So, did I miss anything?

I had yesterday off, and as is often the case when I turn my attention to the 3-dimensional world, I didn't read the news. So, full confession here -- I didn't actually know that Sarah Palin had announced her resignation until I saw Devin's post earlier today. I guess even two-bit amateur pundits should avoid days off?

Having read the assorted reactions from around the various sites I frequent, I have three thoughts:

1) If she thinks she has any chance at ever being President of the United States, she is an even bigger imbecile than I thought. (And that, my friends, is one big imbecile.) I will amend this opinion somewhat if she runs and wins against Murkowski in 2010, but assuming she does not, this pretty much demolishes any credibility she might have hoped to gain with people who don't already make up her frothing base. She will have had less than one term as governor of a sparsely-populated state, and will have spent much of that time primarily as a VP candidate. Anyone who actually takes politics at all seriously can see that she is not, and never will be, a serious candidate.

2) Why is she doing it? Hell if I should know. That incoherent announcement, which is such a gift to Tina Fey that I'm surprised she didn't deliver it wearing a gigantic bow, gave no clues at all. (Q.v. Devin's disclaimer about any kind of major, tragic diagnosis, in which case I will be forced to be very abashed.) Maybe she just wants to get really, really rich from speaker's fees. Guesses?

3) Man oh man oh man. That GOP is in some seeeeeeeerious weeds. With the exceptions of Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, I can think of no credible standard-bearers for the Republican Party going from here. (Maybe Bobby Jindal, but we haven't much from him since that self-immolation of a GOP response to Obama's Congressional address a while back.) They have no message except a constant drum-beat of lunacy and obstructionism, and their front-runners are dropping like flies. This political imbalance is really not good for the health of our public discourse, but it's hard not to feel some schadenfreude.