If jaws weren't already dropping at the idea of Sarah Palin kiting off to India to display her international political chops (where, according to a writer for the conservative Frum Forum, she flopped horrifically), they certainly were by the bomb she dropped when she got there (emphasis mine):
Republicans would have been more successful in the 2008 presidential elections if she was at the top of the ticket, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested Saturday.
Speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, Palin was asked why the GOP ticket did not defeat then-Sen. Barack Obama (D). Palin said that Obama ran a strong campaign and effectively billed himself as a change candidate.
Pressed by India Today editor Aroon Purie that she also represented change, Palin replied, "I wasn't at the top of the ticket, remember?"
Hey there, "change agent," there's still time! 2012 or bust, baby!
The notion that Palin, whose "out of her depth" performance outside of scripted or crib-carded events in 2008 made her a national punchline, would have been a more effective vehicle for the GOP against Barack Obama's presidential bid is laughable.
But, heck, lest we forget: This is not a recent construction within Palin's own mind. During the 2008 campaign, she got nabbed on video talking about what to expect in a "Palin McCain administration."
The story here is not that she made such a statement. It is that she believes it. She views herself as a legitimate political juggernaut. There are a lot of good reasons to believe that she won't run for president. But that might be the sole reason, and a damn good one, why she might run.
This might explain, furthermore, why the sharpest verbal jabs at Palin have come increasingly from the right. There is a simple bit of electoral math that has Republicans sleepless in the night.
She can't win a general election. But she could win a Republican primary. Therein lies the enormous peril for the GOP as they head into the 2012 White House sweepstakes. And it is why you can expect the Palin-bashing to be in greater evidence from the right rather than from the left.