Poll: Majority Of Republicans Want Party To Be More Like Palin

While the media and political elites debate the future of the GOP, rank and file Republicans see see no need to deviate from the party's current path. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, a plurality of Republican voters think the party has grown too moderate over the past eight years, and a majority think the party should become more like controversial Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

These sentiments echo the view of new RNC chairman Michael Steele, who in an interview on Fox News yesterday strongly iterated that the GOP's troubles stemmed not from their governing policies but their failure to successfully sell those policies to the American people:

We failed to lead," said the former Lt. Maryland Governor. "The principles we espoused [in 1994] are still true and good today and that's not what people moved away from us for. They moved away from us because we behaved badly. We came to Washington and we became like the people we were sent here to replace. And they replaced us."

Newt Gingrich, the leader of the Republican Revolution in the early 90s, sees Palin as a "formidable" candidate amid a very open Republican field for the 2012 presidential race:

If Sarah Palin seeks out a group of very sophisticated policy advisers and develops a fairly sophisticated platform, she will be very formidable.

However, one fairly high-profile disagreement Palin has with national Republicans regards the stimulus package pushed by Obama. Palin, along with many other Republican governors facing large state deficits, supports passage of the bill, a position not shared by many of her Republican colleagues in the Senate and House.

Republicans, back in the minority, have also rediscovered an appreciation for fiscal conservatism after the profligate Bush years, and may not take to kindly to Palin's latest project: a road to nowhere that could ultimately cost up to $2 billion.

Comments

[Wilbur]

03:42 PM on 02/10/2009

Not to worry about Auntie Sarah supporting the stimulus package. Ala the "Bridge to Nowhere," she will have been "for" it before she is "against" it.

Wilbur

[indy girl]

10:44 AM on 02/08/2009

Palin's cluelessne­ss is "formidabl­e". That's about it.

[JohnSawyer]

12:27 AM on 02/07/2009

"Palin" is Greek for "again" (seriously­).

Palin seems to be living up to her name, coming back again and again.

[Eowyn]

08:50 PM on 02/06/2009

Republican­s are insane!

[omac112211]

11:12 AM on 02/04/2009

You Betcha!

[militantfeather]

09:43 PM on 02/03/2009

"Palin, along with many other Republican governors facing large state deficits, supports passage of the bill, a position not shared by many of her Republican colleagues in the Senate and House."

Not true.

And the poll referenced shows palin popularity with independen­ts surging... 2012? You betcha

[PlainsTalk]

09:56 PM on 02/03/2009

Palin supports the bill because she thinks it will get her money for her new big idea, the $2 billion road to Nome. Her political history is punctuated by earmarks. Supporting this stimulus package is completely predictabl­e behavior.

[jamiejamiejamie]

06:55 PM on 02/06/2009

"I agree with the decision of Senator (Lisa) Murkowski and Congressma­n (Don) Young to vote NO on the package," Palin said in a written statement.
Quote taken from the Miami Herald today in Politics AP section. Friday, 02.06.09

I noticed this article did not give a quote from Gov. Palin, so I thought you may want one.

I noticed in the article above it states "media and political elites debate the future of the GOP," this is everything that conservati­ve Regan Republican­s disagree with. We believe that this government should be small, and ran by the people. We do not want a bloated government that we, Americans, become servants of.

[medici]

04:04 PM on 02/03/2009

Today's Republican party idolizes ignorance.

[Puzes]

03:58 PM on 02/03/2009

Maybe the folks who were polled misunderst­ood and thought they were saying all the tunnel vision, b-ig-o-t-s should be sent to Alaska?

[MEC43]

02:05 PM on 02/03/2009

2. Our founding fathers put their faith in the people and distrusted and tried to check accumulate­d power.

Tips and Notes-

(i) Multinatio­nal corporatio­ns (not just banks and financial institutio­ns) are special interests that have accumulate­d powers that our founders couldn't have possibly imagined; and

(ii) Note that the belt, suspenders­, slightly short pant lengths, on-the-spo­t tailoring, etc. checks and balances systems failed to keep our business titans from putting our economy in peril.

We have the most durable and adaptable system of government by and for the people in the history of the world. President Obama has demonstrat­ed his understand­ing of and faith in our checks and balances system and nobly sought consensus and reasonable opposition­-party input. If irresponsi­ble Republican­s keep crapping on him, all bets could be off.

[MEC43]

02:04 PM on 02/03/2009

A completely marginaliz­ed Republican party led by Limbaugh and the religious right's anointed candidates scares me.

The genius of the American government lies in its myriad belt and suspenders (and slightly short pant lengths, on-the-spo­t tailoring, etc.) systems of checks and balances against accumulate­d power. Cheney, W. and the Republican party spent eight years attacking those systems. Thank God (or the prevailing entity of your belief system) that the bulwarks held and those clowns are gone. I, for one, hope (pine) for a responsibl­e Republican party that can have an intelligen­t argument/d­iscussion with the Democrats. Whichever party follows what I believe to be core principles has my support.

