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[Ayotte] may not be a professional politician, and neither is Palin (wink, nod.) But they have something many of their male counterparts may not. They are outsiders. They have a different perspective.
If by outsiders Donahue predicted Ayotte would follow Palin's lead in quitting her government job, then, ok.
In the 2010 election, securing the Tea Party vote was critical for success, especially in a primary. Sarah Palin's endorsement of Kelly Ayotte was not only enthusiastic, but included an attack on her conservative rival Ovide Lamontagne. Ayotte's gratitude was effusive:
"Gov. Palin is a conservative icon who has brought enormous energy to our party. As governor, she took on the entrenched special interests to deliver results," Ayotte said in a statement.
"Gov. Palin is a reformer in every sense of the word, and she has always stood firm for the conservative principles of low taxes, less spending and personal responsibility. I'm running for Senate to put our fiscal house in order and to get our country moving in the right direction again, and I'm honored to have her support."
Last week, Kelly Ayotte was a key part of a NHGOP elite coup that forced the resignation of Tea Party leader Jack Kimball.
Tomorrow, Sarah Palin will be in New Hampshire for a Tea Party rally in Manchester.
Senator Ayotte (not up for re-election until 2016) will be featured with her on-stage, right?
Karl Rove was asked on Fox News whether Sarah Palin can run a non-conventional campaign for president.
Said Rove: "Her people think so. They've talked with people about it, whom I've talked to, and they've been very explicit about it -- that she doesn't need to go to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, press the flesh and go to all these local events in order to cultivate the local leadership. She can talk to people over that. She doesn't need to cultivate the fundraisers and the bundlers, because her mere presence in the race will generate the cash needed for the campaign."
I hate to be a NHGOPer with stock in Palin, should she try to undermine "The Precious."
She visited Seabrook's Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative before the dinner and said fishermen told her they want the opportunity to "appropriately exploit" the area's natural resources.
"The government is getting in the way of that and kind of quashing that entrepreneurial spirit," she said.
If it involves our seacoast fishing industry, that "government" she (may or may not have any idea what she) is talking about is Bill O'Brien's Republican supermajority state house:
Will Carey gave up helping stage Broadway shows four years ago to stand knee deep in water, seven days a week, farming oysters in Little Bay. Now that he's about to turn a profit, shellfish harvesting could be shut down after lawmakers slashed the funding required to test the water.
"I'd lose everything. I'd be in debt the rest of my life," said Carey, 32, of Newmarket, who had hoped to pay back his $150,000 in start-up loans in the next three years. "It's terrifying."
A $302,000 spending cut in the $10.2 billion budget the House approved last week would shut down the state's commercial and recreational shellfish fishing beginning July 1.
The New York Times reports on a study of how much early-voting states affected presidential nominations. The researchers discovered "the early states were even more important than many people realized" and "estimated that an Iowa or New Hampshire voter had the same impact as five Super Tuesday voters put together."
CNN:
Palin's trip to New Hampshire later this week will be closely scrutinized, not just by the media but by the Granite State's demanding primary voters, who insist on seeing candidates up close for several months before they go to the polls.
They might be miffed, though, to learn that Palin doesn't regard them as any different from voters in other states.
...Palin said New Hampshire voters are special, "but not just because they have a certain date of a primary election."
In other news, Sarah I-Have-No-Interest-In-NH Palin will be in NH today rudely stepping all over Mitt Romney's carefully orchestrated POTUS run launch.
Michelle Bachmann was interviewed on Good Morning America today, and three of the first four questions from George Stephanopolous had to do with how she could compete against Sarah Palin, what were the differences between her and Sarah Palin, blah, blah, blah.
Not, how do you compete against Mitt Romney, or Tim Pawlenty? Not, how will you compete with Ron Paul for the Tea Party vote? No, how do you compete against the other girl who might run? He never used the term "girl candidate", but he might as well, because the only matter of interest to him was how the two girl candidates feel about running against each other. Earth to George: this isn't about becoming homecoming queen, it is about one of the two major party nominations for president. What a dope.
I would have thought that the media would have done some self examination after the 2008 campaign and recognized the sexism that permeated its coverage of first Hillary Clinton and later Sarah Palin. But if there was any, the lessons certainly have flown out the window.
