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10/21: Joe Steps In It
Blogometer —
... privilege tax', the 'estate tax', the 'gift tax', the 'federal excise tax', and even the fantastically named 'generation skipping transfer tax'. But surely we have no such outlandish customs here! We who live in a country that has only one sort of tax, the federal income tax, can only stare in wonder at those benighted countries where people actually pay taxes whenever they buy a shovel or realize capital gains. Oh. Wait." THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Is Sarah Palin The Right's Howard Dean? The Next Right 's Patrick Ruffini : "I'm rooting for Sarah Palin, and in temperament she is ...
Next Up: A CGI Palin?
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Ruffini looks to the future: Everyone remembers Howard Dean for the "scream" but I think his example provides a context in which Sarah Palin could lose the election, but ultimately win the party and pave the way for a conservative victory in the future more meaningful than McCain-Palin '08 would be... I was thinking on similar lines, as I watched Palin's Colorado rally last night with greater and greater hathos. The concept of Palin as a marketing tool, as an emblem of pure content-free identity politics, is very powerful. You can see why on paper, Kristol loved her, the way he loved the concept of Iraqi ...
Neither Media Bias Nor Palin Will Cause McCain Loss
Riehl World View —
While by no means conceding this year's election, if all the pundits and polls going on about an alleged Palin drag on the ticket, or how the media is winning this thing for Obama, take a look at one image and you'll know precisely what is to blame.
Whether he turns it around now or not remains to be seen. But it sure wasn't about his VP selection. She remains the chief bright spot in this campaign because she still draws crowds. And the media was just as biased on Sept. 17 as they are now.
As someone said in a previous election, it's the economy stupid. Just match the dates to that graph.
Add in McCain's previous ...
Sarah Palin and the Right
The Next Right —
Patrick Ruffini says Sarah Palin is "situated similarly" to Howard Dean, and could be the flashpoint for a grassroots revival of the Republican Party. Andrew Sullivan disagrees. Underneath the unbecoming hyperbole, he makes a good point.
The concept of Palin as a marketing tool, as an emblem of pure content-free identity politics, is very powerful. You can see why on paper, Kristol loved her, the way he loved the concept of Iraqi liberation. The only trouble is the actual reality: the fact that she has no record to speak of, that what she has is dreadful, that she has no education, ...
Palin in 2012, Revisited
Ross Douthat —
Basically, I agree with the Ambinder-Cillizza take on the question - namely, that Sarah Palin might well be a formidable contender for the GOP nomination in 2012 even if she's massively unpopular with the sixty-five percent of America that doesn't vote in Republican primaries. In an Obama-era GOP, where the various factions and candidates are competing for control of a increasingly purist rump, isn't hard to see a scenario in which Palin unites evangelical voters and talk-radio conservatives - constituencies that split between Huckabee and either Romney or Fred Thompson, respectively, in 2008 - and rides that bloc to victory against a field that's just as ...
Sarah Palin’s Reaganite Potential
GayPatriot —
Russ Douthat alerts us to a great exchange between Jon Henke and Patrick Ruffini on Sarah Palin’s future. (Both posts merit your attention.)
Jon believes Palin needs “three things” to be “substantive leader of a political movement:”
A clear, but sophisticated, political philosophy
A serious governing strategy to move the ball forward on her political philosophy
A support base, including grassroots and elite infrastructure, that can mobilize to defend her and advance her agenda
My sense is that she could easily assemble the third, but ...
The Right's Howard Dean
Daily Kos —
... Republicans will be forced to decide among themselves who will run their party. The establishment will put up their safe, comfortable picks like Alec Poitevint, Chuck Yob, Katon Dawson, Jim Greer, Chip Saltsman, and Saul Anuzis. Who? Exactly. Will a rebel faction emerge pushing radical change, such as we did back in 2005? The folks over at the Next Right (which is actually an excellent blog) have started pondering that question. Patrick Ruffini thinks it should be Sarah Palin. Right now, with the small donor and grassroots ...
