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it would have to be something more than polling.

Polls this far out from a presidential race mean just about nothing. Reagan trailed carter by 17 points in spring 1980.

I can believe the family issue, and also the fact that she would run effectively against the GOP, national media, and Democrats, and even if she won, she would not have enough of her supporters even in GOP to do much. Also she may have felt like money would be an issue and there might be continuing lawsuits in AK and legal abuse against her family.
What i dont understand is why she waited this long to say no. But it is what it is.

Obviously from reading FR, her credibility and reputation have taken a hit. I hate to speculate about the future. I do hope though she can effectively argue for American to develop our own resources instead of paying foreigners for theirs.

i also am leaning Newt, not that I alone make a difference.
As for his personal baggage, even though it is not good, my plan to deal with it would be STay on message, economy, drilling, security, make a comparison about Democrat morals. He really is the smartest guy up there, but his leadership skill and spine of course are what we wonder about. We can only hope he will grow one, if he maybe he senses our support and then worries if he loses it.

Disappointed about Sarah not running, though i expected her to, i understand why she isnt. I guess what fooled me was she waited so long to say no—what really changed from mid-summer?. Well she was the best potential candidate but she was not perfect either. Newt is probably a better debater but she had integrity all over him

i think a combination of cuts in govt spending, decreased regulation, entitelent reform, expansion of energy production will create a much more robust economy that will get us out of this hole quicker than 10 years.

Zero will not be re-elected. Palin will run against crony capitalism, as well as on her common sense platform of energy production, economy, and security, will attract independents and democrats. She is actually well-positioned to pull this off. She needs to stay on message, be very prepared for debates, and stay positive, using friendly sarcasm on Zero and his policies, and be relentlessly anti-Obozo.

As an SP supporter, i absolutely agree with this. The Libturds in the media have tried to politically lynch Perry on this. Cain hurt himself a little here by pandering. Maybe caught offguard, but in any event defer comment till he knows whole story. Newt really shines in this area, turning the question back on the turds in the MSM.

I have plagiarized below shamelessly from SR; he has an even better post somewhere but it was too old to find. If you are a conservative, I am know you are capable of thinking beyond “2 legs bad, 4 legs good”. The Sarah Palin resignation was a truly unique event as resignations go. A combination of vicious political harassment, a poorly written ethics law that crippled state and victim, and a potential calling for another service post, president or simply GOP campaigner-in-chief, was a perfect storm that led to her resignation. On the assumption that you are truly conservative, please find some time to understand the situation so you, as a true conservative, can say truthfully to your friends, that SP had to resign, or she would have been lynched, politically at least. She resigned in 2009 to avoid bankruptcy, advance the interests of AK, and start preparing for her entry into national politics (you remember her campaigning in 2010 don't you? And didn't Charles krauthammer and other advise her to “study up”?! What do you think she was doing?)

Now for SR’s post.
“• As for the “quitting” meme, get over it. You’re a quitter too. Yes you are. Are you still employed in the very first job you ever held? No? Were you fired or did you quit? If you quit, you’re a quitter. See the problem? “Quit” is just a smear word. It means nothing because it explains nothing. No doubt you quit because you had good reason. Well and good. Then quitting is OK if the reason is good, right? Care to apply the same rule to Palin as you do to yourself?
Or would you accuse a field commander of “quitting” if he backed his men out of a firefight he knew they couldn’t win, so they could come back later to reengage the same enemy on a battle field better suited to victory? Because if you still consider that quitting, then all is lost, because our own George Washington is a quitter by your standards, as he often used strategic retreat as a way to beat a numerically superior enemy. My own position is if it’s good enough for Washington, it’s good enough for Palin.”

Suppose she says she resigned the AK governorship because she knew in 2012 she wanted to be a candidate? Is that really so far fetched? Bill Kristol said on the day she resigned it was possibly the first shot across the bow in 2102 republican primary? Sarah herself said she was just leaving the battlefield, just make a tactical move to fight on different turf.

Or will your friends say she had to give that as a reason in July 2009. We are conservatives. we understand how life can be. Explain to your friends this was not a run to the corner and go fishing. The woman’s logged 10,000s miles, made dozens of speeches, many of them major in front of VIP audiences, etc The peculiarities of the AK ethics law do not apply to the US president.

+1 and bttt

President Zero is a loser no matter who runs. Assuming a modicum of competency and desire for victory, no way Zero wins. It won’t even be within the realm of being stolen.

Sarah is worth waiting for. Except for Cain and perhaps Santorum, the others are establishment RINO types. If she doesnt get in, I will vote for whoever the nominee is.

i am a longtime sarahpac supporter and she is still #1 choice here, esp since Perry’s implosion but let this one SP supporter say that i dont know if she has a genius strategy or not. But, it is her strategy and she is entitled to do it her way, or does she have to run her campaign according how the media or country clubbers want her to. WIN or LOSE it will be her decisions.

If Jim DeMint were running, we need not wait for Sarah. But the group of candidates we have now, well, there is still quite a gap that Sarah fills best, and Cain does somewhat also, but Sarah does better.

by all means dont donate to sarahpac, though it is still better than RNC, i think. actually i think a lot of SP diehards are waiting to give when the announcement comes and not sooner, so your view has lots of company.

ok who is your guy:

Perry- thinks like a liberal very soft on immigration
Newt- global warming, dedee, excess baggage
Romney- Obamneycare

now Cain would get my vote here but i still view him as a longshot.

