Palin sends out contradictory indications—just like a woman?

(Update: a reader says there is no contradiction between the two statements. She says that Palin’s remarks indicating a readiness to run for president were made to keep interest in her acute. She says Palin has a very good life now with all the money’s she’s made, and that she has no intention of disrupting it by running for president.)

I saw this item at the bottom of Cindy Adams’s gossip column in the New York Post two days ago:

MRS. Palin of Alaska isn’t expecting to be president but she’ll keep Out There. Her presence pushes here tofore-slim-chance candidates. She’s smart. Needs to be thought of as a miracle maker. A force. For that she must keep out in front of mikes and cameras.

Evidently Adams got that tip from Palin herself, and I meant to mention it to a friend who loathes the thought of Palin running for president. But then this item today from the Telegraph’s correspondent Nick Allen in Los Angeles suggests the opposite:

Sarah Palin gives clearest indication she will run for president in 2012
Sarah Palin has given the clearest indication yet that she will make a bid for the US presidency in 2012, saying that “if there’s nobody else to do it” then she will run.

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate has so far left supporters and opponents guessing over whether she will seek the White House in two years time.

But in her latest comments she indicated that, if there was no other Republican candidate she felt could “do the job,” then she would seek the office.

“If there’s nobody else to do it, then of course I would believe that we should do this,” Mrs Palin said in an interview with US celebrity news show Entertainment Tonight, filmed at her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

The former Alaska governor added: “For me it’s going to entail a discussion with my family, a real close look at the lay of the land.”

Mrs Palin said, in making her decision, she would consider “whether there are already candidates out there who can do the job” and, if there were, she would be their “biggest supporter and their biggest helpmate, if they will have me.”

But she would also look at “whether there’s nobody willing to do it, to make the tough choices and not care what the critics are going to say about you, just going forward according to what I think the priorities should be.” She suggested she would run herself if there wasn’t a candidate with the right “common sense, conservative, pro-Constitution passion.”

Mrs Palin added that it was still “too early for anybody to get up there declaring what their intentions are.” But her comments came after a recent quip that “We can see 2012 from our house,” and the delivery of a speech in Iowa where the first caucuses for the race are held.

November 3, the day after the US midterm elections is unofficially regarded as the start of the 2012 race and potential candidates will soon begin courting donors and testing messages.

Mrs Palin has endorsed 38 candidates for governorships and seats in Congress in the midterms and if they fare well, it could provide a springboard for a presidential bid. Her political future may also depend on the continuing impact of the Tea Party movement after the elections.

Other Republican candidates in 2012 are likely to include Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor who lost the presidential nomination in 2008 to John McCain.

Potential candidates also include former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who like Mrs Palin has built a media career.

In July advisers to Mrs Palin and Mr Romney were involved in a public spat.

One of Mr Romney’s aides described the former Alaska governor as “not a serious human being” and Mrs Palin’s camp retorted that the attack was “immature.”

Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President George W Bush, yesterday became the most senior Republican figure to express public reservations about a presidential bid by Mrs Palin.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph he questioned whether Americans thought she had the “gravitas” for the “most demanding job in the world.” He also questioned her recent decision to make a television reality travel programme about Alaska, saying the public would struggle to see the star of such a show in the Oval Office.

Mrs Palin’s decision to deliver her latest message on an entertainment programme is unlikely to have alleviated Mr Rove’s concerns.

- end of initial entry -

Roger G. writes:

Oh—she takes care of herself
She can wait if she wants
She’s ahead of her time
Oh—and she never gives out
And she never gives in
She just changes her mind

It’s distressing how we conservative hoi polloi adore her, and our betters tout her—the father, son, and holy ghost (Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin) are all singing her praises in synchronization. She speaks only bromides, gives us nothing but undifferentiated boosterism. She shows no evidence of grounding in the Constitution—e.g., she supports federal education assistance and aid to the handicapped, and who knows what else. So what illegal spending does she support, and what does she oppose? Is this what our revolution is coming to? Are we not to have a candidate who cares about what is permitted to the feds, and which branch does what?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 29, 2010 07:55 AM | Send