Politics

Sarah Palin Says She'd Vote For Newt Gingrich (in South Carolina primary, just to keep things going…)

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Do you remember Sarah Palin, the former half-term governor of Alaska, GOP vice-presidential candidate, and semi-failed reality TV star?

She's back, baby, talking up Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and future failed reality TV star, on Fox News' Hannity:

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.

Palin knows something about the need to vet candidates. Here's longer quotes from her on the need to "keep this thing going":

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.

More here.

Palin last made a splash attacking crony capitalists, a category that apparently doesn't include court historians for federal housing policy such as Gingrich. Palin's husband Todd endorsed Gingrich without the above contextualizations a while back.

I'm not a fan of Palin's politics, though I think she has received quite possibly the most virulent and ugly response of any mainstream politician in recent memory. Between being likened to a "power-mad, backwater beauty-pageant casualty" whose conservative ideology made Salon's Cintra Wilson "feel as horrified as a ghetto Jew watching the rise of National Socialism" to being somehow complicit in the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords to the abominable claims made in Joe McGinniss' risible book-length, fact-free attack on her, she's provoked more vitriol than gays at CPAC.

None of that means her thoughts about Gingrich are worth a damn, of course.

But I agree it's good to see the Republicans keep debating, even if such displays are clogging the nation's cable channels like unwanted and unwatched reruns of Murder She Wrote or Hunter. With the possible exception of family gatherings, more talk is always better than less talk.