The first time I heard discussion about a Palin 2012 run for the presidency was November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama was elected to be the next President of the United States. The conversation has not since shifted. It has only intensified, it seems, with each passing day.
Like so many Americans, I immediately grabbed onto the idea of President Palin. I became involved in the 2012 Draft Sarah Committee, which is the only draft committee registered with the Federal Elections Commission. Some people gravitated to the Committee, while concerns were raised by others, the most repeated of which were "Do we really know if she wants to run?" and "It's too early to think about 2012."
It's amazing how quickly time flies, though, isn't it? The 2012 race is soon to get underway, and we realize that it wasn't really that far off after all. As for whether Governor Palin wants to run, well, that's been debated every single day since she returned to Alaska to resume her duties as governor and John McCain to Washington to pick up where he left off in the Senate. The subject is not about to change, either.
The conversation has gone back and forth with crazed rapidity. When the Governor resigned from office in July of 2009, some speculated she was going to run, and she was freeing herself up for that run. Others argued that after that controversial decision she couldn't possibly plan to run. Upon releasing Going Rogue, pundits just knew she was taking the opportunity to set her record straight so the road would be clear for a run for the highest office in the land. Other pundits said she wrote the book mainly with the hopes of exposing McCain staffers and media members who had done her wrong.
When she began to travel the nation giving policy speeches and meeting more Americans, some were convinced she was planning to run, that she was voicing a common sense message to which so many can relate and counting on that message to carry her forward. There were those, however, who said, no, she's having too much fun being a voice crying in the wilderness, so why would she put herself through the rigors of another merciless campaign?
She's definitely running, some said, when her PAC began releasing Mama Grizzly and Tea Party videos full of the faces and the fervor of a nation desperately desiring true change. Nonetheless, others maintained she was simply setting up public servants to take leadership roles as her PAC raised record money so conservatives could take back Washington. And with the emergence of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," observers have declared that the Governor is doing more than than just sharing her family and her state with America; she's showing us who she is, the upbringing she's had, and the state resources she is so ready to introduce to the nation at large--as President of this nation. Doubters, like Karl Rove, however, see the "reality show" as evidence that she could not possibly be seriously contemplating a run.
Obviously, the will she or won't she? question has been beaten to death as badly as Governor Palin beat that halibut in the second episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," and I'm not sure anyone truly knows the answer, except, as her friends and family in her home state say, "God and Todd." Today, however, AWR Hawkins, writing for Pajamas Media, gives a different take on it. He neither subscribes to the notion that she will run nor the notion that she won't run. His angle is this: she's already running.
Hawkins writes:
Questions about Sarah Palin’s future political plans are ubiquitous. From the left and the right, political pundits wonder aloud if she’s really thinking about running for the office of president in 2012. And depending on the pundit, the questions over whether she will run are usually tied to reasons why she should or shouldn’t.
But missing in all this guesswork over Palin’s intentions and the weighing of the pluses and minuses of her possible candidacy is the simple fact that she’s already running for president, and so far, she’s beating Obama and the mainstream media at every turn.
[...]
Counting her time on the national stage as a vice presidential candidate with John McCain, America has had over two years to watch Palin speak from the heart, while listening to Obama speak from a teleprompter. They’ve heard her relentless calls for a strong military, while watching Obama try to appease (instead of destroy) terrorists the world over. They’ve heard her defend the free market, while living with the ramifications of Obama’s stimulus package, nationalization of industry, and takeover of health care.
The American people have even seen a microcosm of a Palin-versus-Obama matchup via the 2010 midterm elections in which 30 of 43 of the House candidates she endorsed won, as did 7 of the 12 Senate candidates she supported. Moreover, those elections proved that while rank-and-file citizens largely support Palin’s worldview, they are rejecting Obama’s.
No wonder CBS News’ Nicolle Wallace said of Palin: “She is one of the shrewdest political figures in our country at this moment. She’s also one of the most electric.”
So while the pundits guess, stabbing blindly into the air in an attempt to come up with proof of whether Palin will or won’t run, the rest of us should just sit back and watch her go, because she’s running for the White House right now.
And if I had to place a bet on who wins in 2012, my money would be on Palin.
Read the full article here.
If AWR Hawkins is right, then as the nation habitually discusses what Governor Palin might do in 2012, she's marveling at the fact that we haven't yet noticed she's already doing it.
That's just one person's perspective, but it's an interesting one, is it not?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment