Palin has only been Governor of Alaska for less than two years.

For conservatives to hop on the Palin bandwagon at this point, when there could be many better conservative candidates in 2012, would be a mistake.

Let’s also remember that she isn’t the most articulate conservative out there. She stumbled badly when she was asked questions during the campaign.

Basically Sara Palin looked in the 2008 campaign like somoene who was looking for a PTA meeting to attend but accidently found herself in a Council on Foreign Relations meeting.

We need someone who really understands all of the complexities of the issues in 2012. Otherwise we will lose again.

No matter who the 2012 Republican pick is, we would do well to remember that Republicans need to run as conservatives, not ‘centrists’ if we wish to win.

McCain was endorsed by the New York Times during the Republican primary. One need only look to that to determine why we were handed a defeat in 2008.

There are other conservatives out there like John Thune, Mark Sanford, DeMint, Bobby Jindal even Newt who can articulate the conservative message. Sorry, but Sarah just has the ditz factor. Say what you want about Hillary, but she can tell you why and what for when it comes to her positions on issues. With Sarah you get “you betcha.”

will be 4..years..from..now. As to 2008 general election, who could have done more to excite the Republican base than Sarah? Romney? Guiliai? We have four years for the base to know Sarah Palin better and for Ms. Palin to immerse herself in national issues. Anybody want to lay bets on how the future Couric/Gibson interviews would turn out?

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Instead of 2012, we really must be focusing on 2010. I think the better question is: Who is the best candidate to knock Reid off of his seat in NV?

…but my one concern is whether she can overcome the media bias. It was rough enough when she was running for vice-president, but a fortiori it will be worse if she’s first on the ticket.

Some important information on the polls you quote…

A few points:

1. The question isn’t who do you favor for 2012 as you present it, it’s actually who would you like to see run, and a respondant could say yes to all or none of the candidates, which produces some interesting logical twists on the findings of this poll- especially in terms of splitting voting segments.

2. The polarization among the different wings of the party for Palin is pretty astounding:

Polarization Ranking (subtracting the percentage of moderate/liberal Republicans from the percentage of conservative Republicans)

• Palin +25%
• Huckabee +19%
• Gingrich +15%
• Jeb Bush +14%
• Petraeus +13%
• Jindal +11%
• Romney +5%
• Giuliani -3%
• Crist +2%
• Graham -1%

(from the comment section of the above link)

1. The way you report the finding of the polls itself is unintentionally slightly misleading because the numbers actually stack up like this:

Total republicans and leaners:

• Palin 67
• Romney 62
• Huckabee 61
• Petraeus 49
• Giuliani 48
• Gingrich 47

Conservative R’s:

• Palin 73
• Huckabee 65
• Romney 64
• Petraeus 53
• Gingrich 51
• Giuliani 47

Moderate/Liberal R’s

• Romney 59
• Giuliani 50
• Palin 48
• Huckabee 46
• Petraeus 40
• Gingrich 36

I guess I am not seeing a huge lead for Palin being the preferred candidate. With a poll that doesn’t really ask the question that you take your conclusions with. Esp. with people having the ability to name as many candidates as wished.

Over all we have a tight race for the 2012 ticket (at least according this poll) and out of three total 2012 polls, Palin leads in only one.

We have some very attractive young conservative candidates – Palin, Jindal, Sanford and DeMint.

The two biggest mistakes the GOP can make are to betray conservative values and run another RINO in 2012.

Pawlenty and Crist definitely are RINOs. With regard to Crist, I have nothing against the color of a man’s skin (unless it’s orange). Rudy will be about 70 in 2012. Romney is totally two-faced. The latest proof is that he is against the automotive bailout. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I am just saying, Romney said the government couldn’t do enough to help domestic auto makers when he was running in the Michigan primary a year ago. Like Obama, Romney is an unprincipled man who will say whatever it takes to get elected.

Regarding Palin: she needs to make a comeback after being part of one of the worst-organized (not at all her fault) campaigns in recent history. Unlike Romney, Sarah Palin is a very principled person who walks the talk. She is definitely a force to be reconed with and scares the hell out of RINOs and Democrats alike.

Take the Holidays off, enjoy your family, and go to your January precinct or district meeting. Learn to organize a precinct or a district; it’s a lot harder but a lot more productive than pholosophizing.

I’ve never done that sort of work as a Republican. Buy the time I switched parties, I was a fairly high level bureaucrat and worked mostly with Party officers and officeholders, and I was prohibed by law from holding party office. I did a lot of the grunt work as a Democrat many years ago, so I still know how!

Frankly, this and a couple of other blogs are pretty much as close to politics as I’ve come since I left the Murkowski Administration in disgust in ’06. Gave Palin the obligatory political appointee level contribution and put up a sign, but that was it.

After the occupation of Alaska by the FBI and the results of this election, I showed up at the District meeting last Thursday. My suburban Juneau district was the ONLY Republican pickup in Alaska.

Now, I’m going to turn my hand to the grunt work, probably at the precinct level first and I’m going to do it the old-fashioned Democrat way; I’m going to work with my new legislator and we’re going to be “fixers.” Got a pothole, give us a call. Having trouble with a permit? Give us a call. Need a job? We’ll help, though there’s not much patronage at the legislative level, you can “help.”

