While her political future may be up in the air, Sarah Palin’s populist star wattage remains undeniable as she basks in an undimmed political limelight for a core of supporters bored by what they describe as a lackluster Republican Party leadership and angry at the Obama administration’s expansion of government and imposition of power.
A little more than a week after she launched her “Going Rogue” book tour, drawing thousands in rock-star fashion at stops across the country, the former Alaska governor has become a standard-bearer for a constituency seeking an unfettered voice on the direction of the nation.
Evidence of her fascination: Her book — part autobiography, part philosophy, part payback — sold 700,000 copies in its first week, with HarperCollins, her publisher, increasing an initial printing of 1.5 million copies to 2.5 million, according to Associated Press.
Some have suggested her as a replacement for Oprah Winfrey, who will retire as talk-show host in 2011, even as others think it’s a foregone conclusion that Mrs. Palin’s book tour is a publicity-fueled prelude to an almost certain 2012 White House run.
“Personally, I’m not sure she’s ready to be president, but this is a person who has resonant voice for many Americans who are engaged in our political life and who deserve to have someone speaking for them,” said Wilfred McClay, a professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
“Anyone who tries to shut that down, particularly by a relentless campaign of personal abuse, is really an enemy of our political system,” he said. “They are trying to suppress discourse at a time when we need more of it and not less.”
A new Washington Post poll released Monday found Mrs. Palin outpacing party rivals for the affection of core Republican voters. At 18 percent, she was the single highest vote-getter among the party faithful as the “person who best reflects the core values of the Republican Party.” She had three times the number of votes received by key rivals such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Democrats, including the Obama camp, are not underestimating Mrs. Palin’s popularity and potential.
Just as she hit the airways and took her bus to Middle America’s roadways for her book tour, Democratic fundraisers took to the Internet soliciting $5 donations to fight against her “lies.” Acting through the national Organizing for America campaign, sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, they dubbed the self-described hockey mom as “dangerous” even as some left-leaning pundits diminished her as a chattering darling of the right.
On Thursday, Mrs. Palin, pushing a baby jogger, hit the road to run in a Thanksgiving 5K race in Washington state, where she was spending the holidays with relatives. She attracted keen interest from joggers and locals in Kennewick, Wash., who took pictures or craned for a look at the fit running enthusiast.
One Palin fan, Gary Waddoups, called seeing Mrs. Palin “exciting” as he got off a snapshot while she hugged spectators and signed autographs along the race route.
“There’s just something about her, the way that she can articulate exactly the way we feel about the country,” he said to Washington’s Tri-City Herald of her appeal.
Andrew Koneschusky, a vice president in the public affairs practice of D.C.-based Levick Strategic Communications, said that if the White House is her goal, Mrs. Palin should use her moment in the spotlight not to blame her detractors but to fortify her weaknesses, which he says include a perceived lack of substance - criticism that followed her while on the campaign trail as Republican nominee Sen. John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate.
“Instead of taking that off the table by delving into more substantive realms, she’s lashing out at critics and she’s attacking left and right and pretty much confirming and solidifying the image that a lot of people already have of her,” said Mr. Koneschusky, a former legislative aide on Capitol Hill.
“It’s hard to imagine a president who has gotten to the White House by attacking or being critical. You need to articulate a positive message, and it does help to show some substantive chops,” he added, noting that plenty of questions remain as to Mrs. Palin’s ultimate ambitions.
Whether Mrs. Palin will make another national political run for office is uncertain, with many media and political figures arguing it is too soon for her to be making a commitment one way or the other.
Yet most acknowledge that her fundraising prowess and willingness to speak her mind, seemingly unscripted, make her a potent voice for the 2010 midterm elections and for Republican candidates badly in need not only of money but also of pizazz.
She also brings hope to third-party types, many of whom view her as independent of old-guard Republican Party manipulation. That she continues to forge her career her way, fighting back against criticism, adds to her homespun and principled appeal.
“People forget one of the things that has made her such a star figure in the minds of people who support her is the way she came through with that speech at the Republican convention when she had been disparaged within an inch of her life,” Pepperdine’s Mr. McClay said. “Obama has never had to do anything that showed that amount of grit or sheer fallback on raw character to get you through.”
Trying to snuff her out of the current debate, he said, denies that she is speaking out on real public concerns, even as her popularity - and favorability ratings in recent polls - continue to rise.
“You just have to be closed off to certain precincts of reality to think that her appeal is not real and genuine and something that politically speaking has to be respected,” Mr. McClay added.
“I cannot understand the effort to sort of rule her as out of bounds for our political life. I haven’t seen anything that she has done or said that has been remotely in the range of incivility that I see coming from the media that cover her. All this stuff about her being a cancer is preposterous.”
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