Zogby on Palin and 2012:
Among Republicans, she gets the support of 30% of Born-Again Christians, 32% of weekly churchgoers, 34% of National Rifle Association members, 28% of current gun owners and 29% of self-identified conservatives. More GOP support comes from 32% of blue collar workers, 30% who shop weekly at Wal-Mart, 28% of NASCAR fans and 25% of both those with children under 17 and those with family members in the military…
Palin looks to be stealing Huckabee’s thunder among Republican religious conservatives and working class voters. Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, and his highest GOP totals still come from Born-Again Christians (15%) and weekly churchgoers (18%), but those numbers are about half of those drawn by Palin. Despite his populist economic message, he wins only 10% of blue collar Republicans.
These kind of numbers so soon after the massive smear job the left and the MSM did on her. Pretty damn good.
Looking at those numbers you can understand why Huck is a bit perturbed:
I was scratching my head, saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute. She’s wonderful, but the only difference was she looks better in stilettos than I do, and she has better hair.’ It wasn’t so much a gender issue, but it was like they suddenly decided that everything they disliked about me was O.K. . . . She was given a pass by some of the very people who said I wasn’t prepared.
While they most certainly have many of the same qualities and policy beliefs, I think the main difference was the genuineness. Huck always came off as ingenuine while Sarah came off as the every woman….well if that woman could hunt, fish and bake. But you get my drift. Can you imagine Sarah saying something like this?
I’m a conservative, but I’m not mad at anybody about it.
Nope. She is conservative and proud of it. We don’t need another wishy-washy candidate in 2012, whether it is Sarah or someone else…I don’t care. But enough with the RINO’s.
Rush had a great segment recently explaining the Sarah phenomenon, why the left and some Republicans hate her so, and how we can get back to our roots:
CALLER: …But my question to you is: Why are all these Republicans out there, why don’t they like her?
RUSH: A-ha. A-ha. Okay, I want you to listen very carefully to this. It’s a long answer that I’m going to try to make very brief. In the first place, when you say, “Why don’t Republicans like her?” there’s a whole bunch of different kinds of Republicans now. Like there’s you and me, and we’re conservative Republicans. But we also have to deal with liberal and moderate or Rockefeller Republicans in our party. So the party has lost its primary identity: strong national defense, tax cuts, smaller government. It’s lost its identity. It doesn’t believe smaller government is possible. The Republican Party has too many people who want the government to grow. Just spend the money on different groups of people in different ways in order to get votes. It’s called liberalism lite. They’re calling it redefine conservatism. Sarah Palin makes them nervous because of precisely what you cited. She inspired and revved up a Republican Party. But there are people in the Republican Party who don’t want it to stand for the things that she stands for. I think her effectiveness is making her a target.
The Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party are also not fond of her, and they’re doing everything they can to make her appear to be the face of the Republican Party, because they think most of the country despises her, too, based on exit polls. You know, Barbara Walters in the interview I did with her last week asked, “You like Palin?”
I said, “I absolutely do.” I said, “I think she was great.” I said, “Why don’t you like her?”
“She was uninformed,” Barbara Walters said, and a light went off in my head, because there is the template. The one interview she did with Katie Couric and they’ve all decided she’s an idiot and she’s uninformed. They do not know that there were people in the McCain campaign trying to sabotage her and that she was under tight controls, and she finally wanted to bust out and be who she is. Those of us that pay attention saw enough of who she is to realize that she is incredibly valuable to the conservative cause and the Republican Party going forward. But to those that don’t like her it’s simply because of that, Tim, she’s effective and she threatens the old boy network. It’s not a gender thing. She threatens the old boy network, but I’m telling you this is a fundamental thing to understand.
