The conservative populist movement, that which has energized the fight against the Obama Administration and its plans for totalitarian rule (that should get some letter-writers going), was knocked on its back this week with the news that movement darling Sarah Palin will actively campaign for movement pariah John McCain, her one-time but not-so-long ago running mate in the Republican bid to keep the White House.
The response from those in the Tea Party camp has been swift, sharp, and predictable. Palin has been chastised as everything from just another RINO (Republican In Name Only) to an outright traitor to the cause of all that is good and decent. While I am by no means thrilled with this development, I think I get it, and I am tempted to give Palin a one-time “pass” on this.
Until John McCain made the phone call to Palin to offer his VP slot to her, she was just a young governor of a more obscure state who had piqued some novel but mild interest in Republican circles. That’s it. It was McCain’s selection of her as VP candidate that made Palin what she is today. There’s no denying it, and Palin knows that truth better than does anyone else. So when McCain came calling for help, Palin had little choice in how she responded.
Do I think her willingness to play nice with one of the very progenitors of the RINO concept is replete with enthusiasm? Nope (indeed, the well-documented discord between the Palin and McCain camps and about which Palin harbors great bitterness proves that, in my opinion). Do I think she feels terribly awkward in having to campaign for McCain against J.D. Hayworth, an Arizona politician and talk show host whose espoused beliefs have much more simpatico with Palin’s than do McCain’s? Yup. However, again I go back to this: The obligation that Palin has to McCain for making her what she has become today is simply too great to have permitted her to deny his request when he came a-callin’. That said, I also say this: Once this is done, it’s done, and afterward, I expect to see her share the dais with McCain no more.
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