Sarah Inches Closer

Sean Hannity just had Sarah Palin on as a guest with whom he discussed two approaching deadlines. One was the arbitrarily set deadline of August 2 whereby the Democrats are trying to twist the arms of the GOP, forcing them to raise the debt ceiling... basically, demanding that we give the junkie more smack.

Palin’s answers and general approach to the situation were, as usual, spot on. Her suggestions that the GOP not blink, and instead demand that our chief executive actually lead on this issue by coming up with a plan to get through the weeds instead of continuing his petulant game of class warfare and disingenuous financial sky is falling rhetoric, were also exactly what we should expect from a real leader.

The other deadline, a bit more loosely interpreted, was framed when Sean asked Sarah if she had a general timetable for making a decision about whether or not she would run for president. Sarah started with the general disclaimer that she isn't conceited enough to believe that nobody else could solve the problems that we face, then quickly segued into her belief that the right person, with all the requisite experience, record and skillset, was not yet among the cadre of current GOP hopefuls.

She then, in a more candid moment than we have seen from her regarding this issue to date, acknowledged that any serious candidate would have to have their organizational game on the ground and in motion by August/September. It is now July 13.

I firmly believe that she fully intends not only to throw her hat into the ring, but that she has a very innovative and strategically sound plan for winning the 2012 presidential election. By reiterating that she would not necessarily run if she saw the right person positioned to seize those reins, but that she did not see that person in the current group of contenders, this is the closest we have gotten so far to a firm statement that she intends to run, and intends to officially announce this quite shortly.

While I titled this “Sarah Inches Closer,” I actually feel she did quite a bit more than that tonight. She made it clear that she feels she can win, that there's nobody already running whom she trusts to do the job, and that it's only a few short days or weeks at most before she plans to make an official announcement.

While she didn't come out and explicitly state precisely these same words, she said exactly the same thing with the words that she did use, and quite frankly I could not be happier. For the first time in the 2012 general election season, I have every good confidence that we now not only have some light at the end of this tunnel. We truly have rapidly rising, very brightly shining star.

Yes, I’ve read some posts that AK officials are liable for any ethical violations brought for up to 2 years after they leave office. So that would be the 26th of this month.

While we all favor ‘good government’ the Ak law has the exact opposite effect. I can’t believe after all that happened w/Gov Palin they haven’t changed the law so an official who is cleared is reimbursed his/her legal defense fees, preferably by whomever filed the false charges. As it is, it seems only to encourage political opponents and does nothing to prevent corruption.

But it’s also true that there are deadlines and laws and regs that vary from state to state have to be met for candidates who plan to run in the primaries/caucuses, so who knows what she was referring to

While I believe Palin might wait as late as Labor Day, my prediction has been August 15 for a while.

That’s the Monday after the Ames straw poll. If she gets in the race any earlier than that, she’ll be expected to do well at Ames, but that’s a test of organizing and paying for supporters to show up and vote for you. In my mind, that’s not really something you want to do within a week or two after launching your campaign. (Unless, of course, you’re really confident and have been getting this unofficially organized behind the scenes a lot earlier — a possibility.)

That makes Ames a simple binary event. In the more unlikely scenario, she wins without even being an official candidate; she then launches her campaign officially with that momentum. More likely, someone else will win, but the wind will be sucked out of their sails by Palin’s announcement.

From a fundraising standpoint, from 8/15 she’ll have a half of a quarter until the first FEC filing period. Enough time to get the big initial cash infusion while still being able to point out it was only for a partial quarter.

Aside from us political junkies, no one is paying attention yet anyway, and likely won’t until September. Getting rolling a few weeks before that will mean a campaign that’s in full swing by the time most folks are noticing. Note that there are several “debates” (if that’s what they want to call these joint press conferences) scheduled for September.

Gov Palin speaks off the cuff in plain but structurally perfect and logical sentences. This kind of extemporaneous mastery of logical rhetoric is something a Lincoln or a T. Roosevelt ..... This woman is remarkable.

"Logical rhetoric" gets you absolutely nowhere if your "fund of knowledge" gas tank is on "Empty". That has always been Sarah Palin's problem which is why she tries very hard to limit her risk by sticking to Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren interviews.

Sean Hannity/Sarah Palin interviews and a Greta Van Susteren/Sarah Palin interviews are like professional wrestling: The two participants agree beforehand how the entertainment will go, and then everybody is prepared for the choreographed Kabuki dance.

Where Sarah Palin falls flat on her face is when she is blindsided with any qusetion she does not expect. Even the very simple question by Katie Couric of "What magazines and newspapers, specifically, do you read?" was devastatingly effective in making Sarah Palin look like a deer in the headlights in front of a nationwide, prime time TV audience. This was the night when Sarah Palin's national standing crashed and burned like the Hindenberg.

Sarah Palin Can't Name a Newspaper She Reads

Sarah Palin could not even come up with, "Well, for example, for "inside the Beltway" newspapers, online, I look at the Washington Times when I want to see a more conservative viewpoint and the Washington Post when I want to see a more liberal viewpoint."

Sarah Palin came up with nothing but white noise and evasion to kill the time.

Sarah Palin is no Abraham Lincoln.

Even with friendly interviewers, Sarah Palin falls flat on her face when she is blindsided with a question she did not expect. This from her Christian Broadcasting Network interview.

