Requiem for a lightweight
By 
Let us be thankful for the end of the proto-Trump’s political career, as she officially goes down by 10 points in a state Trump carried by 10:
It is hard to overstate just how much of a jolt to the political system Sarah Palin delivered when she defeated her first fellow Republican 16 years ago.
He was Frank Murkowski, the sitting governor of Alaska and a towering figure in the 49th state. She was a “hockey mom” and the former mayor of a small, working-class town who vowed to stick it to the “good ol’ boys.” That race put her on the map with the national Republican Party and set her on a path that would change her life, and the tenor of American politics for years to come.
Then, Ms. Palin was at the vanguard of the dog-whistling, no-apologies political culture that former President Donald J. Trump now embodies.
Today, having lost her bid for Congress after years out of the spotlight, Ms. Palin is a much diminished force.
The thing about not only Trump winning the nomination but Romney needing to adopt multiple Trumpian policies to squeak by in a race in which he was essentially running unopposed is that a Palin who wasn’t incredibly lazy could have absolutely won the Republican nomination in 2012. Now she’s a total nonentity who got humiliated in the state she briefly governed. An all-too-rare case of just deserts in American politics!