Sarah Palin just endorsed Carly Fiorina in the CA Senate race.

The initial reponse on Twitter and Facebook was shock from most of the acivists. I suppose many were convinced that Palin was still a “maverick”… which, if we’re being honest, hasn’t been true for a while. She’s becoming the establishment, for better or worse. I fail to see how endorsing Fiorina is “shaking things up”, as she states in her post.

Let’s look at the actual conservative: Chuck DeVore. He’s clearly the best candidate by our standards, and has rallied the troops among the Tea Partiers. The movement is behind him. The problem is that he’s had trouble getting the name recognition – he’s still not rising in the polls. His peak post-Campell was 14% There isn’t a lot of time left for him to gain ground.

Palin may well be making a sane judgment call by stopping Campbell at all costs. Fiorina’s got a solid shot at winning, and Palin could use the political cred that comes with endorsing a winner.

Bottom line is that this is yet another endorsement for a non-grassroots candidate, and she’s going to take another siginifcant hit to her credibility with her base in exchange for picking a winner. Probably would have been a good one to stay out of, Sarah.