Palin Derangement Syndrome — In the Mold of Ronald Reagan Edition

From the lead letter to the editor, at today's Los Angeles Times:

Only one Reagan

Re "Palin casts self in Reagan mold," Feb. 5

Sarah Palin's attempt to cast herself in the Reagan mold is laughable at best. Her anti-intellectual position is nothing more than another of the ad hominem, bandwagon, emotive arguments for which she is so famous, stirring up "mob mentality" by attacking the present administration.

The "small government" Palin advocates would be far more authoritarian than anything proffered by the Obama administration. Indeed, a Republican (or "tea party") government would basically annihilate Social Security, Medicare and the Environmental Protection Agency, remove a woman's right to choose and promote some extremist brand of Christianity, autocratically removing more and more of the freedoms we currently enjoy.

Palin stands for nothing more than promotion of Sarah Palin. The fact that so many people are actually convinced by her brand of argumentation is truly frightening. She is most definitely not Ronald Reagan.

Rebecca S. Hertsgaard

Palm Desert

That's pretty classic Palin derangement, and it's especially interesting that the Times gave this woman's letter top billing in today's edition.

Also interesting is the latest CNN poll out today, "CNN Poll: Republicans want winner over ideology in 2012" (via Hot Air and Memeorandum). And I'll be perfectly honest: If Palin's a candidate I'll personally pull out the stops for her to win the nominiation. Yet, while others might not say so, I do have some concerns about her general election viability. I spoke with my department chairman yesterday, mentioning that I was attending CPAC, and he didn't flinch in announcing Palin as his pick for the nomination. But we both agreed that she could have some problems winning voters at the middle of the spectrum. At any rate, the CNN survey shows some weaknesses for Obama. He's got just 25 percent of voters that would definitely vote for him, and a majority of 51 percent said they think he'll lose reelection in 2012. As for Palin chances, a new Rasmussen horse-race poll shows that right now Obama beats Palin 49 to 38. Of the prospective GOP hopefuls cited, only Mitt Romney currently leads Obama, 44 to 42 percent. See, "Romney, Huckabee Even With Obama, Other GOP Hopefuls Trail."

Bottom line: Obama's deeply vulnerable, and Sarah Palin would be a fool not to announce her candidacy. The electorate will sort things out, and there's still lots of time for things to develop.

More later ...

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