Thread: The GOP in Meltdown

The election is over, and America has rejected the Republican party, decisively. So now the finger pointing and recriminations can begin. Civil war has broken out between the McCain and Palin factions- it seems certain now that the appalling pick of Palin as running mate was basically foisted upon McCain by the party machine as a populist vote gatherer, rather than being Mccains own choice. Bad blood is rampant between the two camps, and McCain sympathisers have been leaking some embarassing snippets about Palin to the Press, including-

She did not know that Africa was a continent!
Palins notorious shipping spree at Republican Party expense was even greater than the $150,000 previously disclosed. Todd Palin was a beneficiary of some GOP largesse' too.
An unnamed McCain aide has described Todd & Sarah Palin as the 'Wasilla Hillbillies'.

It's getting nasty out there in GOP land. According to a Poll taken in October and Exit Polls, Palin was a bigger drag on the McCain campaign than Dubya.

From the Financial Times:-

McCain camp try to limit Palin options

Sarah Palin arrived home in Alaska on Thursday as infighting intensified between Republicans who view her as the future of the party and others who blame her for John McCain’s defeat.

She was greeted at Anchorage airport by supporters urging her to run for the Republican presidential nomination in four years with chants of “2012! 2012!” Asked by reporters about her plans, she said: “We’ll see what happens then.”

But even as the Alaska governor tried to keep her options open, some allies of Mr McCain were busy trying to trash her reputation with a series of allegations about her conduct during the campaign.

Perhaps the most startling involved fresh claims about Ms Palin’s shaky grasp of geography, with unnamed McCain aides telling Fox News that during preparations for the vice-presidential debate, it emerged that she did not know Africa was a continent rather than a country.

A separate report in Newsweek magazine alleged that Ms Palin’s notorious shopping spree ahead of the Republican national convention was even more extensive than the $150,000 (€118,000, £95,000) previously reported.

One unnamed McCain aide reportedly described Ms Palin and her husband, Todd, as “Wasilla hillbillies” – referring to the small Alaskan city where she was mayor – who had travelled the country “looting” luxury fashion stores at the Republican party’s expense.

Spokespeople for Ms Palin and Mr McCain could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday. Given a chance to respond to the whispering campaign on Wednesday, Ms Palin declined. “I have absolutely no intention of engaging in any of the negativity because this has been all positive for me,” she told reporters.

It is hardly unprecedented for finger-pointing to break out within the losing presidential campaign, but the relationship between the McCain and Palin camps appears to have been unusually strained.

Mr McCain’s surprise choice of running mate initially looked a stroke of genius as the previously little-known 44-year-old electrified the Republican base with her conservative rhetoric and homespun style. But she failed to win over the independent voters and Hillary Clinton loyalists that Mr McCain hoped she would also woo.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in October showed she had become a bigger drag on the Republican ticket than President George W. Bush, as her bumbling performance in a high-profile television interview increased concern about her inexperience. Exit polls on Tuesday showed that 60 per cent of voters felt she was not qualified to be president.

A CNN poll out last week found that only four in 10 voters would consider voting for her if she ran for president in 2012, yet support for her is strongest among the Republican base that will choose the nominee.

Some analysts believe Ms Palin could seek a national platform by running for the Senate if Ted Stevens, the veteran Alaska senator, steps down. Mr Stevens had a narrow lead over his Democratic challenger as vote counting continued yesterday in spite of his conviction on corruption charges last week. He is expected to face intense pressure to resign if re-elected, potentially creating a vacancy for Ms Palin.

On Thursday she said she was focused on returning to her job as governor.

FT.com / In depth - McCain camp try to limit Palin options

Can you believe this.

Reporting from Phoenix -- Sarah Palin left the national stage Wednesday, but the controversy over her role on the ticket flared as aides to John McCain disclosed new details about her expensive wardrobe purchases and revealed that a Republican Party lawyer would be dispatched to Alaska to inventory and retrieve the clothes still in her possession...

