If Republicans want to know exactly what not to do to win in 2012, then follow advice similar to that offered by David Frum as to why Sarah Palin should “stop talking now” about the false accusations that she was responsible for the Tucson shooting:
“There is no one left in America that would blame her.”
Oh really? Two polls show otherwise.
I previously posted about a CNN poll showing that 35% of all people (including 56% of Democrats and 34% of Independents) believe that Palin has a great deal or moderate amount of responsibility for the shooting. A PPP poll reflects that 26% of all people (including 45% of Democrats and 22% of Independents) believe Palin bears “at least some responsibility” for the shooting.
These are big numbers, considering that there is no evidence as of this date that Jared Loughner ever even saw the Palin electoral target map which put Palin at the center of attacks over the shooting.
The false connection of the Palin electoral target map to the shooting did not start in the mainstream media. As I have documented, that false connection started with bloggers at DailyKos and Think Progress using Twitter to push the issue into the mainstream media within hours of the shooting with the help of their followers.
The ruthless efficiency with which the left-wing blogosphere tied Palin to the shooting, and the success of their efforts in equating Palin with mass murder, is a lesson we should not forget.
The Democrats and their mainstream media supporters were put back on their heels in 2010, and are regrouping. And if regrouping requires falsely accusing a major Republican figure of complicity in mass murder, and then amplifying that false accusation for several days in the face of contrary evidence until a substantial portion of the population believes it, they will do it.
But it did not stop with the accusation. When Palin tried to defend herself she was savaged again in the mainstream media.
Palin supposedly didn’t issue a statement soon enough or she issued it too soon; she was accused of using the term “blood libel” improperly by people who had used the term themselves in less dire circumstances; she was making it all about her; her tone was not right; she didn’t really feel what she was saying, and so on and so on.
Having created a false narrative of Palin’s responsibility for the shooting, the mainstream media tried to deprive Palin of the ability to defend herself against the charges. And unfortunately, some who supposedly are on our side have jumped on that bandwagon.
And all the while, Barack Obama stood back for days and let his supporters in the media rip Palin apart, much as he left it to his supporters to go after the Clintons during the primary, only then to proclaim that we don’t really know why Jared Loughner did what he did. And the media narrative was how wonderful Obama was, how he helped heal the nation.
Any Republican or conservative or Tea Party supporter who dumps on Palin in any way over the Tucson shooting or her defense of herself should just stop talking now.
It does not matter whether you support Palin for President, whether you think she is electable, or even whether you like her. This is not about Palin, it is about the mainstream media’s desire to have Barack Obama re-elected at any cost and to take down any Republican candidate who stands in the way.
I’ll take it one step further, and agree with John Ziegler (h/t HotAir) that there may not be any Republican candidate other than Palin who can withstand the reinvigorated Obama media juggernaut:
Everyone else will inevitably melt (like even grizzled veteran John McCain did) when they get close to the blast furnace that will be going up against the Obama juggernaut. Far more than anyone else in conservative history, Palin has been forced to prove just how fireproof her convictions are and how deep her resolve is.
In the vile attempt to tie Palin to the Tucson shooting we have witnessed the test run for how the left-wing blogosphere will target Republican candidates and propel false narratives into the mainstream media, and how the mainstream media will take those narratives and run with them.
If Palin is taken down politically over the Tucson shooting, there is not a single Republican candidate who can survive the coming onslaught.
Update: John Hinderaker at Powerline writes that it’s all over for Palin, and the “time has come to put any thoughts of Sarah Palin running for President to rest.” The basis for this analysis is a CNN poll showing Palin with all-time high negatives in the wake of the accusations that she was connected to the Tucson shooting.
If this is the standard by which we choose candidates, then the time has come to put thoughts of Republicans winning in 2012 to rest.
Operation Demoralize is working.
——————————————–
Related Posts:
John Hinderaker’s Weak Defense Of His Palin Political Premortem
The Dilemma of Someone Libeled – Palin Edition
56% of Democrats Believe Palin Map Myth
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
Visit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
That's just depressing. We just have to find a way to get the word out to normal Americans not immersed in this stuff as we are and not reading conservative blogs. We can do that. Somehow.
