Saturday, January 23, 2010

The McCain Conundrum

The American Thinker is the latest to jump on this "Palin supports McCain, therefore she's done" narrative.

I'm quite honestly shocked. I have never been a McCain fan, and if I lived in Arizona I wouldn't vote for him, despite Sarah's support. But anyone with a pair of ears knew this was coming. Sarah has consistently supported McCain. She campaigned with him, for Pete's sake. She said during the campaign leaks, after the campaign leaks, and just recently that she loved him and was going to support his reelection. Do I like it? No. Am I shocked? No. Period. End of story.

I knew that Palin was in danger of alienating the base if she went too far with this whole thing. Like I said earlier, if she supports Crist over Rubio, etc... she is going to have problems. Big problems. She will effectively part ways with the Tea Party movement at that point.

Let's step back and breathe for a moment, shall we? JD Hayworth hasn't even filed to challenge McCain yet. He has said just recently that he's taking steps to challenge him, but he hasn't entered the race at this point.

I was hoping that she would throw money to McCain and not actively campaign for him. By campaigning for him (even though I think it's good for her political prospects) she runs the risk of being accused of putting personal benefit over conservative principle. That's just the truth of it.

I think my main beef with it is that Sarah Palin is probably our one shot to get good people in there that are off the beaten path rather than a part of any machine. The Tea Party movement plus Palin providing the publicity could be an unstoppable force. But maybe Sarah doesn't see it that way. For me, it's a missed opportunity, not necessarily anything else.

Now, hopefully McCain is her one venture into RINO-land when it comes to campaigning. But we'll have to wait and see.

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