Palin failin' in Georgia and Tennessee

From TPM:

Add Georgia and Tennessee to the list of Republican leaning states that President Obama could win if Sarah Palin emerges as the GOP presidential nominee.

Two recent polls have found Obama leading Palin in hypothetical 2012 match-ups in those states, both of which went for John McCain in the 2008 election. Vanderbilt's Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions released a poll this week showing Obama ahead of Palin 42% to 37% in Tennessee, a state Obama lost by 15 points in the last election. And in Georgia, an Insight poll found Obama with a four point lead over Palin, 47% to 43%. ...

... The polls are the latest findings to show that Palin would likely get blown out in a general election against Obama. In recent weeks, polls found Palin up by just one point in the Republican strongholds of Texas and and Nebraska, while trailing by seven in another red state, South Dakota. No Democratic presidential nominee has carried South Dakota or Nebraska since 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson won all but six states. ...

Public Policy Polling recently published results of a poll that led PPP's Tom Jensen to write, "In the last two weeks we've found Palin up 1 point in Texas, up 1 point in Nebraska, and down 8 points in South Dakota. What those numbers indicate is that she would only really be safe in states that Republicans won by at least 20 points in 2008. And there weren't very many of those. It's becoming clearer and clearer that a Palin nomination would be Goldwater redux for the GOP." Jensen's post was linked-to in TPM's "Palin would likely get blown out" post, above.

Politico recently wrote about another PPP poll that found Palin failin' in Arizona.

"Sarah Palin to take our country back ... to 1964" links to additional information about 1964's Goldwater vs. Johnson race.

Sarah Palin tries to hog the news, and - Oops! - more lies pop out.

USA Today has a concise summary of the endorsement news in Georgia's gubernatorial race:

Two leading GOP conservatives, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, back different horses in Georgia's crowded gubernatorial primary. In the Democratic contest, former president Bill Clinton dissed the front-runner.

In the Democratic primary, Clinton endorsed Attorney General Thurbert Baker for governor over the favorite (and former governor) Roy Barnes. Baker seeks to become Georgia's first black governor. The Associated Press notes that Baker endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president in 2008 while Barnes backed John Edwards.

On her Facebook page yesterday, Palin announced her support for "underdog candidate" Karen Handel, a former Georgia secretary of State. Gingrich today endorsed former House colleague Nathan Deal, who left the House just before a potential Ethics Committee investigation. Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential candidate, and Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, touted their candidates as the truest to conservative values. ...

Interestingly, Palin has endorsed a candidate who, according to her opponent, John Oxedine, the state's insurance commissioner and front-runner on the Republican side, "... gave almost a half-million dollars to an abortion provider. And supported tax-payer benefits for gay couples. Sounds like a liberal Democrat. It's the Karen Handel you didn't know" (CNN's Political Ticker via IM).

The Georgia primary will be held on July 20th, and a runoff is scheduled for August 10 if none of the candidates receive more than 50% of the votes.


Salon has a short, excellent article which contains several interesting links: "Michele Bachman outraises Sarah Palin: Is the Minnesota congresswoman more popular than the queen of the Tea Parties?"


Esquire's Politics blog addresses the hoopla over SarahPAC's recent quarterly report, noting:

Winning the GOP candidacy in 2012 will take more than stardom, and more than money. It'll take strategy, alliances, and one heckuva lot of shoe leather. Especially in Iowa and New Hampshire. I won't hazard a guess as to who will emerge victorious. I will predict it won't be be Palin or Romeny [sic], the presumptive frontrunners today. They've both tried and failed on the national stage before. Neither is a new face. And for Palin specifically, the same idiosyncratic tactics she uses to woo the far-right make her, I and others think, uniquely unlikely to be able to mount a successful party-wide candidacy. As for Mitt, Charlie Pierce has some new thoughts. Meantime, money talks.

ABC News has reported that Sarah Palin has assailed a resolution passed by the NAACP at its annual convention:

The NAACP's resolution condemning what it calls racist elements within the Tea Party is drawing fire from top Tea Party supporters, including Sarah Palin, as the civil rights group's president insists the party needs to "expel racists from the ranks."

"For more than a year we've watched as Tea Party members have called congressmen the N-word, have called congressmen the F-word. We see them carry racist signs and whenever it happens, the membership tries to shirk responsibility," NAACP President Ben Jealous said in an interview with ABC News. "If the Tea Party wants to be respected and wants to be part of the mainstream in this country, they have to take responsibility."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this evening passed a resolution that calls on Tea Party members to repudiate what Jealous says are "ultra-nationalist and racist factions within the organization." ...

... Former Alaska Gov. Palin, a vocal advocate of the Tea Party movement, jumped into the heated race debate Monday night, assailing the NAACP resolution as an example of "typical divisive politics that is so absolutely unnecessary."

"The Tea Party movement is a beautiful movement, full of diverse people, diverse backgrounds," Palin said on Fox News' "Hannity." "It's very unfortunate that they are taking this tactic because it's a false accusation that Tea Party Americans are racist. Any good American hates racism. We don't stand for it. It is unacceptable."

Palin in turn called on President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to "repudiate" the resolution and "set the record straight." ...

Michelle Obama delivered the keynote address at the NAACP's annual convention. She appeared before the resolution, which was widely expected to be approved, was voted upon.

Kansas City's ABC affilliate, KMBC, reported about the NAACP's resolution, which condemned racist elements within the tea party:

KMBC's Marcus Moore reported that Benjamin Jealous' speech on the third day of the national convention told members that the country's top priority should be creating new jobs.

"Getting our priorities back right-side up means putting America back to work," said Jealous.

Moore reported that Jealous then turned his attention to the national tea party movement and called out its leaders.

"Expel the bigots and racists in your ranks or take the responsibility for them and their actions," Jealous said.

Moore reported that Jealous spoke to tea party members and said some have taken things too far.

"We will no longer allow you to hide like cowards and hide behind signs that say 'Lynch Our President' or anyone else," Jealous said.

Jealous even mentioned the tea party's most well-known figure, Sarah Palin.

"Sarah Palin says, 'Let's party like it's 1776.' My white daddy would say be careful what you wish for because the 18th century, Sarah, wasn't good for anybody, even folks like you," Jealous said.

Isn't Sarah Palin lying about the Tea Party? Is it "a beautiful movement, full of diverse people, diverse backgrounds?" A CBS/NY Times poll found that it isn't so diverse, when compared with Real America:

Finally, something that cannot go without mentioning: David Weigel has a guest post at Andrew Sullivans' place. It's about Trig Palin's birth. I may address Weigel's post in the comments.