A PREVIEW OF THE PALIN 2012 CAMPAIGN?

A pattern begins to emerge. Florida:

After Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) attacked his Republican challenger Dan Webster as "Taliban Dan" in a recent campaign ad, Webster is refusing to share the stage with him for a debate....

Kentucky:

Kentucky Senate Republican candidate Rand Paul plans to hold a news conference Thursday, to address the attack ad being run by his opponent, Jack Conway, which questions his religion. So Paul has questioned whether or not he will appear at the next scheduled debate with Conway, and officials at the campaign tell FOX News no decisions have yet been made....

Arizona:

In Arizona, the time for talk is over. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the tough new immigration law, says she won't debate Democrat Terry Goddard for a second time, despite his desire to do so, Politico reports.

... "No, absolutely not," Brewer said Thursday, when she was asked by Greta Van Susteren on Fox News whether she’d agree....

It's been said that Sarah Palin won't run for president in 2012 because she's not willing to endure all the things a presidential candidate has to go through -- interviews, debates, and so on. Well, we've seen in this election that there's a new right-wing technique for dealing with would-be interviewers: you just don't talk to any media figure who'll give you a hard time. Palin pioneered this. Now all sorts of right-wingers practice it.

A lot of people say Palin won't want to run because she knows she can't survive an endless series of debates. But what if she rewrites the rules and just blows the debates off? Or, to put it another way, what if she finds an excuse to blow them off -- say, umbrage at one of the candidates, or at various reporters on the debate panels, or perhaps at entire news organizations?

Who'd be better at ginning up a grievance -- or multiple grievances -- than Palin? There are few things she does better. I think she could far surpass Rand Paul and Dan Webster -- she could find multiple reasons for blowing off multiple debates. And if her cult remains intact, its members will agree that she really is the aggrieved party in every instance.

So, yeah, I think debates would be hard for Palin. But I also think she might blow them off -- and get away with it.