The Hunt for Sarah Palin
With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.
Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what [was] described as Palin “going rogue.”
Emphasis mine. So the Alaskan governor is a Russian submarine?
A Palin associate, however, said [Palin] is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.
Insert sexist joke here.
A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us,
her family or anyone else.
“Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves,
as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.”
I sure hope that she’s been hiding some wisdom from us. Or hoarding it for winter. Or something. Maybe?
A Palin associate defended her, saying that she is “not good at process questions” and that her comments on Michigan and the robocalls were answers to process questions.
So we can only ask her questions about … non-processes? That seems to exclude, y’know, ALL OF POLITICS.
The article ends with these thoughts:
With the presidential race in its final days and polls suggesting that McCain’s chances of pulling out a win are growing slim, Palin may be looking after her own future.
“She’s no longer playing for 2008; she’s playing 2012,” Democratic pollster Peter Hart said. “And the difficulty is, when she went on ‘SNL,’
she became a reinforcement of her caricature. She never allowed herself to be vetted, and at the end of the day, voters turned against her both in terms of qualifications and personally.”
The temptation to say we won’t have Palin to kick around anymore is immense, but methinks that will not be the case. Methinks she will retreat to Alaska, surround herself with a flotilla of policy advisers to prepare for the next go-around, and will be the odds-on favorite to be the GOP nominee and, ultimately, POTUS #45. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you. (But then again, I’m the guy who said — in August 2006! — that John Edwards would be the victor this fall, so take my words with a grain of salt.)
26 October 2008 at 4:27
the McCain camp has been sending mixed signals since it’s inception… Sarah Palin can’t even keep up with McCain’s endless wavering between “straight talker” and crooked politician
26 October 2008 at 4:47
Let’s have a little fun/terror with the 12th Amendment….
Now suppose we were left with a projected electoral college tie on election night, and the electors followed true to form and the certified results arrived at Capitol Hill sometime in December, 269-269. And then of course, the House would be expected to break a tie in the presidential race, and the Senate would break a tie in the Vice Presidential race. Yes, the Democrats control the House but this is meaningless for the purposes of breaking an Electoral College tie. Now, each State will have 1 vote, based upon a particular state’s party delegation. So Massachusetts has 10 Democrats and 0 Republicans; their 1 vote can go for Obama. California has 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans; their 1 vote can go for Obama. New York has 23 Democrats and 6 Republicans; their 1 vote can go for Obama. Still, the Democrats have the numbers: 27 states have a majority of Democratic Reps; 21 states for the GOP, and 2 states (Arizona and Kansas) are tied.
But what if chaos ensues, and for some reason, the House STILL cannot decide this race? More on this in a moment, but first let’s determine how we can wind up with a tie in the House. Three states stand out to me (besides the states that only have 1 Representative to begin with): Indiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Dems hold a 5-4 edge in Indiana and Tennessee, as well as a 7-6 edge in North Carolina. Perhaps some Democratic Reps will feel the heat from their constituents, especially if the state populations of NC and Indiana both favor McCain on election night. How about Arizona which is 4-4…. Perhaps one Democrat will feel the heat and break this tie so that the state of Arizona can cast its 1 and only vote for the first Arizonan President in history? How about those at large Reps in 7 states:
Alaska-GOP rep.
Delaware-GOP rep.
Montana-GOP rep.
North Dakota-Dem rep.
South Dakota-Dem rep.
Vermont-Dem rep.
Wyoming-GOP rep.
OK, the GOP may have cause for concern with that Delaware rep. defecting for the Dems. But surely, both Dakotas would be obvious targets by the GOP in this scenario (and probably not entirely out of the question that these reps would at least consider voting for McCain in this tiebreaking scenario since both states are likely to favor him over Obama by a handsome margin).
OK yes a 269-269 scenario is unlikely enough, but to then have a stalemated House with a 24-24 or 25-25 vote??? Probably fantasy land. But let’s suppose the House still could not break the deadlock. Well, then the Senate will have to pinch hit. WHOMEVER THE SENATE CHOOSES AS VICE PRESIDENT WOULD THEN BE FORCED TO STEP IN AS PRESIDENT. So the Senate is 49-49. Let’s say Lieberman votes for Palin, Vermont’s Socialist votes for Biden, and assuming no other defections, we are left 50-50, with current VP Cheney breaking the tie in favor of Palin. UH OH!!!!!! Since the House couldn’t produce a president, SARAH PALIN WOULD NOW SEEMINGLY BE SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT ON JANUARY 20TH, and would presumably use the 25th Amendment and nominate her own Vice President. Madness! Dogs and cats living together!!!! Story of the century!! The silver lining here of course is that Sarah would not be able to nominate the First Dude, husband Todd, to VP since they are both from Alaska…. Ahem!