When they haven't been exploding in rage over the Supreme Court's decision on marriage equality this past week, our good friends over at Free Republic are simply salivating over the possibility of Sarah Palin leaving the GOP to start a "Freedom Party."
Ooooh, we cats would dearly love that, too. But we have bad news both for us and for our friends the Freeps: Not gonna happen.
First, as we all know, with the exception of her pregnancies the famous quitter from Alaska is not known for carrying things to term. But more important, starting a third party takes round-the-clock hard work, a knack for organizing, and a ton of money. So before we cats get Chris-Matthews-type thrills up our legs, we wanna see the fundraising plan and the campaign budget first.
Here's what the quitter and her Freeper fans need to understand: It costs about $1 billion to run for President these days. (Just ask President Obama and Willard Mitt Romney.) Which means that the "Freedom Party" will need a whole helluva lot more money than Palin has in her "SarahPAC" account. For example, if 100,000 Freeps and teabaggers each gave $100, that's only $10 million. A start, but way short of a billion. And how many Freeps have a hundred bucks to toss away?
It also takes organization. Without an established political party apparatus behind it, the "Freedom Party" will have to start right now to get on the ballot in all 50 states in 2016. That means recruiting millions of volunteers to get zillions of signatures — more signatures than required, to be on the safe side — all of which need to be legal and not fake, and and all of which will need to be submitted by a plethora of deadlines. Is the famous quitter up to that?
Heck, OFA had 2 million volunteers to re-elect the President last year. We cats figure Palin will need 5 million.
Long story short, it's not as easy as the famous quitter thinks. Much harder than flying in and out of major metropolitan areas to appear on the local FOX stations with a wink, a new hairdo and $800 eyeglasses. It takes work — not something Sarah Palin is known for. Sorry, Freeps!
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