President Barack Obama thinks things started going off the rails — that is, the rising tide of disgruntled factions previously dormant in the GOP rose to power — about the time John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin’s attraction for McCain lay not in her experience or policy bona fides, but because she was “relatable.” The people who related to her most turned out to be the same people who make up Donald Trump’s base.
Talking to New York Magazine, Obama said: “I see a straight line from the announcement of Sarah Palin as the vice presidential nominee to what we see today in Donald Trump, the emergence of the Freedom Caucus, the tea party, and the shift in the center of gravity for the Republican Party.”
