Your cunning plan does not pass muster, I'm afraid. Republicans did not assume Obama was going to win in 2012. On the contrary, they thought right up to the last minute that their candidate Romney would win. They saw Obama as a failed, unpopular Jimmy Carter-type one-term president. Boy, did they get that wrong!
Also, Sarah's star had faded long before the 2012 elections. She was not in the hunt at all, thank God. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> wrote : When Obama ran for his second term it seems to have been taken for granted, even by Republicans, that he would win. In that case, thought I at the time, wouldn't it have been a smart move to have Sarah Palin as the rival candidate. Why so? Well, if the candidate is going to lose regardless you don't want to sacrifice a plausible, high-profile contender. Why not throw Palin onto the funeral pyre? And, by having a woman as their choice, Republicans could claim ever after that they were the first party in US history to root for a female President. You want progressive politics? Go GOP. And - just as many voters opted for Obama simply because he was black - Sarah Palin would have been a wild card: many might have voted for her simply because she was a woman (though fibbing that they had voted for the Democrats). Apologies for giving you nightmares, but what do you think of my cunning plan?