Why The Support of Mama Grizzly Matters

The only two leading Republicans who have both run for the White House and starred in their own reality television shows stood side by side in Iowa tonight, vowing to steer the 2016 Republican primary nomination away from the establishment.

Palin — the vice presidential nominee who first tapped into anti-establishment fervor and was similarly discounted by pundits and politicians alike as a joke before exploding as a political force — endorsed Trump on Tuesday night at a rally in Ames, Iowa.

“Things will change under President Trump,” Palin declared at the event, where she also slammed Obama’s foreign policy as well as the GOP establishment.

“Now what they’re doing is wailing that, ‘Well, Trump and his trumpeters, well they’re not conservative enough.’ Oh my goodness gracious, what the heck would the establishment know about conservatism?” she said.

The former Alaska governor’s official backing is perhaps the only politician’s endorsement that could boost Trump as an outsider: In her heyday, Palin’s conservative celebrity rivaled Trump’s. Now that he’s a contender in a race where many candidates have cast themselves as conservative crusaders ready to take on the establishment, a nod from the original crusader – “Mama Grizzly” – carries clout.

Palin’s overwhelming popularity in conservative circles may help boost Trump, who is neck-and-neck with Sen. Ted Cruz in Iowa polls just 13 days before voters make their choice in the state’s caucuses. Palin’s choice is a pointed rejection over Cruz, a candidate she endorsed during his Texas senate reelection bid in 2012.

Palin endorses Trump despite McCain smear. Rachel Maddow reviews the history of Sarah Palin.

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