Now that Sarah Palin's political career is critically wounded and hemorrhaging supporters, pundits are lining up to give their two cents.

The Daily Beast's John Avlon starts off his political autopsy thusly:

Call off the coronation—the media’s caught on to the slow motion implosion of Sarah Palin’s popularity, and with it her prospective presidential campaign.

Avlon then goes on to dig through the decaying corpse of Palin's failed career to bring to light her various missteps and politically fatal addiction to celebrity.

The American Conservative however takes the point of view that Palin is both the product, and the victim, of the conservative movement itself:

It’s true that Palin relies on shallow talking points, but where do these come from? They come from the institutions and leaders of the movement that is supposedly so concerned with ideas. Palin is uninterested in ideas, and she has flourished in the conservative media for years. She does rely on shallow talking points, and legions of conservative pundits have repeatedly defended her against charges that she is ignorant and incurious. Everything about her public persona since she received the VP nomination has been built up around tapping into resentment, grievance, and identity politics, all of which are in one way or another antithetical to critical thinking and substantive discussion of policy, and for a while most of her new detractors said nothing or gushed about how wonderful she was.

Over at Fox News, Bill O'Reilly (Who must be taking some glee in watching Palin's plummet.) entertains two differing opinions, one from Kellyanne Conway who correctly claims that overexposure killed the beast, and one from RAM twit-buddy Tammy Bruce who claims (No surprise here.) that it is all due to the media "filter". (Haven't we ALL seen Palin speaking in her own words enough times to drive a stake through that "media filter" moose-poop?)



However there is no mincing of words from former George Bush aide Ari Fleischer who seems to relish the insertion of his fork:

"I cannot see any way, shape or form that she can win the Republican primary,"

Now my personal take on all of this is that it was a forgone conclusion.  There was NEVER any real possibility that Palin would win the GOP nomination, much less actually get a chance to sit her skinny ass behind the desk in the Oval Office.  It was just never going to happen.

However what had to be pointed out repeatedly, and still does in my opinion, is how close such an incredibly incompetent person came to occupying the role of VP, and what that says about our politics, our media, and our fellow Americans.

And before we forget, Palin has had an incredibly damaging effect on the politics of this country.  Her fingerprints can be found all over the Tea Party, the resurgence of racism, the Birther movement, and even the religious intolerance and Islamophobia that is spreading through our nation like a hate inspired Black Plague. No I am not suggesting that she is wholly responsible for their inception, but she has clearly helped to promote them and to provide them with credibility to those who take her words at face value.

I truly hope that political scientists have taken careful notes to determine how a creature like Sarah Palin came to be, and what can be done in the future from ever letting it happen again.  There should be reams of documentation available for future students to study in order to fully understand the susceptibility of the American electorate, and how easily they can have their common sense hijacked and replaced with an emotional response to an attractive package with a combustible personality.

Because I don't know about all of you, but I hope to NEVER see the likes of Sarah Palin again. Never!