I’ve read a few stories about a potential Palin run for the presidency and that she’s the most liked among the most conservative but has the highest negatives among the population in general (including somewhere near 60% saying they wouldn’t consider voting for her).
This has led to other notions of Democrats running a counter Operation Chaos campaign in which they’d vote for Palin in open primaries hoping to either get her on the ballot against Obama or, if nothing else, draw out the GOP primary season in the same manner as Obama/Clinton.
Setting aside any debates on whether Palin will actually run or how successful Operation Chaos was (not at all in my opinion), would you vote for Palin in an open primary knowing that, if she did win the presidency, you helped her do it?
I don’t think so. In my state, you have to register as a Republican to vote in their primary. I’m not interested in doing that right now, although I did do it in 2000 to vote McCain against Bush, for all the good that did.
If anything, I’d do that again–I’d vote for a tolerable Republican to make sure that a wingnut has no shot. Of course, that means that there would have to be a tolerable Republican running.
I have often castigated Democratic leaders for taking a knife to a gun fight in electoral politics, for not being willing to get down and fight back when Republicans do underhanded things. I would therefore be a hypocrite if I was not willing to vote in a Republican primary for Democratic purposes. Therefore, I would do it in a heartbeat. Plus, in my neck of the woods, the fight is generally between a conservative Republican and an ultraconservative Republican, with Democratic candidates as likely to win as Socialist candidates, so if I want to use my vote effectively, I kinda have to get in there and try to keep Attila the Hun out of office even if it means voting for Jack the Ripper.
We have open primaries in our state and several times I’ve voted for the least objectionable candidate in the other party’s race, if my party did not have a competitive race going on. But I would never vote for the most objectionable candidate, no matter how sure I was that they were unelectable.
Yeah, you can’t predict what will happen. Palin is the least likely to win candidate out of the current Republican crop, but also the worst possible for the country. A 1% chance of her winning would be too high.
Nope. I’d never give her my vote for anything, she doesn’t deserve it.
I have registered as a Republican specifically to vote for the lesser of two Republican evils (I didn’t like the Democratic nominees, either, but thought that they balanced each other out). This was ten or twelve years ago, and I STILL get calls and junk mail from the Pubbies because they think that I am One Of THEM. It makes me feel all slimy and gross, and I’m never going to do it again.
I don’t think she’s unelectable. Two dear friends of mine quite like her; I can imagine [del]either[/del] one of them voting for her in a primary, and I don’t think she’s unque that way. I can conceive of her becoming president in 2 years.
I would consider it. If she became the Republican candidate I think she would lose the general election and if she managed to win the presidential election I am certain she would be such a disaster that the US would be put off Republicans for decades.
In my (very conservative) state I could definitely see her winning, people here love her. I loathe her.
Not saying I’d do it for sure but I’d consider it.
Bush got into the Presidency twice. I’m not prepared to assume that anyone is unelectable just because they are stupid or evil. I’m not going to deliberately do something that might produce 8 years of President Palin. And I’d feel unclean voting for a Republican for any reason, anyway.
If I voted, and if I voted in primaries, I would prefer to vote for Palin in a Republican primary because she’d be more likely to lose against the Democratic candidate.
But I don’t vote. And I especially wouldn’t vote in a primary because to vote in a Repub primary, I believe you need to be registered as a Repub. And I would never do that.
In my home state you can change your registration on a whim. Persons other than me might argue that, if you find all the Democratic candidates palatable, but judge Palin hugely less electable in the general election than, say, Mitt Romney, the rational thing to do try to get her on the republican ballot. This would be more true in a swing state than one that is solidly in one camp or the other.
ETA: It’s a personal question, so I will understand if you prefer not to answer – but why don’t you vote?
No, because I think she might actually win the general election if unemployment is still at 10% in 2012. I disagree with almost everything Romney, Huckabee, Thune, etc. stand for but at least they are competent.
