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| Winners and Losers of Campaign '08 - Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 |
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gwen
 Posted:
Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:34 pm |
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What's ahead for Gov. Palin? Seven challenges
For two months she basked -- and sizzled -- in the world's hottest celebrity spotlight. Now Sarah Palin has come home to begin the last two years of her term as governor of Alaska.
Everything has changed: Palin's personal horizon, her relations with the state's other elected officials, the public's sense of who she is.
Palin returned to her office Friday amid a brutal crossfire between detractors and defenders in the McCain camp. At the same time, however, a new national poll said 64 percent of Republicans consider her their top choice to run for president in 2012.
Does Palin really want to run for president in four years? And if she does, would it be best to find a way to the U.S. Senate, where she could acquire some of the big-time political and foreign-policy luster lacking in her first national campaign?
Or should she run again for governor in 2010, maintaining her "Washington-outsider" status by taking what one Republican strategist calls "the Hillary Clinton model," rolling up her sleeves and re-establishing herself as a local hero?
So many questions, so many strategic choices, so many complications that didn't exist a few short months ago.
What will all this mean to Alaska?
Time to take a deep breath and consider some of the key challenges that lie ahead for Sarah Palin.
1 Federal relations
Gov. Palin spent the last two months questioning the patriotism of the new president. She accused him of hanging out with terrorists. Palin now says it was just the rough-and-tumble of party politics. But how is that going to play when she goes to Washington looking for help with gas line construction or military base protection or exemption from environmental rules?
Is it going to be any better when she goes to Congress? Democrats may not want to polish the star of a future Republican rival. And Alaska's veteran Republicans, assuming they make it back, are weakened by scandal and not on the best terms with Palin. The governor surprised Young when she endorsed his primary rival this year, and she called for Stevens to resign. Awkward.
Beyond that, Palin campaigned with Sen. John McCain as the scourge of earmarks, and Young and Stevens are the earmarking champs. Everybody has heard by now of our Permanent Fund and those $1,200 checks. Remember when Palin said if Alaskans want to build those bridges, we'd pay for them ourselves?
2 Eternal suspicion
For the rest of her career in Alaska, every move Palin makes will be second-guessed for ulterior motives. Is she taking on this or that priority because it's good for the state or because it looks good on her resume?
If she travels to New Hampshire to meet with Republicans, is the state paying for her long-distance calls home? Who decided to put the governor's photo on that tourism brochure? Imagine the snarkiness that will erupt if she flies off to meet industrialists in China or oil ministers in Geneva (never mind that Frank Murkowski spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel his last two years as governor and was gone 112 days over that time).
Alaskans might choose to shrug off some of Palin's future efforts as legitimate state business. But the national press and bloggers, keeping Alaska under close surveillance, will be jostling one another for fresh angles.
3 Political seasoning
Anonymous diva-bashing aside, it was apparent that Palin would benefit from wider experience if she intends to move on in the political world. Her strongly positive rating from Republicans in the new polls is balanced by strong negatives from Democrats and independent voters. For Palin, the challenge will be how to find that experience and surround herself with smart people who can help -- without selling Alaska short in the process.
Republicans are predicting Palin will be the party's biggest fundraiser for the next two years. But former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, for example, drew intense criticism for abandoning his home state (he was gone for 219 days his last year) as he ramped up his presidential race in 2006.
"We'll take advantage of the opportunities to keep on spreading that pro-Alaska message all across the nation," Palin said Friday.
For Palin's skeptical critics, this seasoning will take more than a few graduate-level seminars. They say her biggest challenge may be summoning a curiosity about the wider world that hasn't been evident in her public life before this year.
On the other hand, her cheering supporters, here and in the Lower 48, seem ecstatic with the image she projected -- and that could present a challenge of its own. Will they press her now to take the lead in social-conservative causes such as abortion restrictions, which didn't appear to be part of her agenda in her first two years in office?
4 The Legislature
Palin's two-year record was much dissected during the presidential campaign. Some Alaska lawmakers complained she was disengaged at times. Democratic allies who helped with her priorities are now unhappy with her new national partisanship and the campaign's meddling in Troopergate. Her unhappiest critics have been Republicans who resented how the "maverick reformer" painted dissenters as part of the "good old boy" network.
