The story is being imbued by MSNBC with all the reportorial eminence of D-Day. This is big, crucial, the most earthshaking story of the 2016 GOP presidential race so far. Steve Kornacki is breathless and Chuck Todd is deeply inquiring and Chris Matthews is early to work because THIS IS HUGE. One nitwit is endorsing another nitwit and yet another nitwit is left out in the cold -- graciously, though, and of course unctuously:
I love @SarahPalinUSA Without her support, I wouldn't be in the Senate. Regardless of what she does in 2016, I will always be a big fan.
That Cruzian tweet is accompanied by this Palinesque dig:
Palin's cited story (in her tweet) is irrelevant. People don't like Ted Cruz because he's Ted Cruz, and that's pretty much all one needs to know.
But my, what a hubbub. Imagine ... Sarah Palin is betraying one of her very own! Who would have ever thought she could do such a thing? Why, it's almost as though she's without scruples.
Something else she's without is political juice. From FiveThirtyEight last summer:
The chart, quite simply, bespeaks another irrelevancy: Sarah Palin herself. Her "net favorability rating among Republicans has declined more than 55 percentage points, from +83 percentage points to +27 points by mid-2013." Palin, noted 538, had become so politically irrelevant that pollsters stopped polling about her. No one cared any longer.
Until today -- until she decided to endorse Donald Trump, which will put her back in the headlines for 24 or maybe 48 hours. Which, probably, is the entire point of Palin's endorsement: anything for some lipstick on a pig.
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Showtime: About three Trumpeteers clapped when Palin finally came on stage. To compensate, however, she proceeded ditzier than ever -- with The Donald looking as though he couldn't wait for her to shut the fuck up.
(One highlight: Palin ripped the GOP establishment for "eating its own" -- attacking Trump -- just before ripping her own party's majority in Congress for not more fiercely attacking Obama.)
(Oh my God! This speech could finally sink the Trump candidacy.)