Sarah Palin, who toyed with a run for the Republican nomination herself, announced on Fox News that she has not yet decided which candidate to endorse.
“My endorsement is going to be with sincerity and enthusiasm and I am just not there yet . . .with the field as it stands. And there’s no need to endorse until that enthusiasm really is within me, in my gut,” Palin said Sunday.
While Palin’s own political fortunes and favorability ratings have plummeted this year, she remains a popular voice within the Republican Party. National polls this summer showed Palin’s favorability among Republicans between 55% and 67%. Among voters overall, her unfavorable ratings were about 30 points higher than her favorables — meaning she is better equipped to influence voters in the primary than in the general.
Palin would likely maximize that influence if she declared before the Iowa caucuses where she still enjoys support from evangelicals and Tea Partiers. In November, RealClearPolitics’s Scott Conroy wrote that the buzz coming from the Palin camp was in favor of Gingrich. Palin must also consider that Gingrich is now slipping in Iowa, which would be cause for hesitation.
On Fox, Palin downplayed the idea that her endorsement would have any effect:
And I also believe that my endorsement and anybody else’s really sometimes doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when you consider the independent thinking and the wisdom of the voters. They make up their own mind. And a personal endorsement doesn’t always, you know, help shape the race. So I don’t put that kind of credence or credibility in my endorsement at all.
