Nate Silver is awesome. I love him for doing first-rate progressive analysis. His piece on Palin’s chances of winning the Republican nomination is very impressive and convincing on the merits. But I just don’t think Palin has the work ethic to run a successful presidential campaign. Set aside what we already know about her (attending like six colleges before getting a degree, quitting in the middle of her term as governor). We just got through watching Obama and Hillary go toe to toe for two years. All those visits to Iowa and New Hampshire and Vegas and Elko and everywhere else…all those chicken dinners…appearances before political interest groups…fundraisers…20 debates…
I simply do not believe that you can win the nomination without doing most of those things. You need a relentless drive. Celebrity alone won’t do it for you. And Palin will never do most (and certainly not all) of those things. She’s making good money doing nothing right now, which is such a sweet gig that only someone even more foolish than Palin would give it up to do the primary grind.
I’m happy to be wrong. But I cannot envision Palin winning a single primary. It’s not because she doesn’t have a lot of support in the Republican Party. It’s because she’d never make it to election day in Iowa without alienating everyone with her laziness and lack of respect.