I guess Sarah Palin wants people to think she is running for president. I think she is just another Trump – wanting to draw attention to herself because she has become addicted to the spotlight. It’s heady stuff, I suppose, to be such a media draw, both lionized and condemned.
But, I can’t see her doing anything more than trying to make a lot of money as a media star. She is so unprepared to be president that even the Tea Party folks will turn away, I believe. She hasn’t taken the last couple of years after her VP run to become more knowledgeable and expert at foreign and domestic affairs. She just seems to think that all she has to be is spunky and cute and ride a wave of right wing anger at Big Government, and tada… she wins. To me, her new bus tour is little more than a travelling side show. The problem is that her pandering to the hard right could push more reasonable candidates to the right in self defense.
Of course, the hard right wing wants a hard right winger to capture the Republican nomination because they are convinced that the way to win is to be a hard right winger. But, that’s the same reasoning that the hard left wingers have – the way to win is to be a hard left winger. The extremes always think that the moment for the great political awakening of the populace is just around the corner: all they need is the right messenger and the country will be transformed into people just like themselves.
I really don’t think that the Republicans will go for the extremists. In 2008 Rush Limbaugh did everything he could to derail McCain, and he failed. The extremists in the media get fine ratings, but they only sing to the choir. Lots of noise, but I expect that even in the primaries, where the extremes have an oversized influence because they are more highly represented in the voting totals, the Republicans will choose someone more moderate than someone like Palin. If not, they guarantee a humiliating loss in 2012 – think of McGovern in 1972.
