Sarah Palin sports a New Hampshire sweatshirt Thursday: Palin said it was a coincidence that her visit to the state overlapped with Mitt Romney's announcement of his presidential campaign.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

n Boston, Thursday, Sarah Palin suggested that Mitt Romney's "support of government mandates" in health care might doom his presidential hopes. Then she traveled to New Hampshire, her first such visit in three years, and held a clambake at a home just minutes from the site where potential GOP presidential rival Romney launched his campaign hours earlier. Palin insists that the timing of her visit is "coincidental." But Palin's "improbable coincidences" just keep piling up, says Jay Newton-Small in TIME. Is Palin trying to sabotage the GOP frontrunner?

Palin's gunning for Romney: Taken separately, her attention-grabbing trip to New Hampshire and her ill-informed criticism of Romney's health care positions could just plausibly be unrelated to Romney's big roll-out, says Jed Lewison in Daily Kos. But both in the same day? "It's pretty obvious that whether or not she's running, Palin intended to throw Romney under the bus."
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Romney might welcome the fight: It's worth noting that Palin also said Romney will make a "great candidate" and "denied that she was attempting to outshine Romney on his big day," says Scott Conroy in RealClearPolitics. And although she did rip him pretty hard over "RomneyCare," Mitt might even be grateful. A healthy Romney vs. Palin narrative "could pay some dividends for both contenders in a crowded presidential field."
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Palin is out for Palin: Whether Palin "deliberately or accidentally" stepped on Romney's launch, says Sam Stein in The Huffington Post, the message was the same: Palin "feels no allegiance to others inside the GOP tent." And in Romney's case, Palin's "streak of independence" also carries some "subtle ingratitude," given his role in boosting her 2006 run for Alaska governor.
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