Christine Todd Whitman – Tea Partier?

29 Responses to “Christine Todd Whitman – Tea Partier?”

1. Aron Goldman Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 2:54 am

   Q: So, you’re not at all concerned or unnerved by the fact that there’s this grass roots, deeply conservative, anti-Washington movement that’s having such an effect on the Republican Party?

   WHITMAN: Well, I’m hoping it’s going to get the Republican Party back to where it should be — which is getting away from a focus on social issues and back to a focus on the fiscal issues because we can find a lot more areas of agreement there and move forward. And I think it’s important that we have a vibrant two-party system in this country. And right now, the Republicans are really ancillary. They don’t have much of a place at the table. They have adopted for the most part, not exclusively, but up until recently, they’ve been pretty much the party of ‘No’. And that isn’t what the public wants anymore. They want solutions, and they want answers. And, the Tea Party movement has every right to express itself the way it is, and so far it’s been peaceful, and that’s the way it should be.

   Q: But, you say the party of ‘No.’ That’s one of the criticisms leveled against the Tea Party movement — that they’re sort of defined by what they are against rather than for what they are for.

   WHITMAN: Well, again, there are a bunch of different factions of the Tea Party movement and I am speaking to the faction that really got it started, which was a standing out, an acting out against higher taxes and more government interference. I mean that’s what those original Tea Parties were that they had around the country in the summer. And now you are seeing some of the more socially conservative elements trying to take over, and there are splits within the Tea Party movement. So it’s going to be very interesting to see. But, what encourages me is it’s people who are not part of the traditional party apparatus, finally finding a voice. And I might not agree with all those voices, but at least they are starting to participate. Because many of them had just sort of written off political participation and said they want nothing to do with it, wasn’t going to make a difference and didn’t bother to vote.

2. Gary Matthew Miller Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 8:24 am

   People forget that, for all her shortcomings, CTW was a tax-cutting supply-sider.

3. HYUFD Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 10:45 am

   The BBC is like the mainstream news networks in the USA, it had just such an attitude to UKIP and the BNP before they won seats in the European Elections last year (with UKIP even beating Labour!). In Britain there is no FOX, but right-wing papers like the Mail, Telegraph and Sun and Sky offer some balance to BBC liberalism!

4. Cincinnati Kid Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 10:49 am

   Did anyone watch Palin’s speach last night? I got my first HD receiver with my hi-def TV and then I turned to CNN (where they had a better picture). Then I kept asking myself “what is on her left hand?,” as it had a bunch of black marks all over it. I figured it might be a note to herself, which then we later found out it was her cheat sheet for the Q&A’s.

   In fact, I think the Q&A’s were her best responses she had in a long-time, so I figuered she knew what the questions were ahead of time. This was quickly confirmed as she looked at her hand in mid-response when asked about her 3 priorities for tea party candidates!

   Come on, if you can’t even remember the points you are going to make for a question you already know is coming, you don’t belong in the spotlight. Between that and her appearance on Glenn Beck, and the bad interview she had with Katie, she needs to either improve dramatically, or get the heck out of the political spotlight.

5. jerseyrepublican Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 11:16 am

   4 – Do you have any links to her looking down at her hands, or one that shows a zoomed in shot that shows these black marks?

6. Aron Goldman Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

   Do you have any links to her looking down at her hands, or one that shows a zoomed in shot that shows these black marks?

   EXCLUSIVE (Update): Palin’s Tea Party Crib Notes
   Closer inspection of a photo of Sarah Palin, during a speech in which she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter, reveals several notes written on her left hand. The words “Energy”, “Tax [Budget] Cuts” and “Lift American Spirits” are clearly visible.

7. Cincinnati Kid Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 12:14 pm

   Jersey, I am messaging from my blackberry, so don’t have the video-link, but I am sure you can see it on Youtube. Anytime she gestures with her left hand during the speach, just look at her left palm (whether it is from CNN or Fox you should see it).

