Yet another "Dear Jonah" letter

Dear Mr. Goldberg,

It was very generous of you to give Gov. Palin some advice, but your letter may be in queue for some period of time. It's not like the governor hasn't been bombarded with unsolicited advice for months on end. I see that two of the contributors to Conservatives4Palin.com have already e-mailed you with their own opinions on your free advice for Sarah Palin. Good. Having no need to rehash their points, I can make this short and sweet. Aside from the ground they have already covered, I have just one bone of contention to pick with your letter. You wrote:

"Mitt Romney, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and other hands-on types are what the party wants and, frankly, needs."

While any political junkie recognizes that you are eminently qualified to state your opinion of what the GOP needs, I question your authority to speak for what the party wants.Your opinion regarding what the Republican rank and file may desire in a candidate seems to be at odds with the evidence. Consider, for example, the Pew Research poll (PDF) released June 24. Pew shows Gov. Palin with a whopping 16-point advantage over Romney among Republicans. Jindal and Daniels are well below radar altitude.

Granted, it's early yet, and it's just a poll. Still, Pew is generally regarded as the most accurate of the pollsters, and I believe such empirical results carry much more weight than just your opinion, however valuable it may be. No offense intended. Gov. Romney, though well-regarded, could not even manage to defeat a weak opponent like John McCain in the 2008 primaries. This, despite Romney's most impressive fund raising and his contribution of a sizeable chunk of his personal fortune to his own campaign.

So by all means, please continue to state your opinions, but when you offer advice to Gov. Palin, please refrain from speaking for the whole of the Republican Party as to who it wants to represent it in the next presidential election. The Grand Old Party's grassroots will make their own opinions known in due time at the ballot boxes. Meanwhile, Governor Sarah Palin is entitled to do whatever she chooses to do. She's earned it through hard campaigning and by showing a loyalty to Sen. McCain which he did not deserve and for which he has not reciprocated.

Regards,
Josh Painter

Update: Swamp_Yankee has also penned a letter to Jonah Goldberg.

- JP