Back in Juneau, she's likely to face a new source of friction: budget-cutting tensions due to declining oil revenues. When she starts converting her fiscal-conservative rhetoric into action, opponents may accuse her of preening for voters in North Carolina or Iowa (see Challenge 2).
Palin has her admirers in the Legislature, to be sure. And there's a post-election weariness in the air, with legislators saying they'd like to make a fresh start. Watch to see how they handle fallout from the Troopergate investigations come January. At one point there was talk of contempt charges over refusal to honor legislative subpoenas. Attorney General Talis Colberg was being sized up for a hot seat for his handling of the governor's defense while she was away campaigning. They could also let it go and move on.
Palin also has work to do with some of her constituents. Big anti-Palin rallies in Anchorage during the campaign were unprecedented -- Frank Murkowski never stirred that kind of passion. Coming home to vote in a Carhartts jacket shows she's thinking along those lines. (Or was she buffing her small-town, anti-fashion image for a national crowd? More second-guessing.)
5 The natural gas pipeline
With the nation sliding into recession and state oil revenues plunging, the gas line seems more important than ever to Alaska. Crossing the next big pre-construction hurdles would give Palin a big achievement to trumpet.
But there are plenty of perils in the next two years. The looming challenge involves the so-called "open season" -- persuading the oil companies, through tax incentives, legal pressure or superior poker strategy, to commit to ship their gas reserves through the line.
Meanwhile the state will seek help from the Obama administration on rights of way and federal loan guarantees. Palin's pitch: that getting gas to the Lower 48 will lead the nation away from oil and provide a bridge to a new era of alternative energy sources. Obama did say during the presidential race he supports getting the gas line built.
While she's working on energy, Palin also faces the challenge of the warming Arctic and the rural energy crisis. Alaska's governor was described during the campaign as one of the nation's leading experts in energy security, so it won't do to have rural villagers shivering in the dark. There's been lots of talk about alternative energy projects, and money has been committed -- but will there be any new kilowatts generated in the next two years of Palin's leadership?
6 Family and friends
OK, the kids will remain off limits, for the most part. But finding time for her growing family remains a significant challenge for Palin, alongside her work for the state and her new national prominence.
Todd Palin's role in the administration has been subjected to great scrutiny in the past two months, but there don't seem to be any new lines yet defining the first gentleman's responsibilities.
Then there are the friends, from Mat-Su and elsewhere. One of the more intriguing aspects of Palin's first two years was her peopling the administration with figures from outside the usual circles of state government and industry. Why the comfort zone? It was frequently reported, during the campaign, that Palin did not respond well to challenge and disagreement. Like many of the charges leveled in the past two months, this one was allowed to sit there and fester, with Palin too busy or too muzzled to respond.
Watch to see if the circle of friends grows, and if some of the new administration faces are party refugees from the Lower 48.
7 The messes
Local and national media have been rummaging through Palin's closet while she's been gone. Their unfinished work litters the landscape.
Troopergate, state business on private e-mail accounts, "boxes and boxes" of gifts, per diem payments for nights in Wasilla, travel costs of the kids. How much of this is taxable income? The loan of wardrobe for the duration of the campaign -- is that a taxable gift?
All this will take time to sort out -- beginning with Troopergate, where two investigative reports reached starkly different conclusions.
Bonus challenge
The news media. A presidential campaign trying to stay on-message is not the kind of "open and transparent" environment Palin pledged for her own administration. And she's admitted disappointment about her treatment by the media during the national campaign. For Palin and the press, is there any turning back?
Perhaps. On Friday, her first day back on the job in Anchorage, Palin was talkative when she found the local and national press corps camped out in her front office. Finally, she had a chance to respond to critics and, in her view, correct the record on a few matters. She said she understood that she needs to talk to Alaskans through the press.
"I want to be able to help also Americans to know that they can trust their media," Palin said.
Reporters who recall her old accessibility will want to hear what it was really like on the campaign trail. They want to get past the talking points and find out not just what she thinks about the issues, but how she thinks about them.
