Sarah Palin has given an interview in which it sounds like she is seriously thinking of running for President in 2012 — and so far she has not said anything to refudiate the interview. MSNBC’s First Read:
The inner circle of Sarah Palin’s political organization is notoriously difficult to crack, but in an over-7500-word piece in the New York Times Magazine posted online Wednesday, Robert Draper offers a rare glimpse into Palin-land – as well as buzzy quotes from an hour-long interview with the former Alaska gov.
In the key excerpt ricocheting around the media today, Palin gives a clear indication that she is seriously mulling a 2012 run:
“I am,” Sarah Palin told me the next day when I asked her if she was already weighing a run for president. “I’m engaged in the internal deliberations candidly, and having that discussion with my family, because my family is the most important consideration here.” Palin went on to say that there weren’t meaningful differences in policy among the field of G.O.P. hopefuls “but that in fact there’s more to the presidency than that” and that her decision would involve evaluating whether she could bring unique qualities to the table.
Palin told Draper that, if she chooses to run, she would “have to bring in more people – more people who are trustworthy.” She also defended her frequent avoidance of national reporters, criticizing the “elite” media for focusing on her personal life and “distractions” while “warping” her record. She says:
“I know that a hurdle I would have to cross, that some other potential candidates wouldn’t have to cross right out of the chute, is proving my record. That’s the most frustrating thing for me — the warped and perverted description of my record and what I’ve accomplished over the last two decades. It’s been much more perplexing to me than where the lamestream media has wanted to go about my personal life. And other candidates haven’t faced these criticisms the way I have.”
How nice to see a candidate for President immediately start demonizing before she has even announced. As I’ve noted here, if Palin won — and those who are discounting the possibility are deluding themselves since the conventional wisdom has been proven wrong many times — she would a President of the base, by the base and of the base from day one.
Look for the GOP establishment (Karl Rove and others, plus her potential rivals in the race) to start to lay the groundwork to combat her entry into the race.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.