Palin to give views on the future of the GOP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_el_pr/republican_governors
MIAMI – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is sending signals that she is open to running for president in 2012, but another potential candidate is sending a different message: Republicans can’t get ahead of themselves.
Palin, this year’s Republican vice presidential nominee, is going to talk to Republican governors Thursday in a panel discussion called “Looking Towards the Future: The GOP in Transition.” She’s already making it clear that she wants to be a big part of that transition.
She was asked Wednesday, after arriving at the Republican Governors Association conference, about speculation that she is the party’s future.
“I don’t think it’s me personally, I think it’s what I represent,” Palin told reporters. “Everyday hardworking American families — a woman on the ticket perhaps represents that. It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation.”
Later, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told his peers that now isn’t the time to think about the next presidential election.
“Anybody here tonight that has thought about the 2012 presidential election needs to keep their eye on the ball,” Barbour, a former Republican Party chairman, told a reception for the governors and their supporters. “We don’t need to talk about 2012.”
Instead, he said the future of the Republican Party is with its governors since the GOP has lost power in Congress and the White House. With 38 governors’ seats up for election in the next two years, that’s what the party has to focus on, he said.
“That’s how you get your party back going. And if you think this is practice time for people running for president in 2012, they need to get back in line. The next two years are the years that matter,” Barbour said.
Palin didn’t attend events with the governors on Wednesday, instead choosing to do interviews with CNN. On Thursday, she planned a news conference before starting a panel discussion on the party’s future. While several of the governors at the conference are considered potential candidates in 2012, she is the only one acknowledging that she’ll consider it.
Among others talked about as potential nominees are Barbour and Govs. Charlie Crist of Florida, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Each had advice for the party, but none discussed their personal 2012 plans.
The governors, though, faced a lot of questions about Palin, who energized the Republican base but wasn’t as popular with independent voters in the election she and John McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“Gov. Palin is a extremely talented person and she’s going to be one of the key voices for the party, for the Republicans, for a long time to come,” Pawlenty said.
But he, like other governors, was careful about what he said about Palin, her role in the last election and her future.
“We’re still getting to know her,” Pawlenty said. “All I can say is that John McCain made it very clear that one of his key criteria for selecting a VP running mate was going to be, amongst other things, was that person was ready to be president from day one. So in his judgment she met that criteria and he felt strongly about that and so I would have to defer to his judgment.”
November 13th, 2008 at 8:47 am
GOP governors debate party’s direction at Miami conference
Thursday, Nov 13, 2008
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/768777.html
While governors avoided placing blame on how the presidential race was lost, conservative analysts at the meeting pointed to a more technologically savvy Democratic campaign and to the Bush administration’s unpopular handling of the war in Iraq, the economy and Hurricane Katrina.
”You cannot mess up that much and expect to get reelected,” said Byron York, who writes for the conservative National Review magazine.
York argued that the party should not have nominated John McCain, who he said had ”thumbed his nose” at some of the party’s base. But on other panels Wednesday, some Republicans said the Arizona senator was the best person to take on Obama.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Marybeth,
I get the impression that you think any one that is against Palin, must be for Obama. I know far too many people who did not like Palin and did not care much for Obama.
Regarding my point about truth: We lap up the negative stories about those we mistrust and dismiss the negative stories about those we trust. I guess that is just part of the political game will all play but I think it is something to think about in terms of what is really true?
As far as Palin future as the 2012 pres/vp nominee, I think Pawlenty said it best when he pointed out “LOOK AT THE RESULTS OF THIS YEARS ELECTION.”
November 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Tracey,
so true. If you’ve already been on the national ticket, and lost (with one in five conservatives voting for Obama), than being considered as a front runner on a future ticket, is not only naive, but dumb. We have a lot of work to do. Ground work. Having a ‘front runner’ before President Obama takes his oath, is shooting ourselves in the foot. Again.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:30 am
The media is so predictable. Now that Obama has won, they are setting him up for another win 4 years from now by trumping up Palin as “the future of the GOP”. They are setting her up the way they set McCain as the GOP nominee. As soon as he got the nomination, the lovefest was over and the dirt came out. The New York Times was the perfect example of this.
The media is still doing all they can to control the vote. Palin will not win the majority vote even though she has lots of fans. And the media knows it.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Palin sure is basking in all the attention. It’ll be withdrawal pains for her in a few weeks when the media’s interest has died down.
Did anyone else notice her nose growing when she claimed that she’d be perfectly happy to go back home and be “just a mom”?
I can’t help but think that her approval ratings in Alaska are going to take a nosedive since she’s so obviously itching to move on to bigger and better pastures.
She wants to nab Ted Steven’s Senate seat, but it looks like that might go to his opponent.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I call upon all Romney supporters to sign our petition for 2012. Tell your friends, family, blogs, and message boards. Dems, GOP, IND can all sign it. We need a strong coalition calling upon bringing competence and results to our Federal government.
Even if your not interested in Bobby Jindal let your voice be heard.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/romneyjindal/index.html
November 13th, 2008 at 10:00 am
Palin has reached her sell-by date
By BRIAN GOLDSMITH
“Another way to judge Palin is by McCain’s own standards. He picked her to do two things: rally the Republican base, and attract key swing voters, including women, independents, suburbanites, and younger parents. By every conceivable measure, Palin failed.
Core Republican turnout declined 1.3 percent compared to four years ago, the Republican share of the electorate dropped five points from 2004 — and the depression of conservative voters was amplified in key states such as Ohio, where Obama won despite earning almost the same number of votes as John F. Kerry. The difference is that 300,000 people who showed up for Bush/Cheney decided to stay home for McCain/Palin.
