Let’s hope that Romney himself is an example and starts campaigning with McCain in places like Colorado.

If, as you say,

there are Romney supporters now working on John McCain’s campaign who are, in fact, indisputably out to damage Sarah Palin’s reputation

Then please name names so the Republican Party can ostracize them right along with the Republican commentators that are attacking McCain/Palin.

I’m not talking about those who just refuse to support the ticket, or even those who give them a bad time (like Noonan & Co.), but those Republicans who are actively working to hurt the ticket, and through the ticket the country, for their own political or professional gain, should be frozen out.

Party unity is one of the biggest advantages Democrats have over us. We have gone from being the Party of Lincoln and the Party of Regan to the Party of CMA and I, for one, am just sick of it.

We really need to stick together. I do hope the Mitt Romney will come out against the folks who formerly worked for his campaign. I believe he will.

SURVIVING IN WYOMING…

Join the RedState Strike Force

Romney himself has also been lukewarm on Palin. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is green-lighting this stuff. I think Romney was angered by not being picked. The minute McCain got the nomination Romney started kissing his ass like it was nobody’s business. He was out there on every channel for McCain and everyone (probably including himself) thought he was gonna be the number 2 for months.

I think when it comes to being President its me first, then party. Romney has a huge ambition and he doesn’t want Palin getting in the way if McCain goes down next week.

I think you also see Palin looking out for herself with all of these leaks that she has “gone rogue” and has stopped listening to her handlers. Her handlers, however, have done a really bad job by keeping her scripted and away from the media. That, plus the fact that she was an unknown, allowed her to be defined by SNL more than the campaign. You can’t blame her for trying to break lose and re-brand herself.

I think if McCain looses on the 5th there is bound to be a lot of fighting within Republicans on how to go on from here. You’ve got the George Wills fighting with the Rush Limbaugh crowd and you’ve got moderate republicans claiming the “party has left them.”

That’s the best response, for now, to this backstabbing.

When Obama wins in a landslide, we can all be honest and objective about the situation and just blame it on Romney! He is the source of all the GOP’s problems as you know. We’ll just say that his tireless campaigning and fundraising for an undeserving candidate like McCain that dragged Romney’s reputation through the mud in the primaries was all a sinister plot to take down his competition in 2012. Come on people!

Palin was undermined FIRST and FOREMOST by McCain himslef. McCain didn’t want a VP, he wanted window dressing and thought he’d get it with Palin. She’s proved not to be a “fall in line” yes woman. She is not afraid of challenging McCain and he doesn’t like it. I hope she gets her chance to give him a piece of her mind when this fiasco is over. She will have 4 years to repair her reputation after having assicated herself with a sexist.

How completely and utterly disappointing.

And, alas, intellectual conservatism has matured enough to have intellectual snobs.

at The Minority Report.

People can play connect the dots with assocations and innuendo.

All I know is that Romney has been much more supportive and a much better surrogate than Huckabee. Huckabee has been AWOL and his show on Fox, which isn’t even that good, has shown clips mocking McCain and Romney already.

But we can never blame Huckabots. For all we know,there could be Jeb, Jindal or Pawlenty supporters who recognize that Sarah has taken the mantle for 2012 if McCain loses and is probably the future frontrunner if he wins.

A lot of people have horses in that race. I’m not sure why some seem so eager to blame Romney supporters.

Romney with his millions spent in the primaries, couldn’t muster up the level of support or enthusiasm that Palin did simply by just showing up. This probably scares Mitt quite a bit. Romney is a good man and would make a fine POTUS. However, people more easily connect to Palin, especially the middle class.

Just remember, never underestimate a person who can kill and disembowel a moose in 5 minutes then in under an hour throw on some makeup and pair of pumps and be the sight of the party.

wouldn’t be aware of this. If he’s not, that doesn’t make him much better than Obama, when it comes to judgment and associations. If he does know and is not publicly chastising his supporters, he is culpable. If he is so sequestered as to not know what his own supporters are doing – and we’re not talking grassroots supporters here – then his bid for 2012 needs to be end this minute. We don’t need another Republican who doesn’t know what’s going on around him.

“The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney. He’s in charge on November 5th.”

I certainly do not think that Romney will be leading the Republican Party on 11/5, but I am not sure who will in the event McCain loses. I am hoping that Newt takes a more central role.

that McCain didn’t pick Romney. I always got the used car salesman vibe from him, really felt he was trying to be what he thought voters wanted, not what he truly believed.

