She is watching Michele Bachmann fading and made reference to it tonight. Michele hurt herself in the last debate and I think will need to be a non-factor if Sarah is to get in. That, I think is one issue. The other is to give Perry and Romney a chance to bloody each other a bit and possibly come in with a 2-way race open. She needs to get some specifics and show she can debate them and list some stats. All in all, I am not convinced she is going to do it, but I do love her.
She really did set the stage for her run tonight. Whether she takes the plunge, of course, who knows?
But, as you posted, she reinforced the fall of “the smart Palin” (ie Bachmann) and finished the job by interjecting that Ron Paul was ahead of MB in some polls. Additionally, she laid out what she would “expect” from the candidates - record, not rhetoric, of job creation, deficit reduction, and combatting crony capitalism. Gee, of the field we’ll see on stage Thursday night in Orlando, who would fit that description? Basically, she was describing her own record. And, my ears perked up when she did this twice (with Hannity prompting).
I agree with others on this thread that there is a strategy there, one borne of the reality that she doesn’t have Romney bundlers pouring in huge amounts of compromised cash. Plus, by waiting, she’s seen her “main” (in media’s eyes) competition pretty much flame out, Romney get bloodied up badly by Perry, and then the reality of Perry beginning to set in. All Palin has to do is occasionally comment on Fox (and get handsomely compensated), and throw out tweets and FB postings (notice how detailed and spot on the latter have been of late).
Agree that, if she runs, her strategy will certainly rewrite the Poli Sci textbooks.