JoeSco Fires A Warning Shot

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45687.html

MSNBC pundit and former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough has written a truly scathing, blistering attack on Sarah Palin urging the rest of the GOP to 'man up' and take her on. JoeSco (yes, I am officially designating him that. Just for fun) seems to have issues with Palin's recent attacks on Presidents Bush and apparently, President Reagan (hadn't heard about this one). JoeSco slams Palin for being more interested in promoting reality television and her books than becoming a serious Presidential contender and is seriously ticked that she slammed the Bushies (blue bloods) and Reagan (for apparently being an actor.)

Now, don't get me wrong. I have a long list of issues with Sarah Palin and she has a lot of work to do if she wants to win the election, but JoeSco misses the mark on a couple of key points:

First, don't let the reality show fool you. Sarah Palin gets it. Sarah Palin gets it in the same way Ron Paul got it about small dollar fundraising in 2008 and in ways no one in the political establishment of either party has grasped yet. Elections aren't just about 'gravitas' and 'issues' anymore, to a large extent candidates are selling a vision, an idea and more importantly… a brand. Palin is using social media and reality television to introduce herself and talk to her conservative constituency directly without having every word she says wrung through a media filter of whatever ideological bias- and by doing so, she is building an untested (I say untested, because using the media to speak directly to voters in the way she's doing hasn't really been done before.) potential advantage in any potential nomination race.

That said, she has work to do: elections may be about media marketing more than voters these days (sad, but potentially true) but they are won and lost with the votes of independents- and right now she has to do a lot of work with independents. There's a gap that needs to be closed to take her from potential (and probable) GOP nominee to true Presidential contender. She's getting there, but she's not there yet.

Second, of course she's going to whack at the GOP establishment. Bush the Elder raised taxes and Bush the Younger expanded the size of government- two cardinal sins against conservatism. And while liberals had issues with Reagan's acting, her point with Reagan (though I haven't seen video on her supposed attack that outraged JoeSco so) might be this: being an actor didn't stop Reagan from being taken seriously as a candidate and a President, so why should she be subject to attacks from the GOPer Establishment for having a reality show? (Maybe, just maybe Reagan could be taken seriously because he was an ex-actor and a DUDE… hmmmmmm… I wonder.)

Either way, JoeSco should get some fire going in Republican bellies and make a race out of this. But he, like so many people seem to be underestimating Palin's potential and are playing silly games with expectations. If the argument against her is that she's a reality show bimbo with a thin resume and it turns out she can walk, talk and formulate policy ideas with all the rest of the boys, then ladies and gentlemen, that's the ballgame.

JoeSco should tread lightly- and maybe instead of defending the GOPer establishment he can poke Sarah with a stick and get her to cough up some gravitas and some policy ideas for the good people… good candidates are good for any party, even the Republicans, after all…