Here Comes Sarah: How a Palin candidacy could help and hurt Mitt Romney

Slate ^ | May 26, 2011 | John Dickerson, chief political correspondent

[grey_whiskers]

Don't Romney on my leg
and tell me it's Palining!

Cheers!

[Lazlo in PA]

All you need to know about Myth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pVqZzHm3Z4

[WFTR]

Unlike their supporters on either side, Mrs. Palin and Mr. Romney treat one another with respect and would have interesting discussions on the campaign trail. Generally, long primary battles make stronger candidates, and Mrs. Palin may be one of the few candidates who could raise the money to sustain a long campaign. Ultimately, I don't believe that she could beat Obama in the general election, but maybe the voters will surprise me. I'll be surprised if she makes a run. Considering her family commitments at this time in her life, not being locked into a campaign now with the possibility of being in the White House later would make sense.

Most people following the Romney campaign are hoping that she'll run in order to split votes from other candidates.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I think that I could beat Mr. Obama next year if I had the Republican nomination. Every gas station price sign and pump would be a free ad for me. Every time someone buys groceries, pays a utility bill, cashes their Social Security check, eats macaroni & cheese instead of meat and can’t buy their kids new clothes, they’d compare me to Mr. Obama. Every time they talk to their unemployed neighbor, brother, cousin, former co-worker, best friend and co-religionist, I win. That’s why Gov. Romney wants the nomination. He didn’t make hundreds of millions of dollars by being a dope.

[WFTR]

I hope you’re right, but I know many people who have a great deal of their self-worth invested in thinking that Sarah Palin is stupid. As much as they may hate the hardships, many won’t break down and vote for her because doing so would require them to confront that mistake in their judgment of her. More importantly, they’ve persuaded themselves that she would only make things worse.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Remember: We vote in private in the United States. What you tell your spouse, co-workers, friends, etc and what lever you actually pull can easily be two different things. No one will ever know.

[WFTR]

I understand that we vote in private, but the issue is self-delusion. While I’ve never been an ardent Sarah Palin supporter, I’ve tried to defend her against attacks that I thought were unfair. I’ve run into people who have incorporated that perception so far into their minds that they aren’t going to change in the voting booth or anywhere else. They have too big a personal stake in believing that she’s not smart enough to be president.