This article from our local alternative paper is over a year old, but timely:
Palin Mania Smile and say 'cheesy'
by Bill Cope - Boise Weekly
If I were smart, I'd never put the words "Sarah" or "Palin" in the same sentence again. I truly believe her continuing presence in our national awareness is as contrived and ultimately meaningless as John McCain's desperate attempt to invigorate his fizzled-out campaign was when he dropped her in our laps some 15 months ago. The only thing keeping her around is that we are still talking about her. Were we to stop, she would thin out like a dollar store perfume stink and drift away.
Besides, most of us know she'll never be president, don't we? Most of us know she is to human depth what Toby Keith is to music. What cowboy poetry is to poetry. What Chef Boyardee is to fine dining. Most of us know that most of us would have more business being president than she does. Right?
I have struggled to understand why she's still in the nation's eye when there's so little to see. It can't be anything she's said, I tell myself, because everything she says is baloney. It can't be anything she's done, because other than flouncing from one stage to another, she hasn't done anything. It can't be because her ideas are so innovative or overpowering or appealing, because she has no ideas.
I admit, however, she's hard to ignore. For certain Americans, she is the soup du jour. This season's Tickle-Me-Elmo. The lite at the end of the tunnel. She is God speaking to them in an uneasy time, and they don't get that all He's trying to do is tell them a joke.
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http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/palin-mania/Content?oid=1363390