Deciding just how open and transparent she wants to be -- now that she's a national figure under intense scrutiny -- is yet another challenge for Palin.
http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/583456.html
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
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| gwen
Posted:
Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:43 am |
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McCain Jokes With Leno in First Appearance Since Loss
Palin Keeps Up Daily Interview Schedule
A week after their failed bid for the White House, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continue to be the GOP's odd couple.
While Palin has been on an interview-a-day media whirlwind, calling her critics "jerks" and looking ahead to 2012, McCain emerged on "The Tonight Show" Tuesday to poke fun at himself and say kind things about Palin and the man who beat him, President-elect Obama.
Like any good veteran of the late-night shows -- McCain has been on Jay Leno's show 14 times -- he relied on punch lines that have been honed with time.
"I've been sleeping like a baby," McCain told Leno about the aftermath of his Election Day disappointment. "Sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours, wake up and cry."
When asked about the scene when he drove away from his campaign for the last time, McCain said he went to buy a coffee. "But not the newspaper. I knew what that was going to say."
The defeated presidential contender even filmed a short skit with Leno, telling the host that he would be working on the transition team ... for Conan O'Brien, the "Late Night" host who is scheduled to take over Leno's job next year.
While Palin has complained bitterly about the press coverage of the campaign, McCain said he had no beef with the media.
"We're big guys, we're supposed to be able to take this kind of stuff, you know?" he said. "The one thing I think Americans don't want is a sore loser."
McCain Looks Back, Palin Forward
Stu Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, said the contrast in the reaction between the two former candidates reflects that they are at "very different points in their lives and experienced very different things."
"He's a 72-year-old man looking back as much as looking forward. He's been under fire in many ways for many, many years," Rothenberg said.
"She's, in terms of national politics, is a novice. I'm sure she's never been beaten up as much as she's been beaten up in the last three months," he said.
McCain, a Vietnam War hero, got an extended Veterans Day reception from the "Tonight Show" audience even before he started cracking wise.
But he dismissed a suggestion by Leno that he might run again in four years, when he would be 76.
"I wouldn't think so," McCain said with a hint of resignation in his voice. "We are going to have another generation of leaders come along."
One of those new leaders may be Palin, who today was featured in an exclusive interview for a fourth straight day. She has called anonymous critics from the McCain camp "jerks" and "cowards" for criticizing her for a reported shopping spree, not knowing geography and current events and going "rogue" with her own message during the campaign.
Palin has denied she spent an exorbitant amount of money on clothes and denied stories that mocked her, like the one claiming she didn't know Africa was a continent
Palin Has More Appearances Scheduled
McCain, however, defended Palin to Leno.
"Did you expect mavericks to stay on message?" he said with a nervous chuckle, adding that he was "proud" of Palin.
The man who lost his second bid for the presidency had kind words for Obama as well.
"I salute, as you know, and admire and respect the winner, Sen.-President-elect Barack Obama," he said.
McCain said he would return to the Senate and "continue to serve. That's been my life."
McCain has no other interviews scheduled, but he is hitting the campaign trail again this week, stumping for Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, who is in a run-off against Democratic challenger Jim Martin.
Palin, however, is still discussing the presidential campaign. She has another interview scheduled today with CNN, and on Thursday she will hold a news conference in Miami before being a featured speaker at a Republican Governors Association gathering there.
Palin has described the campaign as "brutal," scoffed at media coverage of her, admitted she sometimes went off message and reportedly tried to give her own concession speech on the night that McCain had to admit defeat.
She has suggested that she may run again four years from now.
"If there is an open door in '12 or four years later and it's something that's going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow through that door," she told Fox News this week.
Torie Clarke, a veteran of the Bush administration and a political analyst for ABC News, said that there are many Republicans who weren't laughing at McCain's jokes and feel that it was Palin who has been a good sport.
"There are plenty of people in the Republican Party who are angry at John McCain for mishandling Palin and then trashing her at the end," Clarke told ABCNews.com.
The leaks about Palin began slipping out in the waning days of the losing GOP campaign, complaining she was "going rogue."
"Most people who watched the last weeks of that campaign think she was an incredibly good sport to put up with that stuff," Clarke said. Palin gave Obama a qualified vote of confidence today as the nation's next commander in chief.
