As we conservatives stumble through this agonizing primary process, one thing that has been patently obvious is the disconnect between the republican elites and the more grass-roots conservative, tea party types.
The conservative intelligensia determined that Mitt Romney was the front runner immediately after the 2008 election. And have done their best to destroy anyone, either in the media or prospective candidates themselves, who challenged their superior wisdom.
Sarah Palin has often borne the brunt of these attacks, as her populist appeal threatens to derail the annointed one's path to the nomination. Even after Sarah announced she would not seek the party's nomination, conservative bloggers and pundits have continued to try and diminish her appeal to both the party and the country at large.
The latest salvo come from Bart Marcois a writer for the DC Caller. In his latest column there, Marcois claims Palin has tipped her hand by claiming she'd be willing to be drafted to run for president in a brokered convention:
"She has no interest in seeing any candidate gain the support of the majority of the GOP delegates, because she believes she could step into a brokered convention and walk out as the Republican nominee."
He uses this belief to salve his own inability to understand why Palin, like millions of voters, want the primary process to continue. We don't want a beltway annointed candidate. We don't want someone else to tell us who to vote for. Those are hallmarks of the current generation of democrat voters. We want to learn more about our choices, indeed, we want to make our own choices . . . that is the hallmark of the current generation of conservative republican voters. And beltway influence brokers like Marcois cannot get their heads around it.
Marcois claims the proof is in a recent interview Sarah gave to Eric Bolling on FOX Business. In the video, she explicitly says she may be open to running for office in the future. And when asked about a brokered convention, says she would do whatever she could to help:
That Marcois can use Palin's non-admission of anything substantive to support his own imaginings only shows the depth of his PDS. Indeed, later in the column, Marcois cannot resist one final unfounded dig at the former candidate for Vice President:
"She also shares with him [Gingrich] a disdain for conventional campaigning, which critics call a lack of discipline. Those characteristics are ideally suited to winning an election process that lasts only three days and takes place in a single city, but they are liabilities in a process that takes months and covers 50 states."
Who are the critics Marcois is referencing here? Beltway pundits and influence peddlers like himself, perhaps? I said in a post long ago, that Palin proved that she did not need the established machine to get her message out and it infuriates those who make their living off political messaging. Clearly Marcois' got his panties in a bunch because Palin won't play his game.
For the record, I don't believe Sarah's angling for a brokered convention. I also don't believe that only Mitt Romney can defeat Barack Obama in the general election.
Sorry there Bart, but I'm not buying what you're selling.
