Don Surber: Sarah Palin is in their heads

*
Charleston Daily Mail columnist Don Surber says that San Francisco Chronicle political writer Carla Marinucci has it wrong. Marinucci had written about Sarah Palin’s appearance at the Friday fundraiser which generated a record $200,000 and change for the Cal State University Stanislaus Foundation. Surber points out that is money desperately needed by a campus which is feeling the effects of the recession, as are the usual donors to that institution. That's why it is significant the a majority (63 percent) of those who purchased tickets to the fundraiser at $500 each had never before donated to the CSUS foundation.

But Marinucci wrote that Gov. Palin's weekend visit to the University "proved beyond a doubt that she delivers — for Republicans and Democrats."

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate had criticized Attorney General and candidate for governor Jerry Brown in her speech for launching an investigation to try to uncover the amount of her speaking fee. "This is California," she pointed out. "Do you really not have anything better to do?"

Brown pretty much proved Gov. Palin's point by responding, "I don’t think she understands the process. It’s about the operation of the foundation to see if they handled things professionally." Marinucci expressed the opinion that in blue California, this helps Democrats.

Surber is not so sure:

The state is in a recession, right?

And Brown is running for governor, right?

Doesn’t he have anything better to do?

As long as Democrats keep talking about her, Sarah Palin grows in stature and Democrats diminish.

She is buried inside their heads. Liberals at times can think of nothing but her. It was the the same thing with Reagan.

California has real financial problems. Sarah Palin went there and eased them by more than $200,000.

What has Jerry Brown done?

Surber makes an excellent point, and we agree with him that making the 2010 elections in The Golden State a referendum on Sarah Palin is not a good strategy. As the conservative columnist says, she's not George Bush and she's not on the California ballot. But Brown is.

In blue Massachusetts, voters unhappy with the direction of the country elected Republican Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy's seat in the U.S. Senate. Blue California is in even worse financial straits than Massachusetts. Companies which provide jobs and much needed tax revenues are leaving the state in droves. California Democrats should be telling the voters how they intend to solve the troubled state's problems rather than trying to demonize Sarah Palin.

Read Don Surber's column unabridged here.

- JP