Deep Bench

Barack Obama is a truly gifted politician, though -- as ever a triangulating one [one commonality I always saw between he and Hillary Clinton]. But all-in-all an adroit one, who reaches the great majority of Americans -- and with luck will continue to do so.

But even if he doesn't, the Republicans remain truly his best ally on the road to a second term.

Who are the GOP contenders? Williard Romney, Newt Gingrich, and the Crazy Queen of Alaska.

In the aftermath of the November election, the conventional wisdom among Palin’s supporters in the Republican establishment was that she should go home, keep her head down, show that she could govern effectively, and quietly educate herself about foreign and domestic policy with the help of a cadre of experienced advisers. She has done none of this.

And though the disaster of Sarah Palin is ultimately as much, if not more, McCain's fault that any other (in an election he'd probably have lost anyway in only slightly less of a defeat) there is a moment when you feel some humanity for McCain...

Election Night brought what McCain aides saw as the final indignity. Palin decided she would make her own speech at the ticket’s farewell to the faithful, at the Arizona Biltmore, in Phoenix. When aides went to load McCain’s concession speech into the teleprompter, they found a concession speech for Palin—written by Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully, who had also been the principal drafter of her convention speech—already on the system. Schmidt and Salter told Palin that there was no tradition of Election Night speeches by running mates, and that she wouldn’t be giving one. Palin was insistent. “Are those John’s wishes?” she asked. They were, she was told. But Palin took the issue to McCain himself, raising it on the walk from his suite to the outdoor rally. Again the answer was no.

Here's a guy who's dreams of being President (and face it, he'd had that dream for about the whole length of the Republic's history) have been forever dashed and the Queen of Wasilla wants to kick off 2012 over his benediction.

I do have to say this is my favorite part:

More than once in my travels in Alaska, people brought up, without prompting, the question of Palin’s extravagant self-regard. Several told me, independently of one another, that they had consulted the definition of “narcissistic personality disorder” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—“a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy”—and thought it fit her perfectly. When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

(pic via Something Awful)