Sarah Palin Ambushed

The beginning of this year has decidedly not been very kind to poor Sarah Palin. The shooting in Tucson, in which six people were killed and the district’s representative was shot in the head, has put Alaska’s former governor on the defensive, especially since her site was viewed by some as an encouragement to attack Democrats.

Then she made comments that flirted with anti-Semitism.

But now there’s a far more serious threat.

Until now, Palin was the darling of the Republican Party’s right wing (it is true that the left wing disappeared long ago, undoubtedly with the death of Nelson Rockefeller in 1979) and the loonies of the tea party. But in a matter of days, the deal has completely changed. One after the other, two candidates are showing increasingly insistent signs of their desire to run.

On one side, Donald Trump, promoter of his ego and also of his real estate projects, announced that he would announce in June whether he was going to launch a campaign for the White House (and first the GOP nomination). Even if Trump’s candidacy is pure disinformation, it will be hard on Sarah Palin — previously the star of the conservatives — to make as much media noise as Trump, the unquestioned champion of self-promotion. In the realm of mega promotion, as The Washington Post noted, it will be difficult to do better.

And now, on her political flank, the former beauty queen is going to have her work cut out for her. Michele Bachmann, a representative elected in 2007, is acting as though she, too, is going to run for the White House. If Sarah Palin can quickly raise the huge funds needed to run a campaign, Michele Bachmann, who has the support of the most militant electoral base, could undoubtedly compete with Palin.

In addition, Bachmann is establishing herself in Iowa, where the first stage of the primaries will be held next January.

Palin has neither the staff nor the network to raise the funds to finance a campaign, even if her celebrity status would let her appeal on the basis of her admirers. The pool of Barack Obama’s opponents is getting larger by the day. It is time for Sarah Palin to wake up.