We can talk about Obama all we want here, and we can try to educate people as to what’s coming down the pike. But one of the larger battles we have before we even talk about trying to defeat Obama again is defining who we are as a political party, because there is a huge battle going on. There are so many factions of the Republican Party now, and many of them are gutless. Many of them, when they get to Washington, after being elected, go wobbly, they turn moderate because they think that’s what you have to be to get along. We just ran a presidential campaign based on being moderate and reaching out to all these liberal Democrat voters, thinking that’s the only way we can win, ignoring the blueprint for landslide victory. We got people who think we need to rerun this campaign over and over again. We gotta get rid of our conservative ideology. Arnold Schwarzenegger says we’ve gotta drop conservatism from the Republican Party. We’ve got our conservative intelligentsia wise men, these people in the media who also think that the worst thing that could happen to the Republican Party is to listen to me. So Tim, I’m telling you, we have a huge battle to define — and the Republican Party is it because that’s the only party that’s going to oppose Democrats, and there’s going to be a big battle for control of it. In many ways it’s subtly already started, and it’s going to intensify once next year gets going and Obama’s actually inaugurated.
We need to remember that Bush won twice when he energized the base. McCain lost when he tried to hard too appeal to the left.
Never again.
Rush is right. We have a huge battle in the next four years. To define this party and win back the White House in 2012.
See author page
Curt, this is one of your best posts on conservatism. I agree 100%. People, who want Republicans to be moderates, are saying in fact that they want them to be Democrats.
This is how I see it:
There is Extreme RIGHT and there is RIGHT. There is no other option. There is no Center. What people calls “Center” is in fact wrong… it should be called “RIGHT”. People are afraid of words.
When people ask RIGHT conservatives to govern from the Center, what they really mean is that they want them to abandon their Right’s values and embrace Left’s values. But if they do this it is still not the Center, it is le LEFT.
There is no Center. You govern from Right or from Extreme Right. So therefore, since nobody is talking about extreme right, where in the hell do they see a Center position? Doesn’t make sense.
And I agree with you, Sarah Palin is a real Republican, with real RIGHT values… not extreme right. The Republicans have to come back to those values and govern from RIGHT.
Unless she’s a serial killer, I will vote, donate and work for her. Period!
I like Palin, but sometimes I think that her current level of popularity stems *from* the unfair hack job that the MSM and the left did on her. This is right on the heels of the election and people are still p.o.’ed. It was largely unfair and now people are getting behind her in a show of support.
Frankly, I thought she was a decent candidate, though not as experienced as I’d like. I’ll be surprised if she retains the same level of popularity for the next few years. I liked her with McCain but I don’t know if I would have been as supportive with her running for the top spot. I think she needs to pad her resume in the next two or three years to have a realistic chance of getting the 2012 nomination, and I’m not sure there’s a great way to do that in so short a time (relatively speaking).
palin is young, she is fiesty, she has a fire in her belly about right and wrong and how to fix things. she also will say when she isn’t sure about something, and that is the sign of a leader, she doesn’t try and fumble her way through. palin is showing that the party that supposedly loves womens rights and all is full of shit. look at how hard they hit her, they are afraid of her because they know she is onto something. what palin is onto is the fact that you don’t havet o be an ugly older woman, you can be a beautiful mother and still be a strong politician. as far as i am concerned palin should be the ticket in 2012. she is every woman, she is beautiful in self and spirit and she can do everything a man can do(except pee standing up), plus she can give birth, the woman has it all.
“Frankly, I thought she was a decent candidate, though not as experienced as I’d like.” (Mike Gray)
And what about Obama? He had no experience at all. At least Sarah had executive experience being a Mayor and a Governor. Plus, she had also experience with ending corruption in the old boy Network and experience with the oil industry.
This article has good insights in Sarah Palin’s experience:
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SARAH PALIN?
Question: What is America ’s first line of missile interceptor defense that protects the entire United States ?
Answer: 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard.
Question: What is the ONLY National Guard unit on permanent active duty?
Answer: 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard
Question: Who is the Commander in Chief of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard?
Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska
Question: What U.S. governor is routinely briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counter terrorism?
Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska
Question: What U.S. governor has a higher classified security rating than either candidate of the Democrat Party?
Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska. According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets. She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.
Now you DO know!
http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/10/17/what-you-dont-know-about
Craig, what does Obama’s experience have to do with Palin’s experience? I never said Palin has no experience, just not as much as I’d like. What Obama has or hasn’t done has absolutely zero bearing on anything Palin has done or not done. I don’t recall ever touting Obama’s experience. Quite the opposite, actually.
The old media and the MSM are just about worthless these days. And it was confirmed this last election cycle.Not sure that much will change in the coming years but it probably won’t matter a lot as I won’t be here more than likely.
