The American people figured out Palin's irrelevance before the media did; it was only last October that we stopped doing the polls that gave them the chance to tell us that.
Now, Palin's endorsement of Newt Gingrich ahead of the South Carolina primary may say more about Gingrich than it does about Palin – which is what endorsements are supposed to do, though in the upside-down world of modern politics, this is not how we usually talk about them. Nor is it how Palin probably wishes we'd talk about them.
Let's take as given that Palin's true intent, for whatever cynical and/or misguided reason, is to maximize the length of the GOP nomination cycle and thus wants to throw weight behind one of the guys not already winning. It's not going to be Paul – she is a Fox News commentator, after all – and it's not going to be Perry, because, well, Perry. Between Rick Santorum and Gingrich, she doesn't go for the guy whose actual lived experience is as a political and social conservative; she goes for the arrogant historian-lobbyist who at least can cohere words in an order that she can't.
Either Newt has successfully shed his years-long association with Washington culture, or Palin – like many Newt supporters – is so angry with the Obama administration that she doesn't care if Gingrich's values genuinely match up with hers; she just wants fireworks. Preferably M80s. Thrown in the White House commodes.
There's an element of what-the-frak-ness to the GOP campaigns at this point, and Newt embodies this (you could say he approached marriage the same way). Robbed of the chance to have a real nomination fight, voters will settle for theatrics. Palin is no stranger to drama over content, after all.
One thing's for certain: they both have animal pelts for hair.
