Sarah Palin, Maverick at Last: Mama Grizzly becomes the first real politician of the Internet era.

• Author: Beato, Greg
• Position: Columns

WHEN SARAH PALIN aborted her gubernatorial career in its final trimester, pundits and political insiders reacted with shock, bafflement, scorn, and dismay. "Resigning strikes me as very strange," National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg offered with charitable restraint. "Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy" New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd echoed, holding the charity. "I wouldn't call this a strategy," Republican campaign strategist John Weaver told Time magazine. "This makes no sense."

To anyone who pays more attention to Ben Bernanke than Ben Affleck, walking away from a prime gig like Palin's was virtually incomprehensible, signaling either imminent scandal or incipient dementia. To the rest of America, Palin's move made perfect sense, firmly cementing her status as perhaps the one politician who truly feels our ennui. First she cheerfully admitted that she had no idea what the vice president actually does all day. (Just like me!) Then she stared blankly when asked to reveal her thoughts on the Bush Doctrine. (The what?) Then, after earning even higher Nielsen ratings in her first big prime-time showcase than the American Idol finale, only to return to Alaska and the dull reality of mulling over potential appointees to the Board of Barbers and Hair Dressers, she bailed. Sorry, politics, she's just not that into you.

But that doesn't mean Palin has abandoned her plans to boldly progress America. "I've never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to ... make a difference ... to help people," she exclaimed in the first of her widely mocked resignation speeches. Fed up with the petty bureaucratic niceties of finishing her term, fed up with partisanship, Palin was leaving to fight for her country, manage her PAC for fruitful abundance, and help anyone else who was proud to be a God-given American, regardless of party affiliation or favorite Supreme Court ruling. For a moment, it almost seemed as if she was on the verge of breaking out a pair of star-spangled tights and assuming the role of national superhero, going wherever she was needed most, doing whatever needed to be done, in order to ensure that truth, justice, and petroleum-based energy independence prevail in this great, drillable land of ours.

Palin's posturing may have seemed laughable to Beltway insiders, but have you looked at congressional approval ratings lately? In March they hit a four-year high ... of 39 percent. Then they promptly started dropping again...