The Republicans STILL don't get it!

Sarah Palin is one of the most divisive politicians to appear on the national political scene in many years. That is something that McCain will have to live with for the rest of his life.

Sarah Palin is also ethically-challenged and a liar, as we've noted many times.

The Miami Herald's blog, Naked Politics, has this:

Crist in 2012?

A poll of 1,000 Republican likely voters for Rasmussen Reports finds Gov. Charlie Crist trailing Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney on a list of potential 2012 Republican presidential nominees.

The results were Palin at 64 percent; follow by 12 percent for Mike Huckabee; 11 percent for Romney; 4 percent for Louisiana guv Bobby Jindal; 2 percent for Crist and just 1 percent for Tim Pawlenty.


Sixty-four percent for Sarah Palin? Sixty-four percent want Sarah Palin after this election where Palin and her party were soundly trounced and she was outed as a serial liar and con artist?

I'd say "Bring her on!" That would ensure that Obama would be reelected!

The Republicans STILL don't get it!

What the hell happened in Alaska?

This from Americablog yesterday.

Quoting pollster Nate Silver:

Although Ted Stevens holds a small lead in Alaska and is the favorite to retain his seat, the outcome is not as inevitable as it might appear to be. Stevens currently holds a lead of 3,353 votes, or about 1.5 percent of the votes tallied so far. But, there are quite a large number of ballots yet to count. According to Roll Call, these include "at least 40,000 absentee ballot[s], 9,000 early voting ballots, and an undetermined number of questionable ballots".

Indeed, it seems possible that the number of "questionable" ballots could be quite high. So far, about 220 thousand votes have been processed in Alaska. This compares with 313 thousand votes cast in 2004. After adding back in the roughly 50,000 absentee and early ballots that Roll Call accounts for, that would get us to 270 thousand ballots, or about a 14 percent drop from 2004. It seems unlikely that turnout would drop by 14 percent in Alaska given the presence of both a high-profile senate race and Sarah Palin at the top of the ticket."


The Anchorage Daily News has also weighed in, offering comments from around the country on this weird phenomenon. One of the best came from "Homer blogger Shannyn Moore."

Not only is Ms. Moore "raising the specter of a 'stolen election' for Stevens ... She's suspicious of an apparent drop in voter participation from the 2004 presidential elections - from 66 percent then to 55 percent this week - even with Sarah Palin on the Republicans' national ticket.

[Note that her percentages differ a bit from Silver's]

"That's a decrease of more than 11% in voter turnout even though passions ran high for and against Obama, as well as for and against Sarah Palin! This year, early voters set a new record. As of last Thursday, with 4 days left for early voting, 15,000 Alaskans showed up - shattering the old record set in 2004 by 28%! Consider the most popular governor in history-and now the most polarizing-was on the Republican ticket. Consider the historic nature of this race; the first African-American presidential candidate EVER! The second woman to ever make a presidential ticket; and she's one of our own. Despite that, we're supposed to believe that overall participation DECREASED by 11%. Not only that, but his historic election ... HAD THE LOWEST ALASKA TURNOUT FOR A PRESIDENTIAL RACE EVER!!! That makes sense. REALLY??? Something stinks."

Yup!


Could it possibly be that the Republican Party in Alaska, not known for its ethics or morals, and afraid that Alaska might vote Democratic (which would be a huge embarrassment what with their guv running with J. McCain!), somehow arranged for enough votes to disappear to keep Alaska in the Republican column?

Yup!

Hey, they did it in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004!

Arne Carlson, former gov of Minnesota for Obama

The former governor of Minnesota, a "moderate" Republican by name of Arne Carlson, has endorsed Barack Obama for president.

Carlson based his decision on Obama's stance with regard to the war in Iraq, the economy, and the environment. Carlson was also put-off by recent comments suggesting Obama and other U.S. politicians may be "anti-American."

"He [Obama]", said Carlson, "has laid out for this nation a vision for a national purpose."

It is inspiring to see that there are a few Republicans left who put the national interest above the Party and what appears to be the Republican Party's main goal of obtaining and maintaining power to serve the interests of the high and the mighty.