Sarah Palin and Her Political Tornado

The majority of Sarah Palin watchers seem certain that there is no way, no how the half-term governor from Alaska is going to run for President in 2012. Nu-uh, isn't gonna happen, totally sure of it. She's just going on the road with her motorcycle helmet and personally branded tour bus to stay in the spotlight and carve out a corner of relevance in the politically conservative world, sort of like Newt Gingrich, but without the Tiffany's bill.

But if she's not running for the POTUS slot, how do you explain her decision to drive her big-a$$ tour bus straight through a tornado with her family aboard just to make sure she got to New Hampshire in time to steal Mitt Romney's thunder for his 2012 bid announcement? It's certainly not on the list of approved Mama Grizzly cub parenting techniques.

Her actions are a sure sign that she's going to announce her own presidential candidacy. If she wasn't, would there be any talk of Sarah Palin's movie, The Undefeated?

Let's be clear. I'm not saying Sarah Palin wants to be President, or even that she wants to be on the campaign trail very long. Palin is ruthless and ambitious -- anyone who wants to be a major political player almost has to be these days. But her goal isn't the White House. Her plan is to say she ran for President of the United States and then milk that for another four years of fame the way she did with her accidental vice presidential run.

Palin is a girl who knows how to bide her time when it comes to attention getting to further her own interests. She knew there was no sense jumping in when the field was overly-crowded with the likes of Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour, three uber-conservatives the political right were hoping would be in the race for a while.

There's nothing Palin hates more than someone horning in on her political space. Just ask Michele Bachmann. She's made it clear that stealing attention away from Romney's big announcement was political fair game, and you can be sure one of the other items on her 2012 "to do" list is to pit Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty against each other as fellow Minnesotans. If she can get them out of the way, then she really just needs to worry about Jon Huntsman, who will be painted as an Obama Democrat in sheep's clothing as he's just coming off a stint as President Obama's ambassador to China.

The problem with this potential Palin strategy for the GOP is this -- once Palin has sucked all the air out of the political back rooms and dispatched her opponents, what will the Republicans do for a real candidate when she drops out, saying that she needs to spend more time to focus on her daughter Bristol, the single mom living in Hollywood with a couple of single guys for a TV reality show, two daughters still in school and a special needs toddler? All the GOP will have left then will be anyone who has been hand-picked by Palin, who will serve to keep her in the spotlight as a presidential campaign advisor and give her access to the power influence she craves without any of the responsibility.

Palin and Donald "I might get back into the race" Trump just had a little Big Apple bonding time over pizza. It's not a leap to wonder if she sees Trump as the right person to step into that role for her in 2012. If and when this scenario plays itself out, the Republicans just have to remember that they're the ones who fed the Palin machine for their own purposes. They're going to have to live with the consequences.

Joanne Bamberger is the author of the new book, Mothers of Intention: How Women & Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America, the first book to examine the rise of the political motherhood movement and how social media has enabled women to exercise more political power than before. Joanne is the author of the political blog, PunditMom, and the founder and publisher of the soon-to-be launched site The Broad Side: Real Women. Real Opinions. Real Politics.

 

Follow Joanne Bamberger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PunditMom

Comments

[Lars Rimfalk Jensen]

03:16 AM on 06/13/2011

How little do Europe know of this ? Well in Denmark we are a social-liberal democracy and huge fans of Barack Obama and only know about Sarah Palin thru all these funny stories about her person and family life. A survey in Denmark gives Obama 77% and republicans 17 % - and among those half to Sarah Palin (mainly because she is the only republican we know).
You might sit back and think what a strange little scandinavian country, that they don´t know about Romney, Huckabee, Gingrich, Ron Paul ect. and yes you are right. Sometimes from here it seem like a TV-Soap and putting in Donald Trump in that mix - make us smile and hope that Obama will get an easy way into a second term, because Europe need that US have a good president.

[ElBruce]

04:15 AM on 06/09/2011

I like this scenario. I think she should go for it.

[hollace]

12:53 AM on 06/07/2011

I've heard of fearel kids who didn;t learn how to talk when they were young. She can't construct a sentence and she obviously hasn't got the comprehension slills of a very young kid. McCain must have really known he would lose, and just thought it would be funny to see her try to talk .

[tsand19151]

09:21 PM on 06/06/2011

"Let's be clear. I'm not saying Sarah Palin wants to be President, or even that she wants to be on the campaign trail very long. Palin is ruthless and ambitious -- anyone who wants to be a major political player almost has to be these days. But her goal isn't the White House. Her plan is to say she ran for President of the United States and then milk that for another four years of fame the way she did with her accidental vice presidential run."

I could not agree more......

[Sonny Phillips]

08:17 PM on 06/06/2011

I am anxious to read Mothers of Intention: How Women & Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America and I am wondering if, in the book, there is mention made to the fact that the women who are the rising stars of politics are all conservative, name a liberal if you can, and can thank Sarah Palin for showing the way and supporting those women who are now governors, congressmen (women) and senators, thanks to her. Sarah Palin is in to win, will win, and win big, She is just getting started. For those that don't see her for who she is, need to watch The Undefeated.

