Maybe Trump Will Eventually Think Of Even More Ways To Trivialize The GOP Primary Contest

I don't remember if Palin's son Track (above, with his legs in the air invitingly) and her kind-of-son-in-law Levi ever actually became gay porno stars or not. I do remember that about a decade ago Track was arrested for vandalizing the entire Wasilla school bus fleet and that he decided to join the Army instead of serve time in jail. Sometimes odd things happen in jail-- and the Army-- and he was arrested this week, now 26, for beating up his girlfriend and threatening to shoot her. He was drunk at the time. Same day mommy bear Palin was endorsing Herr Trumpf in Iowa. Yesterday Sarah, campaigning with Herr in Tulsa, blamed President Obama for giving poor Track PTSD in Iraq. (Veterans think Palin is wrong to try to blame her son's mental illness on Obama. "It's not President Obama's fault that Sarah Palin's son has PTSD," said Paul Rieckhoff, who heads Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "PTSD is a very serious problem, a complicated mental health injury and I would be extremely reluctant to blame any one person in particular.") Palin attempted to use her son's misfortune as political fodder, telling the Trumpian audience that Commander-in-Chief Herr Trumpf would never leave "our wounded warriors" behind, which sounded like a bizarre nonsequitor Tuesday but was more understandable in Tulsa yesterday.

“I can talk personally about this,” Mrs. Palin said. “I guess it’s kind of the elephant in the room, because my own family, going through what we’re going through today with my son, a combat vet having served in a Stryker brigade fighting for you all, America, in the war zone.”

The crowd cheered. “My son, like so many others, they come back a bit different,” she said. “They come back hardened.”

She said soldiers needed a president who understands their sacrifices. “So when my own son is going through what he goes through coming back, I can certainly relate with other families who kind of feel these ramifications of some PTSD and some of the woundedness that our soldiers do return with,” she said, “and it makes me realize more than ever, it is now or never for the sake of America’s finest that we have that commander in chief who will respect them and honor them.”

Did you listen to the endorsement speech in Ames, Iowa Tuesday? That's it above. Pretty low energy from the crowd and she sounded kind of rusty and mechanical. Lines like "He is the master of the art of the deal; he is the one who would know what to negotiate," drill, baby, drill," and "He is from the private sector, not a politician; can I get a hallelujah? He knows how to lead the charge. So troops hang in there, he’s on the way" sounded a little shop-worn and scripted. And now the pill-poppin' wing-nut is already AWOL and not showing up at events that have advertised her. The Trumpf p.r. team explained that announcing she would be a "special guest" wasn't meant to imply she would be "on the stage." Oh; I'm sure that makes sense in RepublicanWorld. No doubt Cruz would have loved to have had the endorsement but what does it really do for Herr, beyond win a news cycle? Is she still relevant, even to Republican voters?

Writing for ABC News, Rick Klein said the Palin-Trump alliance marks the ultimate triumph of personality over policy in the Republican Party, which sounds about right. He thinks she still may have some clout though. "In backing Trump, Palin is putting her considerable pull among tea partiers and other grassroots conservatives to the test. She’s signaling to them that ideology matters less than attitude-- a proposition she tested, intentionally or not, when she joined John McCain’s ticket in 2008. That was as intense a national roller-coaster as we’ve witnessed in politics, so it’s fair to expect dips and turns along the way. It’s also fair to note that Palin is unlikely to motivate many possible Trump voters in Iowa who weren’t already on board. But in its timing and its implications, with Ted Cruz having just started to break through by questioning Trump’s conservative credentials, you betcha this matters for Iowa and beyond. Trump has a figure who can be described as Trump-like to campaign on his behalf-- one famously boosted to national prominence by none other than John McCain. The revolving door of politics and reality TV has opened to a new pairing at the center of the presidential race."