Had a major mal-function this afternoon and deleted the entire Firefox browser and all the favorites and passwords.Not a lot of fun but am getting things together. Slowly,very slowly.
That was not my point Mike, don’t take it personnaly. What I meant was that most people where complaining that Sarah did not have enough experience to be a Vice President… but noboby was complaining about the lack of experience of Obama to becoming a POTUS. Incredible! It was not aimed at you. Sorry if you saw it like that.
Well it makes sense if that poll was taken any time recently. Palin has gotten so much more publicity as of late and the liberal illuminati have said so much bad stuff about her which works in her advantage when it come to much of the conservative people because they want to do the exact opposite of whatever the leftist say or do. That’s 2 thumbs up for Palin. But i think if they were actively running against each other, Palin would not win this battle.
@Craig: Ah, understood.
It’s a fair point too. That was one of the things that really got my blood boiling before this election. There was the constant assault that if McCain were to be elected and pass away that she’d be running the country with so little experience. It seemed like I was forced to point out daily that we’d be in that boat right off the bat with Obama. Even more so, because his experience is less, after all.
Come over and join the blogging, commenting, recruiting, and petitioning going on at http://www.teamsarah.org We are 60,000 members strong and still growing.
Ann
The idea that Palin has no experience is th fault of the media. They have proclaimed this issue over and over again. They have not asked her questions of her experience at all. All they have done is question her on foreign policy and have skewed her answers for their agenda. They have asked her about dumb things like the Bush doctrine which I never heard of until that moment. Or what newspapers she read or about SCOTUS decisions but nothing about her area of expertise. She was supposed to be the energy expert of the team McCain/Palin. The media asked her zilch about this. They have actively shown her as stupid, from a lightly populated state with nothing going on there. That is patently false but then the media is false in all their doings. They created a false image of a smart feisty woman who is very popular in her state, who cleaned up corruption in the two years she has been office, set up payments for the citizens of Alaska from oil revenue instead of the good old boys getting this money. She would have done a lot of good in Washinton but the electorate chose instead to elect a cipher with NO experience at ANYTHING. The media have destroyed themselves in the minds of most Americans and are now trying to regain their reputation. This is a false hope because even as they backpedal they are still trashing a lovely powerful candidate with lies and ennundos even putting her on TV with turkey killing going on the background as if the turkeys on the tables across America weren’t dead. The media are vultures waitng on the sidelines for the kill. I hope and pray every day for their demise.
Any my two cents…she scares the crap out of people who have a vested interest in government corruption. Like it or not, that includes some Republicans. Those are the Republicans who oppose her. That is why the public loves her. She is the only candidate who has a track record of cleaning up corruption. We have never before had a politician in either party, who cleaned up corruption and wasn’t destroyed in the process.
This is an amazing achievement. She has experience that no one, but no one else can lay claim to.
And, yes, to some that is a very scary thing.
Best regards,
Gail S
I do think Sarah continuing to do what she does well, being Governor of Alaska, for the next few years, will be good for some concerned about her resume. If she runs in ’12, then I don’t know how much time before that she’d have to start focusing on the campaign, but at least she’ll have a couple more years under her belt serving as Governor.
@BarbaraS:
‘The media are vultures waitng on the sidelines for the kill. I hope and pray every day for their demise.’
Count me in on that prayer chain for the media’s demise, Barbara!
Freedom’s Defense Fund – Thank You, Sarah Palin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh3SsnziqFM&eurl=http://www.teamsarah.org/
Regarding Sarah’s experience or lack thereof — the real question is what kind of experience? No, she doesn’t have experience in the labyrinths of Washington bureaucracies or left-wing elite universities. She does have experience in actually governing her town and state. She has experience in running a small business. She has experience in challenging the status quo and actually changing things for the better within her sphere of influence. She not only gives lip service to conservative principles, she actually follows through by lowering taxes, cutting waste, and keeping the lid on government spending and growth.
The kind of experience that Sarah Palin has does not resonate with the Washington elite. The things that Sarah knows and is successful at seem silly and mundane to those who thing their mandate is to “change the world”. But the reality is that the grandiose plans of the intelligentsia have and will continue to come to naught. Eventually Americans will see that what we need are the practical people who know how to get things done to improve our country by building our economy, improving our national security, ensuring energy independence, and safeguarding our domestic freedoms.
