Answers: 1. Who cares? 2. No.

Hopefully, we will always have Sarah. She is the exposed raw Id of the crazy Right and should be designated a National Treasure.

Practically, if she can get a good solid Straussian (Mr. Kristol?) or Scientologist (Mr. Van Sustern?) in her corner, she can begin to learn to channel her glib dishonesty toward further destruction of the Republican Party.

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It's worth noting, on a related front, that Michelle Malkin, Billo, Ann Coulter, and other propagandists are coming out against the Birther meme, and even Rush has gone dark on this one for over a week now.

They want crazy, but not over-the-top crazy, so Michelle Bachmann is out while Sarah is, in Goldilocks fashion, "Just Right".

1. Run for president.
2. Unfortunately, yes.

"Last night, MSNBC's Countdown - with guest host Lawrence O'Donnell - did an excellent video retrospective on the rise and fall of Sarah Palin as a national political figure."

People who write Sarah Palin off could very well be making a mistake. John McCain had prospects of becoming president and might have if the economy hadn't taken a nose dive. Sarah Palin gave McCain a badly needed boost, not because of her intellect (very limited) and experience (also limited) but because her style and BS appealed, for better for for worse, to a large segment of the American people. I'm not aware of any improvement in the intelligence of the American people since the election so SP has a chance of getting a significant portion to go along with her lines, especially if she has better speech writers and handlers working for her. Obama, and others, proved style over substance can get a candidate into the oval office. SP has style, and if Obama fails in his first term she will have a good line to use: "I told ya so."

To paraphrase the Great Skeptic: No one ever lost an election underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

Also, if she lands lucrative deals making speeches, helping a ghost writer with a book, or gets a slot on hate radio or a television talk show, I don't know if you would call that a "fall" except maybe from a moral point of view, which is not the prevailing perspective in this nation.

I think Pat Ryan's closest to hitting that nail on the head. She creates more Democrats and Progressives than republicans. Run Sarah run.

One fatal character flaw, of several, I think she has is that she does not take advice from others. She is the Captain of the S.S. Palin and she knows best and by golly she's gonna do what she's gonna do. Damn the advice of the experts, full speed ahead into the iceberg!

It will be fun to watch and no doubt she's going to get rich, rich, rich in the process, but she will never rise to any higher office. She just does not have the dedication and the smarts to get 'er done.

This is from CNN's Political Ticker:

Powell called former Alaska governor Sarah Palin a "fascinating figure… you have got to hand it to her."

He repeated his assessment that the former Republican vice presidential candidate had not been ready for the Oval Office last fall, but said she was worth watching.

"Apparently, she is going to re-enter public life…. We will have to see what her plans are," he said Tuesday. "I do not know if she is doing all of this for political purposes or just to start a new life in the wonderful world of speaking. And we will all be watching with great interest."

Also, too.

She has $532 million in her PAC and this amount is surely growing. Like Nixon before her, she may be down, but we haven't seen the last of her by any means.

And, as Martha Stewart likes to say, "that's a good thing" for us as she offers an interesting contrast to our intelligent and well-informed Democratic candidates.

Liberals recite the talking points againt Palin like a mantra...limited intelligence is one. Yet, Im sure Palin can balance a checkbook and knows not to spend more than she and her family take in...how smart do you have to be to know this? Appraently smarter than most in DC that spend recklessly ...what good is liberal arts education if all you wanna use it for is to bankrupt our country with your agenda. Obama is a brilliant marxist socialist..US hater..he hates the US as the founding fathers defined it in the constitution...he wants "change"...change to socialist/fascist system of government that is as alien to us as democracy and freedom are to Cuba or China. Why did you vote for this man (if you did)?...those liberals that did are now the stupid and unintelligent ones given the mess he is making our our country apparently never having seen his real agenda (excuse?)...or perhaps you agree the US should be a banana republic?

After 2010 election..Obama will be finished...hes the new Jimmy Carter..only much worse. He is more like a refined version of Hugo Chavez. This power crazed demagogue wants the government to run practically everything for us..since the people apparently are too stupid to decide basic things in life for themselves..the government should decide for us and help us along..while putting us in a soft tyranny where majority of our income will soon flow to the federal coffers. Every day that passes this guy reveals himself to be more of a radical than anyone could have imagined (even those that didn;t vote for him but may have held a glimmer of hope he would try to govern at least left of center..rather than far left). Pelosi, Reid, Obama is the devils triangle for the US...and the perfect storm for US enemies around the world. Al Queda must be thinking..maybe they will just go bankrupt and we won;t have to "destroy" them..they will do it themselves..

Kari, I read that figure on my rounds on the net a week or so ago. I hope your figures are the correct ones as I am not finding the information. Or perhaps she did't report the balance, went on a shopping spree, who knows! :-)

FYI, since palin's resignation speech July 3rd, SarahPac has been taking in around $20,000 per day.

Wouldn't it be great if Sarah gets a right-wing radio talk show and goes on to threaten Hannity and Rush in the ratings? That would be the perfect conclusion to their reckless, idiotic support for this dingbat.

  The scary thing is that  it almost worked. If the GOP convention had just happened a couple of weeks before the election, the bounce would have been enough.

  As it was, there was a very limited time to get the American public up to speed here. I've been writing freelance comedy in America since 1993 and it's always bothered me that these observations by me and my colleagues didn't seem to make a difference. But I'm convinced it made a difference here. Remember, they would barely let her speak to a reporter but the comedy writers of the United States were free and willing to assess her ridiculous lack of qualifications for the job.

