That brings up something else. Palin is being dismissed far too easily by far too many as a contender for the US presidency in 2012. That she's an ongoing train wreck is almost irrelevant. She may be a horror story but she's a horror story to both the Democrats and the Republicans.
I had been curious about what it was she was trying to set up with all the celebrity fame-whoring and I can only come back to "name recognition". That plays a bigger part in American politics than competence when one is playing to the navel-gazing masses. If she bangs on the GOP door looking for a nomination and the Republicans shut her out, she will take her witless, self-absorbed self into a realm that will leave the Republican power-brokers reeling in terror - she will run as an independent and shatter the GOP base.
I went back and forth with this scenario wondering if it was likely. She doesn't have the strategic sense to work that play on her own. But it's obvious from the spotlight she's managed to find herself in that there is an organizational mastermind behind it and it isn't Steve Schmidt.
Lo and behold, along comes Robert Reich with a clearer depiction of the Palin strategy.
And while Schmidt pointed out back in January that Palin was both dishonest and a geographic moron, Reich makes the case that none of that matters to the white working class voter. And then he launches that bomb.
The Republican establishment doesn’t get it. Celebrity is part of The Palin Strategy – as is avoiding the insider game. She doesn’t want to do what Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich, or Romney have to do. She has an outside game.
Palin’s game plan is directly related to America’ white working class, and the economy it faces – and the economy it’s likely to continue to experience for years.
No prospective candidate so sharply embodies the anger of America’s white working class as does Palin. And none is channeling that anger nearly as effectively.
The Palin Strategy is to circumvent the Republican establishment, filled as it is with career Republicans, business executives, and Wall Streeters. That’s why her path to the Republican nomination isn’t the usual insider game. It’s a celebrity game – a snark-fest with the nation’s entire white working class. Vote for Bristol and we’ll show the media establishment how powerful we are! Buy my book and we’ll show the know-it-all coastal elites a real book directed at real people! Tune into my cable show and we’ll show the real America – far from the urban centers with immigrants and blacks and fancy city slickers!It's worth reading all of Reich's article.
As I believe will become clearer, the Palin Strategy will involve a political threat to the GOP establishment: Deny her the nomination she’ll run as independent. This will split off much of the white working class and guarantee defeat of the Republican establishment candidate. It will also result in her defeat in 2012, but that’s a small price to pay for gaining the credibility and power to demand the nomination in 2016, or threaten another third-party run in 2020.
H/T Jill
1 comment:
I'm still of the opinion that Palin is too lazy to run for the Presidency. I get the feeling that the celebrity (and money) IS the end game for her. The presidency would be way too much work, and she'd be none too pleased with the microscope that being PUSA would bring.
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