I'm with Fuzzy, but since the left controls the source that most Americans get their 'information' from, I'm not sure how we can do it – but yeah, we need to.
Prof. J, would there be any advantage to a defamation of character lawsuit – perhaps, by Palin – against one or more MSM outlets? Or, would that be seen as negative or a "right wing diversion to obscure the truth"?
Herman Caine would eat O's lunch in a debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdLGKRBJ_0E&feature;=related
Now, would he survive the media sliming? They've already tried to slime him over some Godfather's Pizza commercials. Very lame attempts I might add. I think he can handle it.
Excellent observations, Professor.
You are doing exactly what Palin suggested: we need to cover her back.
Thanks for that.
How to stop "union tactics" by goons?
Extremely important post, professor!
As to "What can we do about it?", obviously little as far as the left-wing nutjob blogosphere is concerned.
But the "followers" you linked to are another story. They are supposedly "professionals" and have a public life. We can easily identify them and individually hold their feet to the public fire to display their unfitness for the current vocations they hold.
1. They are demonstrably illogical, and therefore feather brains. Where appropriate, expose them to ridicule.
2. They are "haters" and therefore psychologically very likely unable to make sound decisions. Expose their potential instability.
For those two reasons alone, any person relying on their professional services should foreseeably expect a less than satisfactory outcome. Ergo, our message is "Beware of using haters' professional services. They may not be reliable."
In short, attack their ability to be impact haters by making them worry more about earning a living them hating a former governor. They are vulnerable and should not expect to remain comfortably out of the limelight in a politically reawakening. America.
You, as usual, are right on target. No one in the current line-up will withstand this hate-filled, libel-is-not-beneath-us MSM. It exceeds yellow journalism in its foulness.
Who is in the line-up? Herman Cain, as @shaun notes, Mitt, Huck, Pawlenty, Pence, Newt, and a few others – besides Palin. Besides Palin, the only one I can see standing up to this toxic rhetoric and relentless libel is Newt, but he will be written off via the race card. Also, his past is far from "clean" so I don't see him withstanding the "blast furnace". Herman Cain is formidable, but there is so much unknown about him, thus far, that it is tough to see how they will attack him. However, they always have the race-baiters, rabble-rousing the left about his "token"-ness, etc. (we all know the litany of hate-terms used to smear black Conservatives). Those smears alone can destroy any black Conservative, unless he is an Allen West type Conservative who has literally been through the heat (e.g. his Army court martial) and remained strong.
Time will tell. We need to know more about Cain, and help such candidates build defenses against the onslaught, or we'll have another Christine O'Donnell style destruction of a candidate. How low our political process is that we have a ready and willing arm in the MSM for destroying individuals to prop up a chosen candidate – with virtually no other outlet to disseminate the truth (as @Fuzzy notes).
Thus far, Palin is the only one who can say that she is still standing after all they've thrown at her, with both her integrity and her principles intact. Her private life and character have all been examined under a microscope, yet all they can do is make things up and spin lies to attempt a take-down. She's the target for a reason. They fear her. She is their biggest threat.
Speaking of false narratives, inuendos, and blatant rumors, the Palin haters aren't done with her yet, not even close.
Although distasteful, I occasionally go to Twitter to read Markos Moulitas' tweets. Late last night I clicked a link in one of those tweets, and it took me to a site called "Palingates, The Sarah Palin Watchdog Team."(http://palingates.blogspot.com/2011/01/bad-news-for-sarah-palin-on-horizon-big.html#comment-131230421)
In my view, this is one of the biggest Palin hatefests I've seen on the internet. I made the mistake of posting a comment, which in this case automatically subscribed me to the thread. In the hours since then, I have received about 500 or more emails bashing Sarah, Bristol and Todd. Most of those remarks were not direct replies to my comment, although a bunch of people did take a stab at me, but the sheer number of nutty and evil people using that thread to attack Palin and her family sickens me.
Palingates is a European-based website – quite possibly bankrolled by Soros himself.
A despicable "hive of scum and villainy."
