Sarah Palin Endorses Donald Trump

Sarah Palin is back, and she's endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for President.

Sarah Palin Meets With Donald Trump In New York During Her Bus Tour

Ending a day of speculation that began last night when Donald Trump’s campaign promised a “big announcement” at a campaign event in Iowa, it was announced this afternoon that former Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin was endorsing Donald Trump for President:

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee who became a Tea Party sensation and a favorite of grass-roots conservatives, will endorse Donald J. Trump in Iowa on Tuesday, officials with his campaign confirmed. The endorsement provides Mr. Trump with a potentially significant boost just 13 days before the state’s caucuses.

“I’m proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for president,” Ms. Palin said in a statement provided by his campaign.

Her support is the highest-profile backing for a Republican contender so far.

“I am greatly honored to receive Sarah’s endorsement,” Mr. Trump said in a statement trumpeting Mrs. Palin’s decision. “She is a friend, and a high-quality person whom I have great respect for. I am proud to have her support.”

Mrs. Palin, who is to appear alongside Mr. Trump at a rally on the Iowa State University campus in Ames late Tuesday afternoon, could amplify the news media-circus aspects of Mr. Trump’s candidacy: Like him, she is a reality-TV star accustomed to playing to the cameras and often accused of emphasizing flash over substance.

But Mrs. Palin, who despite her waning visibility within the Republican Party retains a sizable following, provides Mr. Trump with valuable new currency at a moment when he is being attacked over his conservative bona fides by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, with whom Mr. Trump is neck-and-neck in the Iowa polls.

As Mr. Trump fends off questions about his “New York values” from Mr. Cruz, Mrs. Palin could help vouch for Mr. Trump’s credentials with skeptical conservatives.

What’s more, while Mr. Trump has already shown the ability to garner wall-to-wall cable-news coverage, Mrs. Palin’s active involvement in his campaign could help him deprive Mr. Cruz of vital attention in the homestretch to the Feb. 1 caucuses.

The two are not strangers. Mrs. Palin, Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, shared a pizza in New York in June 2011, when Mrs. Palin was considering a presidential run of her own and was making a bus tour around the country. (Mr. Trump was mocked at the time for using a knife and fork on his slice.)

They also share a trusted operative: Mr. Trump’s national political director, Michael Glassner, was chief of staff to Mrs. Palin’s political action committee.

And like Mr. Trump, Mrs. Palin has maverick tendencies. The mantra of her final weeks of the 2008 campaign was “going rogue,” as she defied instructions from aides to Senator John McCain of Arizona, the party’s presidential nominee.

More from The Des Moines Register, including a preemptive response from Ted Cruz’s campaign:

It’s official: Sarah Palin will endorse Donald Trump for president on Tuesday.

“I’m proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for president,” Palin said in a statement to The New York Times. NBC News also reported that Palin would back Trump.

Earlier this week Trump touted on Twitter that he’d be making a “big announcement” on Tuesday in Ames, Iowa. A Facebook post from Trump on Sunday indicated he would have “a very special guest in attendance.”

He teased it a bit more during a rally in New Hampshire on Monday, making it clear the announcement would be an endorsement. Ahead of the event, speculation focused on Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and former Alaska governor, as Trump’s “very special guest.”

A Ted Cruz adviser even pre-emptively sought to dismiss the possible endorsement as damaging to Palin’s brand.

“I think it’d be a blow to Sarah Palin, because Sarah Palin has been a champion for the conservative cause, and if she was going to endorse Donald Trump, sadly, she would be endorsing someone who’s held progressive views all their life on the sanctity of life, on marriage, on partial-birth abortion,” Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said on CNN’s New Day.

That didn’t sit well with a certain member of the Palin family. Daughter Bristol Palin made clear on Tuesday what she hoped her mom would do in a blog post titled “Is THIS Why People Don’t like Cruz?” She wrote that she liked Cruz and believed all of the candidates were better choices than Hillary Clinton. However, she added, ”after hearing what Cruz is now saying about my mom, in a negative knee-jerk reaction, makes me hope my mom does endorse Trump.” She also noted that her mom supported Cruz in the past and blasted him for “turning against my mom.”

Bristol Palin’s broadside against Cruz seemed to be based on Tyler’s comments on CNN, not anything said by the Texas senator. In fact, Cruz himself was more conciliatory in a tweet Tuesday, saying he “will always be a big fan” of Sarah Palin’s no matter what she decides about the 2016 race.

