Jeffrey A. Setaro

Political & Cultural Commentary from a Constitutional Conservative.

Daily Telegraph: Karl Rove Questions Sarah Palin’s Suitability for President

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Mark Levin mentioned this Daily Telegraph piece on his show last light night… I’m sure Mr. Rove will claim he was just being and honest and impartial commentator, but after his criticism of Christine O’Donnell following her primary win and knocking Tea Partiers as a bunch of unsophisticated rabble I’m not sure that argument really holds water.

Anyway here’s what Bush’s alleged brain had to say about in his latest attempt at alienating grassroots conservatives:

“With all due candour, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of ‘that helps me see you in the Oval Office’,” Mr Rove told The Daily Telegraph in an interview.

He added that the promotional clip for Sarah Palin’s Alaska could be especially detrimental to any political campaign. It features the mother of five in the great outdoors saying: “I would rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office.”…

Mr Rove was asked if the 46-year-old Mrs Palin, who is among the front-runners for the next Republican nomination, would be a wise choice if the party wanted to seize the White House from President Barack Obama. He replied: “You can make a plausible case for any of them on paper, but it is not going to be paper in 2011. It’s going to be blood, it’s going to be sweat and tears and it’s going to be hard effort.”…

“There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say ‘that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world’.”

First of all what sane person wouldn’t want to be exploring the wilds of Alaska than sitting in “some stuffy old political office”? Second what’s Mr. Rove’s real aim here?

I think Allahpundit is right on the mark with his three theories:

(1) This is pure payback for Palin needling him on the night of O’Donnell’s victory, calling him a “good old boy” who’s part of the GOP establishment “machine.” (2) This is him trying to run down a formidable presidential contender so that his own candidate of choice in the primary will benefit. Who that candidate might be, I don’t know, and maybe Rove doesn’t know yet either. But Daniels is, of course, a Bush alum, and Rove had some very nice things to say about him just a few weeks ago. (3) This is a ploy to try to reorient Republicans who are leery about Palin back towards the “establishment” and away from the tea-party grassroots. It’s one thing for the average conservative joe to harbor doubts about her, but if a guy who helped get George Bush elected twice is hint-hinting that she’s disqualifying herself by doing this, it may goose the perception among undecideds that she’s unelectable.

Personally, I lean toward number three more than one or two. The Republican establishment has never been comfortable with principled, common sense conservatism… They don’t understand us, they don’t much like us, and they sure as hell don’t want us upsetting the apple cart on them.

I’ve said this before, but I guess worth repeating… I love Sarah Palin. She has great political instincts, a mountain of common sense and humility… something that’s sorely lacking in most conventional politicians. That said, I’m not convinced she’s the best possible Presidential candidate for our side, mainly because I think she’s been to damaged by all the attacks on her from both sides… Which is exactly the impression Mr. Rove is trying to reinforce with his latest comments.

Sarah Palin’s greatest strength — her unpretentious, down to earth authenticity is also her greatest weakness… The same qualities that allow her to easily connect with grassroots conservatives also make it very easy for establishment policy wonks like Karl Rover to dismiss her as lacking “gravitas”.

Anyway the bottom line on all this is, it was conventional politicians that got us into this mess. Voters are utterly disgusted with Washington, they essentially fired Republicans 2006 and 2008 and from all reports they’ll fire Democrats next week. If the choice in 2012 is between another conventional establishment policy wonk politician and an unconventional, common sense conservative like Sarah Palin… I’ll take my chances with Sarah Palin any day. We can’t afford conventional politicians any longer they’ve effectively bankrupted the nation with their big spending, big government, cradle to graven nanny state policies.

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