Why do people like me admire and respect politicians like Sarah Palin? Lincoln said in his address at Gettysburg that that task for “us the living” is to ensure that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth”. That will not happen if we continue to give power over to the Washington elites. Hopefully there will be a hundred of Sarah Palins who rise up in the next decade who will help us to set our ship of state aright.
Craig, regarding yourt first post in this thread; are you one of those people who looks down upon open-minded Independents/Moderates like me, just because we CHOOSE to be open-minded Independents/Moderates and avoid the trappings and restriction of party politics???????
YES Paul. If you do not want to be part of either Right or Left Values, than do something about it. Create new values. As I see it right now, you people have no goal, no values, no soul and no ideas. Indifference is all ou have.
I’m sorry you feel that way craig, because YOU HAVE NO IDEA what a REAL Independent/Moderate is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s NOT that don’t want to be a part of right or left values; I want to be a part of AMERICAN values!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is THAT ok???? Is there anyting wrong with wanting to be a part of AMERICAN values???????
And being an Open-Minded Moderate/Independent like myself isn’t about being indifferent; it’s about seeing things AS THEY ARE, and separating the REAL FACTS from the lies and bullshit of the left AND the right, and forming opinions based on the REAL FACTS, and supporting candidates for political office who most share my AMERICAN values!!!!!
The day I left the DUMBocrat party back in the 80’s was the most liberating day of my life!!!!!!!!!!!! And since I’m no longer constrained by the severe restrictions of party politics, I can support and vote for those candidates who most share my AMERICAN values!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THAT is what it means to be a REAL Independent/Moderate. I want choices in my life, and all party politics does is RESTRICT those choices for Americans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And as a military officer, it makes sense for me to be an Independent/Moderate, because I took an Oath to obey the LAWFUL orders of the President of the United States, no matter what political party he belongs to, and even if he’s an ADMITTED pot-smoking, draft-dodging womanizer like the last DUMBocrat occupant of the White House was!
Ok Paul, so what are American’s values? I notice that you haven’t mentionned one. So what are they?
So what if I didn’t mention any American Values ikn my last post; so WHAT is your non-Moderate point?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I guess you’re NOT an American, because if you had to ask, they YOU MUST NOT KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So for your benefit let me mention just a few values we as REAL Americans hold dear.
Values like wanting the best for our children; like wanting our children to have better lives than we have; being free to live our lives without EXCESSIVE interference from the government, being able to point out the errors of the far right AND the far left; holding those who have worm or who currently wear the uniform of an American Soldier (and when I say “Soldier”, I’m referring to ALL American military regardless of branch of service) up in high esteem and to VALUE the Service they give (or have given) to our Nation to keep us free!!!!
Any other REAL Americans care to add to that list????????????????????????????????
@Paul Couturier – OIF Veteran: Paul, I’m not sure I understand how you were “constrained by the severe restrictions of party politics”. Yes, party politics annoy me sometimes and I find it distasteful when people put party above country, but I’m not sure how you found yourself in a situation where you were restricted and couldn’t vote for whomever you pleased.
The point of a party is to advance those values that you hold dear. Not to constrain you in a little box and force you to support things that you do not believe in. You don’t need to be a “moderate” or “independent” to pull the lever any way you want.
I’m personally not happy with the direction the Republican Party has taken, and at one point I left because I felt like I was saying “screw you”. But the political machine in this country is driven by two parties. Trying to promote third parties was not fruitful. Maybe some day, but not for a long, long time. And sitting around as an “independent” and waiting to see who the lesser of two evils would turn out to be was not acceptable either. By working within the party, I can at least have a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of influence in its direction, where before I had none.
Mike,
Let me give you an example of the SEVERE RESTRICTIONS of party politics.
In some states, Independents CANNOT vote in Primary Elections. In some states, like my state of Massachusetts (as embarrassing as that is to admit!!), you can only vote for the candidates in whatever political party you’re registered as. BUT…if you’re an Independent, you can CHOOSE the ballot of the party you want to vote for!
You said “The point of a party is to advance those values that you hold dear. Not to constrain you in a little box and force you to support things that you do not believe in..”
