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Opinion: Why Sarah Palin won’t run ... and wouldn’t win

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Sarah Palin’s indecisive, thin-skinned, addicted to the spotlight and very well paid for being a ‘political’ personality. What she’s not is ready to run for president. Here’s Doyle McManus’ take:

Two years ago, one of the elders of the Republican Party, former Richard Nixon aide Fred Malek, gave Palin some friendly advice on how to prepare for a presidential campaign. Malek told Palin, then still governor of Alaska, that she should do three things: finish at least one full term in office, master some tough subjects such as fiscal policy and foreign affairs (and give speeches to show it), and build a staff that could serve as the core of a campaign machine.But Palin didn’t do any of that. Instead, she has devoted herself to less-demanding activities that have kept her in the public eye and provided a handsome income besides. She wrote (or, more precisely, coauthored) a bestselling memoir that made at least $7 million. She starred in a television travelogue that earned her a reported $2 million. She makes $1 million a year from a three-year contract as an exclusive ‘contributor’ to Fox News. And she has given dozens of speeches at rates that sometimes top $100,000 per appearance (although she agreed to do this weekend’s tea party rally in Iowa for free, organizers say). That adds up to an average gross income of at least $5 million a year since she left her $125,000-a-year job as governor.

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Later in his column, McManus urges the former Alaskan governor to ‘end the fan dance [and] let her forlorn suitors know whether she’s ready to make a commitment.’

To read many of the opinions on our discussion board, Palin won’t run -- unless it’s to a spotlight or a pot of gold. Here are a few of the comments.

Another adjective to describe Palin

Calling someone out for their stupidity is not fascination, fear, or reverence. It’s calling someone out for their stupidity.

For those of you who think the liberal media piles on Sarah Palin, let me ask you this...does the liberal media call Condoleezza Rice stupid? Do they call Olympia Snowe stupid? Kay Bailey Hutchinson? Absolutely not. They may disagree with them and have articles slanted in the opposite direction, but no one calls these ladies stupid.

Sarah Palin is genuinely, unabashedly, stupid.

--disbelief

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Palin’s enjoying her time in the spotlight

Sarah Palin is not going to run for president. She knows she can’t win the nomination, much less the presidency, and she is enjoying the adulation that she knows will disappear when the nominee emerges. Let her have her fun, and if people keep sending her money, that’s their choice.

--TimBowman

Is Palin brave enough to face Michele Bachmann in a debate?

She’s not going to run. Sarah would be top bill in the media if she said she was running -- she wouldn’t have to start bus chases, crash GOP events, repeat string-along one-liners, or any of the other minor ‘issues’ to keep her gig alive. Regardless if she’s viewed as a media junky or candidate, she’d benefit -- she has nothing to gain by dragging out her decision -- delays have already cost her supporters who’ve moved to Perry or Bachmann. If anyone thinks her delay has a valid reason, think how slow decision making makes a bad executive -- thankfully, her running for president is not an important issue (like whether to hit a terrorist when info pops up with a narrow time window).

Scariest thing for her now is the Tea Parties may lose interest in her when she doesn’t run. Yesterday’s willingness to toss aside all the work and sacrifice organizers and supporters made to see her on Saturday to keep O’Donnell away is without precedent -- both for her and any other public figure. It says Sarah’s all about Sarah/her emotions and no one else. I don’t think Sarah likes Bachmann either (some festering resentment from getting bumped from her perch) -- one has to wonder if she’d ever face Bachmann in a debate. Sarah’s going to be in Seoul during the next debate -- this is her third dodge to avoid one.

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--snyderchris87654

Who would vote for her?

Who in their right mind would vote for a candidate who didn’t participate in the debates? If you don’t know where they stand on difficult issues, you can’t make a logical decision.

--WhatIsWrongWithYouYahoos

Just wait for the convention

By the desperate tone of this article Sarah Palin has got all of you in the main-creep’s media coming and going like chickens without a head. Ha! Ha! Ha! She who laughs last, laughs best. You all gave her your best cheap shots from 2008 till today in an orchestrated effort to destroy her but look at who is crying now. I hope she never makes a choice and keeps all you liberal Palin haters with your skivvies all tied up in knots until the Republican National Convention. It would serve the media right if the 2012 convention nominated her in a draft by acclamation. Palin and Rubio in 2012!

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--Socorro V

*Spelling errors in the above comments have been corrected.

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