Looking at an Iowan take on the 2012 Republican presidential race, I’m struck by how implausible all ten of the proposed candidates are. I mean, Chuck Grassley, Bobby Jindal? Seriously? And they’re probably the pick of the litter. I liked this bit on Sarah Palin:
Many in the national media have this mistaken sense that Iowa Republicans are seeking a new identity, that they’ll reach out to moderates and carve out more widely palatable positions. Having been to two major GOP events in just the last weeks in Iowa, I get the distinct sense that the party is growing smaller, more insular, more angry — and that it is likely to double-down on a candidate like Palin — damn the torpedoes and the media and conventional wisdom — and Gov. Haley Barbour who tried the other night in Des Moines (to no avail) to get rank-and-file Republicans to accept new demographics and dynamics of life in America.
Palin is exactly what many Republicans want ~ a time machine. We know that machine goes back, but whether there’s a switch in it for the future remains to be seen.
They actually predict that Palin would win the Iowa caucuses over…wait for it…Jeb Bush. The GOP can’t possibly go back to the well on either of those candidates, can they? But who’s the competition? Tim Pawlenty? Mittens Romney? Newt Gingrich?
Oddly, though, I don’t think the onset of Palinism is really a return to the recent past. It’s more like a quantum leap into a past that only existed prior to the Voting Rights Act, or even to before Irish and Italian immigration.
It’s actually a return to an idealized past that never existed. And never will. But that’s OK – as the Bush aide said in a different context, they create their own reality.
Every day I feel more and more like watching Republicans is like watching zoo animals. But without the bars.
Actually it did exist on TV in shows like Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best / My Three Sons, very idealized depictions of the middle class views of history which many on the right watched on TV as they grew up and now see as real history like Ronald Reagan used to project scripts and parts he played into a historical reality he drew from to feed red meat to the right wing.
I suspect that if the choice were between Jeb Bush and Sarah Palin, Palin actually WOULD win that one. The handful of sane Republicans left in the party would find out what it takes to have their party ID switched to “Independent”.
They’ve got Huckabee too far down the list. By 2012 the Club for Growthers are going to be fairly desperate and willing to re-evaluate the Huckster’s heresy in raising taxes when he was the Governor. If the Huckster hadn’t had the Growthers lined up against him, he probably would have been able to win the nomination last year outright.
I don’t actually know who’s going to win in the primary – it’s way to early to see anyone on the field. After the 2010 elections we’ll have a better idea of who is really going to be there. But of that list of 10, the only one I take seriously right now is the Huckster. Unless there’s some kind of major seismic shift, of course.
Geico no longer will advertise on Glenn Beck’s show.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time toc all em up and thank them!!
Thank you, Warren.
It’s a start…!
I don’t think Palin would prevail in New Hampshire though. They have an open primary, and Yankee Republicans are a tad saner than the Steve King-variety Hawkeyes.
I think the “open primary” would probably be enough to tank her chances, though I actually and going to go ahead and predict that New Hampshire isn’t going to be particularly helpful to any GOP candidate in ’12. I may be wrong, but I suspect that the typical Republican primary voter these days doesn’t really care what Republicans in New England think about much of anything.
That should be “… though I am actually going to go ahead and predict …” up in that there first sentence.
Wow – wtf happened there? Perhaps I need a nap or something…
It helps with media momentum. But it has very few delegates. Hillary learned the hard way.
Actually, the media momentum is what I mean. I think winning New Hampshire has the possibility of actually hurting a GOP candidate come ’12 – unless he’s got a ton of momentum moving into the primary in the first place, winning in NH may mark him as too much of a “moderate” for Republican primary voters in other states.
Remember, McCain lost everything until Florida. He was reduced to flying coach and carrying his own bags. Until , overnight, he became the front runner. I still can’t figure out who was pulling the strings.
McCain won NH. Remember, he came in like fifth on Iowa, but he was banking on NH. Which then the TradMed played up like he conquered Normandy.
Ah! I forgot that one.