Since Palin has been somewhat quiet during the Presidential race so far, it’s somewhat surprising to see her jump into the race in this kind of public manner, especially since she seems to have some family matters to deal with back in Alaska, but it’s also not surprising that she ended up endorsing Trump over Ted Cruz, or over Marco Rubio, who she did not formally endorse in 2010 although she did have many positive things to say about him during the course of the 2010 election cycle. Just last month, Palin enthusiastically got behind Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States in the wake of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. Back during the 2012 election cycle, Palin also essentially endorsed Trump’s bizarre obsession with the circumstances of President Obama’s birth and his repeated insistence that Obama was not born in the United States and therefore not eligible to be President. Palin was also among the large group of Republican politicians who ventured to Trump’s Manhattan office after he ended his aborted exploratory bid for the Republican nomination in 2012. More recently, Palin interviewed Trump for her now largely abandoned Internet content channel and appeared with him and Ted Cruz at a rally against the Iran nuclear deal in September.

Given the high profile nature of the endorsement announcement — it is scheduled to start at 6pm Eastern just in time for the national broadcast network news shows and the beginning of prime time coverage on cable on the East Coast and during afternoon drive on the West Coast — it’s clear that the Trump campaign believes that Palin’s endorsement will help Trump in some significant sense. At least in Iowa, it is obviously directed toward the conservative and evangelical voters who dominate the Republican electorate in that state and to conservatives in states such as South Carolina. Whether it will actually help Trump in either state, or in the race for the Republican nomination as a whole, is hard to say. The days when Sarah Palin was viewed wildly positively by Republicans in general and conservatives in particular are long gone, and while there remains a contingent of reflexively loyal pro-Palin sycophants the mention of her name on the right today is just as likely to elicit sighs, eyerolls, and jokes as it is to elicit the kind of effusive worship she received when she was John McCain’s running mate or in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 elections and the rise of the Tea Party that she was so closely associated with. For the most part, this is due to the fact that Palin has poisoned the well with her fellow Republicans in recent years to the point where even many of her most ardent supporters in the past consider her to be largely irrelevant to the future of the GOP.

One taste of that conservative disdain for Palin can be seen in a column that National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke wrote just under a year ago:

In the Washington Examiner, Byron York treated those who missed the address to a brutal dissection. First, he recorded, Palin subjected the crowd to an “extended stream-of-consciousness complaint about media coverage of her decision to run in a half-marathon race in Storm Lake, Iowa.” Next, she offered up some self-righteous “grumbling about coverage of a recent photo of her with a supporter” and a litany of “objections about the social media ruckus over a picture of her six-year-old son Trig.” And, finally, she embarked upon a “free-association ramble on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, the energy industry, her daughter Bristol, Margaret Thatcher, middle-class economics . . . women in politics, and much more.” All in all, York proposed, this did her no favors at all. Rather, the “long, rambling, and at times barely coherent speech, left some wondering what role she should play in Republican politics as the 2016 race begins.”

This, I think, is a good question, and one to which I have a modest answer: How about . . . none? Instead, Palin should leave the field to those who are in possession of genuine political aspirations, and she should refrain from treating the Republican party as if it were a little more than a convenient vehicle for her private ambition. In the meantime, conservatives who are finally cottoning on to the ruse should recognize that this Iowa sojourn was not an aberration or a blip, but the foreordained culmination of a slow and unseemly descent into farce that began almost immediately after Barack Obama was elected in 2008. So Sarah Palin has become Amy Winehouse?

Of course she has. How else exactly was this going to end? “It would be hard to say,” York observed drily, “that Palin’s 35-minute talk had a theme.” But, one might ask, “Do they ever?” For a long while now, Palin has not so much contributed arguments and ideas as she has thrown together a one-woman variety show for a band of traveling fans. One part free verse, one part Dada-laden ressentiment, and one part primal scream therapy, Palin’s appearances seem to be designed less to advance the ball for the Right and more to ensure that her name remains in the news, that her business opportunities are not entirely foreclosed, and that her hand remains strong enough to justify her role as kingmaker without portfolio. Ultimately, she isn’t really trying to change politics; she’s trying to be politics — the system and its complexities be damned. Want to find a figure to which Palin can be reasonably compared? It’s not Ronald Reagan. It’s Donald Trump.

