Sarah Palin Should Not Run For President

Leo McNeil ^ | January 30, 2015 | Leo McNeil

[LeoMcNeil]

Sarah Palin made headlines last weekend when she said she was interested in running for President. Palin has been an important part of the Tea Party and conservative movements in this country since she came onto the scene in 2008. Nobody on the right throws red meat to a crowd quite like Palin. Her ability to sarcastically tear down liberal sacred cows is second only to Rush Limbaugh. Best of all she drives liberals up a wall. They hate her more than any other conservative in this country, including George W. Bush and Limbaugh. Watching liberals fall to pieces over Palin is always amusing. Palin has also been an important player in the Tea Party political scene. The candidates she campaigned for, particularly in 2014, generally won. She has an excellent track record in that regard.

The question is whether Palin should run for President and perhaps as importantly whether conservatives should support her candidacy. The answer is clear, she should not run and if she does conservatives should not support her. There are any number of reasons why Palin shouldn’t be the Republican nominee beginning with the fact that her experience is limited and at this point remote. Palin was Governor of Alaska for all of two and a half years. She resigned ostensibly to make money in personal appearances. If Palin was serious about running for President, she should have stayed in office and run for re-election. In the alternative, she should have run for a winnable Alaska Senate seat in 2014. Instead, Palin has shown a lack of interest in actual governing. We need to nominate someone with experience and if we look at the slate of candidates out there we can clearly see there are other conservatives who have a lot more experience than Palin. Surely the GOP can find someone with more experience than Obama had in 2008, we can’t set the bar down to his level.

Palin’s ability to attract people other than conservatives is near zero. Fair or not, Palin is a polarizing figure in American politics. On one hand she’s brought it on herself by tearing down liberal sacred cows. On the other hand, the left-wing media has relentlessly attacked her for no other reason than she’s a heretic to the feminist cause. Let’s be honest, Palin has egged the left-wing media on and it’s been amusing to watch her set them up and tear them down. Doing that makes for great giggles for Tea Partiers but it does nothing for Palin’s likability. Because of the media, people actually think Palin said she can see Russia from her house. The media has pushed that narrative, knowing full well that Tina Fey said that on a Saturday Night Live sketch. People other than conservatives think Palin is a crass moron. That is a hurdle she won’t be able to overcome if she runs for President.

Sarah Palin has a place in conservative movement of the Republican Party. She’s an important part of the Tea Party. There’s a difference between being the flame thrower for conservatives and running for President. Palin is great at what she’s doing right now. She’s made a good living for herself and her family by giving speeches and making media appearances. She’s done a terrific job campaigning for conservatives in House and Senate elections. She’s found her calling in politics, it makes no sense for her to give it up to run for President. Conservatives shouldn’t want her to give it up either. Her record was magnificent in 2014. We’re much better off having her back conservative candidates for Congress than we are watching her flame out in a GOP Presidential primary that’s likely to be crowded with too many conservative candidates. If she wants to get involved in the primary, she should act as kingmaker and endorse someone. For her to run though will result in her ultimate defeat, which will likely limit her opportunities to influence politics in the future.

We conservatives need to find someone who has more than the right views. We need to find someone who has experience and can translate that experience to the White House. That person isn’t Sarah Palin. Two and a half years as Governor of a small state isn’t good enough. Eight years as Mayor of a town of less than 8,000 is not good enough experience. Palin is great at what she’s doing now, conservatives should be happy that she’s found something she’s both successful and influential at. The Democrats set the bar low for experience when they nominated Obama. The Republicans need to raise that bar. Scott Walker is just as conservative as Palin and he has a lot more experience. He’s balanced budgets and taken on unions in a blue state no less. Ted Cruz has more experience than Palin between his time as solicitor general in Texas and the US Senate. We need someone who is more skilled than Obama is. We have candidates like that on the right in the GOP. Sarah Palin just isn’t one of them.

[jsanders2001]

> You shoot, and miss. We didn’t vote for a black man, we voted for a Marxist and got what we deserved. Sarah P. is a Western Conservative in the vein of Reagan. I have NO DOUBT that the establishment is terrified of her because they know she has a spine of steel and would immediately set about the task of dismantling the Washington corruption machine.

Irregardless we ended up with a POS who is not an American and has invited terrorist elements to invade our country and take it over. Now I don’t have an issue with Palin. In fact she’s a favorite of mine. I’m just stepping back from the picture and looking across the whole spectrum ov voters and I’m not so sure enough people would vote for a woman after our experiment with a black president, that’s all...

[LeoMcNeil]

Proving the right is just as capable of Alinsky style tactics as the left. If you don’t think Palin should run for President you might well be a Communist! Seriously, can you get any more ridiculous?

[HMS Surprise]

People really have no clue what Sarah P. did in the short time she was Governor because the instant she stepped into the national spotlight the MSM sought only to destroy her. They did not descend on Alaska to check into her record as Governor; they began knocking on doors of potential enemies and looking for dirt in every nook and cranny. Her record as Governor is STELLAR.

[DJ MacWoW]

Keep using lefty memes to knock Sarah Palin. You aren’t going to live long on FR.

[nikos1121]

I think the whole slew of them from 2012 and 2008 need to be dumped, and we start fresh. Cant believe we’re looking at Corn porn Huckabee, Romney, Bush etc etc.

