LF: Sarah Palin: Is The Bloom Off Her Rose?

Tea party-backed candidates for the US Senate are offering tepid comments on Sarah Palin's qualifications for high office. Other Republican candidates decline to join her at GOP fundraiser.

Did we miss something, or is the bloom a bit off Sarah Palin’s rose?

Two prominent tea party-backed candidates for the US Senate are offering tepid comments on her qualifications for high office. Other major GOP candidates find they have “scheduling conflicts” preventing them from attending a Republican National Committee fundraiser where Palin will be a major attraction.

She continues to toy with the possibility of a presidential run in 2012, comparing herself to Ronald Reagan – another celebrity who won the White House. Yet most Americans think she’s not qualified for the job.

IN PICTURES: Who's who? Christine O'Donnell & Sarah Palin

A CBS News poll this past week shows her favorable/unfavorable ratings at a dismal 22-48 percent. In California, according to a new Field Poll, her figures are even worse with a 58 percent unfavorability rating. Tellingly, 53 percent of those surveyed by Field said they’d be less inclined to vote for a candidate endorsed by Palin. Among nonpartisan voters, that number rose to 66 percent.

That’s no doubt why Carly Fiorina (attempting to unseat Barbara Boxer from the US Senate) and Meg Whitman (running against Jerry Brown for California governor) have declined to appear with Palin just two weeks before the election. “Scheduling conflicts,” don’t you know.

That CBS News poll also has 64 percent of those surveyed agreeing that Palin is not qualified to be president – including a plurality of Republicans. Even 39 percent of those who describe themselves as tea party supporters say Palin does not have “the ability to be an effective president.”

Nobody reads polls closer than candidates, and tea party-backed contestants for high office who had Palin’s endorsement are no different. That includes Joe Miller in Alaska and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, both of whom waffled mightily when asked if Palin has what it takes to be president.

The most Miller could offer is that Palin is “qualified” in the sense that she’s old enough and a citizen born in the United States, prompting a hurt feelings e-mail from Todd Palin. O’Donnell refused to answer a “hypothetical question.”

Meanwhile, Palin herself remains coy on the subject.

“Speaking to a group of well-connected Republicans at a private dinner in Florida this week, Sarah Palin implicitly addressed questions about her own electability by noting that critics also said Ronald Reagan couldn’t win in 1980,” reports Politico.com, which talked with three people who attended the private dinner.

“Trying to divine her intentions – does she just want to stay in the presidential mix to build her brand, or is she actually running? – is difficult,” writes Politico’s Jonathan Martin. “But the mere act of meeting with the sort of Republican donors, strategists and activists who fund and advise presidential campaigns is telling.”

“I think she sees herself as heir to Reagan,” one attendee at that high-powered dinner told Martin.

There are parallels. Both Reagan and Palin were governors. Both were major celebrities. Both butted heads with their party’s establishment.

But the details are far different.

Reagan was a celebrity before he became president, then governed one of the largest and most complex states for a full two terms. Palin was governor of a state with a population far smaller than Fresno, then dropped out after two years, becoming a professional celebrity only after she and John McCain lost their run for the White House.

But she’s got a good – and very lucrative – gig going, and she certainly continues to play a major role in electoral politics. That should last through 2012, whether Barack Obama is reelected or some other Republican burning with presidential ambition beats him.

You read every post, skidmark. You leftist retards are such snot-nosed, little bitches.

Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.

If you leftist twits hadn't fooked everything up, from the economy to healthcare, you'd probably have retained control of congress. You did a horseshit job and you are about to pay dearly.

Getting tired of the bozoed calcon following me around on the 'net, wanting to discuss "tossing salad." Sorry, you sick rump-ranger. NOT interested.

Palin is doing just fine, her detractors however exhibit a psychotic view of her thats pretty amusing however.

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

I prefer: her supporters exhibit a worshipful view of her that's pretty amusing however.

Seem to me, the corrupt Dem/GOP political establishment is using Palin to promote phony left/right contention in hopes of maintaining the illusion of a working two party system. The whole thing is a propaganda hoax.

Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

LOL neocons always think they have another safe haven. And you are a quitter to boot.

1, Neocon - to be a 'neocon' you have to have been a liberal, then changed your viewpoint. I never was, so I can't be a neocon. Look it up.

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

Not much of what whiningskag posts does. He/she/it and buckeroo seem to have much in common. Could it be they are spouses or one and the same?

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

If you got up and left because of the antics of a few corrupt politicians, you would never stop moving.

You need to take some more ESL courses, you've gotten Neocon history and it's current practitioners mixed up again.

Perhaps you could invite them to redo their vows at the Church of Yukon if you are so worried they might be living in sin.

You and whiningskag must drink from the same bottle of cheap hootch, or else you share DNA. A real pair of losers.

Heh, except my post was a very playful editorial comment on how you come in here and do an act that turns you into a blur of meaningless one line flips of the bird that has become your own sign of the cross.

To glance at your stale and unimaginative posts is to remember what it feels like to be bored in church agonizing as you impatiently wait for the service to end.

I'm glad you are here, you are a useful straight man to bounce material off of to make it more entertaining. Thanks for being here.

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

Stone watches and punishes those who diss Mr and Mrs Badeye and calls it being 'fair". lolol

That wasn't what that poster originally posted, stupid. Stone changed it even though he vehemently denies changing other's posts. Uh Oh, I bet I get charged with smearing him with lies again.

Look cunt. Next time you diss me your gone. Asswipe was posting images of one of our posters.

Not on that particular reply. Anyway it and your sweet comment are saved to be sent to the local tea party campaign to tell them why they need to clean up their ranks..

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

Post it to every tea party blog/site. What you don't get is that the tea party don't like your type. They want your type swept away. So go on and advertise.

A political start up party that proclaims its UsvThem right from the start is a loser.

Its pretty weird, this facination with pic's of me from 15 or 16 years ago. I just see it as confirmation the kooks can't get me out of their pea brains... (laughing)

Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.