Given this, it should be hardly surprising that Palin is not only endorsing Trump but will, according to early reports, campaign for him across highway in these closing two weeks before the Iowa Caucuses. In more ways than one the absurdity that is the Donald Trump campaign is merely the logical conclusion of the movement that surrounded Palin in the wake of her selection of John McCain’s running mate. It is a movement that lacks substance, that appeals to made up facts and a vision of an America that never really existed, it exploits the resentments of the populist anti-intellectual Tea Party movement against whatever “other” happens to be in the news at this time, and it is immune from refutation because it refuses to accept either logic or easily established facts as the basis for discussion. In other words, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are perfect for each other, and the Republican Party is stuck with them.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Awren says:

    The Clown Car Is Now Full

  2. grumpy realist says:

    @Awren: Oh, I’m sure they’ll find a few more egocentrics to stuff in there….

  3. sam says:

    I think it was John Cole who said that Trump was the price the GOP is paying for putting Snowball Snookie on the ticket.

  4. gVOR08 says:

    How can a thing be both utterly predictable and gob-smacking at the same time?

  5. PJ says:

    Sarah Palin’s Son Track Charged With Domestic Violence Monday Night

    The police department in Wasilla, Alaska, told CBS that they encountered Track Palin after responding to a residence for a report of a disturbance at about 10 p.m.

    “An investigation revealed Track Palin had committed a domestic violence assault on a female, interfered with her ability to report a crime of domestic violence, and possessed a firearm while intoxicated,” police told CBS in a statement.

    He was held without bail and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday. CBS reported that Track Palin was charged with three misdemeanor counts for assault, allegedly possessing the gun while intoxicated, and for interfering with a domestic violence report.

    White trash will always be white trash.

  6. Ron Beasley says:

    In any logical world a Palin endorsement would be the kiss of death. Of course the Republican base has demonstrated they like snake oil salesmen and circuses.

  7. cd6 says:

    More commanding leadership from my girl Sarah. She always makes the libtards’ heads explode and that’s what truly matters this campaign season.

    If I or my daughter or the guy who cleans my pool were getting mugged in an alley, I know I sure wouldn’t want any of the Democrat leading lights like Shrillery or Tony Rezko out on the street to save me. I’d want Sarah there, because she would be able to stop the mugging, you know, cause the thugs wailing on me are probably in her immediate family and I bet they would listen if she told them to stop. “Cut it out Track and Bristol, you know your probation officer won’t stand for this” or something like that.

    I posted “Trump / Palin ’16” on here before and you guys laughed. Who’s laughing now??

  8. PJ says:

    @cd6:
    I’m still laughing.

  9. C. Clavin says:

    Caribou Barbie and the Comb-Over.
    I cannot stop laughing.
    The GOP is awesome sauce.
    John McCain should now feel free to fall on his sword.

  10. James Pearce says:

    Who diminishes who? That’s what I want to know.

  11. al-Ameda says:

    @cd6:

    I know I sure wouldn’t want any of the Democrat leading lights like Shrillery or Tony Rezko out on the street to save me.

    Not to nitpick, but I thought it was “Killery” – you know, the Vince Foster thing.

  12. C. Clavin says:

    So what’s the quid pro? VP? Cabinet? Secretary of Christian Hegemony? Secretary of White Trash? Secretary of MILF’s?

  13. PJ says:

    @C. Clavin:
    Secretary of Awesome Parenting

  14. CSK says:

    @sam:

    Cole was right.

  15. Greg says:

    It is a movement that lacks substance, that appeals to made up facts and a vision of an America that never really existed, it exploits the resentments of the populist anti-intellectual Tea Party movement against whatever “other” happens to be in the news at this time, and it is immune from refutation because it refuses to accept either logic or easily established facts as the basis for discussion. In other words, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are perfect for each other, and the Republican Party is stuck with them.

    This should be read aloud on every news source for months, daily!

  16. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    In fairness, I don’t think she has to go home to take care of Track’s legal problem. Dads handle the things like arrests, domestic violence complaints, and arraignments. I’m sure Track’s dad has this covered and Sarah can go on doing well good down below.

  17. Moosebreath says:

    So the politician turned reality TV star endorsed the reality TV star turned politician. What a shock.

  18. C. Clavin says:

    @Greg:
    Oh my….for I second I thought that was written about Jack, Guarneri, Jenos, JKB, etc.