Does anyone ask Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty if there is room for more than one former male governor?
Palin started Memorial Day at the National Archives in Washington, but the only reporters who made it to her brief media availability there were those who happened to see tourists posting on Twitter that they had spotted her.
...For supporters and reporters looking for more details, Palin isn't providing them. Palin's staff has been unresponsive to reporters' requests or told them to check the SarahPAC website, which updates with information only after she's stopped somewhere.
...It is unclear when she will stop by those sites, or where she'll head afterward. Palin is expected to head to New Hampshire in the coming days, her first trip to the early primary state since the 2008 campaign.
Sarah Palin: the first non-campaigning campaigning POTUS wannabe even less predictable than New Hampshire weather.
I know that when I talk to my friends, the leadership quality they're most looking for in a president is an impish, unscheduable, element of surprise.
The GOP elites created this farce three years ago when they never vetted a hugely unqualified person to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Now they have a magical mystery bus tour that makes even Michelle Bachmann look sane.
Pindell is reporting that Palin will be starting a bus tour in DC and, referencing Politico, says that she may be coming to NH
The tour will take her up the East Coast, and she will make visit important historical spots along the way.
Hopefully she has a better grasp of geography and history than Michelle Bachmann did on her recent visit. I can just see it now... Palin in the North Country asking Obama to "Tear down this Wall!"
BTW... how many NH Hockey Mom's do you think have a five car garage?
On April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down a ban on gay marriages and simultaneously lit a fire under extremists who are willing to say and do anything in order to marginalize or eliminate the third branch of our government.
The nearly 19-month long campaign in Iowa that followed the decision, which was paid for by reckless special interest groups and encouraged by out-of-state politicians, ended on November 2, 2010 when the extremists won, and three justices were voted off the bench.
Throughout the retention campaign, prospective presidential candidates pandered to the Iowa extremists who were attacking the judiciary:
Rick Santorum traveled across the state to raise the campaign’s profile
Newt Gingrich said the retention vote would be a “clarion call” to the legal secular elite
Mitt Romney attacked the nonpartisan group of Iowa justices by calling them members of an “activist court”
Tim Pawlenty encouraged the radicals to oust the judges if they disagreed with their ruling
Mike Huckabee campaigned for the most radical gubernatorial candidate who later led the effort to oust the judges
After the dust had settled after the election, it became clear which presidential candidate had been working the hardest to pander to the extremists: Newt Gingrich.
Of course, when Joe Miller didn't immediately glorify a Palin POTUS run he was attacked by the first dude, so I expect that despite Palin's election eve snub of Ayotte, one of the few high-profile candidate endorsements that worked out for her, the reverse will not be tolerated.
Susan already covered this, but a follow-up article from Roll Call really underscores the point.
While VPOTUS Wannabe T-Paw basically tried to purchase the entire state house, the only person POTUS Wannabe Sarah Palin really cared about in New Hampshire after her endorsement of Kelly Ayotte was Frank Guinta.
While media attention to Frank Guinta's mystery bank account scandal began in August, it wasn't until NHPR's investigation on October 12th that it really reached its height during the campaign season, especially as it was followed up by a segment on WMUR on the 13th. I remember this distinctly as it was the first time my non-politically obsessed friends asked me about it, which in turn told me it had finally broken through
Sarah Palin chose to help out Frank Guinta, and no other Granite State Republicans, on October 14th or after.
Besides being the recipient of Sarah Palin's largesse, Frank Guinta has since the election also distinguished himself in the national press as one of four congressional Republicans entering DC with pre-existing campaign ethics scandals.
NH is dead to Palin or her 2012 stalking horse. Would she meddle with NH through fawning NH teabaggers, recently elected to serve the people "real America."
If'ins I'ze wuz you'zes, I'd drum up a primary challenge for POTUS. Like the one Pindell imagines. And go with Dean...Dean Barker, that is. Because, I've watched the Obama NH Steering Committee in action. They got 2nd place down, real good.
Sarah Palin dumped last minute money into some GOP campaigns:
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, contributed more than $200,000 to her fellow Republicans during the final three weeks of the just-concluded midterm election campaign.
One of the lucky beneficiaries?
