Sarah Palin tells GOP to 'woman up' on shutdown threats. What's her point?
Sarah Palin has penned an for the conservative Breitbart website supporting Sen. Ted Cruz (R) of Texas and his effort to defund Obamacare. It鈥檚 vintage Palin 鈥� she refers to 鈥減eanut gallery pundits,鈥� and 鈥淐apitol Hill cowards鈥� among other alliterations. But the part that鈥檚 perhaps getting the most attention is her advice to Republicans: 鈥淲oman up, stand your ground, and fight like a girl!鈥�
OK, we鈥檒l bite 鈥� what鈥檚 she saying here, and why?
First, Ms. Palin鈥檚 theme as a whole: Senator Cruz and his supporters are fighting the good fight against a health-care reform law Americans don鈥檛 support. But instead of supporting Cruz and his 鈥渓iberty-loving posse鈥� in their attempt to stop 鈥淥bama鈥檚 train wreck,鈥� the Republican establishment in Washington is running the other way.
鈥淭he permanent political class in DC is nothing if not gutless and rudderless,鈥� writes Palin.
Anonymous sources are backstabbing Cruz in the press, says the former Alaska governor, while the permanent political class worries that the media will blame Republicans for a government shutdown if the fight over the president鈥檚 signature domestic achievement leads to that.
鈥淗ere鈥檚 a little newsflash, GOP establishment: Whenever anything bad happens, the media blames Republicans for it,鈥� writes Palin. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not an excuse to roll over and play dead. It鈥檚 a call to follow the advice I give my daughters: Woman up, stand your ground, and fight like a girl!鈥�
So 鈥渨oman up鈥� is her rallying cry, one that seems T-shirt-ready if accompanied by a drawing of Palin brandishing a hockey stick. But we鈥檝e got an addendum here: it鈥檚 possible the GOP wouldn鈥檛 actually take the brunt of blame for a shutdown, despite Palin鈥檚 prediction.
That鈥檚 what a new poll indicates, in any case. The just-released Pew survey indicates that 39 percent of respondents would blame GOP in a shutdown, and 36 would blame the Obama administration. That鈥檚 basically a tossup since the results are within the survey鈥檚 margin of error.
鈥淚f the federal government shuts down because Republicans and the Obama administration fail to agree on a budget, there will be plenty of blame to go around,鈥� .
Now, this is just one poll. Others have produced different results: A CNN poll in early September put the possible blame burden at 51 percent on the Republicans, and 33 percent on Obama.
But if nothing else the Pew poll is a reminder that predicting blame for an event that hasn鈥檛 yet happened is not straightforward. If it comes to a shutdown, the public could well frame its opinion on the particular circumstances which led to the impasse, not on what happened during the President Clinton versus Speaker Newt Gingrich shutdown of 1995.
