Sarah Palin may have picked the Mark Levin radio show to make her big announcement that she's not running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 for a number of reasons. Personally, Levin likes her, as does his daughter--and he claims other members of his family do, too. He treats her with great respect, meaning she knew she'd be treated with kid gloves. Politically, Levin was a Reagan staffer and remains a major proponent of his legacy and legend. Palin is Reagan-like, as Levin emphasizes on his show. Professionally, she maybe wanted to give the underdog a boost in the conservative talk show radio game. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are bigger.
Strategically, they are brothers in-arms: Palin regularly picks winners and makes them win; Levin does the same. Why did she show up at that Iowa state fair? Was it to put Michelle Bachmann over the top in the straw poll? She only won by a handful of votes, and losing would have meant Ron Paul. Why did Herman Cain catch on? Levin showed his hand on this, all the while saying he hadn't picked a candidate yet. Palin and Cain are being bandied about as a political pair.
But, cracks are showing. Levin dismisses the issue of an audience at a Republican debate booing at mention of a gay soldier, saying their booing was misunderstood. Cain says he himself should have spoken up about it. Levin decries the 'N-word'-on-a-rock stuff in Texas, saying it is petty, repetitive race card politics. Cain plays on it, calling it insensitive. Levin asked Palin what she means by 'crony capitalism', is it big business working closely with government (the generally-accepted definition)? She only talks about big business working against the little guy. This view earned coverage from the New York Times (and a paper in England) as a bridge issue that might bring Left and Right together through her.*
*to me it sounds like a jab at what used to be called the Old Boy Network (in the same vein as attacks on the white-male establishment).
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