Tangerine, you raise some spirited questions. As you might know, I've addressed them at length before.

I'll touch briefly on the money factor. I hope she makes a fortune with the book. I'll buy at least one copy. In fact, to show you what a hopeless Sarahtista I am, to paraphrase Khrushchev, let me note when she cooperated with People magazine on a couple of cover stories, I bought copies of them while in the grocery line and threw them in my brief case (never to be brought out since) solely because I thought it would do a small part to prop up the advance fee for her memoir.

Juliebird, I think you go too far in critiquing the raising of Trig. Go watch the Special Olympics video on Youtube as a moment of atonement. As for Bristol, come on. The girl was the belle of the ball in New York, going on the Today Show and photo shoots and such. If she doesn't do well, then I don't know who will. I'm sure the same is true of her child.

The missing link here for liberals is "fun." I can't tell you how many times I've smiled thinking about Sarah Palin's brief career in national politics.

Oh, and one final thought about the polling of the children on resignation. That's pure Nixon, too -- recall his daughters were the last hold-outs against it. You can't do something like this and not the poll the children! Come on. What were you doing during American history class? :)

Amanda is a fairly new writer for Salon. And, strangely, she was chosen, or was assigned, this topic about Palin, which of course means it consigns her, and the article, to the Broadsheet ghetto.

There were dozens of aspects of the Palin drama to write about. But, somehow, this is what she ended up with.

So far, according to a search on her name, she's written about Jenny Sanford, Why Your Marriage Sucks, When "Date Night" Is Not Enough, and an article about Female Confessional Journalism.

Obviously, I don't know her background, her experience, or her interests. What I do know is that Salon doesn't have any regular female contributors who cover politics or news or anything else that's not shoved into Broadsheet. I had hoped the next regular contributor would be a woman who could be assigned non-Broadsheet topics like Koppelman, Madden, Conason, et al.

For whatever reason, Joan Walsh disagrees with me and with other regular Salon readers who have expressed the same sentiment. For a while I thought that it was just coincidence, that the regular female contributors just had the background and desire to write about "women's issues" only, and the male contributors' experience led them to write about politics and news. Then Salon hires another writer, and it's another woman who writes only for Broadsheet.

So what's Joan telling us?

I am, though, a little puzzled by Joan, a woman who doesn't seem to understand that some readers are frustrated by the whole concept of Broadsheet, and by her refusal to hire women to write for anything but Broadsheet.

I am not a broad, and really have no rightful place on this website, but for what it's worth, I think Fortini is a good writer. For some reason, I really liked the first thing I saw, read some more, and then there is some stuff elsewhere in the net from prior service. Don't be too hard on Joan Walsh for allowing a morsel of respect toward Palin to infiltrate the anti-Palin fortress. I wrote more than 1,000 letters in the vain hope of inspiring such a morsel, and lo and behold, there is a talented new writer who expresses it.

Amanda, I hope I didn't just kill your career. :)

The Br'er Fox Obots who descended on Alaska and attempted to bankrupt Palin must now watch her cite their tactics as a quite legitimate excuse to do what she really wants to do, which is fight Huckabee for Iowa.

Citation for any of that mess?

5. In the meantime, she also has a good game plan for Alaska. Her replacement will carry the torch on the Calgary pipe line and is the instant pro-Palin front runner for the 2010 primary, while she goes off and barn storms nationally to raise Congressional support for ANWR drilling.

I'm agreeing with you more and more. Any game plan for Alaska from which Sarah Palin is absent the governor's seat is a good game plan for Alaska.

6. This, in turn, gives her a trifecta: (a) she helps her beloved home state, (b) she pushes a program of national energy independence and prosperity through lower energy costs, and (c) she builds a national Republican platform.

What is it about the right-wing brain that is allergic to physics and mathematics? You are relatively well spoken at times, perhaps you can enlighten us?

There isn't enough oil in Alaska, or Texas, or the Gulf of Mexico to feed our monster. Simply not even close.

7. Okay, so why was her resignation speech underwhelming?

For the same reason all of her speeches have been underwhelming. She has a dysfunctional relationship with the English language. You write reasonably well, you really can't see it? She makes Bush look like Robert Frost and Maya Angelou's love child (sorry for that image).

8. So, am I saying there is no emotion? No, I think there is, as it relates to the kids, but that's part of the power of the Sarah Palin punch.

There are at least a few billion people on the planet who've managed to breed with other people. Big deal. What else ya got?

The Thrilla from Wasilla could say to Huckabee what Ali told Frazier in Manilla: "You're the greatest in the world . . . after me."

I'm not sure she could manage that. It would probably come out something like: "You are, I mean, people say... I'm saying what people are saying, and these are people saying these things, people say I'm saying it, but what I'm trying to say is that the greatest in the world people aren't saying that about you. And the liberals, out there, they just pounce on what I say, even if what the greatest is what I'm saying, even if it's terrific."

10. And of course, as also noted before, the key word here is PAC. Palin made her first overt solicitation for PAC money right before the 6/30 biannual cut-off, then resigned her office on 7/3. Coincidence? I think not. I predict a blockbuster number followed by campaign scheduling and work on her book. She's a star, baby.

I'll make an alternate prediction. Palin is done in elective office. I really wish she could win the primary, as you surmised from my snark, but it's just a wish. I will go out on a limb predict Colin Powell to run, and win the primary. I'm not gonna bet it on Intrade, just yet, but let's see who gets closer to reality.

And so, back to Uncle Remus and the briar patch. That's where Sarah Palin landed. I hope she's in her laughing place. She certainly deserves it.

Well, if that's where she landed, it's only because she threw herself in.