Greta Van Sustern asked Rove if Palin could run an unconventional campaign. Rove answered, “Her people think so. They’ve talked with people about it, whom I’ve talked to, and they’ve been very explicit about it — that she doesn’t need to go to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, press the flesh and go to all these local events in order to cultivate the local leadership. She can talk to people over that. She doesn’t need to cultivate the fundraisers and the bundlers, because her mere presence in the race will generate the cash needed for the campaign. She doesn’t need to do things in a normal way to lay out a message. She can do it on Facebook. She can do it by having a friendly producer release a movie that is seen in theaters, and that’s going to be the interesting thing.”
Rove then issued a warning about the Palin strategy, “I frankly think that the people in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, there are some of the niceties that you ignore at your own peril. There is a reason why, these people in the early states take it very seriously, and they expect to see you, be able to hear up close, be able to ask you questions, be able to see you multiple times before they make a commitment, and we’ll see if that old rule remains the same.”
He said that Palin is making it clear that if she runs, she is doing it by her rules. Nobody should be surprised that Sarah Palin wouldn’t want to hit the campaign trail, but the real stunner is that she arrogantly believes that she doesn’t have to fundraise either. She seriously thinks that the day she announces the floodgates are going to open and millions of dollars will pour in.
The real problem with the people who support a Palin run, besides their obvious lack of intellect, is that they keep confusing media attention with voter support.
Yes, if Sarah Palin decides to announce her candidacy she WILL receive a ton of attention from the media. And she will also attract a rather significant initial infusion of cash for her campaign. (If her sycophants aren't in the poorhouse after buying dozens of tickets to her crappy movie and several copies of Bristol's book that is.)
But then what?
She clearly cannot stand on stage and engage in a debate with the other GOP contenders, so she will have to find some reason avoid that. (Perhaps she could get a note from Michele Bachmann's doctor?)
She cannot appear on any cable, or network, news program to answer REAL questions from an interviewer who is not paid to resist the urge to embarrass her, so she will have to avoid that.
Every single potential scandal about her, including babygate, will be revisited by the journalists who, having no access to her, will feel the need to investigate them aggressively in order to answer voter's questions about her worthiness to be the President.
And finally the people who have agreed not to reveal the things they know about her, in the GOP and around Alaska, unless she decided to run for President, will suddenly start showing up on news programs all across the country, and telling tales that NO amount of public relations management will be able to suppress.
In other words, it would be insane for Sarah Palin to decide to run for President, but as we all know....
Personally I believe that Palin is currently caught in an internal war between her fantasy of who she is and what she can do, and the reality that keeps slipping through the cracks of her giant wall of denial and reminding her of her devastating limitations and how aggressive the press will be in revealing them.
That taken into account with the fact that her pool of supporters has diminished to the size of a mud puddle exposed to the Arizona sun, would seem to indicate that she will not run for office, and might instead work overtime to think up a viable excuse that will keep her supporters sending her money while she decides which candidate might be desperate enough to promise her some cushy appointment to their cabinet in exchange for her now relatively useless endorsement.
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