McCain Campaign Insider & Former Romney Hack Bashes Palin
In an a blog post in The Hill's Briefing Room discussing the recent CNN poll, we are treated to the spectacle of yet another GOP "insider" bashing Governor Palin:
But the numbers aren’t persuasive enough to win over GOP analysts/insiders/strategists. As Rob Gray, a GOP strategist up in Boston, told the BBR:
“Most GOP insiders and operatives see her as out of her depth and inexperienced. I'm not sure many believe that someone who didn't pass the perception test for vice president will achieve enough seasoning in the coming 3 years to legitimately run for President in her own right.”
And just who is Rob Gray? He's a former top Mitt Romney political hired gun who turned on Romney to join the McCain campaign!
One of our courageous "anonymous sources" bashing Palin after the campaign, perhaps?
UPDATE BY JR: These are the same "GOP insiders and strategists" who have led us to two consecutive national electoral defeats, record setting deficits, no members of the House from New England and the presidency of America's first socialist in Barack Obama. Mitt Romney is a man who was elected Governor of Massachusetts, flip flopped on nearly every issue to run for the GOP nomination, spent millions upon millions of his own money, only won the state of Michigan because of his father and the pandering he did on behalf of the auto industry, came off as the best possible nominee in the debates, and still lost to John McCain and Mike Huckabee. I voted for the guy in the primaries because he was the best choice available. I have been following and watching Sarah Palin since February of 2008, and since she was obviously not a candidate in the primaries, I voted for Romney. I used to watch his town hall meetings on C-Span and remember about forty people in the audience. He does not have "it."
UPDATE by Ramrocks: I will once again remind everyone of Reagan's 11th Commandment. I think it's unfair to criticize Romney for something that was said by a guy who once worked for him and then later double-crossed him. I didn't vote for Romney in the primaries, but I do respect him. Anyone who thinks that Romney is soft on social conservative issues didn't pay attention to Romney's fight with Harvard over Harvard's embryonic stem cell initiative. A governor of Massachusetts taking on Harvard is like a governor of Michigan taking on the auto industry, or, for that matter, like a governor of Alaska taking on big oil. Romney showed his caliber in that showdown, and I respect him for it. Yes, he flip-flopped, but at least he flipped to the right side, and he had the guts to stand up for the right side when the going got tough.
I would be happy to see a Palin/Romney ticket. It would drive the left nutty to see two such incredibly attractive people represent conservatism. (The Ken and Barbie ticket!) And it would unite the party in much the same way as the Reagan/Bush ticket united the conservative grassroots wing of the party with the establishment wing. I don't think Romney as the top of the ticket or without Palin would be all that effective because he does seem to lack "it," but he's a decent man, and I won't diss him. I've been hard on him in some of the comment sections of this blog, but in the end, I do believe in the 11th Commandment (at least until the primaries).
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39 comments:
OK, one more name for the whack list. Is he back in Romney camp again? If Romney is running as poster suggest below, that explains the GOP establishment snide attacks on her. Also, the recent internet backlash against her in conservative forums. We must be careful against the guy.
If Sarah doesn't run in 2012 and won't be VP, Mitt or whoever wins the nom will win. There's absolutely no way Obutt wins second term. In that case, Sarah will potentially lose out 2012 n 2016 and have an heir apparent(VP) to face in 2020. She has to run in 2012.
Yeah, I agree with promachus....determining whether to run based on an opponent's approval rating over a year and a half before the date on which the actual election will be held is a self-defeating prophecy. Bill Clinton benefitted from the fact that other solid candidates took a pass on 1992 because Bush 41 looked so strong in early 1991. We all know history....
I really don't like what I'm hearing out of CPAC; pretty down week for conservatives in my opinion with Jindal's response, fairly or unfairly, getting trashed and then the media trying to characterize some of the crazy stuff that is said at CPAC as representative of the entire movement....it's almost as if we have hit a bit of a lull in the Obama presidency in which the only thing that is happening is watching the stock market crash and "joking" about how much lower it can go. At least with the stimulus debate, we could rally around something, so I guess we'll all be in a better mood ironically when Obama introduces his next radical liberal piece of legislation.
Pfft romney hacks
May plague befall this rodent.
Hey Rob,
Mitt couldn't even beat the weak McCain.So he is another one buying into the MSM lies and distortions of Gov. Palin's record. Romney or Huckabee could never do what Sarah did at the convention.I am so sick of people like Gray. I will vote for her. Send this Gray guy some e-mails.
