Despite the acclaim, Palin did not win the Straw Poll, an honor that went to the absent Mitt Romney. Since Bill Frist (Bill who?) won last time, it doesn’t have much meaning. But it does make you wonder how the same crowd that could go gaga over Palin could vote for a stiff businessman, late of Massachusetts, who authored a health-care bill that is the evil twin of the Obama version so reviled that its mere mention repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet to denounce it.
That is just one more anomaly in the GOP. Palin, who is as likely to be running a scam as running for president, has Republicans in the inky plam of her hand. Even those who don’t think she should be president need her fundraising prowess and ability to draw a crowd. She holds the cup of tea from which they must drink.
For her part, she has to keep her hand in politics. If it hadn’t been for one amazing stunt—being chosen by a desperate candidate as his vice-presidential running mate—Palin wouldn’t be Palin, a bestselling author, TV personality with a show on Fox (Real American Stories, which has managed to make her boring) and popular speaker commanding six figures. Without the prospect that she might run again, she’d be just another cable jockey subject to ratings and the prospect of being knocked off by the next Judge Judy to come along.
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