Sarah is worth waiting for. Are you going door to door next weekend for somebody? I dont understand why you seem to be so mad. After all cont you still vote for any of the above if Sarah never gets in?

It was a bad debate for Rick but if Sarah doesnt get in, who is better?

Perry- bad on illigration, thinks like a liberal
Newt- great conservative debater (plays one on TV at least) but global warming, dedee, etc
Romney- Obamnycare, flipflopper, chameleon

Cain is really the best choice now, but we need Sarah to get in there

PS:
Sarah Palin resigned from the Oil and Gas Commission in AK because it was corrupt then beat a powerful AK incumbent governor in the primary and put many “Republicans” in jail.

Now, this does not mean she is a shoo-in for the Presidency but this story does fascinate me as a conservative.

The resignation was a risky thing but if you are a conservative it can be defended and certainly not held against her. She has resigned before and come back and held exective office and accomplished a lot for 2.5 years. As for faulting Sarah, i think it would be fair criticism that the AK ethics law was too tough, too pollyannish with a belief that whistleblowers themselves could be presumed right. So to the extent that SP pushed this, it does show some naiivete. At this point though, I can not imagine anyone less naiive in America than Sarah Palin. Not nearly as bad a screw up as being in Washington for 20 years and getting on the bed with Pelosi on global warming or the Rick Perry/La Raza/no heart debacle.

There is no logical or necessary reason whatsoever for any voter or volunteer worker to commit to any candidate at this time. There may be a psychological satisfaction for a such person but what if the candidate truly believes declaring early hurts her chances?

Like many other SP supporters, I want her to take it to Zero everyday. But que sera, sera. Rick Perry will presumably still be there if she doesnt run.

if there was a good conservative out there, you’d be right. But let’s face it, even Perry has a big problem with immigration and has been shown to think like a Lib.

So a real conservative could not jump in even after some deadlines and not get votes? Will we really say to ourselves “well i would have voted for Sarah but she got in too late?”

very interesting developments. we’ll see, maybe you will be right but there is really no need for “concern” unless you need a job and want to work as a paid staffer for palin and thus need her to get in now

like other people, Palin resigned from office to run for president, or at least that will be clear when she announces. Not all do that of course, some instead keep their paycheck, others do not run for re-election and are unemployed a la Mitt, looking for a job.

she couldnt say in july 2009 she was resigning to run for president, obviously.

she resigned immediately rather than fill out her term because the peculiar Alasks ethics law was strangling the governor’s office, imperiling necessary state work, and not incidentally bankrupting her family.

had there been no legal lynching attempt, my speculation is she would have resigned a year later, in time to help with mid -terms. Sarah Palin spoke with Greta right after the 2008 election and made clear then she was very interested in running for president.

the resignation was a politically risky thing to do. Real conservatives can defend her on this issue. No DimBulbs will buy it and some Indies may not. But my question is why allegedly conservative freepers still want to string Palin up. The circumstances surrounding her resignation were quite unusual and justified her response. She resigned from an AK oil commission and went on to beat corrupt Republicans and win the governorship. Electability should play a concern in whom we nominate, but at this point anybody but David Duke will beat Zero.

I do not understand your obsession with this issue. I an a Palin supporter but I do not think Perry is texas toast because of his debate, at least i hope not. We need him if Palin doesnt run. I like Cain. Heck i have posted nice about Newt, the guy is smart but the Nancy Pelosi and dede fiascos in a guy this experienced really make me wonder about him

And it is probably true, had she not resigned, that some allegedly conservative freepers would disqualify her for president saying gross lack of judgment and egomania by letting her family go bankrupt and state affairs idle all so she could keep her job. Disgusting. Party hacks.

“Election cycles are different than they are now”

things have changed, but I think Reagan was the last one to announce in 1979. It looks like Palin thinks that strategy is a good one.

My position as a Palin supporter is that this is her call. I would love to hear her take on Zero everyday but she has a plan. She took down the biggest name in AK politics, the incumbent R gov, then beat a Dem ex-gov. For those against Palin, they can take comfort in the fact it is getting later; those on the fence can switch back and forth, and then us diehards will just wait. Worst comes to worst and she declines, most of us will switch to Rick La Raza Perry, but in the end ABO.

It sounds to me like Palin has some inside information that plays into her timing. A smoking gun somewhere, scandals, other entrants. Palin’s name is so well known that she can push this strategy to the limit.

I have no idea if it would work. But I would switch affiliations to help her for sure, if shr wanted to do it. The other thing, maybe it would help develop some common sense rules to prevent this type of switching in the future on either side. Having said that, an inferquent state whose primary allows crossover voting may not be bad. It can gauge such support in a general election.

I think she will run but you are absolutely right. When Reagan died, the media was aglow with accolades about him. While he was alive and president, not so much.

why MSM “likes” palin now (no, they don’t)
1. print a few positive things, then that is proof there is no media bias
2. media loves republican internal warfare. If Sarah gets in, there will be 3 titans battling for the nomination, they can hurt each other a lot. So say nice things about SP to weaken Perry, especially
3. Palin sells