Third Party? The Get Along Party isn’t likely to welcome her with open arms and if Perry falters, as is most likely, given his burst to fame in a short time, Romney will be the nominee.
1) Perry will lose support — because he shot ahead of Romney too quickly.
2) Romney will win the nomination — because he was clever enough to let Perry pull ahead of him too quickly.
3) Palin will run as a 3rd party candidate — because the GOP establishment (the one she promises to clean up or clean out) won't welcome her.
...but to your point:...I don't think that it is up to the party these days who gets the nomination....it is up to the people who vote in the primaries, is it not? If Gov Palin runs in the Republican primaries and wins, she would be the Republican candidate whether the "establishment" likes it or not. What are they to do if she wins the primaries?...just give the nomination to Romney?
I would agree with you if we were still stuck with the old convention system where the "delegates" (party hacks) picked the candidates.
Ms Palin is smarter than the average politician...she has the MSM and the party establishment in a constant state of angst.
Both parties and the MSM are formulating polls, sending out hordes of investigators, looking in trash cans, and about any other thing that they can think of to bring her down...but it appears that she gets stronger every day. Every word that she says on Twitter and in her speeches cuts the MSM and party establishment to the bone.
They are absolutely helpless against her.
I think she is running and will operate a campaign like none has been run before.