Todd Whitman: Palin Lacks “Depth”

Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) said Sunday that Sarah Palin can’t win a nationwide run for the White House, and pointed to the fact that the former Alaska governor left mid-term as an impediment to her support.

Whitman said that Palin could do well in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, but pointed out that there will be a lot of competition among Republicans trying to keep President Obama from serving a second term.

“Every congressman and senator right now thinks they can be president,” Whitman said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”.

Whitman said Palin could energize the base of the Republican Party, “but the base isn’t big enough.”

“I don’t think she’ll win nationwide,” she said. “You’ve got to start competing for the center. And so far I haven’t seen a lot of outreach on the part of Sarah Palin for that.”

When asked if she would support Palin as the nominee, Whitman said Palin hadn’t yet made her case.

“If she were the Republican candidate she’d have to show me a lot more than I’ve seen thus far as far as an understanding of the depth and the complexity of the issues that we face,” Whitman said. “I mean, I don’t know her personally. So I can’t comment on that.

“I mean, she was a governor,” said Whitman, who served two terms leading New Jersey and then went on to head the Environmental Protection Agency. “But the fact that she left office before even completing her first term is — that’s just not an attitude that I think is necessarily in the best interest of your constituents — rather what’s in your best interests.”

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Palin Rips FLOTUS’ Anti-Obesity Drive

Sam Stein at Huffington Post reports:

An appearance by Sarah Palin on Laura Ingraham’s radio show Wednesday morning drew a bit of pre-Thanksgiving buzz for a swipe she took at Barbara Bush for suggesting that the 2008 vice president nominee would be best served in 2012 by staying in Alaska.

“I don’t think the majority of Americans want to put up with the blue-bloods — and I want to say it will all due respect because I love the Bushes — the blue bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition,” said the former Alaska Governor.

But it was another swipe at another first lady that stood out in a notably charged interview. For the second time this week, Palin threw jabs at Michelle Obama (the first instance came with the publication of Palin’s book), this time calling her campaign to improve child nutrition another instance of a philosophical devotion to big government.

I think she has got a different worldview and she is not hesitant at all to share what her worldview is. And I will take heat again for saying it on your show Laura but she encapsulated what her view of America is, I believe, unless she has evolved and things have changed in the last two years, but she said it on the campaign trail twice that it was the first time that she had been proud of her country when finally people were paying attention to Barack Obama. I think that’s appalling. We can think of this infinite number of reasons to be proud of American exceptionalism and it baffles me that anybody would have that view and then allow that view to bleed over into policy.

Take her anti-obesity thing that she is on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat. And I know I’m going to be again criticized for bringing this up, but instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician’s wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.

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Palin Publisher Sues Gawker for Leaking Book

The AP reports:

NEW YORK (AP) — The publisher of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book filed a lawsuit against Gawker Media on Friday for leaking pages of “America By Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” before its release next week.

The legal complaint was filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan, said a spokeswoman for HarperCollins Publishers. The filing came two days after Gawker published images of 21 of the book’s pages and its dedication page. In response, Palin tweeted, “Isn’t that illegal?”

Her publisher contends it is. The lawsuit asks that Gawker be banned from what it terms “further copyright infringement” and that Gawker deliver the source material to the publisher so it can be destroyed. HarperCollins is also seeking financial damages.

Gawker did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment Friday evening, but an item published the day before and titled “Sarah Palin Is Mad at Us for Leaking Pages From Her Book” defended the blog’s actions and linked to websites defining the fair use doctrine of copyright law.

The blog was not the first site to publish excerpts from the book, which has been billed as a tribute to American values, but it refused to take them down after receiving a letter demanding that it do so, the lawsuit said. The Associated Press bought a copy of the book ahead of its Nov. 23 release date.

In it, Palin praises Simon Cowell and the movies “Juno,” ”Knocked Up” and “40-Year-Old Virgin.” She accuses President Barack Obama of reflecting “a stark lack of faith in the American people.”

Palin’s first book, the memoir “Going Rogue,” has sold more than 2 million copies.

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Murkowski: Palin Lacks “Leadership”

The Huffington Post reports:

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she doesn’t think Sarah Palin has the leadership qualities to be president, nor the “intellectual curiosity” needed to make good policy.

Murkowski shared her take on the matter during an appearance on Monday’s edition of “CBS Evening News” with Katie Couric.

“I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies,” explained the incumbent lawmaker when asked about a previous suggestion she’s made that she wouldn’t support Palin for president. “You know, she was my governor for two years. And I don’t think that she enjoyed governing.”

Elaborating on her view, Murkowski continued, “I want somebody that goes to bed at night and wakes up in the morning thinking about how we’re going to deal with our national security issues, how we’re going to deal with our economy, how we’re going to deal with providing better education or peace in the Middle East.”

An e-mail sent Monday from The Associated Press to Palin’s media team wasn’t immediately returned.

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Palin Endorses Tancredo

Talking Points Memo reports:

Sarah Palin is swooping in to the Colorado gubernatorial race with a last minute endorsement for American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo.

“BREAKING: Tancredo just received glowing endorsement from Sarah Palin – details forthcoming…” the Tancredo campaign wrote on its Facebook wall minutes ago. A link was then posted to an apparent robocall Palin recorded in support of his campaign (audio here).

“Tom is the right man for the job,” Palin says in the recording.

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GOP Leaders Prepare to Stop Palin

Politico reports:

Top Republicans in Washington and in the national GOP establishment say the 2010 campaign highlighted an urgent task that they will begin in earnest as soon as the elections are over: Stop Sarah Palin.

Interviews with advisers to the main 2012 presidential contenders and with other veteran Republican operatives make clear they see themselves on a common, if uncoordinated, mission of halting the momentum and credibility Palin gained with conservative activists by plunging so aggressively into this year’s midterm campaigns.

There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting.

Many of these establishment figures argue in not-for-attribution comments that Palin’s nomination would ensure President Barack Obama’s reelection, as the deficiencies that marked her 2008 debut as a vice presidential nominee — an intensely polarizing political style and often halting and superficial answers when pressed on policy — have shown little sign of abating in the past two years.

“There is a determined, focused establishment effort … to find a candidate we can coalesce around who can beat Sarah Palin,” said one prominent and longtime Washington Republican. “We believe she could get the nomination, but Barack Obama would crush her.”

This sentiment was a nearly constant refrain in POLITICO interviews with top advisers to the candidates most frequently mentioned as running in 2012 and a diverse assortment of other top GOP officials.

Nearly all of these interviewees insisted on keeping their views on background, fearing the wrath of conservative grass-roots activists who are enthralled with the former Alaska governor and who have made plain that the establishment’s disdain for Palin and her devotees is mutually reciprocated.

Top Republicans, from presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty to highly influential advisers such as Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, are said to be concerned she will run, and could win, according to the officials.

A Palin adviser declined to comment.

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