Here on Ocracoke Island, I have no cell phone signal and I have to go to a local coffee shop to receive Internet access. I don’t even have a car right now because the radiator hose blew up while I was waiting to load the car onto the ferry that takes us from Hatteras Island to this one. But I have cable television, including CSPAN. And I saw a little bit of Sarah Palin’s farewell speech on tape. I tried to listen to it, but her syntax is so mangled and her thought-flow is so jangled, that I find it overly burdensome to try to follow along. All I know is that she is no longer the governor of Alaska and that she is proud of how patriotic her fellow Alaskans are even though her husband spent a decade as a member of the secessionist Alaksan Independence Party. So, Sarah Palin has left the national scene (at least temporarily) the same way she entered it: by saying the exact opposite of truth. She said ‘thank you very much’ for that Bridge to Nowhere, and I have a feeling that that’s precisely the sort of bridge she officially crossed yesterday.

A better, more informed woman might flame-out while taking her shots at the press and then come back four or six years later to exact her revenge. Richard Nixon certainly managed that feat. But Richard Nixon was a very smart fellow who had all the requisite experience to be president. Having seen into Nixon’s character after the 1962 California gubernatorial race, the American people were foolish to take a chance on Nixon in 1968. But the Democratic Party, the assassination of RFK, and the Vietnam War, didn’t offer up the best alternatives to Tricky Dick. Maybe Sarah will wait for a similar opportunity. But, regardless of what the Democrats do, I don’t like her chances. She couldn’t handle the national press or the national glare. How could she ever handle Vladimir Putin’s giant head flying into our air-space?

Goodnight, Sarah. Fare thee well.