Alex Massie Alex Massie

2012 Tea Leaves

A pair of interesting developments in the early manoevering for the Republican party’s presidential nomination in 2012.

1. Sarah Palin endorses Terry Branstad in the Iowa gubernatorial race rather than his opponent Vander Plaats even though Plaats is the favoured candidate of Tea Partying types and prominent evangelicals such as James Dobson. Odd, no? Actually, no it’s not odd at all. Branstad, who is making a comeback a decade after he last served as Governor, is much more likely to win. Palin isn’t stupid and she knows enough to know there’s no point in needlessly antagonising the man who will probably be the next governor of Iowa.

2. A characteristically excellent Andrew Ferguson piece in the Weekly Standard profiling Mitch Daniels. The governor of Indiana, like the former governor of Alaska, hasn’t confirmed that he’s running but he’s happy to have the door ajar.

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