I see that Rob Gray is described as a "McCain strategist" - something of an oxymoron given the abject manner in which the McCain campaign operated(including the mishandling of Sarah Palin!).
I've always thought that all the BS thrown at Sarah by so-called "GOP Insiders" can be traced back to Romney. There is a stron possibility that this moron (Gray) is behind the anonymous attacks on Sarah at the end of the campaign. Both he (and Romney) need to be purged. Romney is not even conservative. Look what he did in Mass. And let's not forget, he couldn't even beat McCain, or The Huckster for that matter, in 2008.
I have noticed a pattern in the attacks on Governor Palin (and other true conservatives like Governor Jindal) by so-called 'conservative' pundits. They studiously ignore their substantial practical achievements as Governors applying conservative principles. Instead, they wait until Palin (or Jindal) makes a mistep or expresses a questionable opinion or expresses it badly, e.g, a bad interview or an 'off-day' speech. Then they pounce. And try to represnt this mistep as typical performance for the Governors involved. They usually take the opportunity to express their criticism in the most damning way possible and/or with extremely damning language. Let me give two instances: David Brooks and David Frum. I need not remind anyone of his reference in the Fall to Sarah Palin as a 'cancer' in the Republican party. But he also jumped on Jindallast week. Agree that Jindal was not at his best, but was he 'nihilistic' or 'catastrophic? David Frum took advantage of perceptions of 'whining' by Governor Palin in Zeigler's interview to opine that McCain's operatives were right to restrict her access to media, if this is the best she could do when no longer beholden to others. He concured with Rick Santorum's put down that she does not have 'well worked out world view'. Clearly, neither David Brooks or David Frum have closely studied the actual accomplishments of either Governor. Clearly too, David Frum has not accessed many of Governor Palin's other interviews and speeches since the Election, for instance, with Canadian Broadcasting or her recent SOS speech and subsequent 'press availability ' session. Governor Palin's SOS speech was excellent in content, structure and style, and from that alone, anyone with any curiousity and analytical skill can infer a very well worked out and well grounded 'worlview', far more than is possible listening to President Obama's SOU speech.
I just sent Gray the following email...
Mr. Gray,
I realize you can get some media attention for your heretofore unknown firm by bashing Governor Palin. However, there are millions of true conservatives out here who want her to run and are not amused by your pathetic attempt at adulation by the mainstream media. I sincerely hope your comments below are widely publicized among conservative activists.
“Most GOP insiders and operatives see her as out of her depth and inexperienced. I'm not sure many believe that someone who didn't pass the perception test for vice president will achieve enough seasoning in the coming 3 years to legitimately run for President in her own right.”
I hope that no conservative candidate makes the mistake of hiring your firm. If we are to win in 2012, the last thing we need is to have our own consultants taking shots at our most promising candidate simply to gain favor with your former employer, Mitt Romney. Most of us would gladly crawl naked on broken glass to help her. Do you honestly believe that anyone has that kind of passion for Romney? I suspect it was you or someone like you who fabricated those ridiculous charges about NAFTA and Africa at the end of what was the most poorly run GOP campaign in my memory. A campaign for which consultants such as yourself should accept responsibility. I sincerely hope you fail miserably in all your future endeavors.
Doug Brady
Chardon, Ohio
I would suspect that Gray has rejoined Mitt Romney. This is how Romney worked in 2008, placing snide, anonymous attacks on his opponents in the media, which loves to report on infighting, especially GOP infighting. Get used to it, because you will be seeing a lot more of it from Romney (indirectly) and Huckabee (more directly). I believe Sarah is tougher than most give he credit for and she can handle it. She also has a larger base of support within the party. Larger, I believe, that the small lead that CNN gave her. And, on CPAC, remember that CPAC jealousy guards it's "kingmaker" reputation. So, Sarah will be bashed by some who see her as "snubbing" the meeting. I hope (although doubt) that she will make next year's meeting. 2011, though...
I haven't noticed David Frum or his wife, Danielle Crittenden, attacking Gov. Palin Lately. They both took quite a drubbing the last few times they did, so they may be lying low for now. As for Gray, you can't expect much from a New Englander, and Romney supporter. Much of the attacks on Gov. Palin on the Free Republic website is originating from the Romney camp, because their past statements in support of Romney are in the archives. There has also been some attacks from Huckabee, and even Jindal supporters as well at Free Republic. Of course the media attacks are being carried out by those being paid by 0bama/Axelrod.
