As some of you may know, I’ve never been a fan of Sarah Palin. I won’t rehash the many reasons here. I wonder, however, how so many conservatives continue to think she’s a positive force. In the last few weeks she has endorsed both John McCain and Carly Fiorina in their respective primary races. Even though its possible to understand her endorsement of McCain as an act of personal loyalty, she should have demonstrated an act of higher loyalty to her so-called values and to her country. Her stated reason for endorsing Fiorina is that she’s the only candidate who can defeat Barbara Boxer in the general election. With these choices she has clarified her true position as a big government corporatist – supporting the very faction of the Republican Party that is the source of all the party’s woes and a big cause of why the Tea Party exists in the first place.

For Conservatives who care about the issues and the future of our country the Primary choices in Arizona, California and elsewhere are starkly clear. As Richard Viguerie has eloquently written, the Primaries are the important elections in 2010. If real Conservatives don’t win these Primaries, what difference will it make who wins the general elections in November? Millions of Conservatives will just sit it out like they did in the last presidential election.

Sarah Palin has deserted the barricades for the back-room. Her Conservatism has always been little more than grand-standing at the best of times. When it really matters, in Primary elections, she sides with the big-business-as-usual corporatists. Maybe she knows on which side her bread is buttered. She’s certainly been exceedingly clever at amassing a personal fortune in the last eighteen months. Nobody begrudges her that. But how has any of her easily caricatured personal celebrity helped conservatism in general or conservative candidates in particular?

Meanwhile, thanks to her irresponsible endorsements, and precisely because she does wield so much influence, the rest of us have to work that much harder in Arizona and California, to assure the primary victories of the true conservatives who are the only ones who will make a real difference if and when elected to office.

Ron Maxwell

Sarah Palin speaks Saturday (Feb. 6th) at 9PM EST. Click here for the Conference topics and schedule.

However, to get the story in context, the question Van Susteren posed was do we want to see the TEA party and the GOP causing another George Bush – Ross Perot fiasco, or should they “merge”. In other words, can the TEA party cause a splitting of the conservative vote, or will the two need to join forces. This is what Palin was referring to when she stated that they need to “merge”. She was not advocating a merging of the actual organizations, but rather a joint effort to spread the message of limited government and freedom.

A different wording should definitely have been used, and would’ve saved a lot of concern. However, what she said must be taken in context. Please take a moment to watch the interview below.