Christine O’Donnell dropped from event with Sarah Palin

Christine O’Donnell was threatening to make trouble for Sarah Palin’s speech this weekend to a tea-party group in Iowa, but it looks like O’Donnell won’t be showing up after all.

After it was widely reported that the former Delaware senatorial candidate, author, and TV interview flight risk would speak before Palin at the Indianola, Ia. event Saturday, the organizers of the “Restoring America” rally have apparently changed their minds.

One of the rally’s organizers, Charlie Gruschow, said, that “there were issues with the schedule of the event,” adding that the group, Tea Party of America received “some comments from people planning on attending the event questioning” the decision to add O’Donnell to the agenda.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire.

Regardless of the reason, the move would seem to inure to Palin’s benefit.

The former Alaska governor’s speech will be closely watched for signs that she’s preparing a presidential run, and in that context, any association with O’Donnell, who is viewed by many voters, both inside and outside the tea party, as a political liability, would likely only damage Palin’s prospective effort to reach out to wide swaths of conservatives.

Palin did endorse O’Donnell in her campaign to replace former Sen. Mike Castle. In a year where many tea-party candidates swept into office, she was trounced by Chris Coons.

O’Donnell is touring the country in support of her new political memoir “Trouble Maker.”