Palin in 2012: Yes, She Can

Frank Rich can see 2012 from his keyboard, and it's looking like Sarah Palin's year—no matter how loudly Democrats and Republicans alike deride her celebrity, thin resumé, and nonstop gaffes. "If logic applied to Palin's career trajectory, this month might have been dreadful," he writes for the New York Times, pointing to the "gaggle of wacky losers" she endorsed, and Alaskans' "refudiation" of pet Joe Miller, not to mention her kids' Facebook faux pas. But logic need not apply here, because Palin has "turned fallibility into a formula for success."

While Newt and Huck are out begging for money, she's getting paid a quarter-million a week to put herself in front of 5 million eyeballs. She gets movie-star treatment over at Fox. Her favorable ratings within the GOP are "an awesome 80%," Rich notes, and the many GOP brass who want to stop her "are utterly baffled about how to do so"—every time they bash her, they burnish her "real American" cred. It's Palin's show, Rich concludes, and she can "dance to the top of the Republican ticket when and if she wants to." (More Sarah Palin 2012 stories.)