Is Sarah Palin shifting gears?

Greta Van Susteren interviewed Sarah Palin on Tuesday. Palin had just returned from her back to back trips to India and Israel. Palin has also just finished speaking to a sell out crowd in Naples, Florida. One of the big take aways from the interview was Palin saying she is done "whining about the liberal press".

The Hill: Speaking Wednesday night to Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, the former Alaska governor shrugged off what she contends is a double standard in the way conservative women are treated.

"I'm through whining about a liberal press that holds conservative women to a different standard, because it doesn't do any good to whine about it," Palin said. "When a shot is taken at me, it is water off a duck's back because I know the important things we need to concentrate on in life — especially the national and international issues that are so important in our country."

Yesterday, Palin took to her Facebook page to expand on this comment.

Upon my return from an outstanding and productive trip to India and Israel, I’ve been inundated with requests to respond to petty comments made in the media the past few days, including one little fella’s comment which decent people would find degrading.[...]

We must always remember the big picture. The media has always been biased. Conservatives – and especially conservative women – have always been held to a different standard and attacked. This is nothing new. Lincoln was mocked and ridiculed. Reagan was called an amiable dunce, a dangerous warmonger, a rightwing fanatic, and the insult list goes on and on.[...]

Let’s just acknowledge that commonsense conservatives must be stronger and work that much harder because of the obvious bias. And let’s be encouraged with a sense of poetic justice by knowing that the “mainstream” media isn’t mainstream anymore. That’s why I call it “lamestream,” and the LSM is becoming quite irrelevant, as it is no longer the sole gatekeeper of information.

Let’s keep pivoting around media bias, and not get distracted with the vulgar personal shots. Even with limited time we can try to call out lies and set the record straight, but always keep the ball moving. No one ever won a game only playing defense.

I’ll keep correcting false reporting, and I’ll defend others to the hilt; but I won’t spend any more precious, limited time responding to personal, vulgar, sexist venom spewed my way.

The stand out line here is that Palin says her time is precious and limited. I take that as yet another sign she is running. If she was not, she would have plenty of time to hit back at cockroaches like Bill Maher, Kathy Griffin and David Letterman. But if she is running, then chasing the cockroaches is a distraction from the main message.

Also we should note a change in Palin's appearance. A navy blue pinstripe suit, pearls and her signature up-do are far more "presidential" looking than red blazers and contemporary jewelry she normally sports at speaking events. A  political friend of mine said Palin's changes in attitude and appearance are the kind of changes that looks like she is responding to polling data.

Now that Pawlenty has formed an exploratory committee, Bachmann is pretty much out of the gate and Romney is all but declared, Palin is no doubt pressured to step up her game. I suspect we will be seeing Palin making more changes as 2012 grows near.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: On The Record
Via: The Hill
Via: Sarah Palin's Facebook page