Sarah Palin pulls the plug on her non-campaign for presidency
WASHINGTON — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin on Wednesday announced she would not seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, a decision that surprised few in her party and signalled a lack of enthusiasm within the GOP for a potential campaign.
Palin, in a letter to supporters from her home in Wasilla,gucci outlet Alaska, said she made her decision “after much prayer and consideration” and after deciding her “family comes first.”
The 47-year-old former governor, said she and her husband, Todd, “put great consideration into family life” before making the call.
“When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.”
Plucked from obscurity in 2008 to become the GOP vice presidential nominee, Palin emerged from a difficult campaign loss that year to become — inarguably — the Republican Party’s biggest political celebrity over the past three years.
Only a few months ago — riding a wave of publicity from a reality TV show and a campaign-style bus tour to key GOP primary state — Palin was widely assumed to be planning a White House bid.
But while emerging as a darling of the conservative Tea Party movement, enthusiasm for a Palin candidacy waned among Republican strategists and advisers as her disapproval ratings soared among independent voters.
Palin herself took few steps, beyond a much-hyped One Nation bus tour up the U.S. east coast in May, to explore the feasibility of a 2012 run.
Most recently, Palin has threatened to sue Joe McGinnis, the journalist and author whose new book on Palin alleges she cheated on her husband, used cocaine and had a premarital affair with a former NBA basketball star.
In her statement, Palin said she believes she can bring the most change to American politics by using her high profile to help other Republican candidates — including those in the presidential race — win office.
“I believe 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,” she said. “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 law.”
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