New York Times columnist Ross Douthat seems to think that if only Sarah Palin had declined the opportunity to run for Vice President last year, she'd be a widely popular and problem-free governor:

Had she refused John McCain, Palin would still be a popular female governor in a Republican Party starved for future stars. Her scandals would be the stuff of local politics, her daughter's pregnancy a minor story in the Lower 48, her son Trig's parentage a nonissue even for conspiracy theorists. There would still be plenty of time to ease into the national spotlight, to bone up on the issues, and to craft a persona more appealing than the Mrs. Spiro Agnew role the McCain campaign assigned to her.

This is absurdly generous.

It seems quite clear that Sarah Palin's problem isn't that she didn't have time to “bone up on the issues,” it's that she has a shocking disregard for the truth. Surely she didn't need to “bone up on” whether she had actually rejected funding for the “Bridge to Nowhere”? That isn't some obscure federal program no governor could be expected to be familiar with; that's her own action. And what Sarah Palin repeatedly said about it was very, very false. That wasn't the result of insufficient time to study, that was a result of insufficient appreciation for the truth, and it extends to many of the other comments that got her in trouble.

Her inability to name a newspaper that she read wasn't a result of a lack of cramming time, either. And by now, it is quite clear that Palin's problem was less that she lacked the time to prepare than that she has a George W. Bush-esque overly simplistic approach to policy.

As for the Mrs. Spiro Agnew role, Ross Douthat appears to be the last person in America who doesn't realize that Palin embraces that role.

More Douthat:

And now, seemingly, it's over. Oh, maybe not forever: she's only 45, young enough (and, yes, talented enough) to have a second act. But last Friday's bizarre, rambling resignation speech should take her off the political map for the duration of the Obama era.

What, exactly, does it mean to say that Palin is “talented enough,” particularly coming so soon after her bizarre, rambling, shaky, incoherent, internally inconsistent speech in which she quit the governorship with 18 months to go for unspecified reasons? Is that what a “talented” politician does?

Douthat:

Palin's popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. ... Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal - that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard.

This ideal has had a tough 10 months. It's been tarnished by Palin herself, obviously. With her missteps, scandals, dreadful interviews and self-pitying monologues, she's botched an essential democratic role - the ordinary citizen who takes on the elites, the up-by-your-bootstraps role embodied by politicians from Andrew Jackson down to Harry Truman.

Let's keep in mind that the way Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal and takes on the elites is by offering the elites massive tax cuts at the expense of those trying to lift themselves up by their bootstraps, shall we?

Douthat then offers up a selective appraisal of Palin's record for the purposes of portraying it as more moderate than it is. Douthat denies that she “inject[ed] creationism into public schools,” but omits that she supports doing so (actual Palin quote: “Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both.”) Douthat writes, “Palin did not insist on abstinence-only sex education,” but forgets to mention that she initially supported such programs. Maybe her ability to take both sides of issues like creationism and abstinence-only education is what Douthat meant by “talented enough”?

Left unmentioned: Palin's belief that the Iraq war is a “task from God.”