JOE McGINNISS

I place little credence in long-term polls, but this one has to be considered a warning shot across the bow of all those purveyors of conventional wisdom who have decided that Sarah Palin can be safely stored in our collective memory/nightmare bank.

Think about how she must view developments of the past few days: two people who were outpolling her have chosen not to enter the race. Absent Huckabee and Trump (always a farce, but even Slate bought into it late last month ), Sarah finds herself rising to the top by default.

To Sarah, this likely seems evidence that God is, in fact, opening the doors for her and sending her a message that she is His chosen candidate, the Christian leader best prepared to wage war on the secretly-Muslim darkie who occupies the White House.

Given her egomania and ambition, and her belief that she has been anointed by God to prepare the USA for the second coming of Jesus, why would she not run?

And let’s not ignore what Rachel Weiner reported in the Washington Post: she just sent out 400,000 solicitations seeking donations to SarahPAC. She entitled her pitch letter “2012 Can’t Come Soon Enough.”

Does this sound like someone who’s not planning to enter the race?

UPDATE:

Politico features new poll results:  “Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin jump to top in new Gallup poll.”

She’ll be on FOX twice tonight:  with Sean Hannity and with Eric Bolling.  No doubt Hannity will ask about these poll results and whether she’s going to run.  No doubt she’ll duck the question.  What’s the hurry to announce when she can become a front-runner by doing nothing?

UPDATE 1.1:

Outside-the-beltway right-wingers climbing back on board the S.S. Sarah.