Where does this fit in the great hierarchy of authenticity politics? Sarahcuda may be the most salt-of-the-earth pol on the American landscape but she’s also an internationally famous celebrity and multimillionaire. Surely a blue-collar Joe who’s been known to fix toilets outranks her. Does that mean she’s now been formally excommunicated from the church of “true conservatism” — as I suspected — or did yesterday’s NASCAR appearance imbue her with some sort of impregnable authenticity forcefield?

More importantly, does this mean Meggie Mac was right?

Wurzelbacher touched on several different points during his speech, and many of them were surprising. He said he doesn’t support Sarah Palin anymore. Why? Because she’s backing John McCain’s re-election effort. “John McCain is no public servant,” he told the room, calling the 2008 Republican nominee a career politician.

I pointed out he’d just be plain old Sam Wurzelbacher of Ohio — Joe the Plumber wouldn’t exist – without McCain. His response was blunt. “I don’t owe him s—. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it.”…

Wurzelbacher also told the room to lay off the extreme personal attacks on President Obama. He said people who question whether Obama was born in the United States or compare him to Hitler “belittle and set back” the conservative movement. “The birthers, the truthers — if people are trying to bunch them [with tea partiers], that would kill us. That just pushes away Democrats and independents who might come out for our cause otherwise.” He said he actually likes Obama, in some ways. “I think his ideology is un-American, but he’s one of the more honest politicians. At least he told us what he wanted to do.”

A semi-related footnote: Chris Simcox, head of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and third-party challenger to McCain in Arizona, dropped out today and endorsed J.D. Hayworth to help unify grassroots opposition to Maverick. I’ve been skeptical that Palin would pay a price among conservatives for backing McCain since her endorsement can be chalked up to personal loyalty, but the higher profile this race becomes, the more of a litmus test it will seem — especially now that tea partiers are making inroads inside the GOP, at both the very highest and very lowest levels. Even among our own readers, who skew heavily pro-Palin, 42 percent thought she shouldn’t be out there stumping for McCain. Exit question: Time for Sarah to have a change of heart, or will her inevitable endorsement of Rubio balance the scales?