I don’t even want to speculate about who’ll be running for what in 10 or 12, but I’ll guarantee you one thing; they won’t be running without having been thoroughly vetted by the Repubican voters of my precinct and district! I’ve had all I’m going to take of the failures of the largely self-selected leadership cohort of the Republican Party – NO MORE Bob Doles or John McCains!

Any SD residents out there who can fill us in on him?

I personally love her and I personally think that anyone who calls her a ditz or stupid should be banned from this site….I think anyone who has paid attention to her for the last 3 years are quite comfortable with her intelligence in the area’s she needed to be for her state.

Obama thinks America has 57 states…not that is stupid.

We will get to whom will run and a look at all the FRESH faces of a NEW Republican Party (tried and true conservatism)….same idea’s in a fresh package by no later than February of 2009.

Sarah Palin has a BIG role to play in this party as I cannot express enough SHE is what the women’s movement was always all about….and she should be front and center showing the success of it….the old bitter bitties from NOW will be made irrelevent because Sarah has done what all of us women do….she CHOSE to run for the PTA than Mayor than Governor all the while having a family to support her OR she could have been a stay at home mom BUT she is proof just as Obama is that the “cultural” wars are ending and being made irrevlent.

WE need to be front and center as a party to show that this country is a country of AMERICAN’s not GROUPS….and the Republican Party stands with AMERICAN’s who DECIDE their fate in life without the victimhood and government interference that liberals apply to themselves and their voter’s.

WE are strong WE are proud and WE are inclusive because WE are all AMERICAN’s and proud to be so.

…polls like this one might a useful purpose anyway…they have the potential to make people like Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan grind their teeth all the way down to the gums.

For all those that think that 2012 is to far ahead to work for what we need and want in 2012, I really disagree. I’ve heard so many times that the Republicans close up shop and go home right after the elections, win or lose. The Republican headquarters here in the liberal city of Charlottesville is closed up tight, every sign gone, occupied now only by the mice.

Obama gave his first campaign speech at the DNC in 2004. For years before that he organized the community organizers. I would be willing to bet he already started looking out for those to run his campaign (Axelrod, not to hard to find, a Chicago thug) and others of too ill repute to mention, we know them.

If the R party is to have any chance in 2010 and 2012 we have to do that same methodical planning. We don’t have to back any particular candidate at this time, but we must develope a conservative message that resonates. I hope Michael Steele can do that. We need to keep the local offices open and busy. We need to get involved, and bring others with us, as some of you have already done.

If we go to sleep again until it seems to be the right time to get active, we will lose again. Obama and his team are already planning his re-election for 2012. We have no TV media to help, we don’t have many conservative or even republican newspapers to help us. If we lose conservative talk radio (my big fear) and the internet is restricted, we need other ways to communicate our goals, activities and plans for our future. It must start locally, and that involves all of us getting involved from locally on up.

Let’s just make method planning simple and concrete right now!

Here’s the news!

If Palin, Jindal, Romney, Huckabee or Gingrich are nominated in 2012, I’m voting for them, period. None of them have to convince me. Whichever one makes it makes it — in whatever race they’re trying to run.

Fight it out, peeps.

That’s really how I feel. I’m tired of all the infighting. In fact, I don’t care if it’s not Palin, Jindal, Romney, Huckabee or Gingrich but someone else who people think is better than all of them. I’ll do what Bob Hahn once said about the LTTs and vote however you guys want.

Palin would be great, Jindal would be super, Romney would be fun, Huckabee would be uplifting, and Gingrich would be smart. I don’t care about how the consultants flail each other right now. Go home, consultants!

I think that Gov Palin went through an incredible election cycle. She had no defenders from the McCain campaign, the republican party and most of the press. She had no defense whatsoever. Also I have seen some the George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, and yes even Ronald Reagan interviews and some of them were not the best. Also the media favors democrats and I cannot understand why republicans continue to do interviews with the CNNs, MSNBCs, and network news shows. Having said that I think that the elites in both political parties look down on Sarah Palin because she is not like them. She does not have the education, nor does she come from a political family nor is she corruptible. She is a Republican, a christian, a conservation, a wife and a mother and that seems to annoy a number of people. I do think however all repubicans need to practice what in the military is called situational awareness. The camera and the microphone are not your friend. Everything said and done in a public forum will be documented and recorded. The most recent incident with Gov Palin is a good example. Also the other potential candidates have not been vetted yet, trust me its coming.

How many comments this post generated?
Palen is a rock star who galvanized our base and inspired people who were not excited about McCain, to get involved. They donated, worked the phones, showed up in record numbers at her rallies – and kept our candidate in the running.

You think Mitt, Bobby or Tim could pull in the millions she did from everyday working people? Do you think any of them would have performed as well with the non stop media onslaught? In nine weeks this unknown became a household name. And it wasn’t because she was a lightweight, dimwit or uneducated bimbo.

A diamond in the rough? Yes she is. The future of our party? You betcha!