*
Bill Hughes, at City on a Hill Political Observer, explains why rick Perry's poor performance in last week's GOP debate may have been the game-changer that opens the door for Sarah Palin:
Perry came away from this debate extremely damaged. The talking heads such as Dick Morris (who earned his credibility as a political prognosticator by correctly predicting the 2008 matchup of Hillary Vs. Condi) insist that Romney scored major points in the debate and would reap the benefits of Perry's demise.Take the jump and read Bill's full post.
Maybe. But the problem with Romney is that he has been so politically duplicitous that the vast majority of tea party folks and many in the GOP no longer listen to a word that he says. He's lost all credibility and no longer possesses enough political clout to re-invent himself for the tenth time. So Perry's loss is not Romney's gain.
Who did gain? Well among the also-rans, Herman Cain scored some major points. He won today's Florida CPAC poll by a wide margin. Newt Gingrich presents himself well in the debates, but he's got the same credibility gap that Romney has. Santorum is a good guy but can't seem to generate any excitement. And Hunstman and Johnson simply amuse as dueling Don Knotts doppelgangers.
Perry's collapse will free up mainly tea party support. That tea party support is not going to Romney. And Romney's support will begin collapsing and heading to Don Knotts Jon Huntsman or the late entry of Chris Christie. In primaries, however, the tea party and the conservative wing of the party will be picking the winner this time. Not the media, the establishment or the ruling class RINOs desperately pushing the abrasive New Jersey governor into the race.
No, the person who benefited the most from this debate is Sarah Palin. Every day the justification for her entrance into this race gets bigger and bigger. Her national polling has dramatically improved and the crazed scouring of her emails, the documentary of her political career and her savvy political op-eds and speeches have been driving the political debate for months. Case in point: She gives a speech on crony capitalism and suddenly all of the GOP field is obsessed with rooting it out. Even folks who have been sidled up to its teat for some time.
With Perry on the verge of collapse, Palin's moment has arrived...
[More]
- JP
I just posted a similar thought myself. While I think the door was already open for Palin, it's an indicator that the timing is right for her to make her move. I also think the rumors of Christie joining the fray were probably impacted by Perry's debate performance. Certainly Cain's win in the Florida straw poll shows that something has happened as far as Perry is concerned.
ReplyDeleteThe debate was a game changer and the biggest beneficiary will either be Palin, Christie or Cain - or perhaps two of them or all three. In any case the dynamic of the race was bound to change and the Perry debate performance has accelerated that change.