Imaginary Playmate

The mind of Sarah Palin is just too bizarre to figure out.  After trying to make sense of her autobiography, even the brilliant Andrew Sullivan has thrown up his hands:

I thought there might be some new facts in here that would illuminate my confusion and dispel the whole thing.

There is, rather, more barely-credible myth-making and descriptions of actions taken that really make no sense even on their own terms. But since we now know that Palin tells odd lies all the time even when she doesn't have to, we cannot hold her to common sense readings. The story she tells is largely incredible if you assume a rational actor at the center of it. But we do not have a rational actor in the center of it; we have an unbalanced, delusional, ambitious fanatic whose relationship to reality is entirely instrumental and can change from minute to minute. And so we cannot even say: that doesn't make sense so it probably isn't true. With Palin, anything is possible her world is so imaginary and magical. Much that makes sense with others may not make sense with her. And without external evidence, how can we tell which is which?

Clever women from Cleopatra on down have known that boobs and bravado will take you a long, long way:  as Mae West used to say, "Five will get you ten if you know how to work it."  She wasn't talking about the stock market. 

Which is, IMO, why Sullivan calls Palin "one of the most dangerous demagogues this country has seen in a long time."  Those straight boys would follow her anywhere.

But a new thought just occurred to me - isn't Palin the closest thing to a comic book/video game character you've ever seen in the flesh?  Trailing starbursts all the way . . . .