Mark Levin: 'She's more than qualified to be president'

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According to Mark Levin, Gov. Palin is more qualified to be president than Al Gore, John Edwards and some other prominent Dems you may have heard of:


- JP

Rand Paul: Sarah Palin is 'absolutely' qualified to be president

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The Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board interviewed Rand Paul Saturday He was asked, at about the 12:50 mark in the video, if he thinks Sarah Palin is qualified to be president:

"Absolutely. I've been reading more about her. I haven't made it all the way through her book yet, but I've made it through about a third of her book in the last week or two. What strikes me, and where I feel a kinship to her, is that she battled sort of special-interest government, corporate government -- sort of the corporatism -- and some of the things that were going on in her state were being done by the Republican Party. She ran as an outsider against the machine of the party in Alaska and defeated them. A lot of it was on reform issues and it was over the oil money that was trading places and a lot of the people involved on the different commissions were people who were using it for their own personal gain. I think she sees that the system is broken and that we do need reform, so I think I do feel a lot of kinship with what she has. I think she also has something that you can't buy, and that's likability. I think that's important in being a spokesman for any kind of issues or for office."

- JP

Romney: Sarah Palin is qualified to be president

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney exploded a few heads on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program Wednesday when he told the show's usual suspects that he believed former Alaska Gov. and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is qualified to be president.

Romney was on the program to promote his book No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness. In response to direct questions from co-host Joe Scarborough, he also said that George W. Bush was a good president and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is a true conservative.

DaTechGuy's take is here.

- JP

Palin 2012?

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It's a rare day indeed when we find ourselves in full agreement with Rick Moran on any topic, but in an American Thinker Blog post Sunday, he echoed some of the same points we have been making for weeks:

By sheer force of her personality and charisma, Palin is slowly changing the narrative about her that arose during and after the 2008 campaign. Her personal numbers have been climbing since her book "Going Rogue" came out, and it appears to me that the more the American people see of her, the more they like her.

Mark Ambinder thinks that she sounded like a candidate for 2012. I'm not so sure. She's awfully far behind in terms of building a campaign staff, fund raising, and lining up support in key states. This is not to say she can't catch up. But I think realistically, she has to make a decision before November and between now and then, she can do some stuff that are candidate-like, but leaves her options open. That would seem to be the smart move given how far away 2012 really is.

However, the longer she waits to commit to running, the tougher it will be. Romney, Huckabee, and Pawlenty have been running almost before the cheers for Obama died down following the 2008 election. There will come a point where Palin will be squeezed because her rivals will have snapped up the best political pros, the top fund raisers, and the most important endorsements. That point arrives earlier every election. It will be interesting to see how she plays the game.

That Sarah Palin is running for president is clear. What is not so clear is in which election cycle or cycles she will make her charge toward the White House. Will it be 2012, 2016 or 2020 -- or some combination of the three?

- JP

Matt Patterson: Palin Rising

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Matt Patterson, a National Review Institute Washington fellow and author of Union of Hearts: The Abraham Lincoln & Ann Rutledge Story, admits to having been a Palin skeptic in the past. While the author admired the former governor's "considerable" political talent, he had his doubts about how much interest the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate had in "substantive" policy issues, as well as her understanding of them. Patterson also questioned Sarah Palin's decision to resign as governor of Alaska and assumed that she was making a "potentially career-crippling" decision. In an op-ed published at Big Government, Patterson writes:

But then a funny thing happened: In November, Mrs. Palin debuted her memoir “Going Rogue” with great sales, which was not a surprise, but also with a luminous and successful press tour, which was. The interviews she gave in promotion for her book (at least the ones that I saw) were much improved from those given during the 2008 presidential campaign. Palin seemed to speak about both herself and national issues with greater verve and confidence.

Other stars are aligning for Palin:

Several of her potential rivals for the 2012 Republican nomination find themselves suddenly, perhaps fatally, compromised by recent events.

Now Patterson has an entirely different opinion of Sarah Palin than the one he harbored just a couple of months ago. He believes that she is preparing to make a serious run for the White House. And though the former governor still has work to do, Patterson says, the prospect of Sarah Palin becoming the first woman to be addressed as "Madam President" no longer seems impossible to him.

