Could Sarah Palin really be the next US president?

Sarah Palin's resignation as Alaska's governor was a "stunning example of poor leadership", says The Philadelphia Inquirer. She cited a "higher calling", suggesting she's thinking of running for the presidency in 2012. But this move "practically disqualifies her". Her CV now reads like this: "small-town mayor; governor for less than three years of a remote state with fewer people than Delaware; failed national campaign for vice president; quit governor's job."

Whatever Palin said, the real reason she resigned is cash, says Kathleen Parker in The Washington Post. Her book deal alone reportedly means she'll never have to worry about money again. She may yet achieve her ambitions, says Frank Rich in The New York Times. A poll taken after she stepped down showed that 71% of registered Republicans would vote for her to be president. "She's not just her party's biggest star and most charismatic television performer" she's the only one.

She has a genuine following: a white non-urban America that feels "disenfranchised" by a hateful media, immigrants, and the "African-American who has ended a white monopoly on the White House". Palin's 'real America' is "demographically doomed", but it's an emotional constituency. Palin "puts a happy, sexy face on ugly emotions". She'll "flake out" long before the White House, says Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post.

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She articulates a (far-right) political vision and inspires people to believe in it. But realising that vision requires discipline, persistence and rigour attributes she lacks. It's ridiculous to imagine primary voters giving the nomination to a "folksily illiterate, bone-idle chancer who takes direct instruction from the Lord", says Matthew Norman in The Independent.

But in this desert of confusion the one oasis of certainty is that Palin sees herself atop that 'city upon a hill': "God have mercy on our souls if that doesn't prove a mirage, but it would be dishonest to deny a frisson of excitement at the prospect of finding out."