Deep Thoughts By Sarah Palin

Now that she no longer has any discernible relevance or influence, Sarah Palin’s non-sequitur theater is a source of mild amusement:

The entire speech, which you can watch in its entirety above, ran 18 minutes. Palin got applause three times: 1. When she was introduced 2. When she mentioned Hillary Clinton and Benghazi and 3. When she finished. Here are a select few of my favorite lines — in the order in which Palin said them.

* “Getting off the airplane … Seeing all the green and gold and the green and gold until I’m dead and cold paraphernalia everywhere.”

* “This awesome awakening, the shifting and sifting and the exposing of this rabid bite for them to hang on to any kind of relevancy and to hang on to their gravy train.”

* On immigrants: “Inducing and seducing them with gift baskets … ‘Come on over the border and here’s a gift basket of teddy bears and soccer balls.’ ”

* “In order to work, to produce, to strive and to thrive, and to really be alive in the greatest country on earth.”

* “Trashin’ our economy, shippin’ out jobs, lettin’ us foot the bill, palin’ around with the same old politicos and insiders.”

* “And we won’t retreat, we’ll reload. We’ll reload.”

Sarah Palin was the Republican vice presidential candidate in 2008. She was not an idiosyncratic choice by a presidential candidate with a personal connection, but was carefully cultivated by influential Republican power brokers who all but foisted her on McCain. The choice of Palin was widely praised at the time by many mainstream Republican pundits, sometimes in embarrassing ways.

In conclusion, Donald Trump becoming the Republican frontrunner is completely inexplicable.