Why Sarah Palin Still Haunts Me... And Why She Should Still Haunt You Too

And, honestly, I don't think we should let her simply disappear for a couple years. We can't. And I'll tell you why.

Yeah, it's great that McCain/Palin lost last week. In fact, "great" doesn't begin to explain the magnitude of the gigantic bullet that this country dodged by not electing the Republican ticket. John McCain returns now to the Senate, where he'll probably make some amends and retire when his term expires in two years. But Sarah Palin, as is evident by her round-the-clock media bonanza the past few days, isn't going anywhere. And that scares me.

Sarah Palin is someone that must never be allowed to come anywhere near the White House. She is a fanatical, fundamentalist kook lacking not only in ideas, but in intellect. Yes, I said it: the woman is against thinking. She carries a disdain for, well, smart people that is painfully obvious, and totally unfit for a potential PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

John McCain lost this presidential election, thank God. And we will not have to suffer through another four or eight years of a George W. Bush-like presidency. But the real damage McCain did was that, in choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, he turned her into a national figure. Over 56 million people voted for her to be their next vice president. A recent Rasmussen poll showed that GOP voters liked Palin more than McCain. Rasmussen also found that 64% (!) of Republicans want her to be their party's presidential nominee (!!) in 2012.

So, you see, therein lies the problem.

Let's say she runs in 2012. In fact, barring some kind of unforeseen event (like she loses her 2010 re-election bid for Alaska governor), Palin will indeed run for president in four years. She will have legions of devoted supporters right off the bat. And she will indeed begin the race as the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination. Okay, fine. Those are just Republicans, you might say. Well, yes - but there's more.

The main reason Sarah Palin was dumped by independents and some Republicans is not because they saw her as the braindead farce that I - along with many others - saw her as, it's because she was seen as "not ready." That's all it was. "Not ready." Not "you're a crazy, scary bitch and you will never be competent enough to even go on a White House TOUR." No, just "not ready" - meaning that, with three or four years of "executive experience", along with some clever political posturing to engage her in issues that actually matter, come 2012 a great deal of people are more likely to see her as "ready" to do the job.

And that's my fear. My fear is that, by virtue of the fact that she'll have four more years doing... whatever it is that she does up in Alaska under her belt, she'll have a far easier time convincing enough of the American electorate that her biggest weakness this time around - her readiness to serve as president - is no longer a weakness. In fact, she may even be able to turn it into a strength. No joke.

This is why I will not stop talking about her. This is why Andrew Sullivan and Kevin Drum and others will not stop talking about her either. She is too dangerous, too fundamentalist, too stupid, quite frankly, to ever - ever - be on a national ticket again - not in four years, not in eight years, not in 20 years.

Never. Again. Not if I have anything to say about it, at least.