As someone who sat out the latter half of the 2008 presidential election, I never really got the Palin phenomenon. I’m not sure if conservatives got it, either. Ask a self-confessed Sarah Palin supporter for his views on the matter, and he might say, “Palin energized the base.” Ask for a name and phone number of one of those base voters whom Palin energized and give one a call. He, in turn, will also answer, “Palin energized the base.” All this is to say that Palin’s views on the issues didn’t energize: Palin’s energizing is what energized.
Newt Gingrich seems to be reading the same tea leaves as me:
“I think that she is going to be a significant player,” said Gingrich during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation”. “But she’s going to be one of 20 or 30 significant players. She’s not going to be the de facto leader.”
[...]
“I would say, for example, to Republicans who are about to face this question of how do you get the economy growing again, bring in Gov. [Mitch] Daniels and bring in Gov. Huntsman….”
“If you want to understand healthcare, you can do a lot worse than to bring in Bobby Jindal who may well know more about health policy than any other elected official in America and is doing an extraordinary job in Louisiana.”
