OK, I now think I was wrong.
I now think she is running.
This article is pretty convincing.
One experienced observer, seeing the Palin operation in Iowa, says this:
“They are very organized, and the team they have in place is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in this state before — and I’m totally impressed by the way they’ve gone about it,” she said. “It’s going to be a major upset if she gets in because I think these people are very underestimated.”
Maybe this really is all just hype, to sell books. But it is looking more and more like an extremely unorthodox but serious effort.
Say this for the GOP nomination race: It is first rate political theatre. A thrill and a chill a minute.
Maybe it will even produce a candidate that can beat Mr. Obama.
God bless America.
It would be great if Palin ran.
Obama is easily beatable if the Republicans can produce a candidate who isn’t doomed from the start and can articulate an unapologetic case for traditional American values. Palin and Perry are both in the ballpark.
I don’t know if it will be great. But it sure won’t be boring.
I will just come out and say it, I love Sarah Palin. I hope she runs and I hope she becomes our first female president.
I love her if for no other reason than she knows how to tweak the media.
BTW (since I can’t edit my messages) I am reading the book Riding With Reagan – by a secret service agent assigned to his detail because he could ride a horse – well.
Didn’t realize that Reagan always had to have a “ranch” from 1951 – they helped him relax – wonderful inside stories about him.
And I’m thinking…it wasn’t that long ago.
Palin more than any politician reminds me of Reagan.
I too like Palin, but she is unelectable. The MSM did its job well in 2008, and there is very little that Palin can do to repair the damage. Unfortunately she is not doing what is necessary to be taken seriously.
Her negatives are significant, and as much as we may like her we shouldn’t minimize them.
1. She quit. No way to sugarcoat this one.
2. Her anti-intellectual persona is too easily attacked by the establishment.
3. Immersing herself and her family in popular culture may be lucrative, but it isn’t presidential.
I think that she is much more useful as an outsider; someone who can push the party in the correct direction using her bully pulpit.
DHL – you make some good points. My mother, life long Republican, can’t stand her but when pressed for a reason can’t say.
I read her book and know why she quit (frivolous lawsuits0 but the public is unaware of that.
We shall see…
DHL…agreed on Palin. My hearts want her to run. My head says Palin in 2012 = 4 more years of Obama.
Nobody is grabbing me yet. Gov Daniels was my guy early on. :-(
“Her anti-intellectual persona is too easily attacked by the establishment.” – Does anybody really listen to the establishment besides the establishment and others would never vote R anyway? I mean what does one more hitpiece on MSNBC matter?
There is one way and one way only to find out for sure if she is or is not a viable candidate.
And it looks like we are going to find out.
I agree on finding out. I am a big fan of hers and think the McCain people sabotaged her introduction to the national public. Sabotage may be too strong a word but incompetence doesn’t quite explain it. That woman McCain staffer who set up the interview with Katie Couric is still appearing on Fox as a GOP expert. She is about as much a GOP expert as Huntsman, who outed himself yesterday as the DNC’s candidate.
She has not visibly immersed herself in policy issues as Margaret Thatcher did when she was new. That has been disappointing but we will see how she does on issues.
@Dan from Madison,
When the MSM controls access to the living rooms of most Americans, their view is important. Imagine over the course of a campaign the dozens of unflattering photos and videos, and cleverly edited sound bites that will reinforce the country’s suspicion (created by the media in 2008) that Palin is without substance.
I have respect for her ideas and her image of America. But she did not impress me as governor. How could she; two years isn’t enough. Her excuse that she resigned because of frivolous lawsuits is disingenuous.
But — as Lexington Green points out — we will find out whether America sees her as a real candidate.
I agree that there’s only one way to find out if she’s qualified. Her political opponents still seem concerned she may run, else why do they ridicule her and insist that she is damaged goods.
At this point, with the media buildup about her possible candidacy, a lot of her supporters may feel burned if she doesn’t run.
I would add that the media will trash the Republican candidate no matter who that person is. They did it to Palin because she was a political threat, not because she was anything like the extremist nut they portrayed her as.