Sarah Palin continues to accomplish what is perhaps the most difficult task of her political career. She is changing people's minds about her. The full Paterson opinion piece is here.

- JP

Want a Palin presidency? Then get serious about it.

Posting at Renew America and quoting Confucius, Neil Brian Goldberg envisions the grassroots propelling Sarah Palin into a presidential run:

Confucius say: "It is often following crowd who push leader forward."

...and so the Sarah Palin for President campaign begins...

How does he propose to launch this campaign?

Next, being sure of what we want, we simply begin this "Sarah for President" campaign.

If it were only that simple. What Goldberg is proposing here is nothing new. We have to wonder if he's aware that others have been -- as the Chris Rea song goes -- Working On It. There are a number of PACs, committees and blogs already dedicated to drafting Sarah Palin, and they weren't born yesterday.

Where Goldberg's bandwagon really becomes unhitched, however, is with the following:

There is talk that Sarah will run on a third party — what shall it be called — why of course — THE TEA PARTY.

Goldberg quotes Confucius, but he should be studying up on Ronald Reagan. A good starting place would be the 1977 Reason magazine interview:

Well, third parties have been notoriously unsuccessful; they usually wind up dividing the very people that should be united. And then we elect the wrong kind–the side we’re out to defeat wins. I have been doing my best to try to revitalize the Republican Party groups that I’ve spoken to, on the basis that the time has come to repudiate those in our midst who would blur the Republican image by saying we should be all things to all people in order to triumph. Lately, we find that of the 26 percent of the people who didn’t vote, more than half of them now say they didn’t vote because they don’t see any difference between the parties. I’ve been urging Republicans to raise a banner and put the things we stand for on that banner and don’t compromise, but don’t try to enlarge the party by being all things to everyone when you can’t keep all the promises. Put up a banner and then count on the fact that if you’ve got the proper things on that banner the people will rally round.

Then there's Reagan's CPAC speech from the same year:

I have to say I cannot agree with some of my friends -- perhaps including some of you here tonight -- who have answered that question by saying this nation needs a new political party.

I respect that view and I know that those who have reached it have done so after long hours of study. But I believe that political success of the principles we believe in can best be achieved in the Republican Party. I believe the Republican Party can hold and should provide the political mechanism through which the goals of the majority of Americans can be achieved. For one thing, the biggest single grouping of conservatives is to be found in that party. It makes more sense to build on that grouping than to break it up and start over. Rather than a third party, we can have a new first party made up of people who share our principles. I have said before that if a formal change in name proves desirable, then so be it. But tonight, for purpose of discussion, I’m going to refer to it simply as the New Republican Party.

And let me say so there can be no mistakes as to what I mean: The New Republican Party I envision will not be, and cannot, be one limited to the country club-big business image that, for reasons both fair and unfair, it is burdened with today. The New Republican Party I am speaking about is going to have room for the man and the woman in the factories, for the farmer, for the cop on the beat and the millions of Americans who may never have thought of joining our party before, but whose interests coincide with those represented by principled Republicanism. If we are to attract more working men and women of this country, we will do so not by simply "making room" for them, but by making certain they have a say in what goes on in the party.

Sarah Palin has never advocated forming a new political party, nor has she ever said anything about joining an existing minor party. She's a Reagan Republican, and as such, she is no doubt aware of Reagan's warning about third parties and has taken it to heart. Many have misinterpreted her pledge to campaign for conservative candidates regardless of their party affiliation. In our opinion, that is just a hint at what is yet to come from the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate.

Ronald Reagan drafted the blueprints for conservative electoral success years ago. Just because the Republican Party has forgotten how to follow them is no reason to give up on the GOP. The answer is to rebuild the Reagan coalition of conservatives of all stripes, and then bring libertarians, independents and blue collar Democrats on board. Once the troops are assembled, Sarah Palin can lead them into battle to take back the Republican Party. The GOP has the database of voter lists, donors and precinct workers. It has the connections to the volunteers who man the phone banks, canvass their neighborhoods and put the yard signs on their lawns. The Republican Party is already registered and organized in all 50 states and 3,143 counties, parishes (Louisiana), boroughs (Alaska) or independent cities in the nation. It is just plain foolish to think for even a moment that reinventing all of those wheels would be any quicker or easier than taking back the GOP.  

We admire Goldberg's desire to do something to get Sarah Palin into the White House, and we echo his call to donate to SarahPAC while still putting something aside for the big "money bomb" fundraiser which is sure to come.  But the first step toward being witness to a history-making inauguration of former Gov. Palin as the first woman to be president of the U. S. is  to get the stars out of one's eyes and the foolish notions out of one's head. Then we can talk some real world political organizing.

- JP

"I am confident she would make a fine President"

Though he says it's too early to endorse any potential GOP contender for the 2012 presidential race, John McCain told David Schuster on NBC's "Meet the Press" today that he thinks Sarah Palin "would make a fine president":



h/t: HotAirPundit

- JP

Will Gov. Palin pass on a second term in Alaska?

There is some speculation that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will not stand for reelection in 2010 in order to take a shot at her party's nomination for president in 2012. According to Politico's Andy Barr:



But in Barr's Politico article, he points out that no candidate, including Gov. Palin, has officially filed papers with the Alaska Public Offices Commission to run for governor in 2010.

Both Gov. Palin’s office and the Republican Governors Association have declined to comment on the speculation over what her intentions may be. Barr says a number of people from both major parties he has spoken to in Alaska and Washington are interpreting her silence as a sign that she will not pursue a second term as governor "so that she can play a larger role on the national political stage."

Should she not run for reelection in 2010, several political possibilies will open for her. She could challenge Don Young for the U.S. House in 2010, run for president in 2012, wait until 2014 to run against Mark Begich for his Senate seat or wait until 2016 to make a presidential run. On the other hand, a second term as Alaska's governor would leave her in the best position to continue to shepherd her signature project along - a major natural gas pipeline which will deliver one of her state's abundant energy resources to the lower 48. It would be during a second term - probably 2013 - when ground would be broken on the line, thus completing the planning stage of the project and moving into the construction stage.

Barr quotes Andrew Halcro, who was beaten by Sarah Palin when he ran as an independent for the governor's mansion in 2006:

"There is nothing that she has done that leads me to believe she will seek reelection. If you’re Palin, once you’ve flown first class, you don’t go back to coach. She’s been to the show and certainly seemed to like it there."

Halcro doesn't mention that when Gov. Palin flies commercial, she always flies coach. Barr does mention that Halcro is considering another run for governor, but would probably decide against doing so if the governor does decide to opt for a second term. Halcro finished third in the three-way race in 2006, garnering only 9.46% of the vote.

Barr's article also quotes two anonymous sources:

"We don’t think she’s running," said a Washington-based Democratic operative who is closely watching the gubernatorial race.

"[There is a] 50-50 chance she runs for governor," said a former Palin staffer involved in state Republican politics, noting, "If Sarah Palin has proven anything in her career, it’s that she is full of surprises."

As for Gov. Palin herself, she's not saying. When asked by Wolf Blitzer in a CNN interview earlier this month, she replied that she is not "going to do anything yet":

"What I’m trying to get done for Alaska right now is to get that Alaska gas line built," she said. "We need those energy sources flowing through North America. That’s what my focus is."

The bottom line is that only Governor Palin knows what her next major political move will be, and she doesn't have to share that information with anyone until next spring at the earliest.

That anonymous former staffer Barr talked to had an interesting take on it:

"Whether you want to call it running for president or not, she’s doing it," said the former Palin staffer. "If she runs for governor, though, she is going to have to answer the question: Are you going to get elected and then take off for Iowa?"

We remind TX4P readers that beyond establishing SarahPAC, Gov. Palin has not yet built any national political infrastructure for a presidential run. She does have a book tour tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2010 to promote the memoir she's working on. That tour gives her a good excuse to visit such prime political real estate as Iowa and New Hamshire. If she intends to run in 2012, she will have to  start building state and county organizations soon. But at this stage of the political game, anyone who says Gov. Palin will or will not run for reelection is just speculating.

- JP

Book Review: "Sarah Palin: Poised..."

Sarah Palin: Poised To Become America’s First Female President - the book we told you about in March - is out, and the first reviews are coming in. At Digital Journal, Gary Jackson says:

"I like this book, because it’s an easy read, well thought out, and reveals things many folks may not know. It’s a good primer for someone who doesn’t know a lot about Governor Palin’s early career."

h/t: Red Stater

- JP