http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...o-sarah-palin/

David Frum: Good riddance to Sarah Palin
Oct 6, 2011 - 8:34 AM ET |
Last Updated: Oct 6, 2011 8:39 AM ET

"I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets."

- From Sarah Palin's statement announcing her decision not to run for
president.

Um, probably not. Sarah Palin's political voice had dwindled well before
she announced her decision not to run. Now it will sink altogether into
inaudibility. She will be no kind of force in future national
discussions. She will have no sway over party debates. She will retain
some star power for a little while longer. She may for another cycle or
two be able to help certain candidates for certain political offices
raise some money. Even that will fade within two more years or four. Her
political career was brief, bizarre, and sordid. But now at least it is
definitively finished.

Palin will never become a party elder stateswoman. Over the past three
years, it became apparent to all but a handful of cultists that her only
interests were money and celebrity. She had no concept of public
service, and no capacity to serve even if she had wished to do so. Soon
even those last cultists will quietly abandon the argument. We talk
often these days about makers and takers. Sarah Palin was the ultimate
taker. She abandoned her post as governor of Alaska to cash in on
lectures and TV. She squeezed her supporters for political donations and
spent the money on herself. To adapt an old phrase, she seen her
opportunities and she took 'em.

In the end, she exploited, abused, or embarrassed almost everyone who
had believed in her. Most embarrassing of all: she was never even a very
good con artist. Everything that was false and petty and unqualified in
her was visible within the first minutes of encountering her. The people
she fooled were people who passionately wished to be fooled. To that
extent, what was important in her story was not the faults and failings
of Sarah Palin. There have always been grifters in politics. What was
important in her story was the revelation of conservatism's lack of
antibodies against somebody with the faults and failings of Sarah Palin.
That's the story that should trouble us still.

Author and columnist David Frum is editor of FrumForum.com, where this
originally appeared.