WRT “frivolous lawsuits” — bogus ethics complaints the Left was using to bankrupt the Palins via legal fees — I think Todd Palin put it best: “What were we supposed to do?” People who criticize Palin for quitting always say she should have finished her term, but never complete the sentence by acknowledging that completing her term would have meant millions in additional legal fees for which she and her family would have been personally liable.
I have previously expressed my reservations about Palin and I don’t want to repeat them here.
If Palin enters the race, she will ensure the nomination of Mitt Romney, by dividing the “tea party” vote with Bachmann and Perry. If you don’t want Romney, you should hope that Palin stays out.
I will vote for a syphilitic camel, if that stops Hussein Insane from being re-elected in 2012.
I saw Palin and Perry onstage together here in Houston about two years ago. They seemed to honestly like each other, and their speeches were complimentary (as in supporting the other’s ideas, not simply praising each other). I would like to think that they both see the big picture of changing the the course of the Titanic that is our current political environment, and will steadfastly work to replace Obama with whomever can win. Sarah has already said ABO (anybody but Obama), and Perry seems to be on the same wavelength. I hope she enters the race because both she and Perry are focused on attacking Obama, not other Republicans (Remember Reagan’s 11th commandment). They are both colorful and prominent enough to get media attention, and could conceivably set up a tag team that would have the Dem leadership spinning in their focus groups trying to figure out how to respond to attacks from multiple directions.
Obama needs to have his chain yanked, regularly and with enthusiasm. His responses will deteriorate into anger and vehemence that even the LSM won’t be able to hide.
Both Perry and Palin have this ability. Because of Sarah’s statements about being surprised by Perry’s entry into the race, I don’t think they are working in cahoots, yet. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if they were?
Today, Ryan announced he is not running.
Worthwhile article about Perry by Andrew Ferguson:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/rick-perry-annotated_590440.html
Lex,
A post of mine on this blog from June 10, 2011
Sarah Palin: Opposition Party Leader
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/22633.html
When you see an out of power politician saying important things on important issues, showing important people in the midst of a political scandal and silliness he knows what is important and what isn’t, you are seeing that politician act as the opposition party leader.
If such a politician isn’t the opposition party leader when he is saying those important things, that politician just announced his intent to pursue the position.
Gov. Sarah Palin did just that with this recent Facebook post Another “WTF” Obama Foreign Policy Moment*.
…Whatever Gov. Palin was looking for on her northeastern bus trip, she came away from it with a decision to run for President.
Trent, a lot of people said she wouldn’t, a lot said she would. Looks like you will be in the group that was right. Most likely. The prediction Ryan would announce sounded firm, too. But, no. And it really looked lime Mitch would get in. No, again.
Lex,
It was not hard to predict.
Gov. Palin is running as the classic optimistic American political outsider versus an incompetent and corrupt Washington D.C.
Obama will be running away from his record and screaming fear and racial hate.
We have seen this story before with less economic woe.
I thought for ages that Sarah Palin was damaged goods, that she would take it to the edge and opt out, that she very likely could not win anyway.
I have been re-assessing all three counts.
Palin is in fact a quasi-revolutionary, or counter-revolutionary. When she talks like she will take a meat axe to much of what our elites have built over the past decades, I think she means it, and I think the elctorate will also think she means it.
So that is what it will come down to….. Just how confident is this electorate in the state of the nation as delivered to us by…. the very people who have been villifying Palin all this time.
I do not know if I can overstate just how much our ruling elites have destroyed their credibility with Barack Obama. In their absolutely stunning lack of forsight or responsiblitly of vetting him, our elites, media and otherwise, said two words to the American people (none starting with ‘F’, thank you :-) …. well, maybe…..). They said: “Trust us”. “Trust us” with this guy. “Trust us” that Bush was an idiot and a loser. And “trust us” that Palin is a joke. “Trust us!, THIS is the guy”.
