Palin '12

She might give Jindal a run for his money.

Ambinder:

There’s a suspicion in some McCain loyalist precincts that Gov. Sarah Palin is beginning to play the Republican base against John McCain — McCain won’t let her campaign in Michigan…McCain won’t let her bring up Jeremiah Wright… McCain doesn’t like her terrorist pal talks….

Think ahead to 2010…2011…2012.

Palin is ambitious. Very ambitious.

And if she wants the job, she’s easily the frontrunner to become THE voice of the angry Right in the Wilderness.  She is a favorite of talk radio and Fox News conservatives, and speaks their language as only a true member of the club can. (Her recent Limbaugh interview was full of dog whistles that any Dittohead would recognize. Including her actual use of the word ditto.)

Palin will have plenty of time to become fluent on national issues.  She will easily benefit from the low expectations threshhold, and will probably even garner positive reviews from the MSM types who disparage her today.

Palin will be judged to be “ready” in four years.  George Will and David Brooks and Peggy Noonan will all swoon over her once more. Ok, maybe not George Will.

Palin is an enormously talented politician.  When she knows what she’s talking about, or even when she knows enough to fake it, she is very, very appealing, and very good at redirecting questions to whatever her message is.

I was talking to my dad the other day about Palin.  It doesn’t look like the GOP party leadership is positioning her for the future — she was simply one more mavericky feather in McCain’s cap.  But the more I see of Palin, the more it becomes clear that she is the type of person who can and will position herself.  I may not like her, but her shameless self-promotion does seem to work.

Latest posts by Shani (see all)

  • Honestly? I would love it were she the Republican Party nominee. I don’t think she’ll be any less of a joke four years from now, and the base of people she appeals to is getting smaller and smaller. It would be the most delicious trainwreck.

  • My beloved and I were batting this back and forth just yesterday – I think that she has a future in the Republican party, no matter that she’s hurting their ticket with swing voters now. He thinks like G.D., that she’s a mess and will remain laughable in the future.

    But Bush got elected in 2004. That’s all the proof I need that this woman has a political future.

  • ladyfresshh

    I never thought she was going to go away sadly enough. This level of popularity is a bit too much and she doesn’t strike me as a shy and humble type.

  • LF: THat’s the thing. She *isn’t* popular. Her approval ratings are really crappy, and I think there’s probably a lot of overlap between that hard nugget of 25% of the American public who thinks Bush is doing a good job and this woman’s support.

  • G.D. – a lot can happen in four years.

  • ladyfresshh

    G.D. – That nugget of 25% is the solid scarey nugget that’s screwed the rest of us, for a dude they want to have beeer with, for the past 8 years. 25% of the american public is still millions of people and i just know they love them some ‘pretty sarah’… This would make for a fanscinating study on beauty btw.

  • glory/lf:

    A lot can happen, sure. But her ‘brand’ is ruined, even among Republicans. How many of them are just biting their tongues and waiting until after the election to criticize her?

    While I agree that Palin’s critics are a minority on the right, that can hardly be reassuring to her. Partisans are loath to criticize their own in the closing weeks of a campaign. … Which is to say, we’re clearly looking at the floor for Palin criticism, not the ceiling. It’ll get much worse from here on out.

    That small segment of the population who loves her — white evangelical conservatives — will be even smaller in 2012, and I think the we’re gonna see the G.O.P.’s platform become far less ideological on social issues. Those realities won’t bode well for her chances.

    Let’s assume she wins the Republican nomination. Sarah Palin in a series of debates with a policy wonk like Obama? What a disasterpiece that would be.