There's No Conflict in Respecting Palin's Decision to Not Run and in Asking Her to Reconsider

                      "But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.”
                       Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show
                       you my faith by my works."  - James 2:18 ESV


To many of Sarah Palin's supporters who agonize between respecting her decision to not seek the 2012 GOP nomination for the Presidency of the United States and wanting her to reconsider given the very weak and flawed GOP field right now: take heart. There is NO CONFLICT between the two, if we do the right things and do them right.

Let us go back to her October 5th announcement (emphasis mine):

          "After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order. My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office - from the nation's governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the "fundamental transformation" of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law. ..."

         
We can break her announcement down into two components: (1) family concerns, and (2) she will be out there helping commonsense conservative candidates be elected to office.

Component #1. Any parent would understand her decision to put family first. It would be nice to be a fly on the wall and listen in on all the nitty gritty of their conversations but  we must respect that what was discussed within the Palin family, as with any other family, must stay within the Palin family.

Component #2. Gov. Palin will still be out there travelling around the country, helping and maybe even stumping for commonsense conservative candidates. She'll still be actively talking about the issues confronting us and the solutions to get America back on track. As she hops from state to state, along the way she will be meeting and building relationships with potential future allies who will help shape the policies and bring about the much-needed reforms in Washington.

Now how do we bridge these two components so that we are respecting Gov. Palin's decision and still convince her to change her mind and run in 2012?

We can do it if we act now to show that we have her back. We need to mobilize now for her and do the groundwork for her, without exposing her family to the usual rigors and demands of a full-blown campaign.

The Sarah Palin Earthquake and the various DraftPalin movements are doing an excellent job on beating the reconsider drum. The billboard ad and op-ed suggestions are also great ideas but I believe that we must couple all these efforts with vigorous actions on the ground. (Please see some of my suggestions here .) We need to do a write-in campaign for these simple reasons:

(1) with the filing dates of some early primary states already passed, write-in is her only realistic and viable path to be able to compete for nomination,
(2) write-in  is the only way that voters can legally cast their votes for her and have their votes counted and reported,
(3) if she does reconsider today, she cannot be expected to be able to establish ground organizations the next day. She does not have the luxury of time to do that so we must prepare the campaign path now to make things less complicated for her. A write-in campaign will help do that, and:
(4) it reminds voters that there is an alternative to the insufficient GOP field we have right now. Sarah Palin is still the best person to challenge President Obama in 2012.

I will not pretend to know all the rules and deadlines of all 50 states but we should look ahead to the convention in August in Florida as the biggest and final battleground where we make the last stand in fight for the delegates. With the widespread discontent with the estalishment-ordained nominee Mitt Romney and conservatives launching groups specifically to oppose him, it does not matter very much whether Sarah Palin wins or not as a write-in candidate in any primary/caucus. We just need to make sure that she garners a strong showing, enough to cast a big doubt on Romney's inevitability.

As a non-candidate right now, Gov. Palin is free to speak anywhere in America without exposing or requiring her family to be by her side.  She will still be a big presence in the national stage so we can still expect the media to always spin out of thin air some malicious stories about her. But since she isn't so much a threat anymore to the Obama presidency and the left's agenda, they are more likely to aim their dirty Allinsky tactics on the declared GOP candidates. Thus, sparing Sarah Palin and her family the kind of relentless and ridiculous attacks that followed them for the last three years.

By not being in the race, Gov. Palin can speak truth to power louder than ever and hit the Obama administration as hard as she can but it would look so foolish of Team Obama to hit back at a non-candidate. It would be like throwing punches in the air when they should be spending their time and energy pouncing on Romney and company.

Back in 1869, America celebrated the completion of the country's greatest transcontinental railroad project where two different railroad companies, working separately conjoined their tracks in the end . The "Last Spike" was driven at Promontory, Utah where the Union Pacific tracks joined those of Central Pacific Railroad's.

The "Palin Reconsider" movement is kind of like the transcontinental railroad project. Two forces joining together in the end to ensure that we have a fighting chance in 2012. As we mobilize those boots on the ground in her behalf, Sarah Palin travels around the country and speaks to voters about smaller and smarter government that is truly representative of We The People, all the while her children are tucked safely in Alaska. It'll all work out in the end. The first day she faces off with Barack Obama will be the beginning of restoration, renewal and rebuilding of America.

Palin 2012. It's not too late. We can do this.