Palin beats out Romney and Cheney? Wow, how low can you go? First place gets 18%? This is pitiful.

"Dick Cheney at 4%"

So, why doesn't he then STFU?

Michael Steele in 2nd place with 14%.

I would ask how he's so high on the list (especially with no spending power?), but it's probably better just to be happy for him (and us).

The only thing that really surprises me is to see McSame in the lead.

I think the clear winner in all of this are the American people.

So 63% of Republicans are unrealistic in thinking that they do have a clear leader, and among that lot they are pretty thoroughly divided as to who that would be. And everyone named is almost embarrassingly hapless, pathetic, or irrelevant.

Nice.

I don't really get all this emphasis on there not being a 'clear leader' for the Republicans. They're not the party in power, so why would that be expected?

Two years ago who was the 'clear leader' of the Democrats? Pelosi? Reid? Clinton? Shumer? Other people on weekend shows every Sunday? It certainly wasn't Obama. Seems like this is the perfect time for the GOP to have no clear leader. Their problem is that the leaders that might become their clear leaders in another year all either suck, are past their prime, or aren't running for office, and I do agree that that's a real issue for them.

Would someone please explain this poll and its implications to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi (Maybe the House understands it a little better than the rest,) Barack Obama and his advisers. I really don't think that they understand what this means, because from where I sit they are acting like the Republicans have some kind of power. Otherwise you'd really have to wonder why they're caving to the banksters, the credit card companies and soon the Health Insurance industry. What is it that all these industries have in common...hmmm...what could it be?$$$$?

Sounds like McCain's momma is right to tell Rush to STFU.

Hey! Where's Newt?

What is happening is that the conservative Republican coalition was being held together by agreements among the various leaders of the different factions that only worked as long as they had the power to pass out patronage to secure their own leadership positions. The various large groups are all groups of authoritarian followers formed around ideologies and looking for leaders, and the leaders are only given the power to go off the ideological reservation as long as they have the patronage needed to secure their leadership positions.

Now they don't have the Executive Branch and they are in the minority in both houses of Congress. The remaining leaders don't have enough patronage to pass out to secure their leadership roles in the face of the radio talk show hosts who demand ideological purity first. If they try to negotiate coalition agreements they will be removed in the next primary, being treated like Specter was. That was what the failure to coalesce around a Presidential candidate to replace Bush proved.

There simply is no room in that political scrum for a leader to arise who can weld together the previous conservative coalition of movement conservatives, Evangelicals, Libertarians, and what have you. Rove had brought in Bush 42 who could be accepted as leader by both the Evangelicals and by the conservatives who had followed his father.

Then Bush self-destructed as an incompetent leader, with no one to pick up the pieces. That's why Limbaugh is now their leader. He will destroy anyone who opposes him, and he is money-driven and ideology-driven, with no responsibility to win elections.

That's what the memo from Scott Rasmussen means. And like alcoholics, they are going to have to hit rock bottom before they permit help to arrive.

Where's Newt?

Here he is:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2251777/posts

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is engaging in a "despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort" to withhold what she knew about the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques, former Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday. Newt Gingrich says Nancy Pelosi is a 'trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowest of purposes.' Newt Gingrich says Nancy Pelosi is a 'trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowest of purposes.'Gingrich said Pelosi "lied to the House" when she earlier claimed that the CIA had never briefed her about the Bush administration's use of interrogation methods like waterboarding, which is considered torture by the current administration. "I think that the House has an absolute obligation to open an inquiry, and I hope there will be a resolution to investigate her. And I think this is a big deal. I don't think the speaker of the House can lie to the country on national security matters," the Republican leader said in an interview with ABC Radio.

I didn't use youtube because I can't stand to look at the guy.