Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin faces a dilemma. The conservative firebrand could use her electrifying, combative personality to leap into the race to determine the Republican nominee to run for US president next year.
Palin is the only big-name Republican left who could launch a run this late and has said she will make a decision by the end of this month.
However, by doing so, she would risk a new round of unflattering publicity — the kind of negative focus on her and her family that dogged her vice presidential run in 2008 and left her embittered by the experience.
Photo: AFP
A taste of that has already come with an unflattering new book by a veteran political writer that makes unsubstantiated allegations about Palin.
While adverse publicity may generate sympathy among her supporters, it could damage her image among the broader electorate, raising the question of whether she is electable in a run against US President Barack Obama, who will seek re-election in November next year or against anyone else in 2016.
There are signs she will not jump into the race, including a clue she gave in a Fox News interview this week, when she said after a Republican debate that she enjoyed the influence she was having without being a candidate.
Palin, 48, said she is “getting a kick out of getting out there, giving a speech, making some statements about things that must be discussed and then the very next day watching some of the candidates get out there and discuss what it was that we just talked about.”
Plus, she has little in the way of organization that could form the basis of a campaign in the early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Most of the top organizing talent has been hired by other candidates and Republicans are only four months away from the start of voting in primary elections.
A book by author Joe McGinniss, The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, is scheduled to be released next week and continues the drumbeat of allegations against her.
It alleges that as an unmarried, 23-year-old sports reporter, she had a one-night stand with a future professional basketball player and later had an affair with a business associate of her husband Todd.
Todd Palin issued a withering statement about McGinniss and his book, saying he has a “creepy obsession with my wife.”
“His book is full of disgusting lies, innuendo, and smears. Even the New York Times called this book ‘dated, petty,’ and that it ‘chases caustic, unsubstantiated gossip,’” he said.
The business associate, Brad Hanson, called the charge involving him a “complete and outright lie.”
David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said the allegations may make her a sympathetic figure among supporters, but would not help her to convince other voters she is presidential material.
“If she doesn’t look presidential, even if there’s really nothing new in the book, there’s just a few more days of buzz about her and her personal life and all the issues,” he said.
“It’s just going to reinforce -negative opinions of her. It’s just not helpful.”
Still, the negative portrayals of the self-styled “mama grizzly” could steel her for a presidential run.
She has always been willing to take on what she derisively calls the “old boys club” of Republican politics and never shies away from a fight.
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