I don’t think she has the staff to take advantage of the ‘Net, or to run a major campaign. She needs a solid advisor and I don’t think she takes advice with any grace. We’ll probably see, because the GOP doesn’t have much of a bench for a national run. It seems like every time one of them is thrust into the spotlight they have a meltdown.

Indeed. Because the GOP is now the party of batshit crazy Christianists, conspiracy theorists, and racists, the business-oriented Republicans have largely fled to the Democratic party out of sheer horror at the thought of being associated with that freak show. But they are still basically conservative business Republicans at heart.

People who thought Obama would be the second coming of FDR simply do not understand black middle class culture. I’ve had extensive contacts in the black community in the past due to working at three different black schools (black principals, majority black teachers) in two different school districts, and have never met any group of people as conservative as the black middle class. People are quick to point at Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as models of what the black middle class, but Jesse and Al are not typical of modern black professionals. Bill Cosby (famous for shouting at younger blacks, “pull up your pants and act like human beings!”) is probably closer to what modern black professionals look and feel like. They have managed to succeed in the American system via some very old-fashioned virtues for the most part — education, hard work, etc. — and by not taking extraordinary risks, and they are fundamentally conservative at their very core. Taking risks, proposing doing things in a radically different manner, radicalism in general, is not part of their mental makeup. It just isn’t how they work.

As for Palin: I disagree, Bryan. The modern Internet has made fund raising radically different. Obama raised basically as much money as Al Gore raised via traditional methods, but raised double that amount via the Internet. Palin is tapped into a deep vein of loony right web sites and organizations capable of hustling money and support to her in prodigious amounts without the support of traditional right-wing fund raising. In my opinion the only reason she is not going to be a viable candidate is because of the way she left Alaska — as a quitter under a cloud of corruption charges. If not for that… I shudder at the thought, but President Palin could have very much been a possibility in 2012, given the way Obama is failing to lead.

_ Badtux the Politics Penguin

There are a lot of Rockefeller Republicans with Ds after their name in DC.

There is always Hope ™ that some of the party will come to their senses. But I’m not holding my breath.
.-= last blog ..Bzzzzzzzzzzz =-.

She’s a great retail campaigner, as she proved in Alaska, but she can’t pull together the cash to fund a national campaign.

No one thought Obama was a major contender at first, either. Of course, he did not do asshole things in the Palin vein. But nothing surprises me any more.

Shall we put him on Tool Academy?

I would vote for Kuchinich, or anyone else who was an actual liberal, but I have no use for the “leadership” of the Democratic Party.

There is no telling what the Repubs will run in 2012, but I doubt they are a viable national party at this point. This started as an era of Dems majorities but they are well on their way to screwing that up.

- Badtux the On-the-train-to-national-hell Penguin
.-= last blog ..Still alive =-.