Todd vehemently rebuffed the current Newsweek cover story on Palin that has emblazoned across the face of the magazine, “I Can Win.” He says Palin has no chance because, despite her enormous popularity among right-wing voters and Tea Party disciples, she has accrued little respect or support among her GOP peers.
The question is should blacks breathe a bit easier since the seeming consensus among political pundits is that the hard-charging firebrand Palin has no chance to supplant President Obama in the Oval Office? Or do blacks need to have someone like Palin in the mix in order to cattle-prod African Americans and other minorities into action?
In terms of her presidential aspirations, Todd insinuates that Palin knows her chances are minuscule at best, but she is, nevertheless, trying to go out in a blaze of glory.
“It feels like she is trying to go out on her terms,” he said on the popular Sunday political program, adding that Palin is trying to give the impression that she doesn’t want the White House anymore. “I can win, but I don’t need to,” he says she’s trying to persuade people into believing.
Eugene Robinson, who co-paneled the discussion, co-signed Todd’s sentiments, saying “Look … Rush Limbaugh is an incredibly influential figure in the Republican Party. But he could never win the Republican nomination,” Robinson forwarded. “I think that’s where Sarah Palin is coming … Look at her numbers among Republicans. She doesn’t have the support among Republicans to win the nomination.”
True, Palin’s political capital eroded drastically after her inflammatory pronouncements were linked to the tragic shooting of Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and several others in Arizona earlier this year. But she can and probably will play an important role in next year’s presidential election from an ancillary standpoint, helping to crank up the anxiety, xenophobia and cultural animus among the white, middle-class electorate.
More troubling is the fact that, based upon recent history, African Americans have a ghastly history of being lulled into a slumber when immediate threats are extinguished and may become politically idle at a time when support for Obama is most critical. –terry shropshire
