And no one else can get in the picture. It's too late. We're one year from campaign liftoff for the major players. If Palin doesn't run, it'll be the establishment candidate, probably Romney. It is impossible for fractured conservatives to unite around another candidate. JMO.
Coming out of 1976, Reagan had a huge advantage and had 4 years to further coalesce conservative support. It was STILL touch and go for him to get the nomination right up until the NH primary in 1980. People may not remember how close George HW Bush came to running Reagan out of the race.
“If Palin doesn’t run, it’ll be the establishment candidate, probably Romney. It is impossible for fractured conservatives to unite around another candidate. JMO.”
Well then the March campaign appearances with McLame can’t come and go quickly enough...better yet, Sarah needs to get really BUSY. Hmmph.
“People may not remember how close George HW Bush came to running Reagan out of the race.”
I remember. John Sears kept Reagan under wraps in Iowa and let Bush upset him there. He fell way behind in NH and looked like he was headed for another loss, when he told Sears he was campaigning his way. He barnstormed NH for three weeks in February 1980, culminating in the Nashua debate where he cold cocked Bush. He wound up beating Bush 51-27 in a 10 candidate field. I will never forget that night. I was in the middle of a three day long Exam but was so pumped that I could not go to sleep. The Newsweek cover the next week was a keeper: a picture of Reagan in a Stetson, captioned “Back in the Saddle Again”.