About (I'm guessing) 85% of my Liberal friends would love for Sarah Palin to be the next Republican presidential nominee…or to at least be prominent enough in the G.O.P. primary to provoke a good old healthy Civil War within that party. I frankly don't think she'll get that far. If she runs for President (big "if"), I think she'll be running the way Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader have always run — for personal promotion, not with any delusion of victory.
But ~15% of my Liberal friends are afraid that the other Republican contenders are so weak, and her base is so fanatical, that she just might have a shot at the White House. I've never worried about that but if I did, this excerpt from her recent interview with Greta Van Susteren would put my mind at ease. Palin was asked how she might go about winning over those who don't see the world her way. Her reply?
…the book is a good tool to get — hey, read the book, and if you still don't like the positions that I take or if you don't like who I am after reading the book, unfiltered through the media, then so be it. You know, I'm never going to win you over. But at least give me a shot there in trying to figure out who I am, what my record is, what my accomplishments are and what I represent.
And then, Greta, if I can't please them, I can't please them. I'm not going to try. I'm not going to change who I am or compromise my positions, my values, in order to placate or to try to get some demographic or some group of people on board with me if they just don't get it.
Her first instinct was to push buying her book. That's what she's out doing now…promoting her product, rather than her ideology. And the rest of that answer is what you'd say if you weren't even going to win over the G.O.P. moderates, let alone the Independents and whatever Democrats might be gettable. There are plenty of things you could say without compromising your positions that would keep the door open to support from those groups. You could talk about finding common ground; of how if they hear more of your message, they'll understand that they share certain mutual pragmatic values, etc.
The problem Ms. Palin has with standing for national office is that without her hardcore supporters, she has nothing. But if she starts to moderate and reach out to those who think she's too right-wing and simplistic, she'll lose those hardcore supporters. What they like about her is that she doesn't do that. It's that "I'm never wrong" attitude that (cough, ahem) worked so well for George W. Bush. Yeah, Bush got elected with it but he knew enough to at least pretend he cared about the majority of the electorate.