Why Palin Got Bad Press

Assuming that Palin could have been a plausible national candidate some time in the future, Republicans should be a bit peeved with McCain for bringing her onto the national stage too early, and weighing her down with all this baggage (not the RNC luggage)

Jay
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What do you expect them to say? Sarah Palin EMBODIES the biggest section of conservative/republican voters, the religious right. For them to admit that Sarah Palin wasn't reaady would be for them to admit that they fell in love with an ignoramus because she was just like them. Remember that the biggest selling point for Palin was supposedly she was a "Jane six pack". You will never get those morons to admit that she is an idjut because by extention that would me THEY are idjuts for supporting her

Doesn't "Michael Barone is a douche" completely cover this topic in five words? I challenge you to deny it.

Can someone please point to one significant thing that Michael Barone has written in the last five years that actually comports with reality? Why is this whackjob still employed by the formerly-respectable US News & World Report?

Barone isn't the only one making that "argument."
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sgwhiteinfla is quite right. The right simply lacks the analytical tools to comprehend what has happened to them. All they have is their version of political correctness, and Palin embodied it. She was their dream candidate-- she taunted Democrats, she's white, she disdained expertise, she claimed to love America more than her opponents... and despite all that, she was rejected by the country.
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As Greenwald pointed out, the modern conservative movement "long ago ceased being a movement of political ideas and is driven by two, and only two, extreme emotions: (1) intense, aggressive rage towards their revolving door of enemies, and (2) bottomless self-pity over how unfairly they're being treated."
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Why on Earth would anyone expect anything but this kind of response, Jay? Everyone sane in that party has been "fatwahed." This is what they do.

Tom
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Same reason Stephen Hayes was just hired over at CNN. Its all national enquirer tabloid journos now. Even Carney has started selling out by going on Morning Joe and allowing Scarborough to run roughshod over him in the mornings.

Intellectual honesty is in short supply amongst Palin backers.

Kevin Burke over at NRO spewed this same cr@p on 24oct08, but, apparently, he was totally serious:
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article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTA0YjdjZDc2OTVlNmM1YmE1YTY4ODRlYzUzMjc0YTc=
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Regardless. Let 'em think that that is the reason. I'll make the 2012 debates that much easier.

Elvis
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The funny thing is these crazy conservatives keep pointing back at Reagan as their standard bearer without realizing how different the world is now than it was back then. He railed against taxes and talked about cutting taxes at a time when the top tax rate was in the 70s. It was EASY to sell regular people on the meme that Carter was a socialist when the tax rate was THAT high. Now that its less than 40 percent nobody is buying it anymore. Same way with goverment being bad. Reagan thought and said that Medicare would be the advent of socialism and signal the end of the world as we know it. But all these years later Medicare is a lifeline to regular people and hasnt damaged America much if at all. Until they actually find some new ideas and I mean truly new and not just something thats recycled with a new spin, they are going to keep falling deeper into irrelevance. Personally I will egg them on to keep on the same path but its almost too easy at this point.

Why does Palin need to be knowledgeable about national and international affairs anyway? God will guide her. She's just along for the ride.
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I'm still trying to figure out why she generates so much enthusiasm in the far right. I can see their approval for her religious beliefs and her attitude about hot-button domestic issues (guns, god, gays, etc). But can anyone explain what her foreign policy positions are? Does she have any (other than the vacuous goal of 'winning' in Iraq)?
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And what would Palin-nomics be? Her distribution of oil company revenues to Alaskan residents is certainly not traditional republican. If anything, it's socialistic.
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During the campaign all we heard from her were attacks. I still don't know what her core beliefs are (other than personal ambition).

They listen to all the people interviewed who say that they voted Repub because of Sarah "Because she's just like me; she would understand me." I can't tell you how many people I heard interviewed on NPR who said just that. Therefore, the people who feel Sarah is incompetent must simply have been brainwashed by the evil media.
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So much discussion about the Governor's conference and who will be a candidate in 2012. Yikes.
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The problem is that Sarah energizes the base who care only about "moral values" and they think that she would really push that message if she were elected. For one thing, she couldn't and for another the more they push this, the more they will lose any but the hard core 25% and you can't win elections with only them.

Is this any different than Deb Howell over at the Post highlighting that McCain had less favorable coverage than Obama, even on the op-ed pages, and gee that was a sign of favoritism? Never occurred to her that the coverage of each campaign was earned. There must be balance, said Deborah.

Please don't use the phrase pro-abortion. Pro-choice is what should be used. The other makes it seem like those on the choice side are running around telling everyone to get one and that's not the case.

Michael Barone should be ashamed of himself. Everyone knows that the plan is for women to give birth so that Barack Obama can kill them alive. I read this on The Corner so I know it's true.

I'm still learning this new comment system. The first line I wrote in my previous post ('God will guide her') was surrounded by html-like 'snark' tags. The comment software pealed them off.
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Oh well -- back to using smileys

Howard Kurtz that the press was much more interested in tracking down negative information on Palin than Obama.

