Why Fiorina and Whitman skipped the Palin rally

First, there is the obvious: Palin, the biggest grassroots draw in the party, is seen as kryptonite for many general election candidates. Both Fiorina and Whitman cited scheduling conflicts, but of course they would have come to an event filled with TV cameras if they thought there was any political upside. Most striking, Fiorina was just an hour down Interstate 5 earlier in the day with John McCain – yet neither showed here. Palin has many followers here in conservative Orange County, but for the two candidates in an overwhelmingly Democratic state the imperative is now to find voters in the center of the electorate – something the Alaskan has little capacity to help with…

Yet there remains a powerful element within the party that is helping to fund and oversee many of this year’s elections that, while appreciative of the manpower offered by tea partiers, is wary of what some of their more flamboyant leaders and purist ideas mean for efforts to appeal to swing voters.

Besides some obvious cases – the Delaware Senate contest comes to mind – the divide isn’t likely to appreciably hurt Republicans at the polls. The conservatives in the attendance Saturday may not be overjoyed about Whitman, for example, but they’ll surely vote for her against liberal veteran Jerry Brown.