Sarah Palin visited Justice with Judge Jeanine Saturday (1/28/12) where she simultaneously promoted Newt Gingrich’s candidacy and pretended she was not endorsing anyone. As she lectured about her reasons for wanting the primary to continue and what she thought of the candidates, she ridiculously claimed that Gingrich and Romney were “very close” in the polls in a match up with President Obama. “The math is the math,” she claimed – and then got that math very wrong.
“When both party machines and many in the media are trying to crucify Newt Gingrich for bucking the tide and bucking the establishment – that tells ya somethin’!” Palin said, by way of answering host Jeanine Pirro’s comment that it’s hard to think of a former Speaker of the House and long-time Washington insider as an outsider.
Palin continued her "explanation:" “You gotta rage against the machine at this point… We need somebody who’s engaged in sudden and relentless reform and isn’t afraid to shake it up, shake up that establishment. So, if for no other reason, rage against the machine, vote for Newt. Annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going. Keep the debate going.” Palin seemed to be speaking to Florida primary voters, but she never specified.
Palin went on gushing about Gingrich – including his idea to colonize the moon - until finally Pirro said, “Sounds like an endorsement to me, Governor. Have you just endorsed Newt Gingrich?”
No, she insisted. “I’ve said for many weeks now, I want to continue the process of the vetting.”
Pirro pointed out that while Palin had argued that Gingrich would be the more likely candidate to beat Obama, polls show otherwise. “Even Santorum beats Newt in terms of the math,” Pirro said.
“That’s at this point, without the vetting process continuing and without the debates continuing… The math shows us today that Romney and Newt are very close,” Palin responded.
Only if you think 10 points apart is “very close.” Real Clear Politics’ average (as of Sunday night) shows Obama winning against Romney by 2.2. The same RCP average shows Obama beating Gingrich by 12.4. Pirro was correct about Santorum. He loses to Obama by 10.2 points.
Palin responded to that by complaining about “The pundits… those elites… who want us to just obey them and listen to them. They who want to shut this down.”
It’s pretty comical for Palin to pretend she’s anything but part of that very elite. She’s a multimillionaire who, last I checked, had no other job than as a pundit. And it sounded a lot like she was giving her own marching orders to the Fox News viewers that they should vote for Newt to “annoy a liberal” and/or keep the vetting process going.
