Palin's "I'm not running for president" video:
My ecstatic take here. Joe McGinniss expects her to fade away:
By opting out of next year’s race, Sarah has betrayed her ever-shrinking base. The Tea Party will never drink a cuppa in her honor again. She cynically manipulated her gullible enthusiasts, knowing all the while that she never intended to run. She may drift into the Sargasso Sea of daytime television, where she can chat up B-list celebrities. But there’s no reason now even for Roger Ailes to renew her contract at Fox News. Just Tuesday, Ailes said, “I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot.” She’ll soon be as cold as the shrinking Alaska glaciers that are melting from the global warming that Sarah doesn’t believe is caused by man.
David Frum is on the same page:
In the end, she exploited, abused, or embarrassed almost everyone who had believed in her. Most embarrassing of all: she was never even a very good con artist. Everything that was false and petty and unqualified in her was visible within the first minutes of encountering her. The people she fooled were people who passionately wished to be fooled. To that extent, what was important in her story was not the faults and failings of Sarah Palin. There have always been grifters in politics. What was important in her story was the revelation of conservatism’s lack of antibodies against somebody with the faults and failings of Sarah Palin. That’s the story that should trouble us still.
Daniel Chioco of Conservatives4Palin can't let go:
Sarah is still young. And so is her family. She ruled out 2012. But she didn’t rule out a presidential run as a whole. We love to compare her to Reagan, yet we overlook the fact that Reagan was on the national scene for YEARS before running for the presidency.
Allahpundit supports her decision:
By staying out, her supporters now get to say “she would have won if she ran” without ever having to test their theory and she gets to kinda sorta play kingmaker as people wait to see if she’ll endorse Perry, Cain, or (gasp) Romney. And who knows? Maybe she’ll focus now on challenging Begich for Senate in Alaska in 2014, which would be a huge first step back towards national viability down the road. She’s 47 years old, fully 25 years younger than McCain was when he was nominated three years ago. No rush.
Doug Mataconis expects her to remain an annoyance:
Let’s say a Republican wins in 2012. Unless Palin is made part of the Administration, which seems ridiculously improbable, she’s going to be on the outside, constantly criticizing, constantly being a thorn in the side of President Romney, or Perry. That could be interesting.
And Jonathan Bernstein thinks the GOP field is now basically set:
It's gonna be Rick Perry or Mitt Romney, unless something wildly implausible happens. Hey, for Republicans, it certainly could have been a whole lot worse — I doubt if either of them will embarrass the party as badly as John McCain did, and they both would probably be much better presidents than George W. Bush. My line for a while has been that the GOP is increasingly unlikely to nominate someone crazy, but is increasingly certain to nominate someone who has had to say crazy things to get the nod, and that's pretty much how it's turning out.
The Dish 