Newt makes more sense than any of them, and at this stage he’s more of a consultant than a nominee, but when you look at the field there are talkers and there are doers.

Scott Walker is a doer (pretty thick skin who is not afraid to rumble)
Ted Cruz is a doer (I like him, but I’m not fond of Senators for president)
Rick Perry is a doer

[GBA]

When Palin resigned her post, I didn't like it, but I could more or less understand it.

Few have dealt with what the demonrat and GOPe progressives turned loose on Sarah Palin and the Palin family.

Or so I thought.

Now that I've seen what Scott Walker has endured and been able to overcome, I am less inclined to give Sarah Palin a pass for quitting her Governorship.

Honestly? She should have told McCain "thanks, but no thanks" and gone back to work and completing her term, gaining both experience and a better resume as a result.

Instead, I think her ego got the better of her common sense. It happens.

None the less, I hope she enters the primary fight and gives it a go, if only to put the many questions about her to rest.

May the best candidate win...

[samtheman]

Cruz is what Palin should be.

I agree.

[MinuteGal]

"Rick Perry is a doer"

But who's going to vote for a guy with no eyes?

Leni

[McGruff]

Palin resigned as Governor of Alaska so she could go make money as a paid speaker and pundit. In her case, money was more seductive than power. I’m lost as why this is so outrageous to point out.

Maybe because it's bovine excrement. Maybe you peddle this kind of stuff on some other website. But not here.

[LeoMcNeil]

If Sarah Palin was such a great governor, why resign? I understand she wanted to make money and she was afforded an opportunity to set herself up for a lifetime. However if she had her sights on the White House, resigning was the worst possible thing she could do. Her record, no matter how good it was, will always be overlooked because she quit.

[DJ MacWoW]

Palin resigned as Governor of Alaska so she could go make money as a paid speaker and pundit.

The left has a new meme. And it's a lie like all the others.

Van Jones - people forget. She had the Democratic party shaking in our boots in 2008. She came out, she gave that speech at the convention. That was, hands down, one of the best convention speeches - not by a woman, by anybody in 2008. People were running for the hills.

[LeoMcNeil]

I like Sarah Palin, I think she’s great doing what she’s doing today. I just don’t think she should run for President. She’s more valuable elsewhere and we have better conservative candidates like Scott Walker and Ted Cruz. Make no mistake though, she chose money over power.

[McGruff]

You know you sound just like a MSNBC pundit. That you Scarborough?

[2nd Amendment]

I have always been an avid supporter of Sarah. Now I support Ted Cruz with Sarah a close second.

[Political Junkie Too]

It’s even worse, Palin is seduced easily by money.

What about Hillary Clinton's quarter of a million dollars speaking fees? Does that disqualify her by the same rules?

And what about the darlings of the Democrats, the Roosevelts or Kennedys? Or is it that they inherited their fortunes and didn't need to be unseemly about acquiring it?

Palin might actually turn out to be another Teddy Roosevelt; rugged outdoor upbringing, reformer in her state, eventual governor, and possibly a vice-president who ascends to the presidency via tragedy.

-PJ

[LeoMcNeil]

So you’re going to pull a Saul Alinsky tactic and call me a leftist when I’m clearly not. Terrific. Then you’re going to claim that it’s a lie to cite exactly what Palin did, which is resign as Governor to go make money as a speaker and pundit. Then you declare that this “leftist lie” is just like all the others before you cite Communist Van Jones declaring Palin’s speech in 2008 was the best of the Convention. I guess you posted that because we’re supposed to believe Van Jones, even though he’s a communist, leftist and liar just like “all the others.” Some consistency would be nice here.

One good speech does not a good President make. Obama ought to be ample proof of that.

[DJ MacWoW]

You’re the one running around FR doing the Democrats work for them. You don’t seem to know when to shut your trap which is long before you posted this tripe. Keep pushing the envelope.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

"Bill Clinton going to the child sex slave island "

One of the arrows - but no man can use it.

[section9]

Leo, don’t be a fool.

Scott Walker is running to be Jeb’s Vice-President. Only the Movement Suckers actually believe he’s running for the Top Job.

I’m actually somewhat astonished that Limbaugh fell for the con. Walker has been on Team Bush since Team Romney had their train wreck in 2012.

Cruz can’t get traction outside of his Fanbois on the Right Convention circuit. He doesn’t have Palin’s reach or name rec. He’s great leading the conservatives in the Senate, but the experience of Obama should have warned most movement people away,from supporting a newly minted Junior Senator in a run for President.,

Unfortunately, it hasn’t, so you have this latter day Goldwater Movement led by people on the Right who should know better.

It’s Palin for me unless she decides otherwise.

Stay Out Da Bushes.

Best,

Chris

[LeoMcNeil]

I didn’t say Palin’s speaking fees disqualified her. I said that the fact that she didn’t finish her term reduced her opportunity to gain experience and that is why conservatives shouldn’t back her. My point is we need someone who enters the Oval Office know what he’s doing. Scott Walker is a good example of someone with experience managing an executive branch who will walk in to the oval office with a good understanding of how things work.

I’m not all that interested in Hillary Clinton, she’s not relevant here. We’re talking about the sort of candidate that conservatives in the GOP ought to support. Obviously Hillary isn’t an option.

God help us if Palin is another Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was a progressive who expanded the power and scope of the Federal government. He helped elect Woodrow Wilson by running in the Progressive Party for President in 1912.