Former Alaska governor and never-ending font of planned indecision Sarah Palin is at it again -- extending that dangling carrot of maybe to her loyal supporters who want her to run for president in 2012. That, or she's making certain she's in the news to promote her movie, "The Undefeated," which has its nationwide limited release on July 15. Either way, she told Newsweek that , if she decides to run, she could win the election.
Palin thinks that the field could use a few more candidates as well. She believes the more candidates involved, the broader the range of debate.
"Thank goodness the field is not yet set. I think that there does need to be more vigorous debate. There needs to be a larger field," Palin told Newsweek. "There's still months ahead, where more folks can jump in and start articulating their positions."
More folks might include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has made rumblings that he might run, filling a void among the evangelical and southern electorate left by the absence of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who announced he would not seek the 2012 Republican nomination in 2012. Some are still holding out for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, although he has maintained he has no designs on a White House bid. There have been rumors that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani might get in the race as well. And the aforementioned Huckabee also said in early June that if conditions changed, he might reconsider jumping in as well.
"The people of America are desperate for positive change, and deserving of positive change, to get us off this wrong track," Palin said in the interview. "I'm not so egotistical as to believe that it has to be me, or it can only be me, to turn things around. But I do believe I can win."
Declaring a candidacy and winning a presidential race are two very different scenarios. One is as easy as filing the right papers with the Federal Election Commission and making a formal announcement. The other requires accumulating enough votes to outnumber the votes accumulated by one's opponent, a far more difficult task to accomplish. For Palin to do the latter, she will have to overcome formidable national unfavorability numbers as well as a common consensus that she is not qualified to be president. She even faces an electability problem in her home state, where a recent Hays Research poll revealed she would lose against an incumbent President Barack Obama.
But if all she's doing is promoting a movie and keeping her name in the headlines.
She told Newsweek she was still undecided about a 2012 presidential bid, although she acknowledged that she believed her oldest daughter, Bristol, wanted her to run.
On her Facebook page, Palin talks about what makes a real leader. "Real leadership requires deeds even more than words. It means taking on the problems no one else wants to tackle."
Palin unexpectedly resigned as governor of Alaska in 2009, halfway through her first term.
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