From Sunday’s interview on Fox:
WALLACE: Why wouldn’t you run for president? PALIN: I would. I would if I believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family. Certainly, I would do so. WALLACE: And how do you make that decision over the next three years? PALIN: It’s going to be thankfully a lot of time to be able to make such a decision. Right now, I’m looking at, as I say, other potential candidates out there who are strong. They’re in a position of having the luxury of having more information at their fingertips right now. So that the current events that we’re talking about today, they — WALLACE: Wait, wait, wait. Because — you’re basically saying you will consider it. PALIN: I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country. I don’t know if it’s going to be every seeking a title though. It may be just doing a darn good job as a reporter or covering some of the current events. WALLACE: But you’re going to consider, you’re go to go through the process of thinking — PALIN: I won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future. I don’t want any American to ever close the door in their personal or their professional lives and put themselves in a box and say, heck, yes I’m going to do that. Or, no way I’m not going to do that, when we don’t know what the future holds. WALLACE: There’s a report this weekend that you are now getting daily e-mail briefings on domestic and foreign policy issues from a group of top advisors in Washington, D.C. How come? PALIN: Ever since our PAC was formed, we have had good people contributing. Some — many volunteers, I guess you would call them advisors, yes, firing away e-mails to me every morning saying, this is what’s happened in Washington overnight. You need to be aware of this. Good. It’s great. It’s helpful. WALLACE: Do you — isn’t that the move of somebody who is thinking about running for president? PALIN: You mean, conventionally how someone would — I have no idea how conventionally people do this. How they try to open a door that’s cracked, if it’s even open. And if that involves having a group of advisors send them e-mails every morning. I don’t know how any of that stuff works. I don’t know, I’m just appreciative of having some good information at my fingertips right now.
I’ll leave it to you guys to argue whether this is good news for Palin fans or not. I’ll just note that all this closing doors and putting yourself in a box stuff is a very strange way to talk. Also, closing a door doesn’t mean you can’t open it again. That’s the way doors work. Even if they’re cracked. They don’t need to be kept permanently ajar.
Also noteworthy: information – that is, knowledge – is a “luxury”. Hmmm.
UPDATE: See Marc Ambinder for more. One other thing: I’m not persuaded that Palin’s work for Fox News will help her. Yes, it guarantees continued prominence and friendly interviewing but it also slowly-but-surely moves her from “politician who does a bit of TV” to “TV star who does a bit of politics”. And, while folk enjoy watching TV, they generally don’t think they want to be governed by people from TV. Who knows, Palin could be an exception to that, but in the long-run I suspect being a regular on Fox probably diminishes her and, in the end, may marginalise her too. Call that strange but possible.
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