Karl Rove Questions Whether Sarah Palin Has Enough “Gravitas” To Run For President

by Hillary Busis | 10:41 pm, October 27th, 2010

» 26 comments

Sarah Palin hasn’t announced whether or not she plans to run for president in 2012—but that won’t stop people from endlessly discussing whether or not she’s up for the task. Now Karl Rove has become one of the speculators… and unfortunately for fans of the Mama Grizzly, he sounds less than optimistic about Palin’s chances.

Earlier today, Rove told The Daily Telegraph that Palin’s upcoming reality show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, might cause prospective voters to view the former governor as a less-than-serious candidate.

“With all due candor, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of ‘that helps me see you in the Oval Office’,” he said.

And that wasn’t all the conservative stalwart had to say about Palin:

He said Mrs Palin had done a “terrific job” in 2008 when Senator John McCain took her from near obscurity to the vice-presidential nomination, but added: “Being the vice-presidential nominee on the ticket is different from saying ‘I want to be the person at the top of the ticket’.

“There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say ‘that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world’.”

Will these remarks be damaging to Palin? It’s tough to say. Karl Rove is still an incredibly prominent Republican, but his influence is not what it used to be. Other comments that he’s made recently—such as that the Tea Party is “not sophisticated”—indicate that the adviser could be falling out of touch with what his party has become.

But either way, Rove’s assessment does make a lot of sense—especially considering that in the trailer for her series, Palin specifically says that she would rather be snowshoeing and moose-hunting than stuck “in some stuffy old political office.”

[h/t MSNBC]

Daily Telegraph, Karl Rove, Palin 2012, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin 2012, Sarah Palin's Alaska

CosmosDan

Maybe not but she sure had the Gravitatas

Bada Boom! Thanks you folks you’ve been a great audience.
david r

CosmosDan said:
Maybe not but she sure had the Gravitatas

Bada Boom! Thanks you folks you’ve been a great audience.

Great one! I call her the Great White Hope. The only way Obozo gets re-elected is if she’s the GOP nominee.
shootfromthehip

First time ever agreeing with Karl?

Check.
Big Eddie

Hey . Obama shows up on the Shopping Channel . The bar no longer set high .
http://www.facebook.com/people/Antony-Dupuy/1194612935 Antony Dupuy

Palin pushed Rove out of the GOP back in August with O’Donnell. No one (serious) wants to touch him. He’s cancer now.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Antony-Dupuy/1194612935 Antony Dupuy

Sometimes I wonder, “what will it take?” Gov. Palin has a bestseller, her own show, a contract with FOX, a very successful endorsement record, she’s help take down senators, congressmen, governors from both parties, and now about to get 3 states their first female governor. All this while kicking roves, huckabee, pawlenty sorry asses all over the schoolyard.

Neal Gabler said it best (and I paraphrase): “You hate Sarah Palin: she loves that. You think she can’t do something: sit and watch her do it…”

I can’t wait to Iowa when Romney gets embarrassed.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Scott/654124552 Soros Youth

I guess Karl wont be happy until the entire country hates his guts.
GlenQuagmire

“Rove’s assessment does make a lot of sense—especially considering that in the trailer for her series, Palin specifically says that she would rather be snowshoeing and moose-hunting than stuck “in some stuffy old political office.”

Eh, that’s no indictment, is it? Hypothetically, no one would choose their day job over the outdoors or whatever passion they have. W would prefer to be on the farm, Obama would prefer to be on the basketball court, Clinton would rather… nah, too easy. Snowshoeing is her equivalent to golf.
http://www.libertarianism.com/ Jack Burns

Karl Rove Questions Whether Sarah Palin Has Enough “Gravitas” To Run For President

…and your boss George W did??? Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha. That looser is why the Republicans gave up on their party in the first place LOL The Republicans are done, done done. Even if they get the House and possibly the Senate in this election. Their impotence and unwillingness to do what the majority of this County wants to see happen, will be the final nail in their political coffin! Do I hear a Third party rising up in the near future.? Yep!
SmartAlec

Tomorrow’s headline-
Sarah Palin questions whether Karl Rove has any cajones
noekk

Why does anyone talk about this? Todd couldn’t handle ONE TERM as governor! She’s not running.
Thelonious Funk

Her problem isn’t lack of Gravitas, it’s lack of Veritas.
roxsteady

There’s also a certain mystic that usually surrounds the Presidential candidate and their family. Sadly, her family is all too willing to whore themselves on national tv for coin and a reality show, no less. Not to mention that she’s as dumb as they come. And that corn pone, folksy, down home, cringe worthy speech pattern and dialect she possesses is just way too low brow for the Whitehouse. Just picture that screeching through a State of the Union Address. Grab the ear plugs!
Michele

I believe the one thing you can count on from Mr. Rove, his political honesty.

