In what has to be one of the strangest ideas I’ve ever read, a John Coale, a Washington-area Democratic donor and onetime adviser to Sarah Palin, urged Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to use her political action committee to help retire the presidential campaign debt of Hillary Clinton:
Coale, a wealthy trial attorney and the husband of Fox News talk show host Greta Van Susteren, approached Palin with the improbable plan in February while in Alaska with his wife, who was taping an interview with the former Republican vice presidential nominee.
An outspoken Clinton supporter during the Democratic primary who switched his allegiance to the GOP ticket for the general election, Coale made his case to Palin at the Iron Dog snowmachine competition in Fairbanks, where Todd Palin was competing over Valentine’s Day weekend. His broader aim, say Palin camp insiders, was to help Palin develop a relationship with the former first family that he thought could bolster the polarizing governor’s standing with Democrats and independents.
The notion that Sarah Palin could ingratiate herself with Democrats and independents to a degree that would be useful to Palin in the future is simply ludicrous. While there’s no denying there were a fair number of Clinton supporters who were upset by the fact that Clinton wasn’t the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, it seems to me those folks were most upset in the period right after the conclusion of the Democratic presidential primaries and until the Democratic National Convention. Barack Obama’s election as president and Hillary Clinton’s nomination and confirmation as Secretary of State seem to have quelled any Democratic Party disunity, and looking at this from the perspective of Hillary Clinton, I fail to see any reason why she’d want to help Sarah Palin, who could still emerge as a possible challenger to President Obama in 2012.
Zach,
Why you gotta be so logical? Don’t you know that we women always vote for women, no matter what? We’re totally willing to abandon our principles, values, and ideals to vote for a woman who holds absolutely ZERO policy positions in common with us, just cuz she has a va-jay-jay. Sisterhood, my brother. It’s the Power of the Sisterhood.
That’s how our simple minds work.;)
Good thing that’s not actually true….
Well…I had typed out a counter argument to this post but I decided to delete it. I’m so over our current politicians I can’t even bring myself to defend them. I am hoping someone new will emerge or Huckabee runs again. 🙂
RP, I’m not logical; I’m just a partisan hack.
Okay…so I can’t help myself.
“The notion that Sarah Palin could ingratiate herself with Democrats and independents to a degree that would be useful to Palin in the future is simply ludicrous.”
Zach…why do you think independents can’t or won’t support Gov. Palin in the future?
Anon, why would a moderate independent support Sarah Palin? She’s far from a moderate Republican; in fact, I’d argue she’s pretty far to the right, even for conservatives.
She can talk about being all “mavericky,” but that’s all it is – talk.
And you don’t think President Obama is as far left as it gets??
Hey Reasonable Progressive, even though I completely discounted your comments after you used the term “va-jay-jay”, I must say why wouldn’t women always vote for women no matter what? I mean 95+% of the black population voted for Obama. Why should women be any different? And it seems you liberal, er, progressive women are always criticizing a woman who dares to think differently from the prescribed “womens’ positions” you have set. So it makes sense you would vote in one voting monolith. Now run along and go back to watching Grey’s Anatomy.
“…why would a moderate independent support Sarah Palin? She’s far from a moderate Republican; in fact, I’d argue she’s pretty far to the right, even for conservatives.”
I can admit that i was wrong. When she was initially selected as Sen McCain’s running mate I assumed she was a moderate and therefore a unifier. But I now see her as a social conservative and a polarizer.
I think she can weather the storm on her communication skills and study hard and not be flustered in interviews, etc… But I really doubt that she’ll ever be a unifying independent moderate.
But I could be wrong. I often am.
I’d respond to forgot’s comments, but they speak for themselves.
Rich, I don’t doubt Gov. Palin can “weather the storm” as relates to her communication skills, but I don’t think she’ll ever be a legitimate contender for the Republican Presidential nomination. From what I’ve read, she has little interest in actually educating herself on issues, instead choosing to be proficient at glib soundbites. Scratch the surface and there’s not much there, at least in my opinion.