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The Spectacle Blog
Karl Rove believes that Sarah Palin will run for president. Many other political observers have said the same thing, even as the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee has remained coy about her intentions.
I've had my doubts. Palin has done very little of the legwork required to mount a competitive bid for the Republican nomination. She has watched other candidates come in and grab slices of her Tea Party base. And like Mike Huckabee, who declined to run earlier this year, she has achieved a celebrity status that might be more appealing than the rigors of a campaign.
Palin has emerged as a kingmaker in conservative and Republican politics, however. The possibility that she might run for president maximizes her leverage, so she needs to keep that possibility open for as long as she can. That's why I have tended to interpret her campaign-like activities, such as the trips to Iowa, as elaborate head fakes.
Until now. Palin's repeated condemnations of "crony capitalism" are a not-too-subtle jab against Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has emerged as a frontrunner in national Republican polls and has established himself as a Tea Party favorite in his own right. It doesn't make much sense to attack the man who could be the Republican nominee, the candidate who might be the most logical person for Palin to endorse, unless she plans to run herself. ((Though obviously the criticism applies to Mitt Romney and Barack Obama as well.)
Palin might see the crony capitalism charge as one of Perry's weak points. While Romney supposedly plans to hit Perry from the left on entitlements and from the right on immigration, Palin has the cred to potentially make this line of attack -- simultaneously populist and libertarian -- stick.
A Palin presidential campaign would be a big gamble at this point. Her poll numbers have fallen precipitously. Some of her supporters have moved on to other candidates, all of whom are more organized than she. An unsuccessful or embarrassing presidential candidacy would undermine her standing as a conservative leader (see Gingrich, Newt). She could effectively help Romney win the nomination.
Then again, Palin's numbers could rise as soon as she announced. Supporters who have left for Perry or Michele Bachmann might return. All of the poll numbers from 2007, which showed Rudy Giuliani and then Fred Thompson in the lead while John McCain was dead in the water, proved pretty much useless in predicting the following year's primary results. Who's to say that the early numbers will be any more predictive this time around?
Our friends Jeff Lord and Pat Buchanan have both suggested Palin could follow the Nixon strategy. Richard Nixon could afford to declare late for the 1968 Republican nomination, allowing George Romney and others to implode on their own. Although their detractors have much in common, Palin is obviously not Nixon. But perhaps she has some tricks up her sleeve.
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/09/06/could-crony-capitalism-signal
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Casey Abell| 9.6.11 @ 9:31AM
I just don't care any more. My care meter has gone past absolute zero to absolute minus a million. My care e-mail response says I'm out of the office and I'm not coming back. I cared away my last bit of caring on the final care trail a long caring time ago.
If Palin ever gets off her well-paid reality-star backside and actually runs for President, I might try to care a little. Until then, see above.
Alan Brooks| 9.6.11 @ 11:58AM
She might wait to run in 2016.
No offense, Case, but it doesn't take a doctorate in PoliSci to figure that one.
Simon Templar| 9.6.11 @ 10:16AM
Who cares? Really. She runs. She does not run. You guessed it. You did not guess it.
Why does it seem so-called conservative media pundits and writers have a knack at keeping their eye off the ball. Hey, remember the disaster in the white house? Remember the nation is just about to drive off the cliff?
Furthermore, just what do we gain from these speculations that Palin is attacking Perry because she mentions crony capitalism? This is ridiculous.
Instead of listening to the content of the speech, the public reaction, and the reality of crony capitalism, you seem more interested in whether or not Palin is dissing Perry like some little game in a high school run for class president.
Simon Templar| 9.6.11 @ 10:32AM
Will she run? Or will she not run? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of an outrageous slanderous and sensationalizing media,
Or to take arms against this sea of troublemakers,
And by opposing end them?
Oh, the passion. Oh the drama.
Please give it a rest.
Bob| 9.6.11 @ 11:08AM
Quite a week for the GOP, Bachmann's campaign up in flames, the Texas cowpuke's state up in flames and the Eskimo's wife set to step in the horse manure. Oh the Mormon millionaire building a larger mansion in La Jolla, is that his home state? or is it Utah? Michigan? New Hampshire? Iowa? Don't ask Michele any geography questions, the last I heard she thinks Lexington & Concord is in Timbuktu and Elvis was born in Rhodesia.
Simon Templar| 9.6.11 @ 11:38AM
Bob on back to the Huff and Puff, troll!
You need to focus on your great Leader and his recent poll numbers.
PCC| 9.6.11 @ 3:56PM
I'm pretty sure Elvis wasn't born in Rhodesia. Memphis, Tennessee, I think. I'll google it and get back to you.
Stefan Stackhouse| 9.6.11 @ 12:59PM
I doubt that she will run, and rather prefer that she not. However, she can blast crony capitalism with both barrels as many times as she wants, as far as I am concerned.
Clint| 9.6.11 @ 1:58PM
The Tea Party is watching, as The Democrat Light RINO-CINO GOP Ruling Elite Flunkie Stooges attempt to minimize & discount Our Tea Party Candidates.
This Is Why There Is A Tea Party Rebellion.
Rise Up.
Michael St. Joseph| 9.6.11 @ 2:58PM
With all due respect to Mr. Antle, I submit (like Simon Templar) that perhaps Mrs. Palins attacks on crony capitalism were not a "not-too-subtle jab against Texas Gov. Rick Perry" but rather a jab at ... crony capitalism.
Call me naive, but can't we simply take her words at face value?
Crony Capitalism is the biggest threat this country faces today (excluding Islam) and yet Palin is the only one addressing it. Why? Would that the other GOP candidates join her in addressing this most important issue and that conservative writers would address it more as well. If the editors at American Spectator will allow it, I shall shamelessly plug some of my own articles on the subject:
http://www.intellectualconserv.....-bailouts/
http://www.intellectualconserv.....apitalism/
Clint| 9.6.11 @ 4:35PM
" The Post looked at Perry’s top 50 donors, who collectively gave more than $21 million to Perry, and found that 34 received some benefit from Perry’s administration or the state, including grants, contracts and appointments. The donor list was compiled by the nonprofit Texans For Public Justice.
Twenty-three donors won Perry’s appointment to state boards, often the boards of regents at the University of Texas or Texas A&M.
Roughly one in three of the top Perry donors had business interests that secured grants, tax subsidies or project approvals under his administration, the Post review found. Five donors gained both an appointment and a state boost to their specific company or interests. "
cali| 9.6.11 @ 11:54PM
Sarah run everything 'un-conventional' for the simple reason that she is aware of the GOP insiders working against her. Their selected boy is the plastic weasel 'Romney'.
She does endruns around them all; she the best-and most vetted candidate ever. She has nothing to lose; listening to her speeches is exactly what this country needs, and looks for. Crony capitalism needs to be defeated to save our country.
Yes, I believe she will get in at her time, not on someone elses, and it drives the pundits, insiders nuts that she won't tell them.
Sarah is the female Reagan, she is the real and only deal, and as she said 'poll numbers are for strippers and skiers'.
I do not believe the polls-as soon as she declares, game over for all the others. Take that to the bank!
She has been underestimated since she came onto the scene.