Natalie Gonnella
Although no prospective Presidential frontrunners have officially declared their candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination, we can watch what they do and speculate what it means. Here's the latest on three potential White House seekers:
Alaska’s Sarah Palin
Tonight marks the start of the eight-week run of TLC’s “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”
Republican strategist Ken Khachigian comments to the LA Times, that the program gives Palin the opportunity to define herself in her in own terms: "It drops her into an environment and culture where she can excel in being natural and wholesome and athletic.”
Scott Conroy author of “Sarah from Alaska” goes a step further in his analysis, commenting to CBS news that "it's really a season-long campaign commercial for her."
Rachel D’Oro in the Washington Post, although unsure of the program’s intentions, notes that the show often appears as a primetime canvas for the Palin political brand: “one telling scene shows Palin and members of her family fishing near a bear and two frolicking cubs. Cut to the Tea Party darling and her self-sufficiency speech. For months, Palin has referred to strong Republican female candidates as mama grizzlies.”
Palin is also gearing up to start the book tour for her latest literary effort “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag.” This week CNN reported, via Anderson Cooper 360, that Palin will tour 11 states in 13 days, during which time she is due to stop in South Carolina and Iowa, two significantly important states in the Presidential nominating process.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
In an interview last Monday evening on CNN’s John King USA, Governor Barbour (current head of the Republican Governor’s Association) said he would not begin thinking about a Presidential run in 2012 until after the midterm elections: “I’ve said from the very beginning, I wasn’t gonna do anything about anything except governors’ races through tomorrow. We can’t wait till 2012 to start taking our country back.”
Seen as a very effective RGA leader, Barbour is credited with substantially aiding the success of GOP candidates in the recent Governor races. In 2010, Barbour spearheaded the group’s record breaking fundraising haul of $31.5 million, “out-raising [the RGA’s] Democratic counterpart by more than three to one from July 1 to Sept. 30”. As the WSJ asserts Perry to be out of contention in 2012 due to his new role in the RGA, the end of Barbour’s reign as the group’s head seems to put him in good position to get serious about a Presidential run.
Additionally, his nephew, Henry Barbour, a close advisor to Governor Barbour, commented to Mississippi’s Clarion Ledger that although Governor Barbour’s name was floated as a potential replacement for Michael Steele, it is very unlikely he would seek to take up that post.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty
Governor Pawlenty has been one of the most vocal challengers to President Obama’s healthcare law. Last weekend, appearing on “State of the Union”, Pawlenty commented that “repealing the new law would be a central part of a potential presidential platform.” (Politico)
NPR has speculated that his preliminary filing yesterday, supporting a legal challenge of the healthcare law, marked the beginning of his pursuit of that platform.
Also this week, as reported by Michael Luo in the New York Times, “[Pawlenty] met with top fund-raisers who flew to Minneapolis to listen to a briefing on his record as governor. [These] were the latest in a series of such meetings that began in September, according to William Strong, a vice chairman at Morgan Stanley who has spearheaded fund-raising for Mr. Pawlenty’s political action committee, Freedom First.”
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