Sarah Palin: It “Would Be Absurd Not To Consider” Presidential Bid
(AP Photo)
In an interview aired the day after her remarkable speech to the first Tea Party Convention in Nashville on Saturday that revved up talk of 2012, Sarah Palin said it “would be absurd not to consider” a campaign to challenge President Obama.
Palin told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, the very network now paying her to be a commentator, in a wide-ranging interview that she “won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future” when asked if she would “consider” a 2012 bid. She remained elusive when asked to define how she would decide if a presidential run was the next step for her, saying that “we don’t know what the future holds.”
WALLACE: Why wouldn’t you run for president?
PALIN: I would. I would if I believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family. Certainly, I would do so.
WALLACE: And how do you make that decision over the next three years?
PALIN: It’s going to be thankfully a lot of time to be able to make such a decision. Â Right now, I’m looking at, as I say, other potential candidates out there who are strong. They’re in a position of having the luxury of having more information at their fingertips right now. So that the current events that we’re talking about today, they –
WALLACE: Wait, wait, wait. Because — you’re basically saying you will consider it.
PALIN: I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country. I don’t know if it’s going to be every seeking a title though. It may be just doing a darn good job as a reporter or covering some of the current events.
WALLACE: But you’re going to consider, you’re go to go through the process of thinking –
PALIN: I won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future. I don’t want any American to ever close the door in their personal or their professional lives and put themselves in a box and say, heck, yes I’m going to do that. Or, no way I’m not going to do that, when we don’t know what the future holds.
Palin’s star is burning as bright as ever within the conservative base if the Republican party thanks to her wild Tea Party speech and reports that she is using her PAC as cover to build a massive fundraising operation in addition to receiving campaign-style daily briefings from influential conservative figures seeking to plug the gaping holes in Palin’s knowledge of both domestic and foreign policy.Every facet of the Palin universe seems tuned to a 2012 bid and an effort to reaffirm her choke-hold on the Tea Party/far-right base of the GOP in time for the primaries.
And a first salvo at her likely 2012 Republican opponents may have been fired by Palin in her Fox interview on Sunday,. When asked to “handicap” the 2012 GOP race and name potential nominees Palin at first begged off, finally giving the name of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, a budget hawk and rising conservative star but one who has had little 2012 buzz. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty were not mentioned as “strong” Republican who could contend in 2012.
WALLACE: Handicap the 2012 GOP presidential race for us. Who’s the front-runner?
PALIN: No idea. I have no idea.
WALLACE: You’re not a very good analyst.
PALIN: Fire me then, Roger. Sorry. I already failed. Â But listen, no, we have some strong, some young terps (ph) in this party. Paul Ryan, I’m very impressed with Paul Ryan.
WALLACE: Congressman from Wisconsin.
PALIN: Yes. He’s good. Man, he is sharp, he is smart, articulate and he is passionate about these common-sense solutions that America has got to adopt to get us on the right road.
I can name a whole lot of people.WALLACE: Well, what about Romney and Huckabee and Pawlenty?
PALIN: As I say, I could name a whole lot of them but we don’t have a whole lot of time. But I’m very impressed with many of the characters, the personalities of those with great intelligence in this party and I can’t wait to see who rises to the surface, after hopefully some very competitive, contested primaries.
I’m all about competition. I’m all about, even on our local level and state level, I want to see contested primaries where we are forced via competition to work harder, produce better, be more efficient and that’s what these contested primaries that I look forward to will produce.
President Promises Health Care Meeting With Republicans To “Move It Forward”
President Obama told CBS News and Katie Couric in a pre-Super Bowl interview on Sunday that he has not abandoned health care reform and will attempt to kick-start talks in the coming weeks by holding bipartisan meetings to discuss negotiations over legislation.
The president said he will hold health care talks with congressional Republicans as soon as next week before hosting a “large meeting” with members of both parties to go “step by step through a series of these issue” and find common ground on which to craft a health care bill.
As part of the renewed effort to pass reform, Obama noted that a massive insurance premium increase announced by a California insurer was a “portrait of the future” unless health care costs are addressed by Congress. It is a talking point seen by the White House as effective in laying out to average Americans the stakes that are at play for them if the president’s health agenda is blocked. They couldn’t convince voters that health care mattered to them last year; can they do it in 2010?
Regarding healthcare, Mr. Obama said that he is consulting with Democratic leaders and wants to do the same with Republicans, who will be at the White House next week.
“I want to ask them to put their ideas on the table, and then after the recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have a large meeting, the Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” he said.
Mr. Obama said one reason healthcare reform cannot be abandoned is that a major insurer in California, Anthem Blue Cross, just announced they are increasing their premiums for customers who buy coverage individually and are not covered by a group policy by 39 percent. “That’s a portrait of the future if we don’t do something now,” he said. “It’s going to keep on beating down families, small businesses, large businesses; it’s going to be a huge drain on the economy. We’re going to have to do something about it, and I think we can.”
“If we can go step by step through a series of these issues and arrive at some agreements, then procedurally, there’s no reason why we can’t do it a lot faster than the process took,” he added.Â
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“My job is to make sure that we stay focused on that larger vision of how do we lower costs for Americans over the long-term.”Â
