Tomorrow, September 3^rd, Sarah Palin will make a major announcement regarding her plans for 2012. Palin has been promoting this announcement and “decision” for weeks and has chosen Iowa, the scene of the recent straw poll, as the venue for it. The next day, Palin will be in Delaware. Will this be the announcement for which the Palin faithful have been anxiously waiting?

To answer that question, one must take a look at just who the Palin Faithful are.

Clearly there is a faction of the Palin Faithful, found scattered throughout social media sites, who want nothing less than a Palin candidacy in 2012-  and they want that candidacy to start right now. Palin 2012 is the cry and they will not be dissuaded from their goal of seeing Sarah head the ticket.

There is a sub faction of the Palin 2012 frenzy who would be okay with something less – as long as Palin is on the ticket. This sub faction is okay with a ?/Palin sign in their yard and believe a Palin VP nod is better than nothing.

Then, there is a third group of Palin faithful and this group is one the other two would rather not recognize.

Group 3 consists of those who like Sarah Palin, really like her, but would rather she stay out of the race, at least this time.

Polling in the days leading to her announcement/decision clearly shows that 66% of Tea Party faithful do not want Sarah Palin in this race and 74% of all people polled don’t wish to see her run.

Those numbers are very important if not surprising and they lead one to wonder why so many, especially within the Tea Party would rather not hear Palin say she’s in.  I believe the numbers speak to several issues.

First, it seems that 2/3 of Tea Party voter might well regard Palin as more of a celebrity than a political candidate and there’s good reason for that. Since the 2008 campaign, Palin has been a celebrity and she has done nothing to shy away from that recognition. She has book deals, a reality TV show, she’s been a Fox News contributor, her daughter was a lightning rod on a dancing show, and now, a feature-length film.

Second, Sarah Palin, by many, could well be viewed as indecisive and unpresidential. Her months long teasing over a decision, her rather haphazard bus tour and her rather constant habit of showing up in key places at key times for no real reason have been something of a distraction.

Third, there is idea held by many that Palin can have a much larger impact as an advocate rather than as a candidate. Palin draws a crowd wherever she goes and has shown the ability to raise money and many feel, at least this time around, that would be a much better role than running.

Finally, there are those who simply feel, while they clearly like her, that Sarah Palin is not electable due to the fact that she IS such a lightning rod – and they believe that, should she run, she either wouldn’t win the nomination and cause too many distractions – or if she did win the nomination, she couldn’t beat Obama – and that, after all, is the goal.

The die-hard Palin faithful, the Palin 2012 or nothing crowd will disagree with the assessments above and will claim she is none of the above when in fact, Sarah Palin is ALL of the above.

Does that make her a bad candidate? Not necessarily – but those assessments should not be ignored either. Not only should voters recognize those assessments as facts, so too should Sarah Palin.

So, tomorrow’s announcement in Iowa…What will she say? What will be her decision? Only Palin knows right now what she will say so maybe a better question would be…What SHOULD she say?

Sarah Palin should, SHOULD make it clear that she is not running in 2012 but stands ready to lend her support and the support of her faithful to the candidates who most fully support the Tea Party ideals and that she will work to raise money not only for the eventual GOP nominee but also for candidates running for House and Senate seats who also embody the Tea Party standards.

She should pledge the full financial support of her SarahPac to the effort of unseating liberals from congress and removing Obama from the White House.

Sarah Palin should also let it be known that, after the 2012 election, when we have a republican in the White House and a republican led House and Senate, she will stand ready to lend herself to any task where she might assist in making this nation great again.

If Sarah announces tomorrow that she WILL run, voters will have to weigh the plus and minus count – not only for the nomination but against the Obama machine if she were to win that nomination. To do this effectively, even the most diehard Palin faithful will have to take a few steps back to view this without the emotional aspects clouding their vision.

Plus: Palin has leadership experience being both a mayor and a governor.

Minus: Palin resigned as governor and that’s a ghost which will haunt her in a general election more than in the nomination process.

Plus: Palin is the most vetted politician in America today by both sides.

Minus: Since the 2008 election, Palin has quite possible over exposed herself through the media.

Plus: Palin attracts donors.

Minus: Big donors are looking for the right candidate over the most popular candidate.

Plus: Since 2009, Palin has been the most recognizable face and voice of the Tea Party.

Minus: Today, 66% of polled Tea Party voters would rather she not run.

Plus: Palin seems to have a much better grip on domestic issues now than she did in 2008.

Minus: We still don’t have much of an idea where Palin stands on foreign affairs.

There are really 2 main issues to be considered and these issues must be taken into account by voters and by Palin herself.

1)      If she runs, she could arguably siphon off enough votes from other candidates to prevent them from winning the nomination but possible not enough for HER to win the nomination and the primary benefit of such a scenario would undoubtedly be Ron Paul. In other words, a Palin run could result in a Paul nomination – and among voters, Paul is considered more extreme and less desirable a candidate than is Palin.

2)      If Palin were to win the nomination, she is considered to be too polarizing to beat Obama. Trust that the liberal machine would solidify their base far faster and far more cohesively against Sarah Palin than against most other candidates – which means the liberal voting turnout in the general election will be much higher if she is the nominee.

It must be remembered that in the 2010 midterm election, almost all of the candidates backed by Sarah Palin won – and those who didn’t, suffered at the hands of their own miscues rather than from the endorsement of Palin.

While winning the White House is a big part of the upcoming election, I suggest it is not the most important aspect of it. It is much MORE necessary to win the Senate and hold the House. By doing so, republicans would find themselves in firm control even should Obama retain the White House. Obamacare could be repealed as could other Obama actions. Conservative bills could progress successfully through both houses – and should Obama employ the veto – his veto could be overridden.

Sarah Palin the advocate and donor draw could well have a much greater influence on the 2012 election over a much broader spectrum than could a Sarah Palin candidacy. Her ability to promote candidates in the House, the Senate and for President at the same time would be a much better use of her talent, her name, her celebrity and her platform than to have her concentrate only on her own campaign.