Bill Kristol: Sarah Palin Could Possibly 'Rehabilitate' Herself With 2014 Senate Win

During an exclusive to web interview with "This Week," Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Sarah Palin - after having hastily stepped down as Alaska's governor in 2009 - might be able to rehabilitate her political career by winning a Senate race in her home state next year.

"I think the way Palin would possibly resurrect herself, if that's the right word, or rehabilitate herself I guess a better way of putting it, [is] run for Senate in Alaska in 2014," Kristol said.

"I'm not urging that, I'm just saying if I were her adviser I would say 'take on the incumbent, you have to win a primary, then you have to beat an incumbent Democrat. It's not easy.' But if she did that, suddenly if she can imagine that, you know, 'Sarah Palin, freshman senator, January 15, in Washington having beaten an incumbent,' that would be pretty interesting," he said.

Kristol told ABC's Benjamin Bell earlier in the interview that Palin's having left in the middle of her first term as governor had created a "big problem" for the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.

"I think stepping down as governor of Alaska was a big problem. People don't like to see a candidate, a governor or executive, absent some medical reason or whatever, just leave office early. And she'd been a good governor…of Alaska, until then," Kristol said.

"That I think is something she has to recover from in terms of being a serious leader in the party. She still has a lot of loyalty, she can still shape the debate, she has a great political touch," he said.

ABC News

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