What if Palin decides to run in order to keep her brand viable? Meaning - she never really intended to run - but as her cat and mouse game of an endless teasing of a possible run starts to do more harm than good for her image and status within the party, what if she's coming to the conclusion that in order to stay relevant, to keep the brand viable, she now has no choice but to run? Amusing: I'm running for president so as to keep my celebrity status intact - sounds ridiculous but in reality not that much different from Obama.
Such a turn could signal the approaching nadir of American political culture and portend the looming decline of the West, sure - but I've always said, don't sell this girl short - she's a great retail politician - she's an excellent populist speaker, as good if not better in front of a teleprompter than Obama [better because the potential demographic she would appeal to is bigger and more influential than his] - and it's impossible to say for sure at this point whether or not her strategy for winning the nomination [if that's what it is] has been hopelessly misguided or brilliantly outside the box.
That being said, she still has a huge problem - well, two huge problems - she has yet to demonstrate that she can speak in an ad hoc yet thoughtful way about policy and therefore still suffers from the impression of not being smart enough to be president - and half the electorate seems to have already decided they hate her. Add a third: as much as the press is in love with Obama and shamelessly extol his putative virtues, they can't stand Palin - if she ran it would literally be a feeding frenzy of contempt and ridicule. Big obstacles. Which is why I never believed, and still don't believe she'll run - but that wasn't the question.
