Last week, the conservative punditry lit up, discussed a brief series of rumors that popped up saying that Sarah Palin might be considering a run at the Talk Radio business.

There are some ups and downs to the idea (which, let’s be clear, is still only a rumor; further rumors claim that Clear Channel, which broadcasts Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity, has taken a pass on a syndicated Palin show). 

I think there are ten better plans out there for Sarah Palin (and am discussing them right now, 1:15PM Central Time, on the Northern Alliance Radio Network): 

10. Run for Senator from Alaska.  This is a bit of a gamble, in that it would traditionally imply that she’s giving up on 2012.  It’d be especially important for Palin; she’s already left one office early.  2012 is going to be a challenging time to run as a Republican – but as with all challenges, there are opportunities.  Does Palin run against an incumbent whose numbers are down now, but who could well bounce back big by 2012 (remember Reagan’s polling, which was dismal in 1982 but bounced back to landslide levels in 1984?), or wait until the nation is really ready for a change?  It’s a tough call.  That’s why it’s #10.

9. Start a blog.  She should be doing this anyway; if there’s a conservative pol out there who has the capacity to outflank the media the way Reagan did, it’s Sarah Palin.  If blogs had existed in 1980, I suspect Reagan would have had a great one.

8. Do a collection of frank, to the point Youtubes.  The model for this would be Milton Friedman’s classic 1979 PBS series “Free To Choose”, which sold conservatism and economic liberty to many of the unconverted (which means PBS will never ever let that happen again – hence Youtube).  Cover the big Palin issues – growth, liberty, prosperity – on her own terms, in her own way, playing to her strengths.  Quit relying on the mainstream media to do anything other than be in the bag for her opposition.

7. Talk Radio – Oh, what the heck.  But she should not do a three-hour-a-day show, like Limbaugh or Beck.  She should shoot for a one-hour daily show, or maybe a two hour weekend show.   Making fifteen compelling hours of radio a week  – easy as the good ones make it sound – is a lot of hard work.  It takes commitment – and Palin needs to commit to a higher calling than earning ratings.  But a one-hour daily, or two-hour weekend show is ideal for getting specific, focused messages out there, and taking just the right amount of positive and negative feedback from callers.  Each hour could be a major event in its own right.  And doing an hour of radio, especially with a solid support staff, is not that difficult.  Especially if Palin had a good sidekick.  Especially a sidekick with impeccable conservative credentials and lots of experience working with radio neophytes.  Ahem.

6. Get that book done.  Make sure it’s a doozy – as in, “less autobiography, more challenge to today’s status quo“.  Of course, some autobio

5. Big honkin’ speaking tour.  She showed during the campaign that she can work a room as well as anyone, and better than most.  She also showed, I think, that she needed to top the marquee; speaking in support of John McCain was like bailing in support of the Titanic, especially given the number of Mac’s staff that were actively sabotaging her.  Let her do the tour as the A-list, and let her – no, make her fail or, ideally, succeed on her own terms.

4.  Do what Reagan did; hundreds and hundreds of small speaking and commentary engagements.  Reagan’s gig as General Electric’s PR face was not only great exposure, but great training 

3. Sunday morning talk show.  Talk with Fox; nobody’ll be surprised that it’s a bald-faced showcase (because that’s what it needs to be), and one hour a week of mixing it up with the punditry can only be great training.

2. “The Opportunity Tour”.  Yes, it’s a takeoff on Robert Kennedy’s “Poverty Tour” (and Paul Wellstone’s cheap 1999 copy) – but the opposite way.  Where RFK (and PW’s) versions were tours of American failure, Sarah Palin’s tour would be a parade of seeming failures that are actual opportunities for the free market, for liberty, for the American way, by way of contrasting Palin (and conservatism) with the dismal reality of Obama’s lumpen socialism-lite.

1. Anything but announce her candidacy!