Sarah Palin lost out in her bid to be America's Vice-President under John McCain, but she is now hitting the media rounds in force, suggesting a comeback.
With her new book coming out many are arguing the book tour may be an early campaign trail push to run for US president in 2012.Megan Carpentier, an associate editor at Talking Points Memo, explained that it is possible she is trying to get out the vote in advance.“I think it’s clear from the way that she’s positioned the book that she is looking at Barack Obama as a competitor. There’s no mentions of Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid. There’s nothing about Congress. It’s very much about her movement and her criticism of the current president,” said Carpentier.Conservative radio talk show host and Tea Party activist Tony Katz said it is unclear if she is trying to begin an advance campaign. He said he doesn’t know if she has plans to run, and that she may not yet know whether she plans to either, but he said everything thrown her way she takes it with grace. “She is the most popular person in America. Her family are the most popular people in America. They are loved and adored,” said Katz. “She puts forth a thesis that is about America and loving America. People really are attracted to that and that runs juxtaposed to Obama. So it’s no wonder that in these books and in these conversations she is more directed at Obama.” Looking to the future, Palin has said she was not interested in being a distraction or preventing the Republican Party from winning against Obama, even if that meant she would have to restrain from running. “I never deny the GOP in America the opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot,” said Katz. “If there is a way to screw up this election, the establishment GOP will figure out how to do that.”He explained there is likely to be a large field of candidates seeking the Republican nomination, which will lead to a great deal of fighting to secure a simple party candidate that satisfies independents, moderates, the Republican Party establishment and the Tea Party. Sarah Palin has a strong minority Tea Party base. “She is very loved within a certain part of the Republican Party,” said Carpentier. Very little of what Palin wrote in her books appeals to those outside her current base. The content and ideas do not appeal to moderates, liberals or mainstream Republicans, explained said Carpentier. Thus she is not likely to rally the numbers needed to beat Obama.Both Katz and Carpentier said the Bristol Palin / Dancing with the Stars controversy is hyped. Neither felt there was some conspiracy by the Tea Party to secure a dancing win. That does not mean that some Palin supporters did not choose to vote for Bristol based on that reasoning. The biggest issue to most fans of the Dancing with the Stars show was that the show began to become political, something it was not designed to be, explained Carpentier.“It’s a dance competition show, it’s not a referendum on Sarah Palin,” said Katz. John Romano, a conservative columnist and the publisher of YesButHowever.com, said Palin’s book tour is in fact an early campaign start.“She is definitely running,” he said. Romano explained that the book tour, her Fox News positions, her family’s reality show and her daughter Bristol appearing on Dancing with the Stars are all calculated moves toward a presidential run in 2012.This is a new approach to campaigning; one Palin and her advisors are taking to extreme levels. “When politicians say they are not running, they might be running anyway,” Romano said. “No ones come out to say they aren’t running anyway.”Republican candidates are not addressing a run for the president in the traditional fashion. They are all seeking a new approach, Palin included. The question is what kind of candidate do the Republicans need to run in order to win in 2012. “I do not think it’s a Mitt Romney or a Mike Huckabee. They are too old school. It’s not going to work,” argued Romano.But, he did admit, “Sarah Palin is a risk.”Palin has the potential, he argued, to fix the US economy, restore American leadership and address the multitude of domestic and international issues the US Office of the President must tackle.