And here we are. Now they will go after Palin….. saying all the things that they already said to us at the very time they were staring dreamy eyed at their Tiger Beat Messiah, telling us to trust them about his obvious brilliance. And here we are.
So I wonder if Palin is as damaged as we thought. I wonder if she could go into a debate, aquit herself well (I am confident), and immediately make millions realize they have been sold a bill of goods yet again by our self-appointed bien pensant nomenklatura.
I really do wonder. And I think we may soon find out.
Andrew – wit these times I think of what Thomas Jefferson said, “I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing”
And yet, like the American Revolution – and most revolutions, most of the moving is done by a minority of people.
I do believe that we are ripe for revolution – not the violent kind but to use a quote almost a cliche, a “paradigm shift”. But do we have a critical mass of people ready for real change?
Everyone has an opinion about Palin. She is not a new person introducing herself. She has no group of uncommitteds to appeal to. She has the very hard task of changing minds already made up about her. Maybe that is possible. I think it is not. But I may be in for a surprise — If she really does get in. I agree that she is running as a revolutionary, but an optimistic, middle class, conservative sort of revolutionary. I have no idea if anything approaching a majority wants that. The hegemony of elite snobbery is the biggest obstacle, even though they have led the country to disaster, much of their prestige is still intact, for most voters. If she overcomes that, she will be a successful revolutionary no matter what she does in office.
This is how others see Perry.
http://www.professorbainbridge.com/professorbainbridgecom/2011/08/if-the-trial-lawyers-hate-rick-perry-maybe-i-should-reconsider-him.html
To get a better sense of Perry.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/rick-perrys-scientific-campaign-method/
I pretty much despise the New York Times but the author of the review kind of gets it. What is hilarious is the comments. They totally don’t get it. I’ve pretty much come to believe over the years, that most of what Moby Rick says is rather carefully thought out. He is apparently thick skinned and can take attacks with a smile, he really like to cut the thin skinned and get them off message. You may have notice what I call the “Hey, but..” Response to his attack on the Fed Head. “Hey he shouldn’t have said it like that, but he is right.” Uh, dude, if he hadn’t said it like that he would have generated nearly as much press. Also Obama made the mistake of replying in kind and got an immediate riposte; planning all planning.
From my time in Texas since 1987, I agree that Gov. Rick ‘Good-Hair’ Perry is a past master of making Texas Democrats and long time DC Republicans dance to his disciplined rhetorical “performance artist” tune.
OTOH, He has not faced real opposition in terms of message that Palin represents.
Perry’s greatest political strength, IMO, is his ability to sense a populist s*** hammer forming when it has his name on it. The trans-Texas corridor and the mandatory Gardasil human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine debacles are two cases in point.
As for Palin not being able to beat Obama, I refer you to Howard Dean:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/164765-howard-dean-warns-palin-could-beat-obama-in-2012
Howard Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman who helped Democrats capture the White House in 2008, warns that Sarah Palin could defeat President Obama in 2012.
Dean says his fellow Democrats should beware of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that Obama would crush Palin in a general-election contest next year.
“I think she could win,” Dean told The Hill in an interview Friday. “She wouldn’t be my first choice if I were a Republican but I think she could win.”
Dean warns the sluggish economy could have more of a political impact than many Washington strategists and pundits assume.
“Any time you have a contest ”” particularly when unemployment is as high as it is ”” nobody gets a walkover,” Dean said. “Whoever the Republicans nominate, including people like Sarah Palin, whom the inside-the-Beltway crowd dismisses ”” my view is if you get the nomination of a major party, you can win the presidency, I don’t care what people write about you inside the Beltway,” Dean said.
Or to quote another Democratic Presidential campaign — “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!”
The summer of 2012 will see unemployment over 10% and dozens of Americans dying weekly from rolling electric power black outs caused by the Obama Administration EPA shutting down dozens of coal fired power plants nation wide.
In that environment any Republican presidential nominee, including Palin, will beat Obama.
As far as Gov. Palin quitting Alaska Governership, recall that 4 Democrat governors quit after Obama was elected, to take up positions.