Sarah Palin Continues To Want Us To Think She Might Run For President

Last night on Fox News Channel, Sarah Palin hinted that she could decide on whether or not she will be entered the race for the GOP nomination by the end of the summer:

Decision day is rapidly approaching for Sarah Palin, and for the first time the former Alaska governor has indicated a time frame for when she will make a decision about whether to run for president.

“You know, August and September, you do have to start laying out a plan if you are to be one to throw your hat in the ring, so that’s basically the time frame,” Palin told Sean Hannity during an appearance Wednesday night on Fox News.

Palin has been relatively quiet over the past month, as she returned to her home in Alaska after a brief appearance in the nation’s first voting state of Iowa to attend the premiere of “The Undefeated” — a documentary extolling her leadership in Alaska, which opens in select theaters nationwide on Friday.

Asked about her recent comment to Newsweek that she could win a general election, Palin said that while does believe that she could beat President Obama, she would also consider supporting another Republican candidate — if she felt that he or she met certain requirements that she looks for in a national leader.

“I’m not wholly confident that we have that field set yet that that one individual is in the field,” Palin said. “So I’m still thinking about being one that would offer myself up in the name of service, knowing confidently that I have those common-sense, fiscally conservative, pro-private sector experience and ideas that can be put to good work for this country.”

Honestly this still sounds like Palin being coy about her Presidential intention as she has been for the better part of this year.  She’s already started falling off the public radar as candidates like Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann has entered the race, and she really has nothing of substance to contribute to the debt negotiations. If she isn’t running, as I suspect, then people will start paying even less attention to her once she makes that clear. She’s got a propaganda film movie coming out in a few weeks and while she has no financial interest in its success she certainly has an interest in seeing it succeed in the name of enhancing brand Palin. So, she’ll drag this out for as long as she can. My personal suspicion, and that’s all that it is, is that she ends up throwing her weight behind Rick Perry if he enters the race. As with all things Palin, though, we’ll just have to wait and see.

In any event, here’s the interview:

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. TruthRocks says:

    I agree – SP is waiting to see if Perry runs. Somewhere, I’ve seen a public statement, either by her or Perry, that they would not run against each other.

  2. hey norm says:

    Perry/Palin…or Palin/Perry?

    Please please please let the God Squad run. Please.

  3. legion says:

    I’m sorry Sarah, ‘Crazy + Stupid’ just isn’t as uncommon in 2011 as it was in 2007…

  4. Jay says:

    The timeframe Palin gave is after the Iowa straw poll. While the event itself has no bearing on the nomination, it’s the unofficial deadline for a Republican to enter a presidential primary since candidates will have their campaigns largely organized by then. Thus, I conclude Palin isn’t running. A late start with other candidates already having divvied up her base of support would mean an early, ignominious exit. As far as Perry, the more I see him dither, the less I anticipate he will enter the primaries. At this point, I would be highly surprised if any other major candidates entered the race.

  5. John Malk. says:

    open letter from Alex Knapp?

  6. John Malk. says:
  7. An Interested Party says:

    Oh, looks who’s back…

  8. jukeboxgrad says:

    If she isn’t running, as I suspect, then people will start paying even less attention to her once she makes that clear. …So, she’ll drag this out for as long as she can.

    I have a theory I like better. Yes, Palin is all about building her brand and maximizing the amount of attention she gets. But imagine that say, 6 months ago she had flatly annnounced that she wasn’t running. She would still be getting a lot of attention right now (maybe even more than she’s currently getting). It’s just that instead of the question being ‘is Palin going to run,’ the question would be this: ‘who is Palin going to endorse.’ That would actually be an interesting and important question, because she could have a lot of influence on the race by hinting at support or non-support for various candidates. Over the last couple of years there’s been plenty of talk about Palin as a ‘kingmaker.’ So she could get plenty of attention playing that role.

    So that’s not why she’s being coy. There’s a different explanation for her coyness. She is going to run, and she’s known that all along. So why be so coy for so long? Because she has a specific narrative in mind, and she’s building the framework for that narrative. When she finally does announce that she’s running, the story she will tell will go something like this: ‘This is a great sacrifice for me and my family. I do this with great reluctance, and only because I love my country so much, and only because I really thought someone good (other than me) would come along. I was waiting for that to happen, hoping that would happen. But now it’s finally clear that no one else is going to show up, so I have to do it myself.’

    She is exploiting this fact: all along, there has been speculation about better candidates coming along. For a while people thought that might be Huck, or Daniels. Other names have popped up sometimes: Christie, or Ryan, or Pence, or Thune. Even Jeb Bush got mentioned. Now the talk is focused on Perry. This speculation won’t stop, because the field is weak, and it will stay weak.

    Palin is good at political theatrics. She’s building drama. She wants to be the reluctant hero who arrives on the scene at the last moment, just in time to save the GOP and save the country. She’s setting the stage for that story.

    By the way, if she is ever asked who exactly she was waiting or hoping for (was it Perry? was it Christie? was it Ryan?) she’ll just be her typical coy self and duck the question. She’s not in a position to answer the question in a serious way, because the whole thing is just an act.

  9. Murray says:

    And the press is happy to disgrace itself printing and broadcasting every word she utters rather than calling her BS. (Newsweek’s latest cover story is particularly pathetic.)