Zogby on 2012: Palin leads among Republicans, Romney leads among all voters

I would be the first one to admit that McCain chose SP because she is a woman; however she had to be competent enough to deliver the goods for him: witness her introductory remarks in Dayton, her convention speech that many pundits said was the best they had seen from a Presidential or VP GOP candidate since Reagan in 1980 and her debate performance where she clearly beat Biden in her performance. Finally SP finished strong, delivering speeches to SRO fired-up audiences, so by the time she finished the campaign she became the most important and influential Republican as on November 4th. On Nov 7th Rasmussen came out with a poll of Republicans that 64% of them would vote for her for President in 2012-50% more than either Romney or Huckabee. Sure looks count, but so does charisma, guts and a strong belief in Reagan conservatism.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 12:05 AM

Romney is a worthy candidate if he decides to run again. I don’t think he can get the nomination but I’ve been wrong before.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 12:10 AM

All the more the reason why the conservative base of the GOP has to rally around 1 candidate at the earliest possible moment.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 12:14 AM

You can accuse the GOP of many things but not even Obama could get away of accusing the GOP of fielding a candidate who is retarded or mentally incompetent; there is just too much evidence to the contrary; the Couric interview will only take you so far. The primary season will re-define and legitimize her candidacy.If she emerges SP will be battle-tested; I think that is what Obama is most afraid of-that she knows what she is talking about and that the public knows she knows what she is talking about.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 12:26 AM

I said it would be important for the conservative base to rally around 1 candidate AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE MOMENT-that is when it is indicated that a conservative candidate becomes clearly viable and in tune with their beliefs; that does NOT mean now, now ,now. That could be 2 years, 2 1/2 years but certainly by the start of the primary season. Again evidence would have to be abundantly clear that a consenusus was developing around this person. If not, then we’re stuck with 2008 redux with moderates having a decent chance to prevail by coming up the middle again.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 12:40 AM

chunderroad: I don’t believe that Sarah got pregnant in high school. She wasn’t married until 1988 (age 24); and as far as anybody knows she was never an unwed mother or had an abortion. Track, her first born was born in 1990.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 1:27 AM

I agree with Eric Dondero that the Lower 48 has a distinct misimpression of SP, that the McCain campaign made a huge mistake in not representing her as a libertarian conservative but instead went out of their way to represent her as a social conservative. Then wouldn’t it be ironic if the so-called religious right later abandoned Sarah because she was not as socially conservative as they thought. I don’t think this will happen because of the abortion issue and her personal profession of faith and belief in God, but it poses an interesting dilemma for her future prospects, how to best represent her to the public.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 1:42 AM

I thought that one of the most powerful authentic moments for Sarah on television happened on the Larry King show when Larry King brazenly asked her how she personally felt when she learned that Bristol was pregnant? She answered: “What do you think, Larry?” And she said it with a smile. Look up the definition of savoir faire. Sarah has it in spades. Stupid people and buffoons do not possess it at all.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 1:51 AM

It sounds like many people have entered the 21c with 19c moral conceptions.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 2:09 AM

As the GOP is not a monolithic party, neither is the Democratic party. Regarding those segments of the Democratic party that fear Sarah they can be broken down into 3 categories: 1) those Obama dimwits (Ziegler poll) who are too stupid to fear SP because they honestly dismiss her as stupid 2)those who are rational and futuristic who know that many events may intervene to derail the steamroller called the Sarah Palin express and prevent her from securing the nomination or even competing for it(cross that bridge when we come to it) and 3)those Democrats or professional politicians that realize today that SP is a definite threat to Obama, who do not regard her as stupid or incompetent, who realize that if she was able to galvanize the voters on the trail with only the prestige of a VP candidate what would she be able to do when she is the focus of attention and is allowed to say what she wants to say instead of parroting McCain-thus she would have a much greater impact than before; plus she’ll have 4 more years to prepare herself to compete on the battlefield and in the arena of ideas. Also Sarah did knock off 2 governors to win the 2006 gubernatorial election. Fear may be too strong a word in November 2008 but give it another 2 years a bit of apprehension may start to creep into the Democratic ranks. What the MSM reflects is all 3 categories: for #1 having their 24/7 cable pundits, late-night comedians and Sunday talk show hosts and guests demean and ridicule Sarah any chance they get to reinforce the idea of stupidity; in so doing they direct their efforts to #2 by insidiously trying to convince Republicans to back other candidates (eg. Charlie Cook: nominating somebody who is unelectable) and as to #3 to destroy Sarah’s credibility completely before she has a chance to compete in the primaries (false stories, gross exaggerations, anonymous sources, gossip, slander, scandals etc). I really feel that if Sarah is to prevail over Obama in 2012 that she has to secure the backing of the ‘base’ very early in the process to meet head on the challenge of debunking the myths that surround her. First and foremost this must be done or again the MSM will control the agenda in 2012 and Obama will be elected with relative ease. Thus we must never lose sight about what the 2012 Presidential election is all about: it is all about making Obama a one-term President and installing Sarah Palin in his place.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 6:17 AM

Can any of the 3 amigos draw a SRO audience to hear their viewpoints? We’ll see.

technopeasant on November 30, 2008 at 6:53 AM