Brian Goldsmith has a short but interesting thinkpiece at Politico. He argues that the results of the election should bring an end to Palin-mania. The Alaska Governor, currently in the public eye again, can be demonstrated to have harmed the Republican candidacy, and failed to deliver any of the groups she was meant to attract, including women, the middle classes, and even the Republican core vote.

Goldsmith says:

[Rather than media hype,] what matters is [Palin's] real and measurable effect on the broader American public. And if Sarah Palin were a cereal, she’d be rushed off the shelf.

Personally, I’m not so sure. Palin, like Howard Dean, excites the netroots, who will surely play a large part in the next four years of internal party wrangling. She may be a bad choice, she may have underperformed in 2008, but she has a strong media profile and a ‘true believer’ reputation. For 2012, that may be all she needs.

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