Opinion: Sarah Palin lets slip a little secret about hubby Todd
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Well, thanks a lot, Rush Limbaugh.
A whole half-hour on national radio with Sarah Palin on the air, millions of people listening in their cars and kitchens, and not one word about Lucky Johnston or whatever-his-name is. Nothing about the great RNC Clothes Caper. Nothing about whether the mother of five gave birth control instructions to her daughter.
So what was the point? And he calls himself a journalist.
Well, no he doesn’t. But anyway, as The Ticket reported here Tuesday morning, El Rushbo did pursue numerous substantive policy areas with the former Republican governor who hits the road today on her book bus in Michigan and beyond, selling ‘Going Rogue.’ The book began flying off the shelves officially yesterday but has been unofficially available at some rogue places since late last week. (See video)
Nothing better than the gloomy, grey skies of Michigan in November. But Palin just had to....
...go there. Remember, the McCain brain trust, knowing it was losing well before election day last fall, was trying to target its more limited resources where they might actually work. And the numbers told them that Michigan was not one of those places. (Hmm, what if they’d picked Michigan native son Mitt Romney as VP?)
And Palin, being who she is and so naive and so inexperienced in the business of losing....
...national campaigns, having only defeated the entrenched Republican establishment in the largest state before downing a better-known popular Democrat there too, gave them an argument about giving up so easily just because they were down in the third quarter.
And those McCain teammates of hers, as D.C. insiders are wont to do, then leaked disparaging things about their client to media folks desperate for such info; hence, the book title, ‘Going Rogue.’ She obviously didn’t get it. Hadn’t been sufficiently cured by the suited cynics who pretend to run these shows that when something isn’t working, more of the same might.
So, anyway, Tuesday Palin talked with Rush in Miami from her New York hotel room, about the importance of tax cuts in stimulating economies and hiring, how encouraging is the ongoing conservative grassroots organizing, and how great it is to be in a political party where members can duke it out over important disagreements and then come together.
Palin did not mention it on-air, but sources say early next year she’s off to Texas to campaign for incumbent GOP Gov. Rick Perry against incumbent GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for the March 2 gubernatorial primary. Talk about a political duke-out.
Perry was very encouraging to Palin in recent years and she endorsed him last February, citing his positions against abortion and the federal financial bailouts.
Palin also arranged for Perry and RGA Chair Haley Barbour to acquire several thousand discounted copies of her book, which they’ll use as fundraising incentives during this week’s annual Republican Governors Assn. meeting near Austin.
We were reading back through the Palin-Limbaugh transcript here early this morning (doesn’t everyone do this after midnight?) when we came upon this little-noticed nugget:
Turns out that husbandly, snow-machine-racing, card-carrying, goateed union member Todd Palin, Alaska’s former First Dude, is not a Republican.
Palin was talking about the importance of making the clear conservative argument to independents, who seem to be drifting away from Obama’s unfolding liberal agenda, and the unlikelihood of any successful third party movement in the U.S.
I understand why people -- good people like my own husband -- refuse to register in a party. Todd’s not a Republican and yet he’s got more commonsense conservatism than a whole lot of Republicans that I know because he is one who sees the idiosyncrasies of the characters within the machine and it frustrates him along with a whole lot of other Americans who choose to be independent. But in answer to your question, I don’t think that the third party movement will be what’s necessary to usher in some commonsense conservative ideals.
And then Palin, perhaps providing some political prescience about her possible plans, added:
I think just naturally independents are going to gravitate towards that Republican agenda and Republican platform because the planks in our platform are the strongest to build a healthy America. We’re all about cutting taxes and shrinking government and respecting the inherent rights of the individual and strengthening families and respecting life and equality. You have to shake your head and say, ‘Who wouldn’t embrace that? Who wouldn’t want to come on over?’ They don’t have to necessarily be registered within the Republican Party in order to hook up with us and join us with that agenda standing on those planks. In Alaska, about 70% of Alaskans are independent. So that’s my base. That’s where I am from and that’s been my training ground, is just implementing commonsense conservative solutions. Independents appreciate that. You’re going to see more and more of that attraction to the GOP by these independents as the days go on.
Something to watch closely after Palin parks her book bus next month.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Related items:
What to watch for as Sarah Palin returns to the trail
The Sarah Palin election day speech(es) we never heard
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