Matt Patterson: The Dismal GOP Field

Conservatives deserve better than this field; America desperately needs better.
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In a terse American Thinker blog post, conservative author Matt Patterson takes issue with those who claim that the Republicans have a fine crop of 1012 presidential candidates, and he urges Gov. Palin and others to get into the race:

Let me get this straight: The conservative presidential field includes (1) the father of a socialized medicine regime every bit as disastrous as Obamacare, but who thinks his was OK because it was at the state level, (2) a woman who, in spite of having no interest in the subject, studied tax law because her husband told her to, and (3) a man who think it's OK if Iran gets nukes.

Holy crap. Romney, Bachmann, and Paul respectively seem to have distinguished themselves primarily by displaying astonishingly poor judgment. No wonder everyone is salivating over Rick Perry, hoping and praying he is the second coming (Perry himself is leading the prayer service). He may or may not be; like most Americans, I am just getting acquainted with the Texan.

One thing's for sure, however - conservatives deserve better candidates than the current crop, or at the very least more options. So for Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Sarah Palin, or anyone else thinking of getting into the race, my advice is: Do it. There's room for you. There are a lot of conservative voters looking at the buffet and wishing they had ordered the fish...

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- JP

Matt Patterson: Palin Rising

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Matt Patterson, a National Review Institute Washington fellow and author of Union of Hearts: The Abraham Lincoln & Ann Rutledge Story, admits to having been a Palin skeptic in the past. While the author admired the former governor's "considerable" political talent, he had his doubts about how much interest the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate had in "substantive" policy issues, as well as her understanding of them. Patterson also questioned Sarah Palin's decision to resign as governor of Alaska and assumed that she was making a "potentially career-crippling" decision. In an op-ed published at Big Government, Patterson writes:

But then a funny thing happened: In November, Mrs. Palin debuted her memoir “Going Rogue” with great sales, which was not a surprise, but also with a luminous and successful press tour, which was. The interviews she gave in promotion for her book (at least the ones that I saw) were much improved from those given during the 2008 presidential campaign. Palin seemed to speak about both herself and national issues with greater verve and confidence.

Other stars are aligning for Palin:

Several of her potential rivals for the 2012 Republican nomination find themselves suddenly, perhaps fatally, compromised by recent events.

Now Patterson has an entirely different opinion of Sarah Palin than the one he harbored just a couple of months ago. He believes that she is preparing to make a serious run for the White House. And though the former governor still has work to do, Patterson says, the prospect of Sarah Palin becoming the first woman to be addressed as "Madam President" no longer seems impossible to him.

Sarah Palin continues to accomplish what is perhaps the most difficult task of her political career. She is changing people's minds about her. The full Paterson opinion piece is here.

- JP