Great post Professor. I get upset with a lot of people who say Palin can't beat Obama. In my eyes, the media will do whatever it can to ensure nobody beats Obama. They have invested a lot of time and energy in cultivating his legend that to let that lapse now will be heartache for them. At least with Palin, the media can't do any worse than providing legs for stories claiming Palin isn't Trig's mother, Palin banned books, supported Alaskan secession, and, um, oh yeah, influenced every single murder that's taken place over the past two years.
Professor, while I agree with most of what you've said and find it very insightful, I'm not quite as pessimistic as your conclusion. Sarah Palin, more than some of the other potential candidates, went into this "test-run" with negatives that were already very high. There are a lot of people willing to jump to negative conclusions about her because it reinforces their pre-existing beliefs, however irrational. I don't think an effort to pin something like this on say, Mike Pence, would have been able to stick.
That said, I have no doubt that the tactic of massively distorted smear campaigning will be used. Look at how Chris Christie was treated by the media for vacationing in FL during a big snowstorm in comparison to how Bloomberg was not discussed for vacationing in the Bahamas during a snowstorm in which the unions went on strike, didn't plow, and people died when emergency vehicles couldn't get through. I am certain that had Christie been in charge, opponents in the media would have held him personally responsible for those deaths.
Fascinating. Bill, just tried to post a link to this on Facebook, only to have it rejected as "content that is abusive of spammy".
I'll be blogging this at PJ Tatler and asking facebook to respond.
"Everyone else will inevitably melt (like even grizzled veteran John McCain did) when they get close to the blast furnace that will be going up against the Obama juggernaut."
Sarah has not only been in "the fiery furnace" but "the lion's den" as well. Let them keep concentrating on her. I have a feeling that may all be in the Master's Plan. (Let the reader understand.)
After the Republicans won a historic election in November, David Frum co-founded the "no-lables" group. "No-labels" is a group formed for the sole purpose of telling conservative Republicans to sit down and shut up to slow their momentum going into 2012.
Now Frum goes on the anti-Republican MSNBC network to tell Republican Sarah Palin to quiet down.
He worked in an adminstration that tried to re-brand big government liberalism as "compassionate conservatism". That led to the "thumping" the Republicans took in 2006 and 2008. If Barack Obama had governed with a tiny bit more fiscal conservatism than Bush, the Republican Party would have been a permanent minority party thanks to the way Frum's boss Bush governed.
David Frum is an embarrassement to himself and the Republican Party. He's the one who needs to sit down and shut up.
Grrrr. OpenID picked out an old profile. Here's a link to the Tatler piece under my real name.
Palin/Cain 2012
Saracuda and the Hermanator
One of the things you will notice if you peruse the two linked polls is that both of the polls are heavily weighted Democrat. The CNN poll also heavily weights these catagories: urban, under $50K/yr income and non-white. The PPP poll doesn't ask income, but it is also heavily weighted Democrat with D representing 40% while independents are represented with only mid-20%. These polls, which are untrustworthy, are weighted to give a desired result. As we already know, past polls have put independents in the mid-50% range.
That said, it is not the demographics of the poll that becomes the narrative, it is the result that the polls can create. And yes, the professor is correct in thinking this is the tactic that will be used in the coming 2012 election cycle.
But it is nothing new. There was a reason Obama hired David Axelrod. Axelrod is a master at push polls and astroturf. Axelrod's company is one that designed astroturfing for the sole purpose of creating public opinion FOR the candidate he was working for (Mayor Daley) and he did the same for Obama. And the reason for heavily polling those who fit the urban, under $50K/yr, non-white group who associates as Democrat is because it is that demographic that is least likely to have cable TV and access to alternate news sources (other than the basic alphabet newworks).
And if you notice, there was a question in the CNN poll about support for the TEA Party. There was no reason for that question, other than to subliminally equate the TEA Party with the shooting in Tucson and political vitriol. It works like this: shooting = political vitriol = TEA Party = fault.
This is not a new tactic. It will simply be put on steroids in the coming election season to allow Obama to maintain his seat. It is pure Saul Alinsky. And it has been working for 40 years.
