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Oct 6, 2011

What's an Alaska Palin endorsement worth?

I like metaphors and similes. Especially ones that I can reuse at least twice in a post.  So let me present one:

A car approaches.
A dog barks at it as it chases it.
The car disappears, and the dog's seemingly happy. 
It thinks it scared the car away.

Alaska Palin's endorsement is worth about as much to a candidate as the dog's worth in scaring cars away is to its owner.

Perhaps even less.

Palinistas may point to the successes the Republican Tea Party scored in November 2010. Which undeniably were large gains, but what exactly do they say of Palin?

OK, besides opportunistically jumping on the bandwagon of some of the winners?

Here's her 2010 record:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin_tracker/

She supposedly invigorates the base. So do many sex workers, so what? The base matters when it is otherwise apathetic to the politics in the country. The base that she supposedly invigorates is already invigorated at the sight of a black-skinned man in the White House, and would vote for whoever runs against him or his party. Invigorating them is like cheering the dog to chase the car. Pointless, and a rather hollow achievement. John McCain, who had been winning elections ever since he dumped his first wife for a rich beer distributor heiress, needed her endorsement to win the Arizona primary? Again, that's like training that dog at an elite obedience school to chase luxury automobiles.

But let's look at the losses among her endorsements in the "Take our country back" elections of 2010:
  • Sharron Angle
  • Tom Tancredo
  • Doug Hoffman
  • Christine O'Donnell (not a witch)
  • Clint Didier
  • Bill Marcy
  • Brian Murphy
  • Rita Meyer
  • Cecilia Heil
  • Todd Tiahrt
  • Angela McGlowan
  • Jon Gomez
  • Rith McClung
  • Vaughn Ward
  • Janet Contreras
  • Karen Handel
  • Tim Burns
  • Cecile Bledsoe
  • Stephen Broden
  • Ilario Pantano
  • Bob McConnell
  • Ray McKinney
  • Sean Bielat
  • Star Parker
  • Carly Fiorina
  • Morgan Philpot
  • Jackie Wallorsky
  • John Raese
  • Meg Whitman
and last but not least,
  • Joe Miller
In fact, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman refused to appear with her when she visited to campaign for them. Joe Miller too, tried to distance himself to the ire of Taaaawwd!

So her endorsement is worth exactly what? A lot of moolah for her and her PAC. That's it.

Her poll numbers are a clear indicator of her influence these days.

Even the Teapublicans are on to her. When she appeared in Iowa (with her bus) for the straw poll, Tea party members were rather annoyed at her co-opting the event for selling books. So much so that Christine O'Donnell (not a witch) was given the slot ahead of her.

So with that kind of popularity, do you really want her endorsement, if you are a Republican candidate? Niki Haley, the Palin-wannabe of South Carolina, and such an endorsement seeking Republican, sums it up well here:
Everything she's done has been successful
In the meantime, somebody should tell this poor sap that she isn't running for President. And her fans should tell me how "libruls" are scared of her.

3 comments:

Bretta said...

She said she wouldn't seek the GOP nomination.

I think she believes she is (led by god) to seek a write-in or third-party vote, a' la Lisa Murkowski (2010).

I believe she is just that delusional.

Staid Winnow said...

Should that happen, Obama will win handily. She'll definitely siphon off Perry's Tea Party votes.

Bretta said...

Hey, if it was good enough for Perot, then it is good enough for Palin.