I don’t want to debate the issue and I don’t want this to be a bashing of either person. I would like to have the opinions of the brothers and sisters of the SDMB: Is it possible that Palin could actually win the Presidency of the USA in the next presidential election? And I would like respondents to give their reasons, pro or con.
My own feeling is that the native intelligence of the American public would prevent such an unmitigated catastrophe from occurring. My fear is that it would not.
Yes. People are so ridiculously partisan that it could be the George Washington brought back via time travel running on one ticket and a kimodo dragon on the other, and you’d still find 40% on either side supporting whichever of those people had the D or R next to their name. So a significant minority of the population will vote for Palin no matter what. So you need to swing a few million votes her way and some fluke event could crop up (like, for instance, if it were to get out to the public that Obama has fathered black babies) to let that happen. It’s not likely, but certainly possible.
From the UK side of the Atlantic I’d say it was unthinkable.
I don’t know of anyone over here who thinks she is anything other than a plank…a joke
My US colleagues (of whom I have many) think the same. I know the loony fringe exist in all countries but she can’t possibly have enough popular support…can she?
Here’s my prediction, the stock market will dive…heavily, if she is even so much as nominated.
A joke. An example of an event or scandal that could swing the election … George Bush spread rumors about McCain having a black baby to win the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
I honestly think that she can and does have enough popular support to get the nomination. I think Rush Limbaugh and his ilk will push her candidacy even knowing a win for her would be a disaster for the country. And when the stock market tanks, the spin will be that it was because of some policy Obama implemented.
Having her run for Vice President was bizarre enough for me to believe she could easily be the opposing candidate. But, I didn’t phrase my question properly; I should have specified that I was assuming she and Obama would face off, mano a’ mano, as it were.
As an Obama supporter, I hope and pray Palin gets the nomination. She will never be palatable to the mainstream. She is a lunatic.
She quit her elected position as governer, to became a news analyst. WTF?? Is this precedented?? (I think Chris Matthews’ comments summed it up best “How can she be a news analyst, she doesn’t know anything”)
Her luny death panels comments would receive more scrutiny as a presidential candidate. I’m not sure most Americans know the full scope of what she said.
She accused Obama of puposefully allowing the BP oil disaster to worsen in order to gain support for cap and trade legislation.
She said “Thanks but no Thanks” to the bridge to nowhere…after actively campaigning for it…and kept the money.
Her husband was a member of a group that advocated Alaskan succession.
She’s an inveterate victim, whether its from overzealous investigations or from the left wing media. When she’s a VP candidate and doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, or anything at all about the Supreme Court, it has nothing to do with her. It’s someone else picking on her. I don’t think Americans as a whole will vote for such a victim to be president.
I thought the Biden-Palin debate would be an entertaining train wreck, but it wasn’t.
I wish it were unthinkable, but the level of support her and her Tea Bagger ilk have is scary. The American public elected Nixon twice, Reagan twice, and Dubya at least once. Barnum’s Law is a lower limit for presidential elections.
On the hopeful side, a possible Palin run was debated at fivethirtyeight.com a year or so ago. The person with the “no way is she getting nominated” position pointed out that Palin is not a coalition builder, which will make it hard for her to get above 40%, particularly in the general election. (Note added in proof: Tea Party senate candidates lost winnable Senate sears in Delaware, Colorado, and Nevada. The only R Harry Reid could have beaten was Sharon Angle, and he managed to.)
The most salient point from the 538.com debate was that Palin’s shoot from the hip, fly by the seat of her pants, follow any random idea in her head approach makes her possible campaign very likely to go off the rails, crash and burn, and screw the pooch.
She isn’t the organizing kind. If she thinks Iowa and New Hampshire votes were just up and vote for her, she’s got another think coming.
My hope is that she never gives anything a second thought. My fear is that Mike Huckabee will come along with most of the same positions as Palin, but in an affable package. And he as actual experience as a real governor. He can run a campaign also. I’m afraid Palin might win. That Huckabee could win frightens me to the core.
Gosh, I hope the regressive right comes to its senses so that we can get a good Republican instead of her. With the current political climate (i.e., if the election were held today), it’s probably true that a Republican – any Republican – could beat Obama. In a lot of ways, it’s a good thing that the election won’t be held today, which gives Obama the chance to try to undo the damage he’s done. He’s now got plenty of Republican help to do so.
Since the election isn’t today, the more pertinent question is, can Palin sustain her populist support until the primaries? Or will logic win out, and we’ll have a good candidate such as Romney (or, in a fantasy-land, R. Paul)?
If she emerges victorious from the primaries, and Obama cleans up his act, then it’s likely that she can’t beat him in 2012.
To bring my beef from one other thread, yeah, she has a chance because absolute and utter nonsense that she keeps spouting will be welcomed by proponents of so called “civil political discourse” in which her mumblings about role of government or Constitution are valid as much as Obama’s because, after all, just because you don’t agree with her that’s not a reason to call her an idiot. No, I say, the reason she is an idiot is not that I disagree with her but because she makes no sense whatsoever with her meaningless free of substance sentences that don’t even arrive at the level of being disagreed with and I find it insulting that someone would scorn me for how I view her.
Unless, “civil political discourse” meme is just a liberal plot to keep corpse warmed up for a show because it’s apparently better for the country and democracy to do that than to find real political opponents.
I was on a fairly crowded elevator this morning when this popped up on the news feed. The reactions ranged from open laughter to “Did that say what I THINK it said”. Was actually quite a pleasant way to start the work day.
