The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Todd Palin is your new Mr. Republican

    By Oxy Mora on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 1:16pm |

    During the news coverage of today's Republican primary I gagged at comments by John Sununu and Judd Gregg, Northern Republican Establishment stalwarts, aimed at defining Romney as an acceptable choice across the broad Republican party electorate. While a majority of Republicans will ultimately accept Romney if he is the nominee, he is as out of place with the rank and file Republican base as a Volvo in Gun Barrel City, Texas.

    Matthew Dowd described the new base in the Republican party as "...about working class (especially white males) in rural and small town areas of the country." Dowd doesn't describe the prior composition of the party and there obviously are worthy discussions there but my drift is the utter gall of people like Gregg merely glossing over the Bain Capital experience as if there were no working class issues worthy of concern by Republicans. It's all about the virtues of capitalism, give or take a few disappointments.

    This Eastern Establishment blaze attitude toward anyone not connected to the corporate or financial world was expressed by a guest on Bloomberg radio this morning. He described the displaced workers in the Bain film trailer as having "sob stories". I don't care what political stripe you are, that description should win the prize for the most insensitive remark of the campaign thus far. 

    The Republican establishment doesn't like it but Gingrich is forcing the Romney team not only to deal with Romney's Wall St. DNA, but to have some respect for the grass roots folks who have been fueling the party for the last several decades. As the new Mr. Republican, a working class sort of man, Todd Palin has endorsed Gingrich. 

    Romney is the last vestige of the old Mr. Republican-ism--- in the sense of the pre-Gingrich era--- and he is out of step with the rank and file that make up the Republican party today. To imagine otherwise is foolish. To tout otherwise is disingenuous and dangerous. Gingrich has hit pay dirt with his attack on Romney and the practices of Bain Capital because Romney has been trying to gloss over the tea party-ish, working class anger toward Wall St greed that is still seething in the base of the Republican party.

    When Todd Palin endorsed Newt Gingrich I didn't laugh. Todd is a get r' done, win the Iron Man, pull you out of a snow bank with his Ford 250 kind of hands-on guy. I have a lot of respect for a man like him, and don't blame him for anything his wife has done. (It did strike me that Todd is why his wife is able to connect so well with the Republican base) He is the antithesis of the entitled Ivy Leaguer working at Morgan Stanley. I can tell you that Todd Palin is the guy I would like to have in the fox hole with me---not so much John Sununu, the junior.  

    In my opinion, Todd Palin's endorsement of Gingrich is more relevant than John McCain's endorsement of Mitt Romney because Todd Palin is the new Mr. Republican and John McCain, Judd Gregg and John Sununu are, at best, fantasists.  

      

    Comments

    Oxy, my goodness drinking this early in the day!

    Just kidding. I know what you are getting at, sure enough.

    I did note that Sununu (wasn't that a car?) has lost a few beats during his interviews. And he and the rest of the establishment are corporationists for sure.

    The problem with the Palins is that they have not read anything! They see everything in terms of economic opportunity. But at least it is economic opportunity for the entire family!

    I dunno.


    by Richard Day on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 2:20pm

    I run a small company and have a lot of guys working for me who I depend upon, and vise versa. They are much like what I imagine Todd Palin to be. None of them like Obama. There's just a ton of misunderstanding all the way around. The party elites on both sides essentially pander to working class guys.. I would love to see Romney and his Bain Capital operation taken apart piece by piece. Actually, I hope Newt's film is going to be an educational experience---it terms of the way the buy out firms operate. 


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 2:31pm

    If they nominate Romney, as I think they will, they're really going to see "What's the matter with Kansas?" so to speak.  If, indeed, anything is the matter at all.  If the Republicans can get the rank and file to go whole hog for Romney, it would mean that the Tea Partiers have been radically manipulated.  But, hey, a lot of very wealthy Republicans have spent millions for that very purpose.  I guess we're going to see what it's worth.


    by Michael Maiello on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 2:46pm

    I think the cross currents are fascinating.

    Last night heard Matt Kibbe (?), a tea party founder. He was reduced by Matthews to admitting the tea party was nothing more than a set of principles. 


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 3:24pm

    Do you need money from the Kochs and FreedomWorks just for "a set of principles?"


    by Michael Maiello on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 3:47pm

    Right. He might want to rethink that. 

