Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin endorsed former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in her bid for California’s U.S. Senate seat yesterday. From Palin’s Facebook page:
Carly is the Commonsense Conservative that California needs and our country could sure use in these trying times. Most importantly, she’s running for the right reasons. She has an understanding that is sorely lacking in D.C. She’s not a career politician. She’s a businesswoman who has run a major corporation. She knows how to really incentivize job creation. Her fiscal conservatism is rooted in real life experience. She knows that when government grows, the private sector shrinks under the burden of debt and deficits. We can trust Carly to do the right thing for America’s economy and to make the principled decisions she has throughout her professional career.
Please consider that Carly is the conservative who has the potential to beat California’s liberal senator, Barbara Boxer, in November. I’m a huge proponent of contested primaries, so I’m glad to see the contest in California’s GOP, but I support Carly as she fights through a tough primary against a liberal member of the GOP who seems to bear almost no difference to Boxer, one of the most leftwing members of the Senate. Carly needs our support in this crucial election year when we have a real chance of putting an end to the Pelosi/Reid “Big Government” agenda.
Emphasis mine. Of course Chuck DeVore supporters nationwide aren’t happy with Palin’s decision, and their contempt for her common sense is pretty well encapsulated by the DeVore campaign referring to Palin as a “sheepdog.” From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“This grassroots movement is actually a grassroots movement,” said DeVore spokesperson Joshua Trevino. “Carly Fiorina thinks she can find the sheepdog to corral the sheep. Chuck DeVore knows they’re not sheep at all. They’re Americans. And they’ll make their own decisions.”
According to DeVore supporters, Palin has betrayed the grassroots. She is just another establishment hack. Yadda, yadda, yadda. There’s been plenty of speculation about Palin’s decision as well. Was she just trying to pick the winner to make herself look good and curry favor with the woman who could well be the next U.S. senator from California? Was this a shrewd maneuver to gain a key ally should Palin run for president in 2012? Did Palin endorse Fiorina because she was a top McCain advisor? Did she endorse her simply because she is a woman?
No, morons. Sarah Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina because she “is the conservative who has the potential to beat California’s liberal senator, Barbara Boxer, in November.” The end.
Unlike his supporters, Palin and the rest of us don’t have time to be concerned with Chuck DeVore’s stroking of his own ego. The DeVore campaign can go on and on about being a “grassroots movement” all it wants, but maybe Joshua Trevino can explain to us why this “grassroots movement” has garnered the support of only 10.8% of Californians according to the RealClearPolitics average. He might also want to explain to us why Palin, or anyone else for that matter, should support the Republican candidate losing the worst to Barbara Boxer in the polls.
It might be all about Chuck DeVore to DeVore and his supporters, but to Palin and the sane, rational majority of Republicans in these United States it’s about beating Barbara Boxer. It’s also about beating Tom Campbell, whom Palin accurately describes as “a liberal member of the GOP who seems to bear almost no difference to Boxer.” If the polls are to be believed, DeVore stands no chance of beating either Campbell or Boxer. Riddle me this, DeVore supporters: If Chuck DeVore can’t even come close to beating a liberal RINO in a Republican primary, why on earth should we believe he can beat an incumbent senator in November?
Here’s reality, folks. According to the RCP average, Carly Fiorina is currently losing to Tom Campbell by six percentage points. DeVore is losing to him by eighteen. Hopefully we can all agree that regardless of how much more conservative DeVore may be than Fiorina, Fiorina is much more conservative than Campbell and is the only one who stands any real chance of beating him.
The real question we should be asking isn’t why Sarah Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina. That should be obvious: She endorsed Carly Fiorina because she wants to take back America, which involves taking Barbara Boxer’s seat in the U.S. Senate. The question we should be asking is why Chuck DeVore and his supporters are so self-involved. He must know that he can’t beat either Fiorina or Campbell, and so must his supporters. If he were to drop out of the race and endorse Fiorina, and if all of his supporters went to her, she would take out Campbell and stand a good chance of defeating Boxer in November.
So, Mr. DeVore, Mr. Trevino, and DeVore supporters: Why do you care more about Chuck DeVore’s ego and your own Kool-Aid slurping wishful thinking sorry, “grassroots movement,” than you do about defeating Tom Campbell and Barbara Boxer and taking back America? Sarah Palin has her priorities straight. Time for y’all to figure out what your priorities really are.
From the Rust Belt 