  19. C. Clavin says:

    @C. Clavin:
    Secretary of Ignorance and Hypocrisy!!!

  20. Greg says:

    @C. Clavin:
    Indeed, applies to them too. But, they will miss the point because….. reasons!

  21. Andre Kenji says:

    I don´t know why people should care. Palin holds no elective office. She does not meet even the low standard of writing books or a syndicated column.

  22. CSK says:

    @Andre Kenji:

    I think it’s because she’s always presented her family as the avatar of Christian wholesomeness and virtue. Somehow massive drunken brawls, out-of-wedlock pregnancies where the paternity of the father has to be decided by the court, and charges of domestic violence supplemented by weapons charges don’t comport with that image.

  23. Tillman says:

    @CSK:

    I think it’s because she’s always presented her family as the avatar of Christian wholesomeness and virtue.

    Even more fundamental than that: she and her family represent Real America. The Christian aspect is but a fold of the grand nostalgia that animates the concept in conservative circles, another way of distinguishing the New and Other from the Old-Fashioned Real. Sufficient, but not necessary. The brawls and bastards allow her to play into Christian tropes of seeking public forgiveness.

  24. Argon says:

    Sarah Palin who?

  25. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Tillman:

    she and her family represent Real America.

    As one of our trolls (or faux trolls?) has been known to say, “I weep for America.”

  26. dennis says:

    @C. Clavin:

    John McCain should now feel free to fall on his sword.

    Oh, no, C; he should be performing the full seppuku ritual on the Capitol steps. That’s the LEAST penance he can do for foisting that banshee on us.

  27. Kari Q says:

    Sarah Palin finely found a candidate less qualified than she is. Naturally she endorses him.

  28. Scott F. says:

    @dennis:

    Sadly, McCain is much more likely to be invited onto the Sunday news shows where he’ll be allowed to criticize the president’s foreign and domestic performance with nary a challenge to his assertions.

    In today’s political/media environment, there is absolutely no cost to be continually, profoundly and irredeemably wrong about everything.

  29. dazedandconfused says:

    Fall on his sword? Why??

    It took a bit of time and by a very odd route, but John McCain just got his revenge on the guy who discredited his POW status.

  30. PJ says:

    According to the domestic violence report, the girlfriend says that Track hit her in the face near the eye with a closed fist.

    I’d love to hear Mama Bear Palin’s view on this.

    Is her son a victim? Is this a conspiracy? Is Ted Cruz behind this, or maybe Hillary Clinton? Obama?
    Or, just maybe, she’s ok with it?

  31. Paul Hooson says:

    I don’t know if being endorsed by a goofy character played by Tina Fey is much of an asset or not…

  32. C. Clavin says:

    So her son is a wife-beater, and her daughter is a grifter who takes money to preach abstinence while having two kids out of wedlock.
    Maybe Mrs. Palin should stay home and take care of her own crap, instead of preaching to the rest of us.
    Just sayin’

  33. CSK says:

    @C. Clavin:

    Strictly speaking, a girlfriend beater. Track was married previously and very briefly to another girlfriend whom he had impregnated prior to wedlock. No word on whether he ever beat her up, but he did get the all-important gun collection as part of their divorce settlement.

  34. PJ says:

    Also, according to the domestic violence report, Track is still living with his mother.

  35. Slugger says:

    It is hard to understand what the Republican Party main stakeholders are doing here. This endorsement is a play for Cruz’ supporters to come to the Trump side. A Trump victory in Iowa will add a lot of steam to his campaign. If the old time GOP wanted to derail him, they surely would have sent the word to Palin. Either the party is comfortable with Trump, or their internal structure is in complete disarray. Some commentators are calling the GOP candidate panel a “clown car,” and it looks like no one is holding the steering wheel.

  36. C. Clavin says:

    @CSK:
    OK…you’re right…still…she’s a quitter, and apparently a shitty mother.
    I find it amazing, in between laughing fits, that the Republican Party is now being led by these two reality TV stars. And the second place guy is one of Sarah’s minions, who still licked her boots even though she dropped him like a first period french class.
    I’ve always been a strong believer in public education…but evidently it was an epic failure for the Republican base.
    William F. must be turning in his grave…spinning like a top, probably.

  37. KM says:

    @CSK:

    he did get the all-important gun collection as part of their divorce settlement.

