Sarah Palin Still A GOP Star

Politico: Alaska Governor Steals The Show At This Week's Republican Governors Meeting

(Politico)  This story was written by Jonathan Martin.

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Republican governors gathered here to implore their beleaguered party to reckon with the demographic changes sweeping the country, improve their lagging technological capabilities and win their way back by offering ideas about pressing issues.

But that’s not why 220 members of the media descended on the waterside Hotel Intercontinental Thursday.

It was for The Sarah Show.

While her other governors diagnosed the GOP woes that led to their second consecutive electoral thrashing and plotted a way out of the political wilderness, Sarah Palin did neither.

Two events were added to the annual Republican Governors Association meeting especially for the Alaska governor and former vice presidential nominee, but her objectives were unclear and her message, mixed. For somebody who is now seen as a prominent leader in the GOP and perhaps the party’s instant-front-runner for the 2012 presidential race, it was a less than auspicious return to the Lower 48.

At a Thursday morning press conference, Palin indicated she wanted to look forward rather than back at her losing campaign with John McCain.

“As far as we’re concerned, the past is the past and we’re all focused on the future,” she said, surrounded by many of her fellow Republican chief executives.

But then, immediately after addressing reporters, she walked across the hall and delivered a speech before a session titled “Looking Towards the Future” that was largely a nostalgic trip back through the last two months, replete with mention of Joe the Plumber and the other memorable campaign trail moments.

She said at the press conference that the GOP governors “want to reach out to the new administration and offer our assistance, our support, offer solutions.”

“We’re here to help,” she said.

Then, opening her speech, Palin offered: "Let us resolve not to be the negative party."

But in the same speech she implicitly offered the same criticism of President-elect Barack Obama that Republicans leveled throughout the fall.

“We are not the many voting yea or nay or present,” she said of her fellow governors, a veiled reference to Obama’s “present” votes as an Illinois state senator.

And, in language that could have been taken directly out of her or McCain’s stump speech, Palin reminded her audience that Congress is run by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Rep. Barney Frank - to a person, the same three stock liberal villains Republicans invoked in the final weeks of the campaign to warn against full Democratic control of Washington.

Asked about what the party could do to appeal to women and Hispanics - two demographic groups which tilted toward the Democrats this election - Palin had little to say about a topic that has been a focus for many of her colleagues.

“You know, I treat everybody equally: women, Hispanics,” she said.

In her speech, which she delivered from notes, not a teleprompter, Palin talked only briefly about energy and health care, confining much of her policy discussion to generalities and vague mentions of “reform.”

“Let’s start talking about the conservative solutions to these economic challenges,” she said at one point.

Her uncertainty about just what kind of message, if any, to deliver was partially shaped by a desire not to further overshadow her fellow governors.

Coming off a round of TV interviews all week, Palin drew hordes of reporters who otherwise would have been unlikely to venture to a post-election governor’s conference of the minority party - including some U.S.-based correspondents for foreign publications.

Indeed, it was a meeting unlike any other that veteran Republicans had ever witnessed.

A portion of the hotel’s second floor was curtained off to allow CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to interview Palin and broadcast his show with a Biscayne Bay backdrop. And throughout both days, reporters and other onlookers kept a watchful eye in the lobby, hoping to catch the Alaska governor in person.

The Thursday press conference featuring Palin drew 23 cameras into a ballroom - more than the total number of reporters who met two other governors and two potential gubernatorial candidates in a small meeting room on Wednesday.

And even though she was joined by many of her other GOP governors, the four questions that were allowed during Thursday’s sub-10 minute press conference were all aimed at Palin - leaving her colleagues to awkwardly and silently stand behind her as though they were there present to lend her their endorsement.

Aware of the attention she had attracted, Palin repeatedly sought to shift the focus back onto the group.

“I want to put to good use my experience that I have as governor of an energy-producing state to help our nation become energy independent,” Palin said, briefly indulging a question about how she could establish her political credentials before catching herself.

“You know, we’re going to focus here on what we can do as a team of Republican governors together,” she continued.

Palin’s fellow governors, among them many other potential 2012 presidential prospects, basked in the additional media attention she drew to the conference.

When asked, they offered measured praise about their Alaska colleague.

But they were visibly uncomfortable discussing her, not wanting to criticize a figure beloved by the party base yet also not wanting to pay tribute to a colleague whom some didn’t think was ready for prime time - or who could well be a rival in four years.

A Wednesday panel of governors and other conservatives ostensibly designed to examine where the GOP went wrong included virtually no mention of the person who consumed most all of the party’s oxygen from her August 29th selection through the post-election period and who played perhaps the most prominent role of any vice presidential nominee in recent political history.

