Palin: The Long Goodbye

06 September 2011 |permalink | email article

Despite Sarah Palin’s continuing rope-a-dope the odds of her making a late entry into the Republican presidential primary campaign appear anywhere from slim to none.

An astonishing 71% of Republican voters in a new Fox News poll say they don’t want her to run for president. Even more astonishing is that among Tea Party identifying Republicans she fairs poorly – 68% oppose her candidacy. Even ultra-conservative Sen. Jim DeMint ((R-S.C.) told CBS’s “Early Show” he doubts she will run for the nomination in 2012.

In heavily Democratic California a new Los Angeles Times, USC Dornsife Poll found the fact that while Palin is well known to 92% of Republicans, almost two-thirds said they had a negative impression of her. Worse still, the strongest views were heavily lopsided: only 10% had a very favorable view of Palin, compared with 48% who said they had a very unfavorable view of her.

Undeterred, Palin railed against “crony capitalism” in both parties on Saturday in Iowa, and suggested that the “permanent political class” – Republicans included – needed to be rattled. Her pathetic “faux populism” won’t hunt this time around.

Finally Going for Broke?

President Obama will have a probable last major opportunity when he addresses Congress on Thursday to show, as presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that “he is willing to take a risk.”

Goodwin added, “I think what we need now in Washington, strength coming from him. I mean, one of the sad things about this whole contretemps about whether he should give it on Wednesday or Thursday was once again giving in to Congress when he has to challenge them. I don’t think he has anything to lose by going for broke, going for – he’s got to make people believe in government.”

Obama said Monday at a Labor Day rally in Detroit “we need Congress to get aboard” to cheers before a huge AFL-CIO crowd which began chanting “four more years.”

 

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