Donna Brazile: Yes, I said Sarah Palin for President

This is from a recent column by Democrat political operative Donna Brazile:

In my last column, I presented reasons why Sarah Palin should not be dismissed as a presidential hopeful. Because one column alone couldn’t cover everything, I offer another cluster of reasons below, starting with an important one: She has time.
Palin can wait until the last possible moment to officially file her intent to run. Others who have already filed or are looking to file need to start developing traction-generating strategies now. However, Palin has both name recognition and the ability to quickly raise the funds needed to pull together a massive organization in the key early states. This media-savvy political professional can decide when it is the right time for her to file …
When Palin emerged from her self-imposed media blackout, the press folks behaved as if they were starved for her. No other Republican contender can generate her kind of excitement, positive or negative.
A just-released Washington Post/Pew Research Center poll found that almost 4-in-10 Republicans are unhappy with their party’s current choices for nominee. Results like these lead to a perceived vacuum that candidates such as Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann feel positioned to fill. Donald Trump felt poised to fill it. He floated his trial balloon only to see it popped in short order …
Palin certainly doesn’t fill that void, but she may be served by it. Of all the people set to cash in if the tea party retains its strength, Palin may be first among them.
Why? Let me explain: Moderate Republicans are in danger of extinction. After the 2008 election, some polls showed the GOP barely had the public’s support. So, the party decided to work with this faction. It concentrated on issues that brought them storming to town hall meetings and into the election booth.
Unfortunately for the pragmatists who run the party, they birthed the tea party Republicans. Tea partiers ran in the primaries and won. Now they are strong enough to tell Speaker John Boehner what his limits are. And they do.
They aren’t done. Tea party Republicans are fielding candidates against the handful of moderates who remain in the party such as Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Tea party Republicans tolerate no dissent from their political orthodoxy. They are out — successfully, I believe — to purge the party of all to their left, and even some to their right. Meanwhile, at the heart of the Republican Party, are leaders like Bachmann who are eager to fill the void and who see Palin as a real threat. Ed Rollins, Bachmann’s campaign manager (a veteran strategist), took a swipe at Palin this week (then retreated).
Whether we agree with them, when Bachmann and Palin preach — oops, I mean “campaign” — you know they believe what they are saying. Both are pretty brunettes who can’t help but cut into each other’s support because they appeal to the same base. It is from that fractured base that I imagine Palin ascending.
Palin is the candidate with the most crossover appeal between groups. She can talk to the tea partiers, the radicals — even the nearly extinct moderates.
When scripted, she can be rather convincing, especially compared to other candidates. The others are too drab — in policy, in convictions, in media smarts. They just can’t compete with her star power. From here, 2012 looks like a slam-dunk for Sarah Palin.

Donna Brazile is not the sharpest axe in the tool shed. On the other hand, when even a partisan hack like her can see Palin’s strengths–and the danger she represents both to the Republican field and the Democrat incumbent–then it becomes clear that many of Palin’s naysayers are just blowing smoke or are engaging in wishful thinking.

(H/t A Point of View)

Related articles

• AP Poll: Palin is the Republican favorite (blogs.dailymail.com)
• Why Palin Can Win (backyardconservative.blogspot.com)