I’d disagree that Palin’s choices fare no better than Rove’s. In the past couple elections, hers have won several and Rove’s have lost nearly all. When you look at the actual numbers, she is doing much better, percentage-wise. You cannot claim that ALL tea party candidates are Palin choices. She doesn’t automatically endorse all TP candidates, because, as she well knows, people are fickle. Some she has endorsed have not been true TP candidates in the end, but she also stated QUITE PUBLICLY, that if they didn’t vote TP after being elected, then they deserve to be voted out next time around. One cannot always tell, and in the pressure by others to endorse, you can certainly be wrongly influenced, but Palin has also learned from these experiences, I’d say, and she is more careful whom she endorses.
I didn’t mean to denigrate Palin’s choices, just address the dominant assumption that conservative / tea party candidates lose while establishment candidates win. of course, you are way more informed than the average “expert” or journalist.