Regarding Sarah: Quotes, Part 5

Ed Morrissey:

“Of the four principals in the 2008 election, Palin is the only one whose clout has increased, and probably is the only one whose clout hasn’t decreased significantly. That’s why the Palin-Cheney kerfuffle last week really missed the point. Regardless of whether one thinks Palin was a good pick for the 2008 ticket, she has transformed into a highly influential activist with the grassroots. Attempting to minimize that or marginalize Palin as a powerhouse in the GOP will likely leave Palin with the last laugh.”

Bernie Quigley:

“The Ted Cruz victory in the Texas Senate race brings substantive political change, and Sarah Palin is behind the paradigm shift... Today, ‘the establishment’ pushes further away from the main pulse of America and Sarah Palin holds the pulse.”

Rosalind Helderman and Paul Kane:

“She keeps picking winners. Each of five candidates she has endorsed this year who have faced primaries or other campaigns have won, including former Texas solicitor general Ted Cruz, who Tuesday beat the state’s well-connected lieutenant governor for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. But whether her success rate is a testament to her continued sway over Republican activists or to a savvy ability to spot winners, her track record has been clear.”

Rich Galen:

“She has shown a level of political maturity that is surprising—and not just to me, but to others in the party. By limiting her involvement, she is giving her picks more weight. And that is helping her brand.”

Sean Sullivan:

“Cruz’s general consultant Jason Johnson explained that the campaign was in the field with polling on the race every night during the stretch run of the race. On the day Palin visited Texas, Johnson explained, among the roughly one-in-five voters surveyed who said they were getting their information about the race from earned media sources, Cruz was leading Dewhurst 58 percent to 33 percent. The next night, Cruz’s lead among that slice of field grew, to a 69 percent to 27 percent margin. ‘I've certainly never seen an overnight 17-point swing from earned media based on the appearance of a former elected official, a celebrity, or anyone in my experience,’ Johnson said.”

Steve Flesher:

“Throughout her entire career, Palin displayed a strong desire for reform. She cut taxes, she slashed business license fees, and she still managed to cut overall spending in Alaska's budget. In doing so, she was able to put billions away in reserve accounts for the state's future.”

Greta Van Susteren:

“I have heard so much about whether Governor Palin was good for the 2008 Republican ticket or not – so I decided to do something a bit old fashion. I went back and looked at some facts. I looked at the Fox News Channel poll numbers from the Presidential race of 2008. What I discovered was quite interesting and may rub against what has become the conventional wisdom for some as to why Senator McCain’s poll numbers went down late in the fall...”

Rush Limbaugh:

“No question about it. The mistake on that ticket was not Palin. Pure and simple. Sarah Palin was not the mistake on that ticket.”

Ben Domenech:

“Without being tinged by the McCain disaster, without the betrayal of McCain’s crack communications team, and without the intense resentment of the Romney clan (which began working to undermine Palin before the 2008 election was even over), Palin would’ve been far more than an inspiration for the right, but a real threat for 2012.”

Rick Manning:

“Unable to match the youth and enthusiasm of the inexperienced but expert campaigner from Illinois, McCain needed to shake up the race, and Palin accomplished just that. Her incredible acceptance speech, delivered in spite of a faulty teleprompter (try that, Mr. President), gave the nation a new face and voice for conservative principles just when it was desperately needed... History shows that it was the McCain campaign that blew any chance at election when it suspended its efforts fully three weeks after the nomination to come back to D.C. and rubber-stamp the TARP bailout... Now, four years later, those very architects and apologists of ‘too big to fail’ policies desperately seek to dissuade presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney from making a similarly bold conservative choice for vice president. Let’s hope Romney remembers history, because if he does, he will know that the choice of Palin was one of the few things the McCain campaign got right. It was McCain’s and President Bush’s abandonment of limited-government, free-market principles that were the ultimate culprit in bringing us four years of Obama — not Sarah Palin.”

