This time, from Palin herself (via ABC News): Sarah Palin: ‘Not Doing This For Naught’
In an interview with ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas, the Republican vice-presidential nominee was asked about 2024, whether she was discouraged by the daily attacks on the campaign trail, and would instead pack it in and return to her home state of Alaska.“I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we’ve taken, that would bring this whole … I’m not doing this for naught,” Palin said.
That is a rather curious response, as it is not typically considered politic to speculate about post-election plans before all the votes have been cast, especially if that speculation infers that one is thinking about what happens if one loses. It is, really, a rookie mistake.
The interesting thing to watch will be how well see actually wears on the base, as they have yet to get a full dose of her views. She remains, in many ways, a Rorschach candidate. For example, Polimom noted the other day that Palin’s views on immigration, which were heretofore unknown, don’t sit well with some segments of the base. It is easy for the base to love Palin now, as they know for sure she is a rock-solid pro-lifer, and yet no one really knows for sure all that much beyond that. Political love between a group of voters and a candidate is almost always inverse to the actual amount of information that the voters have about said candidate. That is not, btw, a slam on Palin specifically (or really a slam at all). Indeed, I ask the reader: what politician have you actually liked more and more that more that one actually knew about the life and views of that politician? More knowledge always means more chances to find fault.
October 31st, 2024 at 10:30 am
She also hasn’t been attacked from the right the same way she would be in a Republican primary. While there are conservatives criticizing her now, it doesn’t register among a certain group of people because the alternative would be the Democrats. Partisans are more likely to give her the benefit of the doubt, get defensive at criticism, or just write most of it off as coming from the left. Once you get into a Republican primary, a few things happen. The first is you have other Republicans available as alternatives so they won’t be as wed to her. They’d be more open to voting against her than they are now. The second is that the attacks on her will be coming from other Republicans, ones with more credibility in their eyes than the current ones because you won’t be able to yell “turncoat”. And the third is that the people who have been handling her with kid gloves for the good of the party will have no reason to continue doing so. People who are holding their fire now won’t if they’re pulling for another candidate. I think Palin will be a player in 2024, but she is not automatically the favorite the way some people make her out to be. The only thing working in her favor is that she’ll have four years she can use to gain some policy fluency.
November 1st, 2024 at 4:56 pm
LMAO!!! Jim Lehrer tries campaign mediation to save the ticket:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUN8oldj9o
But Palin 2024 stomps McCain into the grounds. Ouch!