears watching.
gwangung
She’s gotta win THIS year first.
eemom
@xian:
Yep, you are, and a grammatically ignorant one at that. Carry on, ‘tard.
Brachiator
@gwangung: RE: No political track record yet, but I agree that she bears watching.
True enough.
In my political fantasy league, she wins. Worse case scenario, she loses, but Obama is re-elected, Democrats take the Senate with big majorities, and Obama appoints her to be Secretary of Commerce.
Davis X. Machina
@David Koch: The personal is political, after all.
xian
@eemom: shut up, idiot, or try editing a post from a mobile phone.
you never did answer my original question, which is why you deliberately come here to get your panties in a twist and to decry the decline of moderate center-left blogging in these trying times of ours.
but rage on, anonymous internet tough guy. your copyediting skillz will take you far.
xian
thought experiment: i wonder how many readers of this blog cringe when they see a comment from “xian” vs. when they see a comment from “eemom” or “daahling” or “Clime Acts” or “A++ Bonds”?
I’ll take my answer off the air.
Clime Acts
@xian:
Seriously? That’s important to you?
Samara Morgan
Catsy, she’s done. Game change to game over in two hours.
Next year she’s on oxygen and lifetime.
This is how she will be remembered in the history books…unprepared…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
testing….
xian
@Clime Acts: no, you, You, YOU are important! so very very important