I will not forget this in 2012. When he tries to take down Sarah, we’ll take him down instead. If he couldn’t get the votes this year with the open field, he sure as heck isn’t going to get it in 2012.

Remember, an elephant never forgets.

This just confirms what Romney supporters were saying back in the winter and spring: That he surrounded himself with incompetents. It was a rookie mistake. But one that I think he has learned from, and his ready to move forward from.

Romney is out there on behalf of McCain. He is hitting the radios shows (Glenn Beck, Ingraham, etc) Romney has class. He lost with grace. He is a forward looking man, not one to hold a grudge or “greenlight” attacks against Palin simply because she got the job he may or may not have wanted.

The truth is, that win or lose on the 4th, the future of the GOP is not McCain. It is Romney, Palin, Jindal, Pawlenty and others. It is conservatives who stand on principles, and not career mongers who are trying to be on the right side of everything.

Anyone in the GOP slamming Palin should be held accountable on their own. Are we so ignorant as to think that they can do nothing without the permission of a dear leader? Perhaps they are working together to damage Palin. If so this is the worst kind of political posturing.

This sort of behavior will only end up with them falling on their own sword. Unable to get a job with either party.

To you Palin bashers within the McCain camp, I’d like you to meet Scott McClellan. You all ought to have a lot to talk about.

if this is the case, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Romney was okay with this.
During the primaries, he and McCain were at it like cats and dogs. A large part of me seriously belives thay once Rudy’s popularity went down and Fred Thompson didn’t really pick up some steam that the nomination should have been his.
I also believe Romney was desperate for the VP pick as well. I remember him on Hannitys radio show repeatedly saying “I’ll accept if asked” like he was dropping a huge hint to McCain. The problem with Romney and the MSM was that Palin wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
To give him credit, he did meet with McCain recently about the economy, and I think there is room for Romney in a McCain/Palin adminsitration, but I have to wonder if he aspires anything greater and what he would be willing to try to vault to the top.

Within the last month, Kevin Madden on CNN has constantly made belittling remarks about Gov. Palin.

Rather than defend fellow conservatives, especially Palin, Madden has become a “token” Republican on CNN.

Rommey better be careful–his sour grapes as a result of his primary lose might hurt his choices in the future.

In my opinion, it is going to be Palin v. Jindal.

Who ya got?

Palin–demonstrated grit and determination (especially in the convention speech and in the debate) in the last seven weeks…has a conservative pedigree with a reform-minded approach to political governing…a political outsider…now has fundraising potential for the future as well as grassroots support.

Jindal–a conservative with an Ivy-league education…has a some experience in D.C. politics…governor in the South…a hard-nosed conservative politican who excels in television interviewing.

Both are young conservatives who can appeal to the base. Both have the potential to broaden their support, however.

he has been the loyal solider since Super Tuesday. His speech at Cpac was one of the most gracious exits from a Presidential campaign in modern times. He could have gone out to CPAC and rallied aganist McCain and fundraise alot of money to keep his campaign going. Alot of people said his exit had everything to with him privately finacing his campaign and not wanting to spend more of his money, but he could have gotten alot of anti-McCain money and continued, but he did not. He has been one of McCain’s leading campaign surrogates in the media, the network he has appered most is on is MSNBC, which if you did not strongly believe in the McCain camp is one outlet you would not go on because it would not be worth the aggrevasion to deal with those knuckleheads. If we do lose on Tuesday, our strongest ticket in 2012 would be Palin/Romney.

This is very sad…Of course, I warned many about Romney’s true intentions during the primaries (not on here), but no one would listen. Romney can kiss my Sam’s Club Republican bottom. Thank you Erick for having the courage to report this…the E’Con Elite will certainly protest.

God Bless John McCain, God Bless Sarah Palin, and God save our American States.

involvement.

What I do know from personal experience is that during the primaries the Romney campaign in the guise of the total asshat who was doing their web campaign (yes, Steve, you) was relentless sending out really negative information on other candidates with a smarmy “not for attribution to the campaign” restriction.

Given the behavior of the campaign I really have no doubt that Romney supporters are going after Palin. Given his much vaunted management skills I have to wonder the extent to which they have been green lighted on this.

and we know how helpful he’s been to McCain.

I didn’t know Romney until the primaries and quickly grew disgusted by his lies and campaign tactics against FELLOW REPUBLICANS. Then when asked he stated flatly he would not serve in a McCain cabinet during the convention (way to go out and help the team Mitt!) and there have been constant intimations of his efforts to sabotage McCain-Palin.

I will do anything I can to ensure he is never elected to anything in the future.

