Weigel

Robert Draper's new look inside Sarah Palin's kitchen cabinet reveals what she was actually doing on the the day of the final Tea Party Express rally for Christine O'Donnell, which came right after she'd campaigned for West Virginia's John Raese.

She was still mulling over several invitations to campaign along the Eastern Seaboard. One was a Tea Party Express event in Wilmington, Del., in support of the controversial senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell . Palin’s endorsement of O’Donnell over a more-moderate candidate had been catalytic to her primary victory. Later Palin authorized an adviser, Randy Scheunemann, and two others to go to Wilmington to help O’Donnell in her debate preparation. But this particular event for the woman who proclaimed "I’m not a witch" was on Sunday — Halloween — and Palin prudently elected not to attend. Instead, she spent the afternoon watching the New York Jets play from the luxury box of the team’s owner, Woody Johnson.

This looks a lot like political savvy, actually. Some of O'Donnell's boosters online were swearing she could surge and win in the final days, despite the evidence that she was losing. Still, Palin's engagement with the O'Donnell campaign was chaotic, starting with a Facebook endorsement, continuing with some comments in defense of her during her campaign gaffes, and... that was it. She didn't stump for her like she did for Raese or for Joe Miller. Another reason that Palin has been denied the post-campaign glow that Richard Nixon had in 1966; you have to be a Palin homer to argue that she was savvy about her endorsements when her candidate lost to a write-in candidate in her home state.

Hat tip: Will Bunch.