Governor Palin, Mitt Romney, and the 2012 Republican National Convention

by Adrienne Ross on Sunday, July 15, 2012 19:37 EDT

By Adrienne Ross – www.motivationtruth.com

With the Republican National Convention at the end of August in Tampa, many have wondered what role Governor Palin will play. Just a smidgen of common sense would tell Mitt Romney and the GOP establishment that she needs to have a significant role there. The former Vice Presidential candidate should be addressing the audience in a speech that would surely electrify, something Romney simply isn’t able to do. If Romney is as bright as some say he is, he should surely be insisting on such a thing. So far he has not.

Via Peter J. Boyer (emphasis added):

Queries to the Romney camp about any possible Palin role at the convention meet with a stony silence. Palin does not seem surprised. “What can I say?” she responded in an email from Alaska, when asked by Newsweek about the convention, just before heading to Michigan to deliver an Obama-thumping speech. “I’m sure I’m not the only one accepting consequences for calling out both sides of the aisle for spending too much money, putting us on the road to bankruptcy, and engaging in crony capitalism.”

“In accepting those consequences,” she added, “one must remember this isn’t Sadie Hawkins and you don’t invite yourself and a date to the Big Dance.”

[...]

The Romney camp will not comment on Palin, or on plans for the convention, but one adviser associated with the campaign suggested that Palin would be prohibited from speaking at the Republican convention by her contract with Fox News. “It’s true I’m prohibited from doing some things,” Palin says, “but this is the first I’ve heard anyone suggest that as an excuse, er, reason to stay away from engaging in the presidential race. I’m quite confident Fox’s top brass would never strip anyone of their First Amendment rights in this regard.” (Fox says her contract would not prohibit speaking at the convention if she sought permission.)

Palin is keeping the dates open in late August, just in case. In any event, she says, she plans to be politically active between now and November, starting with a Michigan Tea Party appearance, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. “No matter the Romney campaign strategy,” she says, “I intend to do all I can to join others in motivating the grassroots made up of independents and constitutional conservatives who can replace Barack Obama at the ballot box.”

[...]

Team Romney may be well advised to consider bringing Palin inside the tent. Whether she’s in Tampa for the convention or not, she will be out there somewhere, and talking.

This is Boyer’s take, and he clearly knows the power Governor Palin has and the enthusiasm she inspires. So what are the folks saying? Do they agree? Here are a couple snippets from the article to answer those questions:

“Romney’s just not a fighter,” says Jenny Beth Martin, head of the Tea Party Patriots, the largest of the activist groups. “That’s why it would be good for him to have someone like Palin speaking at the convention. He needs to do something to rile up his base, to make them enthusiastic. And I don’t mean just the Tea Party. I mean die-hard Republicans. I live in the second-most-Republican county in the state of Georgia, and the folks around here are not enthusiastic about him.”

“Palin is the female Ronald Reagan of our time,” says Kremer of the Tea Party Express. “There’s no one that excites the base, and energizes the base, the way that Sarah Palin does. There’s just not.”

Boyer himself adds:

Palin would certainly light up the base at the convention—her 2008 vice-presidential acceptance speech was, in terms of partisan enthusiasm, the high-water mark of the McCain campaign

The Republican National Convention will be held August 27th through August 30th in Tampa, Florida.

(h/t C4P)

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I am a Christian, a teacher, and a Palin-Conservative

  • Terry in GA

    I'm still secretly hoping the delegates will see that going rogue would be the first choice. But other than that, anybody with even a morsel of sway within the Romney camp better be getting on the stick to include Palin in the event. I will support the nominee of the GOP with only one requirement: Sarah Palin is the leader of the conservative tea party movement, and her role as our leader IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST!!!!!

    Think about it, mittens. And think hard, because this may be one decision that haunts your future.

    • http://us4palin.com Ron Devito

      Terry, thank you for writing. The Romney train has left Boston already and is steaming on to Tampa. Delegates are not going to nominate someone who did not run over someone who did and who won most of the popular votes. You can win a race you were not in, so a Sarah Palin nomination in Tampa is a pretty much a dead issue at this point. I agree with all else you said – 1,000%

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