How about the liberal press, Saturday night live, The View, Msnbc, Cnn, Nbc, Abc, Cbs, Salon, Washington Post, Ny Times, LA times, they single handedly spewed their hate crap against Palin until they pretty much ruined her. Now you publish another article,. You are all pathetic.

Why wait????

'But I'm pretty sure whatever scandal that caused her to resign the governorship will sink any future chances she has of the presidency, not that they were that great to begin with. She'll get a part time speaking gig on Fox, write a couple books, and her "base" will move on to the next Left Behind spewer that comes along. End of her story.'

I so agree with your comments! The first thought that came to my mind when I heard about Palin's resignation was that she had to resign to preempt some scandal that's about to be publicized about her job performance or her family and--in the usual Palin fashion--she ditched the governorship and ran away like Little Miss Muffet. I also agree that the worst result of all the publicity about her (and the illogical support she has managed to garner) could prove disastrous in 4 years if the "fundies" are not satisfied with Pres. Obama's approach to cleaning up the mess GWB left us. God forbid we all contract this national "dumbing down" and decide to elect someone as unprepared as she is in 2012. Talk about a nightmare!

seem fixated on poor Sarah. I voted for Obama and she was one of the reasons; but she might have potential (I mostly doubt that, but she just might). My take is that you fear that she could emerge one of these days as someone pretty capable; and that really scares you. She could run for office and pull enough women over to her side to allow a victory. Or she could rally voters for some other GOP canidate. Either way you want to squash her as she hatches from her egg before she grows up to be something really scary (to you)--like a "slayer" of liberals.

Joe Conason and Matt Taibbi, of Rolling Stone, are, flat out, two of the best political pundits working today.

I have to tell you, the "Neo-cons" are w-a-a-ay more interested in the Dems' manic activism against Palin, then in Palin herself. Stop worrying. She already galvanized us. None of us are going anywhere, but thanks for adding flame to the fire. We need it. But Just to point out, many of history's most effective political leaders held no public office. At all.

I'm an atheist and wouldn't have Palin babysit my dogs, but Palin hate reeks of small-minded spite. I'm glad she's not a heartbeat away from the presidency, but Biden would be worse, and Obama is one rung below each of them. I'd take a random Cato Institute fellow over any of these three in a heartbeat. Then I'd skate through hell with a winged pig.

The modern GOP is a Machiavellian group, believing only in the figurehead of the POTUS. That individual is a token only; the real power & work is done in secret by others, in their world. Witness Cheney, Addington et al, all the way back to Ronald Reagan, whose early -onset Alzheimer's had him sleeping through briefings and watching the Sound of Music instead of reading intelligence reports. Sarah seemed perfect to the GOP - pretty on camera, vacuous, easy to manipulate.

"The GOP operatives who championed her should be held acountable for endangering the country"

I guess spell check was turned off.

What you mistakenly perceive as "hate" for Sarah Palin is simply the recognition that the woman is too ignorant, too incoherent -- and too dishonest -- to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.

After the last eight years of a president lacking the intellectual capacity to hold the office, do you think those of us in the "reality-based community" will politely remain mute while you knuckleheads attempt to inflict an even worse national disaster on us?

You'll get your daily Palin fix on Fox News. Leave it at that.

New polling up at RCP today shows that in Minnesota, if the election of 2012 were held today with either Palin or Pawlenty running against President Obama, Obama would have an easy victory.

Obama 56%

Palin 35%

21 point spread.

The numbers were not AS bad for Pawlenty, (51/40) but still pretty bad considering he is their homeboy.

Sorry Palin lovers but you guys are living in fantasyland if you really think she could be your next President.

Go back to you Harry Potter book. How childish.

Wow, AmericanSheep, you should be writing horror movies. I don't think I'll get to sleep tonight with that terrifying thought in my head.

Palin will wind up slotting nicely into the PR space that Giuliani has exhausted. Tough rhetoric, fear mongering and appealing to personal greed.

As a plus, she's more attractive to right wing men and women alike and (so far) hasn't had the marital "issues" of good ol' Rudy.

As an aside, I find it interesting that in her paeon to Palin this week, Ms. Paglia admitted that Palin would have to "read up" or "crack the books" or whatever to get up to speed on knowledge that most college students and many high school students already have. This sounds like advice for a college freshman with a C- average, not for a woman who many would like to see as our next President.

Joe,

Didn't you realize what you wrote when you included this description of SP: "a manifestly unqualified and incompetent politician unable to string together a series of coherent sentences..."

Where have you been? That's exactly what we had as president from 2001 till Jan. 20, 2009.

Vanity Fair is far more sensitive to criticsm than Salon since they don't really allow comments on their website even when they put something out there designed to be incendiary. I'm noticing a consistent failure to nail their subject whether it's the sic "American Dream" or in this case, Sarah Palin. Purdum wholly failed to examine the religious evangelism of the Alaskan bible belt that's as strident as any in the deep south.

Sarah Palin is convinced of her own divine destiny. She believes the hand of god rests on her shoulders. Why Purdum didn't examine the Assemblies of God church she formerly belonged to in my opinion misses the very crux of who this woman is. If he wanted to properly knock the lunatic, now former governor, he should have mentioned terms like creationism, speaking in tongues, faith healing, holy wars, the whole wacky ball of wax that should automatically disqualify her from being anywhere near any decisions that hold the world's fate. Do we want a holy warrior a heart beat away? I don't and Purdum doesn't.

As for the campaign insiders knowing full well what they had on their hands yet winning was more important than patriotism, fuck them! They have nothing left but sniping from the sidelines for the next 12 years, minimum. Thank god they didn't win and I'm an atheist.

Thankfully the writing stable here at Salon does better work but Camille thinks Palin destroyed Biden in the debate? I don't get that at all.