Not a full endorsement but pretty close. Will this push him over the top in South Carolina? He got Todd’s endorsement last week, so does Sarah chiming in make a difference for you? Right now polls have Gingrich second and with his stellar debate performance last night this very well could do it.

What could be even more telling is if this semi-endorsement does not make a difference. Keep in mind, this could also be a deserved poke-in-the-eye for Gov. Nikki Haley who has her job specifically because of Palin’s support. Haley, as you know, abandoned any support of Palin during the Tucson massacre, and has come out full force for Romney. If a Palin endorsement manages to eclipse Haley’s in her own state, I must say that would be a little sweet. Like, oh, S’mores sweet, a little gooey and fun! 🙂

Click here for the video from Real Clear Politics

While not offering a full endorsement, Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged South Carolina voters to turn out for Newt Gingrich during Saturday’s primary.

She said a win for the former House speaker would slow down the Republican presidential nominating process. “I want to see this thing continue because iron sharpens iron,” Palin said on Fox News. “If I had to vote in order to keep it going, I would vote for Newt.”

With Mitt Romney having already won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, some political observers say another Romney win in South Carolina could lock up the nomination for the former Massachusetts governor.

But Palin argued it’s too soon to settle on one particular candidate.

“I want more debates, more vetting of candidates, because we know the mistake made in our country four years ago with having a candidate that was not vetted to the degree that he should have been,” Palin said, referring to now-President Barack Obama.

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24 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. way to go Sarah! That’s the Sarah I used to remember. Lets not just surrender to the GOP. Fight Fight Fight!

  2. Artgal says:

    After seeing the debates last night, I was hoping Palin would give a public nudge for Newt on the heels of the SC primary and am glad she did just that! Very good timing as I, too, believe it’s entirely too soon to declare Mitt the nominee.

  3. yayii says:

    Thank-you Gov Palin!!!!!!

  4. ashleymatt says:

    This is hardly a ringing endorsement. It sounds more like a strategy that Gov. Palin wants to see the process continue longer to see more of the candidates. I understand her point about wanting heavy vetting but have to disagree with her. The GOP lineup are not a bunch of unknowns like Senator Obama was. Each of the candidates’ personalities, records, and overall presence is on display for anyone who wants to see it. If this goes on longer than normal, we will look disorganized and confused opposing Obama. If Gov. Palin had wanted to endorse Newt Gingrich, then Todd endorsing him would not have made the news. He would have been by her side with the headlining endorsement.

    Either way, no one’s endorsement of Newt could make me vote for him for President. We are not auditioning for a debate team. A campaign is more than debates and the presidency is more than a campaign. Ann Coulter has written several articles articulating this better than I can, but here is my take: I went through a Newt phase in high school and read one of his books. That was enough to give me pause. The man is a 1000-idea-a-minute academic who wants to transform civilization with the government as his instrument. He’d be great in private sector development or at a university but the prospect of him being President is frightening to me. And the thin skin he displayed when his record, not the boogey man SuperPACs, destroyed him in Iowa was further demonstration that he does not have the temperment to be in the Oval Office.

    That and a large percentage of women would never vote anyway for him based on his personal life. (The mental picture alone is enough to send people screaming from the polls.) I remember in the 90’s my mother referring to him as an “Alley cat.” To me, it all connects. He is brilliant and on fire for whatever idea (or woman) he has at the moment, until he gets “inspired” (or distracted) again. So he’ll be our brilliant, bloated-but-thin-skinned, impulsive President. I thought we were rid of Bill Clinton.

    • I respect your view of Newt, and understand if you can not see good enough qualities past his past failings. I just can’t see past Mitt’s utterly lame personality and past record. I agree with Jedidiah Bila when she tweeted during the last debate. “It’s like Mitt is trying to figure out what he thinks as he is speaking.” This to me is more dangerous and unforgivable then a gifted idea man, who suffers from too much testosterone. I would much rather vote for a reformed, aged man who really loves his country to the core, who admittedly has seen the error of his ways, then a preppy kid, born to rich politicians, who never really had any cojones his whole life.

      I am with Palin on the, “lets keep this thing going” idea. BO and the democratic party sure benefited from the contested primary. They were constantly in the news for many months. There was a sense that this guy really deserved the nomination because he had to fight so long for it. There was excitement and energy in the fact that the new guy had beaten the establishment. And honestly, who do we really have to look good for at this point? The dems? the media? They hate us any way. The general electorate doesn’t give a darn, about what’s going on right now. They are working their day jobs and getting a little info here and there. I should know, I used to be one of those general electorate types. -too into what ever I was doing to care about the ins and outs of the process.

      • kwilder says:

        I’d adjust Jedidiah’s tweet slightly. Romney isn’t ‘trying to figure out what he thinks as he is speaking’, he’s ‘trying to speak without giving up what he thinks’, much like Obama. Romney is a liberal, but needs to portray himself as a conservative, needs to say what conservatives want to hear.
        I might be way off here, but I’d like to think that Sarah Palin is nudging conservatives & tea party to do our own critical thinking. Too often in the past we were lemmings who followed our leaders when they told us to.

    • Tinker says:

      I would probably agree with you if Palin were running. But this is the hand we’ve been dealt. And Newt is the most conservative one that I think has a chance of beating Obama. He’s not just a good debater, he can think on his feet and I like that his frame of reference is heavy on the history.

