Photo by Alex Hanson/CC BY-2.0
Sarah Palin's rousing public endorsement of Donald Trump at an Iowa rally puts together quite a team as Trump continues his path to a Republican presidential nomination. Two people who love the hugeness of the limelight without the factual specifics that previously mattered in politics are now standing side by side.
The 2008 vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor seemed almost euphoric as she was once again able to share being front and center on a big political public stage. Palin delivered what could be considered a mock convention nominating speech, as if it was a rip-roaring right-wing conservative talk show. She’s got the formula down pat. Trump stood next to her looking pleased, but slightly uncomfortable. He never once looked at Palin as she spoke, instead listening and assessing the crowd's response.
Palin has chosen to turn her back on Senator John McCain, the man who first put her in the spotlight as his vice presidential running mate in 2008. While he remained loyal to her, she’s cast loyalty to the wind instead endorsing the man who has attacked McCain. Trump has refused to call the former prisoner of war a hero saying, “I like people that weren’t captured.”
This says as much about Palin as it does about Trump. For him it's all about winning. Perhaps much more so than any good he could do as president. While winning an election is what it's all about for any politician, with Trump it's more than part of the endgame. It's the beginning, the middle and the end.
He is the consummate construction tycoon who will do almost anything to make a deal and feed an insatiable ego. There's a continual bit of falseness that hangs over a substantial part of his candidacy. It leaves one to wonder if he really believes what he's saying, or is he just saying it to appeal to his target audience. In some ways he reminds me of J.R. Ewing, that infamous and devious oil tycoon of the popular television show Dallas. Trump going after Palin's endorsement fits into that entire scenario.
Palin swings Trump all the way to the right politically. It's a marriage made in the anti-establishment part of the Republican party that is salivating over the outrageousness of Trump. They love it. In Palin’s endorsement speech, she spun Trump almost better than he can spin himself. Facts be damned.
Trump according to Palin:
"He's from the private sector not a politician. Hallelujah." She must have forgotten that she's a politician herself.
"He's a billionaire who is not elitist." Is there anyone who knows Trump who would call him a man of the people? "
He's a self-made man." she told the audience, leaving out the fact that he began his career with a HUGE amount of help from his wealthy father.
"He's a strict constitutionalist." Now there's one to get us thinking.
Trump's son Eric later called Palin "refreshing," and a " fighter like my dad." But he too appeared slightly uncomfortable in the Palin aura. The young Trump said she had gotten to know his family during a visit with them in New York City. One can just imagine a down-home dinner table setting in Trump Tower as they discussed her position in a potential Trump White House.