[Host Sean] Hannity repeatedly asked about Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, the current front-runners of the Republican slate, but Palin said that the other GOP contenders are still very much in the race, specifically pointing to Santorum. She predicted that over the next few weeks, "people will start paying attention to some of these other messages from some of the other messengers like Rick Santorum."
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Everybody in the GOP camp is wondering whom Sarah Palin will endorse for president, and when she'll do it. S.E. Cupp, writing in the New York Daily News, encourages Mitt Romney to goose his campaign now by trying to patch up relations with Palin.
After months of being every conservative's second-favorite candidate, and having to prove his right-wing bona fides time and time again, he desperately needs to be Palin's kind of guy. ... It could be argued that she needs him too. Palin has received relatively little attention since her bus tour ended, and will presumably want to play a significant role in the 2012 election.
But Russ Douthat in The New York Times says Palin has no good reason to endorse Romney.
From everything we know about Sarah Palin, protecting her "outsider" brand matters far, far more to her than appearing serious and pragmatic. A Romney endorsement would be a big splash, but at what long-term cost? She's hardly a candidate for a cabinet post in a Romney administration, after all, and once the dust settled she would have sacrificed a chunk of her remaining maverick cachet and gained little in return.
Douthat suggests a Jon Huntsman or Ron Paul endorsement for Palin -- no need to hurry. They probably still wouldn't win, but she could help them make a race of it in certain primaries and maintain her respect among hard-core supporters.
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