   For the Q&A, the CNN broadcast I saw clearly showed her pause mid-response (between point #1&#2), open up her hand, read it, and then continue on with her response…

   I will see if I can find the link and time code tonight if no one else does.

8. Cincinnati Kid Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 12:28 pm

   Aron, thx! In fact, those were the three points of her response. It shows both she knew the questions ahead of time and she needed to make notes for herself.

   I actually find it sad because I do like her political views. I just wish she could articulate them more succinctly. That is why we need Marco Rubio ASAP…

9. Tommy Boy Says:
   February 7th, 2010 at 1:07 pm

   http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODU3YzkwMGYxZGY1NGQ2OTZiZWZhMWIzOTNkZTU1ZWE=

   I’m trying really hard to figure out why certain left-wing blogs are treating this picture of Sarah Palin reading notes off her hand as some kind of major coup. The notes she had written are “Energy,” “[illegible],” Taxes,” and “Lift America’s spirits.” That’s some cheat sheet.

   I get that it’s a sort of “turnabout is fair play” from the set that must be very annoyed by now at all the prompter jokes. But it misses the point of why the prompter jokes have caught on. A prompter feeds your remarks to you word for word. The idea that you would need such a device to talk to a room full of sixth graders or a meeting of your own staff is funny.

   On another level, the prompter jokes took off because they reinforce the substantive argument that Obama is in over his head, because they indicate that he can’t perform the the presidency’s basic public-speaking duties without a major safety net. I’m not sure what substantive argument Palin’s hand-notes are supposed to underline, and I suspect it’s not an argument so much as an attitude. The attitude would be that writing on your hand is dumb and low-class. On the left, where this opinion of Palin already prevails, anything which reinforces it will be picked up and cheerfully passed around. And, to the extent that anyone not on the left notices this giddy snobbery, it will play to Palin’s strengths.

   For example, one might say: “Unlike the guy who needs a three thousand dollar teleprompter to get out of bed in the morning, Palin speaks from concise notes like everybody else. And, like other busy moms, she sometimes writes notes on her hand.” The comeback is so obvious that, again, I really can’t figure out why Palin’s detractors are bringing this up at all.

10. OHIO JOE Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    Well said Tommy Boy.

11. Tommy Boy Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    I’ll reserve comment about her hand but check out this screen shot:

    http://gallery.me.com/donnaa#100024/Screen-20shot-202010-02-07-20at-2010-15-39-20AM&bgcolor=black

    It sure doesn’t look like there’s anything on her hand.

12. Aron Goldman Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    The words “Energy”, “Tax [Budget] Cuts” and “Lift American Spirits” are clearly visible.
    

    Did Palin have crib notes on her hand?
    

13. OSUPhantom Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    Does this Palin hand-note thing really make a difference. When in debate team we were allowed a whole note card during our extemp speech (I never used one for the record). Something like that helps yu keep track of what your key focus is and helps you from rambling off about other things. It’s a tool all public speakers use.

14. Doug Forrester Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    I see Aron has a fixation on Palin’s hands but I’m not seeing an issue here.

    I suppose the Rockefeller wing of the party is just raging against their irrelevance.

15. Bob Hovic Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    I can’t see what Aron and others are so worked up over. Unless it’s just one more thing to feed their obsession.

16. jerseyrepublican Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    15 – I have to agree but this story will take traction and I’m sure people will hate her even more and give them more ammo against her, because of it…SIGH…

17. Aron Goldman Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    I see Aron has a fixation on Palin’s hands but I’m not seeing an issue here.

    No fixation — #12 was simply a response to #11′s Baghdad Bob-ish, provably false comment.

    It sure doesn’t look like there’s anything on her hand.

    I would much prefer hearing from, specifically, Sarah’s economically conservative supporters as to whether they side with Scott Brown, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Steele and the GOP, or if they align themselves with Palin, Martha Coakley, Barney Frank, and Barack Obama on the issue of Wall Street bonuses.

