Political bits - Crazy conservative edition
(Politico/CNN) Rush Limbaugh gave the closing speech at CPAC which was pretty much what you'd expect. (He can't help himself from being the headline making oppositional figurehead. The Obama folks chose well.)
(Politico/CNN) Mitt Romney won the CPAC straw poll with 20%. Jindal 14%. Ron Paul, Sarah Palin 13%. Gingrich 10%. Huckabee 7%. (Woulda thought Jindal/Palin would have done better.)
The WaPo has a nice catchall on CPAC. (It doesn't sound like they'll be emerging from the wilderness yet.)
And, a very readable piece on the "birthers," those folks still claiming Obama is ineligible because of citizenship issues.
(Politico/CNN) Mitt Romney won the CPAC straw poll with 20%. Jindal 14%. Ron Paul, Sarah Palin 13%. Gingrich 10%. Huckabee 7%. (Woulda thought Jindal/Palin would have done better.)
The WaPo has a nice catchall on CPAC. (It doesn't sound like they'll be emerging from the wilderness yet.)
And, a very readable piece on the "birthers," those folks still claiming Obama is ineligible because of citizenship issues.
posted by mikevotes at
5:48 AM
7 Comments:
"Woulda thought Jindal/Palin would have done better."
A) It's hard to get a man-crush on Jindal... especially after seeing in moving, living color.
B) The bloom is off the Rose regarding Palin, I think. Her tax issues, the per diem thing, not to mention the Bristol thing.
C) Romney would just plain look better on a $20 bill... While Jindal and Palin may poll will in isolation, when put in a lineup with Romney's white bread chiseled hair and chin, well...
By
-epm, at 8:14 AM
The thing that worries me about Palin's poor showing is that the Right of the Party is actually starting to get a clue on some things.
Palin will just look older in 2012 and will probably have said a dozen more really stupid things. The majority of her appeal was her looks and the fact that she had almost no "baggage". She was a blank slate that Republicans could fill in as they wished. She was also supposed to capture the millions of imaginary PUMA votes. That seems unlikely to be a factor in 2012. Everything else about her seemed to me to be more of putting on a brave face than actual, inherent appeal.
But the opinions of those at CPAC may not hold as much sway by 2012. We are only seeing one wing of the Party here, after all.
Romney is probably their best shot, which is not saying much. But those at CPAC are most likely not concerned about his Mormon faith, which the Christian fundamentalist base is likely to reject.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 9:55 AM
Another question regarding this poll, I wonder if Jindal and Palin are splitting the same demographic at CPAC. They're about tied, and together poll higher than Romney.
I agree with Todd's comments regarding Palin. I don't see her capital rising in the next 3 yrs. Indeed, aside from the fundi, winger good-america-bad-america crowd I think she'll be past prime. (The Christianist will still like her though). Romney's done we'll by maintaining a fairly low profile... staying just above the radar so no one forgets about him.
CPAC also has no representation from the Schwarzenegger-Crist moderate wing. Though I don't know how big this "wing" really is.
By
-epm, at 10:32 AM
Mike, you might also wish to check out this story about how Limbaugh is setting himself up as Gingrich's Nemesis.
Rush seems to be taking issue with Gingrich's "policy-based" approach; he thinks ideological purity is the primary objective.
"Everybody asks me — and I’m sure it’s been a focal point of your convention — well, what do we do, as conservatives? What do we do? How do we overcome this? … One thing we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with better policy ideas."
Yeah. That's one way to go.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 10:37 AM
EPM, First thought reading your first comment is maybe I'm looking at this backwards. Maybe I should be looking at this as votes having to go somewhere rather than votes being won.
And, I think you're right that Jindal/Palin are splitting the vote.
(And what happened to
Huckabee? He's been catering to the hard right and got nothing. Maybe he doesn't have an organization at CPAC?)
And, CPAC is definitely not about the Crist wing of the party. These are the hard core. Crist was on the ballot, though, maybe just to let him get slammed.
.....
Todd, I think Palin's real damage is that her state's finances will look just awful if the oil prices stay (relatively) low. She's not going to be the model if her state's not doing so well. (of course that might get lost in all the other states' downturns.)
And thanks for the Limbaugh Gingrich link. You know I'm watching Gingrich close right now.
.....
As for really looking to 2012, it's waaaayyy too early, but the primary calendar will really affect the race.
Regarding Romney, you gotta ask whether all those people in Iowa, SC, Fla etc were voting for someone else or against Romney. If they were against Romney, they aren't too likely to come back.
The primary calendar as it stands now, outside NH, really favors the more harder core.
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mikevotes, at 10:57 AM
Todd, I think Palin's real damage is that her state's finances will look just awful if the oil prices stay (relatively) low.
It damages the narrative.
I always thought that the whole "executive experience" gubernatorial narrative was as weak as the "military experience" line from commanding the Alaskan National Guard. It's part of putting on that brave face.
If Palin were blind, that would also have been spun as something that made her Presidential material. And if she were to somehow regain her sight, that would again make her Presidential material.
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Todd Dugdale , at 11:36 AM
Well, in her case it was because she was such a short term governor with no real experience prior to that. Jindal faces the same problem.
But I do believe there is some potential benefit to Governor's experience, assuming we're talking about a fairly big and complex state, not some one party small state in the south north or west.
Alaska or Louisiana are pretty small and simple operations overall. Get into the complexities of Ohio or Florida or New York....
However, as the state that gave you the most recent governor/president, I can say that such experience may not always prove valuable if the guy was a lump as governor.
By
mikevotes, at 12:48 PM
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