Will Sarah Palin Go Third Party Rogue In 2012?

by Glynnis MacNicol | 8:51 am, December 8th, 2009

» 4 comments

Sarah-Palin-460_1007814c While the GOP lurches from here to there trying to settle on both an identity and a leader they can reasonably place their hopes (and cash) on for 2012 it looks like their most popular member may be toying with a whole other sort of going rogue: third party candidacy.

WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza pulled this little nugget from a Friday afternoon interview Palin gave to radio talk show host Lars Larson in which Palin doesn’t flat out reject the idea of a third party candidacy — in this news cycle that’s practically the same embracing it. From The Fix:

Asked by Larson whether she would consider running as a third party candidate, Palin said: “That depends on how things go in the next couple of years.” Larson told the 2008 vice presidential nominee that answer “sounds like a yes” to which she responded: “If the Republican party gets back to that [conservative] base, I think our party is going to be stronger and there’s not going to be a need for a third party, but I’ll play that by ear in these coming months, coming years.” Which, to the Fix’s delicate ears, sounds like Palin leaving the door wide open.

On the one hand this sounds absolutely crazy. Also, the 2012 election season is still two years away, which considering how much the tone has changed in Washington in the last nine months is a lifetime. On the other hand, as Cillizza (and others) have pointed out, there is little to zero chance that Palin will actually get the official GOP nod. However, a third party run could give her exactly the sort of stage she clearly wants, as well as the ability to seriously affect the 2012 election season, and at the end of the day none of the responsibility of governing. So on second thought, maybe not all that crazy.

Chris Cillizza, Election 2012, John McCain, Lars Larson, Sarah Palin, Third Party, Washington Post

http://www.uselessbeauty.com Vidiot

Is she going to (re)join the Alaskan Independence Party?

but sheesh. If she leaves the GOP, that’s one less thing left for her to quit.
blueblogger

Gee when did the last third party candidate win the presidency?? Since I am not a history buff I have no idea if it ever happened. The GOP is in real trouble if she leaves the party. She is their last hope.
m

I don’t care, either way as long as Sarah Palin is in the Presidential race is fine by me! It’s going to be AWESOME!!!!!! HAHA!
Floorplay

There is no need for political parties except to gang up with the “other,” (power in numbers) write coercive, exclusionary state election laws, as in New York State, and make members feel all warm and cozy under daddy’s umbrella, even though no two members can define, precisely, what their party stands for.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot: wherever there’s a mass of people, there’s a need for leadership (“To whom do I go fpor permission?”), albeit dictatorial. That leads to power, money and sex.

You demonstrate that political parties don’t give a damn about the people, about our “…republic, for which it stands…” in writing the words, “…reasonably place their hopes and cash on (anything to WIN).”

But, who’s truly at fault for our decades-old, corrupt, exclusionary duopoly? You, the media. It’s almost a given that :those in the know (also known as “no”) that a third “party” candidate “can’t win.” But that’s but one reason to pretend s/he isn’t a candidate.

I speak from experience that here, in Ulster County (New York), when my county Board of Elections determines I don’t belong on the ballot, everyone from the major media to the prejudiced, also corrupt, League of Women Voters to, of all supposedly free-enterprise boasting Chamber of Commerce, bars you from campaigning and all it entails.

Anyone who claims we’re a vital, effective “republic,” wherein our Constitution protects minorities from oppressive majorities is asleep.

And now, the likes of that communist, duopolist Pennsylvania Senator who shall go unnamed, wants to throttle practically the sole source of truth and free opinion in the world, the little people blogging their hearts out, because, as the world’s any population, government can’t coerce them by denying them access or FCC sanctions, as they can major media.

Thank you, Mediaite, for this opportunity. May you live long.

Allan Wikman
Kingston, NY
845 + 802-0403