Yeah, and how many Democrats would go in and vote for Palin just to make the Republicans look foolish. We already know who our candidate is going to be, so there isn’t going to be much drama on the (D) side of things..
evidently she turned many NHites to Obama – they hated her (that’s what I heard when I worked in northern NH around the election). NH is libertarian and they didn’t like her religious language among other things.
Evidently didn’t like her brand of fundamentalism (a traditionally catholic area).
I can believe it … after all .. Iowa is about the turn out .. right? .. and provided Palin still has her looks in 2 1/2 years(cause lets face it .. put Palin’s attitude in Kay Bailey Hutchinson and would you get the same result?) .. all the horny Republicans will come out to vote for Bible Spice
I still don’t get what people find so attractive about Sarah Palin. I certainly don’t think Kay Bailey Hutchinson would be doing any better if she looked like an over-made-up transsexual, but that’s just me, I guess.
But it’s looking like we didn’t get much in the ’08 election either.
the prob the ratpublicans, and many demorats as well, and there consultants, pundits, etal, have is that they’re caught up in a reality that a significant majority of the populace has moved beyond.
the healthcare issue is a prime example; 3/4 of americans want a strong public option…perhaps even a single payer system if they could get it… but the politicians refuse to acknowledge that. in that regard, the only thing graham said in his interview w/ klein that made any sense was
but if they want to cling to the past…and the very distant past at that…they’re more than welcome to select palin. at the rate her legacy, if you can even call it that, in alaska is disintegrating she’ll be lucky to get a majority of the lunatic fringe vote.
the only rat l see out there with a snowballs’ chance is charlie crist, and he didn’t even make the list of losers. plus he’s got his eye on the senate seat that’s now vacant.
l would posit that the political ground’s going to shift substantially by 2012, and at this point l wouldn’t counsel making any bets on obama being a gimme. especially if the healthcare proposals tank and the economy doesn’t improve…ignoring for the moment the massive potential for disaster in the ME and what effect that might have.
Whoever wins is gonna have to wade though an inexhaustible amount of Deranged. Imagine the coffee klatches next time around!
Bingo!
The only person who can possibly wade through it is Palin. She fits, she is one of them.
nalbar
Charlie Crist will never win a Republican primary .. put it another way .. if Crist were to ever win the Republican Presidential primary .. then this country really has gone down the rabbit hole for good .. I mean .. do you really think Palin is above using innuendo(obviously behind the scenes .. like Bush’s S.C. attack on McCain in 2000) against Crist?
Charlie Crist is not going to be the Republican nominee for Prez. I’ll be interested in seeing how he manages his Senate race next year. I don’t think that the national gay community will allow a closet queen to run against their interests and not make very clear to the American public that he’s gay. That will make Crist unpalatable to Republicans and a hypocrite to Dems. The only people who’ll vote for his him are dumb clucks who can’t spell and mistake “Crist” for “Christ”.
Big show tonight:
SpaceWeather.com
Here’s a link to worldwide photos of last year’s event: http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_12aug08_page3.htm?PHPSESSID=bana3g0pjda3sc6n886ejuddu7
We really are all in the same boat.
First he won’t supply his birth certificate, now he is bringing the triffids upon us.
Make sure to cover your eyes tonight or the socialists will have their way.
nalbar
Actually Gawd is throwing rocks at us for thinking of using any socialist idea in the real amurkia, but for some reason his aim ain’t that great.
Socialists in Pacifica will be protected from the triffids because the meteor showers are obscured by the heavy marine layer, aka fog. We will rise up tomorrow morning and begin setting up our death panels. After our lattes.
Yes, the marine layer.
It’s why I did not even bother looking up.
nalbar
Can’t wait – made plans to go out to view them in a dimly lit area…
brightness will hurt your chances even in a “dimly lit” area.
It is all so obvious. How could I forget about Rick Santorum?
I loved the Big Peach sports section.
Moved to just Sundays at some point and I would pore over the paper on Sunday mornings . . . they would have full color photographs of the Hawkeye football games (this was well before most papers went to color). I would study those pictures and imagine myself at Kinnick stadium . . . .