Mark Whittington: How Sarah Palin Can Win Despite Polls, Pundits

"Far worse poll numbers than Palin's have been turned around by a good campaign"
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Never mind the poll analyses from the right and the left. They miss the mark for a possible Palin presidential run, opines Mark Whittington. Dismissing Joshua Green's contention in The Atlantic that Palin's problem is that she leans too far to the right as "just silly" (because many conservatives are successful in American politics) and Jim Geraghty's claim that Palin fatigue is setting in across the country because it fails to take into account the viciousness of the media campaign against her, Whittington argues that despite the pundits and polls, Sarah Palin can win:

But the poll numbers are what they are. Palin suffers from a large number of people who think her ill and who declare that they will never vote for her for president under any circumstances. Fortunately there is a cure if Palin has the will to take it.

The cure is called a campaign. Far worse poll numbers than Palin's have been turned around by a good campaign with public speeches, good advertising, and solid debate performances. One could predict that if she decided to run, a lot of people would find themselves reevaluating their negative judgment of Palin and wondering who this woman is and why she doesn't resemble the Sarah Palin described by the media.

Of course, presidential campaigns are really comparisons between two or more candidates. Palin does not have to metaphorically walk on water. She just has to be better, first than the other Republicans, then than Barack Obama. She has it within her to do both if she wants to.

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This makes two good positive Palin articles in two days from Mark Whittington. We blogged about his Monday op-ed here.

- JP