Jennifer Rubin: Sarah Palin as Power Broker

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On Commentary magazine's Contentions blog, Jennifer Rubin posts that Sarah Palin "just might become the most influential king-maker in the GOP":

She has the grassroots appeal to stamp outsider candidates as authentic populists. That’s what she did today with Carly Fiorina in the hotly contested California senate primary race...

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This seems significant for at least three reasons. First, Palin is now, as they say in advertising, in the business of “branding” Commonsense Conservatives, a descriptor she introduced in her memoirs.

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Second, Palin endorsed Rand Paul in Kentucky, who raises concerns with many conservatives on foreign policy and national-security issues (as, of course, does Rand’s father Paul). It is significant and perhaps reassuring to national-security conservatives that Palin is giving the nod to Fiorina in her race against Tom Campbell, who’s taken a drubbing over his Israel record. And finally, as in the Rand Paul endorsement, this suggests a certain riskiness on Palin’s part.

Rubin concludes with the observation that while Sarah Palin is keeping everyone guessing about her 2012 intentions, she’s putting her political rock star reputation on the line with her endorsements. Read the full Jennifer Rubin post here.

- JP