Palin’s snub of conservative conference raises many questions

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's rejection of an invitation to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February is arousing widespread criticism and speculation, especially in light of her headliner role at the National Tea Party Convention scheduled for just two weeks earlier. CPAC has been the primary yearly get-together for movement conservatives for decades. It was the scene last year of Rush Limbaugh's keynote address, in which he called on conservatives to take back the country and effectively established himself as the leader of the Republican Party. Palin turned down an invitation to last year's festivities as well -- but that was before the rise of the Tea Party movement had raised the stakes on all sides. Mainstream observers tend to see Palin's decision as a lapse in judgment. Politico, for example,suggests that her choice to go with the "high energy, anti-establishment tea party movement" instead of the more established CPAC has "renewed questions about her political judgment and brought scrutiny on the Tea Party Convention."...read more