Don't expect more than one or two of these a month, at least for now.

This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought I'd be so bursting with ideas and opinions after all this time that I'd have something to say pretty much every day. But it's not working out that way, is it? It's not like there aren't things going on in the world; the economy tanking, the election of the first black President of the United States, and most importantly, Jennifer Aniston calling Angelina Jolie "uncool." But I just haven't been terribly inspired.

I admit, I feel sorry for John McCain. He sold out everything that made him special for his one big shot at the White House. And even though it didn't always seem that way, he had his loyal fans, from the woman who withheld Halloween candy from children of Obama supporters to New York City's Naked Cowboy. But it just didn't happen for him, and within hours of his concession, his people were blaming the person who just two months ago was being hailed as their savior; the one who could shore up the unenthused base with her values while bringing in pissed-off Hillary voters with her gender. Suddenly, all those suits who pooh-poohed those who saw her as dangerously unqualified were adding their own horror stories of her greeting aides dressed only in a towel and thinking Africa was a country. And now they were just as outraged as everyone else by that 150 grand she spent on clothes. Never mind that these were the same geniuses who brought her in in the first place without doing their homework. How dare she seem so perfect for their purposes and not hold up to closer inspection by the media!

To be honest, I sometimes think McCain only got the nomination because many Republicans thought they had no chance this year after the damage Bush has done to their brand. So they gave an old man his shot at being the standard bearer after all these years as kind of a lifetime achievement award, like they did for Dole in '96. They presumed that he too would get crushed by the Clinton machine. But then Obama pulled the upset, and you kind of got the sense that they were thinking, "Wait, maybe we could win this after all." So they got in McCain's ear and recommended Palin, who in some ways was Bush in a skirt; a good 'ol fundamentalist Christian gal who appealed to people who equate intelligence with elitism. It went over great at the convention, and for a while after that, it looked like it was actually going to work again. But then the stock market plummeted, and the economy became the number one issue, and many people began to think that having someone smart in charge might actually be important in the coming years. And none of the scare tactics that had worked in the past could sway them this time. So it worked out the way those Republicans thought it would after all, but it must have been frustrating for them, because in September, they thought they had defied the odds and Bush's approval ratings and hung on to the White House. And so, the Palin blame game began.

But I don't feel at all sorry for Hockey Mom. She'll be fine. She's in the picture now. She's an established and beloved Saturday Night Live character. She's going to run in 2012, no question in my mind. And she absolutely could get the nomination. The base loves her, and might feel that she got screwed over by the liberal media and McCain, who they never trusted in the first place. She'll be more media savvy, and she'll surely hire better handlers. Whether she can win it all will depend on Obama's first-term performance and the state of the country and the world four years from now. But she'll be a player for years to come. I'd bet my glove on it.