So yes, we all know that Palin is a balloonhead. Even the conservative-realist Foreign Policy gave thanks on Thanksgiving that Palin has no access to US foreign policy making. I have given up reading the reviews. I don’t think anything could seriously convince me to read the book.
But Sam Tannenhaus really captures how Palin both channels and reflects the larger problem of right’s increasing abdication of seriousness about government altogether:
“On the campaign trail she discovered a power greater than public office: the power of celebrity,” writes Matthew Continetti, an editor at The Weekly Standard and the author of “The Persecution of Sarah Palin,” a book that combines besotted advocacy with an assault on the liberal media that “tried to bring down a rising star.”
“Greater than public office”: this phrase distills an emerging doctrine on the right, as its long-standing distrust of federal bureaucrats and costly programs careers off into full-scale repudiation of governance itself.
Yes, the logical end point of tea-parties, Fox News, the ‘Palin-as-serious-contender’ fantasy, the ‘Obama-as-Hitler’ trope, Rush, Beck, and all the rest of the 2009 conservative implosion is the growing recognition by the rest of the country that the right is not only unfit to rule, but increasingly unable to.
(Tannenhaus’ good book on recent US conservatism is here.)
Robert E Kelly 
What do you mean by the Right? And Who? You do realize that more and more traditional conservatives are repudiating this nonsense. Just because they aren’t being covered my the media doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. Palin is an act of stupidity. Even Bush W. stated that she wasn’t ready to be VP. The time is not yet right for traditional conservatives to take on these people head to head. First we will let them defeat themselves. Prove to themselves that they are wrong. Make them discredit their own system. Demonstrate to them that Virginia is the way to go and not New York 23rd. You notice how the RIGHT RIGHT seems to have forgetten about New York 23rd. Now they are trying to claim Virginia’s and New Jersey’s example as their success. Bob McDonald who is a traditional Republican didn’t ask Palin to campaign for him, nor did he call President Obama names.
This far right stupidity will burn itself out. And when it does the only people who will miss are those who write about it.
Since you are on the subject of left and right. What are your views on the LEFT’S lambasting of the President. It is brutal. Also, what do you think of the President’s war strategy? Are you for it, against it, indifferent?
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Calling this movement (the RIGHT) conservative or conservatism is a misnomer. They are not conservative. They are akin to Jean Marie Le Pen’s movement in France. Just because they call themselves conservative doesn’t make them conservative.
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Dr. Bob:
I am amazed that you haven’t commented on the President’s War Plan. This would be an optimal time to get your insight on this issue. It actually follows your previous post on the Kagan. Writing on Palin serves Palin in selling her book. She is now a brand and needs to market herself. The more outrageous she is, and the more people write about her, the richer she gets. If people ignored her as they did David Duke (I am not saying that Palin is David Duke), she would be irrelevant in a matter of months. However she throws a bone out there and all the media hounds go running like greedy dogs after it. She is the smarter because she is using the media and not vice versa. Think about how much time and energy have been wasted on covering Palin. Instead of the media examining the actual health care bill so that they can convey to the public the pros and cons of this legislation, they would rather waste their talents on Palin. The fact that I am wasting my time on Palin is just as bad. Enough.
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