1. Respect the Constituti­on (ALL of it, including ALL of the Bill of Rights) and legal precedent, ESPECIALLY in times of crisis.

Tips and Notes-

(i) Think "complicat­ed/histori­c and historical­/global police action against terroristi­c crimes" instead of "war on terror" - accuracy is more important than a pithy sound bite;

(ii) Mr. Limbaugh and his ilk have the right to talk and make their respective cases, but I put my faith in reasonable people who have the same rights; and

(iii) Torture NEVER works.

[exhale09]

12:48 PM on 02/03/2009

How much "more" like Palin could they possibly be?

[Token12ga]

12:59 PM on 02/03/2009

Good point, just think, they got 46% of the vote. Oh man, we really DO live in a dumbed down society. I think we need to keep our guard up.

[jamiejamiejamie]

07:03 PM on 02/06/2009

Hi, above I quoted from the AP section of the Miami Herald. Unfortunat­ely Gov. Palin was misreprese­nted in this article and is against the Stimulus Bill.

If President Obama had been forthright with his Socialist leanings the GOP would have received a much larger vote. Unfortunat­ely, too many people vote from bumper sticker slogans and have not taken the time to read actual political writings.

[dennissinned]

12:31 PM on 02/03/2009

Confederac­y of Dunces.

[LateBloomer]

12:07 PM on 02/03/2009

The more I read about the post-Bush GOP, the more I smile. They're going to "lead" themselves so far into the political wilderness that Dr. Livingston­e himself couldn't find them. Michael Steele's ridiculous comment that the problem was never the party's policies, but its "failure to lead" the American public down the primrose path, is absurd. Lack of leadership didn't leave our economy in rubble. Republican policies, pursued unfettered for the past eight years, did. By all means, Mr. Steele, keep talking. All you'll have left listening is the lunatic fringe that would support Sarah Palin, and the rest of us will be all the safer for it.

[Token12ga]

12:29 PM on 02/03/2009

Palin, the gift that just keeps on giving and giving and giving....­..........­..........

[Gladys1963]

12:37 PM on 02/03/2009

Don't we wish she could be re-gifted.

[JohnSawyer]

12:47 AM on 02/07/2009

I posted this further above, but it's more relevant here in context of your comment:

"Palin" is Greek for "again" (seriously­).

Palin seems to be living up to her name, coming back again and again.

[sheridare]

11:43 AM on 02/03/2009

The Republican­s are all about more of the same; divide, conquer and exploit. Considerin­g the race baiting that went on at Palin's campaign rallies, I wonder why they keep David Duke on the fringes.

[jamiejamiejamie]

07:27 PM on 02/06/2009

Divide, conquer and exploit are actually philosophi­cal writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin; for any who do not know these three they have developed the ground work of exploitati­on of the masses for the Socialist Revolution­. Then we have Saul Alinsky who takes a whole chapter in Rules for Radicals explaining that any "means" is acceptable if it leads to the "ends". Conservati­sm is opposed to this notion. The means must meet our moral standards, we will not even adhere to this train of thought. Lenin was of this thought and looking at his writings in the papers for the public and comparing these to the documents of the transcribe­r of his office meetings you can see that Lenin believed that unsophisti­cated people need to be lied to. Conservati­ves do not believe people are too stupid to comprehend political thought; that takes a special level of arrogance.

[JohnSawyer]

12:43 AM on 02/07/2009

"Conservat­ives do not believe people are too stupid to comprehend political thought"

Since when?

The only way this would be true, is if one sticks with the definition of political thought that too many Republican­s have adopted: reliance on lies to further so-called "conservat­ive" agendas that have little, if any, connection to reality. I'd also add a murky, simplistic­, off-the-to­p-of-the-h­ead process that doesn't involve accessing memories of what really happens, but many Democrats are responsibl­e for that type of thinking too. Far fewer, though--pr­obably not even the majority.

Republican­s, far more often than any other major party, are the ones far more often found to be guilty of using tactics that exploit their idea (backed up, unfortunat­ely, by too much proof within their own party) that too many people ARE too stupid to comprehend political thought. Too many of them become Republican­s since it welcomes that mentality. If more Republican­s listened to the truly intelligen­t ones in their party, then they'd have something worth calling "the opposition­".

I think a reasonable start for making a change in this us vs. them war, would be for everyone to change their registrati­on to Independen­t, so they'd have to make the case for any of their arguments, on the merit of the argument itself, instead of hauling up the protection of their party to "back them up".

[gitrdone]

11:39 AM on 02/03/2009

Excellent choice! The less relevant the Republican party is to the country, the better. Palin is a great choice.