By the way even PPP in their blog admitted that Ayotte would not have narrowly won without the Palin endorsement. Lamontagne was coming on big time.
As for O’Donnell, don’t forget the NRA and Demint both endorsed her after the Palin endorsement.
What the Palin endorsement imho did for O’Donnell was brought conservatives to the polls for her, and imho these were folks who were initially lukewarm or comme ci, comme ca to O’Donnell but once they got the word from Palin, would be willing to walk over broken glass to the polls to vote for O’Donnell. That is Palin Power.
I saw somewhere that the R. turnout for Tuesday’s primary in DE was up dramatically — that would probably be a good indication of Palin power, people turning out who in past years would not have been motivated
It wasn’t just Palin though, Levin, Hannity and Rush spent many hours of their shows supporting her/attacking Castle toward the end, DeMint endorsed her late, Michelle Bachmann endorsed O’Donnell on the day before the primary
All the support from all these insurgent sources reached a critical mass for her, that any one who liked her positions but might have been concerned about the questions over her history felt they could safely support her without worrying about some embarrass revelation that might come out later.
I think Palin certainly helped her, but if Palin was the only one that endorsed her people might not have been convinced.