Meeting with reporters later that day, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, and Meg Whitman and Rob Portman, who, respectively, are eyeing 2010 gubernatorial runs in California and Ohio, went from speaking passionately and authoritatively about the GOP’s challenges to an awkward near-silence, turning to each other and initially saying nothing when the dreaded Palin questions came about.

After the others had grudgingly taken a turn, Pawlenty, a finalist on McCain’s veep list, spoke up.

“You wanted me to respond?” he said with minimal enthusiasm. “Look at the time,” he joked before saying the requisite nice things.

But pressed on whether he would have been comfortable with her as president, Pawlenty punted.

“In his judgment, she met that criteria and [he] felt strongly about that,” the Minnesota governor said of McCain. “And so I would have to defer to his judgment in that process.”

Silence again permeated when a reporter asked if McCain’s campaign could have better prepared Palin for the public eye.

This time, it was Huntsman’s turn to break the uncomfortable pause.

“Whatever you say will be the headline, Tim, so go ahead,” he quipped, looking at Pawlenty.

Eventually, they lapsed into excuse-making and rationalization. Pawlenty fell back on a frequent Republican talking point during the campaign, noting that Palin’s experience made her no less qualified than Obama.

Whitman offered a sports analogy.

“John dropped Sarah into the ninth inning of the World Series, three runs down,” said the former eBay CEO and national co-chairwoman to the McCain campaign.

In interviews, the governors were guarded when asked about Palin’s political prospects going into 2012.

“I thinkher future largely will be driven by the ideas that come out of her system of governance in Alaska,” said Huntsman. “I really do think it’s going to be a meritocracy of sorts in the Republican Party. And that is looking to the best ideas, the purveyors and articulators of those ideas as opposed to just playing the random 'who’s up, who’s down' personality game.”

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Palin helped the ticket but warned against any talk of the next presidential campaign.

“She’s normal, which is a big plus in politics,” said Barbour, a former RNC chairman. “And she’s got a future. But 2012 is off the screen.”

While the governors were publicly polite, their aides, advisers and other Republicans here at this tropical networking and strategy session looked on at the Palin spectacle with a mix of bemusement, curiosity and annoyance.

“She’s our Britney Spears,” one veteran Republican, who is close to a prospective future presidential rival of Palin, observed after hearing her speak. “It’s just this cult of personality.”

[terrapin78]

If I were a Repug, I would NOT want Sarah as my standard bearer.

She is clueless about the real world and has a history of lying in a Presidential election. Makes me very trustful of her (NOT!)!

[heidimt]

"Palin talked only briefly about energy and health care, confining much of her policy discussion to generalities and vague mentions of %u201Creform.%u201D

This is why McCain/Palin lost. They spent their time on character assignation vs. actually telling us what THEY would do to improve the problems facing our country. btw......McCain lost my vote the moment I heard the truth about the "Thanks, but no thanks" statement. I had concerns about McCains temper. However, that pales in comparison to the fact that I believe Sarah Palin is a flat out dishonest person.

[earache4]

Free Levi! (Brought to you by AATITOLJ) Americans Against the Inhumane Treatment of Levi Johnston....

[boatdocster]

Sarah Palin, Perfect example of the Peter Principle.

No surprise that the GOP has fallen in love with her. Actual work, credentials and ability were never important to the GOP - only your skill at throwing away tax dollars, *** with young children and boys, and being able to take a bribe.

One need only look to the White House to see the another classic GOP example of the Peter Principle!!!

[toolmangler-2009]

She reminds me of Lou Costello. (Heeyyyyyy Abbbbbbotttttttt!!!!!!!!!)

[earache4]

Oh no! It''s the wicked witch of Wasilla! Run away....

[earache4]

So much for her campaign to nowhere....(where''s Levi?)

[sickofpalin]

it doesn''t say much for america when 48,000,000 voted for mcold and the idiot palin

at the recent RGC, if palin was choking on a prezil, would anyone step up and preform the Helmluker(sp) thing?

the women wants plow through the doors to become president

i''d say she must really think more highly of herself than over half the country

this women is dangerous enough to watch

wait till the debates and she will be finished after a week on the campaign trail; she thinks preparation is a nice dress someone else purchased and a few winks

[sickofpalin]

it doesn''t say much for america when 48,000,000 voted for mcold and the idiot palin

at the recent RGC, if palin was choking on a prezil, would anyone step up and preform the Helmluker(sp) thing?

the women wants plow through the doors to become president

i''d say she must really think more highly of herself than over half the country

this women is dangerous enough to watch

wait till the debates and she will be finished after a week on the campaign trail; she thinks preparation is a nice dress someone else purchased and a few winks

