Sarah Palin: Would a "title" shackle me?
Appearing on Fox News last night, potential Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin suggested she may not run for president because the "title" that comes with doing so could shackle a maverick like her.
"Is a title worth it? Does a title shackle a person?" asked the former Alaska governor, who is now a paid contributor to Fox News. She went on to cast herself as a "maverick."
"I do go rogue and I call it like I see it and I don't mind stirring it up in order to get people to think and debate aggressively to find solutions to the problems that our country is facing." (The comments begin at the 9:30 mark in the video below.)
Palin continued: "Somebody like me - is a title and a campaign too shackling? Does that prohibit me from being out there, out of a box, not allowing handlers to shape me and to force my message to be what donors, or what contributors, or what political pundits want it to be?"
"Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country?" she added. "That's the biggest contemplation piece in my process."
Palin, who has said she would decision on running for president by the end of Setepmber, said Tuesday that she will make a decision soon "for logistical reasons." Candidates will likely need to file with the Florida GOP by October 31 if they want to compete in that state's important primary, and political observers believe Palin would need to get into the race by mid-October to do the necessary behind the scenes work ahead of that and other deadlines. Palin said on Fox News that she thinks she could win the nomination and eventually the presidency if she does run, arguing that "Americans are ready for someone out of the box."Palin's comment that a title could be shackling may be a sign that she is content with her role as a commentator and is thus leaning against running for president.
"You don't need a title to make a difference," Palin said later in the interview. She pointed to her experience as the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, saying that when candidates are "in campaign mode" they can be "caricatured by those around you, which prohibits the freedom that one needs to really make a difference."
Palin also said "we can take governor [Chris] Christie" at his word that he won't run for president and criticized the media for treating the presidential campaign like "a reality show," propping up "the next flavor of the week" "in order to crush the person, it seems, later on."
And she lauded GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain - who she called "Herb Cain" - saying he has been successful because he is the one candidate "who doesn't look like he is part of that permanent political class."
"We respect that, that has an automatic connection with the electorate...he's not elite," she said of the former Godfather's Pizza CEO, who won the Florida straw poll on Saturday. Palin suggested "elites in the media" were shocked by Cain's straw poll win because of their disconnect from the American people and then complained that an unnamed Fox News host suggested she was "way down" in polls of the GOP presidential candidates.
"All this misinformation and contradicting information from even hosts here on this network itself, it adds to, I guess, the disconnect - not just the permanent political class, but many in the media also," said Palin. "Because sometimes they don't do their homework, and many times a host or a reporter, they have their own agenda, and they interject their agenda in the information they're providing their viewers and readers."
