Sarah Palin and a Brokered Convention

COMMENTARY | According to Politico, former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin believes a brokered Republican National Convention is possible and she would "help" in whatever way she could. What is her plan, and does she think she can make a genuine political comeback? Could she be angling for the presidential nomination?

It's unlikely Palin could, or should, attempt a political rebound if it turns into a brokered convention. Despite political commentators gaga over the possibility of a brokered convention allowing a dark horse candidate to become the GOP nominee, it is doubtful the conservative-leaning public would want the controversial 2008 vice-presidential nominee to return so soon. Palin didn't help John McCain much in November 2008 and doesn't have the stuff to go toe to toe with Barack Obama this fall.

Any attempt by Palin, who resigned her position as first-term governor of Alaska in 2009 after the McCain/Palin ticket failed to take the White House, to inject herself into nomination contention at a brokered convention would be awkward and doomed to failure.

But due to her relative youth, she has lots of time to prepare a return to the spotlight: She could boost her stock by genuinely assisting at the RNC and giving supportive speeches, urging political unity and consolidation of support instead of trying to emphasize division in hopes of grabbing the nomination herself.

Palin could return to political contention by following the path of Richard Nixon, who, according to answers.com, became the Republican nominee in 1968 after a downfall in the early 1960s, losing the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 Republican nomination for governor of California. Like Palin, Nixon cri! ticized the media after his humiliating loss in '62, claiming the media would not "have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore."

Sounds a lot like Palin's criticism of what she called the "lamestream" media. Could the past be repeating itself?

Palin has a shot at political redemption if she, like Nixon in the '60s, focuses on building up fellow Republicans for several years to look like the GOP's knight in shining armor. Now if only she avoids another Watergate.