C'mon, it's too late for Palin or anyone else to get in now

Palin has time to get into the race, but not enough time to be a serious player: Last night, Sarah Palin was on FOX suggesting — once again — that there’s plenty of time for her to get into the presidential race. “There is still time,” she said, per NBC’s Matt Loffman. “And I think on both sides of the aisle you’ll see people coming and going in this race.” She’s right: There’s still time for her and any other U.S.-born citizen who’s 35 or older to run for president. And with Bachmann’s poll numbers collapsing, there is some space for a Palin candidacy. But with likely less than four months until Iowa — that’s right, folks, FOUR months — there isn’t much time to raise the money, demonstrate the heft on the issues, and to rehabilitate her image to be a serious player for the Republican nomination. Oh, and she would need to start qualifying for ballots before the end of OCTOBER. So Iowa might be less than four months away, but some key ballot-access deadlines are before that. (Hey, Chris Christie, it’s a similar problem for you!)