"I'm comfortable with Barack Obama as our commander in chief, assuming that he has those around him who recognize … that terrorists have not changed their minds," she said on NBC's "Today" show.
Palin's oldest son, Track, is serving in Iraq.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Politics/Story?id=6236393&page=2
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
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| gwen
Posted:
Fri Nov 14, 2008 6:19 pm |
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SENATE RUNOFF: McCain rallies the GOP
Ex-presidential candidate comes to Cobb to bolster ChamblissBy Jim Tharpe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, November 14, 2008
Georgia Republicans proved Thursday they still know how to pack a room. But it will be Dec. 2 before they show whether they still know how to win a tough statewide election.
More than 2,000 people showed up Thursday afternoon to see U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center as McCain rallied the GOP faithful for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Moultrie, who is in a tough runoff battle with Democrat Jim Martin of Atlanta.
It was McCain’s first political appearance since his loss last week to President-elect Barack Obama. He chose a state that he carried by 200,000 votes to reappear before the television news cameras —- there were more than 20 —- and a gaggle of local, state and national media at the event.
McCain and his fellow Republicans are trying keep Democrats from getting a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the upper chamber. Unresolved Senate races in Georgia, Alaska and Minnesota could provide Democrats with that majority.
“I did not think I would be back on the campaign trail quite this early,” McCain said. “But there is a lot at stake here. I’m asking you to go into battle one more time.
“The eyes of the country and the world will be on the state of Georgia Dec. 2.”
McCain never mentioned Obama’s name during his 12-minute speech, in which he joked about his election defeat. McCain said someone recently asked him how he’s doing.
“I told him I sleep like a baby,” McCain said. “I wake up every two hours and cry.”
When Chambliss first used the words “President-elect Barack Obama,” the partisan crowd booed loudly.
“Let me say, I will pray for him every day, just as I’ve prayed for every other president,” Chambliss said. Chambliss, however, warned that a Democratic supermajority would unleash a rash of “liberal” initiatives.
“The race looks like it could be the firewall,” Chambliss said.
Chambliss and Martin are desperately trying to get voters to return to the polls the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. They both know it will be no easy task, given the holidays and voter-fatigue from the just-ended presidential election.
Martin has enlisted Obama’s ground troops across the state to get voters fired up for the extended campaign. He also has invited Obama to come to Georgia, but there was no confirmation of a visit as of Thursday. So far, Martin’s runoff effort has been a low-key sprint.
Chambliss, meanwhile, has lined up a series of big-name Republicans to come to the Peach State for his campaign. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will campaign for Chambliss on Sunday in Gwinnett County. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) showed up at Thursday’s event, as did Chambliss’ fellow Georgia Republican, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson. And former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller came from his home in the mountains.
“It’s good to be among you again,” Miller told the crowd, which cheered its approval. “It is critical that we keep Saxby’s voice and vote in Washington.”
Miller said Chambliss could be the “last man standing” in front of a “far-left agenda” that Martin wants to help the Obama administration push. He zeroed-in on Obama’s pledge to increase taxes on higher-income Americans and give tax breaks to most others.
“To steal from Peter to pay Paul, even if it gets Paul to vote for you, is wrong, wrong, wrong,” Miller said.
Turnout for the runoff could be much lower than the 67 percent of voters who cast ballots Nov. 4.
Both campaigns are pulling out all of the stops to get voters to the polls or have them cast ballots in early voting.
In the state’s last major U.S. Senate runoff, which took place in 1992, only about half of those who voted in the general election bothered to cast ballots in the runoff.
And the 1992 runoff was held before the Thanksgiving holiday.
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2008/11/14/mccain.html
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
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| gwen
Posted:
Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:36 pm |
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Palin left out of RGA leadership
In the wake of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) convention this week in Miami, many GOP governors were reluctant to embrace Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) as the party’s leader or presidential candidate for 2012. Today, the RGA made that sentiment official, by not voting her in to any of the organization’s leadership positions:
The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership lineup today after their annual meeting concluded Thursday in Miami.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort.
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will also sit on the RGA’s executive committee. […]
Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/14/palin-rga-leadership/
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AKA Gagal_05
Joined: 24 Feb 2007
Posts: 15275
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