Romney also claimed that his father marched with MLK (later proved to be false) and that he was a life-long hunter to try and pander to the NRA crowd (later proved to be false as well). Here is a man who would say or do anything to try to get elected and surrounded himself with these sort of people. My guess is that Gray has rejoined Romney as well. Romney and Huckabee hate each other so maybe they can take each other out.
Absolutely no doubt in my mind that Gray is back in the Romney camp. Romney showed his (slimy) hand yesterday at CPAC when he BEGAN his UNinspiring speech with a completely gratuitous cheap shot at Gov. Palin. Even his little minions seated around me were surprised by his alleged attempt at humor and were left speechless. No one laughed.
What do we need to do to boot this flip flopping 1-term FAIL governor from the party? Unfortunately, with his money he can cause major headaches and problems---and he'll never be elected.
Give it up already, Mittens.
Emerson C... When did Rick Santorum put down Gov Palin? I seem to remember he has been supportave of her.
I agree w/ all posters above about other conservative forums. Freep and HotAir have been pretty vicious on Gov Palin and Jindal this week. I find it amazing that w/ CPAC this week and that CNN poll coming out yesterday, Gov Palin still LEADS all GOP 2012 contenders and she is keeping a very low profile right now. That shows the incredible grassroots support and rockstar image she has. Wouldn't be incredible if she wins that straw poll today at CPAC.
Oh great more Romney supporters are now GOP I nsiders. They are just setting the framework to get their guy elected. I can't stand it anymore! I remember Romney proudly declaring himself a liberal republican while in Massachusetts. He went out of his way to be more liberal than Ted Kennedy. He has so many things going against him and too much bait for the MSM and liberals.
I see that many are underestimating Sarah, (and Bobby for that matter). These must be Romney/ Huck supporters. I hope the republican party wises up!
How do we solve this GOP insider/ establishment/elite problem? How do we make them shut up?
promachus, here is one way to shut them up:
Go Vote here: http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/27/take-the-c-pac-str...
Every poll that Sarah does well in helps to reduce any impact of what the establishment says.
Corrected link for the above AOL C-Pac Vote:
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/27/take-the-c-pac-straw-poll/
Anon at 10:08 - looks like the Ron Paulbots have got hold of that AOL poll.
Looks like the Paul and Romney bots have been hitting this poll. Please everyone, vote!!!!
Mods, please post link to this on main blog, to get more attention, I'm also going to check TeamSarah and Freep to see if it's posted there.
Already on TeamSarah, posted at Freep. Even if Sarah does not win, we need to stifle the Paul nutcases.
To Dave70: Rick Santoraum 'put down' of Sarah.
In hit job at Corner at NRO, Frum used the words "She does not have a well worked out worldview . . " as a heading, and claimed to be quoting Rick Santorum. I think that this originated from a discussion (on Zeigler's interview with Sarah) between Frum's wife and Bill O'Reilly. Rick was there and was expected to defend Sarah, but did not do so as expected and apparently did use these words. Whether he meant it to be a 'put down', I don't know, but Frum pounced on it as used it to that effect. Sorry, I am working from memory here, and am not otherwise familiar with Rick's take on Sarah. I may have done him an injustice.
Let's just entertain expectations for campaign rallies for the '12 race. Do you honestly think Ron Paul could outdraw Sarah? I've been to Palin rallies and they are incredible -- jam packed and electric.
Doug, excellent letter. I esp. liked your close!
It is SO tiresome to have to put up with the GOP bashing Sarah non-stop. Where the hell is Michael Steele, "baby"? (as he's so fond of ending every sentence).
If the GOP doesn't support her, we're going to have to get SP into the WH without them. But that doesn't seem to be a problem for Sarah. She more or less has done it on her own in Alaska. Screw them. They're the idiots that got us in this mess to begin with.
howlroll, I did listen to Romney's joke. It was lame but I don't think it was mean to Gov.Palin unless of course if you think why he would want to raise the point at all. I felt his other joke when he said fed officials will arrest him for practising capitalism was cheesy. It may've been good in substance but the way he said it was bad.
Sarah is moving up!
Charlie Crist 63 (4.0%)
Newt Gingrich 58 (3.7%)
Rudy Giuliani 20 (1.3%)
Mike Huckabee 56 (3.5%)
Bobby Jindal 57 (3.6%)
Sarah Palin 312 (19.8%)
Ron Paul 721 (45.7%)
Tim Pawlenty 17 (1.1%)
MItt Romney 231 (14.6%)
Mark Sanford 43 (2.7%)
http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/27/take-the-c-pac-straw-poll/
To Doug Brady: Awesome letter. : )
I like Steele but isn't he structurally beholden to the state GOP organizations?
