Sarah Palin, CPAC and JBS

John R. Houk
© January 10, 2010

I have to admit that I am a Sarah Palin fan. I admit it in the sense that I am also aware that most Conservatives do not look with favor at Palin as a potential Presidential candidate. Even so at this time Palin has a huge Conservative following despite the Conservative majority’s disfavor with the former Governor of Alaska. I am one of the huge following of Palin.

In a Pew Research poll in June 2009 Palin had an 80% favorable rating among Conservative Republicans and a 62% rating among Moderate and Liberal (What is a Liberal doing in the Republican Party?) Republicans.

In a November 2009 released CBS poll, Palin’s overall rating among the totality of American voters (i.e. Republicans, Dems and Independents) is not exactly a favorable portrait of Sarah Palin. That negative overall rating is 72%. Now CBS is no friend of Conservatives. Thus I found it interesting it chose to report Palin’s overall rating in terms of favorable rather than unfavorable. In the second paragraph of the article I read, Palin’s favorable rating is 23%. I am guessing CBS pollsters viewed such a low favorable rating as more damaging than an overall unfavorable rating. Grudgingly the CBS poll still noted Palin as a favorite among overall Conservative Republicans. That percentage of favorability among Republicans is listed as 52%. Then things get a little grudging. The CBS news article provides a chart breaking down Palin’s favorability for a Presidential run in 2012 via overall, political party, Conservatives and “White” Evangelicals. This chart varies a bit from the article’s overall reporting placing the “All” as 24% favorable and 66% unfavorable which mathematically adds up to 90% rather than a 100%.

Here is the whole chart:

All Rep Dem Ind Conservatives White evangelicals
Yes 24% 44% 9% 26% 41% 48%
No 66% 48% 83% 62% 50% 42%

In the CBS poll it is only among “White” Evangelicals that Sarah Palin has a favorable rating among voters hoping she would run for President. I am guessing the gaps not on the chart mathematically are undecided.

Yes readers I would fall under the “White” Evangelicals. Just in case you were curious.

Now I rehash all these statistics that will be forgotten as November 2010 draws closer because of a little ballyhoo Sarah Palin is causing by publicly announcing she will not attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). When Conservatives were the most influential political block in Congress and the White House, the annual CPAC conference has been a place that future Presidential hopefuls would meet. Also CPAC was a place that influential (or influential hopefuls) legislators and Executive Branch members would sell their agenda.

The question then is this: Why would Sarah Palin who is a Conservative darling and a potential Presidential candidate snub attending CPAC?

Palin’s answer is that she does not want to be associated with a platform that is more about special interests and the pocket book than Conservative core beliefs and public policy. That is an excellent response.

Tommy Report on his A2C2 blog has a very salient speculation that the politician side of Palin wisely did not display at this time. His speculation surrounds the Conspiracy Theory under every rock ultra-Conservative group known as the John Birch Society (JBS):

“CPAC's decision to provide the John Birch Society with the opportunity to sponsor the event.”

Honestly if you are a person that is wary of a Big Brother government and are anti-Communist, JBS will have some attraction. JBS is huge on preventing the conspiracy of a New World Order terminating American sovereignty and replacing Founding Father principles with Marxist/Socialist globalist ideology. Thus as you might expect the JBS stretches their wary eye beyond Democrats or fringe Leftist Dems. JBS has their eye on Center-Right Republicans and RINO’s as of their conspiratorial view.

JBS is so conspiratorial minded however that their agenda is not viewed as valid by Conservative ruling elites. JBS would probably place many Conservative elites as part of the conspiracy of the New World Order (NWO).

So now the question is: why in the world would CPAC take such a sharp turn to the conspiratorial Right in having the John Birch Society be the primary sponsor of this year’s annual CPAC meeting?

As noted, Sarah Palin has not indicated that the JBS is the reason for not excepting an invitation to CPAC; nonetheless a Palin acceptance would no doubt bring forth more MSM vilification.

JRH 1/10/10