Mark Levin:

“Why does Dick Cheney feel it necessary to attack Sarah Palin?”

John Nolte:

“Palin's years in government, especially two years as the chief executive of a state, make her qualified to be president. It's just a fact that she was and is more qualified than any sitting senator with zero executive experience, and this would include Obama, Biden, and McCain himself. Moreover, during the 2008 campaign, it was Palin who almost always had the guts and the correct instincts. Unlike McCain, she was the one who bristled at the idea of constantly caving to media narratives and the one who wanted to vet Barack Obama's shady and corrupt past. It was always McCain and the rest of the GOP who thought he could win by appeasing the corrupt media -- it was always McCain who strapped on his ‘honor’ and blindly leaped on to every grenade thrown at him, instead of throwing it back. We all know who lost that election and we all know what the consequences have been.”

Andrea Shea King:

“Sarah Palin’s record and leadership abilities speak for themselves and anybody would do better to emulate them than to marginalize themselves by taking swipes at her.”

Tony Lee:

“Cheney’s feelings about Palin are not news even though the mainstream media is treating it as a big scoop. In 2010, Cheney punted on whether he thought Palin was qualified and his daughter, Liz Cheney, denied a report that asserted Cheney thought the choice of Palin as McCain’s running mate was ‘reckless.’ Cheney, who led the vice presidential search that picked Nelson Rockefeller for Gerald Ford's VP, is probably more comfortable with a vice presidential candidate who has similar establishment bona fides to Rockefeller, which Palin obviously lacks.”

Peter Ingemi:

“Sarah Palin is the perfect political capitalist, she has taken her political capital, invested it in the candidates of her choice and come out with even more. No amount of political snark or clever Conan skits will change that.”

Mark America:

“Governor Palin has never been one to cede anything to the left, leaving them a victory by default. In fact, this is what has made her so precious to many on our side, because it is this unrelenting fighting spirit that we have often lacked. It’s been the habit of the GOP establishment to write-off such places, but she’s right: We must fight for every one. In her speech on Friday, she mentioned a candidate for Senate in the State of Maryland, a deep, deep blue state in which mathematically, no victory should ever be possible for a Republican, never mind a conservative, but maybe that’s our problem. Perhaps we abandon the men and women like Dan Bongino too easily, and maybe that’s why we seem to be perpetually on the defensive.”

Sarah Steelman:

“Let me be clear that I am proud of any comparison to Governor Palin, who has been a champion of conservative values and hard-working Americans all across this great nation.”

Brent Bozell:

“Look, there's no doubt that Sarah Palin has figured out a way to benefit from all the media attention -- mostly negative, often vicious -- after the 2008 presidential race. The enemy of my enemy is my friend -- and her support has grown by the millions... In addition to the TLC series ‘Sarah Palin's Alaska’ and Bristol's two turns on ‘Dancing,’ Bristol is currently on the show ‘Life's a Tripp’ on Lifetime. Her father, Todd, will star in the fall on the NBC show ‘Stars Earn Stripes.’ There's no doubt the TV critics hate the idea of this family on television.”

Twitchy Team:

“Bristol Palin does a great job of taking President Obama to task over his reprehensible ‘you didn't build that’ remarks.”

Kevin Fobbs:

“Sarah Palin has not kept 23 million Americans jobless. Sarah Palin is not responsible for unemployment being above 8 percent for 42 months straight since February 2009, according to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sarah Palin is not responsible for ongoing tragedy of 1.6 million children who are homeless, according to a study released by National Center on Family Homelessness in December 2011. There is a name for this fear and his name is President Barack Hussein Obama... Romney, include Palin’s steel will and her vibrant clarion call to join with yours and allow Americans to feel a new dawn in their life, in their family’s future and in America... Sarah Palin can and will make a difference at the GOP national convention, and add vigor and build the support needed to unseat President Obama in November. Her speech can help turn a presidential bid into a presidential victory. And there begins the true transformation of Romney the candidate to Romney the American leader who will take back the White House.”

- JP