World News Korner

Politico considers the long term devastating effects of a Sarah Palin endorsement.

Courtesy of Politico:

Although Miller narrowly lost his bid for the Senate, he parlayed Palin’s endorsement into national name recognition, what he calls a “top-ranked” Internet news site (“Restoring Liberty” at joemiller.us) and a small but intensely loyal local following—the kinds of people who are “looking for the Ted Cruzes, the Mike Lees, the Rand Pauls.”

Miller is running again this year in the Republican primary for the right to oppose incumbent Sen. Mark Begich—one of the most endangered Democrats of the 2014 midterms and a key takedown target for Republicans. Yet by an unusual arrangement of events, Miller is actually poised to seal Begich’s re-election, protect the Democrats’ Senate majority and prevent the repeal of Obamacare. And it’s all thanks to Sarah Palin.

Of coursed if by some miracle Miller were to win the Republican primary, a possibility that I will put in the "When hell freezes over" category, it would mean that Begich could retain his seat essentially without spending another cent on campaign commercials.

But that scenario is not exactly what Politico finds interesting:

But something else is going on that should delight national Democrats and unnerve national Republicans.

Until this past year, when new chairman Peter Goldberg established calm, fratricidal bickering between Tea Party-style libertarians and everyone else has bedeviled the Alaskan Republican Party. Several chairmen have been ousted since 2010, and at one point the party leadership resembled the medieval papacy, with multiple claimants and no clear pope. The wounds from those intra-party fights are still fresh, and it’s not hard to imagine Miller launching an independent bid should he lose the primary, taking many of his Tea Party supporters with him. After all, “there’s a reason why the party bosses hate him and Washington fears him,” says the voiceover in one campaign ad. In the same clip, Miller says he is sending a message to “big-taxing, big-spending elites that the party is over.”

For the GOP, Miller’s run as an independent would likely be a disaster. In February, a Hays poll hypothetically pitted Begich, Sullivan and an independent Miller against each other (omitting Treadwell—a decision his campaign protested for “ignor[ing] the space-time continuum”), and found 45 percent for Begich, 33 percent for Sullivan and 10 percent for Miller—just enough to prevent a Republican victory.

Miller has been cagey about his plans. When prompted at a University of Alaska speaking event on April 10, he was careful neither to confirm nor deny a possible independent run in November, if he does not win the primary. But he did say that a vote for Treadwell or Sullivan would amount to a vote for Begich, and he did refer to good and “evil” Republicans.

Politico is right, a run as an Independent by Miller would certainly doom the Republican party candidate. And the party has already been badly damaged by Miller's attempt to hijack it in 2012.

Miller is undoubtedly going to be eviscerated again this time around, especially after some new evidence about illegal campaign donations hits the MSM, but he may also essentially cripple the ARP for the foreseeable future.

And THAT is good news for Senator Mark Begich and the Democratic party moving forward.

So do you think we should send that thank you fruit basket to Wasilla, or the house in Scottsdale?

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