I must say that this, if true, is very disheartening. I think most Romney supporters want to win this election. And while I still maintain that Romney was the best man for the #1 spot, I speak for myself when I say that I was happy to see Sarah Palin take the VP spot. I couldn’t be upset about that at all.

I’d like to call on all other Romneybots if they are doing this, to stop it immediately. Sarah Palin is a fine Republican and she solidified my support for McCain.

would be a Jindal/Palin ticket in 2012 where she can help with the base and he can be the intellectual face of the party for the moderates and DC/NYC crowd. I hope that happens

I think Gingrich purposely sat this out knowing he couldn’t beat Clinton, but probably wishes he were in because he could take Obama.

Palin eventually takes the Stevens seat after 2 terms as gov.

Though it wouldn’t shock me to see something like Palin/Rice, either with Jindal waiting (he’s only 37)

I invite everyone here to read Kathryn Jean Lopez’s article on this very subject on National Review Online. Here is the tag: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGU0ODkzNGVjZTA3ZjQ0OTkxNmUxNzc5YWQ5ZTQ2N2Q=
Mitt Romney has done more for McCain than any of the other Republicans who ran for president. Further, anyone who reads the American Spectator article will realize it was poorly written with absolutely no sources given. How trustworthy is that? I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this is all the work of democrat operatives trying to sow the seeds of dissension within the Republican party. It’s just a side story to the stories about how Palin is being a “diva” and going against McCain. It’s just another way for the lousy media to make it look like the GOP is falling apart. Anyone who takes this story seriously if totally giving into it. The truth of the matter is that 99% of those who wanted Romney will vote McCain/Palin, just like Romney will be doing. I find it silly and premature for Erick to say that he stands with Sarah if McCain loses. This is exactly what the Dems want. They want us to be looking to 2012 as if McCain doesn’t have a chance. If people would focus on getting McCain’s message out there (like Romney has done more than almost anyone else), maybe McCain wouldn’t be behind in the polls. Instead we’re arguing about whether or not someone who used to work for Romney is trying to sabotage Palin’s chances for 2012. Ridiculous.

I think these attacks by former Romney staffers happened below Mitt’s own radar. But they’ve been pulling this kind of stuff since their sleazeball attacks on Fred Thompson during the primaries. Remember the rumors that he would drop out (well ahead of the time he actually did decide to leave the race)? Remember the Phony Fred website? Both were the work of Romney operatives.

Kathleen Parker isn’t the only Romney-supporting pundit who has trashed Palin. She is joined by Michael Shmerconish and arguably Peggy Noonan.

If Mitt does intend to pursue elective office in the future, I hope he does not include these sorry bastages who worked for his presidential campaign in his plans.

I know Mitt, as a Mormon, adheres to a stringent moral code. When his former staff and supporters carry out political activities which are anathma to Mitt Romney’s own ethical standards, they do not serve him well.

• JP

1. They, and not the candidate, were the ones to turn me away from voting Romney in the primary. Only the Paulites were worse.

2. That said, I’m not surprised by their attacks. Palin stands as the GOP standard bearer should McCain lose, or have the inside shot should McCain only serve one term – either way Palin > Romney.

3. The Romneybots are quite jealous of Palin and her ability to draw an adoring crowd. Did Romney ever draw 60,000? Could anyone else, even Jindal?

4. She’s a lifetime member of the NRA and she doesn’t just hunt “vermin,” she’s moose-huntin’ awesome!

5. Her 20 months in office as governor has pushed Alaska more towards limited-government conservatism. Romneybots only wish that their guy could say that.

6. Always been pro-life.

In sum, Palin is the embodiment of Reagan conservatism, Romney, even given the benefit of the doubt on his conversions, doesn’t come close – and the Romneybots know it.

It sure looks on the outside like an October surprise designed to split the GOP base.

He said that he could do to the RNC what Dean did to the DNC.

Take that with a grain of salt, obviously, but I think there are some good points to his argument.

The Right’s Howard Dean

For myself, again, keep my name in mind, I found Huckabee to be the most compelling of the Republican candidates.

He said that he could do to the RNC what Dean did to the DNC.

Take that with a grain of salt, obviously, but I think there are some good points to his argument.

The Right’s Howard Dean

For myself, again, keep my name in mind, I found Huckabee to be the most compelling of the Republican candidates.

