Without a doubt, you are THE most thoughtful and articulate defender of Palin posting, pretty much anywhere as far as I can see. I thank you for that, as I'm sure do others here. I don't agree with you at all about her - I think she's just solidified her base and lost almost everyone else - but it's good to see someone who isn't a mere idolator coming to her rescue.

I think a lot of people are as puzzled about her methods as appalled. And you gamely try to explain your side, rather than just hissing as some of the conservative (and liberal) posters do. I appreciate your fortitude and civility - you absolutely make for better quality Salon.

Well, yeah, I figure she's headed for Fox. (Dear God, that voice and that craziness in the morning????) But, I'm trying to understand readerreader's perspective. He, and Bill Kristol, apparently are the only 2 non-palins who view this as a brilliant political move. I'm trying to unwind that tangled logic. I can't expect a sane person to explain it to me!

Former English grad student here. LOVE your moniker! "We . . . Climb to our proper dark, that we may trace the lineaments of a plummet-measured face."

It is pretty obvious.

Either Palin is trying to duck an impending scandal, or she is aiming at hosting a show on one of the cable networks (most likely on one of those religion channels that no one watches, or Fox NEWS).

like governing a state. Is she dreaming of becoming a community organizer?

I find it amazing that people can't see through her victimhood pose.

Especially, "Why is that terrible media picking on me?" . . . she says to the cameras.

It's like she invites a crowd to her home, and she throws pies at everyone. And when they throw them back, she whines and moans and complains that people threw pies at her.

She's bitching about the media TO the media, in front of cameras, on the radio, to reporters. Constantly.

Waaaaaaaa!!! "Why am I the subject of so much media attention!!" she says after her umpteenth interview on TV and radio.

"I want to call you all here today to tell you to stop paying attention to me."

She's a diva. Plain and simple. And a self-created martyr.

If she doesn't want the media picking on her, then she needs to stop running after them and waving her hands, "Look at me!! Look at me!!"

Yeah, she just hates all of the attention.

Riiiiiiiight.

The first time you posted that comment, I considered it fairly stupid and ignored it. The second time, it appears you're coming unglued. Are you here for serious discussion, or is this some kind of cry for help? If the latter, just call 9-1-1. Don't waste time posting on blogs.

Now the lipsticked pig, like the Cheshire cat
Fades to nothing but the sharky smile.
No more glittering winks, rejoinders pat,
Locutions incoherent or juvenile.

Not straightjacket but book contract
Removes Palin, that fecund breeder,
Her life lessons perforce to extract
For the improvement of the average reader.

What can she tell us, though unintelligent,
Sarah, of the right such a shining star?
Perhaps that bliss truly is ignorant,
And spouting gibberish gets you surprising far.

ReaderReader, you are exemplifying the concern over Palin infatuation. I understand that you like her, feel a strong connection, and also believe she's aligned with your core beliefs. I'm cool with that. I think your seeing the echoes of many famous historical personages in Palin a bit much, but you also inspired me to pick up a biography of Andrew Jackson.

My point of departure with you comes when I look beyond Palin as an object of adoration, and to what I think her day job should be as a political figure: policy.

Drilling in ANWR is not an energy independence policy, though it's obviously waving a red flag to anti-environmentalists and throwing red meat to the base. There's not enough oil there and would take many years to get it. Even drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is not an energy independence policy. There's not enough oil there and it will take years, if not decades to get it. We're losing the race to other countries to lead in alternative energy technology.

Palin seems to be a continuation of the Bush era if "we believe strong enough, long enough it is true" crowd. Which I long thought was the proper position of the day-glo New Age crowd, not the self described sober, adult and responsible Republican party.

Events are pushing many environmentalists to re evaluate their position on nuclear power. They still don't like it, but they're forced to deal with the way things are, now. Not the way we imagine them to be. The way to greatness lies in the future, not in the past.

They are two peas in a pod. Just as McCain used Palin as his hail mary pass when his campaign turned bleak, she is doing the same thing to kick start her stalled career. Both are frantic maneuvers from cornered, desperate politicians hoping to pull a game-changer. These two perhaps had more in common than we thought?

The only thing harder to understand than Sarah Palin's inscrutable resignation speech Friday was the statement her lawyer released Saturday, ...

No, the only thing harder to understand is why there is such a media uproar over this.

First you tell us she is so insignificant that it is ridiculous she enter the race as a vice-Presidential candidate. Now she decides to leave office early, and every Tom, Dick, and Mary in the news media is going apeshit trying to figure out "why" and "what does it all mean" and getting together like a bunch of vacuous 9th-graders who found out the fat, smelly girl had lunch with the captain of the football team. Yer pathetic! All of you!

So tell me, this coming Friday nite, are Joan Walsh, Maureen Dowd, and Shannyn Moore going to have a slumber party, where they prank-call Todd Palin, and then dance to old Spice Girls tunes in their pajamas while giggling and texting Keith Olbermann and David Gregory?

Of all the shit going on in the world today, of all the pressing issues upon our nation, and this. You focus on this. You know what Palin should do? Hold a press conference and say three words: "Get a life." (á la William Shatner to the Trekkies.)

Seriously, this is the most pathetic press gang-bang I have ever seen, and I remember the O.J. trial.

Seriously pathetic.

Seriously.

Serial.

Oh, by the way, did you know that a foreign nation has kidnapped and detained a former United States Congresswoman against her will? She was part of a group of aid workers delivering food and medicine to an impoverished, oppressed people living under a systematic genocide. Guess which nation kidnapped and detained her...the first 191 don't count.