Romney's jokes on paper = good
Romney telling jokes = bad
Davek70, What is Freep?
Hot off the tube: FOX News is holding its own straw poll and wants you to e-mail who you would vote for in 2012 and why. They'll be reading them on air over the next two hours. Go to:
newshq@foxnews.com
Go, 'Cuda
Excuse me, but the last person Americans want running the country right now is an INV$ESTMENT BANKER. These guys are now less trusted by Americans than used car salesmen.
Everyone keeps saying that if Mitt had won the nomination his economic experience would have been helpful in the campaign. WRONG, the only economic experience he had was as a "flipper" of companies.
Investment bankers are no different than house flippers. They take a failing company slap a new coat of paint on it and sell it to unsuspecting investors at a huge profit.
The democrats would have killed Mitt by looking at his past deals. He made his money by buying poor performing companies, laying off half of the workforce and outsourcing their jobs to China, loading the companies up with huge amounts of debt, and moving their headquarters to offshore tax havens so they didn't have to pay US tax. He then sold the companies to institutional investors, like state employee pension plans, at a huge profit for himself. These companies are now next to worthless because of all the debt that was layered on, and the institutional investors have lost a pile of money on them.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a capitalist and an entrepreneur. The people I look up to are the ones who develop a service or product people want, and then risk their own money to build up their companies, employ people and add REAL VALUE to our economy. They should be rewarded and rewarded handsomely. However, these quick flip investment bankers are the scourage of our economy and are directly responsible for all the problems we are facing today.
Go ahead Republicans, nominate this guy - and lose another election big time as the Democrats tear him apart.
A note to my friends here at conservatives4palin:
We have to be careful. I was greatly distressed to see the conservative reaction to Jindal's response speech. It is as if conservatives on the internet have no interest in winning elections. If one of our people doesn't perform well in a speech, which has nothing to do with policy, shouldn't we defend that person, or at least shut the heck up and not say anything negative?
After Jindal's response, you had the allahpundits and Ace of Spades of the world trashing the guy. This is wrongheaded. We have to stop the sniping. And this includes sniping at Romney, which anyone with a brain can see is a fine and worthy candidate.
Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, and Ron Paul supporters need to support their people without trashing the other guy, aka the 11th commandment. It is perfectly fine to rip weak moderates "repubicans" but be careful that who you are attacking is an actual moderate, not one who had to pretend to be one to win in a extremely liberal state (i.e. Romney).
This is a time to build consensus among the better candidates. Just some general thoughts.
Palin Yes
Romney Not so much
Anon 3:20. Ditto.
Like Rob Howard, I'm a big 11th commandment person. But what makes it difficult is when people like Romney and Huckabee don't really practice it.
My assumption here Romney-wise is that you have at least some influence over the people who've once worked for you.
And Huckabee-wise, that his recent swipe at McCain's backing of that original banking bailout was really a swipe at Sarah and her support of it. He's laying ground I think.
Anyway I do respect Palin and Jindal for being classier on this score.
Doug Brady said...
Davek70, What is Freep?
Freep = freerepublic.com
Rob, I for one am tired of being snookered at the voting booth. The one and only time the ole "bait 'n switch" wasn't pulled was Ronaldus Magnus. Everyone since has been a disappointment -- some more than others.
Knowing Mittens' past, I just can't shake the nausea I get feeling that he'll do a 180 if he gets in.
They all talk a good game but do jack sheet once they get in -- or try so hard to be liked by the Dhims that they bend over and grab the ankles. Oh, sure, Mittimus might improve the economy and even tear down some of the massive generational debt Barry Carter is racking up -- BUT HE DOESN'T APPEAR TO HAVE A TRUE CONSERVATIVE SPIRIT.
Did you hear Rush's speech this evening? I'm looking for a candidate who thinks this way.
"Reagan provided the blueprint for landslide victory and all our side wants to do is say the era of Reagan is over."
Sarah Palin IS Reagan in a skirt.
To Rob Gray...... It only looks to him and others like him that Sarah Palin is out of her depth and inexperienced; because they look at anyones depth to be shallow if not like theirs.
When in fact they don't recognize nor have the capacity to comprehend that hers is NOT on the SHALLOW end of depth and inexperience; but Sarah's is of a far deeper and experienced life than he will ever be capable of understanding.
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