NOPE: Is That All There Is To A Maverick?

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NEW YORK TIMES: Had she refused John McCain, Palin would still be a popular female governor in a Republican Party starved for future stars. Her scandals would be the stuff of local politics, her daughter’s pregnancy a minor story in the Lower 48, her son Trig’s parentage a nonissue even for conspiracy theorists. There would still be plenty of time to ease into the national spotlight, to bone up on the issues, and to craft a persona more appealing than the Mrs. Spiro Agnew role the McCain campaign assigned to her.

Most important, nobody would have realized yet how much she looks like Tina Fey.

But she said yes. It wasn’t the right thing to do, in hindsight, but it was certainly the human thing. She was coming off a charmed rise through statewide politics. John McCain was offering her a spot on a national ticket. It was the chance of a lifetime. And now, seemingly, it’s over. Oh, maybe not forever: she’s only 45, young enough (and, yes, talented enough) to have a second act. But last Friday’s bizarre, rambling resignation speech should take her off the political map for the duration of the Obama era.

One hopes that was intentional. A Sarah Palin who stepped down for the sake of her family and her media-swarmed state deserves sympathy even from the millions of Americans who despise her. A Sarah Palin who resigned in the delusional belief that it would give her a better shot at the presidency in 2012 warrants no such kindness. Either way, though, her 10 months on the national stage have been a dispiriting period for American democracy. MORE

DAILY KOS: We all know that Sarah Palin is dumb. And not just your garden-variety dumb, but mind-numbingingly, rip-your-hair-out, “In what respect, Charlie?” stupid. So it should not have come as a surprise that she would have the asinine idea of chucking her job (you know, the one she campaigned for, literally begged people to give her) so she could be “more effective” outside politics. It’s no secret that her most fervent desire is to be POTUS.  Why else would she jump so fast on the McCain bandwagon that her whole family got whiplash?  Why else would she humiliate and exploit her children if not for her own insatiable desire for bigger and better. And the scary thing is, I’m not convinced that she really enjoys politics or public service.  We all heard how she denigrated community organizers. I’d be willing to bet that she did so not because she thinks they give a person little to no experience in politics or don’t really do good works for the community, but simply because they don’t get a spotlight. If she could get the same recognition and limelight as a community organizer that the VPOTUS would garner, you know she’d be pounding pavement in her red stilettos. And that is the most dangerous thing about Sarah Palin. It’s not the stupid, nor the religion, or even the uber-right policy positions. It’s the reason she got into politics in the first place. Sarah Palin wants to be a celebrity, not a public servant. MORE

VANITY FAIR: Just where that storm may be heading is one of the most intriguing issues in American politics today. Palin is at once the sexiest and the riskiest brand in the Republican Party. Her appeal to people in the party (and in the country) who share her convictions and resentments is profound. […] Whatever her political future,the emergence of Sarah Palin raises questions that will not soon go away. What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his? In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this. Rather, she has pursued an erratic course that, for her, may actually represent the closest thing there is to True North. MORE

WASHINGTON POST: “Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to not run again,” [Palin] wrote through TwitterBerry, a mobile device application for the popular 140-character-per-“tweet” social-networking site. MORE

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