    For what good it will do him – he’s probably going to lose the right to carry for a DV conviction.

  38. Jc says:

    The fact that Ted Cruz expressed his disappointment in NOT getting Sarah Palin’s endorsement tells you all you need to know. Really? What world am I living in?

  39. Hal_10000 says:

    We keep falling for this, don’t we? Trump’s campaign is not a traditional campaign. It’s a series of publicity stunts. He rolls out a new one every time he needs surge at the polls. He insults McCain. He says something nasty about Clinton. He gets an endorsement. And every time there is a huge flurry of reporting. This is his strategy. He’s probably had Palin in a glass case saying, “Break in case of poll emergency” since September.

  40. C. Clavin says:

    Doh…Ted Nugent must have felt left out of the Republican leadership insanity party…and so he posted this on his Facebook page:

    Our unholy rotten soulless criminal America destroying government killed 4 Americans in Banghazi. Period! What sort of chimpass punk would deny security, turn down 61 requests for security, then tell US forces to STAND DOWN when they were ready to kickass on the allapukes & save American lives! Obama & Clinton, thats who. They should be tried for treason & hung. Our entire fkdup gvt must be cleansed asap.

    https://www.facebook.com/tednugent/posts/10153434665947297
    Perhaps Jenos ghost-wrote that???

  41. CSK says:

    @Hal_10000:

    I don’t know if we’re exactly falling for it, Hal, if by “we” you mean the vast majority of the posters here plus Doug, James, and Steven. I do think that we’re riveted by the spectacle.

    The point about Trump is that rational people keep telling themselves, “Well, he can’t possibly get any more vulgar/swinish/bigoted/boastful than he already has”…and yet somehow, he always does.

    As for Palin, she gave new dimensions to the meaning of the word “gibberish” last night, quite on top of being caught in the ludicrous position of touting her “real American values” whilst her eldest son is languishing in the slammer on domestic violence and weapons charges.

    How can anyone stop watching this?

  42. CSK says:

    I didn’t intend to italicize the above. Don’t know how that happened. Sorry.

  43. WR says:

    @PJ: “According to the domestic violence report, the girlfriend says that Track hit her in the face near the eye with a closed fist.”

    And according to Baby Jenos, that means she was in danger of her life and should have shot and killed him.

    Oh, wait. He’s white. Never mind.

  44. PJ says:

    Reading this blog will be quite interesting in the coming months.

    Bush is comatose and there’s no movement for the remaining savior, Rubio.

    There’s always the possibility that the blog is transformed into one focused on gardening and pickling…

  45. PJ says:

    @WR:
    Good point, Alaska has a Stand Your Ground law since 2013:

    One of the most controversial bills is Alaska’s version of a “Stand Your Ground” bill.It allows a person to use deadly force if they’re in a situation where they feel threatened, as long as they’re not trespassing. In the past, you had an obligation to retreat if you could do so safely. The Governor says the bill just reinforces the rights of law abiding citizens.

    Does Palin think that her son’s girlfriend had the right to end Track’s life?
    Though I’d assume if the girlfriend had, then the surviving members of the Palin clan would have executed her in no time.

    No wonder that Palin is absent from today’s Trump Rally in Iowa…

  46. gVOR08 says:

    @CSK:

    As for Palin, she gave new dimensions to the meaning of the word “gibberish” last night

    This morning on Morning Joe somebody was commenting that Palin didn’t get a lot of applause, perhaps because, in contrast with Trump, she was speaking from notes. She talks like that from NOTES?

  47. CSK says:

    @gVOR08:

    It’s possible she was given by the Trump campaign some prepared remarks to make, and disregarded them in favor of her own unique word salad. That may also explain why Trump looked as if he’d swallowed a hairbrush while she was speaking.

  48. Jenos Idanian says:

    And more affirmation of the rule: politician’s children are off limits as long as their parents are Democrats. The children of Republicans are always fair game because REPUBLICANS!

  49. C. Clavin says:

    @Jenos Idanian:
    She made her kids a central part of her campaign for VP.
    So any attention they get is on her.

  50. PJ says:

    @Jenos Idanian:
    Most of her kids are off limits.
    But Bristol and Track aren’t.

