Seriously, Palin needs, if I can borrow from Heinlein, learn to take orders, and learn to give orders, in a big executive environment.

Even if she’s only at SecInterior for two years and then moves over to SecState, or U.N. Ambassador or something – the thing she lacks isn’t international flavor – I get that she can see russia from her house is a metaphor – but experience in taming and neutering bureaucrats.

Period.

Mew

I would like to think she’s smart enough to know that she doesn’t yet know her enemy, i.e. the entrenched bureaucracy in D.C.

I would like to think she’s smart enough to realize that being inside the belly of the beast, even in a relatively low-order post would serve her better than going straight to the top of the ticket.

Any of these positions, or maybe veep – but that’s really a *weaker* post than SecInterior – with a relatively older POTUS, then a run for the top slot in 2016 makes the most sense to me.

Unfortunately, I don’t see too much of this kind of analysis in Palin’s most ardent supporters. Anything critical is written off as “you hate her!”

Well… no. I don’t hate her. I do, however, remember how Clinton and George W both got rolled in their first two years…

Mew

1) To get a good worm’s eye view of D.C.
2) To have a post where she can be visible, do a *lot* of house cleaning, and still be inside the White House enough to learn the ropes.
3) To be a “good soldier” – which, following the Palin modus operandi, is her next move.

I do not do diaries, and I don’t object to Palin shooting for the moon – at least she won’t blow her toes off – but her advocates claiming she’s ready for the big char are, to put it simply, not different than Obama’s followers except in the object of their fascination.

Mew

Huck can’t attract independents.
Romney is hamstrung by Romneycare, like it or not, fair or not.

I don’t see either being the nominee, although I expect they could divide the conservatives, religious from fiscal, and we could end up with a weak RINO candidate yet again.

C’est la guerre.

Mew

I wouldn’t vote for Romney or Huckabee if they were running for dogcatcher.

I will write in your name before I will back either of those turkeys in the primary.

I don’t bother indicating why these arguments don’t apply to candidates who I don’t think can win.

Romney will not get any further in the South in 2012 than he did in 2008.
Huckabee will not get any further outside of Iowa than he did in 2008.

Both over-estimated their support, thinking protest votes against McCain were actually votes for them.

Mew

Seriously, Iowa and New Hampshire matter only in that they let the candidates show off their “machines”, that is, that they’ve been able to stump effectively, that they can get people to the polling (or caucusing) places, etc. etc. In short, it doesn’t say a whole lot about the candidates, it’s about the campaigns.

I don’t think stopping Huckabee in Iowa is a big deal – he’ll get the door slammed later on.

As for Palin supporters, yeah, we do need to make sure they don’t bolt .. but a lot of that is going to be up to their girl. I really, really don’t think she’s going to try a Murcowski and run as a write-in for POTUS if the Repubs deny her – and I hope she has the wit and wisdom (and believe she does) to hang around another persons’ white house for a term. That fits her modus operandi anyway…

Mew

So far, she’s a one-hit-wonder, but she’s got potential…

Mew

is to have a non-winning POTUS run… so it’s conceivable that she’s not actually running, just laying groundwork to mesh with someone else later on.

Mew

They both rode into town with no direct D.C. experience, and they both got into deep trouble because of that lack of experience…

If Palin is as smart as her supporters claim, then she ought not make the same mistakes.

Mew

p.s. Obama is the ultimate example of outsider incompetence… but I get tired of shooting fish in a barrel

The minute anyone dares criticize Sarah from Wasilla, this is the reaction of the true believers. If you really believe that running a relatively small city in a relatively small state is the same as running the most political city in the world, you’re delusional.

I’m no lefty. I could take offense at your idiocy, but .. the fact is, you’re a great example of the problem.

Your candidate isn’t ready, and any criticism to that effect isn’t accepted.

Unlike Art Chance, I don’t have an emotional reason for rejecting Palin – but reject her I do, and your arguments in her favor smack of rabid zealotry.

Mew

After you resorted to calling me a lefty, and now calling me an elitist? Really?

Seriously, if this is a common thread among Palin supporters – insult the opponent, then declare victory – she’ll implode in the primaries.

To answer your non-argument, I’m not diminishing small towns, but even if it’s just quantitative, there’s a difference between handling the Wasilla city council and the U.S. Senate, between the Wasilla parks department and the Department of the Interior. She has more experience than Obama, sure, but .. it is not at nearly the same scale. Not easier, not harder, but quantitatively, and therefore qualitatively different, just like driving a semi is different from driving a car.

The problem is, that’s *all* the experience she has, and it’s all far removed from the rest of the country. Granted, it’s in “flyover country”, which is a Good Thing, and it’s at a low level, so listening to the citizens is more critical, which is also a Good Thing, but .. the basic point I made above is that if Palin doesn’t get a worms-eye-view of D.C., or get some people on her staff who have such a view, her first term will be more of a disaster than George W’s was… and a part of that is because Palin is such a lightning rod.

Mew

This does not change that Palin will not be ready to be President without some more experience.

Mew

I would support Palin over Newt, Romney, or Huckabee.
There are others, including Herman Cain, who I would support over Palin.

Also, while D.C. experience can be a sleazy experience, it would also be a very revealing one, for both Palin, and for her detractors. Think of it as “lighting up the targets” or “learning the terrain”.

Mew

The same thing applies to both of them, to Huckabee in spades.

Worse, Romney doesn’t appeal to the religious conservatives, and Huckabee doesn’t appeal to the fiscal conservatives. I don’t see a path for either of them to win.

Why are you still talking about has-beens, and if you’re going to re-hash the past, where’s Newt?

Mew

She’d make a great head of the GOP.

Mew

do “meals on wheels” type “feel good” operations.

Mew