Repent at leisure

Sarah Palin must have seemed like the perfect match. A little young perhaps, and not really from anywhere convenient 8212; Wasilla, Alaska, not being on most people8217;s mental maps 8212; but definitely 8220;our kind of people8221;. So John McCain must have thought when he impulsively picked her out of a crowd of hopeful Republicans as his vice-presidential nominee. She might not know a lot about foreign, or any, policy, but she would hopefully 8220;energise the base8221; 8212; stir interest among the party faithful that were noticeably unenthusiastic about McCain. What McCain didn8217;t seem to anticipate was just how much she8217;d enjoy it.

So much is she revelling in it that last week she wound up criticising McCain for not going after Obama enough. And she seems to have decided to ignore the frantic efforts to get her back 8220;on-message8221;. So much so that word is now creeping out that the campaign is wracked with dissension; and that Palin herself has decided to 8220;go rogue8221;. A terrifying prospect from someone who we are told thinks nothing of skinning a moose before breakfast while wearing rimless glasses.

After all, what has Sarah Palin to lose? The Republican ticket is increasingly unlikely to win, but she has been catapulted to national fame. Also, clearly, international fame, but Palins tend to view that as a negative. Perhaps she can convert that into a campaign four years from now, but only if she isn8217;t held responsible for crashing-and-burning this one 8212; which, with her writhingly embarrassing performance in interviews and polarising speeches, she may just have. Hence the attempts now to distance herself from McCain. If McCain loses, she will have already undergone the separation; she can re-introduce herself, swishing into the party as a gay divorcee, the cynosure of all eyes, given the divorce settlement gives her the Republican base. And, of course, she gets to keep the 150,000 trousseau.