GOP 'Worried Sick' About Palin
NEW YORK (
) -- Top political strategists said Monday that Sarah Palin isn't just a potential presidential candidate -- she's almost surely going to run in 2012.
"You can't count her out," said Mark McKinnon, former adviser to President George W. Bush. "In fact, there are a lot of reasons to count her in. ... Established Republicans are worried sick about her."
But, as Karen Finney, a former member of the Clinton administratiion who's now a political consultant, noted: "They owe her."
The comments came during the Securities Industry and Financial Markets annual conference in New York City today. McKinnon, Finney and another Democratic strategist, Cornell Belcher, were asked to give their views on what recent election results mean for Wall Street -- but spent much of the time talking about the next presidential race in 2012.
McKinnon, who's now vice chairman of Public Strategies, said Texas Gov. Rick Perry is one of the few Republicans who could give Palin a run for her money. Perry recently won his third term by a wide margin. Despite the tooth-and-nails battles other candidates faced, Perry has been on a tour promoting a book titled "Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington."
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"The Tea Party loves him; the base loves him," said McKinnon. "He's got nothing else to do -- he just came out with a book!"
Still, McKinnon noted that Palin would be the sole woman in a group of eight to 10 male candidates -- giving her an edge just by nature of her gender. He believes she'd be able to win two or three of the initial round of primaries "easily," which is traditionally a straight path to the nomination.
In analyzing the past two years of Obama, the panelists generally agreed that he's done a poor job of finding common bipartisan ground, as voters expected him to do. Congress, by their assessment, performed even worse in aligning their agenda with voters' biggest concerns.
"If you turned on your television during the health care debate, it looked like a kindergarten playground," said Finney. "It looked ridiculous."
McKinnon said he worries Republicans will similarly waste their time "getting into the weeds" on procedural mumbo jumbo to undo some of the sweeping legislation. Voters may oust them similarly in the next election if there's no sign that legislators are getting their message.
In the next election, said Finney, "I'm inclined to believe we'll get another round of 'throw the bums out.' "
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