What if there IS no political party who advances the American values I hold dear????
You continue – ” You don’t need to be a “moderate” or “independent” to pull the lever any way you want.”
That’s right, and THAT is why I’m an Open-Minded Independent/Moderate!
Being an Independent isn’t about 3rd parties either. Independents, by our very nature, are PARTYLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paul, I’m not sure I consider that to be a restriction, though I see why you might feel that way. In the primaries, the idea is for each party to advance the candidates into the general election that represent it. The purpose is not to have a general pre-election where everyone votes on candidates. That’s why there is benefit to being in a party.
In fact, if I had my way, only registered party members would be allowed to vote in primaries. Otherwise, we get what we’ve seen in recent years: Democrats rile up thousands of new voters in states that allow independents to vote. They then go to the polls and vote for the candidate that their own party will have the best chance against. To me, that practice should be illegal.
Well Mike, ask ANY Independent who lives in a state where they are DENIED their right to vote in a primary election if it’s a RESTRICTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shouldn’t ALL REAL AMERICANS be allowed to vote in ALL elections???????????????????????
I said previously that I left party politics back in the 80’s, and I’m now have the FREEDOM to vote for the Candidates who most share my American values!!!!
And I say the same thing to BOTH political parties; you put up candidates who most share my American values, and I’ll support those candidates!!!!
Paul, you seem a little bit confuse.
You say:
– “Values like wanting the best for our children”
So that would be Right values of Republicans against abortions.
– “… being free to live our lives without EXCESSIVE interference from the government”
Again this would be Right values of Republicans who believe in smaller government and smaller taxes.
– “… to ALL American military regardless of branch of service) up in high esteem and to VALUE the Service they give (or have given) to our Nation to keep us free!!!!
Those are Right values of Republicans who believes in just wars and Country first.
Since it is the only 3 values that you have given me, I conclude that you are a Republican and have Right values at heart.
But, no wonder you are disgusted at party, since you were a Democrat before… lol. I can understand you very well. Welcome in the Republican Party, Paul, we share the same values.
And BTW, I am Canadian and I vote for the Conservative party in Canada who is about the same as your Republican Party.
So craig, since you can’t beat me, you’re going to INSULT me by calling me soming that I’M NOT; a republican??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Sorry, but we don’t share ALL the same values, and if you believe we share the same values, then WHY have you gutlessly ATTACKED me for being an OPEN-MINDED INDEPENDENT/MODERATE?????????????????????????????????
We probably share SOME of the same values, but since you now view me as a lower life form than pond scum because I’m an OPEN-MINDED INDEPENDENT/MODERATE who doesn’t think LIKE YOU, you’ll probably never know 🙁
Seems to me craig, that YOU arer the one who’s confused!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paul,
?????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????????????????
Yes creggy?????????????????
Did you have a question????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
No Paul, I am just glad to see that you are a Republican at heart but do not realize it.
Hello??????????????????????????????????????
I’M NOT A REPUBLICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never have been, AND NEVER WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you ALWAYS get your rocks off insulting people by calling them something THAT THEY ARE NOT??????????????????????????????????????????????
Once again, for your benefit, I’M AN OPEN-MINDED INDEPENDENT/MODERATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I left the DUMBocrat party to be free from the restrictions of party politics, NOT to be insulted by close-minded non-moderates LIKE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GOT IT NOW?????????????????????????????????????????????
Paul,
NO, I don’t get it at all.
Oh well creg, YOUR LOSS!!!!!!!!!!!
As for me, I will CONTINUE to be the Independent/Moderate I have been since the 80’s when I left RESTRICTIVE party politics by telling the DUMBocrats where to stick it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you don’t like it, TOO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just keep in mind that I have NEVER insulted you because you belong to a political party!
Too bad you can’t do the same for me 🙁
Oh well, like I said; YOUR LOSS!!!!!
Paul, I don’t care for who you vote, as long as you keep your right Republican’s values, that is enough for me.
Hey ASSHOLE, let me say this again…………..
I AM NOT A REPUBLICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never have been, and NEVER WILL BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you GET IT NOW??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Or will you continue to insult me by referring to me as something I AM NOT??????????????
I bet you’re a gutless, hate-filled, anti-military extremist too, RIGHT??????????????????