Greater minds than mine will have to figure out how to combat this tactic. It was used to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2008, so it is a proven tactic. But I do know that one way to combat it is to become active. To work for your candidate of choice, the dispute the results of polls, surveys and public opinion.
There is one other way to combat these Alinsky tactics: your money. Let the networks, magazines, blogs, news publications, all of them, know that you will no longer watch, listen or read what they produce. Don't just turn them off. Turn them off and let them know it. Everyone of these talking heads depend on one thing, traffic. Their advertisers use traffic as a way of determining where to spend their advertising dollars. If Ed Shultz doesn't have advertising dollars, he doesn't have a format for spewing his vitriol. It is just that simple.
Stupid non-lawyer question: I realize Palin could not win a defamation lawsuit, but could that lawsuit live long enough to get into discovery?
I have no doubt there's a great deal of coordination going on between the press and the left (but I repeat myself), and could uncovering that coordination do enough damage to them to overcome the negative appearance of such a suit would create?
"In short, attack their ability to be impact haters by making them worry more about earning a living them hating a former governor. They are vulnerable and should not expect to remain comfortably out of the limelight in a politically reawakening. America."
Correct, flank and rear, flank and rear. Supply lines, not front. Get them unemployed. Publish their personal records that are public record. Etc.
Need a thorough Operations Field Manual for defeating chaotics (progressives/leftists), to include large and small scale incidents. Elements of the same are online and in dead trees but not thorough and there are no lessons learned debriefings that I can find.
One tactic is now widely-known and field-tested: image and sound, although the camera angles are usually frontal, like TV crews, when they should be flank and rear to deny the subject control of the area. Related: never talk with/write to a chaotic standing still facing them; move slowly but constantly to their left or right to keep them spinning (off balance), as Hitchcock loved to do (cf. Grant and Saint in the sleeper car).
This includes when talking with a TV reporter, keep moving to their side so reporter and camera have to move with you. Never let them control the space. It is battle space. Do not stand still for them, move steadily and slowly to their side and rear, controlling the space.
A manual also should cover how to give testimony at a hearing, how to handle a lens or microphone thrust into one's face (its bearer is always hostile) … and a laundry list of strategic and tactical advice and lessons-learned.
A lot of work! It has to be done. If the force isn't trained and tested in a thorough-going way, even though with distributed authority and acting, it will wither in the blasting furnace so rightly noted.
And just what do George Soros and Drummond Pike do on a daily basis with their investment moves and date books? And what is Olberman's police record?
PJM's "Tattler" is a half-measure. It should be an G2 shop.
Here's what I don't understand. Everyone seems to go on and on that Obama will be nigh well unbeatable in '12, and yes he'll have his media lapdogs yapping a storm form him, etc, etc..
But…
Unless something changes, and I haven't seen any policies coming out of the White House that would lead to positive changes, he's going to be running for reelection in a country with 8-10% unemployment, $5/gal gas and food prices 30% higher then they were when he took office. Why does everyone think he can't lose? I frequently think that it doesn't matter who the Republicans nominate, there's no way he can win, tame media or not. Thoughts anyone?
No one can win but Palin? Oh come on. I like Sarah Palin and all, but this is hogwash. The whole crosshairs controversy shows that it is the MEDIA and it's credibility which are being destroyed. They are LOSING, not gaining power, and the longer they do things like apologize for using crosshairs, the more credibility they lose.
Sorry, sir, I think your analysis is very poor indeed.
Yes, Obama, Democrats and the media are organizing. Journ-O-list is still around, Obama is meeting in secret with media leaders, and most worrisome of all, he is moving his re-election campaign back to the most politically corrupt city in America, where he has installed corrupt Emanuel to head the most politically corrupt machine in the country. He will be raking in foreign and other illegal contributions, through his union brown shirts and ACORN, he will be raising the dead to stuff ballot boxes in Democrat precincts across the country.
But we still can win. A good way to start would be to organize ourselves.
wasdave is on to something. Unemployment could be even higher in 2011-12 than 2010. $5 gas will kill the economy.
