WASHINGTON, Nov 20, (AFP) - President Barack Obama would be in “very good shape” if Sarah Palin ran against him in 2012 as the Republican nominee, Vice President Joe Biden said, adding it would be “a really interesting race.”Palin, a favourite of Tea Party conservatives, said this week she thinks she could beat Obama, and is seriously considering seeking her party's nomination to run against him.
Biden was asked in an interview Thursday with CNN's Larry King whether that was a race Democrats would like.
“My mom used to have an expression, 'be careful what you wish for, Joe, you may get it'. So I never underestimate anyone,” replied Biden, who was matched against Palin when she was John McCain's vice presidential runningmate in the 2008 elections.“But I think, in that race, it would be a clear, clear choice for the country to make, and I believe President Obama would be in very good shape.”Noting Palin's “fundamentally different outlook on the world,” he said “I think that would be... a really interesting race.”Despite a rocky campaign performance in 2008, Palin's star has soared since being plucked from obscurity by McCain.
The former Alaska governor threw her celebrity behind conservative Tea Party candidates in this month's legislative elections, with mixed results.
In her home state, Palin helped defeat incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in the state's Republican party primary, but Murkowski went on to run as an independent and appears to have won re-election.
Palin, meanwhile, has cultivated an image as a moose-hunting frontier populist.
On Sunday, she launched a reality TV series called “Sarah Palin's Alaska” that features her family fishing, kayaking and bear-watching in her tiny hometown of Wasilla.
Earlier this week she confirmed she was thinking about running for president. “I'm looking at the lay of the land now, and... trying to figure that out, if it's a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it's a good thing,” Palin said in excerpts of an ABC News interview to air on December 9.
Asked whether she could defeat Obama if she ran, Palin answered: “I believe so.” |
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