Pay No Attention to That Palin Behind the Curtain
Peter Boyer of Newsweek looks at the many ways the Romney campaign is trying to avoid being associated with Sarah Palin as much as it possibly can. It points up the difficulty Romney has always had, trying to appease the crazy right without being tarred by association with them.
Palin would certainly light up the base at the convention—her 2008 vice-presidential acceptance speech was, in terms of partisan enthusiasm, the high-water mark of the McCain campaign—but a jolt of Palin at Romney’s convention seems most unlikely. The Romney campaign prides itself on a slavish adherence to script, and Palin cannot be trusted to avoid the impulse to go rogue. That is why, perhaps, the Romney campaign has not asked Palin to speak at the convention nor contacted her about even attending the party’s marquee event in Tampa. Queries to the Romney camp about any possible Palin role at the convention meet with a stony silence. Palin does not seem surprised. “What can I say?” she responded in an email from Alaska, when asked by Newsweek about the convention, just before heading to Michigan to deliver an Obama-thumping speech. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”
“In accepting those consequences,” she added, “one must remember this isn’t Sadie Hawkins and you don’t invite yourself and a date to the Big Dance.”
So what happens if they don’t invite her? She continues to slam them. Of course, she might do that anyway, which is another reason why they’re terrified to have her speak to the convention. An amusing dilemma from my vantage point.
Aliasalpha:
July 19th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Hehe when reading mention of palin going rogue, I can’t help but imagine her horribly miscast in a gritty cop movie where she’s been ordered to turn in her gun & badge but refuses saying she’s going to take down the drug dealing bad guy and to hell with his diplomatic immunity!
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant):
July 19th, 2012 at 11:18 am
Take note: She’s not too wingnutty, she is just not sufficiently controllable.
anubisprime:
July 19th, 2012 at 11:24 am
Romney might not be a genius but Palin is toxic sludge…good to tickle the rethuglian brain dead but not White house material with the best will in the world.
Even the movers and shakers of rethuglian world….are not dreaming damp dreams over that possibility.
Happy to have her at arms distance…or rather up in Alaska… rather then under their feet at any convention where Mitt has to shine.
Besides they both believe in different fairies with different powers…they would not be able to cuddle and drool together over jeebus at beddy bye times.
d cwilson:
July 19th, 2012 at 11:31 am
Ironically, the reason why her convention speech was such a “high-water mark” was because it was one of the rare times she did stay on script.
Examples of you calling out “both sides”, please. This is the big myth of Palin: She claims to be an equal-opportunity maverick, but slags on democrats exclusively 99% of the time. And when she does “go rogue”, it’s for reasons of shameless self-promotion, like racing through a tornado warning during her “family vacation” to steal some of Mitt’s spotlight in the New Hampshire primary.
lordshipmayhem:
July 19th, 2012 at 12:33 pm
When I first read the heading for this article, I read, “Ignore the pain behind the curtain”. I see my initial reading was right, for the Republicans.
Doug Little:
July 19th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
OT but speaking of Romney, any idea who the VP nominee is going to be assuming that Romney gets the P nomination. I’m reading it’s down to 3 : Pawlenty, Jindal and Portman. I hope he chooses Jindal, that guy believes in exorcism.
feralboy12:
July 19th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
To be fair, a four-day convention might be more commitment than she can handle.
John Hinkle:
July 19th, 2012 at 1:59 pm
I heard Romney has a pet peeve against people who say “you betcha.” True story.
slc1:
July 19th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Re Doug Little @ #6
There was a bit of a boomlet for Condoleezza Rice last week but it was quickly shot down by the tea baggers.
As I stated in a previous thread a week or two ago, if Romney had any brains, he would get on the next plane to the SF Bay area and convince her to join the ticket. However, as usual with Romney the rat, he’s too chicken to defy the tea baggers.
Pierce R. Butler:
July 19th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
… she added, “one must remember …”
Why yes, mustn’t one?
Since when has the queen of the snowbillies taken up turns of phrase most often heard in English drawing rooms?
Modusoperandi:
July 19th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Doug Little “OT but speaking of Romney, any idea who the VP nominee is going to be assuming that Romney gets the P nomination. I’m reading it’s down to 3 : Pawlenty, Jindal and Portman.”