"Every 10-cent increase in gas prices equates to an additional $14 billion per year out of consumers' pockets, Peter Boockvar, an equity strategist at Miller Tabak, wrote in a research note on Thursday. Americans already spend $1 billion per day on gas. Rising gas prices reduce other consumer spending and can affect big-ticket purchases when prices hit certain points."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/07/AR2010010704255.html
Further, despite the jawboning, almost everything the Obama administration
does (increased taxes, regulation, regulatory uncertainty, heavy handed anti-business czars, environmental overkill, bailouts, QE2, government created energy shortages and costs, rising interest rates, rising food and input costs, rising transportation costs) curtails rather than encourages expansion and job growth. The Dems would like the economy to be better but everything thing they try to do favors the public sector and damages the private sector, they can't help themselves.
The state and municipal solvency crisis is fast upon us which will lead to large layoffs of state workers. Default and haircuts will, I believe, occur in Europe in 2011. Home building, real estate, construction and building materials are already in a double dip.
The bond market is fragile. There are a number of potential bubbles underway, China possibly the largest. Then there are the unknown unknowns, for instance terrorism or war, which may benefit President Obama's prospects but which could just as easily damage those prospects. All in all not a pretty picture especially when it comes to elections where "it's the economy" that is critical for re-election.
All this bad news will be put through the spin cycle but the pain may be so bad most everyone will feel it. Is this 1979-1980 all over again?
Letting the mainstream media pick our candidate is like Miss Texas asking Miss California which dress to wear in the evening gown competition. The left is going to tell us who they like and then tear down who they are really afraid of. We shouldn't care what they think of our candidate. We can't pick a moderate. That is what they want.
"If Ed Shultz doesn't have advertising dollars, he doesn't have a format for spewing his vitriol. It is just that simple." @retire05
"Why does everyone think he can't lose?" @wasdave
These are interesting points, IMHO. As to the first one, MSNBC is just a propaganda arm, which has continued to receive subsidized funding from the parent company (GE), propping up their cost to broadcast regardless of advertisers or viewer ratings. If viewer ratings were that important, MSNBC would have been off the air long ago. Funding outside of advertising is key to MSNBC, and probably others, like CNN (a Ted Turner creation, and I am sure heavily supported by other libs).
As to the second quote, I must say: I agree 100% with your first post, @was, but not so sure about this one. I am a strong supporter of Sarah Palin, and I will gladly work for her to win in 2012 should she decide to run. However, the main reason I think she might lose is that the MSM has a complete lock on the message, enough to make 35% of Americans believe that she is tied to the Tuscon Tragedy. Statistics can be used to say anything you want, but the complete liberal control of the MSM and most cable news, not to mention most print journalism outlets, is daunting. Rush Limbaugh made a comment yesterday that is all too true: "You can't win elections if people hate you." As long as the Saul Alinsky tactics are allowed to continue without return or counter measures, and the message locked up by MSM hacks, it is a tough, uphill battle for any Republican. That makes many doubt. I personally believe that she is the ONLY Republican who could win. They are so afraid of her, and yet they taunt her. However, what they try and hope to do to destroy her is only making her stronger in many people's view.
After 2008, I don't have a lot of faith in the ability of the American people to discern truth, see reality and vote accordingly. However, with what you note about inflation and economic FACTS, Obama is in for a fight. Any Conservative and/or Republican would have to push and run hard on that reality. Sarah Palin will give it to him, and good, holding him to his record – perhaps the first person with the "audacity' to hold him accountable for his actions.
I can't wait to see it. She will rock!
Linked: 'Democrats Continue to Blame Palin for Arizona Shooting'.
A "Bait and Switch" may be in order….let Palin draw the fire up to the very end, pretending that she is in the running for the Republican Nomination while the true champ stays silent until the week before the convention. Then, Herman Cain can announce that he is Choosing Palin to be his VP nominee, thus ensuring the MSM will self-destruct as they have "blown their wad" in the runup. Whatever happens it will be fun to see, I'm sure!
Professor, this may be your most insightful post. To me at least, since I am still on a learning curve on dirty political tactics. But, this one was clearly hiding in plain sight. Thanks for the enlightenment.