Speaking of denying the obvious, doesn't anybody remember that when she was selected, the immediate response was 'Sarah who?' The press didn't all traipse to Alaska looking for negative information, they traipsed to Alaska looking for ANY information. It's not their fault that they were immediately greeted with evidence of the jaw-dropping inadequacy of McCains vetting process.

By the way Jay, isn't it fun to be able to state the obvious loudly and clearly without having to look over your shoulder in case a particular candidate disapproves?

As a Christian Liberal, I note that Palin "knows" that God is on her side. She asks God not to let her miss the door of political opportunity. Palin does not ask for guidance in which path to take whether it be in political office or as a private citizen. Palin has chosen the path and wants to pull God along with her.

Is it possible that Palin missed God's message that national politics was not her role in life? The tricky thing about religion is to make certain that you are on the Creator's side, not to assume that God is by default on your side.

Fundamentalists of all stripes, be they Christian Evangelicals, Islamists, or Atheist are to be equally feared. Each is certain that their ideology is the correct one. People who disagree are flawed.

Christian Fundamentalists, Islamists, and what I will call Ateistic Fundamentalists would have no problem killing masses of Muslims. The Christian Fundamentalist would do it to prevent the spread of a heathen religion and prevent a possible attack on the US. Israel would be supported to provide the fodder for the Rapture.

The Islamist would kill because the fellow Muslim did not follow the strict guidelines of the shared religion. If a mistaken Muslim death occurred, Allah would sort it out.

The Atheistic Fundamentalist would do it because of fear of a perceived danger from a group considered to represent a future threat and were delusional (believed in a higher being).

Palin represents one leg of a three-legged stool. The instability of the other legs also has to be remembered. (I realize I could add in Zionists and convert the stool to a table).

"As Greenwald pointed out, the modern conservative movement "long ago ceased being a movement of political ideas and is driven by two, and only two, extreme emotions: (1) intense, aggressive rage towards their revolving door of enemies, and (2) bottomless self-pity over how unfairly they're being treated."
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Greenwald is close, but not quite there. Who are the enemies? Anyone who isn't white, Protestant(for the most part) and ostensibly heterosexual. The self pity and rage come as a result of living in a country in which every position of power isn't held by someone who conforms to the aforementioned description. The single idea on which modern conservativism rests is: maintenance of WASP hegemony in the United States. The emotions Greenwald describes are a result of perceived setbacks to WASP hegemony. I know people are probably tired of me hammering this theme, but watching the Atwater doc last night really crystallized it for me.
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F@ck white bread America.

There is no "pro-Abortion" group in America. This play on words is great marketing by the "pro-life" segment. If you are not "pro-life" the connotation is that you must therefore be "pro-death" or "anti-life".
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The legal issue is a matter of choice, as difficult a choice or medically necessary a decision that may be, it has never been about anyone "championing abortion". It has always been about championing "rights".
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Now, back on subject. No reasonably rational person thinks Palin was somehow blacklisted for her "pro-life" stance. The glory of the recorded interview is that people get to make their own assessment of a candidate. While people can allow themselves to be more or less persuaded by the spin that comes after, the core of that opinion starts with the candidate's own performance. Palin failed to perform in a small window of opportunity to do so. Period.

Reasons wingnuts love Sarah Palin
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1. She invokes God in one out of every 3 sentences
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2. She likes to k!ll defenseless animals with assault rifles
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3. She doesnt believe humans contribute to global warming
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4. She will say ANYTHING to get elected
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5. She is holier than thou
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6. She gets all her foreign policy information from FOXNEWS
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7. Here mere existence on the National stage pi$$es off everybody with a college degree
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8. They know it will be hard for an opponent to attack her when they are screaming sexism at the top of their lungs
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9. The liked being able to say they were smarter than the president these last 8 years
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10 And of course the love Sarah Palin because she is the closest you could possibly come to being the exact opposite of Barack Obama

And those douchebags from the McCain camp, are they spreading rumors about Palin's ignorance about Africa and NAFTA because Palin didn't abort her baby? The worst of it has been leaked from McCain's people. Liberal abortion-loving media my ass.

@cincinnatus,

You're overgeneralizing almost to an almost fatal degree. Yesterday I cited a Gallup poll that showed Obama with a 70% favorability rating and a 25% unfavorability. While your comments about WASP hegemony might refer to 3/4 of that 25%, there are quite a few Republicans who find themselves holding their nose as they fish for votes among those types. John McCain was among those we are assured (right Jay?) was holding his nose. Sarah Palin on the other hand was holding the pitcher and passing out the Kool-aid and cookies.

The more, she's held up as a 'typical Republican' the bigger tent the Democrats are going to need to handle all the new arrivals.

I thought this
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Barone said in an e-mail that he "was attempting to be humorous and ... went over the line."
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was a classic touch used by jerks across the political spectrum.
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"Hey can't you take a joke?" After saying something incredibly offensive.

This is weird. I agree with Carney on something, and feel no need to criticize him. It feels...wrong.
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I think I need to see a shrink.

I totally believe Barone . There is almost no variation on a joke about mandatory abortion of Downs babies that isn't hysterical. He must not have used the right inflection.