I'm tired of this person

But apparently not enough of the rest of you are.

I'm amused by the latest scandals produced by Palin's inane antics. Complain about the wise teleprompter that governs the nation, but write my talking points down on my hand. Yes. That will go over well to win some of my critics and fence-sitters to my side. Complain about a noted profane liberal in the White House using a sometime cryptic term that refers, in its direct terminology, to the mentally disabled such as her new child, but in the common lexicon of frustration and comedy, to people who you disagree with who are acting mentally disabled, and who used it privately to refer to political allies (ie, other "liberals"), but glaze over a noted profane conservative doing the same thing in his accusations of liberals. Again, this will go over well to win over a populace that claims to want something like post-partisanship again and again as evidenced by the convincing elections of people who promise it.

Nevertheless, I would prefer it if she would have just faded away and become a money making machine on the private market, perhaps occasionally making an offhanded and not fact-checked remark about death panels rather than sticking herself back into the political machinations directly by speaking for the behest of a group of self-styled and carefully groomed populists attempting to steer a herd of populist rage into delivering political victories for their chosen brand of politics (all the while tacitly supporting most of the things that populist rage was so adamantly against). I don't particularly care if she does these things, because people will pay for the supposed privilege of her performances, which are, supposedly driven by some evidence of charisma and populist charms that are lost on me. No. The problem is that the media insists on covering these things as though they are significant and will matter, in the same way that they insist on covering American Idol or Paris Hilton, despite repeated evidence that the end result of such things is that nothing significant happens. I think we've created one, maybe two new pop/country music stars after all these seasons of work and millions of fan hours of dedication to the idea of doing so. Likewise, all but the most partisan polls on Palin suggest that she is, at best, an irrelevant and unqualified candidate for political office on the national stage and continues to do nothing to affirm that she will ever work to change this assertion. Even some of her most confident supporters evince a gaping weakness where her grasp on issues and ability to convince detractors of the rightness of cause is concerned (something that the mantle of Reagan's ghost is long going to cast a shadow over the conservative political spectrum). But she is adored by millions and hated by millions, so she becomes "relevant" and a story of some sort. So we must talk about her.

I would like to be able to stop. Because of all the people out there talking about politics, she has the least new information and new proposals out there to start new discussions and discourse on how to resolve things. She is something like Bush squared, with a little bit more of stardom created in a way that Bush never had to earn (being part of a dynastic family tree). But at least Bush had the good political sense to try to select capable advisers to keep his glaring weaknesses down to a flicker during campaigns and hence win elections against modestly capable foes (in my opinion the most "capable" foe Bush ever ran against was in 2000 against McCain v2000 rather than McCain v2008-10). Palin does not do this. It will not end well, politically at least, if she persists in living in a bubble. But it might at least make the non-stop coverage occasionally amusing.

Look, the NBA went on its quest to find the next Michael Jordan too in the same way that conservatives seem desperate to find another Reagan. It did not go over well for years and the sport publicly marketed athletes like Kobe Bryant and, finally, LeBron James, all while the most popular player most years (ala Michael) was a surly, hyper competitive little guy with a game straight out of Rucker Park who played in Philly who still managed to get voted on to an All-Star game in his fading days despite not having had any tangible successes on the basketball court to justify his selection as a popular and somehow great player for several years running. Politically speaking, Palin is not even in Allen Iverson territory. Iverson's most ardent detractors mostly focus on his inefficient game, but most of his detractors (other than some stathead number-crunchers) are still willing to submit his resume as one worthy of some recognition of greatness. Reagan is in that category where many of his political enemies speak with grudging respect because of his accomplishments. He's one of several Presidents who probably could have continued to serve past the two term tradition because of his popularity and variety of successes in getting things done and this basically meant we got a weak but modest one term out of his Vice President as a result. Palin is still more like Erick Dampier territory than the AI of the GOP. The type of politician who gets a lot of hype and attention the way 7 footers in basketball drafts and free agency always get overpaid or drafted too early and then turn out to be flops without a record of accomplishment or even clearly defined ambitions and missions to draw upon when people other than her most desperate fans wish to support her. Unlike Dampier, we still have to talk about her until she fails.