Sarah Palin Has Already Started Her 2012 Campaign

John Kerry famously advised Barack Obama to choose a Vice President he could trust, after he thought John Edwards undermined him in 2004. 

Perhaps he should have advised John McCain.

After the McCain campaign withdrew from Michigan, I saw red flags in Sarah Palin loudly complaining about it. Part of a campaign is making tough choices on where to compete, and obviously there are regrets about not being able to compete everywhere. One thing you do not want to do i s to make a noisy withdrawal - which only exacerbates your choices and highlights your inability to compete. The Obama campaign, for instance, stealthily withdrew from North Dakota. 

Sarah Palin has decided to make this story even bigger than it would have been before. And not only that, she’s highlighted not what McCain could do in Michigan, but what she could do. To wit:

“Todd and I, we’d be happy to get to Michigan and walk through those plants of the car manufacturers,” Palin said, referring to her husband. “We’d be so happy to get to speak to the people in Michigan who are hurting because the economy is hurting.”

Palin acknowledged the GOP ticket’s lackluster poll ratings in the state, but said: “I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try.”

That’s not building the McCain brand, that’s building her own brand. 

Moreover, Jonathan Martin reports today that Palin brought up Michigan a second time, this time even unprompted, and again crouched her argument in regards to what she could do.

Palin's Problem? The Top Name On the Signs