Palin Was An Eyesore From The Word 'Go'

CLEVELAND - As Sarah Palin stepped down as governor of Alaska yesterday, America was given temporary relief from the train wreck that was forced upon us 11 months ago.

Notice I said, "temporary."

Palin proved herself to be a joke once again by quitting her job in the middle of her term. Her explanations for the sudden move painted her choice as an upstanding and selfless decision. She said that she can now "fight even harder for [us], for what is right and what is truth."

Um, sure.

Lt. governor Sean Parnell took over the reigns as Palin's successor and with his swearing in, us unwilling victims of the year-long Palin soap opera finally caught our breaths. Her entrance into the national spotlight as Sen. John McCain's vice-presidential running mate in August 2008 was an endless and overblown saga. She went from being a national unknown to a popular fixation, then became a seemingly clueless laughingstock who was famously lampooned by actress/comic Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live. Since then, she's been a media whore.

While it is true that Palin turned heads with her sexy, naughty schoolteacher appearance, she was actually an eyesore in the proverbial sense from Day One. She initially seemed like eye candy, cleverly recruited by McCain and his team to capitalize on the millions of saddened Hillary Clinton supporters who only had Barack Obama to turn to as their choice for president after Clinton lost the democratic nomination. McCain was hoping to convert them to Republicans by utilizing Palin's appeal as a tough-as-nails woman who had a large family and was an advocate of many issues pertinent to middle America.

Soon after her meteoric rise to fame, it became obvious that she was in over her head as a vice-presidential candidate. She began to seem like a vacuous, yet witty and well rehearsed caricature of a modern day Kelly Bundy. Then there was the business of her 17-year old, pregnant daughter Bristol who was heavily attacked in the media. When McCain lost the election, Palin really began to experience a backlash from those inside the GOP. Many felt that it was her cluelessness that led to McCain's defeat, and rightly so in my book.

Once Bristol Palin and her fiance Levi Johnston broke off their wedding engagement earlier this year, the daughter took center stage while Gov. Palin drifted to the background. Bristol was criticized for being an unwed, teenaged mother. Soon after, Johnston began taking to the media to reveal inside details of his time with the Palins as well as his sex life with Bristol. This launched Sarah back into the spotlight as she defended her child and family, but always with her trademark hypocrisy.

Last month, comedian/talk-show host David Letterman drew Palin's ire when he unknowingly made a sexual joke about what turned out to be her 14-year old daughter. Palin raked him over the coals and a national backlash against Letterman ensued and persisted, even after he publicly apologized.

At the end of this 11-month Palin odyssey, I am relieved that she's no longer the governor of Alaska. Maybe now, we can care about our own family instead of being forced to care and respect hers. But I'm no fool. She won't be out of our hair for long.

She wants to be our president in 2012. Yikes!