Op-Ed: Palin to Blame for 'GOP Dysfunction'

[mystery-ak]

http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=699049


Newsmax
Op-Ed: Palin to Blame for 'GOP Dysfunction'
Monday, October 26, 2015 12:22 PM

By: Cathy Burke

President Barack Obama's former aide says the turmoil in the Republican party can be traced back to the selection of another Washington "outsider" for the 2008 presidential ticket — Sarah Palin.

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, William Daley, White House chief of staff from 2011 to 2012, argues the choice of the former Alaska governor's as vice president was made despite her "blatant lack of competence and preparedness."

"This isn't to heap new scorn on Palin," he insists. "But let's not diminish the recklessness of those who championed her vice presidential candidacy."

"What's critical is that substantive, serious Republican leaders either wouldn't or couldn't declare, before or after the election: 'This is not what our party stands for. We can and must do better.'"

Daley writes her candidacy "looks like a warning that the party was prizing glib, red-meat rhetoric over reasoned solutions."

Daley writes two other outsiders, real estate billionaire and front-running GOP presidential contender, Donald Trump, and No. 2 polling Dr. Ben Carson, are now front-running candidates in the polls — "devouring the GOP establishment," even as "House Republicans engage in fratricide."

"Republican leaders brought this on themselves," Daley charges. "Trump calls Palin 'special person' he'd like in his Cabinet. That seems only fair, because he's thriving in the same cynical value system that puts opportunistic soundbites above seriousness, preparedness and intellectual heft."

Daley writes that even after Palin and John McCain's unsuccessful ticket, other outsiders followed, and that "whether McCain actively sought Palin in 2008 or passively yielded to aides' pressure, he set a new standard for GOP candidates who rely on lots of sizzle and little substance."

Another "far-from-mainstream presidential contenders of 2012," pizza company executive Herman Cain, and former Rep. Michele Bachmann of Michigan, also enjoyed popularity in the early polls of 2011, he notes.

"But for months, Americans wondered, 'Is this party serious?'" he writes.

[Bigun]

 

Palin to Blame for 'GOP Dysfunction'

Of course! If it's not Bush's fault it MUST be Palin's!

[MBB1984]

The GOP has been dysfunctional since 2006.  The disaster in the mid terms announced open season on the GOP ruling class. Divisions over foreign policy, immigration, and the big spending of George Bush's administration and GOP Congress erupted and the enmity has only increased.

[Scottftlc]

"he set a new standard for GOP candidates who rely on lots of sizzle and little substance"

John McCain had "sizzle"?

I wasn't even sure most the time if he was even still alive.

[Scottftlc]

William Daley, White House chief of staff from 2011 to 2012

Oh funny!  Says the guy whose boss got elected only because he was "a clean" African-American.  Ask Harry Reid.

[libertybele]

"he set a new standard for GOP candidates who rely on lots of sizzle and little substance"

John McCain had "sizzle"?

I wasn't even sure most the time if he was even still alive.

      I for the life of me can't comprehend why McCain just doesn't retire for Pete's sake.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Obama's hatchet boy, the scum sucking rat bastard Daley is smearing the GOP.  Nice to see so many BR commentators rising to the occasion to kick the GOP in the nuts too.