Why yes, yes we could.
Getty ImagesSome Republican governors tell CNN they were not particularly happy with the way the Republican Governors Association press conference was executed Thursday, saying that they agreed to go as a show of GOP governors’ unity — but they ended up feeling like silent Palin supporters, since it was clearly a press conference called for her.
The GOP governors spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.
One called it awkward: "I’m sure you could see it on some of our faces."
Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was "odd" and "weird," and said it "unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party.” …
Reckon they got indigestion from her tossed-to-mush word salad?
Sitting here in these chairs that I’m going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it’s our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don’t get away with that.
As The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison and commenters have fun trying to crack the code of that alleged sentence, Kevin Drum doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t complain of someone who sends Haley an’ them waddling for barfbags — but dang, what a bore.
I’ll wager it’s Haley who is considering a run in 2012 and who made the comment. He and Sarah make a cute couple don’t they? Perhaps he could be the veep nominee on her presidential ticket.
OT: Clarion Ledger reports that Fifth Circuit has granted rehearing en banc in US vs Seale.
I don’t know if that quote is accurate–too many “g’s” on the “ing’s” to be Sarah’s exact words.
Larison quoted in comments:
Despite all the grief she’s gotten, I continue to think that the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate represents the breaking of a consensual cultural barrier far more fundamental than most people realize. It’s not just that she was inexperienced (Spiro Agnew and John Edwards weren’t much more experienced than Palin when they ran for VP) but that she was — obviously, transparently, completely — uninterested in and uninformed about national policy at nearly every level. We’ve simply never seen someone so completely unmoored from the normal requirements of national office before. She was chosen purely at the level of celebrity, and an awful lot of people seemed to be just fine with that.
Spot-on quote, Mme J, but it’s Drum’s.
confounded, I’d have trouble imagining Haley going near a Palin ticket. He’s too good a vote-counter.
Lotus, did you leave out the snark tags or is that really a quote? I know the woman can barely put a sentence together but….
She won’t be near as pretty in four years, someone else will fill the vacuum.
No, man, honest. That’s what she actually said to Wolf Blitzer. See, it ain’t 100% the flu making me dizzy.
*Because she is wired for speech, but not educated for thought*, sez one of Larison’s commenters. Yep!
It behooves us to keep Palin in the national spotlight. The oxygen she sucks out of the republican party to fill that vacuous head of hers, keeps viable republican leaders from entering the forefront. You betcha!
First Dude, and anyone else who wants to see her climb this political ladder-is there anyone else?, should take the shovel out of Sarah’s hands. She is diggin’ her way into a hole of envy & resentment with her peers and pretty soon it’ll be too deep to climb out of.
Okay, I admit I used to vote republican, but I don’t buy this “keep her in the spotlight” stuff. Only through honest competition for the nation’s highest office will we keep the country strong.
Its as if Ole Miss played Jones CC in football every weekend. After a while, no one would come and the game would suffer. You would not get a better “product” out of Ole Miss, only a sense of entitlement. To me this is what led us to George Bush, there was no Dem strong enough to follow the Big Dog.
The Dems need to go against someone who is bright and brings their A game every day. Not some vapid bimbo. We’ll all be better off for the competition.
Evell, I would welcome a good fair fight if only we had a good fair referee.
I with ya’ Evell. Besides, all Sarah does to the ticket is distract from the real issues. She needs to quit the limelight and retire to a dimly lit, quiet library-preferably one where no books have been banned- and get herself some learning.
Evell 10, that’s basically Drum’s and Sullivan’s point too, and I agree with all three of you. This was just asinine from the git, and McCain should NEVER live it down.
Evell, got a question for you (or anyone else here with Republican men friends). What percentage of the ones you know do you think voted for McCain-Palin because they had crushes on her?
Not many. Honestly a lot of them are pretty misogynistic when it comes to
CIC. Lets face it we lucked out Obama is as smart, etc. as he is. A three legged dog could have run against what ended up being Bush II. McCain was toast the minute he, for whatever reason, decided Rove tactics were the only way to win.
WHO the Republicans nominate in 2012 is vitally important, of course. But WHO they pitch their spiel to perhaps trumps that. The smartest thing the GOP can do is to allow the Fundamentalist-Evangelical [FE] elements to preach to the winds but to ignore them. Let that band of the political spectrum wither on the vine. The GOP doesn’t have to have a formal divorce decree from the FEs—just accord them benign neglect and deaf ears. Avoid appearing in their pulpits. Avoid appearing on their radio/tv shows. Avoid doing anything that suggests that they hear or recognize the FE. An informal, but determined, policy and practice of shunning the FEs would permit the brighter elements of the GOP to re-establish party principles and chart the party’s future.
I don’t expect it to happen. The GOP has shown again and again that it intends to be a Know-Nothing party. It hasn’t had what I’d call a “good Republican” since Nelson Rockefeller’s death.
Good point, Ben, but if Sarah fades away and Huckabee and Romney don’t, how are you going to keep Huckabee from “appearing in the FE’s pulpits”? Won’t happen. He has to do a Rove number on Mormons to beat Mitt, and you can be sure he has a Cheney conscience when it comes to going negative and rallying the Sarah crowd.
3S: I concur. And I fully expect to see a resurgence of Mike Huckabee in GOP activities. I don’t see a Mike Huckabee ever getting elected president—he may wield strong influence in the GOP and he may prevent Romney’s getting a nomination, but Huck’s a non-starter as a presidential candidate, same as Haley Barbour is (albeit for different reasons). However, if the GOP puts him on the top of their 2012 ticket … good on ‘em.
A Huckabee-Romney shootout would be great — just think of all Huck’s ideological ammo on Mittens and all Mittens’ ethics ammo on Huck: YUMOLA. Then there’s Jindal and his exorcisms . . .
From CNN Political Ticker blog:
“There has been palpable tension among some GOP governors gathered in Miami that Palin has been sucking up all the media oxygen.
In an interview with CNN, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour shrugged off that suggestion.
“That’s just somebody running down a rabbit trail. There’s plenty of oxygen here,” he said.”