She says she’s interested in running for president, but Sarah Palin is not backing that interest up with action.
In a stemwinder at Rep. Steve King’s Freedom Summit in Iowa Saturday, Palin sounded like a presidential candidate, using President Obama’s one-time catchphrase against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
“Hey, Iowa, can anyone stop Hillary?” Palin said, and the audience responded with a cheer. “To borrow a phrase, yes we can!”
That crowd pleaser came after Palin told the Washington Post she is “seriously interested” in running for president in 2016.
But while the words are bold, the actions indicate the Mama Grizzly is still hibernating. Palin’s campaign activities this time around are even less energetic than in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, when she ultimately opted not to run.
The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate famously flirted with a bid in the summer of 2011, traveling to Iowa in a whirlwind of press coverage and mounting a bus tour that crisscrossed the country. Speculation about a campaign continued until October 2011, when Palin announced she would not seek the White House.
Since then, Palin has remained politically active, offering her endorsement to a wide range of Republican candidates during the 2014 midterm elections. But, in the ways that matter, she has made no moves toward running for president.
“I see no activity, no hires, no grassroots, and there is no structure to the volunteer organization for Palin that existed four years ago,” said Craig Bergman, a Republican consultant who worked with the Organize4Palin group in Iowa in 2011.
Myrna Beeber, who oversaw 11 counties as a regional coordinator for the group in 2011, attended Palin’s speech in Des Moines on Saturday and said she still counts herself among Palin’s supporters. But she hasn’t been in touch with anyone about a bid for president and isn’t holding out hope that the colorful Going Rogue author is serious about running.
“I don’t think she ever will,” Beeber said.
Palin’s political action committee, Sarah PAC, has remained active, but not in the way one would expect of a potential presidential candidate. Rather than donating money to support candidates in key presidential primary states, the PAC was more scattershot in its donations to congressional candidates, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. Most of the PAC’s money went not to other candidates but to its own operations.
Meanwhile, the PAC has less than $900,000 on hand as of the most recent filing — a respectable amount, to be sure, but not nearly the amount of money that would be needed to mount a competitive presidential bid. A phone call to Timothy Crawford, Sarah PAC’s treasurer, went to voicemail and was not returned.
“Sarah Palin is like Tim Tebow,” Bergman mused, referring to the quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy playing for the University of Florida but fizzled in the NFL. “Her fans love her, her critics hate her, she can win a national championship in college. But to play in the NFL is a whole different level of talent.”
“The steps Sarah would need to take to play at that level, she has not taken,” Bergman added.
If Palin hoped her speech at the Freedom Summit could serve as a re-introduction to Iowa conservatives, that didn’t quite pan out. The speech was afterward widely dismissed as an amateurish performance — not one of a serious presidential candidate-in-waiting.
“This is who she is,” Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday. “This to me is evidence that she has finally shed every last one of those annoying handlers.”
Palin did not respond to a request for comment.
