Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Palin's book... bitter disappointment.

Conservatives should have learned with Dan Quale. Sarah or Cheney are unelectable. If those folks don't start looking for somebody that is educated and not hooked up with the big oil/banking, and not just a pretty face, it will be four more years of Obama. Just my opinion.

I feel that McCain was electable with a running mate that the older conservatives trusted to take over if something happened to him. He lost their vote with Palin.

Wow, after reading all of this I am feeling much, much better now as it echos my thoughts exactly.

First, no real conservative would run for president and especially one who is a real intellectual because it would be a waste of their time and energy.

Second, anybody who runs for president has to be able to govern from the middle and most important of all appeal to the the TV talk show/reality/sitcom crowd. In other words, to the stupid and ignorant.

And last, I learned this 40+ years ago, in any great debate emotion beats logic every time. If the Republicans want the White House in 2012 they need somebody who can emotionally can connect with the brain dead masses. Someone who can come up with a short one line campaign slogan that connects with those brain dead masses.

If Palin wins in 2012 it's because she has picked a super campaign manager and great speech writers. She certainly has a appeal to the brain dead masses, is a moderate at best, and has a little intellect. Yes, she maybe perfect presidential material.

I have to agree.

Reagan did a great job of creating an emotional connection while utilizing conservative intellectuals like Buckley and Rusher for the heavy brain lifting and as a response to the liberal elite.

Unfortunately, thinkers like Buckley and Rusher would probably not be welcome in today's party. The Republican party is rapidly becoming the party of the shouted slogan and philosophical purity above all else, without having much in the way of ideals behind the slogans. This is leaving the thinking conservative in a hard spot.

Cole, we are going to have to stop doing this, we are agreeing way too much.

You may have a point. The only true conservative who has ever held the presidency that I can see is Calvin Coolidge. All presidents with the exception mention have been moderates starting with Washington.

I've had the honor and privilege of working alongside a large number of brilliant people in my life. Some few were intellectuals... but most of them were pretty good folks.

Being able to quote chapter and verse from the Bible hardly makes one a good Christian.

Exactly, the Constitution has been written; now just adhere to it.

Plus one, well said.

Palin's main draw is her social conservatism- which horns a certain faction up, but isn't going to win a national election. As it shouldn't.

A culture-war female social conservative that comes across as a ditz isn't the answer. Y'all can WISH shed written an intellectual tome, but what in the world made you think she'd do that?! Prior performance being a predictor of future potential and all that. A ditzy book is entirely in character for Palin.

Forget her. She's a historical blip. Convince George Will to run; field an actual, real, candidate with some substance behind them, an intellectual an philosophical track record- someone less concerned with what people do with their peckers, and more concerned with REAL issues!

You guys love to hate me, but at least I'm standing here giving it to you straight. The crucial "middle" stands ready for a real conservative. Palin ain't it; in fact for many of us, she was the nail in McCain's electoral coffin.

Flame on... Nomex suit is donned... grin...

You are as irrelevant as the twit you voted for

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html

Not if you wan to win, I'm not.

Millions just like me who want the conservative "cake", without the Puritanical "icing". You say you all want the cake too. Palin is all icing.

Wake up, smell the reality.

Disagree.

Palin is true conservative from her heart.

But unable to articulate it from her head.

I prefer the Heart to Head.

With Reagan and Teddy R we got both.

BMT

+1 SH.

If what were looking for is a modern intellectually rigorous treatise on conservative thinking that appeals to the public I would recommend Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. IMO Levin represents the type of right people the president needs to surround himself (I use this term in its classic application in our language applying to both genders) with, both in shaping his thinking as a candidate and as advisers in governing.

However, for all the nostalgia for the Founding Fathers' intellectual prowess, it was those who appealed to the electorate for other reasons than their intellect, who were most successful as politicians, eg. George Washington. The intellectual architects of the Revolution of '76 were largely ineffectual, or at best, controversial political figures when they governed - e.g., John Adams, Thomas Jefferson.

Reagan may not have been a "perfect conservative" but he was a consistently predictable leader and an ideological conservative.

I'm afraid that in our quest for ideological purity in conservative thought in politicians, we may find ourselves ruled by pragmatic socialists who can create majority coalitions. Just my .02.

Palin may not be perfect or even the right candidate, but IMHO we conservatives need to start thinking which are the critical few requirements we identify in the candidates we'll suppoprt who are actually electable.

I'll give you the "unable to articulate" part!

The only way to really know what's in someone's heart involves a sharp knife...

In what ways has Palin been "puritanical". Are you basing that on the fact that she is a professing christian?

Jeff O, you proved you are who you are, with your vote for Obama. You just can't come back from that.

Link The correct spelling is Bastiat, clink on the link for more information about his life and works.

As and aside the common book on the philosophy of the founding fathers at the Constitutional convention was the works of John Locke. This is were the explanation of the Constitution comes from, so it's not as if the Supreme Court has no guidelines for and understanding of the intent by the founders.

John Locke

Haven't read any of the comments. I am starting the book this evening and will comment later in the week. Right now, there is no one in the Rep. Party other than Rudy G. that holds my attention as much as Palin. Someone else may come to the forefront before 2012.

Amen to that! If you voted for Obama, stay out of this discussion, for you clearly have no logic, nor understanding of people. For anyone to have voted for Obama, and then to profess he has an accurate view of Palin, well, tell me more on why your sorry Azzzzz voted for Obama?

Well Stated, Calvin.

I can understand why he voted for Obama, it was pay back to America for pass perceived misdeeds.

And look at the liberal POS they ran against him? I thought the best way to pay the GOP back for picking someone that the liberals all said they loved was to vote and support Ron Paul.