For weeks, the McCain-Palin campaign has dealt with the fallout from the disclosure that the Republican National Committee was billed for $150,000 in wardrobe purchases for the Palin family -- a discovery that was widely ridiculed and undercut Palin's hockey mom appeal.
Several McCain aides said they had recently discovered that Palin's traveling staff had used personal credit cards to spend as much as $20,000 to $30,000 on additional wardrobe items for Palin.

Sarah Palin's Clothes: GOP Lawyer Dispatched To Alaska To Retrieve Some

It's getting bitchy out there!

The knives are out for Sarah!

"From Newsweek's Special Election Project comes the real Sarah Palin. She met staff members in a towel:

At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.

She raised William Ayers before the campaign signed off on it:

Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

And she spent far more on clothes than was reported:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family--clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Finally, Steve Schmidt (who reportedly picked Palin as VP) would not let her speak on election night.

McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request."

Palin Once Greeted McCain Staff Wearing Only A Towel

This from the Sydney Morning Herald. Who's Sarkoszy, didn't know the members of NAFTA, didn't accept preparation for the Couric interview, and temper tantrums.

How on earth was she nominated? This is like watching a slow train wreck.

Insiders spill the beans on Sarah Palin

Weeks after Sarah Palin was lampooned by the country's comedians, her own party is catching up.

Aides to the Republican presidential candidate John McCain told US television network FOX News that their vice-presidential candidate did not know Africa was a continent and in fact thought it was a country.

"We're told she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself - a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability," FOX News correspondent Carl Cameron said.

Cameron also said she was unaware who the members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were, or that the United States - along with Canada and Mexico - was one of them.

"We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being Canada, the US, and Mexico," Cameron told presenter Shepard Smith.

"I wish I could have told you more at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election.

"There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lack the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency."

Hey big spender

The Alaskan Governor's big spend on clothes emerged publicly last month, but McCain's aides also said that she spent "thousands more" than the reported $US150,000 on clothes during the campaign, much to the shock of the donor that footed the bill, the US magazine Newsweek reported.

An angry aide, quoted in Newsweek, described the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast", and predicted that the truth would eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

Newsweek reported that Palin was told she could buy three suits and hire a stylist, but that she instead started shopping for her family at top clothing stores, and also used the credit cards of low-level staffers to do some of the shopping.
A McCain aide reportedly told the magazine that $US20,000 to $US40,000 was spent by Palin on her husband's clothes.

'Going rogue'

Cameron also said the Alaskan Governor started to "go rogue" early on, as shown by her first disastrous CBS interview with Katie Couric in September.

"She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled, was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went," he said.

The moment was then satirised by Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live in a video clip watched by millions.

"She didn't accept preparation for that interview and the aides say that that was part of the problem. And there were times that she was hard to control emotionally - there's talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings," he said.
Cameron said there was a "truncated" vetting process for Palin's selection, after McCain's camp decided the then-shortlist was inadequate to "change the game" in the race for the presidency.

So they opted instead for a candidate who reportedly once addressed McCain aides wearing nothing but a towel and another on her wet hair, Newsweek reported.

Who's Sarkozy?

The relationship between McCain and Palin was further strained after she was recorded falling for a prank call by two Canadian comedians pretending to be French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Her staff didn't know the name of the French President," Sebastien Trudel told The Globe and Mail. "They asked us to spell it."

McCain and Palin both left Phoenix in separate cars yesterday but Palin, for her part, "bears no ill-will to staff", Cameron said.

Palin has not ruled out a 2012 tilt at the presidency, but Tina Fey has told Entertainment Weekly that she's hanging up her Palin wig.

