A Paler Palin

Only a year ago, hardly anyone outside of Alaska had even heard the name Sarah Palin. After her surprise resignation as Alaska's governor a few days ago, it's possible (although not probable) that a year from now we'll have almost forgotten her. But if Palin does end up receding from public life - and doesn't, as has been speculated, shift her focus full-time to national politics and a possible 2012 presidential run - at least we'll be able to cherish our memories of one of the brightest, if shortest-lived shooting stars in political history. Oh, those wacky, alternately hilarious, terrifying and vicariously painful memories.

Palin's exited the political stage much the same way as she entered it, with a jumble of incoherent, often plainly contradictory statements. Certainly, only the most gifted politician could declare her contempt for quitters in the midst of a resignation speech, and it's only slightly less impressive a trick to condemn the media that made you into a star for daring to look beneath your corona of neo-con pancake makeup.

But what does this all mean, aside from Tina Fey perhaps having fewer distractions from 30 Rock? Some in the dastardly media have busied themselves by guessing Palin's next move, while others have speculated on her mental state. In a piece that predated (and who knows, maybe played a role in) her resignation, Vanity Fair contributor Todd Purdum introduces readers to Palin acquaintances who wonder if her zaniness is due to narcissistic personality disorder or postpartum depression. But in this post for DoubleX.com, a shrink rightly dismisses these pop-psych diagnoses. Palin may have delusions of grandeur, but they're not medically debilitating - they're just childish and immature. 

What it means for society may be more promising. As Purdum notes, Palin seems to suffer above all from a chronic disinterest in policy and the actual affairs of the world, traits she shares with a certain president just recently put out to the speaking-tour pasture. If she is indeed leaving politics for good, she will hopefully take with her the disturbing trend of politicians using their own ignorance, xenophobia and lack of curiosity as the building blocks of successful campaigns and careers. 

George W. Bush appealed to a segment of the American population that, like the cool kids in middle school, saw great virtue in not knowing stuff. Palin took that same cult of personality to its most absurd extremes, and may have stretched it beyond the point of viability. 

Or maybe not. In which case, we'll see her in 2012.