I’m just calling it like I see it.

There’s a whole lot of things the electorate might consider for their polar opposite:

Incompetence – Competence: advantage Romney (not a fan, he’s the GOP Al Gore IMO)

Rock Star – Boring: Advantage Pawlenty (not excited – he’s BORING)

USA bad – USA #1 – Advantage Sarah! (but I’m not holding my breath – ANYONE can contrast with that)

Lame, Art. I support Sarah and I have no problems with honest criticism of her like this diary made. She does need to bone up on policy, but she has a couple of years to do that between now and mid-2011.

Totally inexperienced at governing – Totally inexperienced at governing.

No accomplishments prior to candidacy – No accomplishments…

Team of Marxist Advisers – No advisers.

Sarah has things she can contribute. Rhetoric, fund raising (still to be seen), single issue focus. All good things. None qualify her for any office.

She was absolutely over her head as Governor of AK, accomplished nothing (gas line is at best a “wait and see”), and ran off when the heat got turned on. Replace Oprah, sure. Replace Obama, not in this life.

I have no clue who will be the nominee in ’12. It most likely won’t be Palin. Hopefully it won’t be Huckabee. Either of those two and Obama is a two term President in a walk.

if you can handle Juneau, you can handle DC; both are hives of scum and villainy. Juneau is worse in some ways because there is NO anonymity; everybody knows you, watches you, and keeps score; a careless word in a bar or restaurant is on your boss’ desk or on the front page the next morning. You can hide out unless you’re really prominent in DC.

Palin’s problem is she didn’t like or much stay in Juneau and surrounded herself with disciples; they may have been loyal to her but they knew nothing about governing and got her in lots of trouble. She was so into being the Un-Murkowski that she ran off almost all the Murkowski appointtees and either let the Democrat holdover run things or brought in malcontents; if you’d quit or been fired from the Murkowski Administration, that was a recco for her administration and that got her the vaporware gas line and got the Canadians half a billion dollars of Alaska’s money.

It’s her own fault that she has next to no experience in actually governing anything bigger than Wasilla, Alaska, and governing Wasilla, or any other small town in Alaska, isn’t really much of a challenge since the State does most everything that a local government does elsewhere in the Country. If she had actually been interested in doing anything other than making a splash as Governor, there is plenty to learn and do since Alaska’s is far and away the most powerful governorship in the Country and you manage things at what would be several different levels of government elsewhere. But, she didn’t like it, didn’t much do it, and when the big money started to glimmer, that Ethics Act that she liked to brag about passing was between her and payday, so she quit and became a temporarily famous author. We’ll see how it works out for the Country and the Republican Party. So far it has worked out pretty well for Sarah Palin.

The way Tim has played the Minnesota Dem-controlled legislature (like a fiddle) is impressive. He comes across, to this outside observer, as a non-dramatic, competent manager.

Being in Illinois, of course, by the time the primary gets here, the nor’east RINOs will probably have picked someone else anyway.

Mew

The “opposites elect” hypothesis could mean in 2012:

Rock Star(Obama) – Utility Player(Pawlenty).

If Sarah gets behind him – look out.

Nothin’ but a putz. If Palenty was worth a nickle, it would be Senator Coleman.

Who, think back to 1996 and who ran against Slick Willy.

If it’s hopeless, probably Mitt Robot Man Romney.

If it’s really hopeless and nobody thinks there is a chance in Hades of beating his Obamaness, Hucka Hucka, he’s running right now.

But what happens if the excrement hits the fan here in the US late in the run up to the Republican convention with something like a domestic terrorist event? I’d argue that the Iranian hostage crisis back in the late 70′s helped to sink Carter, or at least was a factor. Thank goodness that Ronnie was the guy who took the nomination.

Remember, Reagan started out liberal on social issues. He signed a bill that helped women receive abortions, raised taxes, and supported FDR and the New Deal. Look how good he turned out! Some Conservatives aren’t born Conservative. As for an exciting/charismatic candidate:
Rick Perry
Bobby Jindal
Bob McDonnell
John Thune
Rob Portman (VP?)
Ron Paul
MICHAEL WILLIAMS (VP?)
Michelle Bachman (maybe not the best idea?)
Paul Ryan
Marco Rubio (VP?)
Rudy Giuliani
Kelly Ayotte (VP?)
Now, not all of these are too excting, but most are pretty charismatic and young (with the exception of Giuliani and Paul)

The point is, nobody now. Discussing who the R nominee should be in ’12 is nothing more than mental masturbation.

The outcome of the ’10 election should have a huge effect on who we nominate. I will be the first to admit the win in ’94 had no effect on the ’96 nominee – we nominated the guy who’d been waiting in line the longest, as usual – but hopefully we’ve learned at least one thing.

We have no clue what the issues will be in ’12 – a bunch of that will depend on what Harry&Nancy can shove through the Congress before that. Also, what the state of the world is going to look like in ’12.

Personally, the last thing we need to do is nominate the R version of Obama – somebody who can generate excitement. Sarah does excitement well but other than that, she’s an empty dress. Actually, come to think of it, she fit pretty well with McCain.

one year to mainstream this word&you have your man

On both sides of the aisle.

This post is a bit of “let’s be honest with ourselves”. I don’t assume Sarah is preparing a Presidential run, but this is a problem if she is.

November 3, 2010. 2012 talk is out of bounds until we deal with the 2010 elections.

I didn’t realize you had that many hands.

On the other hand (mine, not one of your 4) I agree with you. However it is fun to talk about because you can literally watch the pressure inflating the lefty heads at the thought we might seriously consider someone they have tried to destroy.

Kinda like that guy in that lame movie “Big Trouble in Little China” blew himself up after discovering that his master was dead.

Getting comments for a Palin diary is a little less difficult than a Ron Paul diary. Plus, this isn’t even a good Palin diary. My recommendation is to write about something more topical than Palin 2012.

Now it is true that diaries that make the recommended list often end up with a lfair number of comments, but this is not always the case, and oft times most of the comments are posted after the diary reaches the list.

However, the converse is often not true. For instance, this recent 169 comment diary did not get a single recommendation

Carrie Prejean Does not Represent Me

Now your diary is of much better quality, but the fact remains that comments does not equate with whether a diary should be recommended.

Some diaries and topic stimulate more comments – and not infrequently a slew of comments represents more heat than light.

Recommendation usually indicates a vote of confidence for the quality of the writing or insight – and/or a desire to bring it to the attention of readers so that it doesn’t get lost in the crowd.

Be content that you have stimulated conversation, and also note that people who check recent comments will find links to this post.