Romneybots everywhere, listen hard and listen well because here’s the news:

If any of you little disgruntled pishers keep casting stones at Sarah Palin because you want your man to have some kind of head start on 2012, remember something important and take it to heart, and do it now:

There are people who receive emails from your man on a daily basis asking for support for Mitch and others, and there are people right here on this blog who supported you and your candidate and who even might do so again if the chips fell that way for a good reason.

But there aren’t any of us who supported you who will ever do so again if you act like a bunch of thumb-sucking twits right now. Let’s be crystal clear about that: we’ll take a Spiked Pipe™ to your heads for as long as you live in American politics and we’ll never, ever forget the things you’re saying now.

So stop.

Mitt knows that inside of two years, Palin will be a lethal candidate.

She has attracted the loyalty of base voters in ways that haven’t been seen since Reagan. Mitt wants to run again, and the fact is, the first time out, even though he had a huge financial advantage, he lost to a guy who was washed up in 2007.

If Romney was actually a good General Election Candidate, he would have beaten McCain in the Primary. He isn’t, and deep inside, he knows it. If he can’t beat McCain, there’s no way he can beat Palin.

Nobody can beat Palin in two years, except, possibliy Huckabee and maybe Rice if she decides to get in. Mark that down right now: nobody.

That’s why Mitt put out the word to have his zombies on the McCain Campaign trash Palin. Today was the last straw. One of his trolls put out the word that Palin was a “whack job”. Mitt’s people want to gain control of the RNC after the election.

Remember something: Mitt’s people are largely the same people who had control of the RNC before the election, and are wired in with K-Street and the deep and abiding corruption that has made the RNC the tuned-out-from Main Street monstrosity that it is. The WH apparatus wanted Mitt: he was their boy. That should tell you something.

Now Palin comes out of nowhere and captures the heart and soul of the conservative rank and file like Goldwater did in 1960 and Reagan did in 1964 with his “Time for Choosing” speech. Conventional politicians like Romney are ambitious, and have retainers who are ambitious, as well. Romney sees what Palin can do. And it concerns him, to say the least.

I am totally done with Mitt Romney. This is the lowest thing I have ever seen one Republican do to the other during a campaign. Tar, meet feathers.

The thing is, it won’t hurt Sarah Palin at all. It will only rally the Base to her even stronger, This will allow her to work on reaching out to independents and conservative Democrats that Obama is sure to upset. Just as Reagan did.

and they don’t want Palin ’12.

In truth they will both lose to Jindal ’12 (or Jindal ’16) but that’s besides the point.

Basically, they see Palin as taking Romney’s place as the favorite for the next election. They are the PUMAs of the Republican party only they are fighting over the VP slot instead of the Prez slot.

n/t

n/t

We’ve got an election to win.

Besides, four years is a long time from now. Anything could, and probably will, happen.

and the free world.

Let’s all help McCain and Palin to win THIS year. Obama would be dangerous for America in the war on terror – listen to Joe Biden. Elect Obama and we’ll face a crisis!

Mitt Romney would be a far better president than Obama, but that’s not our choice so let’s unite behind McCain and Palin. They are both patriotic Americans of very good character.

We will have more than 3 years after Nov 4th to argue about the next nominee and veep too. There is enough fun and work left for this election….

Lets wait 7 days and not use the future installment of fun right now.

btw… I love Gov. Palin so I am already in that tank.

1) It doesn’t surprise me at all that Romney’s supporters instituted the circular firing squad. They had it working before the Primaries were even over with the way Romney surrogates were saying it would be better to vote for Obama and go down in flames then vote for McCain and lose our soul. (See Rush and Glenn Beck for two. Though at least Beck recanted this after the Palin pick publically.)

2) Given that the most savage attackers on Palin have been the Romney crowd and NRO, parroted by the left again and again, all Romney had to do was come out and say “this is uncalled for.” But he’s following the Hillary Clinton playbook. I have no doubt he’s savaging Palin by proxy to clear the way for his ’12 campaign. Please, don’t tell me he’s a loyal soldier again.

3) Romney and the NRO surrogates really don’t get it. If he was at all meaningful as a conservative candidate, he’d have won. No one in the conservative movement ‘wanted’ McCain. But Romney’s lack of consistency made him unattractive. And then there was the Michigan protectionist rant.

McCain was simply the least dreadful option. Do they really think in 12 or 16 Romney would be sooo much better a candidate than he is now? I don’t. I think he’s pretty much moot fast-fading to irrelevance now. Show me how people are beating down the door to hear his pontifications on the election? crickets

4) I do think Palin has decided her handlers have mucked things up and she’s going to speak her mind. I don’t think that’s necessarily bad, as McCain could hardly have run a worse campaign if he HAD fired all his senior staff and replaced them with Joe the Plumber.

