Within the cloud girdled towers of The Daily Telegraph Janet Daley and Damian Thompson have now broken their chains and feel free at last to shout out something that recently they had been only willing to whisper to trusted friends.
Palin must not be the GOP candidate for President in 2012.
Daley says she has many friends who are “senior Republicans” and “highly regarded commentators” who feel the same as her.
She is not another Thatcher – nor is she another Reagan. She does not have the experience and substance of a Romney or the genuine warmth and charm of a Huckabee
Yes – Huckabee is warm and charming so eat your heart out, Tammy Bruce….
But, says Daley, she can make the coffee and play the cheerleader “for some more credible candidate”
Thompson, being very religious is a little more nuanced and intellectual in his critique of Palin…..she’s “nuts” and her supporters are “burger-chomping rednecks” (which is news to me who spent a weekend with 100 Palinistas in Chicago – but who the heck am I, after all I never wrote a thesis on the management of apocalyptic belief in a London Pentecostal church, I only spent 40 years teaching adolescents in tough London schools)
Americans might say – so what? What do we care if a couple of limey hacks diss the ‘Cuda?
The answer is, according to Daley and Thompson, because at last one of the most influential Republican websites in America has finally had the courage do go where no other has dared.
We live in serious times……………For these reasons, we need a strong, serious, decisive leader on the Republican ticket in 2012.
Let’s face it. Sarah Palin is clearly not that leader.
She’s fun. She’s attractive. She’s appealing. She’s down-home. She’s got a populist vibe. She shoots animals. But she’s not presidential timber. Not in times like these.
Thus speaks conservativehomeUSA – “Our goal is to cover the ongoing debate about the future of the Republican party and conservatism in America. And to help spur it along.”
ConhomeUSA likes to give the impression of being held in high regard by the American right – though I must confess that although I have, for many years, haunted the mean streets of the US right blogosphere searching for my regular political fix I have never seen it mentioned anywhere else – but then I probably lurk in the seedier precincts…..
It is edited by former Bush staffer Ryan Streeter – a towering figure in American conservatism, a giant of the Beltway who clearly has his finger on the pulse of Mr and Mrs Average Republican and a hotline to GOP activists in every state of the union. So when Ryan decides it is time to remove Palin from the equation you Palinistas and Tea Partiers need to wise up and listen to a man who knows what you want better than you do.
But Ryan is a modest guy – he realises that maybe his words on their own might not be enough to convince you so he turns to hard man Ross Douthat (private school, Harvard, The Atlantic, NYT)
Palin … officially despises the “lamestream” media. But press coverage – good, bad, whatever – is clearly the oxygen she craves. She supposedly hates having her privacy invaded, yet her family keeps showing up on reality TV. She thinks the political class is clueless and out-of-touch, but she can’t resist responding to its every provocation. Her public rhetoric, from “death panels” to “blood libel,” is obviously crafted to maximize coverage and controversy, and generate more heat than light. And her Twitter account reads like a constant plea for the most superficial sort of media attention … To Palin: You were an actual politician once (remember that?), but you’re becoming the kind of caricature that your enemies have always tried to make of you.
Ah yes, that horny handed blue collar 32 year old Douthat. He has had real life experiences, unlike Mrs Palin. He has pounded streets, glad handed voters, been a mayor and governor, been accused of faking his own pregnancy, inciting murder, betraying his wife, inflating expenses – and he has stood tall and not whined like you…and he has written real books which have been bought by really important people….
But, says Ryan, Douthat is not the only voice from the street.
Because of her popularity, many have been afraid to say openly about her what they whisper in private. But a few brave souls have stepped out and said about Sarah Palin what others think but are unwilling to say.
We call this group the Truth Tellers – it’s hard to argue with their statements about Sarah Palin
Now gather round, guys and gals, because these are serious people who, like Ryan, have a feel for ordinary folk that Palin, isolated in her Facebook ivory tower just cannot hope to emulate – here are Streeter’s Truth Tellers…
Newt Gingrich, Ari Feischer, Charles Krauthammer, Jonathan Tobin, Pete Wehner, John Feehery, George Will, Joe Scarborough, David Frum, Mona Charen, Mark McKinnon, Peggy Noonan, Barbara Bush, Karl Rove, Daniel Larison…..and, of course, the staunchest defender of frugality and conservative principles – Lisa Murkowski!!!!
OMG what a galaxy of gods and goddesses. They were right by your side during the townhall debates and at the Tea Party rallies, every single one of them. They were solid during NY23 and stepped right up to the plate microseconds after the left began hurling accusations at the Tea Party after Tucson.
Like you they were against any compromise over Obamacare or bailouts. None of them has any links with the legacy of George W Bush. They all dedicated themselves to highlighting Obama’s questionable Chicago antecedents and lack of executive experience during the 2008 campaign. They have no contacts with lobbyists, earmarks or pork. Nobody in that list has had any alleged links with corruption, dead bodies or infidelity
The Truth Tellers have spoken. If Sarah Palin wanted to be presidential, she might take the critiques to heart and begin to fashion arguments and a strategy that give voters the confidence she can lead the country. If she cannot do that, she should stay on the sidelines.
Ryan Streeter (who has said this all with the straightest of faces) pulls no punches – he and all these key figures want her off the bus even before the primaries (which some misguided people still believe is a competitive process where ordinary citizens can make up their own mind – the fools) otherwise she might seduce them with her fearlessness, integrity, common sense and straight talking – and nobody would ever want a leader like that – would they?
When I first read all this I thought for one moment that Ryan Streeter was doing an Allahpundit and snarking Palin for traffic (since his site appears to need some traction in the US) but then I looked at it’s poorly designed, messy appearance and realised that “cunning” was not on their agenda. Essentially it is a site for political wonks which should come as no great surprise because Streeter himself is a wonk, a typical representative of the political class, an academic who “worked” in think tanks then got a job in the Bush administration and, presumably, would like to get a post in a future GOP administration under President Anybody But Palin.
So read the rest here and weep….
Or alternatively just, like me, stay upright in your seat in sheer astonishment that someone like Streeter can actually be paid a six figure sum to scribble such an ill thought out rodomontade based solely on the squeaks and squawks from a motley mixture of has beens, windbags and ponificating pundits who still imagine that the GOP needs to be directed by people who attend DC dinner parties and NYT editorial conferences.
Therefore, in the cause of fairness, in another post, I’ll take a closer look at Ryan Streeters team of all the talents by giving each of the Truth Tellers a Truth Test….should be interesting….Mau-Mauing the Truth Tellers..
