The Republican primary race would have become ridiculous as the media turned their sights on Palin. They can’t help themselves. She is the flame of moth dreams, the siren of mariners. Put her on the stage or a truckbed with other members of the GOP menagerie, and Americans would forget their purpose. The nation would splinter even more into cultish groups untethered to reality, their focus either to destroy Palin or to worship her, two equally potent passions that can’t be harnessed in her presence. Those red shoes. That wink. That pointy finger. Women would have to fill their ears with wax and men to strap themselves to flagpoles.
Utter madness.
On a more practical level, the distraction of Palin would have diluted the strength of better candidates. Some aver that she would have hurt only Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who shares her pipeline to the heavenly realm. But New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who also has declined to run, would have been much more damaging to Mitt Romney, goes the conventional wisdom.
Whatever the case, Palin certainly would have caused havoc for the GOP. Who knows? She might have won Iowa and the nomination and, then, surely would have lost the election.
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