  51. C. Clavin says:

    It appears that Caribou Barbie has gone AWOL and hasn’t shown up at any Trump rally’s today.
    Typical Republican coward.
    Even propoganda outlet, Redstate, noticed:

    According to press releases issued by the Trump campaign, Palin was supposed to spend today (and the next several days) criss-crossing Iowa with Donald Trump, stumping for him. However, at the rally Trump held this morning, Palin was absent with no explanation from the Trump camp. Instead, Trump just took the stage for a little longer than planned.

    http://www.redstate.com/2016/01/20/sarah-palin-show-todays-trump-events/

  52. C. Clavin says:

    @Hal_10000:

    We keep falling for this, don’t we?

    We keep falling for NASCAR too.
    It’s human nature to gawk at a train wreck happening before your eyes.
    Now with Sarah gone AWOL from the Trump campaign…Ted Cruz must be thanking his lucky stars.

  53. Jenos Idanian says:

    @PJ: Trig was fair game, too. Or don’t you remember the 2008 campaign?

    But if that’s the new standard, I suppose I should go look up the last time Al Gore III got arrested. He’s got quite the entertaining criminal record…

  54. PJ says:

    @Jenos Idanian:
    Good for you standing up for a coward hitting a woman in the face.
    He needs all the support from weasels like you.

  55. grumpy realist says:

    @Hal_10000: This is just the logical result of what happens when you put politics + media + infotainment complex + grifter complex together.

    Japan actually has a similar set-up, although they’re intelligent enough to leave the actual running of the system to all the civil servants. The politicians know they’re just there to have catfights with each other and show up on TV talk shows.

  56. PJ says:

    @C. Clavin:

    Now with Sarah gone AWOL from the Trump campaign…Ted Cruz must be thanking his lucky stars.

    Don’t think so, we are talking about Republican primary voters after all, not the smartest people. They probably will end up thinking that the girlfriend had it coming, or that it’s all a conspiracy.

    Look at Jenos.

  57. PJ says:

    @gVOR08:

    She talks like that from NOTES?

    Wasilla is the meth capital of Alaska.

  58. CSK says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Jenos, you’re completely missing, or ignoring, the point. Palin has pimped out her children for financial gain. She earned 2 million dollars from Sarah Palin’s Alaska, which featured them prominently, including footage of Willow sneaking a boyfriend up to her bedroom. Bristol Palin has pimped herself out to a series of even more tacky reality shows. They blast photographs of themselves drunk all over Instagram and Facebook, and Track’s girlfriend (the one he beat up) posted a Youtube video of a conversation in which Track abjures her to “Eat [my] d!ck” and then “Suck [my] d!ck” in response to her remarks that she’s thirsty and hungry.

    They did this to themselves.

  59. dennis says:

    @C. Clavin:

    Oh, I get now, C. Nugent must’ve just seen the “13 Hours” agit-prop piece.

  60. grumpy realist says:

    Well, it looks like the “Sarah Palin as VP” meme is gaining strength. It does look like Trump is intelligent enough to realize that it would totally sink his chances.

    The question is whether Sarah’s fanbois will.

  61. CSK says:

    @grumpy realist:

    Oh, yes, indeed, he sounds as if he’s really trying to squash that notion before it gains any more traction.

    It’s kind of interesting watching these two con artists try to exploit each other.

  62. Monala says:

    @Jenos Idanian: Children who are still children are off-limits. And thus I agree, Trig should have been off-limits back in 2008 and should continue to be so. I will note, however, that the main public person [vs. anonymous Internet commenters] making comments about Trig back in 2008 was Andrew Sullivan, who at the time still identified as a Republican.

    Adult children? Not so much. So Chelsea Clinton is fair game at this point in her life. Back when her dad was president, she shouldn’t have been (and yet was, by Rush Limbaugh and others).

  63. C. Clavin says:

    @Monala:

    Trig should have been off-limits back in 2008

    Respectfully disagree…Palin made Trig an issue in order to stoke her right-to-life cred.

  64. Blue Galangal says:

    @PJ: Would that be Jeb “Malayla” Bush?

  65. C. Clavin says:

    Woo-hoo….
    Palin is now blaming her kids domestic violence arrest on PTSD and, somehow, it’s Obama’s fault.

    I guess it’s kind of an elephant in the room because my own family going through what we’re going through today with my son, a combat vet, having served in a striker brigade fighting for you all, America, in the war zone…When my own son is going through what he goes through coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of some PTSD and the woundedness that our soldiers do return with…It makes me realize more than ever it is now or never for the sake of America’s finest that we have that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them.

