Can Sarah Palin claim credit for last night?
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09 June 2010
It's irresistible for many in the press to look for Sarah Palin angles on election night. Tuesday, I wrote about Palin's late-coming endorsement of Terry Branstad for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination in Iowa.
On June 1, a Public Policy Polling survey found the former governor, running for his old job, with a 15-point lead. Between June 1 and 3, the Des Moines Register conducted a poll that found Branstad leading by by 28 points. On June 3, Palin endorsed him, angering some of her supporters who backed activist Bob Vander Plaats.
I speculated that "this endorsement adds to Palin's win record, erasing some of the bad taste of her Vaughn Ward, Tim Burns, and Doug Hoffman endorsements." And last night Branstad won his nomination by 9 points, closer than any poll predicted. How did Politico cover this?
Some of Sarah Palin’s riskiest endorsements scored major victories Tuesday for the former Alaska governor, showing off her power in Republican primaries. Palin had four primary endorsements in play – Carly Fiorina, Nikki Haley, Terry Branstad and Cecile Bledsoe – and three won or moved on to a runoff.
Seriously, what's risky about endorsing a candidate with a double-digit lead a week before the primary?
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