Perhaps Sarah Palin Is Waiting for Michele Bachmann to Drop Out (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | In the aftermath of the GOP presidential debate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., may have been shown the exit door. The Washington Post reports a new poll conducted by the media outlet along with ABC News shows Bachmann at a paltry six percent, about half of what she had just one month ago.

Despite winning the Iowa Straw Poll, all bets are off for Bachmann’s campaign. CBS News reports top staffers resigned and quit for fear the Minnesota Republican will mess up her own campaign. At the same time, Bachmann wants to have her own style while catering to her conservative base.
Bachmann’s staffers may be right. Texas Gov. Rick Perry threw his name into the primary race the same time Bachmann won the straw poll Aug. 13. Since then, it’s been all downhill.
Fox News reports the tea party wild card is going to give a speech countering President Obama’s economic speech in front of a joint session of Congress. Bachmann already slammed the president’s economic policies so far in his administration during a recent debate at the Reagan centennial celebration.
The wild card in all this political posturing is Sarah Palin. The tea party darling made speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire but has still not mentioned if she is running for president. She may be the chess master as she watches the Republican pawns fight it out during each debate. The former governor of Alaska can then use her clout to dethrone any other competitors.
Palin has been unnoticed in recent polls. However, Perry was the same way until he declared he was running for president. All it takes is for Palin to say “yes” and then her name will eclipse Perry’s in an instant. Politico reports Palin still hasn’t said whether or not she is running for president.
The bat signal for Palin will be the next few weeks as candidates decide to drop out of the race. As more dominoes fall in front of her, the easier Palin’s primary fight will be. She hasn’t raised a lot of campaign cash and didn’t participate in the Iowa Straw Poll. Yet her many fans may send chills down the collective spine of mainstream Republicans. Everywhere she goes, supporters urge Palin to run.
Maybe it’s a matter of pride. Perhaps Palin wants to be the only woman on the primary ticket. Maybe she is waiting for other heavyweights to drop out of the race. As it stands now, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is in a virtual tie with Perry. All of the other candidates haven’t made any headway in dethroning their front-running status.
There’s only one person who may be able to dethrone Romney and Perry. Her name is Sarah Palin.

William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Until Perry announced and shot to the top of the polls, I felt reasonably certain that Palin was going to enter the race, but now I’m not so sure.

I think she still will if she thinks it will be a race between her and Perry, but won’t enter if she decides she’d split Perry’s vote and put Romney on top (which could happen.) If it looks like that’s the case, my bet is that she would opt out of running and instead throw her support behind Perry or another of the conservatives (but not Bachmann.)

As for her negatives, they’re pretty much irrelevant. If Perry gets the nomination, the MSM will do its best to push his perceived negatives well past Palin’s. In fact, they’ll work overtime at it now that it’s becoming obvious that Obama is looking so vulnerable. At least we know Palin’s already been thoroughly vetted...

Right now though, I think a Perry/Rubio ticket would scare the Dems silly. It could turn the Hispanic vote permanently if that team handled the border/immigration issue well.

I think one thing that played in Reagan’s favor that would hurt Palin, in regards to declaring late, is media saturation.

There was no cable news network, with 24 hour shows repeating the same thing. There was not a strong AM political presence, with everyone giving opinions constantly. And there was no internet, where people have instant access to anything they want. With the media saturation, a candidate can be torn apart (Fred Thompson’s no fire in the belly meme) before they announce, and without announcing, they dont have as large of a media stump to defend themselves.

Until Perry announced and shot to the top of the polls, I felt reasonably certain that Palin was going to enter the race, but now I’m not so sure

She is in been working on “R” themes for stomp speeches. Obama is toast, or baked, whether it is Texas or Alaskan baked clam. If Sarah wants to be President this is the year. In 8 years lots of even shinier pennies in the bullpen. Bottom line political season will be much more interesting with her in than out. Sarah’s only comment when she heard Perry was getting in was “Oh he said he would not”
that’s it.Perry did tell the Texas voters he would not. Sarah said we will know this month. So we wait and hope for fun and interesting.

So is Palin trying to be the Fred Thompson of 2012? She’s already too late.

If you're so smart, why don't you run for President?

If Palin had run a conventional campaign and declared two years before the election, the GOP ruling class would have taken her out by now, because to them DC is an exclusive country club that doesn't cotton to outsiders.

The last thing they want is somebody coming in and rocking them right out of their cushy little boats.

In order to win the nomination, she has to outwit and outmaneuver them.

If she can succeed at that, imagine how many knots she'll tie Ubama into.

And about that "she quit the governorship" thing: Democrats routinely use the legal system to destroy their opponents.

Alaska Democrat operatives filed over 200 ethics complaints against her, not one of which was upheld.

It actually cost her and her family over $500,000 in legal bills to fight the frivolous charges, and had she stayed on it would have cost the state of Alaska millions, plus they would have had a governor embroiled in personal legal battles rather than taking care of the state's business.

Had she not resigned, right now you'd probably be saying: "If she'd managed to get through her term as governor without declaring bankruptcy and being in court half the time and costing her state millions of dollars I'd support her, but she has proven that she can't run a state, much less the entire country."

Resigning was the right thing to do for her state, the right thing to do for her family, and the right thing to do for her country.

And as for the "she only resigned to make money" argument, she could have stayed in office and gotten paid millions for her book, just like Ubama did with the two autobiographies he allegedly wrote.

One more thing: Palin is coming, and the Tea Party is coming with her.

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