Steve Kornacki yawns at Palin's candidacy:
A Palin campaign would probably play out similarly to the second phase of Gary Hart's 1988 presidential campaign, when he jumped back in the race (seven months after dropping out amidst a sex scandal) two months before the New Hampshire primary, and quickly found himself atop the polls. But all was not well. Hart, who had been the frontrunner when he'd dropped out, still had many grassroots admirers, but his negative numbers were also unusually high, among all voters and even among Democrats. And the party establishment treated him like poison; they didn't want him anywhere near their general election ticket. He couldn't build a serious campaign organization, rank-and-file voters got the message, and Hart — even though he'd been a national political sensation between 1984 and 1987 — was a nonfactor in the '88 primaries.
But Palin has never dropped out of a race. She just dropped out of a governorship. And there has been no massive Monkey Business-style scandal yet – just a constant drumbeat of petty scandals which, for many, sounds like white noise. And Hart's appeal was cerebral; Palin's is gastro-intestinal. The latter – fire in the belly and all – endures. But, gee, I hope Kornacki is right.
The Dish 