Politico weighs in on the "Winners and Losers at CPAC". Which right to pontificate on the event Stacy McCain at The Other McCain tears to shreds.
And rightly so, having Alexander Burns, a liberal, Harvard grad describe the outcome of CPAC is like Stalin giving a dispassionate view of Trotsky's collected works.
However, Burns makes the comment that perhaps those who stayed away did better than those who attended. He almost has it right-the better sentence would have been "Sarah Palin, by choosing to stay away was the winner and, once again, showed her perspicuity and political nous." Even more so because she was roundly criticized for not attending which played into her hands, once again, by her critics ending up with egg on their faces.
CPAC presented an image of, at times, near farce with the arguments over Gay conservatives attending, last minute decisions to attend and speak by the likes of Donald Trump which only added to candidate cattle call atmosphere, including candidates who have no chance of getting the nomination, look silly, and lower the tone for all candidates.
The main reason Palin was the winner was the ridiculous straw poll. For her and Huckabee to poll below 3% when poll after poll shows Palin and Huckabee with around 40% of the GOP vote and leading in most polled states shows how silly the straw poll result was.
If Palin had attended then her losing to the fanatical forces of the Ron Paul supporters, as she surely would have, would have put her in a poor light. By not attending and with those forces so apparent, then it did not matter what her result was. In fact, it is clear that the lower her result was, to the point of silliness, the better she looked in the light of a warped result.
If she had attended her address would have been lost in the crowd and added to the carnival atmosphere (not her doing of course) at best, and at worst it would have been subject to the usual media distortion and mockery.
No, Palin, by not attending showed, once again, her brilliant political skills. If she attends next year it will be with a much smaller field of candidates, in fact by that time, should she have chosen to run, she may probably be the only candidate, or one of a few worth considering, with the no-hopers having dropped out. Her speech will be presented in a serious atmosphere and once again her political skills will be to the fore.
UPDATE, Another, supporting view ;From Fox News;
Disrespectful Libertarians Hijack CPAC Poll -- And Its Mission
By Kevin McCullough
Kevin McCullough is the nationally syndicated host of "The Kevin McCullough Show"
No comments:
Post a Comment