Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Palin too indecisive to be President

Jena McGregor, writing in The Washington Post, has this to say about Sarah Palin's feigned apparent indecision about running for President:
The bus tour has come and gone. Now, so has the movie premiere.

A flattering “documentary” (from the looks of these clips, it appears more like an infomercial) about Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor and one-time vice presidential nominee, had its first showing in the tiny town of Pella, Iowa on Tuesday. But despite plenty of speculation that it could “serve as a galvanizing prelude to Palin's prospective presidential campaign,” the event went off with little fanfare. Palin attended a post-premiere barbeque and had lunch at a Panera Bread restaurant with a GOP fundraiser, where politics reportedly wasn’t on the table.

Her apparent indecision whether to run or not, reports Politico, is starting to frustrate early state political players who are just ready for an answer already. (Palin told reporters Tuesday that she’s “still contemplating” the answer to “such a life-changing, relatively earth-shattering type of decision”; her daughter Bristol, meanwhile, told Fox News the same day her mother’s mind was made up.) But such perennial fence-sitting could do a lot worse than frustrate political operatives. Palin’s keep-them-guessing approach is in danger from turning what was a smart, masterful strategy for publicity into a liability of indecisiveness. ...

... Most politicians do the will-they-or-won’t-they-run dance with the press longer than they should, though Palin has turned it into a high art. This is what I don’t get—the willingness to look indecisive and, potentially, not fully committed to the job, in exchange for a little more time with your name in the news. Unless of course, getting more publicity is more of a concern to you than what voters might think of you. ...

McGregor's post is "Sarah Palin's campaign liability: From movie to bus tour to indecision?" Apparently, she reads Jonathan Capehart's columns, who has long been on to Sarah Palin's game.

Bristol Palin's statement -- On Fox! They report, we decide, right? -- that Sarah Palin has decided whether to run is newsworthy. If she had decided to run, her contract with Fox News would have already been suspended. Is she stringing Fox along? Hoping to keep that check coming a little while longer? That's not a good idea, because Fox' coverage of her candidacy could be devastating. Imagine the stories: "Sarah Palin, 2012's rodeo clown, said, '.'"

Sarah Palin is obviously not running -- of course, I may be assuming she's sane -- but if you want to keep a tiny, rapidly cooling ember of hope alive a bit longer, you may find some comfort in this post: "Sarah Palin 'will run for White House in 2012'." Peter Singleton is believed to be a volunteer, unassociated with Palin.

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