Make no bones about it, Obama wants to win in 2012, and will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal. He'll say one thing to one group of voters, and the exact opposite thing to another group as he did in '08, and the media won't care a lick. Deal with it.
The GOP nominee will need to have an equal fire in the belly to win- something that McCain definitely lacked, and is missing in certain candidates, Pawlenty being one of them, in my opinion. Now, how much this fire needs to be externally visible (i.e. Palin), is the unanswered question at this time. If Palin isn't the nominee, I would want her as a close advisor, ready to counsel the nominee on "taking the heat" and rapid response methods.
But Obama is a creature of predictable habits, and his economic record is a disaster. The GOP nominee will need to be able to speak in plain terms to those millions of everyday folks out there that are really hurting. (And never forget that even a weak candidate like McCain, with the media entirely in Obama's corner, and the country completely displeased with Bush, could very well have won had the market not crashed.)
Buck up, people. My conviction in Palin's strength never wavered. Not a flicker. In fact, it only grew stronger. And many reasonable people have been shocked at the scurrilous attacks. Heck, three well-known Jews, including two liberals come out publicly in her defense. Pigs would normally fly before they would write such persuasive opinion pieces on any other Conservative, especially one who actually believes in conservative principles and does not just talk the talk.
And when you encounter friends who believe the spin, use the Socratic method. Don't tell them, ask them pointed questions and wait for their reply. They will become entangled in the in the nets of argument and sink, because there is no reasonable justification for the vilification followed by an extra helping by not doing whatever the media 'deemed' the appropriate response. It will become evident to many there was no appropriate response other than what she did. 'Turning the other cheek' is not the appropriate response to shockingly libelous acts as it only justifies it and encourages more of the same. Palin will not feed the crocodile hoping to be eaten last.
Latest word is Huckabee is the R savior and the only one who can win the nomination. That is the most hopeful wishing I've ever seen in print.
"Is this 1979-1980 all over again?"
-viator
Questions for the room:
Is this 1928 – 1945, all over again?
Is this 1835 – 1865, compressed?
Is this 1765 – 1783, compressed?
Is this 1494 – 1629?
Is this 500 to 1500?
Or is this most like 410 AD?
I think Republicans should feel free to support candidates OTHER THAN Palin without being labeled RINOs and stooges. I like Palin as a voice of conservatism, and I appreciate that she's gotten a raw deal from the media, but I don't think she would be the best or strongest GOP candidate for president.
My objections to Palin as president are partly related to electability and partly based on whether she is really up to the job. If she were elected, it would make GWB's tenure in office look like the Era of Good Feelings by comparison. Do people honestly think she would be able to hold up under the rigors of that onslaught AND provide the first-rate political and executive leadership the country needs right now? I have serious doubts. But before we even get to that question, I just don't see how she can get elected if something like half the electorate has already decided they will NEVER vote for her. The GOP nomination is not a suicide pact. There are plenty of candidates who are conservative, capable, AND electable.
Wow, I really have to disagree with the last line. As much as I personally like Palin, if "the standard by which we choose candidates" doesn't take into consideration an 18-point spread between negative and positive views of a candidate, THAT is when we will lose.
Less than 10 months prior to the presidential election, BarryHO won the Iowa caucuses with 38% of the vote. How many people, at that time, thought he'd win the presidency?
The Republicans need to avoid a blood-letting. Every present their positions, but no personal attacks. Let the Stream O'Crap media do the dirty work.
I'm convinced that the overwhelming majority of voters are sick and tired of being spoon fed news and being told what is important. I'm predicting a backlash of epic proportions against the leftstream socialist media and the lying piles of manure they support.
Will Palin win? I don't know. I'm not convinced I'll vote for her. Yet. Can she win? Of course she can. We elected a lying socialist scumbag America-hater and his equally America-hating wife, didn't we?
Just saw this article on T4P http://texas4palin.blogspot.com/2011/01/sarah-palin-operation-demoralize-and.html and saw Mark Levin's tweet. You are so right on the money on this one.
We have to tell people to stop caving to the media. The media are small people with big microphones. The real people vote in the primaries. Polls schmolls.
