Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Resigns

Even at this point in time it's probably premature to assess the political phenomenon that is/(was?) Sarah Palin. Nonetheless, I'm thinking it may be the beginning of the end of that phenomenon and I'll go on with the thought...

I think the old guy, McCain, felt desperate last summer since his party was in disarray and he had to figure out a way to beat the young, charismatic and intellectual Obama. The running mates McCain might've preferred weren't acceptable to the social conservative base so in frustration he figured what the hell, threw a Hail Mary pass with Palin, then went on to lose in the fall anyway.

The VP selection wasn't really fair to Sarah nor, more importantly, to her family. Sarah, however, blinded by ambition, wasn't astute enough to comprehend the ramifications of agreeing to run. Yes, she had stars in her eyes and she wore that "sassy conservative" mantle with gusto. No matter what the wardrobe cost, or how it was paid for, sexy Sarah was a campaign-stumping sensation! C'mon, now folks, if she had not been a former beauty queen she would never have gotten the attention of the McCain campaign in the first place. They cynically figured they just MIGHT be able to harness her sex appeal and ride her into the White House. That's why it's a laughable crying shame that some have declared her a "feminist" candidate. DOH! One tragedy was that even Sarah Palin didn't seem to understand how she was being used for her superficial below-the-belt appeal. I think she believed it was legitimate for the handlers of her myth to twist it into a mavericky marketable commodity. As others have said, she believed her own press.

I think Sarah Palin and the ARC audience she addressed in New York (the recent visit when the notorious Letterman joke erupted) might well be horrified to know that no-less-a-Republican-political-mastermind than Lee Atwater himself was known to refer to the conservative religious base as "the extra chromosome crowd." He and Papa Bush were happy to harness the passion of that base and ride it into the White House two decades ago - no complicated intellectual appeal needed. This was while Ralph Reed and the so-called "Moral Majority" were talking about "stealth candidates" being slid into the offices of government from the grassroots level to propagate their conservative Christian agenda.

Yep, I'm feeling kind of sorry for Sarah right now. On a personal level I hate to see anybody's spirit broken, particularly when they're no longer a realistic political threat. I especially hate to see innocent children suffering from the hubris of the parent, even if dangerous naivete was a big part of said hubris.

So I'm feeling sorry for Sarah today, but that will change quickly if she willfully reenters public life to the further detriment of her family. She is now painfully aware of the cost. And the whole country knows she's aware. The Victim Card has no further value. As far as I'm concerned, it should be and it will be no-holds-barred if she doesn't keep her ill-educated narrow-minded self out of the national political arena from now on.

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You may want to visit the much talked about Todd Purdum article in August’s issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Despite the publication date it was written prior to Sarah’s resignation. As they say, “politics ain’t bean-bag.” (You’ll see that I borrowed a picture from that article: By Paul J. Richards/Getty Images.)