Ya know it is funny how double standards work. Over the past few weeks many Republican strategists have commented that Governor Sarah Palin needs to get out of the media spotlight and spend some time brushing up on national and foreign policy issues. Yet Governor Bobby Jindal is given a front and center stage by the Republican establishment in providing the Republican response to Obama’s ridiculous stimulus package. By why should they pick a first term governor from the state of Louisiana to give this address instead of a prominent Republican member of Congress? The answer is simple: this is Bobby Jindal’s coming out party. This is a move by the Republican establishment to thrust Bobby Jindal into the national spotlight and on to the road to winning in 2012.

                So what is the double standard between Jindal and Palin? Well the Republican establishment is doing everything to put Jindal in the spotlight while at the same time advocating that Sarah Palin stay out of the spotlight. There is also another double standard being applied to Sarah Palin and this is that she should disappear so that she can brush up on foreign policy issues, but what foreign policy experience does Bobby Jindal have? At least there are positions taken by Sarah Palin on foreign policy, they can be found at: http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm. However, we know nothing about Bobby Jindal on these issues, but yet he is given the media spotlight.

                I have stated this before and I will state it again. First, Bobby Jindal is a political lightweight who will not rock the boat for the Republican establishment in Washington D.C. and in my opinion he is simply a clone of President Bush, and how did that work out for us? Sarah Palin on the other hand has made a career out of rocking the boat for both the Democratic and the Republican establishments, and the Washington elites simply do not want her in power because they know that they cannot control her. Sarah Palin is a crusader for the people and will always side with her principles and the people over and against any political establishment and this way of doing things has worked out quite well for her.

                The second point is this, does anyone really believe that Bobby Jindal can take on and beat Sarah Palin in a primary, let alone Obama in a general election? Bobby Jindal has some serious handicaps that will hold him back in any run for the presidency. First, he is not charismatic, meaning he does not energize the Republican base. Sarah Palin drew wildly enthusiastic crowds of 20,000-30,000 people. Does anybody honestly believe that Jindal has this kind of charisma? Second, Bobby Jindal is simply unattractive and looks like the wimpy kid that was constantly beat up in school. Sarah Palin is a highly attractive woman. This may sound superficial but in today’s elections looks play a major factor in many people votes, this is just being honest. Third, Jindal in my opinion simply lacks both the fierce debating skills and the political killing skills that Sarah Palin possesses. A fourth problem for Jindal is that the Republican base is wildly attached to Sarah Palin and it is going to be awfully difficult for him to break this bond between Sarah Palin and American conservatives. If he attacks her the base may very well turn on him as a result, so Jindal is playing with fire when it comes to dealing with Sarah Palin and the conservative base.

                Let me just add one more point and this is that Republicans have been in this situation before in both 1976 and then again in 1980. In 1976 it was Ronald Reagan vs. Gerald Ford in the GOP primaries. Now guess whom the Republican establishment supported? If you guessed Gerald Ford then you would be right, and Ford went on to lose the election to Jimmy Carter. However, Ronald Reagan ran again in 1980 but guess whom the Republican establishment supported? Reagan? Nope. They supported George Bush 41. However, this time the Republican grassroots had enough and worked hard to get Reagan to win both the primaries and the general election. Now once again there is a divide between the Republican base and the Republican establishment and this can be seen in the establishments support for Bobby Jindal and the conservative grassroots support for Sarah Palin. Now let me ask you this: how has voting for the choice of the Republican establishment worked out for conservatives? George Bush 41 undid what Reagan accomplished and was voted out. Bob Dole could not even boot out Bill Clinton when Clinton was so scandal ridden that it wasn’t even funny. George Bush 43 grew the government by leaps and bounds and messed up the war in Iraq and asked us for a trillion dollar bailout. Then John McCain gave us Barak Obama. So you can listen to the Republican establishment if you like but you will only get more big government, less liberty, and with Obama now you can have socialism.  

Sarah Palin’s star power has not diminished because today it was revealed that Sarah Palin has formally endorsed Texas Governor Rick Perry in his bid for re-election. Perry is being challenged in the Republican primary by Kay Hutchison. It seems that Sarah Palin’s endorsement is something that many Republicans have realized is worth its weight in gold. It is going to be interesting to watch and see whom Sarah Palin will endorse in both the Republican primaries and the general election in 2010. Sarah is obviously building up political alliances for 2012 and we will see if in the end it will pay off. It is interesting to note that Newt Gingrich has already commented that Sarah Palin is already the frontrunner for 2012 and is also far ahead of any other GOP challenger in terms of name recognition, the backing of and the popularity with the GOP base, the ability to run a grassroots campaign, and she will most likely have little trouble in raising campaign funds due to her popularity with the GOP base and even many independent voters. When is the last time that the base was this jazzed up for a Republican political figure? How about not since Reagan left office in 1988.  

If Sarah Palin is looking to win the Republican nomination in 2012 and go on to the White House then she has just received some excellent news from Rasmussen. A Rasmussen poll which was released on January 29th found that 55% of Republicans polled wanted the GOP to become more like Governor Sarah Palin. Also, independent voters by 46% would like to see the GOP become more like Sarah Palin. Among all those polled Sarah Palin now has a favorable rating of 52% and a very favorable rating of 28%. If Sarah Palin is eyeing 2012 then she has good news because 51% of Republicans have a very favorable regard for Sarah Palin while 51% of Democrats have a very unfavorable view of Governor Palin.