Several Palin-backed Republican nominees for the House, such as Ann Marie Buerkle in central New York, Frank Guinta in New Hampshire and Paul Gosar in Arizona, ousted Democratic incumbents.
Could Franky's financial Panky come back to haunt Governor Quitter?
I am pleased to see that my observation of how resentment-driven these people seem to be has been noted by others.
This is a quote from a video by Jay Rosen, transcribed by a Balloon Juice blogger:
On Fox, the news exists in order to generate controversy. Controversy exists in order to generate resentment. And the resentment is what generates ratings. [...] Resentment of whom? A cultural elite that is corrupt and maneuvering and manipulating behind the scenes to exercise power. It's resentment against this elite that provides the motion, the passion, the commitment, the fireworks at Fox.
First of all, congratulations on your victories in 2010. You've earned the right to celebrate. For a moment, though, I hope you'll indulge me in a discussion of a profound responsibility shared by New Hampshire voters of all persuasions: picking Presidents.
Ten years ago, the Iowa Caucus sent you George W. Bush, and you picked John McCain-an admirable choice. In 2008, the Iowa Caucus sent you Mike Huckabee, and you again picked John McCain-a shadow of his former self, but still a superior choice. In both cases, you saw an unreasonable choice out of Iowa and with the eyes of the world on you, you said no. I respect you for that. Although I'm a Democrat who supported Gore and Obama, I'm proud of my state to think of what you Republicans did in those primaries.
We need you to do it again.
All signs point to the disturbing possibility of former Governor Sarah Palin running for President in 2012. I don't need to explain to you all the ways in which she isn't worthy of the job; we've all become very familiar with her in the past few years. McCain's choice of Palin as a running mate was staggeringly irresponsible. Governor Palin's entry onto the national political stage is an insult to the intelligence of the American people, and especially to that of Republicans.
America can do better than Sarah Palin. Republicans can do better than Sarah Palin. Republican women can do better than Sarah Palin. Republican women from Alaska can do better than Sarah Palin. You better believe that New Hampshire Republican primary voters can do better than Sarah Palin. And, fellow New Hampshirites, I hope you do.
I want to make it clear that I do not fear she'd win a general election. I will vote to re-elect President Barack Obama no matter whom you nominate, and I happen to think he would defeat former Governor Palin very easily. But even though I want President Obama to be re-elected, I believe America deserves a real choice. I hope your party nominates someone who, regardless of ideological persuasion, is good enough to be President. New Hampshire Republicans, it's up to you to make sure that happens.
More brilliance from Kelly Ayotte endorser, Facebook Governor Palin:
Today potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin has made her first round of robo-calls ever in the Granite State. This would be huge news - if it were intentional.
Instead some pro-life households in New Hampshire heard a voice mail beginning "Hello Illinois this is Sarah Palin urging you to go to the polls on Election Day..."
Illinois must be one of those other states in the Great Northwest:
The Tea Party is dropping the pretense of being a grassroots movement on November 1st. The shadowy corporate group AFP is sponsoring a whole day of propagandizing in Concord all day Monday Nov. 1st, celebrating the Tea Party's coming out as a openly fascist corporate front group.
The Tea Party is coming to town. Yesterday, Sarah Palin--Kelly Ayotte's biggest supporter--kicked off the Tea Party Express' national tour.
The Tea Party's final stop on their tour will be on the steps of our state house in Concord the night before the election.
Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and their friends on the Tea Party Express are working hard on Kelly Ayotte's behalf. Ayotte proudly accepted Palin's endorsement and groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the Glenn Beck-backed Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars to boost her campaign
It is critical that you share Ayotte's pride with as many people you know, particularly undelcared and Republican voters in the "liberal enclaves" of Cheshire, Sullivan and Grafton county that carried Ayotte over the finish line to victory by the tiniest of margins.
And in case you were wondering why, here's just the most recent of a number of data points:
...52% of general election voters say Palin's support is a turn off with only 18% of them saying it's a positive. Her having to move to the right in the primary has already hurt her overall image with New Hampshire voters and could prove to become even more of a liability in the general election.
Kelly Ayotte stands proudly behind the support of one of the most fringe right-wingers of our time. Granite Staters deserve to know that.