Insiders spill the beans on Sarah Palin - US Election - smh.com.au

Palin's Mole At The NYT

Scott Horton has more detail on the role of Bill Kristol in blowing up the McCain campaign both before and after the disastrous selection of Sarah Palin. From a McCain adviser:

“In the last six weeks there was a remarkable echo. You could listen to arguments made by folks inside of the campaign who were close to Bill Kristol and then open up the New York Times and read them in Kristol’s columns. It was ‘set Sarah free,’ coupled with an agenda designed to appeal to the religious right and the more raucous elements of the party.

They got their way often enough, and we started noticing that at many of the Palin functions it was non-stop ‘Sarah, Sarah,’ while John McCain all but vanished. Were they trying to get McCain elected in 2008, or to help Palin on the way to the Republican nomination in 2012? You can’t get yourself into a situation in which anyone can credibly ask that question.”

The bottom line?

What emerges on a close reading is this: Palin and those closest to her inside the campaign were eager to wage a Lee Atwater-style campaign designed to demonize Barack Obama, with Palin as the figure leading the charge. McCain was resisting this push or at least attempting to keep it within tight boundaries. Kristol campaigned against the McCain strategy, boosting Palin.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (November 07, 2008) - Palin's Mole At The NYT



Well, most of TD's resident Republicans seem to be taking the view that Sarah Palin is being made a scapegoat for the failure of the McCain campaign. Maybe they are right- it's impossible to arrive at a definitive conclusion on the back of all this gossip and innuendo.

An alternative view however is that Sarah Palin and her confidantes were cynical, politically motivated manipulators- and that seems the more credible prognosis to me. To call a spade a spade, Sarah Palin is increasingly coming across as a Machiavellian Bitch- a rather unpleasant, divisive figure. Certainly, shortly after her nomination, the McCain campaign collapsed into squabbling factions, embarassing leaks to the Press and, it would appear, little meaningful communication between the Palin and McCain factions.

Taking a simplistic view perhaps, the Palin faction were more representative of the populist, right wing Republicanism of the neo-cons and the Bush administration- and they wanted to run a negative, dirty campaign a' la Carl Rove. McCain represented the more moderate, centrist Republicanism of old, including Bush snr's administration. The resulting campaign was a mish mash of both, with no real unifying message or strategy.

It does seem there is a real split within the GOP right now.

The irony is that McCain's main thrust was that Obama was inexperienced, then Palin turns up as his VP and she doesn't know that Africa was a continent.

Originally Posted by Sir Burr

The irony is that McCain's main thrust was that Obama was inexperienced, then Palin turns up as his VP and she doesn't know that Africa was a continent.

This is such unbelievable bullshit. Everyone knows Africa is a continent.
Anyone who honestly believes she's that ignorant is a pure imbecile.

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

This is such unbelievable bullshit. Everyone knows Africa is a continent.
Anyone who honestly believes she's that ignorant is a pure imbecile.

She's American - not only that, she's redneck American - this thread alone demonstrates the sorry state of education, especially when it comes to anything outside the borders of the USA, in America.

...and yes, she *IS* that ignorant - then again, as such, she was a perfect match for McCain who is just as disconnected.

She won't get elected to anything outside of Alaska.

They will find more dirt, more improprieties and she will be shunted off to a side track where she will remain a joke amongst the political pundits for the remainder of this century.

She is stupid, ignorant, hateful and dangerous. She should be kept in Alaska.

All this sniping at Palin just goes to show what a poor president McCain would have been. He picked her, not the other way around. She was clearly unqualified for the office of VP. The buck stops with him.

NYT: Sparring starts as GOP ponders future - The New York Times

Sparring starts as Republicans ponder future
A week after being routed in election, fight is on for party leadership

WASHINGTON - One week after the Republicans were routed in the presidential election, the fight is on over who will be the new leaders of the party. Republicans are debating how to position themselves ideologically and how aggressively to take on President-elect Barack Obama.

The competition to fill the vacuum left by Senator John McCain’s defeat — and by the unpopularity of President Bush as he prepares to leave office — will be on full display at a Republican Governors Association meeting beginning Wednesday in Miami.

