Odds are, Sarah Palin’s occasional gestures toward the 2012 race are “a long and tiresome tease,” and that’s a shame, writes Steve Kornacki of Salon, because a presidential run “may be the best way of making her disappear for good.” Palin would definitely suffer defeat, after all, “and not just any kind of defeat —epic, humiliating defeat, the sort of disaster that might once and for all convince the political and media worlds that the empress has no clothes.”
Since 2008, Palin has “profoundly alienated” Republican operatives and opinion-makers, charting “her own erratic course” to “one needless, self-induced and no-win controversy after another.” If she ran, polls would look good at first, but “she would be entirely on her own … and that’s a recipe for disaster.” So far, she's coasted on her celebrity, but after a couple humiliating defeats, “Palin might suddenly find that the media isn't nearly as interested in her every tweet and Facebook post.” (More Steve Kornacki stories.)