Palin doesn’t rule out 2012 presidential run

WASHINGTON — Fresh off her speech to the Tea Party convention, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Sunday left open the possibility she would run for president in 2012 and asserted President Obama would lose if the election were held today.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Palin was asked about
a recent poll that showed her topping a field of potential Republican
candidates by five percentage points. She said she would run for the
2012 GOP nomination “if I believe that that is the right
thing to do for our country and for the Palin family,” according to a
network transcript of her interview with Chris Wallace.

She added: “I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country.”

Palin’s political ambitions are getting renewed attention after her address to the Tea Party convention Saturday in Nashville. At one point during her address, a buoyant crowd burst into a chant of, “Run, Sarah, run.”

She seemed willing. As John McCain’s vice presidential nominee in 2008, some members of McCain’s campaign
staff criticized her as ill-informed on a host of global and national
issues. Since her resignation as governor, she said, she is more
conversant with issues outside Alaska.

“Now, of course, my focus has been enlarged,” she
said Sunday. “So, I sure as heck better be more astute on these current
events, national issues than I was two years ago.”

Whatever Palin’s intentions, it does her no harm to leave her options open, said one Republican strategist.

“This far out from the election, it would be insane
for her to rule out running even if she has no intention of actually
doing it,” Todd Harris said in an interview Sunday.
“As long as the possibility is out there, it helps add to her cachet.
It adds to her political power. And, frankly, it helps fill seats at
rallies and sell books.”

Palin predicted Obama would be a one-term president
unless he changes strategy. If he should play “the war card” and
“declare war on Iran,” for example, that might change public opinion in Obama’s favor, she said.

Asked by Wallace if she meant Obama might “cynically
play the war card,” Palin said, “Things would dramatically change if he
decided to toughen up and do all that he can do to secure our nation
and our allies.”

Palin also had harsh words for Obama’s team, in particular Attorney General Eric Holder and chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Both should resign, she said.

“I think these guys are giving our president wrong advice,” she said.

Emanuel had to apologize last week for referring to
a group of liberal Democrats as “retarded.” Palin has a child with Down
syndrome.

As for Holder, she charged he is giving terrorists
constitutional protections they don’t merit. Holder made the decision
to try terrorism suspects in civilian court rather than in a military
tribunal.

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