Palin's GOP Brand: Exclusionary and Short-Sighted, but Who Will Stop It?

[bobbyw24]

It's one thing when Sarah Palin "goes rogue" as a candidate campaigning for herself and her running mate. It's another thing entirely when she does it as the charismatic, free-lance leader of a grassroots army.

There's a direct line between Palin, the most famous Republican to endorse conservative third-party congressional candidate Doug Hoffman in Tuesday's special election in New York, and moderate Republican assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava's stunning decision Saturday to suspend her campaign.

Hoffman could well win, giving short-term succor to the GOP and Palin's exclusionary, storm-the-barricades brand of Republicanism. And who knows when and where this will stop -- or where it will lead? It has all the elements of a runaway train, and very few Republicans are willing to step in front of it.

Palin of course has every right to get involved in races and mobilize support for her picks. But the stampede among top Republicans to follow Palin's lead, or at least flee to the sidelines, has been embarrassing. To my thinking, the guy who came out looking best here was Newt
Gingrich; I can't believe I just wrote that, but I'll explain later.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.politicsdaily.com/media/2009/11/palin1.jpg

The lessons from the revolt in New York's Canada-hugging North Country may not be what they seem at first glance. It is true that Hoffman, the owner of a development company and managing partner of a large CPA firm, picked up so many endorsements and so much steam that Scozzafava was driven out. It is true that a handful of county chairs selected Scozzafava -- that's the system in New York for a special election.

But what really happened here? Did Palin and her allies correct a terrible mistake made by

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/02/palins-gop-brand-exclusionary-and-short-sighted-but-who-will/

[Bucjason]

Scozzafava was a RINO moron , so if "Palin's Army" can cause the ruin of candidates like her, I say MORE POWER TO HER !

[klamath]

I am no fan of Palin but the last thing we need in congress is another congressperson that will go along with Obama for the good of the country, like Olympia Snow. Honestly I don't care if the GOP shrinks in size if that smaller core actually plays a hard defense against enlargment of the government and deficits.

[akforme]

Hoffman is still a neocon tho. He's a better neocon that the gal was but not by much.

Palin is horrible, and people who support her are exactly like Obamabots. They listen to what she say's, takes her good looks as being a good person, and ignores her past decisions like increasing the budget every year or getting the government involved in our healthcare by leaps and bounds.