Oh good, thanks to Politico, we can move on past the midterms and start discussing the next presidential elections:
The establishment-vs.-activists narrative is hardly novel in presidential primaries. What’s different this time is that the anti-establishment candidate — Palin — would enter with unmatched celebrity and media advantages, at a time when the establishment is weaker than it’s been in many years.
There are a bunch of Republicans who thought Sarah Palin and the whole Tea Party thing was kind of cute but want no part of them once Tuesday’s elections are over. They’re falling over each other to give anonymous quotes to Politico reporters. Unfortunately for them, they now realize that they’ll have difficulty in beating her in the Republicans primaries and caucuses.
Me? I don’t think she has the work ethic to run a long campaign. But that’s really the only reason I think she can’t win the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary. If she did somehow win one or both of those, she’d probably roll to the nomination. The Republican base is totally insane.
We’re about to enter into the most poisonous political climate that this country has endured since the fight for full equality for blacks in the 1960’s. The electorate is going to absolutely HATE what they get out of the next Congress, and they’ll be none too pleased with the Establishment.
Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin.
They’re going off the rails on a crazy train. It may ride them through to ownership of the House, but it ain’t coming smoothly into the station in November 2012. Our challenge for the next two years is going to be almost entirely about making sure that Sarah Palin and the influx of new Republican scoundrels get their fair share of the blame for the absolute mess in Washington.
