Further proof that Sarah Palin's political career is essentially over.

For those of us paying special attention to the Palin train wreck the idea of Sarah pursuing a legitimate political campaign probably seems ridiculous.  However there are those people who still believe that she has an actual chance of both running and winning a national election.

So for those of you on the short bus let me help to put your mind at ease.

First there is the myth that she is worshipped by the conservative voters in the southern states.  As recent polling shows, that is not factually based.

It's been assumed the South will be a source of strength for Sarah Palin if she decides to make a 2012 Presidential bid, but our early polling isn't backing up that assumption.

In Georgia we find Mike Huckabee as the leader with 38% to 28% for Mitt Romney and 25% for Palin. Palin has also finished behind Huckabee in recent polls of North Carolina and Alabama, and she's in third behind both Huckabee and Romney in Texas.

Huckabee has the lead with both moderates and conservatives. Interestingly Romney outruns Palin with both groups as well, including a 28-24 advantage over her with conservatives. As has been the case in other states Palin is not getting any boost from female voters- her 24% level of support from them is pretty much the same as her 25% with men.

Then there is the question concerning her ability to put together a team that will not only give her the kind of support she needs to make a viable run for office, but also one (and this would be new for her) whose advice she would both listen and respond to.

From New York Magazine:

As Going Rogue was about to roll out, relations between Palin and HarperCollins frayed when Rebecca Mansour, the co-founder of Conservatives4Palin.com who later became an adviser, attacked HarperCollins's strategic publicity campaign and decision to keep Palin under wraps until her first interview with Oprah. On Sunday, November 15, Palin advisers and HarperCollins held a conference call to discuss the book's launch. On the call were Palin's agent, Bob Barnett; advisers Doug McMarlin, Jason Recher, and Mansour; and HarperCollins PR chief Tina Andreadis. That morning, the Sunday political shows had been chewing over some of the book's juiciest revelations that surfaced after the Associated Press published excerpts on Thursday. During the call, Mansour, known by her nickname "RAM" by Palin's advisers, exploded at Andreadis because the AP had published excerpts and HarperCollins hadn't given advance copies of the book — which had been tightly held — to conservative blogs like Redstate.com and Conservatives4Palin.com. Mansour said Palin should be catering to the conservative blogs first (she didn't register that the AP had gotten a book through their own reporting methods and HarperCollins wasn't providing the book to anyone, liberal or conservative, until the official launch on Oprah). "This is not how Governor Palin would want her fucking PR campaign to be done!" Mansour snapped, according to one person with knowledge of the call. Andreadis was furious, one source said. Palin's lead advance aide, Jason Recher, tried to diffuse tensions.


Palin's view appears to be that loyalty, above experience, matters most. Her inner circle is filled with advisers like Mansour who have never held positions at that level for a national figure of Palin's stature. Palin's scarring experiences on the vice-presidential campaign define the culture of her new political operation, and it's understandable she'd be wary of expanding her circle.

Palin values loyalty beyond all else.  Beyond ability, beyond intelligence, beyond experience, beyond  even past support,. Loyalty is the coin of the realm in Palin-ville.  And if there is even the slightest indication that you are not in full agreement with Sarah's ideas then you will get tossed under the bus so fast you will not know what hit you, regardless of how valuable you may have been in the past.  Just ask Frank Bailey, Meg Stapleton, Steve Schmidt, Walt Monegan, John Binkley, or any other person who dared to correct or disagree with her highness Queen Ester.

To stay in Sarah's good graces you have to be willing support her without question and aggressively attack anybody who dares to bring up a fact that either damages her "Hockey mom/pitbull/woman of people" meme or demonstrates her ignorance about politics or the world in general. 

So in that capacity she has found the perfect sycophant in RAM.

Mansour, who somehow managed to insinuate herself between Palin and her past favorite attack weasel Meg Stapleton, is the perfect Palin apostle.  She is quite intelligent, but almost completely lacking in self confidence.  She is almost as thin skinned as Palin herself, and seems to view all perceived attacks on Sarah as personal attacks on herself as well. She is literally so enmeshed in Sarah's life that when, and we all know this is coming, she gets the boot I am not at all sure she will survive the experience.

However surrounding yourself with supporters who kiss your ass and tell you that every stupid thing that falls out of your mouth is genius is not the way to learn how to run a successful campaign, or prepare to actually run the country.  So unless Sarah's ENTIRE personality changes she is never going to have a competent staff that can actually get her past even the earliest of the debates. They will instead spend all of their time making excuses and claiming that Palin is being unfairly treated, and haven't we already walked out in the middle of that particular movie?

Then there is the fact that a whole slew of negative news stories and potentially bestselling books are coming out soon that will further expose the ungodly number of skeletons still hidden in her closets for all of the world to see.  Once THAT is taken into account the idea of a successful Palin run for President becomes a thing of drug inspired hallucination.

However, and this is my favorite part, there is still the strong possibility that Palin will actually launch a campaign.  I know, I just told you that it would be an exercise in futility, but that does not matter. Because it would also be a way to get more attention, and by the time the 2012 election cycle is upon us Palin might have started to slip from the national consciousness, which means she would not be earning as much money as she has grown accustomed to earning.

You see Palin has no desire to really win and then get saddled with the overwhelming job of running the country, but simply running would reignite her celebrity which further extends her fifteen minutes of fame.  And to Sarah fame means money.  Ka-ching Ka-ching baby! 

In other words you will NOT see Sarah running a Mitt Romeny style campaign where she uses her OWN money to help finance it.  Oh hell no!  The day she cannot convince some poor elderly housebound Grannie to send her money to buy ad time is the day she folds up her campaign and heads on home to Wasilla!  My best guess for an excuse will be "to spend more time with her family".  LOL!

So relax, the crazy woman is not going to be in a position politically fuck up your country anymore.  However if you thought she was going to disappear voluntarily then YOU may be suffering from a drug induced hallucination.

As for her influence on politics and policy from the sidelines, I am less confident that it will stop any time soon.  It will require that the MSM stops treating her like she has a valuable opinion, and for the blogs and comedy shows to continue reveal her vast ignorance and unabashed greediness, until finally the upcoming Palin themed books rip her facade off for all time.

Then, and only then, will we finally see her relegated to the same category currently occupied by the likes of Rod Blagojevich and John Edwards.