Everybody has an opinion, and 2012 is still three years away. Oh but how we love to speculate. The lamestream media reaches opposite conclusions when they try to strain a gnat over what Governor Palin has said or hasn’t said about 2012. Speculation can be fun, and I do think the 2012 race will be incredibly interesting.
As far as Sarah Palin is concerned, after watching or listening to several of her many interviews last week, and what I’ve read so far in Going Rogue: An American Life (review coming soon) I see someone who has not decided. She isn’t focused on 2012, but she isn’t closing the door.
We’ve got the 2010 elections to focus on first, and all indications are (read: that is what she has said) that is what is on her radar when her book tour ends. Some desire to close the door on her running in 2012 by being petty, and that can be seen in a piece that Peter Wallsten wrote for the Wall Street Journal:
Ms. Palin’s book tour includes a Dec. 6 stop in Sioux City, Iowa. But she declined an invitation to appear at a Nov. 21 fund-raiser for the conservative Iowa Family Policy Center, which had reserved a Des Moines sports arena in anticipation of her attendance.
"All these other national figures are coming here to help us, and she’s coming here to sell books," said an Iowa Republican official.
Added Michael Dennehy, a Republican consultant who worked for 2008 nominee John McCain: "People are anxious to see what she’s going to do, but at this point there’s no evidence of Sarah Palin organizing in New Hampshire or having any interest in organizing."
Let me respond to this bit of “analysis.” First it is 2009. Secondly the IFPC event “controversy” was a contrived one. Thirdly, the anonymous Iowa Republican official (who had better hope and pray I don’t find out his or her identity) just sounds like a complete whiner (probably a Mittwit). She’s already said she plans to come to Iowa to speak to IFPC, and told the Republican Party of Iowa that she would love to come here. This “official” is basically complaining that it isn’t being done on his or her timeframe. So sorry that she had contractual obligations, and sorry that you have something against capitalism. Are you in the right party? I mean really, complaining that she is selling books? Fourth, she just left office in late July, just completed her book, and then will finish with this book tour. Then she has said she’ll focus on 2010.
2012? Who knows, but to determine whether she is running or not in 2012 based on not being organized in 2009 is incredibly premature.
Update: The Des Moines Register in their Iowa Poll shows that more than 2/3 of Iowa GOP voters view Sarah Palin favorably (on par with Huckabee who won the 2008 Iowa Caucus). Not that polls this far out mean all that much, especially with candidates who haven’t declared.