    I have no idea what they are funding at the moment. My impression is that they are waiting to see if Romney is the nominee and if so, they'll concentrate on the Congressional races and individual states. 


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 5:54pm

     "I guess we're going to see what it's worth."

    I guess we are. My bet is that The Tea Party's Whackadoodle Straw(man) house won't present much of an obstacle to the Lucrescenti's smooth, well-financed and carefully-gamed Panzer attack of bamboozlement.

    We're already seeing the meme "one thing about those Mormons, they're good with money," and Romney's generic "American-ness" being talked about. Pretty soon a whole mess of Republicans are going to realize that they don't hate Mitt at all; he's just like them except for having spent time with those smarty-pants rich Democrats.

    And Mitt sure showed those smarty-pants rich Democrats a thing or two! Why, he got richer than rich while still hanging on to his American values and being just like us Republican good ole boys at heart! Fooled 'em all!

    So, pass the popcorn and the vomit bags and get ready for the Koch-upation.(Or Re-Koch-upation, depending on how big an influence you feel the tea party was.)

    Oh, and by the way, we all better hope they don't win in November.

     


    by erica20 on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 8:23pm

    Oh, and by the way, we all better hope they don't win in November.

    Yeah, then thing's would be really Koch'd up.


    by Verified Atheist on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 8:32pm

    I should have a hilarious add-on to that comment but I'm blanking.


    by erica20 on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 12:02am

    I think the Panzer of Bamboozlement was the offspring of the Pompatus of Love...


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 12:55am

     

    So who cares what the husband of America’s Top MILF thinks?  Palin is the ultimate political strip-tease, thrusting and rubbing her self all over a White House column.  The dollars reign down and she gives them another sneak peek at what’s under that dress.  See just how nasty she’ll get for the cash at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/06/ecstasy-of-sarah-palin_15.html


    by Brandt Hardin (not verified) on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 5:08pm

    They don't care, that's the point.

    I am going to try your link but I'm not drunk enough. 

     


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 5:55pm

    Todd Palin, although I don't know Todd personally, I know lots of guys just like Todd, and you know they are lots of fun and their friends are fun. They have a good heart in general.

    I wasn't surprised about Todd's endorsement either and most of the guys I know who are like Todd, they don't like Mitt Romney at all.  So Newt is someone they see as a guy who is kind of scrappy and a loudmouth. He talks like Rush and they love it.

    I do wonder when Mitt is nominated, cause most of those guys I am talking about vote, but they aren't party guys, they consider themselves completely independent and conservative, they really don't like Mitt.

    It is going to be a very weird election year.


    by tmccarthy0 on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 7:47pm

    There has been a ton of commentary tonight about whether Newt will continue on his Mitt destruction campaign, a la Bain Capital. 

    Actually, ole unelectable Perry had the best comments, as if he awoke from a deep sleep.

    He said there was a difference between Venture Capitalism and Vulture Capitalism of the type Romney engaged in, that they were doing Romney a favor in seeing beforehand  how well he would handle Obama's eventual attacks on Bain.

    If Perry can begin to string sentences together, he might have a shot.

    On second thought---Nah. 


    by Oxy Mora on Tue, 01/10/2012 - 11:46pm

    Perry could have been electable though, couldn't he, had he buckled down and not been full of total failure the first 50 debates, (okay to be fair it was only the first 4 or 5). He simply didn't take it seriously at all, he seems to have been convinced that this would be a cake walk for him, just cause he is a good ol' boy.

    But even George Bush prepared for debates.

    Is Mitt even a top tier Republican? Cause to me he seems like he might just be a really rich guy trying to buy a political office, this time the top office. The problem for Mitt is even Republicans recognize this.

    And then we have to discuss the Epistemic Closure of the Republican Party, that Julian Sanchez and others have discussed, because it is an indication that there is something terribly wrong with that party. And there is something terribly wrong with that party.  It's been hijacked by a small very fundamentalist group, including Paul, Gingrich, Santorum, Bachmann, jeebus! Most are some sort of fundamentalist religious whack jobs. But they do all have one thing in common, they and their constituencies focus heavily on their fear and hatred of everything they don't know.

    So Mitt wins tonight, well it was to be expected, yet there is something about this win that seems weak, I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is off.


    by tmccarthy0 on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 12:30am