Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Man, she creates her PAC to raise money for candidates she backs...but then look how much...or I should say how little, they actually get (if anything). <a href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/19/sarah-palins-house-hit-list-no-money-to-favored-candidates-so/?icid=main" target="_blank">http://www.politicsdaily.com/2...cid=main</a>|main|dl1|link3|<a href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/19/sarah-palins-house-hit-list-no-money-to-favored-candidates-so/" target="_blank">http://www.politicsdaily.com/2...ates-so/</a> She sure doesn't practice what she preaches. I mean the photographer made more than the entire contributions during the year so far...
Originally Posted By plpeters70 Somehow I doubt this will sway many of her follower's opinions of her. These are the same people that refuse to believe Obama is an American, or believe that Health Care = Death Panels for Grandma. These people live for "truthiness", and I don't think they're gonna let any silly, little facts change their minds about Sarah.
Originally Posted By gadzuux <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36641973/ns/politics-politics_daily/" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36...s_daily/</a> Palin PAC has yet to donate to Republicans running in 20 promoted House races [Excerpts] Although her SarahPAC took in $400,000 in the first quarter and had more than $900,000 in the bank, it gave only $7,500 to candidates between January and the end of March, plus an additional $2,000 to two other PACs. None went to Republicans in the races she targeted. So what did she spend her money on this year? Consultants: Almost $243,000 went to consultants, including almost $45,000 to PAC treasurer Timothy Crawford (some of it for expenses), plus $21,500 for legal services. NorthStar Strategies took in $50,000, and Orion Strategies $30,000. Consulting services included media strategy, fundraising, candidate research and grassroots coalitions. Travel: More than $42,000 went to travel, including more than $7,300 to de-ice private planes. Destinations for Team Palin included New Orleans, Cincinnati, Dallas, Phoenix, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis. Fundraising and postage: The PAC spent more than $31,780 on postage and more than $25,000 on Internet fundraising. Even photographer Shaelah Craighead (Laura Bush's White House photographer) took in more money than Sarah PAC gave to candidates, earning $11,596 for photography.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Don't cut and paste the whole line. Just click on either the first or last parts of it - worked for me. And while it's true that this story probably won't hurt Sarah with the "true believers," it might hurt her with the GOP establishment, whose support she also needs, whether she knows it or not. To those folks, money speaks very loudly, and if you aren't providing what you said you would... that matters.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<hurt her with the GOP establishment>> Does the GOP even want her anymore? I mean, she's been running around to all these Tea Party events and she seems to be trying to be a spokesperson for them. I don't know if they want her, but after that, why would the GOP?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I don't know, but I sense some distrust among some in the GOP establishment with Sarah.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Does the GOP even want her anymore? I mean, she's been running around to all these Tea Party events and she seems to be trying to be a spokesperson for them. I don't know if they want her, but after that, why would the GOP?> She's trying to say the GOP and the tea party "movement" are one - she has said something similar quite often. She wants to harness their energy (and money) to the GOP, so I can see why the GOP still wants her in theory. In practice this story will tick 'em off, though. It's the Tea partiers themselves who seem split on supporting the GOP. There are plenty who have always voted that way and will continue to, and of course you have GOP operatives like Dick Armey behind some of the largest tea party groups. Then there are those who really think of themselves as something apart from the two party system and want a third party, and/or don't trust either party.
Originally Posted By gadzuux Except that the tea party flames are being fanned by Fox. And there's just no question about their political agenda. My feeling is that republicans want their cake and eat it too - they want Palin to whip up the crazies because they're about the only republicans left. But they also want to keep arm's length from the excesses represented by Palin and her teabaggers. Nobody's going to win as a republican by appealing to moderates. For them, it's either the crazies or nobody. So they distance themselves from Palin at their own peril. Which in turn forces them to the hard right which alienates them from reasonable voters. Pundits of every stripe are predicting a tidal wave of support for GOP candidates this fall. I still don't see it. The teabaggers account for maybe 20% of the electorate at best - not enough to win anything other than a local area election. In the meantime, they repulse the other 80% of the electorate. All a savvy politician has to do is to paint his or her opponent as part of the tea party and they're marginalized with all but the 20% of nutcases.
Originally Posted By hopemax > Pundits of every stripe are predicting a tidal wave of support for GOP candidates this fall. I still don't see it. The teabaggers account for maybe 20% of the electorate at best < And if a Tea Party candidate could get on the ballot with a Dem and a GOP, then they might just split the "right" vote, leaving the Dem to win. Or the Florida, "what will Crist do if he doesn't get the GOP nomination," scenario.