  That's why Sarah Palin is comedy's shining moment. The GOP pulled a caribou out of a hat, and the comedy writers of the United States jumped forward and tagged her. The real heroic female star of the last election wasn't Hillary - it was Tina Fey.

  I had 645 jokes on national TV, but the ones about Sarah during this campaign really mattered more than any others because they contributed to seizing power back from the GOP after 8 mind-numbing years of Bush and Cheney. In short, I believe this was the time when the comedy writers may have saved America. We couldn't stop the Iraq War or get Dick Cheney indicted, but by God, we had a major impact on Caribou Barbie's chances and there wasn't a whole lot of time to get that done.

  Now comes the real question: How did we ever get so close to having Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from being President of the United States? The chills of the Alaskan winter are nothing compared to the chills I get thinking about that.

"After 2010 election..Obama will be finished...hes the new Jimmy Carter..only much worse."

Obama Faces Carter/Clinton Parallels

Sarah has a little more smarts than Obama, she will probably kick back for a while. She also has more executive experience than our President and can do anything she sets her mind to.

She also has more executive experience than our President and can do anything she sets her mind to.

What a riot.

In 2012, Barack Obama will have four years experience leading a constituency of 300 million. Sarah Palin will have eight years leading a constituency of about 5 thousand, and 2 1/2 years leading a constituency of just under 700 thousand, a job that she quit before her term ended.

"Sarah Palin 2012 - 2014 1/2!"

Bill B:

"People who write Sarah Palin off could very well be making a mistake"?

Yes, and Ron Saxton will try again and this time be overwhelmingly be elected Gov!

When a relative who was a Republican, then got fed up and became NAV, then was offended by Bush 2004 and reregistered D, said Sarah has all the intelligence of a moose, when it became obvious during the campaign that she didn't want to study issues, just give glib, shallow remarks, when--according to some reporting--McCain staffers got fed up with Sarah, when she quit the Gov. job because she didn't want to be a lame duck, this is the sort of person Americans are looking for as a leader?

The 2000 version of McCain would have picked a more serious VP (Lieberman? Ridge?) and thumbed his nose at the party establishment. Palin seems to have been an impulse pick. But Americans are going to support her because....?

"Bill B:

"People who write Sarah Palin off could very well be making a mistake"?

Yes, and Ron Saxton will try again and this time be overwhelmingly be elected Gov!"

LT: You seem to have misinterpreted my comment. I didn't predict she would run for president and win, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a try with a sizable portion of the anti-Democrats supporting her. As for writing her off and becoming yesterday's news that may happen, but she also seems to have a potential of becoming another Limbaugh or less strident Ann Coulter. You can't consign her to the scrap heap if she can match Limbaugh in influencing a large segment of the country - and members of Congress.

"People who write Sarah Palin off could very well be making a mistake"?

"Yes, and Ron Saxton will try again and this time be overwhelmingly be elected Gov!"

LT: You are probably right about Saxton. I certainly hope so, but I'm sure many people had the same attitude about Nixon after 1960 when he was defeated by Kennedy and more so after 1964 when Goldwater became the Republican party's presidential candidate. Predicting the future is a risky business.

Apparently Sarah Palin's website is taking in $20k/day.

I'll not write her off as stranger things have been known to occur. It would, however be a significantly weird weather phenomena day in hell where frost gathered in bunches around the hinges of the proverbial gates before I ever took her seriously for a national elective office.

But then that could just be me...

Bill McDonald:

we had a major impact on Caribou Barbie's chances

Bob T:

You see, there's the stupidy. Calling her "Caribou Barbie".

McCain made a huge mistake choosing her, but she wasn't the dumb hick all of you people made her out to be, although she has mannerisms etc that add to that, and did indeed need experience in dealing with the large magnifying glass and press that tries "Gotcha" all day long. Most of us think we can answer any question--even simple ones--but it can be easy to be caught off guard. She got to be mayor, and then governor (and not one groomed by the party establishment up there), so she has something going for her.

Instead of dumping on her and showing once again that progressives believe all women and non-white people should be lefties or at least Democratic Party members, perhaps some of you should have at least praised her for being a female who had reached those positions. After all, as Chris Hitchens stated after the election, if Palin had been elected Vice President would that have made it an historic election as well? Face it, this was the closest a woman has come to being elected on a national ticket and that should mean something no matter what party you're in. Before Palin, Farraro received Electoral College votes from a single state (Minnesota), and before Ferraro there was Tonie Nathan who in 1972 received a single EC vote from Virginia as the VP candidate for the Libertarian Party, making her the first woman to get such a vote (Tonie is a friend of mine, a long time resident of Eugene, by the way).

Buy anyway, I think Palin might be like a Pat Buchanan in that she has a loyal following that can be sizeable, but above that line the negatives and indifference is strong enought to kill her chances at anything at the national level. I'm not big on superficial stuff, but her voice and manner of speaking don't help her outside of Alaska, and she often sounds unserious because of this.

But she's way ahead of Dan Quayle, who as VP couldn't even get a few Boy Scouts to help him campaign (does anyone rememeber Quayle's fundraising visit to the Portland Hilton when he was VP? He commanded a $25 per plate charge. That's extremely low for a VP -- heck, the mayor of Portland could have gotten $50 a plate for a speech held down the street at the same time.

Bob Tiernan Portland

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