Republicans Eye the Tiger of Populism

[Are_grits_groceries]

WASHINGTON — Via Oprah, Facebook and a bus trip that resembled a campaign swing more than a book tour, Sarah Palin reappeared on the national stage last week, minus her governorship and running-mate status, but with a new role as principled “rogue” to add to her previous credits as plain-spoken patriot and hockey mom.

Whatever else it said about America, her return brought into focus a big question for Republicans as they watched the intense reactions she generated: To what extent should they try to energize their electoral prospects by hitching themselves to the powerful but volatile strain of populism — characterized by anti-elitism and deep skepticism of government — that Ms. Palin has come to embody?

The renewed potency of populist conservatism has been on display since the summer, when health care town hall meetings became a forum for frustrated voters, angry at President Obama and Congressional Democrats over the issue of government expansion, and also at Republicans suspected of not fighting aggressively enough.
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Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997 and is a potential 2012 president candidate, cited the 1994 House elections as a model for what the party can accomplish now. In that election, he said, Republicans attracted voters who in 1992 had backed H. Ross Perot’s third-party candidacy.

“We figured out very quickly that the vast majority of them agreed with Republicans on most issues, and we courted them,” Mr. Barbour said. “We invited them to be involved and made it plain that we were interested in their views and that we shared most views. And I think the same thing would be said about the tea party leaders and activists.”

But if he is eager to court Ms. Palin’s fans, he seems ambivalent about Ms. Palin herself.

Under repeated prodding about her qualifications for the presidency Thursday from Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Mr. Barbour mustered only a half-hearted, “I don’t know of anything that disqualifies her from being president.” He, like other Republicans, is well aware that the populist wave she is riding could upend the party’s established order.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/weekinreview/22stevenson.html?_r=1

While the Rethug establishment snips and snarls at President Obama, they are nervously watching their backsides whether they admit it or not. The Paliban threatens them because they are the establishment. The Holies may not care about making a distinction between Rs and Ds.

Her effect on the Rethug Party could be devastating. That is a positive.