Doug Mataconis Adds His 2 Cents To Palin Being Snubbed By Romney Tampa Team (Yawn)

When looking to be amused by condescension, arrogance and pomposity there is no better place than "Outside The Beltway" the pontification lair of one Doug Mataconis.

This is the man who, when the overflow crowd was so large at CPAC and Palin was mobbed post address said he would be out the back at the bar. He never misses an opportunity for some snide remark about Palin. A Tweet a couple of days ago  along the lines of  (who could be bothered to remember his exact words) I am mildly amused that Palin does not have an invite to Tampa, gives an indication of his manner.

Anyway, for the amusement du jour  Mataconis, along with luminaries like Andrew Sullivan and Taylor Marsh who also have a Palin obsession, has weighed in with his comments on Romney/Palin Tampa.

Most of his post is a cut and paste from the Peter Boyer article at Daily Beast. In his commentary he repeats exactly the sort of incorrect historical reference which, if Palin had done, he would no doubt sarcastically pillory her. Writing that Palin being excluded from Tampa would make her the "would be the first former Vice-Presidential nominee to be denied a role at their parties convention since, well, John Edwards in 2008 and pretty much nobody else,"

It has been pointed out that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp were denied an active role subsequent to their run, as of course did Spiro Agnew. American political history is littered with former vice-presidents who were actually removed from running with their president for another term which is of course much worse than simply being denied a speaking slot-Hamlin/Colfax/Wallace/Hobart come immediately to mind.

In his subsequent post cut and paste commentary Mataconis says "if the story goes viral". he must be in a cocoon somewhere as a simple search on Yahoo finds Palin trending in second place in most looked for articles, and 304 current posts about her. Hilariously he says that at the point the story goes viral activists will start "rallying behind Palin again". Again if he looked outside the Beltway he would see that many activist sites like Conservatives4Palin and the real journalist Stacy McCain have made a big deal about this

Robert Stacy McCain ‏@rsmccain

Dear Mitt: Please fix this immediately.http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/ … Signed, Several Million People Whose Help You Need to Win in November

More cut and paste follows where he quotes Morrisey to the effect that:

" The article seems to be pretty heavy on sourcing from Palin’s camp, and very little from Tea Party activists. In fact, it seems very heavily sourced from Palin herself." 

What was Palin supposed to do when she was asked for comment about the situation-say "no comment" about such an important matter? Obviously Palin did not write nor initiate the story, but logic is not a strong point for the anti-Palinites.

More cut and paste, this time Dave Weigel-no friend of Palin's of course who basically advises that Palin, answering a simple question, remember she did not initiate this whole brouhaha, is "Palin going for  the maximum self-aggrandizement". How the liberal media hates this pro-life woman is continually astonishing frankly. And horrors, in big red letters "She all but endorsed Gingrich". Ah, but it was OK for Santorum, Bachmann and the whole crowd of candidates-including Pawlenty when he got his courage up in the second debate, to roundly criticise Romney and run attack ads against him? As I said logic doesn't exist when PDS enters in.

In the Mataconis grand conclusion he actually concedes that Palin is popular with the base (even he could not get past the 3 million plus Facebook followers she has, nor the obvious fact that she has helped 6 candidates in a row win their elections) and advises that one reason why Romney may not want her to speak at Tampa is she could easily overshadow him. But he can't help himself and makes this preposterous statement

"Palin’s approval numbers, which is likely just as negative as it was when pollsters stopped including her in polls a year ago if not more so."

This is pure conjecture, or rather wishful thinking on Mataconis part. PPP Polling a Democratic firm allied to Daily Kos- a fanatically anti-Palin site, has Palin's popularity at 2008 heights-68% approval, and an on-line poll, which taken at historic values judgement, has her approaching 53% approval-higher than either Romney or President Obama for that matter. But hey, why let the facts come in the way of a sloppily researched article. But on the  whole I am slightly amused with it.

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