Now that the US election is over and the Republicans have been comprehensively trounced, the talk has begun of who may run against the incumbent in 2012. Palin’s name is being bandied around with worrying regularity.
But it’s not all in favour. While her die-hard supporters would love her to run for the highest office in four years’ time, those in the party who dislike her way of working are finally starting to talk about what went on behind the scenes in this year’s campaign.
And why not? They have nothing more to lose now they’ve lost the presidency.
McCain, in his concession speech, said that the loss was all his own fault, perhaps because he knows he can never run again and his deputy has a chance of making it next time. According to Palin, meanwhile, saying she caused the failure of their campaign gives her too much credit.
‘I don’t think anybody should give Sarah Palin that much credit, that I would trump an economic time in this nation that occurred about two months ago, that my presence on the ticket would trump the economic crisis that America found itself in a couple of months ago and attribute John McCain’s loss to me,’ she said.
But clearly some believe she did have something to do with that loss, and now they’re starting to talk. About how she wouldn’t prepare for TV interviews, how she had tantrums at bad press reports, how she gave a briefing wearing just a towel and how she didn’t realise that Africa was a continent, not a country.
Even Fox news, which is traditionally sympathetic to the Republican cause, reported the unnamed insiders’ vented feelings.
Here’s the report:
That’s scary.
It’s not inconceivable that she could run for office in 2012, but Palin’s biggest problem is what her supporters see as her biggest asset: her strong views. Palin is a polarising force, and I suspect that in the next four years, out of office and with plenty of time to plan its next campaign, the Republican Party will come to the realisation that it needs a moderate candidate to unify both sides of the party.
Palin, strong though she may be, probably isn’t that person.
