Elephants On The Bayou: An SRLC Preview:

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Our friends at US for Palin will be live streaming Gov. Palin's SRLC speech here:



US for Palin contributor Adrienne Ross will be live blogging from the event in New Orleans also at Motivation Truth. Both websites are part of the Blogs 4 Palin blogging community.

And according to Taegan Goddard, C-SPAN will be cablecasting the entire event.

Mark Barabak at the LA Times has a preview of the four-day conference:

When Republican activists gather in New Orleans for three days of strategizing and speeches starting Thursday, one big attraction will present a big question: Is Sarah Palin angling for the party's 2012 presidential nomination?

The former Alaska governor will join several other possible White House contenders addressing 3,000 or so party loyalists at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Also appearing are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia; Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; and, by video, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

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Her appearance will be one of a growing number of political speeches Palin has given since leaving the governor's office, publishing a best-seller and launching herself as a TV personality. The question is whether Friday's appearance is a step toward a White House run, or simply another marketing effort -- not that one necessarily precludes the other.

"It helps her celebrity," said David Carney, a GOP strategist attending the conference. "It also exposes her to 50, 60, 100 people from different states who will go back to their Republican Central Committee meetings . . . or the steering committees for various candidates . . . and say, 'We need to get Gov. Palin out here for our Lincoln Day dinner, or let's have a rally and invite her.'"

His full piece is here, and it comes with the usual lamestream media bias warning.

Elsewhere in the LSM, David Chalian of ABC News poses the question that the Romney and Pawlenty teams must have pondered:

"If Sarah Palin, with her mega-wattage superstar status sucking up all the available oxygen in the room, is it worth sharing a stage and competing for some attention?"

Ed Morrissey, who will be in New Orleans to report on the convention, sees this as a test for Gov. Palin:

"The test may not be of her as much as it is of her intent. If she decides to run, she would be formidable, with a large base of passionate supporters. So far, though, she has mainly signaled an interest in activism and in expanding her media reach. The SRLC may give a clearer idea what she has planned for the next two years."

In her SRLC speech Friday, Sarah Palin is expected to specifically address President Obama’s energy policy. At The Cypress Times, John Winder suggests the governor's address in New Orleans "may very well be her act of throwing down the gauntlet to officially challenge the status quo thus setting the stage for a dramatic 2012 election."

The Washington Post's newest blogger Dave Weigel has a post up that looks at some of the pre-conference maneuvering going on regarding the SRLC straw poll. Weigel reported last month that the Ronulans snapped up 800 tickets for the event to make sure their guy gets the long straw in the poll.



- JP