5) I think the media cannot entirely be blamed for pointing out the dissension in the Republican ranks, as it’s entirely self-caused from the circular firing squad. To be fair, as the Dems fell apart after 80, 84 and 2000 and Congressionally in 94, they made a point of putting the dissension on display there too. The media likes bloody water more than they like partisanship. And the Republicans are bathing in their own blood right now; no two ways about it.

6) Finally, while it’s good that Romney gets called out on this now. He doesn’t deserve to get off for his surrogates role in sabotaging the campaign and his own inactivity on behalf of it. The traitors can go bye-bye.

This isn’t the Democratic party. Palin has earned her stripes with the national party, shrugging off the vilest, most concentrated media/PR assault (including, apparently, Rombots) in modern political history to give McCain a frankly shocking chance of winning. Jindal hasn’t. She’s “next”, and the GOP always goes that way.

Furthermore, if McCain wins, she’ll be sitting VP and unbeatable. If he loses, Obama’s inevitable embarrassment on the world stage will reflect poorly not only on him but on the whole idea of having a thinky, non-alpha President.

He might make her a good VP though.

When the Dems take control of two branches of government, it will become obvious to Republicans that a brand makeover is necessary.

Why?

1) Diminishing importance of the white vote — With each passing election, white voters become less important. They still rule the roost for now, but that’s changing quickly.

2) A changing electoral map — Republican candidates have been able to get by on thin electoral margins, but it appears that Dems are going to win four out of the past five popular votes. And now, with demographics shifting in Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina and New Mexico, the Republican pathways to victory are aligning more closely to popular sentiment.

3) Losing social issues such as anti-abortion and anti-gay — Younger voters overwhelmingly support abortion rights and gay rights, and insisting on more Draconian philosophies along those lines becomes a spiraling liability.

Sarah Palin was the only thing that got me excited about McCain/Palin (unfortunately, disgust with BO didn’t translate to excitement for McCain). I think Sarah would make a very good presidential candidate, although I think she needs to be put through the fire of the hostile media a little bit more before then.

It is unfortunate that these people that were formerly associated with Mitt’s campaign have criticized Palin. However, I think the generalizations of all “Romneybots” and criticismms of Mitt himself are misplaced.

There is one former Romney guy who is named in this, who now has another job.

The rest is crap. No names of anyone who Romney even remotely has influence over.

This is totally in response to the poll last week showing Romney ahead of Huckabee and Palin. Spec is usually anti-Romney and they are attempting to undo all the goodwill that Romney earned over the last 7 months.

Let’s see who is a better conservative leader from now until November 2010 and then let’s get behind that person.

First, let’s not count Mccain as dead yet. A victory for him obviously puts Palin as the front runner. But this does lead into my next point:

People need realize that none of these candidates this year were not big time conservatives. We sent the JV out because we knew it’d be a bad year (why would a big dog want to taint himself with a lost election against Hillary? Had they known Obama would be the candidate, we’d have had a bigger field). In four years we’re going to see a whole new crop of young conservatives from Paul Ryan to Bobby Jindal to Eric Cantor. This excludes the likes of Newt, Palin or Rice who cold possibly join the fray. A Mccain victory proves that Democrats have lost touch with the country.

The map also changes in 2010 and it favors Republicans. Unless Obama’s hypothetical presidency is exceptional, he’s going to have a tough time winning an extra 6 electoral votes when there isn’t a foil to go against like Bush.

Erick, we are in the last week of trying to get McCain/Palin elected.

We know how you feel about Mitt but can it wait for a week? This is the last thing we need right now.

First you endorse a couple of Dems. and then you start in on the Romney supporters. Sheesh!

Here.

Thats all I have to say about that, but when we talk about 2012, and I’m voting and cheering for McCain/Palin but the reality is they will lose next tuesday, but when we look at 4 years from now its important that we get it right this time. None of the guys that ran in the primaries this cycle will be considered, and for good reason, we can do better.

I truly believe, that the Obama/Pelosi nation will give true conservatives the opportunity to stage a revolution, and we must have someone at the top of the ticket to lead the growing tidal wave. I want to believe in SaraCuda, I love the narrative, but the hard truth is she is now tainted (and its not all her fault) but first impressions are hard to overcome. Jindal is clearly the great hope for the country. I see a Jindal/Pawlenty ticket leading conservaties back into the majorities in both the house and maybe senate in 2012 and then, and only then, will we get the real reform that this country so desperatly needs.