    Apparently Trump/Palin 2016 will love our troops so much there will no longer be any such thing as PTSD.
    Jenos, Jack, Guarneri, James…do you Republicans actually believe this crap?

  66. WR says:

    @Jenos Idanian: “The children of Republicans are always fair game because REPUBLICANS!”

    These “children” are adults. Bristol is an active political player and Track is old enough to smack his girlfriend around. This isn’t like calling ten year-old Chelsea a dog — even like making fun of the way Cruz uses his adorable daughters in his ads.

    By your formulations, we can’t criticize Jeb or W because Daddy was president.

  67. WR says:

    @Jenos Idanian: “But if that’s the new standard, I suppose I should go look up the last time Al Gore III got arrested. He’s got quite the entertaining criminal record…”

    Because Al Gore is running for what office, exactly?

    I mean, you can trash the relatives of an ex-politiician all you want, but don’t expect anyone to give a damn.

  68. Scott says:

    @C. Clavin: If Palin is claiming Track’s condition on PTSD, she had better be right. Because his military and medical record will be scrutinized. This could get into Stolen Valor territory if Palin exaggerated a military record.

  69. Monala says:

    @PJ: It’s Obama’s fault, doncha know! He didn’t provide enough funding to help veterans suffering PTSD!

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/palin-domestic-violence-arrest-ptsd

  70. anjin-san says:

    that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them.

    Not using the troops as canon fodder to prove what a stud you are is one good way to do that. Obama has done quite well by that standard.

    It’s noteworthy, how confident Obama seems to be about his manhood, an how unsure about theirs Trump & Cruz seem to be.

  71. Monala says:

    @Monala: And one commenter challenged the PTSD:

    “PTSD?? Wow. He only served 2 years, never saw combat and his MOS/Job was an infantrymen which later he became a driver. He was never diagnosed with PTSD and the only reason he joined the National Guards was because he was going to jail for vandalizing school buses which included cutting the brake lines of these buses. As a veteran I find it sad that this women is using PTSD as an excuse for his sons behavior.

  72. KM says:

    @C. Clavin :

    somehow, it’s Obama’s fault.

    Worse then that –

    because my own family going through what we’re going through today with my son, a combat vet, having served in a striker brigade fighting for you all, America, in the war zone…

    That’s right America, Track blacked his girlfriend’s eye because of you. For you. Because of a war zone. That he was in for you. Happy, America? See what you made him do?

    It would have been enough to say he had PTSD (if true) but nooooooo. She had to toss in the extra blame and guilt trip, going out of her way to point out “you all, America” had a hand in his deviancy. That’s how abusers talk and justify their BS. Disgusting.

  73. anjin-san says:

    The Palin’s have made millions off their professional celebrity status. I would think that if there were any truth to Track Palin having PTSD and not receiving any help he might need that the Palin family has ample resources to fill the gap.

    If this man does indeed suffer from PTSD and is in need of care he is not receiving, his parents have some explaining to do.

  74. C. Clavin says:

    @KM:
    Well…that…plus the fact that the guy she is endorsing is talking about marching into the Middle East and taking…just taking…all their oil. How many cases of PTSD will that entail? And how willing will a Republican Congress be to pay the bill? Based on history…not one little bit. They had to be shamed into helping 9.11 first responders.
    Palin, of course, ignores her parties role in her son Track’s PTSD (assuming it actually exists).
    I do hope a real news organization gets to the bottom of this. Finding out she is lying about it will be a hoot.

  75. dazedandconfused says:

    @C. Clavin:

    It appears that Caribou Barbie has gone AWOL and hasn’t shown up at any Trump rally’s today.

    She’s become something of a jumping carp in the river to the GOP nomination.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l2uGJ5gzqI

  76. Jenos Idanian says:

    @PJ: Sod off, you worthless git. I didn’t “stand up” for anyone, and don’t feel particularly inclined to do so.

    But I am going to start taking a few notes for future reference. Al Gore III’s arrest for DWI and drug possession (he was stoned on pot, and had more pot in the car) in 2007 is now fair game, but I will give him a pass on the speeding — anyone who can get 100MPH out of a Prius (without going into freefall — that’s just cheating) deserves respect, not condemnation.

