Howard Dean: Palin Could Beat Obama in 2012

George Will, call your office.

From The Hill:

"Dean says his fellow Democrats should beware of inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that Obama would crush Palin in a general-election contest next year.

“'I think she could win,' Dean told The Hill in an interview Friday. 'She wouldn’t be my first choice if I were a Republican but I think she could win.'

"Dean warns the sluggish economy could have more of a political impact than many Washington strategists and pundits assume.

“'Any time you have a contest — particularly when unemployment is as high as it is — nobody gets a walkover,” Dean said. “Whoever the Republicans nominate, including people like Sarah Palin, whom the inside-the-Beltway crowd dismisses — my view is if you get the nomination of a major party, you can win the presidency, I don’t care what people write about you inside the Beltway,' Dean said."

Dean pointed to Bill Clinton's upset of George H. W. Bush in 1992.

Governor Dean might also have pointed to Nixon's comeback in 1968, Reagan's win in 1980, or even Obama's winning over Hillary Clinton in 2008.