Next for GOP leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin

[frigidmagi]

Politico

[quote]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.

Interviews with advisers to the main 2012 presidential contenders and with other veteran Republican operatives make clear they see themselves on a common, if uncoordinated, mission of halting the momentum and credibility Palin gained with conservative activists by plunging so aggressively into this year’s midterm campaigns. (See: Sarah Palin wreaking havoc on campaign trail)

There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting.

Many of these establishment figures argue in not-for-attribution comments that Palin’s nomination would ensure President Barack Obama’s reelection, as the deficiencies that marked her 2008 debut as a vice presidential nominee — an intensely polarizing political style and often halting and superficial answers when pressed on policy — have shown little sign of abating in the past two years. (See: Palin speaks to electability issue)

"There is a determined, focused establishment effort … to find a candidate we can coalesce around who can beat Sarah Palin," said one prominent and longtime Washington Republican. "We believe she could get the nomination, but Barack Obama would crush her."

This sentiment was a nearly constant refrain in POLITICO interviews with top advisers to the candidates most frequently mentioned as running in 2012 and a diverse assortment of other top GOP officials.

Nearly all of these interviewees insisted on keeping their views on background, fearing the wrath of conservative grass-roots activists who are enthralled with the former Alaska governor and who have made plain that the establishment’s disdain for Palin and her devotees is mutually reciprocated. (See: Palin personifies GOP divide)

Top Republicans, from presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty to highly influential advisers such as Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, are said to be concerned she will run, and could win, according to the officials.

A Palin adviser declined to comment.

Shortly after the article was posted, Palin went on Fox News, where she is a paid commentator, to criticize POLITICO and any unnamed critics.

"[T]hese are the brave people who want to lead the nation and run the world. And but they're not brave enough to put their name in an article," she told Greta Van Susteren. "I learned back in the day that who, what, when, where, why of journalism. You report that facts; you let other people decide what their opinion is going to be. So having unnamed sources in an article like this is very, very, disappointing, you know. And it doesn't do anybody any good. It doesn't educate anybody. … I'm getting used to it though."

Most, if not all, of the top GOP presidential contenders will hold off on formal announcements until next spring, in part to get a better handle on what Palin will do. Instead, they will focus on lining up key supporters and raising enough money to prove their viability by the end of March. The officials said the price of entry to compete credibly in Iowa and New Hampshire will be roughly $35 million. (See: GOP W.H. contenders map slow start)

The stop-Palin talks are by no means coordinated among the various campaigns. But top advisers for most of the 2012 hopefuls told us the candidates — as well as many establishment figures — are fixated on the topic, especially on how to keep her from running or how to deny her the nomination if she does run.

A longtime Republican leader said party elders hope to thwart Palin by strengthening the Republican National Committee, which has been a magnet for controversy and has seen lackluster fundraising under current Chairman Michael Steele, and outside groups such as those blessed by Rove and Gillespie and now spending heavily on congressional races. (See: RNC aims to counter DNC cash edge)

This would represent "a strong counterweight to some kind of guerrilla effort Palin might try to launch." This leader said the party needs to create a unified job creation theme to offset the "cult of personality" that is Palin. "You deter someone by creating stronger opposition."

Rove, one of the few establishment types to raise flags publicly about a Palin bid, this week told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that her upcoming reality show on cable TV could diminish her presidential standing. "I am not certain how this fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office,'" Rove said.

Steele sounded a different note in a POLITICO interview: "I don't think that Sarah's too much worried about what Karl Rove's speculations are."

Steele said the Washington fretting about Palin, who “excites and ignites an energy out there,â€

[LadyTevar]

They created her, they can try to stop her and all the other problems they unleashed the last two election cycles.

Me? I'm going to sit back and watch the GOP self-destruct.

[rhoenix]

What I think is interesting is that this appears to be a conflict between the rhetoric the Republicans have been using of late, versus the politics of what they do and vote for.

Palin appears very much to subscribe to the rhetoric used, but not the policies as to why the rhetoric is being used by establishment Republicans. In short, this seems to be a direct conflict of talk vs. walk - either way, the next few years should be interesting.

After the Republican "purity tests" are over with, I honestly hope to see more Republicans like Bob Corker, and Dick Lugar - and fewer of the others who wholeheartedly believe their own rather divisive rhetoric.

[Derek Thunder]

If they're going to stop her, they better act fast, and they better think of a killer line of attack that doesn't paradoxically endear her more to her mouthbreathing followers.

Sarah Palin, the ubiquitous superstar of the Republican Party, has been searching for office space in Iowa, according to a little-noticed report Sunday in a British paper.

Palin is scheduled to visit Iowa Nov. 27. Iowa is an crucial primary state.

"In the course of making arrangements for that tour, two aides organising Palin's visit to Des Moines on November 27 told locals they were looking into office space and other logistical needs for the coming year," the Guardian reported.

(sauce)

The mythology of Sarah Palin speaks to the vast middle of the nation, a group of people convinced that an intellectual and political elite (of both parties) is working in the shadows to change the United States into a multicultural dystopia. Palin, who defines herself in opposition to that brainy junta, feeds off attacks from them - it merely serves to prove her narrative in the eyes of her supporters.

If I were an RNC bigwig, I'd try and figure out a way to co-opt her policy positions rather than tear her down - Have her act as a figurehead for more 'traditional' republican policies. She can win a national election given the right conditions, and establishment Republicans need to learn how to use this powerful weapon rather than shrinking from it.

If I were a DNC bigwig, I'd be furiously lobbying for any sort of economic stimulus in the hopes of action before the lame duck session ends. Gridlock will kill Obama if the economy doesn't improve, and if there ends up being a showdown with House Republicans when it comes time to raise the debt ceiling, I'm pretty sure he'll be the one to flinch first.

[Derek Thunder]

For you see, it is something that can be felt in the air here. The loss of Palin's champion Joe Miller was a severe blow, and evidence of that is all around - the cold has an unusual bite to it, and even the coziest of hearthfires fail to provide warmth. The pine needles shrink in fear from their doom, and a dread quiet has set in among the snowy forest.

However, one need only look to the north, to the poisonous Mat-Su vail where the Palin lies, and the future of our nation is apparent - the noxious cloud of smoke and ash rises ever upwards from that wicked place, choking out life itself. It started about five years ago when the incomprehensible horror ran for state office - the normally carefree simple folk of the valley began acting in a most unusual manner, their freewheeling gait replaced with a dead shamble. That's when the smoke and fires first appeared on the horizon. When the 2008 election went to Obama, and the governor's office was vacated, all that was left was a dim smoulder and what appeared to be a final gasp of wispy white ash lulled us into the belief that the region would return to its former backwoods beauty.

We were quite wrong, and today a cloud like none other hangs over the entire state. Be forewarned, ye dwellers of contiguous states, for an ill wind rises from the northwest.