    And recently Chelsea said at a campaign event that Bernie Sanders would abolish ObamaCare. Sanders would actually replace it with single-payer, which ought to count towards his liberal/socialist cred, but Chelsea made it sound like Sanders was pushing for the GOP position.

    Funny how that didn’t get much attention, wot?

  77. Monala says:

    @Jenos Idanian: You must not read a lot of liberal blogs. Quite a few of them took Chelsea Clinton to task for that.

  78. anjin-san says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Sod off, you worthless git.

    All about TOS and “respect for our hosts”, eh Jenos?

  79. PJ says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    But I am going to start taking a few notes for future reference. Al Gore III’s arrest for DWI and drug possession (he was stoned on pot, and had more pot in the car) in 2007 is now fair game, but I will give him a pass on the speeding — anyone who can get 100MPH out of a Prius (without going into freefall — that’s just cheating) deserves respect, not condemnation.

    You forgot the worst part, how Al Gore instantly blamed what his son did on President Bush.

    And recently Chelsea said at a campaign event that Bernie Sanders would abolish ObamaCare. Sanders would actually replace it with single-payer, which ought to count towards his liberal/socialist cred, but Chelsea made it sound like Sanders was pushing for the GOP position.

    I did set the bar a bit higher than lying. Seriously, I could be quoting Bristol Palin all day….

    Sarah Palin’s son hits a woman in the face with a closed fist and she manages to blame Obama for it.

    She allows her son, who, according to her suffers from PTSD, and is according to the police report violent and suicidal, to keep weapons, including an AR-15? In a home where there a number of minors?

    Queen of the Deranged…

  80. C. Clavin says:

    @PJ:

    She allows her son, who, according to her suffers from PTSD, and is according to the police report violent and suicidal, to keep weapons, including an AR-15? In a home where there a number of minors?

    Just another responsible gun enthusiast.

  81. grumpy realist says:

    @C. Clavin: And if Track or whatever his name is actually shoots someone, I’m sure she’ll blame President Obama for that as well.

    Look, lady–when you have a son who was demonstrating delinquent tendencies even before heading off to Iraq I’m more likely to blame his present behavior on what he was already like rather than PSTD. And it seems to me that as his mom, you have a pretty big part in that as well, no?

    Not to mention that your daughter’s two out-of-wedlock pregnancies make me think it’s not just your son that you failed to teach moral behavior to.

  82. C. Clavin says:

    @grumpy realist:

    Not to mention that your daughter’s two out-of-wedlock pregnancies make me think it’s not just your son that you failed to teach moral behavior to.

    Remember too, that Bristol got paid to promote abstinence. Grifters don’t fall far from the tree.

  83. CSK says:

    @grumpy realist:

    A thousand upvotes to your comment. Palin and her family are a dysfunctional mess. Of course she has to blame that on someone who had absolutely nothing to do with creating the mess.

  84. grumpy realist says:

    Well, it looks like the food at a Trump building is as ghastly as one would expect….

    Oy vey. When I consider that I come from a family that ate its way around France’s 3-starred restaurants….

  85. Flat Earth Luddite says:

    Wow, dude… this legal weed is WAYYYY better than I thought. I could have sworn I heard Sara’s dulcet tones on the radio the other day supporting Trump… far out!

  86. Jenos Idanian says:

    @anjin-san: Sometimes I’m a slow learner, annie, but I do learn things when given enough examples.

    From you, I’ve learned the truth of “when you’re defending, you’re losing.” So I don’t defend, I attack only. I don’t take it to the extreme you do, where I avoid actually saying things of substance and taking positions, but I don’t bother defending. For example, you are always attacking the arguments against gun control, but you never actually come out and say you support gun control — and you speak of owning guns, but won’t disclose why you feel the need to own them. So you come across as a hypocrite for holding two contradictory positions, but you (in a very Clintonesque manner) don’t actually take any position at all.

    From Cliffy, I’ve learned that the authors here don’t give a fsck about the rules they proclaim. The fact that I don’t violate them at every opportunity shows that I hold those rules in more regard than they do. Oh, they’re fine, but they should be relabeled “requests” or “suggestions,” to avoid the inference that they actually have any weight to them.

    I’ve learned other lessons, but I don’t feel like giving away too much at once.

  87. a slow and unseemly descent into farce that began almost immediately after Barack Obama was elected in 2008.

    Well before that. Remeber the Katie Couric interview?