It's difficult to say whether or not Sarah Palin ever really was a threat- electorally speaking- to Barack Obama. On the one hand, Palin- who even at the time of her selection by Senator John McCain as the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee had served less than a year as Governor of Alaska, and no time whatsoever in other federal or state office- should have been a lackluster national leader from the beginning. A virtual unknown outside of political circles prior to the summer of 2008, Palin has been a nonstop sideshow ever since.
But despite scandal after scandal by which Palin has been beset, she's remained popular nationally among the Republican rank-and-file, the darling/"pitbull" of a party struggling to find its identity after a handfull of demoralizing electoral defeats. It took no time at all for Palin to begin generating somewhere-south-of-positiveedia attention. There was the tens of thousands spent on shopping sprees at Nieman Marcus to outfit "Sarah Barracuda." There was the much-lampooned pregancy of the "abstinence only" advocate's daughter, and allegations that she'd carried on a sexual affair with her husband's business partner. And that was before opponents even began analyzing her substantive abilities as a leader. Her debate performance was terrible.
Her one-on-one interviews were vapid, nothing short of jaw-droppingly awful. She made gaffes (i.e, insisting her state's western coast's geographic proximity to the east coast of Russia constituted some semblance of foreign policy experience) at a breakneck pace surpasses only, perhaps, by her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, who had Obama to cover for him, and none of Palin's other issues. Even now, months after her campaign ended in the most decisive electoral defeat of any Republican ticket in decades, Palin continues to generate negative press.
There've been reports of diva-esque behavior on the campaign trail, a steady and lasting feud between Palin's advisors and McCain's, more gaffes and bad interviews, ongoing striffe with the father of the 45-year-old grandmother's infant grandson, and pure, unapologetic ambition. Then, of course, came Palin's abrupt and as-yet unexplained resignation from the office of governor just two and a half years into her first term. All this, as she not-so-subtly hints, and her supporters downright insist that she's a viable 2012 presidential candidate (against Obama, the very man who so badly destroyed her party's ticket in 2008). Now a private citizen, reputedly searching for some kind of mass media outlet to give her a soap box (radio, television, print, etc.), Palin couldn't be any further from the realm of relevance. Even if she were to achieve a balance that allowed her to stay in the public eye, her voice, once looked to by the right as one of policymaking and leadership, will have been lost in the caucophony of punditry. And let's be honest: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly have big audiences and bigger opinions.
But in the end, they're just that: opinions without an ounce of real influence on day to day policy. Palin- a walking scandal maker from the moment she stepped onto the national scene- gave up the one thing in resignation that was keeping her even remotely relevant. And as time wears on, she'll see it. But her real problem is that people will cease to see her.