Jindal doesn’t appeal to anybody (too mocha Mr Rogers for the Base, not enough anything for the rest). Pawlenty doesn’t even appeal to himself. Natalie Portman might make a good VP, though.
dan4:
July 19th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
@11: “…mocha Mr. Rogers…”
Wonderful, not only is Modusoperandi not funny, but he’s also a racist.
Modusoperandi:
July 19th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
dan4 “Wonderful, not only is Modusoperandi not funny…”
True. Also, *harumph*.
“…but he’s also a racist…”
Whaaa? You can’t watch this and not be reminded of Mr Rogers (a casual googling shows that I’m far from the first to make the connection), and a “mocha” reference from the Base (the Base, it should be noted, of which I am most distinctly not. I’m not the GOP’s Base, nor the Democrat’s. I’m my own Base. We vote Party Party*).
* Go Party Party! Woo!
jws1:
July 20th, 2012 at 12:27 am
Wonderful. Not only is dan4 an idiot, but he also has inferior reading comprehension abilities.
And also probably a small penis.
jthompson:
July 20th, 2012 at 1:13 am
@slc1: It would be good for us, good for the country (Because Romney would lose the general in a landslide), and funny as hell(Because the teabaggers would positively lose their shit.), but probably not particularly good for Mitt if he got Rice on board.
He’d be giving up the “Ain’t gonna vote for no negro” crowd’s votes, which right now are the vast majority of his support. And they already don’t like him, they’re just willing to vote for him because he’s white.
Mitt might be able to get away with a woman, but he won’t get away with picking someone that isn’t white. He just can’t do it. His “base” are mostly racist assclowns and he knows it.
dan4:
July 20th, 2012 at 1:14 am
@13: The “mocha” reference was racist. The fact that it originated from somewhere else doesn’t change that fact.
@14. Go fuck yourself.
podkayne:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:10 am
Can’t someone just take Palin and push her backwards into a woodchipper? Republicans, Democrats, Independents… good for everyone!
dan4:
July 20th, 2012 at 2:41 am
@17: “Can’t someone just take Palin and push her backwards into a woodchipper?”
Psychopath.
Noadi:
July 20th, 2012 at 5:46 am
@dan4: Yes it was racist, and that was exactly why Modusoperandi wrote it because the Republican base is racist and thinks Jindal is too “mocha” not out of any personal racist views. Learn some reading comprehension and grow a sense of humor.
joe_k:
July 20th, 2012 at 5:48 am
dan4 @16 – pointing out that Romney’s core supporters are racist is racist now? What bizarro world planet do you live on?
slc1:
July 20th, 2012 at 9:48 am
Re jthompson @ #15
Actually, even though much of the teabagger base is racist, they won’t admit it. They might well find that a vote for a Romney/Rice ticket “proves” that they’re not really racist. In addition, it would cause many conservative Rethuglican women who are currently leaning toward Obama to reconsider their position. So far, the teabagger objections are focused on her allegedly pro choice on abortion views. However, more importantly, it would put great pressure on Obama to consider countering that move by replacing Biden with Hillary Clinton, which might not sit well with some of his base.
kermit.:
July 20th, 2012 at 10:24 am
dan4: [...]mocha[...]
Racist!
slc1:
July 20th, 2012 at 10:43 am
Re Modusoperandi @ #11
Although I suspect that Mr. Operandi wasn’t being entirely serious in mentioning Natalie Portman as a possible vice presidential candidate, she actually might be a better choice then any of the others being mentioned.
As a for instance, Ms. Portman was the co-author of 2 papers that appeared in peer reviewed journals when she was still in high school. She then went on to Harvard where, among other things, as an undergraduate, she was a research assistant to law professor Alan Dershowitz, a position usually reserved for graduate students in law school. She is certainly smarter then the likes of Bobby Jindal or Tim Pawlenty.
Unfortunately, at 31, she is not old enough and, having been born in Jerusalem raises the birther issue. Her mother was a US citizen but her father was an Israeli citizen at the time.
jnorris:
July 20th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
I had read that Sarah Palin was going to have her own party event in Tampa during the convention. her presents in the city could distract the media from any problems the GOP has on the floor.