18. TC Robinson Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    This is just yet one more thing that proves the double-standard that exists for Sarah Palin. The media couldn’t give a crap that Obama needs a teleprompter to go to the bathroom, yet when Sarah Palin needs some notes, its a federal offense. Incredible.

19. Flip Dixon Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    Romney writes his political positions on both sides of his hands, which helps with all the flipping.

20. Alex Knepper Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    LOL FLIP!!!! I LAUGHED!!! SO HARD!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

21. Alex Knepper Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    In Game Change, the authors say that when Palin was put on conference call to talk about the financial collapse, she spouted a bunch of irrelevant anti-Wall Street populist cliches and everyone was just like — ummmm, what?

22. Tommy Boy Says:
    February 7th, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    Front-Runner Sarah Palin Has VASTLY Improved
    By Henry Blodget
    http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-admit-it-sarah-palin-has-vastly-improved-2010-2

23. jerseyrepublican Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 12:16 am

    21 – anti-wall street, populist cliches…what does that even mean?

24. Aron Goldman Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 12:30 am

    Irked, Wall St. Hedges Its Bet on Democrats
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/us/politics/08lobby.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

    Mr. Obama’s fight with Wall Street began last year with his proposals for greater oversight of compensation and a consumer financial protection commission. It escalated with verbal attacks this year on what he called Wall Street’s “obscene bonuses.” And it reached a new level in his calls for policies Wall Street finds even more infuriating: a “financial crisis responsibility” tax aimed only at the biggest banks, and a restriction on “proprietary trading” that banks do with their own money for their own profit.

    “If the president wanted to turn every Democrat on Wall Street into a Republican,” one industry lobbyist said, “he is doing everything right.”

    UBS’s political action committee has shifted its contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. After dividing its money evenly between the parties for 2008, it has given about 56 percent to Republicans this cycle.

    Senator John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he visited New York about twice a month to try to tap into Wall Street’s “buyers’ remorse.”

    “I just don’t know how long you can expect people to contribute money to a political party whose main plank of their platform is to punish you,” Mr. Cornyn said.

25. Alex Knepper Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 2:09 am

    23 – Probably something along the lines of something she said in the VP debate: “Darn right it was those predator lenders, preying on people who were tricked into believing they could afford…” — Wow, talk about personal responsibility! No blame to go around; darn right it was those predator lenders!

    Probably the same reason she supported a windfall tax on the oil companies up in Alaska, because the oil “belongs to the people” as a “people’s resource,” and all of that good free-market stuff, right?

26. Tommy Boy Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 2:16 am

    #25 It does according to the state’s constitution.

    In any event,

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122057543526201877.html

27. jerseyrepublican Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 9:49 am

    25 – Palin didn’t write the Alaska Constitution, but she did take an oath to uphold it. Some people on this site live in a dream land if they think that sticking up for corporations and wall street are going to win them any elections in the near future…good luck with that. Support free market principles and propose free market legislation but don’t pat wall street guys on the back. And let me ask you this…do you really believe that Wall Street bankers didn’t prey on people a little bit? I’m going to guess you’re going to talk about personal responsibility and I agree but to say that the banks weren’t convincing people that they can afford what they(the bankers) knew they couldn’t wasn’t occurring is utterly ridiculous.

28. ROme NExt Year Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 11:27 am

    #13,
    It’s DECEPTION, pure and simple. She could have used a card for notes like most people. Yet she chose to show herself as above all that (Heck, I’m Smart, I don’t need notes) not realizing how Video cameras have improved over the years.

29. jerseyrepublican Says:
    February 8th, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    28 – I have to completely disagree! Most likely, they were last minute thoughts, before she went on stage, so she wrote them on her hand. I don’t think Palin is as Machiavellian as you’d like to believe.