If you listen to the pundits, the Jets wouldn't have beaten the Patriots last week.
Keep up the great fight. You are an integral part of the movement and a true Palin warrior. Thank you for being there from the beginning.
Those who think Palin can't win because she's damaged by the media are trembling tigers. Stand up and speak out. Don't let the morons with TV megaphones do it for you.
If we determine who presidential candidates will be based on CNN polls, then we are doomed.
Rush Limbaugh is reading this post as I type. Congratulations, Professor, the big guy just hung a target on you!
Your CIVILITY can KISS my TEA PARTY POSTERIOR!
http://templeofmut.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/your-civility-can-kiss-my-tea-party-posterior/
Rush read nearly this entire post on air, and he said you have it exactly right in your analysis and your conclusion:
"If Palin is taken down politically over the Tucson shooting, there is not a single Republican candidate who can survive the coming onslaught."
Um, hello? Does anybody remember 2010? Does anybody remember this loosely organized web of us regular folk affectionately termed "Tea Party"? WE collectively bore the onslaught of the most detestable attacks the liberal freakshow and their lap-pitbulls in the news media : even the bald face lies by black men about spitting and the "N"-word.
WE did it before, and WE WILL do it again. Right now we are taking a bit of a breather, but THIS kind of crap will cause another uprising toward a second wave of devastation against the statists. I am FAR more concerned that the libtards will play nice and act all centrist and stuff. A hard yank to the left and garbage accusations like this will ONLY teach the American people that these lunatics have NOT seen the light and are just as desperate to wreak additional havoc on us all.
hmm. I wonder when they give these polls cause I never heard of them lol. So it cant be 35% of ALL people cause I know at least 2 that didnt take them
The biggest problem is these people that are saying Palin is over are the same people who want to get Palin out of politics. How can anyone believe what CNN puts out. Those are the same people who fueled the out the cry against Palin. The ones that were never for her in the first place. This is suppose to be America so how can they get away with convicting Palin. I would like to ask One question. Why has that police chief who was on tv sprouting lies not held accountable. Should he have to answer to anyone. So Liberals answer to no one. More people believed him because we know we are suppose to believe the Police Chief. WE are not suppose to believe they lie and get away with it. Why did he get away with it. Does he not answers to anyone. That is how it became so crazy. If Sarah Palin had sold the crazy guy a gun it would not have been her fault.You can take a horse to water but you can't make the horse drink. The lame media is so upset they they cannot get Sarah Palin. They are even more pissed because she won't give them an interview. She said she would not let them make money on her interviews. Her Alaskan show didn't do well because all her haters were watching. It did so well because more people that like her and there are others that are curious. The night she was on Hannity he did a lot better ratings than the other stations. Those other station know if she came on their viewer would rise big time.Oprah received her highest rating from Palin.That is one of the reasons they are running Fox video to try to get something for it. I have not see any of the polls. If you really want polls let us know were they are going to be.Sarah Palin has something that none of the rest have. She is honest. She is not a different person behind closed doors.Something we need in a politician. How many politicians can the same. Obama has never been responsible for his lies. Why not? If anyone asked anything about his lies they are nuts or you know he meant something else. All Politicians should be held to the same standards.
How does the history of the Democratic Party get out? Did not the KKK assimilate into the Democratic Party after the Civil War? Did the Dem's not write the Jim Crow laws? Did the southern Dem's not try to keep blacks from an education in the 50's? Was it not the Democratic party that had one of the longest serving Senators in Robert Byrd who helmed the KKK?
The Republicans need to hammer this narrative home day after day. They are tying their own hands while the left is off with the gloves. If the Republicans cannot or will not stand up for themselves and fight fire with fire, then they deserve to lose, and the country becomes a socialist Utopia.
I'm beginning to think that the Republicans have no backbone when it comes to the truth about the left. The left, besides being primarily funded by one certain billionaire, have no qualms about spreading disinformation and absolute vile lies about the right.
And no politician on the right seems willing to call them out on it. It's time to get in the mudpit and get as dirty as the left. Otherwise this country will go to hell in a socialist handbag.
