‘One Nation’ tour: an instinctive and smart tactician bides her time

Watching Sarah Palin storm through Philadelphia and Gettysburg this week convinces me that she knows exactly what she’s doing. By not publishing an itinerary for her “One Nation” bus tour, she insures constant media attention and chatter about where she will go next, while generating great photo ops. More journalists are covering and writing about Sarah Palin now than are covering any of the announced Republican candidates. What are those candidates’ names again?

I think Sarah Palin knows that she can’t win the Republican nomination the conventional and old-fashioned way, starting early and courting primary voters in early primary states one at a time. So she’s using an alternative game plan, playing to her strength, and using the ever-attentive mainstream media to deliver her patriotic and high-minded images to Republican voters everywhere.

I think Sarah Palin is genuinely undecided on whether or not to launch a campaign for the Republican nomination for president. But her alternative strategy is to take her time and see how the field develops before making a decision. A shorter campaign will save a lot of money, and she can use her amazing media attention to make up for lost time, if she decides to run.

That strategy is paying off as the Republican electorate expresses dissatisfaction with its announced candidates so far. If she enters the race for the Republican nomination, Sarah Palin will immediately become the dominant personality in the race.

Whoever the Republicans nominate is going to need an unconventional strategy to hope to defeat an incumbent President and proven campaigner who succeeded in eliminating America’s number one enemy. Sarah Palin is the embodiment of the unconventional political campaign. And she too, in her unique way, is a proven campaigner.

Her upbeat personality appeals to a lot of ordinary voters. I find myself hoping that she enters the race for the nomination, if only because the 2012 campaign will be much less interesting if she doesn’t.