[tsand19151]

09:29 PM on 06/06/2011

Will she quit 2 years in?

[kitc1981]

11:51 PM on 06/06/2011

There were 29 female governors, 19 of whom were Democrats,before Palin was elected in 2006. She wasn't even the first female Alaskan to hold a state-wide office, an honor reserved for Senator Lisa Murkowski (elected in 2002), one of 33 women elected to the Senate prior to Palin's governorship. The number of Congresswomen number in the 200's. Heck, she wasn't even the first woman to appear on a Presidental ticket. Over 100 are listed as either President or VP candidates from minor parties, with Geraldine Ferraro being the first from a major party (Democrat) in 1980. Yet, in your eyes Palin is a trailblazer. What she does not have in common with any of those elected is that they all FINISHED THE TERM FOR WHICH THEY WERE ELECTED. Kristen Hillibrand (NY), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), and Kay Hagen (NC) are three Democratic Senators who won election in 2008 and may be surprised to find that they aren't considered "rising stars" in politics. Only one Republican, Kelly Ayotte (NY), who took office in 2011, has been elected to the Senate since your "trail blazer" appeared to lead women to the promised land. Of the 72 women currently serving in the House of Representatives, 23 are in their first or second terms...10 are Democrats. Over 80% of the women currently serving as Governors, Senators or Congresswomen were in office prior to Palin even getting elected Governor of Alaska. And you think SHE is showing the way?

[contrail]

09:28 AM on 06/07/2011

fanned, and A on your homework

[Mockdog]

07:55 PM on 06/06/2011

"the Republicans just have to remember that they're the ones who fed the Palin machine for their own purposes. They're going to have to live with the consequences."
The GOP dealing with consequences? IF they admit it happened at all, and IF they admit it was their fault...do you honestly see either of those things ever happening? Ever?

[jmichaelmunger]

07:49 PM on 06/06/2011

She claimed the question that prompted her butcehring of Paul Revere's history was "Gotcha Journalism".
The real question was something like (I'm paraphrasing): "What did you learn or enjoy the most about your visit?"

"So what do you read?"

[StillMadMatt]

04:51 AM on 06/08/2011

She read that from her hand

[alto2]

05:42 PM on 06/06/2011

But what if the GOPers have a genuine stealth candidate like Jeb Bush? He could be sitting out the early primaries, waiting for the rest of the field to turn on one another in their best circular firing squad fashion, enter at a time when his surname is much less toxic than it still is, and walk away with the nomination. Palin won't be picking him, and she won't be able to stop him, either.

[Gudrun]

06:16 PM on 06/06/2011

if there is a stealth candidate, it won't be Jeb. We will never elect another Bush.

[jmichaelmunger]

07:50 PM on 06/06/2011

I hope not but never say never; if we have made the mistake TWICE, why not go for the trifecta?

[renoir]

06:17 PM on 06/06/2011

I don't think that ANY Bush is going to be a viable candidate for at least a generation. Too much family baggage that cannot be rebranded.

[alto2]

06:46 PM on 06/06/2011

I truly hope both of you are correct.

[bellagrazi]

05:35 PM on 06/06/2011

Okay, this article was just delusional. Sarah Palin is runnin'. Not to drop out, but to win. All signs point to it.

[Schalaine]

10:10 PM on 06/07/2011

Okay...about the running part, not the winning part. That would be a disaster of epic proportions.

[Seven Teenatheart]

05:32 PM on 06/06/2011

Worse yet, what if she didn't drop out?
She's an international laughingstock now. We don't need an entire political party hopping on THAT bandwagon.

[sharon cresap]

05:32 PM on 06/06/2011

She is a joke.

[breezy62253]

05:28 PM on 06/06/2011

Funny how Palin's bus tour didn't try to get to Santorum's announcement. Two theories to choose from: 1) She considers Romney more of a threat than Santorum. 2) Did Fox send her on assignment to upstage Romney? Santorum is technically one of their own so they leave him alone. Personally, I smell more than "fair and balanced" money at work here. They seem to love putting her out there, gaffes and all, as their puppet of distraction.

[loudyk0621]

05:06 PM on 06/06/2011

"Palin is ruthless and ambitious". I disagree. I think Palin is nothing more than an egomaniacal narcissist. She seems uniformed on so many levels. She quit 1/2 through her first term as a governor. That doesn't seem ambitious to me. I think she is greedy. She is doing her bus tour to keep herself front and center and as a means to get more money from her kool-aid drinkers in order to get her trip paid for out of someone else's pocket rather than her own.

Were Palin to run, the movie about her movie would then become a lie because she would definitely be DEFEATED.

[DwH]

04:37 PM on 06/06/2011

No, ALL AMERICANS would have to live with the consequences if this woman ever found her way into the real halls of power, elected or not.