NRCC/NRSC Fundraider: Sarah Steals the Show

In the high drama which preceded last night's NRCC/NRSC fundraiser (see here and here), there were questions of whether Gov. Sarah Palin should be re-invited to attend, and if she agreed to show, whether she should be allowed to speak.

What Senators and Congressmen do best, aside from serving their own selfish interests of course, is compromise. So an agreement was worked out which would allow the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate to attend, but not speak. We expressed our opinion that Gov. Palin would be the logical choice to introduce Speaker Gingrich, but GOP Hill-types, especially those in the NRSC, are not in the habit of listening to the grassroots.

Gov. Palin had, after all, attracted a crowd of over 20,000 to an event in central New York which would normally draw a fraction of that number. In Westchester County the following day, she helped raise what is expected to total over $1.2 million after all the donations have been counted. The Alaska governor's election eve campaigning for Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Georgia significantly increased his margin of victory in a runoff election that had been predicted to be a close contest. Since the object of a fundraiser is to raise funds, a speaking role for Sarah Palin would have made sense.

But it was decided that the Palin presence at Monday night's event should be in a cameo role. Even so, some backers of other potential candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination feared that simply by virtue of her mere appearance at the fundraiser, The People's Governor would steal the show. She did:

Newt Gingrich was the keynote speaker at Monday night's fundraising dinner for the Senate and House Republican campaign committees, but it was Sarah Palin who stole the show.

[...]

Palin did not speak at the event, but during a break in the program for dinner, Republicans clustered around the former vice presidential nominee's table near the front of the ballroom, eager to meet the governor and pose for pictures.

It was the only table in the vast ballroom that had a crowd gathered around it -- and despite their distance from Palin's table, multiple television cameras kept their lenses trained on the governor for much of the night.

The Republicans have a genuine rock star on their hands. Unlike the Democrats, however, they don't seem to know how to use that to their own advantage.

- JP