From conservatives about McCain: "nasty, obstinate old fool, he should have listened to me".

[Liberal_in_LA]

The Palin Problem
If McCain loses, the GOP will have a head vs. heart decision to make about the party's veep pick.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/165656

John McCain's defeat will be a lonely one. The old soldier has always taken pride in proving no one owns him—not his party, not its leaders and, for damn sure, not the ideological purity police of the right. So if the polls prove right, and McCain loses to Barack Obama next Tuesday, no one but him will own his defeat. Already, from every corner of the conservative coalition, the same refrain is rising: nasty, obstinate old fool, he should have listened to me.

Will Sarah Palin join that chorus? The answer, if Palin has big ambitions (and every piece of her life story suggests she does), is almost certainly yes. Even now she is dropping hints of unhappiness with her running mate's way of doing things—saying, if she had her way, the McCain campaign would skip the robo-calls, go after Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and continue to pour resources into Michigan. It's easy to imagine her amped-up post-election critique: they dressed me in their fancy clothes, they fed me to their elite media friends, they even made me bow and scrape to "Saturday Night Live," but they still couldn't change me. I'm still Sarah from Wasilla and I'm ready to take Real America back.

Democrats, having witnessed Palin's wobbly 2008 performance (31 percent of registered voters in the new NEWSWEEK poll say Palin makes them less likely to vote for McCain), will no doubt relish the prospect of Palin lingering on the national stage. They should be careful what they wish for. For all her problems now, Palin has the biography, the ideological sympathies and the charisma to be what the Republican Party lacks: a populist, far-right politician with intense celebrity appeal.


:eyes:

[madaboutharry]

1. Another Frankenstein monster.

But I truly think the article is wrong. Right wing fundamentalist rapture Christianity is losing its appeal in the American electorate. Americans can see for themselves that the President of the United States needs to be an intelligent, balanced, and pragmatic individual. She is none of these things.

[jrockford]

2. As if this nightmare isn't enough

the idea of her lingering on after..

[Berry Cool]

3. This is what scares me about her. She's Ronald Reagan in a skirt.

We do ourselves a disservice if we don't realize that. She's dumber than dirt, but so was he. In the end it didn't matter, because people "liked" him so much and he was such a "communicator" and he could learn any lines they fed him, given enough time and tuition. He surrounded himself with people more than willing to think for him and just played the smiling figurehead of their operations, selling a sunny vision of America, while they soiled their hands doing what-all. Then he claimed he didn't know about anything wrong they might have done.

Sarah Palin embodies the same combination of factors as Reagan. Folksy demeanor, focus on talking "straight to the American people," constant chatter about the greatness of the country and the wisdom of small-town, small-minded folks, combined with a steely desire to Be In Charge. Intelligence? Doesn't need that. What she needed was more time to LEARN HER LINES. She didn't have that luxury of time this go-'round, but next time, she will. She will have had lots and lots of time to learn her lines. And next time, she won't be playing second fiddle to some doddering old man. She'll be the one in front. And sadly, after four years of Obama, she will no doubt find the ranks of her willing acolytes increased--not because he won't do a good job, but because certain people won't like the job he did. He will comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and a lot of the comfortable are not going to like that. And they will line up behind her in droves.

We can only hope that somehow, some twist of fate prevents this.

[yellowcanine]

4. Actually she isn't. She does not have his communication skills or his discipline for one. And for

all his faults, Reagan never showed the kind of meanness and sarcasm that Palin is capable of. Reagan also had a far better sense of humor.

[Undercurrent]

5. Agreed.

Palin is no Reagan.

Reagan was not a mean, nasty, snarly man. And for all of his obvious, and very serious faults he was also well read, has a sense of history and was more intelligent than most people give him credit for.

[WinkyDink]

6. Quayle had years to learn to spell "potato." Palin, like Quayle, is finished. There ARE scandals.

[progressivebydesign]

7. "populist" Hardly. She's an extremist with more scandals than a soap opera. n/t