Experienced blacksmiths know, you have to strike while the iron is hot. The same is true in politics, in that an oppertunity rarely comes along twice. Thus it is with the seeming off-again, on-again candidacy of Sarah Palin. Will she run? That question is increasingly less meaningful. Another strong Republican woman is vying for the Presidency:
The vacuum created by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) absence from the 2012 campaign trail presents a major opportunity for the woman she once hinted might share a presidential ticket with her: Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).
With strategists and conservative activists increasingly convinced that Palin won’t make a run for the White House next year, she is losing some clout among her contingent of grassroots devotees who are eager to hit the 2012 campaign trail and rally behind an alternative to President Obama.
Bachmann, who is mulling a 2012 run, is the most obvious choice to supplant Palin in next year’s presidential contest. The Minnesota Republican is positioning herself to take up the anti-establishment mantle that vaulted Palin to Tea Party stardom.
And polls reflect Bachmann’s growing cachet. The three-term lawmaker came in second in last week’s Gallup poll that measured GOP voters’ level of intensity about the 2012 hopefuls. Palin was sixth. The poll also found that Palin had a higher unfavorable rating, 8 percent, than Bachmann, who had a 4 percent disapproval rate.
This came just a week after a Gallup poll found Palin has the highest level of name recognition among potential Republican presidential contenders, with 92 percent. Bachmann was sixth with 52 percent.
That isn’t bad name recognition as a place to start. If Sarah won’t run, perhaps it is time to look to a credible successor. One with impeccable credentials and less baggage. The Elites of both Parties will still hate her, but they haven’t spent the last two years demonizing her. The time to strike is when the Oppertunity presents itself. It seems that Michelle Bachmann knows this axiom.
