Here is why this kind of arcane detail may well smooth Palin’s path to the 2012 nomination. While nothing is certain this far out, Palin seems perfectly positioned to appeal to the conservative party activists who turn out for the opening-gun Iowa caucuses. Moderate New Hampshire, of course, is apt to be a daunting challenge for Palin.

The best way to stop Sarah would be for GOP insiders to rally quickly around a single anti-Palin candidate. But such cabals rarely work in politics because there are too many egos involved. Would, say, Romney be so panicked about Palin that he would prematurely abandon his presidential ambitions to support a potentially more winnable candidate like maybe Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty? Not bloody likely. For that matter, would populist Huckabee drop out in favor of a big-business Republican like Romney to prevent Palin mania? Yeah, sure.

Must think happy thoughts:

Rainbows, puppy dogs and the magnificent Defying Gravity from last week’s Glee.

Appearing as a guest panelist on Fox News Sunday today, Liz Cheney dropped her father’s name into the 2012 presidential conversation.

It’s not clear how serious she was — several members of the Fox News gang were in the middle of having a good laugh over video of President Obama’s slight bow to the Japanese emperor and Bill Kristol’s subsequent cracks about it. But when host Chris Wallace compared Obama’s bow to video of a stiff-backed Dick Cheney meeting the emperor in 2007, daughter Liz said, “You could also look at the comparison and think, Cheney 2012.”

A drink. I need a drink.

And remember, McCain panicked twice — first with Palin, then with “suspending” his campaign. Palin didn’t throw the election to Obama — she just gift-wrapped it.

Poor, dumbass, desperate McCain, within smelling distance of the presidency for what, 20 some years, felt the hot breath of death breathing down his neck when he saw himself behind in the polls and decided to pull a stunt, thinking it was time for a “hail mary,” and he has been quoted as saying thats what he thought he was doing in nominating her.

If he hadn’t panicked and chose her, and instead just calmed down, and chose some safe pick, he would have won.

If he had done that, the polls would have tightened steadily, as the theoretical poll support for Obama got closer to an actual election and lots and lots of people who supported Obama in the abstract started to deal with the reality of whether they were actually going to vote for a black man.

Palin, more than anyone alive, is responsible for the election of Obama, she discredited McCain completely just by the fact that he nominated her. If she could have held her grifting in control, and not gone off on a hillbilly shopping spree of petty rube corrupt grifting, and if she could have gotten through a softball interview with Catie Kouric without coming off as a lying patholigical narcissist dumbfuck rube, McCain would have won.