If Sarah Palin Ever Wanted to Get In, Now's the Time to Do It

When Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president I assumed that would pretty much end any chance that Sarah Palin would run. They'd basically be competing for the same part of the conservative base and all her candidacy would do is open the door for Mitt Romney.

I'm not so sure about that anymore. Rick Perry has had three debate performances which have gone from mediocre to pretty bad. Many who supported him early on are having second thoughts, and pretty much all of those people hate Mitt Romney. If this keeps up, they're going to start looking for someone else.

The Christian Science Monitor has a piece on Palin which indicates there's still time for her to jump in...but not much:

First, Joe McGinniss’s tell-all book about her was slammed by the mainstream media (those coming to Palin’s defense included the New York Times and even liberal antagonist Keith Olbermann).

Now, a new national poll shows her trailing President Obama in a head-to-head matchup by just 5 points, 44 to 49 - this, after she had trailed him by more than 20 points for most of the year. That’s better than current GOP frontrunner Rick Perry, who trails the president 41 to 50 in the same poll.

According to the survey, Palin’s recent jump in support has come mostly from independents, who have lately been abandoning the president in droves. Still, she remains a controversial figure: 72 percent of Republicans and independents in the same survey also said they don’t actually think Palin should run.

And that remains the question: will she or won’t she? Palin recently told Fox News that she thinks there’s “still time” for candidates to get into the race, and that she’s “still considering” it. She repeatedly said she believed it would be an “unconventional” election year.

Palin did acknowledge that there are deadlines looming to get on the ballot in certain primary and caucus states. (Florida, for example, has a deadline of Oct. 31.)

The big problems with arriving at the dance this late will organization and money. She'd have to ramp up the state campaign organizations in a big hurry and that's not easy or cheap to do. A lot of the big fundraisers have made other commitments, and much of the top-tier political talent is already working for other candidates.

However, she has a history of proving people very wrong, and who knows, if there was ever a good time to get in, it's right now.