Signs

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The Tennessean's political blog In Session provides what may be some tangible evidence that Sarah Palin is beginning to take steps to build an organization at the state level, a necessary precursor to any serious run for the White House:

Before she headed to Opryland to address a crowd of 1,100 ticketholders and some 200 national and international journalists, the former vice presidential candidate made a quiet detour to the Nashville home of B.C. “Scooter” Clippard, to meet some of the Tennesseans she’d want by her side if she does make a run for the White House in 2012.

“It’s amazing how people believe in her,” said Clippard, one of the state’s high-octane Republican fundraisers whose past efforts have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns ranging from George W. Bush to Fred Thompson to John McCain. “I’ve gotten calls and emails from people who were in that room who would love to help her with her cause, who wanted to help her with donations to her PAC…I’m telling you, she radiates.”

According to the blog, a group of about 30, including some Tennessee political heavyweights and businessmen (translation: "donors"), were there to meet Gov. Palin Saturday. If, under the radar, Sarah Palin is attending similar meet and greet sessions in other states as she travels around the country, she will be making the kind of contacts that can be cultivated into some major political capital.

If true, does this mean she intends to run for president in 2012? Perhaps. This is the most basic form of political networking, and from it, national campaigns are eventually built. We're sure that she will run for president, just not convinced that 2012 is the year she will do it. Certainly the Sunday interview with Chris Wallace, in which Gov. Palin discussed the team of advisors she is putting together is another sign that she might be ready to throw her cap into the ring in two years' time. We'll be more easy to convince when we see her doing in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina what she appears to be doing in Tennessee.

Read the full Tennessean blog post here.

- JP