When asked by David Brody, "What would YOU have DONE DIFFERENTLY in the Egyptian Crisis?", here is Sarah Palin's evasive, rambling answer that TOTALLY dodged the question, "What YOU would have DONE DIFFERENTLY in the Egyptian Crisis?":

“It’s a difficult situation, this is that 3 AM White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House it it seems that that call went right to um the answering machine. And nobody yet has, no body yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and I’m not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from DC in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And in these areas that are so volatile right now because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have all that information yet."

If you can find something in there, among that rambling sea of white noise, that explains what Sarah Palin would have "done differently" in regards to Egypt, feel free to point it out.

Sarah Palin came up with nothing but white noise and evasion to kill the time.

The bottom line is that Sarah Palin, with her foreign policy fund of knowledge gas tank on "Empty" did not have the slightest clue what she would have "done differently in Egypt".

Sarah Palin is no Abraham Lincoln.

By reiterating that she would not necessarily run if she saw the right person positioned to seize those reins, but that she did not see that person in the current group of contenders, .....

TRANSLATION: Once Governor Rick Perry declares his run for the Presidency in late August, the air will be sucked out of the race and Sarah Palin will endorse him as a "true conservative" and the "right person" to "seize those reins" and crush Obama in the general Presidential election.

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"I'd rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office," the former vice presidential candidate declares in the just-released trailer for her TLC reality show

April 15, 2010: Sarah Palin income 12 million dollars since leaving office

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Posted on Friday, July 01, 2011 10:13:29 AM by Jim Robinson

“..... if Palin does not run but Perry does, he'd probably suck all the air out of the race. Either way, ..... Perry would all be excellent alternatives to Obama the commie. Anyone but RINO Romney the big government chief architect of CommieCare! …… Posted on Friday, July 01, 2011 10:13:29 AM by Jim Robinson”

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MAY 31, 2011 .... Palin plugs Perry: "I really like him" .... Unprompted, Sarah Palin brought up Rick Perry's name yesterday as a strong presidential candidate. "I think he would be a fine candidate.... we have a lot in common. I really like him.

Governor Sarah Palin's Endorsement of Governor Rick Perry

"That's why I am supporting Governor Rick Perry for re-election. He does what is right regardless of whether it is popular. He walks the walk of a true conservative. And he sticks to his guns – and you know how I feel about guns!" ...... Sarah Palin, January 17, 2009

WAIT!!!!! You mean she isn't endorsing Perry or Bachmann? BUT, that's what the trolls keep on telling me so it must be true????!!!!/sarc

She did not say that.

She said that "she would not necessarily run if she saw the right person positioned to seize those reins, but that she did not see that person in the current group of contenders".

She is definitely NOT endorsing Bachmann because Bachmann declared her candidacy on June 27 and is "in the current group of contenders".

Governor Perry, on the other hand, has not yet declared and is therefore not "in the current group of contenders".

See Post 88.

Either you are right or I am right. We will see at the end of the summer.

The "deer in the headlights" period is long passed. If you take the time to read transcripts of Gov. Palin's speeches during her recent visits to India and Israel you might have a fuller impression than the one you apparently have from a pair of ambush interviews in 2008. But at least you don't accuse her of saying she "can see Russia from my house". If she were still unsure of herself and prone to spoken missteps it probably would have shown up in her speech in Madison, WI when several hundred fascist union thugs did everything they could to drown her out. Instead, she delivered what may have been the best speech she's ever given.

Do you consider a prime time interview on ABC with Barbara Walters a controlled and friendly "WWE" match for someone like Gov. Palin? If not, you might take a look at: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Palin/sarah-palin-talks-barbara-walters-afghanistan-policy-economy/story?id=9109226. That interview was conducted more than a year and half ago and she has since been somewhat restricted to Fox News under her lucrative contract with than network. Do you begrudge a woman with a family to support making a nice income and nest egg by supplementing the income from her and her husband's commercial fishing business?

She has also had OpEd pieces published in such "friendly" newspapers as the Washington Post, written and published two books which topped the New York Times' Best Sellers List, given countless speeches at various Conservative and Tea Party events, and her social media opinion postings have kept an obsessive press corps fixed with their daily dose of "Palin".

I would rank her international knowledge base far higher than that of someone who apparently believes there is an "Austrian Language", that Israel can purchase peace with its neighbors by returning to indefensible borders, or that it is in the vital interests of the United States to replace a defanged Qadafi with a new junta comprising elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda (nor is cheaper petroleum for Italy and France what I would call a legitimate U.S. priority). I know that's a low bar for comparison, but as of Nov. 2012 it is the operative one we will have to make.

My comment was about an interview which occurred yesterday, not in 2008, and the unstated conclusion I drew is that Gov. Palin has been working very hard to bring her game up to a very high level. And regarding Lincoln, I am in the middle of re-reading a collection of his writings and speeches and just finished the section of his remarks during the debates with "Judge" Douglas. That is probably why I was so struck with the string of coherence and logic behind Gov. Palin's remarks. Reading Lincoln or almost any pre-1960's politician makes one wonder why today's versions struggle to string more than ten words together without saying something nonsensical. There was and could be only one Lincoln and my estimation of Palin (or anyone) will never rise that high.

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