Progress For A More Perfect Union: Sarah Palin

Showing posts with label Sarah Palin. Show all posts

Sunday, February 21, 2010

CPAC Civil War: The Fight For the Soul of Conservatism

Conservatives seemed to be in disarray at this year's CPAC Convention, with a full blown war being waged for the soul of the Conservative movement. The fight was between the ultra-conservative, take no prisoners, cultural warriors club led by the likes of Glenn Beck, Dick Cheney, and Sarah Palin against the more moderate, "independent", big tent faction led by Ron Paul and Bob Barr.

The division and uncertainty was on full display in the CPAC Presidential Straw Poll, where the attendees voted on their 2012 presidential hopefuls. In a surprise to everyone, Ron Paul won the poll with a whopping 31%. Mitt Romney came in second with 22% and Sarah Palin came in a distant third with only 7%.

Here are the full results from the poll:

Texas Rep. Ron Paul - 31 percent
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- 22 percent
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- 7 percent
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty - 6 percent
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - 4 percent
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- 4 percent
Indiana Rep. Mike Pence - 5 percent
South Dakota Sen. John Thune -- 2 percent
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels -- 2 percent
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum -- 2 percent
Mississippi Gov. Hailey Barbour - 1 percent
Other - 5 percent
Undecided - 6 percent

However, it has been reported that upon announcing Ron Paul as the winner the crowd erupted in to a chorus of "boos".

In his speech at the conference, Ron Paul, essentially a libertarian, rallied against government over reach but also against the dangers of neoconservatism. This seemed to be in direct conflict with the keynote speaker, Glenn Beck's, speech.

In his highly anticipated keynote speech Beck blasted fellow Republicans (including John McCain and Teddy Roosevelt) and called for purity in the Republican ranks. In fact, most of the major Republican speakers-Cheney, Armey, Bachmann, Coulter-not only stuck to their normal vicious and partisan attacks, but actually seemed to even up the ante. Why? The widespread pandering to the Tea Party movement that has been on display in the Republican party throughout 2010, not to mention the venom that courses through neoconservative veins at the mere thought of President Obama.

So which is it going to be, conservatives? The "big tent, independent" style of Ron Paul or the "take no prisoners, purity" approach of Beck and Palin?

Honestly, I think it has already been decided. All of the major, mainstream, best known Republican speakers-Beck,Cheney,Coulter-embraced the radical style and talking points of the paranoid, conspiracy theorist, anti-Obama fringe. The representation of the more libertarian conservatism would probably be met with "Oh yeah, I remember you. You're still around?" (Ron Paul) or "Who the hell are you?" (Bob Barr) by the average Fox News follower. The star power of the conservative movement seems to be drifting even further towards the fringe and taking the whole Republican Party with it.

Media Matter's full coverage of the CPAC event, with videos from about every important speaker:
http://mediamatters.org/search/tag/cpac_2010

The Insanity of Beck:

Beck calls President Warren Harding's death "divine providence"

Beck: "Rush [Limbaugh] is a hero of mine"

Keith Olbermann's coverage of CPAC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Monday, February 15, 2010

There's Something in the Tea

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Hypocrisy of Sarah Palin

On Saturday, at the first official Tea Party convention, Keynote Speaker Sarah Palin was caught with notes written on her hand during her big speech. Now, this wouldn't be so bad, except in that very same speech (and countless times before) she mocked Obama for using a teleprompter.

Silly Palin, your hypocrisy is matched only by your stupidity.

Now, if I was president, and I had to give a 40+ minute speech live to the entire country, I think I would want a prompter too (it's not like you can be standing up there with note cards). The funny thing about Palin was she only had a few vague words on her hand (such as "energy" and "budget cuts"). So it's not like she was worried about tripping over a few lines or getting flustered: she apparently was worried she was going to forget all of her morals and talking points by the time she hit the stage.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has some fun with the crib note controversy, or "Palmgate", as some have dubbed it.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Beck on Palin

While talking about the possibility of being on Palin's ticket in the 2012 election on his radio show, Glenn Beck said:

"No, no I'm just saying -- Beck-Palin, I'll consider. But Palin-Beck -- can you imagine, can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She'd be yapping or something, and I'd say, "I'm sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I'm not in the kitchen."

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Why People Love Sarah Palin

From New Left Media at http://www.newleftmedia.com

They also had this posted, in response to any potential criticism of partisanship:

THERE ARE UNINFORMED OBAMA SUPPORTERS, TOO
It has been said in comments that we would find similarly talking point-driven, substance-less supporters at an Obama rally, and we agree. But no politician has emerged on the national stage as ... See More undefined and unqualified as Sarah Palin, and her public persona--which is anti-intellectual by definition--discourages substance. Instead, we get winking. One could hardly imagine her giving a complex speech about race in America, or speaking eloquently about our country's relations with Islam. Not just because she couldn't write such a speech (Obama has speech-writers, of course) but because she wouldn't--such necessarily academic discussion is antithetical to the persona she's created for herself and that her supporters have come to love.

Are You Smarter Than a Politician?

Lou Dobbs is reportedly talking about running for the Senate, as an intermediate step to running for the White House. There has been talk about Glenn Beck running for office. Some still consider Sarah Palin a serious nominee.Has reality TV really already effected people's brains this much? You've always had to have a celebrity appeal, they call it charisma, to run for office. All three of them do. But you use to be required to actually know something too. Is everybody else as frightened by the prospect of having celebrity "face" politicians, who have a television smile, but literally know nothing more than what their advisers just briefed them on? I shudder for us, Facebook generation.