[Wolfstar]

Palin owed over 500,000 in legal fees from the bogus lawsuits the left threw at her. Palin freed herself, was able to pay those fees and then some, left the state in good hands, avoided the chaos the left was creating both for her and her state.

Then she will need to make that case to the broad American public if she runs for president. That's the premise of the original poster, as I understand it -- to discuss potential pitfalls for her and what she needs to do to overcome them.

Right now, most potential non-politically attuned 2012 voters only know Palin ran for vice president (if they know that much). They know her as a celebrity more than anything else, and now the mother of a celebrity who was on Dancing With the Stars. When voters get around to paying close attention to the 2012 candidates, Palin will have to reintroduce herself all over again if she runs.

The denizens of FR can whine all they want about how mean the MSM has treated her, but in the end, Palin will have to make her case directly to the American people. Running for president is not the same as running for VP, when the veep candidate basically takes orders from the presidential campaign. It's not the same as running around throwing rhetorical red meat to her political base during congressional midterms.

The person who started this thread did us a favor by giving us an opportunity to surface some of these issues and face them head on like Palin will have to do if she runs.

[excopconservative]

When voters get around to paying close attention to the 2012 candidates, Palin will have to reintroduce herself all over again if she runs.

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Her job right now is to re-establish her humanity after having it challenged by every stereotype that the media and critics could come up with. (They have to use stereotypes because all of their opposition research found NOTHING to use against her.) So her media appearances are geared to show that she’s not a bitch, diva, nutcase, or hypnotist, and is much more like us than the plastic media created politicians. She is never going to create an impression that she is anything like the political class that we are used to.

When the campaign starts in earnest, you will see her record put up against the others and it will not be lacking. Has any other candidate exposed corruption within their party? Has any other fought the entire Republican establishment to get elected? Has any other governor cut the budget 10% from three years previous by cutting spending? Has any other governor overcome a Corrupt B*stards Club of oil company executives and Republican politicians who ran their state and taken control back for the people? You can call it a windfall profits tax if you want, but when a corporation in collusion with politicians take a state’s resources for their own benefit, I would call it a conspiracy to commit theft without fair compensation for the resources. Has any other governor made the oil companies stand by their commitments? Has any other candidate got 100% name recognition? Is any other candidate searched for online as much as Gov. Palin? Not even close. People must be interested in learning about her.

Oh, and has any other candidate created an Oxford American Dictionary word of the year? Has any of them said ..anything?