More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention Part 383

“Waitin' On A Woman” Edition
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Liz Marlantes, at The Christian Science Monitor:

“Will Sarah Palin be the October surprise? One national poll shows Sarah Palin surging ahead of Rick Perry in a head to head matchup against Barack Obama. Will Sarah Palin announce her candidacy in time for the Florida primary deadline? ... And that remains the question: will she or won’t she? Palin recently told Fox News that she thinks there’s ‘still time’ for candidates to get into the race, and that she’s ‘still considering’ it. She repeatedly said she believed it would be an ‘unconventional’ election year. Palin did acknowledge that there are deadlines looming to get on the ballot in certain primary and caucus states. (Florida, for example, has a deadline of Oct. 31.) Still, a late entry isn’t necessarily insurmountable, particularly for candidates with high name recognition and easy access to cash. In 1995, self-funded candidate Steve Forbes waited until October to announce, and quickly became the strongest challenger to ultimate GOP nominee Bob Dole. Forbes made up for his lack of on-the-ground campaigning by blanketing the airwaves in early primary and caucus states with ads. Palin may string everyone along for a while yet.”

Shane Vander Hart, at Caffeinated Thoughts:

“I think it is entirely possible for her to still jump into this race. She would have the advantage of staying out of the bludgeoning that is currently going on among the candidates. She also will have had time to hone her message before launching her campaign.”

Catholic Online:

“Sarah Palin was the poll's biggest surprise. While the former Alaska Governor isn't officially running for President, she has been touring the country and promoting herself nonetheless. The latest poll has her only 5 percentage points behind Obama, after trailing him by as much as twenty points earlier in the year. Palin now leads Obama amongst independent voters, a key swing block... The survey did find that Rudy Guliani and Sarah Palin were popular with voters, despite the fact they are not running. The poll results showed that if they were to enter the race they would have at least as much support as Romney or Bachmann.”

Jennifer Jacobs, at the Des Moines Register:

“Sarah Palin is ‘on the verge of making her decision of whether or not to run for office’ – and her backers should write a check right away, a letter from her political action committee says.”

Stacy McCain, at The Other McCain:

“Sarah Palin — having previously specified September as the deadline for her to enter the 2012 field — appeared to extend her timeline to November. That alone is enough to make all the pundits groan at the prospect of another two months of will-she-or-won’t-she drama... Is Palin hinting at a possible third-party campaign? I strongly doubt it, but neither would I rule it out, and I’m also thinking about the possibility that the changes to the delegate apportionment rules — no ‘winner-take-all’ primaries in March — could lead to a brokered convention at Tampa. Whatever the tea-leaf readers see in Palin’s comments, I think she’s absolutely right: 2012 has already been an unconventional election cycle, and people should be skeptical about bandwagon organizers who think they can predict events many months in advance.”

Poll Insider:

“It sure does seem that everything comes back to Palin.”

Katie Pavlich, at Townhall.com's Tipsheet:

“Palin is leading Obama among independents. It looks like voters may have paid attention to Palin's ideas presented in a speech given at tea party rally earlier this month when she slammed crony capitalism and the permanent political class, rather than getting caught up in the superficial arguments about why people don't like her. However, Palin is the one who said, ‘Polls are for strippers and cross country skiers,’ so in the end, this may not even matter. Love her or hate her, Palin does have ideas that resonate with independent voters. If she were to run, Palin would offer unique experience (taking on the political machine in Alaska, taking on the oil companies in Alaska, building a pipeline, etc.) to the current GOP presidential field.”

Mitt Romney, to USA Today's Susan Page:

“She would make the race that much more exciting, bring more people to watch the debates, and I hope she gets in.”

Paul Bedard, at U.S.News & World Report:

“As Sarah Palin mulls entering the GOP presidential primaries amid new polls showing her popularity still soaring, current Republican candidate Ron Paul urged her and others to jump in... Only Palin remains the big name potential presidential candidate considering a bid. Others like Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have ruled out running. Palin retains a strong supporter base and a McClatchy-Marist poll out today has Palin gaining on President Obama. She is now just five points behind Obama, 49-44 percent, and she is capturing independents.”

Justin Sink, at The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

“Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who disappointed many of his fellow Republicans when he decided against joining the field for the 2012 presidential nomination, said Friday that he would welcome former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) entering the race.”

Jelayne Sessler, at Palin Defender:

“And so, the question remains: Who’s left to ride in on that white horse and fill the shoes of that true conservative the American people are yearning for? Sarah Palin. By the looks of things, she's played her cards just right – she's sat back long enough to let Perry and Romney hash it out on stage and now the so called front-runners are exposed for who they really are. Palin’s timing could very well be impeccable; maybe it’s time for her to jump in and fill that true Tea Party candidate void America is pleading for.”

MrCurmudgeon, at Tea Party Tribune:

“The GOP primaries are about to get a little more interesting. If Palin runs, imagine the coattail effect her high-profile candidacy will have in bringing more Tea Party candidates to the House and Senate.”

Scott Conroy, at RealClearPolitics:

“If she is still gauging the viability of a potential candidacy before making her ultimate decision, Palin might find grounds for encouragement in a McClatchy-Marist poll released earlier this week that showed her trailing President Obama by just five percentage points in a hypothetical general election matchup and beating him among independents. Palin, who does not employ a pollster and joked in Iowa earlier this month that polls were ‘for strippers and cross-country skiers,’ has also placed third and within striking distance of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry in several recent Republican primary surveys -- further evidence that she might very well have the potential to turn the GOP race into a three-way contest with the two front-runners if she does jump in. There are currently no indications that Palin has taken any steps toward planning what would likely be a major announcement rally, nor has she made additional staff hires that she would need for even the most bare-bones presidential campaign operation. But Palin’s aides insist that they have constructed a plan by which they could have a fully functional -- if tiny, by contemporary standards -- operation ready within a couple of weeks.”

Mary Beth House, at Conservatives 4 Palin:

“So the question I throw out there to all Palin supporters is this: Are you ready to storm the beaches?”

Patrick S. Adams, at Patrick's World USA:

“Ronald Reagan was 25 points behind Carter 8 months out from the election. His electability at this point in 1979 was way more in doubt than Palin’s is. Reagan didn’t have the advantage of the electronic era with a 24 hour news cycle, Facebook and other new media ways of expressing himself. The new era of news is a double edged sword, It was a weapon to be used against Palin to smear her by having every negative meme perpetrated on fly up the media flagpole because of the complicity of the mainstream media. This did not stop Palin and her supporters from turning it into a weapon for them to compress time frames and deal with the smears almost instantaneously. Because Reagan didn’t have today’s media at his avail, it took him right up to merely weeks before the election to overcome the public’s concerns. But, the methodology was the same. He showed them in the final debate with Jimmy Carter that he was not only competent but affable by being himself in front of the American people. There was no print or video medium then that could stop him from busting through the myths then just as there is no print or video medium today that can alter the speech that Palin gave in Indianola, IA.”

Exit Quote - Ronald Reagan:

“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”

- JP