Majority of GOP want Palin for 2012

(Note: Dan R. has a follow-up here.)

As Dan R., who sent the article, put it, “They really are the ‘stupid party.’”

- end of initial entry -

Spencer Warren writes (November 17):

Dan R. should think twice before tossing out the epithet “stupid.” It is true that Republicans often are the “stupid party” but that is thanks to the McCains, Bushes, Oren Hatches and others, not Sarah Palin.

Anyone who thinks Mitt Romney is a better candidate than Sarah Palin knows little about politics. Romney had his chance against a weak field and won only two primacies, in his old home state of Michigan and his adopted state of ultra-liberal Massachusetts. He has reversed his position on a central moral issue like abortion. True, he is highly intelligent and articulate, but he comes across as too well scrubbed and wealthy to have wide appeal.

In politics one has to win as well as have principles. Sometimes that requires a degree of compromise. Some readers at VFR seem to think that if a candidate does not meet each and every one of their principles, even if secondary to the most fundamental principles, then they must reject that candidate. That is another path to “National Suicide.”

Sarah Palin is a terrific campaigner and political personality. She has the potential to be a winning conservative candidate, even like Ronald Reagan. In my view, we should be pressing her to take the right position on immigration. In most other respects—not all, but most—she has solid conservative positions. She probably needs more “seasoning,” which should not be difficult.

In short, Sarah Palin has tremendous potential, Mitt Romney is a demonstrated loser as a candidate. Does Dan R. want to be 100 percent politically pure, in his own eyes, and leave the field to the left, or does he want to win and stop the left?

LA replies:

If Palin needs “seasoning” before she becomes a plausible national conservative candidate, as Mr. Warren argues, then how about giving her some time to get that seasoning and to grow as a political figure before touting her as one’s candidate for 2012? But that’s not what the people whom Dan R. called the “stupid party” have done. No. they’ve already declared her their favorite. They would nominate her for president right now if they could.

To remind ourselves of how much Palin is in need of “seasoning,” including familiarity with the most basic conservative take on things, here is what she said at the vice presidential debate:

I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that, and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers need to be paid more.

Yeah, our schools “have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving.” Maybe she’ll be called the Education President II.

If they don’t call her the Legalize the Illegal Aliens Because They Really Want To Be Here president.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 16, 2008 04:27 PM | Send