[dzemog1]

On the one hand, I wish this woman would go away already. On the other hand, what will we do without her for comic relief? Anyone who''s being honest with themselves knows she''s not now, and won''t be in 2012, a credible nominee for any high office. I''m even wondering if the Alaskan people are moaning to themselves now at who and what they elected as Governor. Maybe I''m wrong. I could be, considering I do think she''s probably as much as expert on the state of Alaska as anyone can be. BUT she clearly can''t think for herself on any other subject, and unless she has someone writing great speeches for her, she''s got nothing to say. That was proven this past week when, instead of delivering a forward-looking new speech to the RGA, she recycled the stump speech written for her 2 months ago, right down to the references to Joe the plumber and Tito the builder. Pull her string and she says the same thing over and over again. When she shows us she can have an original thought of her own and can speak intelligently and coherently about the myriad of non-Alaskan issues in the world, talk to me again. I won''t hold my breath.

[nirak2-2009]

That might be right that she is a GOP star, but nothing else and you can''t win an election being one

[obgyn33]

President elect Obama can extend a hand to McCain all he wish but he should not do it now.
It sends a bad message to the voters who have to go back to the polls in Georgia next month.

No matter what McCain says, I will always remember him for his campaign of hate and fear, that was the real John McCain.

[obgyn33]

I am tired of Palin talking about God as if she really were a christian.
A real christian would not have sold their soul to the devil in order to win a campaign.

She can disguise it any way she wish, but Palin and McCain began to get crowds only after they started their campaign of hate and fear.

Many will never forget how she and McCain tried to divide this great nation using hate and fear just to feed their desperate bid for the White House.

When you are a christian, there are some lines you just don''t cross, you leave it in God''s hands.

[CNH]

I think we all need to cut Sarah Palin some slack. After all, she is from Alaska which has among the highest per capita incidence of alcoholism, rape and incest, i.e., she is from one of those "un-American" parts of our nation. In addition, she has no doubt been affected by the company she keeps, including a corrupt, convicted Senator, a witch doctor, and secessionists. In other words, she has been palling around with people who do not see America as you and I do.

So like I said, let''s cut her some slack. She just doesn''t know any better.

[obgyn33]

How can people and the media not find it inappropriate for her to come out of her bedroom from the shower wearing only a towel while two campaign strategist are there to meet with her about business.
And stranger than that, her husband Todd (the high school dropout) was there and saw no problem with it.

A decent lady would have put clothing on before coming out. A decent husband would have told her that.

[obgyn33]

When are these nuts going to realize that Sarah Palin draws three types of crowds, the low information Joe & Mary Sixpack Joe the plumber yahoo types, men & women who think she''s attractive, and curiosity seekers who find her fun and funny and too ignorant to know she''s ignorant.

I met people who went to her rallies, cheered, and thought she was just a regular down to earth mom but they would not and did not vote for her.
If the media gave her the exact amount of coverage
they give the other governors of states, most people would not give her a second thought.
Of course it will be fun to see her continue to delude herself into thinking she is being called to the presidency, instead of being called to go back to school, get an education, read, travel, learn some things, and engage in a real intellectual convesation as oppose to her usual cheerleading words.

[amrt5016]

Palin is a total whacko. If she''s regarded as a GOP star, it doesn''t bode well for the GOP and that''s a comforting thought. Yeah, go Sarah.

[earache4]

Where''s Levi?

[Stratmaster7]

If Sarah Palin is what they have to offer as their "star", the GOP party is dead and gone.

[american999]

In my observations of Gov. Palin, it appears she has too much of a mind of her own, doing what she wants to do, shooting off at the mouth, etc. During the campaign, Palin demonstrated her mavericky ways by refusing to stand on stage with pro-choice candidates, sneaking off to call radio stations on her own, hijacking the RGA convention, sending out a babble of contradictory messages, etc.

Palin says "Maverick," but the GOP says "Alienating." If she doesn''t learn to play the game and make nice with her colleagues, she won''t garner enough support to get past even the primaries next time. Certainly she''s generated great enthusiasm among the conservative base, but it''s another thing to convince and win over your peers. In addition to building up basic knowledge in national and international affairs, she will have to earn the trust and respect of her GOP colleagues by setting aside her ego and working with teammates.

She already threw the McCain campaign under the bus this time, along with the GOP and even the great state of Alaska (just glance through any blog on Alaska Daily News). After all that abrasion, I can''t imagine her being able to win a 2012 nomination for president, or anyone who would want to her as a VP pick.

On a side note, I''m a new fan of Pawlenty and Jindal. They might just win me back to the GOP column.