I would differ, in that her doing this show, offer’s viewers another perspective of who she is, I believe it was once said that even bad publicity is good publicity, we have yet to critique her new show which might help when having a discussion of her new gig.

It is my belief that most American’s have an opinion of Fmr Gov. Palin, and if you like her you will continue to do so and if you do not, you will also continue that point of view.

BTW, as a former resident of Utah, I love the outdoors, snow and hunting and would rather be doing that than living amongst the sunflowers of Kansas.

Just a few thoughts from Ft. Leavenworth, KS.
DonnaK

First time Karl Rove is making sense to me!! Your right, Karl!
Bill Mahwer

Have to agree with him.

By going on these shows, Facebook chatter and her daughter going on DWTS it just doesn’t look presidential.

The Repubs would be making a huge mistake to make her the presidential candidate. I suggest she needs to get a high level job in a new administration and then earn her stars with the moderates who are the ones who will decide if she is ready for prime-time.
http://www.uselessbeauty.com Vidiot

I cannot wait for Sarah Palin to run. Schadenfreude’s an ugly emotion, but it will be so much fun watching her try to desperately muddle her way through more debates, interviews she can’t control, and anything unscripted. I bet she’ll even try to quit halfway through, since that’s her track record. I hope she picks Giuliani as her running mate — or would it be better if she chose head stompers? Or Nazi re-enactors? Or Aqua Buddha assaulters? Or hypocritical closet cases? Gosh, there’s just so much to choose from. Meanwhile, I’ll make popcorn and settle in for an entertaining campaign.

As Dubya would say, bring it on!
valkyrie101

I would trust Sarah Palin to be President before Karl Rove.
disenlightened

Antony Dupuy said:
Sometimes I wonder, “what will it take?” Gov. Palin has a bestseller, her own show, a contract with FOX, a very successful endorsement record, she’s help take down senators, congressmen, governors from both parties, and now about to get 3 states their first female governor. All this while kicking roves, huckabee, pawlenty sorry asses all over the schoolyard.

Neal Gabler said it best (and I paraphrase): “You hate Sarah Palin: she loves that. You think she can’t do something: sit and watch her do it…”

I can’t wait to Iowa when Romney gets embarrassed.

Well said.
Stratdude

Being that rove was bush’s brain, dumb shits for president might be the one thing of which he is an expert.
Orion Antares

Bill Mahwer said:
Have to agree with him.

By going on these shows, Facebook chatter and her daughter going on DWTS it just doesn’t look presidential.

The Repubs would be making a huge mistake to make her the presidential candidate. I suggest she needs to get a high level job in a new administration and then earn her stars with the moderates who are the ones who will decide if she is ready for prime-time.

If she puts herself out there for a presidential run, I foresee a lot of “new” Republican voters come primary time to get her the party nomination.
http://Mediaite.com uggugg

Sarah Palin and all the Tea Party Activitist can only generalize, that is all they know how to do. I want peace, so does the whole country, happiness, so does the whole world, I want jobs, so do the whole world. This is why they entire Tea Party avoids the intelligent news media. They know how to gets facts, facts that the entire Tea Party can not furnish, that is why they keep running from the news media.
We sure don’t want them to hold office and then find out they don’t know their botton from their top. That would be disasteras for out political system. Please don’t vote for them. We don’t need anymore trouble in our economy than we already have. Those get rich books that tell you to “fake it till lyou make it” is just a myth
proudpatriotusa

Sarah Palin’s career would be over in half an hour in a jumble of word salad gibberish were she ever to appear on “Meet the Press”, “Face the Nation” or “This Week.”

Palin also doesn’t have enough palms and Sharpies to appear in that press conference she’s never had since her 2008 nomination.

“Fox News: Sarah Palin is an idiot ”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5BXMv64EfU
bealzebubba

okay…serious question for those of you who are righties

What about Palin draws you to her?
gar

If we give her a teleprompter she won’t do any worse than what we have right now, especially if she had all the questions ahead of time like you know who. BTW bealzebubba , serious question for the lefties.What is it about Palin that drives you all crazier than you already are?
Snidely

Karl Rove is no more a “conservative stalwart” than his former boss, Bush 43, is. Karl Rove is a political operative, pure and simple. He is a Republican operative, but could just as easily work for anyone else who needed his services. He believes in winning, and accumulating power, and influencing events, but I doubt he believes in Constitutionally limited government, or liberty, or anything else.
It is in the interest of his brand of Republicanism that the Tea Party be marginalized, that Sarah Palin and Christine O’Donnell be ridiculed, just as it is in the interest of the professional politicians on the Left. These are real people with real core beliefs who don’t focus group test every utterance before making it public, and what kind of world would it be if THESE people actually got elected? they might actually vote for what they thought was good for the American people rather than what is in the interest of the power brokers. Can’t let that happen, can we?