  5. flaggman says:

    Take Palin at her word: 1) she was given the chance to endorse Newt, and she did not; 2) she continues to avoid saying much bad about any of the candidates; 3) at the same time, she continues to be no more than lukewarm to any of the candidates including Newt; 4) she wants the process to drag on as long as possible. To me, this says only one thing: she wants the field to stay chaotic and open for either a late entry by someone new, or for a brokered convention in which she can rally the Tea Party grassroots majority to control the process and select their best choice at the time with concessions on policy and VP. I don’t think she necessarily has herself in mind, but she’s always said this will be an unconventional process with more comings-and-goings. To date we’ve only seen goings. Her predictions are usually right, so I’ll bet the “comings” are still coming.

    • a wise perspective, as always coming from you… Regardless of what you think of Newt, Palin is not giving up on defeating Mittens and the GOP machine for the greater good of our country and our party. Yeah for Palin!! To wave the white flag now, is just to simply play into the hand of the GOP. As I wrote in an earlier post, Palin (whether she jumps in late or not) could make the case against our corrupt/lame primary voting system, where a mere 20 or 30 thousand voters in a few select states choose who is to be our nominee. If we cant have a national primary, then we should be able to have regional primaries. -like say in 4 or 6 areas. This would make it very expensive to go negative so early in the process. Candidates will have to stick to their own views and message more.

    • Jeffrey says:

      RIGHT ON FLAGGMAN 🙂

  6. AniMel says:

    I think Sarah is playing it politically safe by waiting this long. I was already leaning toward Newt; I’m just hoping that her endorsement gives him the nudge he needs to win in SC.

  7. tamcat says:

    I’m not convinced Romney has it in the bag. Newt is still a possibility. The anchors, pundits, & such want to tout that traditionally a candidate won Iowa, or New Hampshire, or South Carolina. There is no traditional anymore. Thank Obama for that. Really thank him for that, because we did need a change from business as usual, campaigns as usual, congress as usual. Everything has changed now. We don’t have to conform to what the political norm was. The people can make this country great again. We certainly know what we don’t want from government. If we want conservative leaders, we have to put them in the office ourselves.

    Sarah Palin still has influence and I believe she will use it, to further our cause as Tea Party Patriots.

  8. Off topic, but I sure hope she never does the botox.

    • wilde1 says:

      Unfortunately, she is already using Botox. It has been applied to her forehead. She does not need it and her bangs are attempting to hide it. I recognized the slight bulging over the brow line. Look at the photo above with Newt and compare to her recent TV appearance.

      • otlset says:

        How can you discern the various levels of resolution available from any photo seen on the internet, and in addition how can you determine an unaltered digital image from an altered one before making such a statement?

        • wilde1 says:

          The photo on top is Botox free. I am seeing it in her live interviews on TV on a high definition tv. My job consists of taking photos for Plastic Surgeons before and after portfolios of patients. I recognize all cosmetic enhancements including teeth. I was pointing it out because I dislike bad cosmetic work by surgeons and Dermatologists.. There is nothing wrong with doing it.

  9. LJZumpano says:

    I would prefer seeing her getting behind some of the conservative & teaparty candidates facing primary fights against GOP elites. We’ve got a candidate here on Long Island running for the House, and there Jamie Radkte in VA Senate race. That would make more of a difference IMO.

  10. Pat_S says:

    Newt is a walking fireworks factory. He’d be fun for a segment of the base which is looking for fireworks. I doubt it will go over well with the rest of the country. Mitt thinks his best strategy for winning is to avoid being noticed, let his opponents defeat themselves. By avoiding risk he takes the biggest risk.

    The personality traits of both these men are worrisome to me. The GOP field is a disappointment. Obama has a better chance for re-election than he deserves.

    • flaggman says:

      I think Palin agrees with you Pat, that’s why she’s invoking a Rush-style “operation chaos”. If she can keep a winner from being confirmed before the convention, then at least she can go there and use the Tea Party moral authority to extract policy and appointment concessions from whichever of these flawed characters wants the win bad enough. At least I hope I’m not giving her too much credit. But when she said she’s “not for sale”, I think it also means she won’t go in the tank for any candidate, only for bigger-picture principles.

    • Maynard says:

      At this point I just can’t see Newt carrying all that baggage to the Oval Office. Seems to me Mitt might get there, at which point we’ll be wondering whether a President Mitt will do any good (other than being vastly less toxic than a President Ba-rockhead). So maybe some stiff competition will make Romney a better president. It’s something to hope for, anyway. And I sure hope my hope isn’t completely unrealistic, because I can’t think of any other positive scenario at the moment.

  11. strider says:

    Newt responds to questions in a direct way that seems refreshing.

  12. Hal Jordan says:

    I love Sarah’s thinking on this. Santorum wins Iowa, Romney NH, and now Newt possibly winning SC.

    The GOP establishment’s got to be going bonkers. Now if operation chaos works, the GOP canidates can continue to hog the headlines, and keep the attacks on Obama front and center. Since GOP House and Senate leadership are as worthless as teets on a nun, Someone on the front pages of the news reports will be slamming BHO’s policies and drawing contrasts.

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