Will Sarah Palin run for president and can she win?

[WestVirginiaRebel]

BBC:

Sarah Palin, one of the best known and most controversial figures in American politics, told BBC Newsnight she was weighing up whether the US was ready for an "unconventional" presidential candidate like her.

"You run the race to win the race. That's for sure."

Speaking in Alaska, the state's former governor said if she did decide to run she would be fully committed.

But the cost together with whether voters were ready to make a win a reality, were issues she still needed to think about.

"Obama has already said he's going to spend a billion dollars (£615.4m) on this race, so money is certainly going to be a consideration," Sarah Palin told me.

"And just the idea of whether the American electorate is ready for someone a bit unconventional, who is willing to tell it as she sees it, not be beholden to special interest or such obsessive partisanship as to let a political machine get in the way of doing what's right for the voters."

Palin was catapulted from political obscurity to global celebrity almost overnight.

Barely 18 months into her job as state governor, she was asked to be Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate during the 2008 campaign.

Amid the raft of Republican men of a certain age on that campaign trail, Sarah Palin stood out.

Hugely energetic, she ferociously sold herself as a small town "hockey mom" who understood ordinary Americans.

A series of interviews in which she seemed to have little understanding of policy and scant knowledge of foreign affairs embarrassed the Republican establishment, but did little to dent her popularity among many voters.

When I asked her about the endless claims that she was not intellectually up to the job, Ms Palin seemed tense.

"Rumours like I didn't know Africa was a continent, that's still out there, that's a lie," she told me.

"Things like I censored books when I was a mayor up here in Alaska, that's a lie. It's not all you guys, but some of you are saying that Trig [her fifth child] is not mine - that's a sign of a screwed-up media.

"Would you be offended if someone said your child wasn't your child? It's offensive."

Sleeping with guns

But would such scrutiny, of not only her but also her family, make her think twice about entering the presidential race?

"Our family is pretty thick-skinned," she said.

"For the last 20 years in political office our family has put up with a lot of flak. We're still standing and we're doing well, so we're not worried too much about the pressure."

Critics said Palin's on-going battle with what she has labelled the "lame-stream media" was just an attempt to deflect criticism.

But it has not been harsh press coverage that concerned her elderly parents, Chuck and Sally Heath.

In the kitchen of their Wasilla home, among an extraordinary collection of animal skins, skulls and bones, the spoils of a lifetime spent hunting and fishing, they told me that their whole family has faced death threats.

"As a mother I do have concerns about her safety and that of the kids... she knows how I feel, that it's risky," Sally said.

Palin's father Chuck said a man recently had sent the family photocopies of a receipt for a gun he had bought, together with a photocopy of a one-way ticket to Alaska.

The family had laughed it off, but the man subsequently turned up in the state and was arrested by the FBI, Chuck said.

"We sleep with the guns," Palin's father admitted.
________

They're not paranoid-there are people out to get her...

[Casino67]

I keep wondering if she could win too. But I seem to remember that the MSM tried to destroy Reagan's candidacy and that didn't work. Maybe the same could work out for Sarah.

 

It could turn out to be one of the nastiest campaigns in modern times. The MSM will be relentless in attacking her. Again, that may work in her favor. People in general, IMO, believe in fairness and it just won't exist on their media.

 

I don't think I will forget her telling BOR to stop interrupting her. And Bachmann walking all over the Meet the Press host yesterday.

 

And while I am here, I found the xscript of O's presser the other day with Calderon. They put the 'aircrafts' word in it.

 

"And that’s why we -- we’re using some of our military aircrafts in addition to civilian aircrafts to help on that front. There may be situations in which Qaddafi is hunkered down in his compound but the economy or food distribution systems in Tripoli, for example, start deteriorating, and we’re going to have to figure out how do we potentially get food in there.

 

(Source)

[Pepper]

Casino

 

What is this aircraftS of which he prattles?

 

Is that anything like a Corpse?

[Casino67]

Casino

 

What is this aircraftS of which he prattles?

 

Is that anything like a Corpse?

 

He didn't specify, but I thought they were probably Marine Corpse aircrafts.

[nickydog]

At least you guys give me something to laugh about, for which I thank you.

[Casino67]

More from the presser today:

 

Question from Chip Reid:

 

Q CBS has been pursuing a story over the past week or so about gunrunning in Mexico -- hundreds and hundreds of guns going into Mexico, with the knowledge of ATF. They had hoped it would lead them to the big fish, but it didn’t work. And there are two developments on that today. There’s an IG investigation been ordered at Justice. And Mexico has asked for whatever details the United States can provide on that. Do you have any comment on the story and on these developments today?

 

MR. CARNEY: Chip, I don’t. Obviously, as the President pointed out when he spoke here with President Calderón, we take the issue of the flow of guns south very seriously, as we do the issue of the flow of drugs north. And -- but beyond that I don’t have any comments.

 

Q Is he aware of the specific allegation that --

 

MR. CARNEY: I don’t know.

 

Q -- hundreds of guns went into Mexico with the knowledge of ATF?

 

MR. CARNEY: I don’t know, Chip.

-----

 

I dunno, I dunno. Doing a heck of a job Jay.