GOP Candidates Endorse Governor Palin

By Stacy Drake

Some of them endorsed her ideas and words anyway…
For instance, during the GOP debate Monday night in Tampa, Peter Hamby tweeted the following:

Bachmann team sends out press release hitting Perry’s “crony capitalism” cc @SarahPalinUSA

After the debate, Michele Bachmann appeared On The Record with Greta Van Sustren, stating the following, as Molly Ball reported:

“This is what the American people don’t want. They don’t want crony capitalism. It infuriates them,” she said, drawing a parallel with Obama’s Solyndra controversy. “It’s no better when Republicans engage in that as well,” she said.

Newt Gingrich also embraced Governor Palin’s message of reform and against crony capitalism on Greta’s show, saying:

I do want to say by the way, that Governor Palin’s speech in Iowa last weekend on crony capitalism and on the problems of both parties, is a very very important speech. I’m going to be tweeting a link to it. I’m also going to be doing some other things with it. I think it was maybe one of the most important speeches she’s ever given. And I think it raised a series of very profound questions that all of us, Democrat and Republican, have to wrestle with as citizens. And she did it very well. It’s a very very impressive speech.

So impressive that Rick Perry borrowed some of the words from Governor Palin speech in an op-ed he penned for USA Today on Monday. He wrote:

We must have a frank, honest national conversation about fixing Social Security to protect benefits for those at or near retirement while keeping faith with younger generations, who are being asked to pay.

From the governor’s speech in Iowa:

The status quo is no longer an option. Entitlement reform is our duty now, and it must be done in a way that honors our commitment to our esteemed elders today, while keeping faith with future generations.

I sincerely doubt that any of these candidates would be talking about crony capitalism before the governor gave that speech in Iowa. Whether she’s defining the debate, or helping candidates learn how to talk, Governor Palin is shaping the primary race just by sharing her opinion on the issues that effect this nation. The candidates are certainly following her lead, and I commend them for doing so.

Governor Palin understands that she’s having an effect on the race, as she stated on Monday (also on Greta’s show):

“I’m getting kind of a kick out of … getting out there, giving a speech, making some statements about things that must be discussed and then the very next day watching some of the candidates get up there and discuss what it was that we just talked about, like the corruption, the crony capitalism, the waste, the fraud – some of those things that are going on right now. It’s like, come on, candidates, it’s about time you started talking about that!”