The list goes on. Palin didn’t help among women — they went for Obama by 13 points. She didn’t help among independents — they went for Obama by 8 points. She didn’t help among suburbanites — they went for Obama by 2 points. She didn’t help among people with children under 18 — they went for Obama by 8 points. Among all these groups, the 2008 Republican ticket performed worse than any successful nominees in their party’s history.
“As Palin prepares to speak to her fellow GOP governors — and to restart her political career — some Palin allies have taken to dismissing her entire performance as a national candidate. “None of it matters,” one told me. “This was McCain’s campaign, and Sarah didn’t have much to do with the outcome.” But according to an NBC News poll, Palin weighed down McCain’s candidacy more than President Bush, and more than the war in Iraq. How could that big an anchor not create a little ripple?
The rule is that nobody votes for vice president — but this may have been the year nobody voted for Sarah Palin. ”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15577.html
November 13th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I think sarah palin sorta = george w bush without his education and family connections…that’s a good thing and a bad thing, just don’t think its a good thing for her if she runs in 2012…she needs to check her ambition and forget about it. Her goals should be to win re-election in 2010 and than build up good will in the gop instead of putting herself up for a 2012 run. If the repubs lose in 2012, she could run in 2016 with a solid track record of 8 years as a governor. If the GOP wins in 2012, she could join the cabinet and build up some DC experience or maybe get the Alaska senate seat in 2014, than run for the white house in 2020 at the age of 56. Another thing, this was easy to see, more so if romney drops out of the political scene but i suspect huntsman will run for the senate in 2012 instead of the white house:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1108/Add_to_the_2012_prospect_list_Jon_Huntsman.html?showall
November 13th, 2008 at 11:44 am
At Governors Meeting, Palin Looks Ahead
“Frank Luntz, the communications strategist, gave the Republicans a slideshow describing how Republicans have just endured their worst back-to-back elections since 1930 and 1932. And Mr. Luntz said that the prospect of sharing his polling research with a group of Republicans gave him pause. “I understand how Dr. Kevorkian feels at an AARP convention,” he said.
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, another rising star in the party who is considered potential presidential fodder, said that the party needed to recapture the high ground on the ethics and good government, and that it could draw lessons from the high-tech campaign that Barack Obama waged.
“We should learn from that,” Mr. Jindal said.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/us/politics/14Repubs.html?hp
November 13th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Article on Mitt and 2012:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/13/romney.future/index.html
November 13th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Yes Doug, and once again, they blame his loss on the flip flop thing. If that really was the case, then both Obama and McCain would have lost big time to the Green Party. As if Romney was the only one in politics who has ever changed his mind about things.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Yes JON That is the message we must send. Romney is not the only politician to change his mind. Palin changed her mind on the bridge to nowhere. She was for it before she was against it.
Romney must run and we must clear the path and make his run smooth. He must be our 2012 nominee.
Sed I like Jindal. He seems to have a grasp on where the republican party should go from here. I would prefer he wait on the sidelines during the primary and let Romney get the nod. Otherwise, I think he would be a good choice for the party.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Tracey,
I absolutely agree about Jindal waiting on the sidelines. My choice for him as a possible VP candidate is a bit of political strategy on my part.
If enough people out there call for a Romney/Jindal ticket perhaps it may trickle down to Louisiana and Jindal may decide not to run. Maybe he would even go out of his way to endorse Mitt during the 2012 primaries. I don’t know, but I’m willing to give it a shot and may chips land where they may.
November 13th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
SED I plan on canvasing my neighborhood with the petition info but I will probably put it off until spring and for now mention it to people I know who support Mitt so they can begin to enlighten other supporters. Hope you are getting a good response.
Even if it takes a while, we just need to be ready by 2010.
I hope this movement will gather strength.
Huntsman may want to run for president. He is a RINO. He would split the mormon vote, maybe? I hope he runs for Senate and camps out there.
I am in total support of Romney primarily because I know he is a good man and I like his business approach to politics.
November 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Well if I remember right JM was not for drilling, then he was. Stubborn about immigration, then said he would secure the borders. Said the economy was stable, then admitted it was in shambles. etc. etc. Now Obama,first the tax would be on people making $250 thousand, then it was $200 thousand, then $150 thousand, then $120 thousand. You all remember all the flips, ten in one week. So Pleaseeeeeeee, don’t even attack Mitt on what few changes he decided to see in a mature light. On the other note, Is he a man of God???? Answer YES, end of story……. Get over it, the LDS Mormon’s are Christians………………Mitt is quality, he is warm, he is intelligent, he knows business, he is a great family man and lives by the law of the land……. Sounds like a winner to me!!!!!!!!!
November 13th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Thanks Tracey,
We have to all pretty much start now on trying to convince Mitt to run iin 2012. As well as fight all the disinformation out there.
It has been less than 10 days since the election occurred and Sarah Palin has been the headliner on almost every news organization. Palin’s handlers are trying to repair her image.
I think if this continues another week it will backfire. People will see her as an opportunist and a media wh*re. If she goes back to doing her job in Alaska, being with her family, and focuses on getting re-elected then she’ll have chance in 2012.
Trying to become the leader of the Republican Party right after she just got blown out this cycle is going to alienate of Republican Leaders plus permanantly turn of Independents and blue dog Democrats.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Interspersed with all the quotes from Palin was the voice of wisdom from someone who has been around a while, Haley Barbour. Mr. Barbour is right, we must “keep our eye on the ball” and not start “practicing for 2012″ about a week after we got our a****s kicked. Let’s see if we can manage to get some Pubbies elected in 2010 before we start posturing for 2012.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
John
Are you saying we should not try to get this petition going?