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Sarah Palin 'will run for White House in 2012'
Sarah Palin will run for the White House in 2012 and conduct an "unorthodox, grassroots campaign the likes of which you've never seen", the man organising her campaign in Iowa said.
Peter Singleton, a California lawyer who has been assiduously courting Republicans across the state where the first contest of the 2012 election will be held, said it was “unthinkable” she would remain on the sidelines.
“She’s the right person at this time,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“If you look at Churchill’s time, in 1938 Churchill was unelectable, in 1940 he was indispensable.”
He added: “I can’t see her sitting this one out. The stakes are too high. It goes back to 1940. Can you see Churchill sitting it out? It’s unthinkable. Can you see George Washington in 1776 sitting it out? Unthinkable. He wanted to be back on his farm but they said we need you to be president of the republic.”
For months, Mrs Palin has kept the Republican Party and media guessing about her intentions. In Pella to attend the premiere of the film The Undefeated, a documentary about the former Alaska governor, she seemed to encourage speculation she would take the plunge.
She told the political website RealClearPolitics that she would commit “110 per cent” to the Iowa caucus process if she does stand for president.
Mr Singleton predicted Mrs Palin “will have hundreds of thousands of volunteers, 10 times more than any other candidate and I think that’s why she’ll win”.
There was still time, he insisted, for her to enter the race, currently being led by Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. “It’s not too late. Would I like her to be here campaigning? Oh sure. But am I worried that the window has closed? No.
“The race is wide open. She has a lot of support. I can tell you that because I’ve got field data. I’m part of a team that’s out there all the time.”
Mr Singleton declined to say how many Palin volunteers there were in Iowa but other Republicans said that there were scores, perhaps more than 100, across the state.
Mr Singleton, 56, tall and urbane, is a key backer of Mrs Palin. He represents the national Organize4Palin group and has built a network of support in Republican circles for the former Alaska governor. Although he was standing about 20 yards from Mrs Palin as he talked, Mr Singleton insisted he had never met or spoken to her.
This stance, which he has maintained assiduously since he began working on organising a Palin 2012 campaign in Iowa last November, has intrigued senior Iowa Republicans.
It was Mr Singleton who telephoned Beth Hill, director of the Pella Opera House, to book The Undefeated, a defence of Mrs Palin and her career.
“Peter came here and he found our town reflected Sarah Palin’s small town, conservative values,” she said.
Seymour Vander Schaaf, 70, the theatre pipe organist, who performed before the film, said: “This is a conservative community. Swimming pools weren’t even open on Sunday for many, many years.”
Asked by a Fox News reporter before the film about whether she would run in 2012, Mrs Palin responded: “It’s a tough decision, it’s a big decision to decide whether to run for office or not. I’m still contemplating ... I am still thinking about the decision and you know a lot goes into such a life-changing, relatively earth-shattering type of decision and still thinking about it.”
Earlier in the day, it had been reported that her eldest daughter, Bristol, had said Mrs Palin had made a decision about whether or not to run. Mrs Palin laughed about this and said: “I texted Bristol, I said: 'Honey what did you say this morning on some news programme?’”
After the film, Mrs Palin and her husband, Todd, were mobbed by hundreds of supporters amid shouts of “your record is golden”, “when’s the sequel” and “we need you in the White House, Sarah”.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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