Some of the candidates and potential candidates are stumbling out of the gate. Two big names, Huckabee and Trump, have withdrawn their names. The GOP establishment is trying to play up Romney and Huntsman while hoping all along that maybe Mitch Daniels could be their answer as an establishment guy who comes off conservative. Off in the distance you’re starting to hear something. Listen closely, it sounds like “run, Sarah, run.”
It’s been a rocky start to the Republican presidential primary season. Sarah Palin watches as active and potential candidates stumble over their tongues and their records. She’s not even in the race and her potential opponents are opening the door wider for her by either withdrawing, making verbal gaffes or having decisions from their past time out poorly with the issues of today.
The media has been very careful about her as well. A lot of the commentary the past week or so has been broader based. Analysts still give their take, but they don’t focus strictly on her. Some don’t want to play her up against the rest of the field. Others don’t want to jinx her. Instead, they talk about her in context rather than lavish her with praise or, surprisingly, level her with vitriol.
There are signs that the media are waking up to the fact that the trashing of Sarah Palin no longer goes unanswered. Palin’s army responds like lightning in the new media and on talk radio to any sleight. This is not to say the media has changed their opinion of her. It just means that should she decide to run, they won’t have free shots at a moose in the open like they did in 2008.
The new media is where things will happen for Palin. Already, the Palin army is making it known across the Palinosphere that they want her to run and they want her to run now. A quick read of Josh Painter’s Quotes of the Day from May 16, 2011 will give you a sense of the mood. How much longer do you think the Palin army can keep the powder dry? It’s almost as if they will run her for president even if she says no.
Palin’s followers are devoutly respectful toward her. They don’t like to tell Sarah what to do because in the early days when they did that, Sarah always did something else and surprised them because it always turned out better than they expected. Her army would read her reasoning and then smack themselves in the head after realizing that she went outside the box again and it worked.
Ever since she resigned, this writer realized there is no way to guess her next move. I’m simply a mere mortal. That day, someone at the beach asked me what to make out of her resignation. I told them only Sarah knows the answer. When I read her Facebook note the next day where she asked us to trust her, that’s the day I ripped up the Poli Sci degree and threw out the textbook.
We must trust her, as we've trusted her in the past, that she knows exactly what she's doing. When I asked Jedediah Bila about it she said "If Sarah Palin plans to make a run for it, she will undoubtedly take her time and do it right."
Palin sits to the right of the dealer at the Texas Hold ‘em table. From there, she can wait to see who folds, who checks and who bets. No one can get a read on her. There is no tell.
Palin followers always whispered to each other in email chains or private messages. Will she do this? Will she do that? Everything was hush hush lest it screw up her strategy or give the mainstream media fodder to go after her. But now, we’re just talking wide open right out in front of her.
All this chatter about doors being blown wide open and the lay of the land looking like she told us it would have to look in order for her to run is happening right in front of her. She reads Twitter. She reads Conservatives4Palin and other websites. She must be laughing, thinking that we don’t see her in the room. I expect her to turn around and say “I hear you talking about me running and I will tell you when I tell you.”
During the Miller – Murkowski primary when it was too close to call, the Palin army was on Twitter going back and forth. There were a bunch of them going after Murkowski, the establishment and the precincts where the votes were being counted. It was as if there was a melee in the room and suddenly someone whistled real loud. “Keep your powder dry,” Palin tweeted and suddenly things were calm again. She sees us. She knows we’re here.
Rumors are flying around like crazy. Some are saying it’s a lock she’ll run. Others are saying she’s not going to run. You can feel it in her army. They are itching to go. They are making no bones about it, either. Sarah sees this. Sarah knows this.
We are seeing a metaphorical gathering of a crowd of people forming on Palin’s cyber front lawn. Soon there may be thousands tweeting her, Facebooking her and writing blogs calling on her to run. At some point someone somewhere is going to look her in the eyes and say “we need you, you’re our only hope.”
It’s a huge request. The presidency is a life changing experience. If Sarah Palin is willing to take that on, so is her army. They’re not afraid. Politically, if they die they die. It’s Sarah Palin or bust in 2012.
This is an addition to my original post on Shining City on a Hill : The Impatience of the Palin Army and the Wisdom of Sarah.
Dr. Gina Loudon will be on my Blogtalk Radio show tonight at 11pm ET 8pm PT.
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