Has Palin’s ascent placed leftwing in panic mode?

by Rick Bloomfield

Washington, DC – Sarah Palin’s recent book release and publicity tour surrounding it has re-ignited fear among the leftwing movement, who see the rockstar as the greatest threat in 2012.

Political analysts say the unease has been triggered by Palin’s comeback recently, when she stepped down as Governor of Alaska to finish her tell-all book and spend more time with her family. Some say her political opponents’ apprehension has manifested itself in slanted editorials and unfair press releases disguised as ‘news’.

“What we have been seeing is a resurgence on the extreme left of a phobia of Palin as a superstar,” one noted political commentator said. “It’s begun to infiltrate mainstream culture in ugly ways,” he continued, pointing to MSNBC’s recent broadcasts of crude photoshopped pictures of the former Governor and a AP ‘fact-check’ that was widely criticized as biased and slanted.

The neurosis engendered by the fringes, while rarely new, has re-emerged in a more virulent strain with the release of Palin’s book “Going Rogue“, where she detailed her experiences on the campaign trail and shared stories of her family life with readers.

“What we are seeing if the extreme left-wing in full-out panic mode,” one news insider shared with TCA on condition of anonymity. “The Obama campaign did a decent job controlling that panic, but their fear of her as a 2012 threat is fragmenting them.”

Political nervousness aside, recent trends have pointed to a legitimate cause for worry for the Democrats and their alliances in the upcoming 2010 congressional elections, and further out, the ‘12 presidential one. They recently suffered shocking electoral defeats in Virginia and New Jersey, while barely scraping a win in the 23rd congressional district of New York.

No loss was more astonishing to political observers than New Jersey, where the Democrats had historically held an advantage for several decades. And although President Obama carried the state by 15 points during the ‘08 election, Chris Christie(R) coasted to victory on the waves of a violent 20 point swing in the other direction.

While displaying a brave face for the public, alliances on the left are beginning to show cracks as strategists have progressively voiced greater doubts about the direction the party is heading. Some advise a more moderate role for the Party, as polls show the public increasingly perceiving the Democrats as extreme and out of touch with most Americans.

The unease engendered by Palin’s meteoric rise epitomizes recent political developments by consolidating the worst fears of those who see an out-of-control party that will lose its majority and possibly the presidency in the future.

“We have to take back the Democrat Party from the extremists within,” one prominent Democrat politician somberly remarked. “It’s a big tent, but if we continue to allow those on the fringe to set the agenda, that is a surefire prescription for a perpetual minority.”