Don't expect a Sarah Palin 2012 endorsement before Iowa

From the Alaska Dispatch, Palin Watch: Don't expect a Sarah Palin 2012 endorsement before Iowa
Sarah Palin's endorsement is highly coveted by the tea party-aligned candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. After all, few if any Republicans in the country (who aren't running to replace Barack Obama) have the infrastructure of support or ultraconservative bona fides that Alaska's former governor has built up since her 2008 vice-presidential campaign.

Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum all have eyed the big Palin prize. And according to Newsmax, they'll have to keep waiting. Palin told Newsmax this week that Republicans shouldn't expect an endorsement from her before the Iowa caucuses.

She did seem to insinuate, in her way, that Gingrich was looking better to the conservative base, particularly considering his experience working with a Democratic president in the 1990s to balance the federal budget:

(Gingrich) has been engaged in that movement most recently in order for them to hear his solutions and there's been some forgiveness then on the part of Tea Party Patriots for some of the things in Gingrich's past … Romney and others need to reach out and convince tea party patriots and constitutional conservatives that he truly believes in smaller, smarter government.

Palin did offer one endorsement: she encouraged Republican candidates to participate in Donald Trump's upcoming debate. Two of the more moderate GOP candidates -- Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman -- have both said they won't be attending The Donald's show.