Posted on 06/02/2011 10:07:19 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
What is Sarah Palin up to? She is touring the country in a campaign bus, appearing at campaign rallies, making campaign speeches, drawing campaign crowds. But, she insists, its no campaign. Or at least that shes no candidate.
In 1995, General Colin Powell paralyzed the Republican nominating process by flirting with running for president as he toured America signing his new book. He ultimately didnt run, but he sold a lot of books and monopolized the nations attention for months in the autumn.
In 2007, Barack Obama toured America signing books and used the tour to animate his image and spun it off into a campaign.
In 2011, Donald Trump didnt even write a book but dominated the media by acting like a candidate before he dropped out.
And now, Sarah Palin who has neither a new book nor a candidacy, is running around sucking up all the media attention.
Why? Is she preparing to run? We doubt it. The polling suggests that she could not be nominated. More than one Republican Primary voter in four feels that she has too much baggage to be elected. While most like her and many love her, large swaths of GOP primary voters are worried that she would pave the way for four more years of Obama.
Higher speaking fees? Better TV ratings? More personal visibility? Likely all are motivations. Maybe she is doing it for the same reason Bill Clinton gave for his affair with Monica because I could. Perhaps she just wants one final go-round before attention shifts to those who are really running for president.
In any case, Sarah Palin is doing a disservice to her party. There are many good candidates wanting to nurture their infant campaigns who cannot grow in Palins shadow. How are Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, or Jon Huntsman to attract national attention when Sarah is breathing in all the oxygen? And how can good potential candidates like South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint or Texas Governor Rick Perry to test the waters when Palins bus is on the highway?
Mitt Romney, the front runner, is the main beneficiary of the Palin tour. In the aftermath of Huckabees and Trumps withdrawals, the former Massachusetts Governor has consolidated his status as the candidate out in front. Normally, this accolade would earn him searing media coverage and unwelcome attention to any defect in his record or his past. But not now. All eyes are on Palin and Romney can continue raising money and attracting supporters in peace.
Sarah needs to get into the race or stay out. What she should not do is attract the attention just because she can.
Well, no, but she isn't Obama or Romney either...
Morris is way off on this one. He is falling for the Big Lie that Palin is grandstanding and somehow “forcing” the media to cover her every move.
This is absurd. Morris & the MSM have it *ass backwards: No one, least of all Palin, is twisting the arm of the media to cover her every move. They are clamoring to follow her for one reason: because she is a media sensation and a phenomenon, a veritable force of nature.
Compared to her, Romney and all the other GOP hopefuls amount to one big yawn.
I don't think so. Her tour is sucking up the oxygen for Mitt. His announcement is a yawn, while the media goes chasing after Sarah.
So, who benefits? How about this?
Let's say that Sara is intentionally sucking the oxygen out of Romney's announcement, but not to benefit herself. What if she shows up in Waterloo on the day that Michele Bachmann announces? What if she throws her support behind Michele on Day 1?.
Now that would kick things up a notch. Can you say Mitt who?
How about Bachmann/Cain?
I’m not sure I agree with him, but it’s not the idiotic point you seem to think it is. His premise is that she won’t even run and his swallowing up attention that could go to upstarts, particularly Bachmann and Cain.
The only paralysis I see are with those too scared to step up to the plate. Palin is a role model here.
“Old Dick will be eating these words several times, including on Election Day, 2012.”
What have you got in your mouth Dick?
How can that be bad?
I really hope you’re right, although I’d prefer Cain/Bachmann.
“Im not sure I agree with him, but its not the idiotic point you seem to think it is. His premise is that she wont even run and his swallowing up attention that could go to upstarts, particularly Bachmann and Cain.’
So what’s stopping them from getting out there and campaigning? Too much playing it safe. Palin figured it out that only losers play it safe. Winners take the spotlight.
That means she probably will.
His whole argument here is that if she isn't running, she's hurting the party. There might be some truth to that, if she's not running. But if his premise is wrong - and his premises usually are - then his argument falls apart. If she's running, she's not hurting anyone.
And as for "polls" showing she can't win - it's June of 2011. Polls this far out mean very nearly nothing. The whole point of a campaign is to move poll numbers.
True, and in a three way race, I would choose Palin over those 2 every time, but they aren’t the only ones running.
That is pretty much my take as well. She’s firing up the base and setting expectations. Whoever is nominated will have to run in an environment heavily influenced by what she is doing right now.
And that is a very good thing.
re: What’s Sarah Doing?
She she working at winning the nomination and the presidency by showing it doesn’t have to done the way it always has. All these pundits and GOP elite have set themselves up as the judge and jury of who can run and how they must run. Not so.
You can tell how terrified they are. If she were truly non-threat they say she is they wouldn’t be paying so much attention to her. If they were scared of her they would simply adopt the attitude of leaving her alone.
I love it.
I have been wondering what “personal baggage” Sarah has?
Bristol is an adult now.
Sarah’s sadistic unstable ex brother inlaw is still an alaska trooper but not in her life.
Trig is still a down’s child and she is still his mother. Deal with it.
The “journalists” who sandbagged her in in 2008 are fading into oblivion. She is not.
McCain is on the B-list of party leaders, maybe heading for the C-list. Already said he is out of the Senate next time.
The basement dwelling DNC operatives who made a career of filing frivolous ethics lawsuits are still basement dwellers, but without a target against a private citizen Sarah Palin with legal protection from that harassment.
Her reasons for leaving the governor office are obvious except to the stupid or willfully PDS blind.
Sarah is still an outspoken Christian. She is not embarrsssed into silence about her faith. Deal with it.
So what “personal baggage”
What in the hell are you saying. Sarah is laying down a foundation that every GOP candidate should have to follow. Sarah Palin is a true American and her policy is the mirror of millions of the Tea Party. She is using her popularity to promote the republicans and who else is doing this at the size of groups she runs across. Wake up! Someone has to be a patriot and spell out what America really needs.
If she's destroying the dreams of GOP hopefuls simply by visiting Civil War battlefields and taking Piper to see the Liberty Bell, then those GOP candidates were doomed from day one.
Hey, Dick. I remember - you said Hillary was a shoo-in for the Democrat nomination in 2008.
>>Well, no, but she isn’t Obama or Romney either...<<
That is my take as well. I actually met with and spoke to her for over a half hour about a year ago. Although I’d vote for her over anyone else running, and I told her that, I also told her I didn’t think she should run and may be more valuable as an environment shaper similar to the likes of Limbaugh, but with her unique style.
At this point, I am beginning to hope she runs though. We’ll see how we all “feel” by the end of the year. This is the pre-game show for me. The game doesn’t start until January.
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