Palin’s most powerful nemesis, McCain/Palin campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, will soon return the fire Palin unloaded on him from her book, “Going Rogue”. Operation Palin Apocalypse officially commences Sunday night when Schmidt appears on 60 minutes. The only question remaining is how low will they go? This is the GOP after all. The party of Rovian election tactics.
Rachel Maddow gave us a preview of Schmidt’s jihad, which reveals that they’re going after Palin’s blatant lying about her guilty verdict in the bi-partisan Blanchflower Troopergate investigation, her lying about her husband’s AIP membership, her consistent inaccuracies regarding her record, her unwillingness to prepare for debates and interviews, and her odd speech affliction which made it impossible for her to address then Senator Joe Biden properly (apparently, Palin’s consistent “O’Biden”s caused the debate prep team to suggest she address Biden as “Joe”, leading to the infamous “Can I call you Joe” VP debate moment.)
Republicans know she is not electable, yet they need her teabagging base motivated to get out and vote. The hard right (Limbaugh, Beck, Palin crowd) are the folks who show up to vote in the primaries. Could Palin walk away with the Republican nomination, leaving the Republicans doomed to an epic failure?
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Will the GOP go for the jugular? Will they release the photos they scrubbed from the Johnston computers? Will they bring up Abortion Wite-Out Gate? Will they bring up her lies about providing a birth certificate for her youngest child, whose birth is the source of undying rumors that started in Alaska before she was tapped for VP and continue to this day? Will they question her Wild Ride?
I don’t understand it — it’s like there’s something in the water (or maybe the food) — there don’t seem to be any competent leaders around any more. FDR got this country (and the Free World) through the Depression and WWII; Eisenhower helped the U.S. successfully transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy; JFK/LBJ made major gains in civil rights; Clinton actually balanced the Federal budget!!!
Since then, what? Welfare-to-work? Whoop-de-doo. Repeal Glass-Steagall? Gee, thanks a lot, that really worked out well, didn’t it? What else? Anything?
Most people aren’t wedded to any political party; they want someone in charge who can: 1) get things done that need to be done; 2) give us some sense of progress and/or well-being; 3) keep some economic opportunity available so they can hope to feed/clothe/house their families; and 4) keep some semblance of public order so they can raise their families in peace.
If either party can come up with enough people like that, including one particularly charismatic person to run for president, people will vote for them. The problem the GOP is having is that they are stuck arguing political catechism and more concerned with “purity” than ability or leadership. The problem with the Dems is that leading them is like trying to herd cats, and the Obama administration hasn’t been able to show any big wins yet, other than that the rest of the world LOVES him (e.g. Peace Prize, etc.).
To return to the theme of the story, as long as the GOP and conservatives in general continue with their internal purge, they will lose more elections. It is even possible the Dems could make some gains in the off-election, contrary to the usual mid-term losses. Too early to tell yet.