RE: She’s fine on the issues, but she gaffed herself out of the 2012 nomination. The fact that she couldn’t get her gaffes under control says little for her ability to run the country.
If we keep focusing on the gaffes and ignore her strengths and solid principles under pressure, we’d never get a good conservative as a candidate.
Who hasn’t had gaffes?
Sarah Palin had them. Obama? HAH, I can count them by the fistful ( let’s start with the 57 states of America ).
Those gaffes are SECONDARY in my view.
Heck, if it boiled down to Rick Perry vs. Hillary, I’d take Perry even if can’t remember the government departments he’d like to close down.
If she was an option in November 2012, I would have agreed with you. But she wasn't, and her gaffes were a large part of why.