Newt gets Palin's endorsement... sort of... well, not really... but maybe...

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As she told Hannity:

I can tell you what I would do if I were a South Carolinian... If I were a South Carolinian though, and each one of these primaries and caucuses are different, Sean, I want to see this thing continue because iron sharpens iron. Steel sharpens steel. These guys are getting better in their debates. They are getting more concise. They are getting more grounded in what their beliefs are and articulating what their ideas are for getting America back on the right track and getting Americans working again. If I had to vote in South Carolina order to keep this thing going, I would vote for Newt and I would want it to continue. More debates, more vetting of candidates.

So it's a qualified endorsement, at most. Unlike Todd, Sarah isn't decidedly pro-Newt, but clearly he's generally to her liking -- likely more than Romney is:

I do think that Newt is the one that won the debate if you will, because Newt came out like South Carolina's own Smokin' Joe Frazier. He came out there swinging, talking about work, talking about jobs and work ethic and how government needs to get out of the way in order for all Americans to have a sense of opportunity to work, and I think that's what a lot of voters have been craving to hear.

So why not just endorse him already? Doesn't she have, or think she has, significant influence over the Republican electorate, and specifically over the right-wing base? Why not give poor Newt the boost he needs to emerge as the clear anti-Romney, particularly as he's calling Santorum and Perry to get the hell out?

Can't she play kingmaker for once?

Oh right, she can't. Because, unlike the media, Republicans really don't pay her that much attention.

Todd Palin endorses Gingrich. And we should care because...?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The race for the Republican nomination for president has been nothing if not embarrassing to the GOP, not to mention to the rather less-than-stellar candidates themselves.

And today witnessed yet another low.

On the totem pole of endorsers, after all, Todd Palin makes even non-witch anti-masturbator Christine O'Donnell look respectable. (Check that. Todd's above COD. At least an endorsement from him can be interpreted as a signal of Sarah's thinking. An endorsement from COD means a crazy person likes you. But there's still little reason to care.)

Newt must be ecstatic.

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Perhaps to his credit, Todd didn't criticize any of the other candidates. So why did he pick Newt?

Palin said he has not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from the former House speaker's campaign. But he said he respects Gingrich for what he went through in the 1990s and compared that scrutiny in public life to what Sarah Palin went through during her run for the vice presidency.

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But Todd Palin did point to last summer, when a large portion of Gingrich's staff resigned and the candidate was left, largely by himself, to run the campaign.

Gingrich's ability to overcome the obstacle and still move up in the polls showed his ability to campaign and survive, according to Todd Palin, who said Gingrich is not one of the typical "beltway types" and that his campaign has "burst out of the political arena and touched many Americans."

In other words, because Newt is like Sarah. 

Yes, even when endorsing others, the Palins are self-aggrandizing egomaniacs.