A kind of interesting article about the future of the GOP - not tons of substance, but it hits on most of the key points. Whoever gains control will have an important role to play in how the future of the party unfolds. But I think really there will be at least two people that end up controlling the future of the party. One being whoever becomes the next RNC chairman, and the other being someone that steps to the forefront in congress to guide the party and how the Republicans in congress interact with president-elect Obama.

I found some of the bits about the future of the party and how it will interact with Obama a bit disconcerting. I don’t like the idea of thinking about how to counter Obama in general. This reminds me too much of the us vs them mentality that has been a problem for far too long in our nation. Instead of thinking about how to counter Obama in general they need to be thinking about what is most important to them as a party and how they can work that into what Obama has already outlined as his ideas on how to move the country forward. Sure there will be places where the party needs to try and counter moves that the Democrats/Obama will try to make, but those need to be thought of on a case by case basis and not some kind of general us vs them battle plan.

While Obama is now contemplating how to go about getting things done - move on everything; or make a list, focus on the top of the list and then work down the list. The Republicans don't have this luxury. They are not the majority and they need to determine what battles they must fight, and what one's are not worth the effort. They will only have so much political capitol and they must use it wisely.

I especially don’t like how the article when about addressing this issue:

The most important question for Republicans in both the House and the Senate – and for the future Republican chairman – is how forcefully to take on Mr. Obama.

Bullshit – it’s not about forcefully taking on anyone. It’s about how to best get the most they can out of the position they are now in – not how to attack, but how to react.

I think Mike Duncan should be shown the door for a number of reasons. First and foremost to try and put as much distance as possible between Bush and the future of the party. Ducan was put in place by Bush, and moving him out of the front office helps to send a signal that Bush people will not be running the show. Additionally it was not only McCain that ran a piss poor campaign but the party in general, and as the party chairman he needs to fall on his sword for what has happened.

To me the key to the future of the party is moving back to basics – especially as they relate to the fundamentals of small government, and low taxes. IMHO the party has been controlled for far too long by special interests, and have placed the priorities of big business to the forefront of the agenda, and then attempting to cloak that big business agenda within what they try to sell as what is important to the party.

Personally I don’t stand with the party as it relates to most of the social issues, and no doubt the main party social beliefs are not going to change (abortion, gay marriage, etc). I only hope that not too much time is wasted on these issues. Everyone knows the party position on this issues are not going to change anytime soon, and so they should not waste time quibbling about how hard or soft the party needs to be on the individual social issues.

I am not a big fan of Gingrich, but I do agree with much of what he has been saying (not all) as of late. And surprisingly enough he seems to be one of the more tempered voices of the party, and one of the few that does view it as important to figure out how to work with the incoming administration as opposed to how to best counter them.

Is Afrika a continent? One thing I know for sure, Australia is the biggest island in the world.

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

Is Afrika a continent? One thing I know for sure, Australia is the biggest island in the world.

What about Antarctica? I think it's about twice the size of Aussyland.

Originally Posted by Camel Toe

Is Afrika a continent? One thing I know for sure, Australia is the biggest island in the world.

Both Africa and Australia are continents, worlds biggest island is Greenland

I truly hope she wins the GOP nomination for 2012.

Originally Posted by pickel

I truly hope she wins the GOP nomination for 2012.

we can only hope, with McCain as VP, if he is not dead yet

Originally Posted by Butterfly

we can only hope, with McCain as VP, if he is not dead yet

Actually, I could be wrong, but can't a former two term president still be appointed VP? Dubya would be a great choice for her, or perhaps Cheney again. A real dream team.

^Surely time for a Dan Quayle comeback?

Originally Posted by bkkandrew

^Surely time for a Dan Quayle comeback?

no, that would be cruel

The fascist "New American Century" only lasted a few years, now is the time for the wingnuts to retreat and learn about the geography of the rest of the world which consists of Islamists, commies and dragons. LOL