Comments on: “Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.”

By: Trent Telenko

Trent Telenko — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:15:08 +0000

The key observation here is that Palin is going after cap & trade the way Reagan went after the Panama Canal treaty.

The people most effected by the carbon taxes in cap & trade are midwestern white ethnics who voted for Hillary in the 2008 election.

These were the people who in the 1980s were called Reagan Democrats.

Palin’s energy back ground is the strongest of any state governor outside of Texas or Louisiana and making this fight her own plays into her strengths.

And the Democrats absolutely have to get cap and trade taxes to have a hope of making single payer government healthcare work, so this is an issue she can ride hard into 2012.

By: Mickey

Mickey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:23:49 +0000

It’s amazing they have not figured out supply-side yet, I guess they think their jobs are created out there by the heavens or the government. Right now all this turmoil is the rich people’s problems in their minds, but the pain is coming as unemployment continues to escalate. All our governmental policies are only going to make it worse.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:01:27 +0000

AlanH — you are thinking along the same lines I am.

Also, if she lost the state to the Ds it would have finished her off. As it is, her successor can now get some daylight between himself and Palin and run as his own man. If she had stayed in longer, then resigned, it would have hurt his chances, and the defeat would have been blamed on her.

Everyone thought Reagan was a dope, too. Nope.

Palin is no Reagan, not yet. But she is no dope, either.

By: AlanH (Buanadha)

AlanH (Buanadha) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:11:27 +0000

I think you are spot on here. When she resigned I did a bit of analysis and made some assumptions and came up with 3 things that the resignation did for her:

1. got her away from the spurious ethics complaints while freeing her up to raise money and travel. In a similar vein, she puts a Republican she trusts in the drivers seat for the next election. If a democrat won, it would have resulted in an endless stream of “show trials” designed to maker her look bad. A disasterous outcome if she does decide to run in 2012.

2. She gets the time to become as “wonkish” as she needs to be for the next election. She can travel, make speeches and be on TV every week in a favorable spot. This also makes her critical in helping to influence 2010 elections (and to build up IOU’s)

and..as I wrote at the time

3. “3. The timing of this allows here to take a big role in attacking the Cap & Trade legislation. It is a huge issue in the national consciousness – one she knows a great deal about and one that public is very skeptical about. It puts her in the national eye, on the right side and in an area where she has great expertise. She couldn’t do this if she was a governor and the timing of this issue won’t let her take another year to finish her term. Instead, she needed to act now if she wanted to get in front of this. Not to mention being able to step into a tea party movement that does not yet have a focal point or leader.

A conservative rout for Cap&Trade might also make National healthcare die a quick death. In addition, Palin needs a national win in something that shows her to be capable and a leader to dispute the lies that have been spread about her by the media and her opponents – this issue can do that for her.”

If she does those things, it means she’s siezed the moment, made a difference and will be in firm control of the party going into 2010 and 2012.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:53:23 +0000

The argument she makes about controlling the impact of using current fuels on the environment could be particularly effective. I really is stupid to limit our own use of our energy assets and let the rest of the world burn theirs in whatever dirty manner they desire. We can make the WORLD cleaner by using these fuels here in a responsible and technologically advanced way.

By: morgan

morgan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:48:22 +0000

Lex, to carry your point a bit further: perhaps, she is attempting to create an anti-Obama movement which crosses party lines [speaking in coal states with nervous Democratic senators, as an example] and will judge her political future on the success or failure of that attempt.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:02:53 +0000

I don’t know if she is running. I think she is going to go after Barack. What she does politically is another question.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:09:33 +0000

Looks like she is running in 2012.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:52:48 +0000

Phil, maybe so.

I think she has a game plan. Her enemies think she is stoopid. I see no evidence of that.

By: Phil Fraering

Phil Fraering — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:43:31 +0000

I suspect that was what she was talking about when she said she might help support Democrats who shared her values.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:09:35 +0000

Brett, by “around the country” I meant precisely that — to the places where the politicians will be rightly afraid to support this. Right now, it needs to be Democrat Senators who are on the edge.

By: Brett_McS

Brett_McS — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:34:58 +0000

Spot on comments, Lex. Palin doesn’t have to go all around the country yet – just to the coal states with nervous Democrat representatives.