Originally Posted By gadzuux FL's a tough call. On the one hand, Crist has a long track record with state voters, and would seem to be the more viable GOP candidate in the November general election. Having Rubio win the primary might well mean a democratic victory in the general election. On the other hand, Crist is the proverbial "moderate" GOP politician, and it's open season on them. These days it seems the more extreme right wing a candidate is, the more likely it is they'll get the votes. In the long term it means certain death for the republican party, but that doesn't do Crist any good right now. Just look at the other thread with the nasty-grams being directed at Scott Brown - the "darling" of the tea party set ... for about fifteen minutes. Now he's the spawn of satan because they don't like how he voted on one issue - a "jobs creation" bill. Whadda commie!
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Actually, you guys have a point. With the Tea Party still part of the RNC, or at least their representatives are, it will split the Republican votes between any moderate and hard-right candidates. That's the weird line Palin is walking too. She wants to claim credit for the Tea Party, and fold them into the greater Republican base, but they aren't all that crazy about her hijacking their movement. She also alienates the moderate Republicans. We'll see where she ends up casting her lot come November, and who decides to follow her... All I know, is that after this article, it's likely the Republicans will be more wary of her campaign promises.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Scott Brown - the "darling" of the tea party set ... for about fifteen minutes. Now he's the spawn of satan because they don't like how he voted on one issue - a "jobs creation" bill. Whadda commie!<< LOL! Very true. Which is why I'll be more surprised if the whole Tea Bagger movement doesn't flame out sooner rather than later. It's all rage and lather without much in the way of substance, and that doesn't usually go very far. I still believe that most people can't get on board the TeaBag crazy train, don't really want to be associated with nutty extremes of the left or the right and will drift back to centrism in the end. It's just where most people in this country are, the center.
Originally Posted By DAR <<Which is why I'll be more surprised if the whole Tea Bagger movement doesn't flame out sooner rather than later. It's all rage and lather without much in the way of substance, and that doesn't usually go very far.>> See also: The Macarena
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<It's just where most people in this country are, the center.>> Which, if you ask me, is pretty much where Obama has been on every issue he's been involved with since taking office. I keep hearing all these people screaming about him being too liberal, yadda, yadda yadda - and yet, he seems to have compromised with both sides on all issues and landed squarely in the center. Now, why do they all hate him so much again??
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt MSNBC (yes, I know) reported yesterday findings from surveys conducted recently, one sponsored by Politico and the other by Pew, with insights on Tea Party supporters. I found this interesting. <a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/04/19/2274370.aspx" target="_blank">http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com...370.aspx</a> From Politico: >>From the Washington, DC, tax day rally, it found: "Tea party activists are divided roughly into two camps, according to a new POLITICO/TargetPoint poll: one that’s libertarian-minded and largely indifferent to hot-button values issues and another that’s culturally conservative and equally concerned about social and fiscal issues."<< From Pew: >>....the majority of people -- 61% -- either had no opinion on the Tea Party movement or had not heard of it. A quarter surveyed -- 24% -- said they agree with it, and just 14% said they don't. Those that agree are generally older, white, college educated, higher income, married, and Republican. The largest bloc of those who agree are 65 and older (33%), followed by 50-64 (32%), then 30-49 (23%) and drops off among those 18-29 (9%). By race, whites agree the most (28%) as compared to Hispanics (17%) and blacks (7%). By education, 30% of college grads agree; 26% with some college do; and 20% have a high school education or less. By income, 35% of those making $75,000 a year or more agree; 23% of those making $30,000 to $74,999 do; and just 14% of those making less than $30,000 do.<< So, the Tea Bags aren't the ignorant hillbillies that the media often portrays them to be.
Originally Posted By gadzuux Then how do you explain the 'birthers', the crazy notions about gun toting in public, the idea that Obama is a radical socialist, that Obama bailed out the banks, that the government has taken over the auto industry, the insurance companies and the financial sector, death panels, FEMA internment camps, and is apologizing across the middle east? None of these have any basis in fact, but they're all coming from the tea baggers and the right wing pundits who incite them. These people seem to be opposed not only to health care, but also to job creation bills AND wall street consumer protections. Not exactly the jet fueled brain trust they'd like you to believe.
