Ruh-Roh: Rick Perry Staffing Up in Iowa? And What About Sarah Palin? In or Out? : The Other McCain

RS McCain passes this along in a piece about Rick Perry gearing up in Iowa. As a long-time Palin-watcher (and Palinista, natch) , I don’t know if she will or not, but the operative McCain spoke to discussing Bachmann’s numbers is out of his mind if he thinks that would influence her decision. Bristol Palin recently said (then walked back) that her mom had already made up her mind, so I would tend to go with yeah, she’s running – it’s where I’d put my money based on that evidence alone, were I a betting man.

The deal with ‘Cuda is that she was, is and forever shall remain a wild card in terms of strategy. I spend a great deal of my book-learnin’ time reading specifically about strategy, amoral warfare and the like (no, that doesn’t make me an expert, I know, I know) and ‘Cuda switches playbooks better than anyone, depending on what the situation calls for. Her operation is light, she is nimble, and she can spot trends and pulses faster than any politician I’ve ever seen. From a pragmatic view, one of the reasons I support her is I know she will have no problem switching gears in a heartbeat depending on the needs of her campaign.

Anyway, it’s some interesting info McCain provides, so I thought I’d pass it along:

Next, the raw speculation: Is Sarah Palin in or out?

Beyond my own gut hunch, every serious observer and operative I’ve talked to says Palin won’t run. Wednesday, I put in a call to someone who has been through lots and lots of presidential campaigns, and he was blunt: “She’s not going to run. . . . Bachmann’s numbers are too strong. [Palin is] not going to risk embarrassing herself.”

You can take that however you want. Again, this source claimed no direct knowledge of Palin’s plans, but he’s on a first-name basis with any big-shot Republican you’d care to name, so his is certainly an informed opinion. The difficulty of saying that Palin is definitely not running, however, is that she is Sarah Palin, and she loves to prove pundits wrong.

via Ruh-Roh: Rick Perry Staffing Up in Iowa? And What About Sarah Palin? In or Out? : The Other McCain.