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Plouffe Says Sarah Palin ‘Playing Pied Piper’ for Republicans

by Tommy Christopher | 2:17 pm, November 1st, 2009

» 8 comments

Former Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, appearing on Meet the Press this morning, set the table for what will likely be the conversation of the week: The meaning of the “Palin Effect” in the NY-23 congressional race. It was a tiny part of a long interview about Plouffe’s new book, The Audacity to Win, but he managed to crystallize the Democratic Party’s hopes going forward.

“Sarah Palin is playing Pied Piper to the Republicans,” he said, referencing Palin’s endorsement of 3rd party candidate Doug Hoffman, which sank the Newt Gingrich-endorsed Republican candidate. He went on to say that the NY-23 race effectively hangs a “No Moderates Need Apply” sign in the RNC’s window.

Many conservatives would argue that this is a good thing, that the war for the Republican Party’s soul is more important than individual electoral battles. The reasoning is that, in the long run, the Party will have to abandon a strategy of moderation and support only strongly conservative candidates, which conservatives see as key to the long-term viability of the party.

The winner in Tuesday’s race is pretty much beside the point, as Republican Scozzafava’s withdrawal is the real trophy here, validating the strategy in the eyes of the purists. Polling at this point is unclear, but the Palin-backed Hoffman does have momentum going for him. If he wins, the GOP establishment may need to think about at least co-opting this strategy, if not full-on embracing it. If he loses a seat that has been held by Republicans for 100 years, it could touch off a full-scale civil war within the party.

As I see it, the Democrats win either way. A Republican Party that backs away from moderate positions on issues like healthcare reform, gay marriage and reproductive choice is one that is out of step with the American people. Moves like NY-23 may ignite the base, but do little to grow a party that is suffering historically low party ID numbers.

Republicans already have a tough fight ahead of them. If the Democrats pass health care reform bill that includes the overwhelmingly popular public option, Republicans will have to do some fast talking in 2010 to explain why their states’ voters should opt out of it. If the economy continues to show positive signs of growth, voters will be hard pressed to turn it back over to the party that got them into this mess. Without a strong economic argument, they’re left with a bunch of social issues thathave passed them by.

Considering all of this, it’s hard to see how the party will benefit from either being split down the middle or shifted sharply to the right. With Palin as the conservative movement’s most visible figurehead, it doesn’t look like they’ve got much of a choice.

Meet the Press:

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audacity to win, conservative party, David Plouffe, Dede Scozzafava, Doug Hoffman, Meet the Press, newt gingrich, ny-23, ny23, Republican, RNC, Sarah Palin, Tommy Christopher

TfT

One thing you have to say about Team Obama — they get their message out and all the media carry it loud and clear.

“No Moderates Need Apply” — I heard this saying time and time again today while watching the Sunday Talking Heads. I heard CNN’s King say this exact same thing in a number of interviews today. I heard it on FNC a number of times as well.

Of course, there is no discussion in this story about how Dede was selected and not elected (as in a primary) for this race. Had their been a primary and Dede had won, the circumstances might be different. That is a large factor in this instance, despite the author’s non-discussion of that fact.

I also think it’s interesting that there is all this talk about the war within the republican party while completely ignoring the war in the democrat party. It appears that the democrats are narrowing their own tent — all you have to do is look and see how dismissive they are about Joe Leiberman these days. Can’t have anyone in the democrat party who doesn’t support government run health care.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

Lieberman has been a Quisling for sometime now. Just as well he became a Republican. Maybe he and Palin could form a ticket. Then Lieberman would have the distinction of having run twice as VP and lost both times.
ImNotBlue

Moves like NY-23 may ignite the base, but do little to grow a party that is suffering historically low party ID numbers.

Why is this poll trotted out, versus a contradictory Gallup poll?
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123854/Conservatives-Maintain-Edge-Top-Ideological-Group.aspx

TfT brings up a good point (Bill Adkins, not as much). We’ve seen this all before, of course with the roles reversed and thusly the opinions were “different.” Liebermann was booted from the party because he wasn’t “Liberal enough.” This was done by the blue-blogs… MoveOn, TP, KOS, etc. And what happened? He became an Independent, and destroyed the Liberal candidate, Ned Lamont (who I recently saw eating a burger in a sports bar… no joke).

Of course, back then, it was Liebermann who was the bad guy (and remains as such), not the other way around. Why s that? Why when the far left booted a former VP candidate from the party because he wasn’t for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, was this a good thing for the Democrats? Why was their lurch to the left, despite the loss of their candidate, a good thing for them? Where were the articles then?

Look… I’m pretty moderate when it comes to social issues, although I’m not for a massive new government run healthcare program. The only thing this might do, IN CONCERT with the Democrats moving father left, is produce a more able-bodied third party. One that is more moderate on social issues (gay marriage, etc.), but strong in national defense and fiscal policy… and IMO, that would be a good thing. But to suggest that this will somehow have an overwhelming effect on anything… well, I think you’re putting your faith in too many debatable numbers.
CaptainAmerica

There goes Tommy again spewing his left wing nonsense.

Where’s Tommy been. Has he not seen the big reversal in polling on ABORTION. Reproductive Choice. What a total b.s. Call it what it is….. killing a child. The conservative position is the position of most Americans these days.

What if Conservatives had “caved” on the Global Warming Myth? But now, the polls are showing big shifts in skepticism on that front as well. The actual cooling in the last 10 years. The lack of hurricanes. The ice coming back. All major contradictions to Gore and other extremists who FLAT OUT LIED to the world over this issue.

Gay Marriage– once again– every place where its been on the ballot– GAY MARRIAGE HAS BEEN VOTED DOWN. Even in CA. Once again, conservatives are on the right side, but you wouldn’t know that from reading left winger Tommys comments.

Also, Tommy doesn’t point out the dilema the Democrats are in. They sold out to put in conservative to Moderate Democrats in the House/Senate. Now that those have turned against the “party” on health care and other things they are upset. They sold their soul to win but its hurting them.

The great thing is Dems control it all. They control the almost 10% unemployment rate. They control an out of control budget. They control how much the middle class will get soaked with new taxes. All that is going to destroy them in 2010 and 2012.
TfT

Scozzafava has now endorsed the democrat Owens. Yup, she was a really good choice for the local GOP to put up as the republican candidate.
gocatholic

Just WOW, Mister X. Conservative bloggers are going to eat you alive on this, it’s so filled with errors. Here are a few facts that you aren’t accepting as fact.

1) The nation hasn’t been so polarized since the Vietnam War. What is this “moderate” to which you refer?

2) The country is clearly pro-life and opposed to gay marriage. Few argue this.

3) The winner is not ‘beside the point’. It kind of ‘is’ the point.

Which leads me to…

4) This key phrase denies reality: “If he loses a seat that has been held by Republicans for 100 years….” Hoffman is not a Republican. He is a Conservative Party candidate. That’s kind of the point.

Sarah Palin isn’t a ‘pied piper’ of any kind. She appeals to a wide variety of average Americans……and when I say ‘average’, I mean people who aren’t happy with taking over another one-sixth of the economy with the Democrats’ healthcare fiasco and who are not happy with the government having control over 30% of the nation’s wealth. America is not a socialist country. The only way to make it so is to cram it down our throats. This seems to be precisely what the Democrats are doing. When you are being attacked, you reach for the most powerful available tool to fend off the attacker. Today, that would be Sarah Palin.
Sunnyr

This “Fluff” dude is totally out of touch with America. He’s in for a rude awakening on November 3, and again in 2010 and 2012. Sarah Palin will eat Barack’s lunch and drop kick him back to Chicago.
sara

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