Eight Is Enough

by JASmius

Should Sarah Palin finally take the plunge and run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination? I think the answer can be found in this Des Moines Register blog post:

Eight Reasons Palin Should Run

• 1. BELIEF IN HERSELF: “She believes that she could win,” said Republican Greg Hudson, 29, of West Des Moines, who writes the blog 1007 East Grand.
  
  
• 2. LIKES THE LIMELIGHT: “She loves to compete, and this is the ultimate competition,” said Doug Gross, an Iowa GOP politics insider.
  
  
• 3. STEALTH HELP: The work that a grass-roots group called Organize4Palin is doing on an unofficial, volunteer capacity in Iowa and other states rivals what some campaigns have done with paid staff, said Shane Vander Hart, 39, of Pleasant Hill, who writes the blog Caffeinated Thoughts.
  
  
• 4. FIRING UP THE BASE: Palin would motivate the Iowa GOP base and excite those uninspired by the current field, Hudson said.
  
  
• 5. TEA PARTY POWER: If there will be a time the tea party movement picks the nominee, this could be the year.
  
  
• 6. MONEY MAGNET: SarahPAC has reported impressive totals ($1.67 million this year, the Open Secrets website shows) without putting much effort into it, Vander Hart said.
  
  
• 7. ALREADY VETTED: “She has effectively weathered the media onslaught,” said tea party supporter Brett Rogers of West Des Moines.
  
  
• 8. WINNING MESSAGE: “She could win the nomination based on message quality alone,” said Dave Funk, 53, who was Iowa co-chairman of Sportsmen for McCain-Palin in 2008 but says he is remaining neutral this cycle.

Eight Reasons She Shouldn’t Run

• 1. HIGH NEGATIVES: Palin generates negative scores in polling that are sky-high, and that can take millions of dollars to counter, Iowa strategists said.
  
  
• 2. QUESTIONABLE STAYING POWER: Winning a nomination is not a national race — it’s about getting 40,000 or so Iowans to support you in the caucuses, and then tackling turnout in the other early states.
  
  
• 3. INDECISION A TURN-OFF: Palin is the Brett Favre of politics, keeping everyone guessing about her plans.
  
  
• 4. ALREADY A KINGMAKER: Palin can alter the presidential race, and thus American history, in the role she’s already in: spokeswoman for a conservative movement, several Iowans said.
  
  
• 5. HALF-TERM GOVERNOR: The fact that Palin quit the Alaska’s governor’s office in the middle of her first term will be underscored in a race that includes Texas’ longest-serving governor.
  
  
• 6. ALLERGY TO REPORTERS: The live-by-the-sword Palin sometimes finds herself at war with the media. But she did a better job of working with the press during her daylong visit to the Iowa State Fair, Iowa Republicans noted
  
  
• 7. ATTACKS ON FAMILY: The national media are ruthless in their scrutiny and criticism of Palin, and several Republicans in Iowa said they think that has taken a toll.
  
  
• 8. WHERE’S HER TEAM?: Palin has reached out to few people who are professionals at organizing, even as she mocks them at every step, strategists in Iowa told the Register.

What do the eight pro reasons have in common? In a word, narcissism. It would all be about her, not what was best for the country, her party (which doesn't need her to fire it up), or the movement for which she purports to speak. It would be a selfish, self-indulgent ego trip, not unlike the incumbent she'd be seeking to challenge.

Why? Look at the eight reasons she shouldn't run. They're all practical, all convincing, and all undeniable. The fact of the matter is, Sarah Palin has been "Quaylized," and she's done some of it to herself (i.e. by resigning as Governor of Alaska barely half-way through her lone term). She couldn't win. She'd be the twenty-first century Barry Goldwater, with all the disastrous implications it would have down-ticket. Sure, it'd be unfair and irrational, but that's the nature of modern politics. What she stands for is popular, in the ascendancy, and must be done, but she is the worst possible vehicle for that message. Like it or not, the Obamedia accomplished its mission: they destroyed her as viable presidential timbre.

And that's assuming she could even win the Republican nomination, which I frankly doubt. The most likely outcome of her entrance into the race this late would be to kneecap Rick Perry and rescue Mitt Romney from a second-consecutive submarining.

Sarahcuda knows this. If she had ever intended to run, she wouldn't have dithered until her niche was filled by someone else equally as capable of filling it and much more capable of taking out The One.

She'll stay on the sidelines, if she truly believes her own rhethoric.

[cross-posted @ Hard Starboard]