Did Sarah Palin produce a Santorum surge? (+ poll)

Okay, let’s all take a few moments to snicker at the double meaning in the headline.

. . .

All right then, you are likely aware -- well, you know, she might really do that, given she’s got too many brood already, but I doubt she could stop having sex, so she and the former half-first dūd (or whomever) might try a little something different. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but one should prepare before doing so. Unless you like that sort of thing. There really might be something wrong with that.

All right then, you are likely aware of Palin and Faux News being dumbfounded (!) over the first family's holiday card two weeks ago. The card, however -- image and message -- was truly unremarkable. I don't mean that as a diss, but it was not at all "odd," as Palin called it, compared to President Obama’s previous Decembers in office, or even those of ghosts of presidents past. I leave it to you to debate and decide if such selective memory is conscious and the outrage manufactured for political effect, or genuine ignorance, because, let’s face it, conservatives aren’t the brightest bulbs on the holiday tree*, Palin being that "light on this tree that won't light on one side" of which the Grinch (R-Mount Crumpit) told dear Cindy Lou Who. I'd say between being deceptive and propagandic, or clueless, it's a 50/50 bet.

Despite the card’s near-interchangability with others, in her "analysis" (tee-hee), Palin remarked alleges that it failed to address notions of “family, faith, and freedom.” In other words, more “War on Christmas™” bull@!$%#, more 'Obama’s an a-religious (upgrade from Muslim?), anti-family (after all, he’s only got two kids, while Palin has, what -- seven? Eight?), un-American no-goodnik.' You betcha! #wink  If that phrase sounds familiar, maybe it’s because it’s the name of Rick Santorum’s campaign tour, though Palin transposes the first two words (because we all know that it's not simply alphabetizing that has faith -- meaning religion, meaning Christianity -- first and foremost, and "freedom" a distant third for people like Santorum). Now, the phrase didn’t originate with Frothy Flowman, as Family Research Council uses it, as well as the Methodist Church, and fellow Republican candidate Rick Perry dropped the phrase in early December (another 'oops' for Perry, when his tour is "faith, jobs, and freedom"?), but it's been the Santorum campaign with it out there politically since the beginning of November.

To say Santorum was getting nowhere with or without the phrase would be a downgrade for nowhere, and while he did see a modest increase in polling in the first weeks of December after languishing at around 5% for the entire campaign, it was the week after Palin’s remarks that saw Santorum’s significant increase to 16%, bringing him to 3rd place in Iowa [before the caucus, coming in second by just 8 votes]. I’m not sure where he’s at nationally, but as has been noted, it’s about state races now, particularly the early primary ones.

So was Palin's reference a subtle, if not dog-whistle endorsement of Santorum, or was it just one of those conservative talking points/buzz-phrases that she heard somewhere and worth parroting. And either way, did the Palindrones -- again, either consciously thinking it was a ‘coded message’ or just subconsciously making the association -- get nudged in that direction? Whatever Palin’s faults -- and gods know there are plenty -- she can and does command a loyal, die-hard army of flying monkeys who do her bidding, or at least what they think she bid to do.

Or am I just jumping to conclusions, suspecting a connection that may not hold up under more studied individuals? I wouldn’t mind seeing if there’s any poll data supporting this theory (hello, CNN? PPP? Rassmusen? 538?), but tell me what you think by the poll, comments, or both. Or should we deny potentially giving Palin, et al the relevancy so desperately sought?

I guess I'm a little guilty of that myself as I can't believe that I wrote an article on either Palin or Santorum, much less both. :s

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