Some Personal Thoughts On The Endorsement

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Before leaving for last night's RCIA session, I had a feeling that Jim Geraghty had called it correctly, and Sarah Palin's endorsement of Doug Hoffman would probably be posted on her Facebook Notes page while I was away from the computer. I thought about asking Ian to keep an eye open for the announcement and post it here as soon as he saw it go up. But I got caught up in my usual rush to get to the church on time and never got around to asking him.

The journalist in me doesn't like to get scooped, but I was so pleased to see that Sarah Palin had indeed committed her endorsement and the maximum donation via SarahPAC allowed by the FEC to the campaign of the real Reagan Republican in the NY-23 race, that I quickly got over my hubris for being late to get the news posted.

The media buzz today will be mostly about one aspect of the endorsement -- Sarah Palin distancing herself from her party. But she has also distanced herself from her potential rivals for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, should she decide to seek it. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee decided to play it safe, and neither made an endorsement in this race for a congressional seat in Upstate New York. Newt Gingrich -- in the words of the Grail Knight in "The Last Crusade" -- "chose poorly" by backing the liberal Republican. But by declining to take a stand, the same can be said of Romney and Huckabee. The two will be remembered for their failure to take a stand when the race for the White House begins in earnest -- no guts, no glory. For his part, Tim Pawlenty had to admit that he has not been following the race and therefore knew little about it. Governor P needs to have a talk with the aide who prepares his daily news briefing. And to think that it was Sarah Palin who took the heat for supposedly not reading newspapers...

With her endorsement of Doug Hoffman, Sarah Palin has taken a stand in solidarity with the gathering storm known as the grassroots movement in this country. The disaffected conservatives, conservative libertarians, common sense independents and blue collar Democrats (aka Reagan Democrats) who are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore always seemed to us to be former Governor Palin's natural base constituency. These are the the people who have turned out for TEA parties and Townhalls across the country, but there are many more of them who were not able to demonstrate, but feel the pain none the less. It's a big step for the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate to take toward earning their trust as the national public figure who best voices their concerns.

As for the Republican Party, its establishment has refused for too long to listen to the rank and file, and now it has officially been put on notice by Sarah Palin. Hopefully, it will finally pay attention to the voices of the people. Nothing else has seem to get through to the GOP leadership. Even a recent Rasmussen poll which shows that 73 percent of Republican voters say Congressional Republicans have lost touch with their base hasn't seemed to have had much impact on those who run the GOP Congressional and Senatorial committees. The same goes for the RNC. Chairman Michael Steele is at least very much aware of who Sarah Palin is and the fullness of her potential as a force within the party of Lincoln and Reagan. It's time to get on the side of the rank and file, Mr. Chairman.

Let us hope that Sarah Palin's bold move will make Steele, NRSC Chairman John Cornyn and especially NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions wake up and smell that conservative coffee being brewed throughout the land. Former Governor Palin may have just taken the first big step toward leading the Republican Party back to its Reagan roots. She has thrown down the gauntlet. Now let's see if she will pick up the banner and hold it so high that the troops will rally around it.

- JP