Marc Ambinder: Why Palin Endorsed Fiorina

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Mark Ambinder, The Atlantic's politics editor, gives his reasons why he thinks Sarah Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina:

Well, it's kind of simple. DeVore is almost certainly going to lose. And more self-identified Tea Partiers back Fiorina, despite what one might assume from looking at the race. Fiorina's spending-cuts message resonates among these voters.

In the long-term, Palin might just have found a wealthy new friend who will be Senator from California and in a position to endorse her in a presidential primary. But there's no shortage of reasons to think that Palin simply decided to pick the person who best represented the values held by her constituency. And that, according to these folks themselves, is Carly Fiorina.

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Palin wants to a pick a winner, she wants to go where her supporters are, and she might simply just enjoy Fiorina's sparking personality.

Read Marc Ambinder's full column here.

Update: Ambinder doesn't mention the buzz about DeVore's campaign allegedly paying staff with taxpayer dollars (h/t: Adrienne Ross). Even if this is not going on, just the appearance of such a practice would be enough by itself to make Gov. Palin cross DeVore off of her endorsement list.

- JP