If I understand Palin correctly, she’s trying to fix this necessary fourth branch of government too. (Besides the other three.) A free press is necessary for our Republic. Most of our news media is a ‘big leftist government press.’
If enough others, besides her, stand up to them and fight back, I believe we can be successful. But other Republicans can’t just sit back and watch her be destroyed. It will be their turn next if they in turn rise to oppose the Left. We have to do this together.
In the primary, Republicans should debate in overdrive – no holds barred, but no contenders should allow the Left to pick our Republican nominee for us.
Excellent post, Professor. My highly educated professional colleagues (physicians, sadly) really do believe everything in the Huffington Post and the NYT is 100% true. They rabidly support government regulation of Fox news and the internet, while complaining their fool heads off about their high taxes and that their children can't find work.
Many can't wait for single payer healthcare, though they understand their own practice will go bankrupt. Sometimes I feel like Palin, I'll never stop pointing out the holes in their arguments, the falsehoods and outright lies behind every NYT and Huffpo 'news' article, and I get savaged for it.
If we can't find a way to get citizens to understand the difference between the 'free press' and the 'mainstream' media then the republic is in trouble.
Whether you like Palin or not is not the point being made here. Just look at the example she's trying to set and demand every other unenlightened republican follow her lead and maybe we'll get somewhere.
DINORightMarie,
with respect to your first comment in the thread, and your remark about Allen West, you might want to check out this website: West to the West Wing 2012, at http://westforwestwing2012.com/about/
This is the problem: So called conservatives who are too cowardly to speak out. Instead, they join forces with the liberals. Absolutely despicable.
The Republican Party is doomed if left to the likes of Frum, Brooks, Parker, Gingrich et al. The "people" must take the Party back or form a third Party rooted in the Tea Party movement.
Slowly, but surely, the movement is gaining steam (and power) across the land; even among those "victims of those white racist Tea Baggers"
http://patriotstatesman.com/2011/01/1491/
and yes…the Left's Operation Demoralization is working with devastatiing results thus far. It must be stopped!
The MSM is a business operaton.
Their product is not news, but eyeballs.
They sell your eyeballs to advertisers.
People will not watch hard news (think city council meetings), except for rare one-off events. That's not enough to pay the bills.
A large segment of the population, though, will come and watch every day, for soap opera news, namely soap opera women (40% of women, 20% of the population).
This is the MSM target audience. They will watch every day, so long as there is soap opera.
They will tune away if anything broadcast does not hold their interest.
As a result, the tastes of soap opera women edit every public debate.
The Democrats are free-riding on that MSM business model.
My own strategy would be to ridicule their audience and their tastes, and make it all explicit. Then it would continue but without the aura of seriousness that it trades on, making a free ride politically difficult.
The MSM as it appears to me pic, and should be made to appear to everybody.
35% think Sarah has something to do with Tuscon?
That sounds right. After all, 33% also believe 9/11 was an inside job. So the raw crazy leaking out from behind the radiation shielding is holding steady? Good.
Tucson was the Left's latest Reichstag fire.
They long ago made the Big Lie tactic their own.
The Media controls the message. Limbaugh states,. "there's nothing we can do about it, leave ME alone." I say we must DO something and something NOW.
In any battle on must take out the enemy's line of communication. Look who yields power…not politicians…MEDIA…MEDIA makes or Breaks Politicians…should we not with the help of the "Power of Ten"we are doomed.
The Media will reElect Obama! The Power of Ten can stop it.
http://beyondpuke.com/blog/2010/06/24/the-exponential-growth-of-the-10th-power-will-make-compound-interest-look-like-childs-play/
I'm not a big fan of Sarah Palin, but I will defend her from unfair and libelous attacks. But if she seeks the presidency, then she's on her own.
The poll you highlighted shows a minority of americans, mostly democrats and palin-hating independents, believe that palin had something to do with the shootings. what do you expect? they're the crazy left! if you did a poll about bush and 9/11, i bet a majority of democrats believe it was an inside job!
most of the public in recent polls believe palin's rhetoric had nothing to do with the shootings, but sarah palin's popularity still went down. why is that?