Sarah Palin on her Facebook page:
This whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.
Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice.
The Republican primary campaign has become so clownish that Newt Gingrich, the most inside-Washington candidate in the field, is the grassroots tea party favorite. And why? It's my theory that it's less about any sort of perceived conservatism and more about a process of elimination. They're settling with that guy because no one else on their list worked out -- oh, and he can throw red meat bombs. That's important. The tea party is all about throwing crazy at the president with as much volume as possible.