Palin quits as Alaska governor, but stays quiet on plans for national comeback.

The most honest thing I can say is that I have never understood the power of Sarah Palin when it comes to charming the right wing. She has always struck me as slightly nutty. But they obviously see something else.

So, it's no great surprise that I watch this video and wince, wondering what the Hell these people are cheering for. She's vaguely blaming the press and implying that the troops are dying to enable the press to tell the truth. On that theme she asked the press, "how about, in honour of the American soldier, you quit making things up."

It's classic Palin. It's vapid, it's without any actual example of where she feels she has been unfairly maligned, but it appeals to some vague notion that the world has it in for right wingers.

Palin's departure relieves her of the bureaucratic burdens that had started to weigh her down in recent months. Supporters hope she will use her new freedom to pursue a national profile that will lead to a run on the White House in 2012.

But without the governor's title, Palin is also left without a formal political power base from which to kickstart any campaign. She carries with her debts, continuing ethics battles related to her term in office, and the new label of "quitter".

Exactly what she will do with her ample spare time remains a big question. Her spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, told Associated Press: "I cannot express enough there is no plan after 26 July." The only known date in her diary is 8 August, when she will speak at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California.

Pundits are equally divided between those who are convinced she is finished, and those who think the Palin spectacle has just begun. Part of the reason for the polarised response is that Palin is a polarising politician, and part because she herself offers so little in the way of explanation.

Her most effusive comments these days are via Twitter. Recently she posted an overtly political tweet: "Ain't gonna shut my mouth/I know there's got to be a few hundred million more like me/just trying to keep it free".

I personally think she is finished, whilst secretly praying that she will be insane enough to challenge Obama in 2012.

I regard this woman as barking mad. And the very fact that she excites so much of what remains of the Republican base is, to me, an indication of just how loopy the runt of that base are.

She stands for nothing. She speaks in only the corniest, vaguest, sound bites; allowing her audience to fill the gaps in her perceived grievances with whatever personal feelings of helplessness they might have.

The enemy is "the press" and "Liberals", but their actual crime always remains undefined. Or, rather, it's so widely understood amongst right wingers that there is no need for Sarah to articulate it.

I've always said that - barring some unforeseen Democratic disaster - I think the Republicans are dead for the next decade. They stand for nothing. Reaganism has been destroyed by the excesses of the market and they are left mouthing empty slogans.

To that end, Palin is the perfect champion of their cause. But I doubt, when push comes to shove, that even the Republicans would be insane enough to elect her to face Obama in 2012.

UPDATE:





Here's the entire thing. She wants Hollywood to know, "We eat, therefore, we hunt." So the enemies she perceives are "the press" and "Hollywood."

She's still attacking the notion that the government can do any good and extolling the notion that God's grace, "helps those who help themselves."

It's bonkers, but her audience loves it.

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Tags: Palin, Alaska, resignation