Palin won't go away

Barack Obama doesn't have all the answers; I don't think he proclaims to. He, also, is probably trying to tackle too much at once. These are valid criticisms of the president. But there appears to be a genuine, thoughtful effort toward action - about the economy, about war, about recreating a better America.

And then along comes Sarah Palin. Again. She resigns as Alaska's governor to essentially focus on a national run for president in 2012. (Which, I predict, will be ill-fated, unless a nonliving person runs against her in a primary and another nonliving person runs against her in a general election.)

Yesterday's column in the New York Times by Frank Rich articulates why Palin continues to generate interest. (Alarmingly, 71 percent of surveyed Republicans said they would vote for her.)

Says Rich: "...[Palin] stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind."

Ouch.

He continues to rail into Palin when he reminds us when Palin said that Alaska is a "microcosm of America" and that she stands for a "real America" even though Alaska's NOT like the rest of America. ("Her state’s tiny black and Hispanic populations are unrepresentative of her nation," Rich points out with much obviousness.)


For the rest of Rich's column, the most emailed article on the New York Times website, click here.